rachel.blog

insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman

  • How to use toilet paper

    My 3-year-old showed me a novel way of using toilet paper yesterday. After completing her business, she grabbed the entire roll of toilet paper from the holder, wiped her bum with the entire roll, then returned it to the holder.

  • Thin Ice Climate Movie

    Today is Earth day and the official launch of the Thin Ice Climate movie, which is downloadable for free from here – Thin Ice Climate. It is the creation of geologist and amateur cameraman, Simon Lamb. The spiel: In recent years climate science has come under increasing attack, so geologist Simon Lamb took his camera…

  • Bicycle versus helicopter

    Now that I no longer have a child under the age of three, I find myself re-engaging with popular culture after a six-year hiatus. So please forgive me for writing about an event from September, 2009. Back then, I was heavily pregnant and deeply buried in dirty nappies. Back in 2009, a challenge was presented…

  • New Zealand legalises gay marriage

    On April 17th, 2013, New Zealand parliament cheered in song with the passing of a law which allows homosexuals to marry their partners. This is a fabulous outcome and a celebration of love and the tradition of proclaiming our love for one person through marriage. If two people wish to engage in a mutually consensual…

  • Ethics and journalism

    There’s an article in the Financial Post today titled, “Arctic sea ice back to 1989 levels, now exceeds previous decade“. The author is Lawrence Solomon and he goes on to say that arctic sea ice is higher today than on April 14th, 2013. He ends his article with, “The only evident trend in the ice,…

  • Goodies vs baddies

    Our six-year-old son has been talking a lot about baddies recently, so Ben decided to probe him on it. Ben: What’s the difference between a baddy and a goody? Daniel: Baddies are always fighting goodies. Ben: But if you see two people fighting, how do you know who is the baddy and who is the…

  • A world of giant snakes

    Once upon a time, crocodiles roamed the arctic1, along with turtles, fish and other warmth-loving creatures. How do we know this? Because bones from these animals have been found there. The bones of a Champsosaur – an extinct crocodile-like animal – were found in the high Canadian Arctic by researchers from the University of Rochester…

  • Danielisms

    Once a week, I spend an hour and a bit helping out in Daniel’s class at school. Daniel likes it, I like it and it helps his teacher who works on a ratio of 1 to 25. It’s also nice for me to see what they’re doing at school so that I can provide the…

  • Eruption vs meltdown

    Which is the more likely: a volcanic eruption in Auckland or a nuclear power plant meltdown somewhere on Earth? The risk of the Auckland volcanic field erupting is 6% over 60 years. What is the risk of a nuclear power plant going into meltdown? The first nuclear reactor was built in Russia in 1954. There…

  • Auckland Botanic Gardens

    This coming July, we will have lived in Auckland for 2 years. Today, for the first time, we visited the Auckland Botanic Gardens. Why has it taken us so long? Well for a start, it’s miles away in South Auckland and the only way to get there is in a car on the motorway. What…

  • Factors besides CO2 – Myles Allen and Wally Broecker

    A great video (<3 minutes) from Myles and Wally about how other factors can modify the impact of rising greenhouse gases. Myles Allen is a Professor in the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics Department at the University of Oxford. Wally Broecker is a Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University.

  • Peer review and hot cross buns

    Ben Martin is going to explain how academics get their work published in peer-reviewed journals. He is Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Auckland. He is also an associate editor for the Journal of the Australian Mathematical Society and has himself published a number of peer-reviewed papers. Rachel: Let’s say, you’ve written a paper. You…

  • My plan for our planet

    There are expected to be 9 billion people on this planet by the year 2050. I may be one of them. Without sounding too much like a brainless beauty-pageant entrant, I hope that one day, we might see an end to world poverty. But is this view inconsistent with the part of me that also…

  • Blog statistics

    Something I love to do is read my blog statistics, which give me information about the people who read my blog, like which country they come from, what links they clicked and how they got to my blog in the first place. How they got here is my favourite part. If they landed on my…

  • How do you analyse horse shit?

    I can’t resist posting a link to an article I read in Desmog recently. It includes the contents of a letter written by environment editor of the SMH, Sam Cubby and sent to an Australian climate change conspiracy theorist. He begins, “In considering your request that I identify errors in the report you sent to…

  • Bare feet are for cavemen

    Bare feet are for cavemen

    I’ve noticed a change in the weather this week. The nights have become cooler and suddenly, I’m sleeping really well. Maybe it’s just a coincidence. I can wear jeans again and I love jeans. I could live permanently in jeans. The best thing though, is that I can wear my socks and slippers once more.…

  • Are aliens manufacturing zombies?

    There’s so much crap on the web. If I believed all of it, I’d think that the MMR vaccine gave my son autism, that every moon landing has been a hoax staged by NASA, that the holocaust never happened and that aliens have landed on earth and are manufacturing an army of zombies  (those zombies…

  • OMG, EARTHQUAKE!

    I was enjoying a very happy lunch with a friend of ours today when two pesky earthquakes came along and spoilt it. These are the first earthquakes I’ve felt since leaving Christchurch. They were little – Mag. 3.1 followed by a Mag. 3.9. I felt both. No-one else in our house felt the first and…

  • Dolls' house versus aliens

    Daniel and Elizabeth were intently focused on their play this morning. Me: What are you playing? Daniel: Dolls’ house versus aliens. Me: Who are the aliens? Daniel: My cuddly toys. They do mean things to the dolls’ house animals. Me: What sort of mean things do they do? Daniel: They squash them. It is true…

  • The lucky boys

    A little while ago I mentioned that Daniel and Elizabeth are sponsoring two roosters at an animal sanctuary, Arborfield Sanctuary, north of Auckland. Yesterday we visited the sanctuary and gave some of the roosters a cuddle. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was a pleasure meeting Robyn and Malcolm who are clearly passionate about their…