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Maree’s Musings

October 13, 2023 October 2023, Regular Features Comments Off on Maree’s Musings

KISS KISS KISS

As I prepare to write, October is fast approaching; however I’m going completely off the election

fever track for this month’s topic. But kissing?? 

I can assure you it’s not something that has often crossed my mind, or lips, to be honest. And quite probably for you too, we rarely stop mid-smack to reason why, especially with those spontaneous snog moments. Until now, that is.

People kiss goodnight, good morning, hello, and goodbye. It’s the first symbol of welcome – or maybe relief – to the newborn, and the final farewell gesture for the dead. A kiss sometimes lets the recipient know you share their pain. ‘Kiss and make up’ can prove helpful, while the nuptial directive ‘you may kiss the bride’ has long gone out of fashion as it’s bound to have happened before. There’s plenty of good luck examples, and the infamous Judas bad luck one which did not end well. 

Politicians (sorry, it snuck in) used to kiss babies: how that musters votes beats me; and very recently we’ve had a spate of fellow-patting of bald pates. OK, that’s not a kiss, which would be more creepy, but on the same track.

Where that kiss ends up is important as well as why. Todays’ winning sportsmen and women exchange plenty of kisses as well as the usual hugs, but lipsmacking? It seems not, as a recent scandal has shown.  … Continue Reading

South Wairarapa Rebus Club

October 13, 2023 October 2023, Regular Features Comments Off on South Wairarapa Rebus Club

Rebus Club member, Dr David Woodhams, challenged the group’s August meeting to consider the ethical issues surrounding our developing capability of editing human genes.

Early genetic engineering involved the joining of DNA from different species and subsequently inserting the hybrid DNA into a host cell, often a bacterium. 

A common example, dating from 1978, is the production of insulin by bacteria into which the human insulin gene has been inserted. Until then, a single gram of insulin for treatment of diabetes, equivalent to about 28,800 units, required its extraction from eight kilograms of pancreas glands taken from more than 50 slaughtered pigs or cows. 

Another example, more controversial, is the development of crop plant varieties that are resistant to herbicide.

In 2002 the method which bacteria have evolved to make themselves immune to viral attack was discovered, known by the acronym CRISPR, and from this discovery scientists have learned to insert genetic material into human genes with convincing precision. 

There are two forms of genetic editing. 

One embraces treatment that influences the DNA only of the cells of an individual – the edit can’t be passed on to descendants – that’s somatic treatment. 

The other, germline editing, specifically includes the ability to pass on the edit to succeeding generations. Therein lie the ethical challenges. … Continue Reading

Under The Martinborough Stars

October 13, 2023 October 2023, Regular Features Comments Off on Under The Martinborough Stars

Most people know that the sun is a star, and the stars are other suns further away. But are they really like our sun? Kinda, yes, but let’s dig deeper. 

In astronomy it’s often said that the sun is an average star. But it’s also not average for other reasons. How does our sun really compare to other stars? G type stars like our sun only account for around 5% of the stars in the universe. Commonly seen, but not that common. The most common stars are M type, red dwarfs that make up about 80% of all stars and are far smaller and fainter than the sun. Our closest neighbour, Proxima Centauri is one of them (not to be confused with Alpha Centauri A and B) Conversely, the most massive stars are very rare and just one hypergiant could fit hundreds of millions of suns within its roughly spherical volume. So, there’s an incredible range of sizes and brightness’s out there. 

OH BE A FINE GIRL (OR GUY), KISS ME…..…sorry. Just using an old-fashioned mnemonic for remembering the spectral classifications of stars. Like Never-Eat-Soggy-Weet-bix. Anyway, it’s OBAFGKM, with O being the hottest (blue) and M being the coolest (red). Replace your shower dials with blue for hot, as it should be. With our sun as a G type star, it’s on the cooler side in terms of the variety of temperatures star surfaces can be. Around 5600 Kelvin or 5300 celcius. Hot, but not that hot. Stellar cores can be millions of degrees Celsius. 

