More panoramas made using my cheap point-and-shoot and the wonderful, free Hugin software (click to enbiggen, as always).

I took the first two panoramas when I went to Matiu/Somes Island in April to see the ex_isle of the Strangers performance.

View of Wellington, Wellington Harbour and Mokopuna Island from Matiu/Somes Island.

View of Wellington Harbour, Petone and Eastbourne from the main wharf on Matiu/Somes Island.

The next two I took after work, walking from Mana to my flat in Camborne along the waterfront.  Porirua Harbour never fails to amaze me with its ever-changing vistas and beautiful sunsets.

View of Titahi Bay peninsula (left) and Plimmerton (right) from a beach at Mana.

View of Mana Island from Plimmerton beach.

Now I just need to get more batteries for my camera; my current ones keep losing their charge.  DealExtreme, here I come. 

New Zealand, Personal, Photos, Wellington | No Comments »

In April I was lucky enough to attend a work-in-progress production on Matiu/Somes Island, produced by New Pacific Theatre Collective and called ex_Isle of the Strangers.  This is part of a Victoria University PhD by Bert van Dijk.

Mokopuna Island, viewed from Matiu/Somes Island

The opportunity to put on any show on Matiu/Somes Island is obviously an amazing and unique opportunity.  While most parts of the production were entertaining and very well done, I felt that the production in many ways did not live up to the potential of the Somes Island location. Read the rest of this entry »

New Zealand, Personal, Photos, Wellington | 1 Comment »

“Our most basic freedoms are threatened by an outrageous attempt to shut down peaceful activist magazine NORML News,” declares Libertarianz Drugs Spokesman Luke Howison.

Three issues of the popular cannabis activism magazine NORML News have been submitted to the Office of Film & Literature Classification for ‘classification’ – which is potentially a precursor for a complete ban on the magazine.

“The submission of NORML News to the censors is clearly linked to the Operation Lime anti-cannabis raids. It appears that Police are seeking to further crush the rights of peaceful New Zealanders who enjoy marijuana.”

“This blatant disregard for the principles of freedom of speech is shocking and shows National’s true authoritarian colours. Whip out the black markers, boys, it’s time for good-old-fashioned censorship.”

“Unlike every other political party, Libertarianz supports the rights of adults to read what literature they like, and to smoke a joint while they do so.”

“It’s enough to make you vote Libertarianz!”

For more information contact:

Luke Howison
Libertarianz Drugs Spokesman
Phone: 027 314 3007
Email: luke.howison@libertarianz.org.nz

Libertarianz – More Freedom, Less Government
www.libertarianz.org.nz

Catastrophes, Culture, Free Speech, Freedom, Libertarianz, New Zealand, Police, Politics | 1 Comment »

I’ve noticed something weird going on in Karori recently.  Check out this sign from the window of the Karori Post Office (click for big):

That’s right.  It’s a serious-looking Big Brother poster warning Karori residents that surveillance and recording of their physical whereabouts, conversations, phone calls, text messages and internet use “may” be operating, for “National Security Purposes”.

Watching your community

Here it is again, on the Karori Mall noticeboard:

Click for the larger version, and you’ll see that the signs feature logos at the bottom: the SIS, the Police and the NZ Defence Force are all in cahoots on this one.

Fine print at the very bottom of the sign reads:  Defacing or removing this notice is prohibited under the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002.  Offenders face a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment. Good to know!

Consider how odd the signs look – they appear to date from the 1970s. When I first saw the signs, I thought they were part of some protest by an activist group, but they almost look too serious and stodgy to be a tongue-in-cheek protest.

If it is for real, I have two theories:

Theory 1: The SIS are running some sort of training courses in Karori and these signs are letting residents know not to report the not-very-subtle dark van which circles the block every ten minutes to the cops.

Theory 2: They are keeping tabs on the neighbours of MPs who live in the suburb, and this is to let those neighbours know they should behave, or something.

One more thought: when law enforcement really has someone under surveillance, the LAST thing they want is for them to KNOW they are being watched.

Just to contrast this weird unexplained “National Security” surveillance going on in Karori, here is some private security surveillance outside a commercial building in Kenepuru.

