Is there a simple or at least inexpensive way to convert a Singer Heavy Duty sewing machine made for the 120VAC supply to run on 240VAC? Same for a kitchen-aid stand mixer.

#diy #electrician #motor #appliance

Just looking at some US Lincoln Memorial pennies from 1973, 1974. Anyone know why it says "UNITED STATES oF AMERICA" with that lower-case o?

#coins #numismatics @CoinOfNote

There's another effort afoot to bring dirty American crappy food production and animal abuse practices to New Zealand, now with an initial step of government approval. As much as America did for me, and as much as I miss living there, I'm not at all conflicted by the thought that it's high time for that country to close its borders and keep to itself for a few decades while it figures itself out.

"around 288 hectares of farm land in Marlborough ... bought with the intention of converting it into a beef finishing farm using barn systems for feeding."

https://www.linz.govt.nz/our-work/overseas-investment-regulation/decisions/2026-04/202500764

Something nice happened on my city's perpetually negative bitch-and-moan facebook group yesterday. Someone posted video footage of a dog abuser beating up a puppy in public. Calls were made to the SPCA, Council and Police – who all did nothing because animal abuse laws are largely trumped by the dangerous dog laws; there's little legal power for them to do much until a dog's been tortured far beyond what one should imagine. An angry crowd gathered outside the guy's house, forcing the police to attend for de-escalation and mediation. Puppy was surrendered to a local rescue volunteer. Vets and businesses and individuals are pitching in to help with the costs.

Puppy's clearly still traumatised but has been out for walks and play, is being fed well, and is responding well to being loved.

#dogsOfMastodon

Started sorting out the stuff in my parents' house today. Was thinking about getting started on Mum's clothes so that there's a little start for Dad to continue on in his own time rather than having to confront emptinesses where all of it once was and now is no more. Found that Mum had already done a lot of preparation – she'd been loading spare laundry baskets in the weeks before she became bedridden. She was awake for only a few hours each day, and even that she spent on us.

#death #mother

A little quiz: can you identify the New Zealand school lunches?

The pictures actually mades me think of Air New Zealand.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfTH4wcLHtV8n4QPY7Ai_4l1MTS0HOW065Srfzkb411LjRY5A/viewform

Where's Hipkins gone? I thought I remembered his staking out a hard line over petrol prices exceeding $3/L – but it seems not to be of concern any more?

I just noticed something troubling about AI training datasets cited in a paper that I'm reviewing: there are lots of them that have been labelled by amateur dilettantes. The people who created them describe themselves only as things like "data scientist" and state no expertise at all in the subjects that they are classifying. Sometimes you don't need a lot of specialist expertise (like for animal names) but I have just been looking at some body language datasets that I wouldn't entrust to be labelled by someone without expertise in behavioural psychology. Certainly not to a run-of-the-mill computer scientist. Yet engineers are using these datasets to write papers for publication, even as they point out that non-expert humans do a terrible job of reading the postures and facial expressions. Somehow they've overlooked the GIGO risk here. So have the journals' reviewers and editors.

How did academia get this relaxed about the quality of evidence?

#AI #peerReview

Moon cake prep has begun! 100-gram balls of Lotus paste and read bean paste are freezing right now.

#chinese #patisserie

Is there a place to download NCEA result summaries per level per subject per school? So far I've only found broad aggregates.

How is the anti-regulation deputy prime minister so comfortable with regulating children's access to social media? Shouldn't he have set one of his paedophiles onto the prime minister and education minister by now?

Principal got into a weird mood at assembly this week. He had to pin down a group of protestant pupils who've been preaching lies and heresies in the school (which is catholic); a priest was conspicuously nearby and the principal kept losing his words and pausing as if he'd forgotten where he is. The new deal is that the group can keep meeting but the priest will participate so that there's someone to say things like, "Ummm... actually Catholics don't do that at all."

Then he had to give his usual government-coerced talk about attendance. He got agitated and muddled, and his monologue rose to a Freudian climax: "YOUR GOAL IN CLASS IS TO FUCKUS!"

A few weeks before Thanksgiving last year, someone posted that he and his cat had become homeless, were living at the park in a grocery cart, and needed help. I didn't have money, but my partner and I had been prepping, so we had things like solar batteries, a burner phone, and extra cat food.

When I went to deliver, the park told him he needed to go. They already told him at the train station he needed to go. The shelters were full. Another neighbor arrived, and we were able to set him up in a shady hotel for a days. Luckily, I have a vehicle large enough to move a grocery cart.

The shelter could help, but they were only able to get him a place in about 2 weeks. Nobody had the money, but we did scrape up enough to have stay at a campground in a tent for long enough. Luckily, I had the burner phone so he was able to stay in contact with the social workers.

After packing up all the stuff, getting the tent and more supplies, and getting him setup at the campground, he messaged me shortly afterwards saying he was struggling in all the silence, because he had just quit drinking (probably the lead-up to all this.) It was annoying, but I went ahead and loaded up a mirco-SD with movies, music, and comics. Luckily, I had the burner phone.

You might be wondering why I would go through all this trouble for someone I don't know, wouldn't exactly be friends with. Well, they got him a studio apartment. He found a job. I just learned he's getting a promotion. The best part, is that he's stayed sober throughout all of this.

I helped. Who knows how things would have gone down if I didn't. But, to know that I did something that helped turn someone's life around.. He was going to go back to that life where he once lived (somewhere in New York), but instead he's here in my city having a better life. I cannot express how much joy I feel knowing that I could do that for a stranger. I'd recommend it to anyone.

#EvaluateWinstonPeters

https://petitions.parliament.nz/c767cefe-9049-46b2-efe6-08deee978192?lang=en

"Nearly all controlled ozone-depleting substances have been phased out, and the ozone layer is expected to return towards its 1980 condition over the coming decades. Low-Earth orbit is now creating a different source of reactive material. Short-lived satellites vaporise metal as they reenter. Aluminium reacts with oxygen during that destruction, forming particles of aluminium oxide. The concern is scientifically plausible, but its scale remains unsettled."

https://spacedaily.com/t-satellite-reentry-aluminium-oxide-nanoparticles-ozone/

A. Drozdov "Untitled", 2026
paper, graphite pencil
#art #photography

a friend of mine sent me these photos of an IBM MT/ST tape (magnetic tape / selectric typewriter). the third photo particularly fascinated me: it shows the flux transitions with a Magnaviewer! is it possible to decode? 🧵

DRM ruins efforts at historical preservation. If all of our media is locked up in digital streaming platforms -- which will go under eventually -- how will it be preserved for future generations? Live DRM-free instead: https://u.fsf.org/1aj #EndDRM #DRM

Yay! My favourite university has put together an on-line course for alumni! It has no exams or assignments, just the lectures for asynchronous viewing to be followed up with synchronous discussion groups of no more than 20 participants.

This is so much better than a handful of discounts that I will never use, and invitations to events that'd cost me $3000 in travel costs to attend.

#alumni

Smart comms: "DarkSky International does not take a position on border security policy; that question sits outside our mission and our expertise. Our position, set by our board, is simple: naturally dark places should remain dark."

https://darksky.org/news/darkskys-statement-protecting-dark-skies-in-the-big-bend-region/

#DarkSkies #BigBend #Border #BorderSecurity #UnitedStates #CBP