Our sun could most justifiably be called average in the fact it’s in the ‘main sequence’, doing what all stars do at first, happily fusing hydrogen to create helium. It will do so for a few billion years more. The Hertzsprung – Russell Diagram is very important in astronomy. It’s a graph plotting star temperature against luminosity (brightness). It demonstrates how the bulk of stars observed, fit somewhere along the main sequence, which looks like a sloping diagonal band among other regions of giants and dwarfs. These giants have transitioned into fusing heavier elements, and white dwarfs are ‘dead stars’. The glowing core leftover and our sun’s eventual fate. 

Here’s a couple more reasons our sun might not be so average. It’s still the only G type star we know of with so many planets. That is probably due to limitations in discovery so far but it may also be a bit special in that regard. More than half of the stars you see in the night sky are doubles. Binaries. They have an orbital partner. We think of our cycles of day and night as perfectly natural but there are plenty of planetary configurations  around other stars that would get some pretty funky day-night cycles, if any at all. So let’s be grateful for our mild tempered and relatively stable sun, the night and the ability to see other stars in all their different types. But let’s not be grateful for clouds. They can all disappear for a while. 

Aratoi’s Current Exhibitions

October 13, 2023 October 2023, Regular Features Comments Off on Aratoi’s Current Exhibitions

Rita Angus, Marjorie Marshall, 1938-39/1943, oil on canvas. © Reproduced courtesy of the Estate of Rita Angus. Purchased 2019. Te Papa (2019-0012-1).

A first for the Wairarapa is Te Papa’s touring exhibition – Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist | He Ringatoi Hou o Aotearoa. The exhibition brings together 20 works by one of New Zealand’s most iconic 20th century artists, Rita Angus (1908–1970) with many of these never been displayed before in the region. 

The paintings span Angus’s life and career as an artist, drawing out the themes of pacifism, feminism and nature that shaped so much of her work. 

Another visiting exhibition is Dwayne Duthie’s Double Edge Sword from Taranaki. This exhibition aims to communicate ideas on human drive and desire related to the human condition, the connection to self-preservation and survival and how they can be both a benefit and liability.

These works are presented in painting, sculpture and digital forms utilising the symbolic and the abstract to highlight our desire to acquire, defend, connect, learn and largely survive.

Dwayne Duthie: Double Edge Sword 28 October- 3 December

Rita Angus: New Zealand Modernist | He Ringatoi Hou o Aotearoa 30 September- 26 November

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Sports

Golf pro-am success _ without clubhouse

By Karen Stephens A record field of 172 players, including 43 professionals from New Zealand and Australia, battled light winds, warm temperatures and even light early-morning fog at Martinborough golf’s 2024 CER Electrical and Holmes Construction pro-am on February 1. At least that was the range of excuses for some …

Featherston wrestlers go offshore

Two members of Featherston Amateur Wrestling Club’s senior class have again been asked to join a New Zealand team overseas.  Wairangi Sargent and Angus Read will take part in the Journeymen Tournament and Training Camp over Easter in New York state.  Over the week they are there they will be …

Martinborough Golf Club has tumbled down

The demolition of the Martinborough Golf Club is complete. In the last days prior to Christmas a fully-insulated pole shed, much like a top end farm outbuilding, was erected to act as both office and temporary clubhouse. New septic tanks, internet connectivity, power, water, and Porticom loos were installed. On …

Regular Features

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FROM THE MAYOR

By Martin Connelly In February the local Lions Club invited me for dinner and asked …

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BOOK REVIEWS FOR HOT SUMMER DAYS

By Brenda Channer – Martinborough Bookshop “Whether Violent or Natural” by Natasha Calder This debut …

Community Garden News

By Debbie Yates This is definitely the month of thank you. Nga Mihi Nui! We …

EVENTS

Saturday 10 February: 10th annual Citizen Science Kākahi Count at Western Lake Shore Reserve, 18km …

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