There’s a big sign telling nefarious persons that there is surveillance, and this serious-looking camera:

We know exactly what they are watching – the entrance to their own building – and why – for reasons of physical security, protecting the equipment inside the building.  Its totally transparent and there is nothing dodgy going on.

These weird signs make me wonder if we can say the same for whatever is happening in Karori …

Update: Another sign spotted, this one doesn’t look quite so official (hat-tip: dubh on Flickr):

Culture, Freedom, New Zealand, Photos, Police, Politics, Wellington | 4 Comments »

On Saturday April 24th 2010, Phil and I went along to the Wellington protest against the Search and Surveillance Bill, which proposes:

Sweeping powers to spy, bug conversations and hack into private computers could be given to a web of state agencies as diverse as Inland Revenue and the Meat Board.

The Human Rights Commission yesterday warned Parliament of the “chilling” implications … under the law, council dog control officers would be able to enter homes to install a surveillance device and the Commerce Commission would be able to detain people … Inland Revenue would get the powers to assist its tax investigations, while the Meat Board would get them to enforce breaches of export rules.

Shocking stuff.  We went along representing the Libertarianz (quietly however, as we didn’t organise the protest).

Most of the people at the protest were ‘lefties’, broadly speaking.  Never mind, we will join with whoever when they get things right!  It was a good turnout too, 40-50 people during the speeches and 100+ during the march.

The protest organisers had some great signs and very effective surveillance-camera-helmets.  Great visual impact.  This one even had a working LED in it!

There were plenty of media and heaps of still and video cameras around; somewhat ironic for an anti-surveillance protest! 

The speakers could have been better organised – a firm time limit and either a better megaphone, quieter location or more projection from the speakers would have been much better.  The speaker above was the best speaker, he was from the Civil Liberties Union I think.

One speaker went ON and ON for ages and all his examples happened to involve ‘trade unionists’.  Wake up dude, its not the 1960s!  :-p

After the speeches we marched down the street to the National Party headquarters (even though, as the organisers admitted, Labour first introduced this bill, so both parties are the bad guys on this one), stopping traffic (probably completely illegally) for several minutes.  Felt good to be marching with so many people (100+ people at this point).  Good stuff.

We stopped outside the National Party headquarters, which was a bit pointless really.

Phil thinks we should have gone to the Police station, and I agree, there are many large and obvious surveillance cameras outside that building; it would have been a great visual and an even better metaphorical protest against the ‘police state’ that this bill may bring us closer to.

Of course, it might have led to various protesters being ‘firmly removed’ but, again – a great visual …

Free Speech, Freedom, Libertarianz, New Zealand, Personal, Photos, Police, Politics, Wellington | 1 Comment »

Jess and I went for a trip over the Easter weekend to visit some geocaches.  The cool thing about Geocaching is how it always takes you to awesome new places, often with fantastic views, and this trip was no exception.

First stop was Pukerua Bay, where there is a cache on the newly constructed Goat Track, a very steep path down to the beach.

The start of the walkway.

The view from the cache – Kapiti Island and the Kapiti Coast.

After finding the cache and filling in the logbook, we went down to the beach for a quick walk.

A panorama from the beach.

Amazing weather for it – very calm, no wind, sunny and warm.  It was so quiet and peaceful.

We found this jellyfish, it was amazingly clear.

Click for a close-up look.

Visiting Kapiti Island remains on my list of things to do.

One of the local residents has put this amazing machine gun sculpture peeking over the fence, as if to scare away the seagulls.

Our next stop was just past Paraparaumu, where there is an amazing hidden forest of Nikau palms.  The cache here was very difficult to find.

Wow, this one was tricky! My GPS-enabled phone doesn’t have anything in the way of compass bearings, so we were kind of guessing. We walked 12 metres into the forest twice, deciphered the clues, and identified multiple Clue 3′s. After searching fruitlessly for many minutes we gave up.We then walked up the track a few metres and discovered the real Clue 1. A few minutes later we had the cache in hand! Maybe some slightly clearer instructions are needed?

