This is tonight! I'm the MC. As usual, I have done a terrible job promoting it in advance. It will be hilarious as always so why not come? https://events.humanitix.com/tid-talks-ideas-not-worth-spreading-772x6ere
Heute vor sechs Jahren, am 15. März 2019, ermordete ein Rechtsterrorist in #Christchurch aus rassistischen Motiven 51 Menschen und verletzte weitere 50 teils schwer. Sie wurden während des Freitagsgebets angegriffen. Unsere Gedanken sind bei ihren Angehörigen und den Überlebenden. #KeinVergessen
Hey New Zealand (Christchurch)
Wednesday is the first meeting for a DIGITAL PRIVACY session, for 1-2 hours.
The topic is Linux Mobile, but anything to do with digital privacy is of course also welcome.
So if you would like to find out more or if you already know a lot but would still like to talk about Linux Mobile, just drop by.
https://www.meetup.com/digitalprivacy/events/305781657/?eventOrigin=group_upcoming_events
"Attendees (1)"
It would be great if the number increased to at least 2 ;)
Just a reminder about the meetup in Christchurch, New Zealand on February 26.
The topic is Linux Mobile and I (Dan) will bring 4 devices:
#OnePlus6
- OS: #postmarketOS | Environment: #plasmamobile
#PinephonePro
- OS: postmarketOS | Environment: #gnomemobile
- OS on SD card: #Mobian | Environment: #phosh
#Pinephone (braveheart + upgraded motherboard)
- OS: #Archlinux | Environment: #sxmo
Pinephone (braveheart)
- OS/Environment: #UbuntuTouch
1/2
If you're not sure which cicada you're hearing, you can record them with the #iNaturalist app and a keen entomologist will tell you which species you've got. It will be interesting to see how much further the clapping cicada spreads as the climate warms, and how our local cicadas deal with this, and whether any other northern cicadas make there way down here.
Along the New Brighton coast and only since about 2016, we've also got the clapping cicada, *Amphipsalta cingulata*. When Thursday's Waitangi Day hikoi reached New Brighton Pier, I heard a distinctly different cicada calling. It's got a pulsing, ascending rattle. It has spread down into the South Island from the North Island this century, presumably in response to the warming climate.
https://inaturalist.nz/taxa/342370-Amphipsalta-cingulata
#insects #nz #cicadas #Ōtautahi #Christchurch
4/5
In Banks Peninsula and the Port Hills, but not Christchurch city, there's the chirping cicada *Amphipsalta strepitans*. I informally call it the maraca cicada because it reminds me of someone shaking a maraca. I don't yet understand why this species is not in the city itself. It cuts out at around the edge of the housing in the Port Hills.
https://inaturalist.nz/taxa/342372-Amphipsalta-strepitans
#insects #nz #cicadas #Ōtautahi #Christchurch
3/5
In Christchurch city and the Port hills and Banks Peninsula, we've got the Kihikihi Wawā or Chorus Cicada, *Amphipsalta zelandica*. Its calls sound like pulsing static. These are the cicadas that make a cacophany from the trees of the botanic gardens and Hagley Park. They are abundant and all of them singing together is *loud*.
https://inaturalist.nz/taxa/81881-Amphipsalta-zelandica
#insects #nz #cicadas #Ōtautahi #Christchurch
2/5
Ōtautahi-Christchurch is finally starting to feel like summer, with the cicadas turning up the volume from the trees.
On Thursday I was reminded that we've now got three large, loud cicada species calling in the city. They all sound distinctly different when you get your ear in.
One is a recent arrival from the North Island and so far is only along the coast of the city.
I've put recordings of each in the following posts.
When we visited the Christchurch Botanic gardens recently my daughter took me to this ancient ivy, her favorite plant in the gardens. It has some terrifically twisted, creepy H. R. Eiger vibes.
It grows up the side of a giant sequoia tree that was planted in 1873. I expect the ivy cannot be much younger than that as its base is completely smothered by large sequoia roots.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/260229137
#botany #vines #plants #nz #Christchurch #BotanicGarden #ivy #ThickTrunkTuesday.
When I was out for my weekly run on the weekend I bumped into local botanist William Reinders, down on his hands and knees peering at a dandelion.
He showed me a small patch of grass just over the fence in the horse paddock, with three species of Rytidosperma grass, two native to NZ. One of them, R. merum, is "At Risk (Declining)".
William is the top plant observer in Christchurch on #iNaturalistNZ. He's so far found 1,541 plant species in the city.
#botany #nz #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #grasses
Planned Canada geese cull labelled 'costly waste of ratepayers money'
The AJP claims there are more humane solutions to the Canada geese problem in Christchurch, such as egg addling, habitat modification, and "aversive conditioning". This could include treating feeding sites with methiocarb which causes geese to avoid the areas for up to 10 weeks
Christchurch verandert altijd. Er is altijd wat nieuws te zien... Of in dit geval iets ouds opnieuw te zien. 
De verfbussen zijn er weer. En ontzettend veel nieuw #StreetArt in de stad.
Hey
is anyone from New Zealand - Christchurch interested in a meetup?
Typical digital privacy topics and introduction to postmarketos, mobian, arch linux mobile etc. I could bring devices to demonstrate.
Just simple conversations for 1-2 hours every 3 months or so.
You know how you go for a run but it's slow going because you're looking for myrtle rust on all the planted ramarama hybrids and then you spot a mating pair of Zorion guttigerum flower beetles on the flowers of a ramarama hybrid and you've got to stop briefly to photograph them?
Maybe that's just me. 
They're a stylish pair of beetles though.
Yesterday afternoon I found some cool stencil graffiti at St Margaret's College.
That's not a sentence I expected to be writing, since it's a wealthy private girls' school. Respect to the art department.
I photographed this riroriro/New Zealand grey warbler through my home office window this afternoon, while marking exams.
I've been hearing their loud tinkling song on and off through the day. I've also been hearing a pīpīwharauroa/shining cuckoo, which is a nest parasite of riroriro.
Riroriro are NZ's smallest bird by weight, tied with the tītitipounamu/rifleman.
OK. Break over. Back to the marking.
I saw a juvenile korimako/NZ bellbird in our garden today. It's the first juvenile this season that I've seen visiting us.
Juveniles look a bit scruffy, and have a dull cheek stripe, similar to the white cheek stripe of adult females.
Unlike the adults' flamboyant songs, juveniles just go "zick, zick, zick." I've added a short recording of it to my #iNaturalistNZ observation. Click the link if you'd like to listen.
Last night was an outstanding moth night in Ōtautahi-#Christchurch, #NZ. It was still, warm, and cloudy. Our deck was covered with moths and I tried my best to photograph them all.
Here's a sneak peak at last night's moth action. So many moths, of so many shapes and sizes.
Every 3 months I do 4 moth light nights at my home, to track how our local moths are doing. I've now got a stack of over a thousand moth photos from 4 days to sort and post up to iNaturalist.
Fluffy moth alert!!
I had a gum emperor moth come into my moth light last night at home. It's always a treat to see them close up. Here in Ōtautahi-Chirstchurch, NZ, they are massively larger than the other local moths (and *so* much fluffier).
They were introduced to NZ from Australia and their caterpillars feed on eucalypts.
