RobiNZ Personal Blog

A fine tribute to 'New Zealand's Unknown Genius', Beatrice (Hill) Tinsley

A brilliant video, a fine tribute to a remarkable life. Years, no decades!, ago I vaguely knew of Beatrice Tinsley's work, on the life of galaxies, but would not have been able to name her. Then The Warehouse, who I worked for, rented some factory space in Beatrice Tinsley Cresent (Rosedale, Auckland) and I wondered who it was named for. Looked that up, made the connection and never forgotten. Several years ago I saw a wonderful performance of the 'Bright Star' stage play in Auckland. It was brilliant and portrayed the personal/career challenges she faced. I try and get to... Read more →

The most average sized thing in the known universe?

Listened to this while riding the Hamilton Te Awa River Ride. It looks at a listener's question What's the most average sized thing in the known universe? I guessed before hearing and was way out. They look at it several ways, end up with some surprising answers. https://www.radiolab.org/episodes/middle-everything-ever Read more →

My inadvertent long-term sleep experiment | Time Out 2021-22 After

I've been wearing a Samsung Active 2 Watch to track sleep for several years and inadvertently, combined with lifestyle changes, it became a sleep behaviour experiment. The Samsung Health app popped up a summary, 12 months of records from my year of mostly cycle touring, and I realised it could answer a question I had long wondered about. While the sleep records of a consumer device are probably not that accurate, given it has all been with the same device, they are likely consistently inaccurate so can still be used for comparison. My 'normal' sleep, or not... I've always been... Read more →

End of Life Choice Act is now law

An important day in NZ today; End of Life Choice Act takes effect in New Zealand | Radio NZ The End of Life Choice Act has come into effect one year after nearly two-thirds of New Zealanders voted in favour of it in a referendum... The End of Life Choice Act 2019 gives me the right, with lots of conditions, to legally decide when I die. To be able to ask for assisted dying, a person must have a terminal illness that is likely to end their life within six months, and must be competent to make an informed decision.... Read more →

Where Was the Last Place Discovered on Earth?

The remarkable history of human discovery and a curious fact regarding Uranus and Antarctica. Read more →

Dr Helen Czerski on life in isolation (and a champagne tip) | Fully Charged

I saw Dr. Helen Czerski speak in Auckland, back in 2017, and in this video she shares things learnt about living in isolation doing oceanic research. Back then her presentation was mostly about her research studying the oceanic/atmospheric interface and how that influences climate. However it also included some everyday examples of how the physics of bubbles are a factor in our daily lives like bread, coffee, etc The champagne tip, mentioned in the talk I saw, was a result of her expert bubble physics knowledge and extensive testing, in cooperation with Vintners and Sommeliers, in the Champagne Region. For... Read more →

About Grocery washing | COVID-19

I’m reluctant to comment on the recent much shared YouTube showing how to wash your groceries, but happy to share this from someone is qualified to comment: From Twitter Thread: https://twitter.com/bugcounter/status/1243319180851580929 By Don Schaffner @bugcounter https://foodsci.rutgers.edu/schaffner/ Dr. Donald W. Schaffner is Extension Specialist in Food Science and Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University. His research interests include quantitative microbial risk assessment, predictive food microbiology, handwashing and cross-contamination. Unless you are living under a rock or have already perished from COVID-19, you've likely seen a YouTube video making the rounds where a medical doctor (wearing scrubs!) purports to give COVID-19 advice. (1/33)... Read more →

The Pencil and the Battery Electric Vehicle

Had a chance, and interesting, coincidence today in my podcast playlist. Pocket Casts has my favourite podcasts set to auto-download and add themselves to ‘Play next’. Two episodes were ready to play when I left for the morning commute. The power of graphite; in pencils First up a new season of The Boring Talks* kicked off with ‘Pencils’: Brian Mackenwells on why we should all appreciate the pencil. Part of it (~0:05:00 onwards) told how a limited source of pure graphite (needed for pencils) in the 16-18th century made the British Cumberland graphite deposit a strategic asset. From its discovery... Read more →

The Vaccination Chronicles: if only

Given the recent, unnecessary, measles outbreak in New Zealand I think Richard Saunders documentary deserves more coverage. It was made in, and references, Australia but the message is universal: “The Vaccination Chronicles: if only” can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTprFOmIjIg, and permission is given for public screenings. The production, a personal endeavour by Mr Saunders, was made possible with the financial and personal support of many like-minded people from all over the world. So far it is subtitled in English, Dutch, Turkish, Russian, Portuguese, Italian, Danish and German. “The stories of people who saw firsthand the effects of vaccine preventable diseases.... Read more →

Antarctic Mission–A travel itinerary of movie soundtracks and a podcast hero?

I seem to have developed a rather strange way of deciding on a travel itinerary. I cycled (nearly) to Mt Everest, which was amazing, but I never had the longing some have to visit it. I went because an unexpected opportunity to visit an amazing place coincided with a great bunch of people to travel with. That I got to visit a unique part of the world, long connected with New Zealand (thanks to pioneering adventurers and more recent adventure travellers) was just a bonus. One memorable part of the journey was listening to some music, part of my lifelong... Read more →