There is also a smaller cache just behind the sign, but we completely failed to find it!  Maybe the picnic lunch including a glass of wine had something to do with it?

After almost-not-finding Nikau Reborn, we sat down and had a well-deserved lunch at the picnic table. There were no muggles around so we searched the area for this cache. My trusty GPS-enabled phone led us to the same spot again and again, and we looked for several minutes but couldn’t find anything that matched the clue.Never mind, thanks for the cache anyway!

On the way home we stopped at Lindale for much-deserved icecreams.

If you liked the panoramas here, you might also like these Camborne panoramas which I took from the water tank at the top of the hill by my flat.

All my panoramas are put together using Hugin, which is amazing panorama software.  So easy, even I can do it!

Holidays, New Zealand, Personal, Photos, Science, Technology, Wellington | 1 Comment »

I was fascinated to read about the Sentinelese recently – a tribe of 250-odd hunter-gatherers living on a fairly big tropical island off the coast of India. They are extremely hostile to visitors and appear to have had no more than cursory contact with people from the outside world.

This picture is the typical view of the Sentinelese – they are seen standing on the beach through a telephoto lens from a boat!

Indian reseachers in the 1970s and 1980s studied the tribe by leaving objects on the beach for them.

Items of red colour seem to be popular and/or significant … red buckets were taken with apparent delight, while green ones were rejected …

Next to the embers maintained in the dwellings, a stick roughly resembling a five-fingered hand is stuck in the ground upright.

After the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the island’s coastline was completely altered by the earthquake and tsunami. An Indian government helicopter went to check on them, and they shot arrows at the hovering aircraft to repel it.

The Sentinelis had first demonstrated their standard pattern of avoiding visitors known since the 1880s and were still following it in the 1990s. Small visiting parties were seen off on the beaches. Whenever a larger number of visitors threatened a landing, the islanders took to their forests and did not return to the beaches until the intruders had left.

Even though there has been no extended contact between the Sentinelese and the outside world, you and I can look closely at their home through the magic of Google Earth.

View Larger Map

Here’s a shipwreck which the islanders have apparently used as a source of metal.

View Larger Map

There are also some sandy clearings and green spots in the jungle which you could almost convince yourself are clearings for villages. Unfortunately, the forest is so dense (look at the top picture of the beach) that there is almost no change of really seeing anything interesting from the air, let alone space.

Culture, Freedom, Linkage, Non-state actors, Pacific, Photos, Science, World | 1 Comment »

Update: Phil and I are now living in separate flats; I’m out in Mana now.  There is a lot to see out this way, it is a really beautiful location.

What follows are a bunch of panoramas I have made using the excellent Hugin panorama software.  I highly recommend checking it out.

First, two panoramas from our wonderful January 2010 holiday in Opotiki with Phil, Leanne, Craig, Sally, Tim and Alice.

Click any of the panoramas to get a BIG version.

Sunny day at the beach in Opotiki

Sunset in Opotiki (photos by Jess)

And now the sea-vew from our new home, Plimmerton/Mana.

If you look at the hills to the left side of the pictures, you can see some blackened areas caused by a major scrub fire last weekend.

Yachts in Plimmerton

Mana Island from Plimmerton

Beach at Plimmerton (five minutes walk from my new house)

And finally, a great view of the harbour just before dusk from our Libertarianz friends Colin and Nik’s place

Wellington Harbour:

Holidays, New Zealand, Personal, Photos, Wellington | 1 Comment »

Made by me (click to embiggen).

If you are confused, look here.

Catastrophes, New Zealand, Photos, Resilience | 2 Comments »

I was amused by this article in the Sydney Morning Herald about iMac problems.

Faults reported on forums range from cracked glass, screen flickering, yellow tinged or noisy screens and have been experienced by users around the world as far afield as North America, Europe and Australia.

It’s a product sold globally – why on earth would you emphasise that these forum users were from “far afield”?  The early 1990s called, they want their amazement at the global scope of the Internet back. 

Furthermore, it mentions major Western countries as “far afield” places, not actual far-afield places like Scott Base, Antaractica or Barrow, Alaska.

Education, Quotable, World | No Comments »