Under Martinborough Stars

The impact of this asteroid is thought to have started a chain reaction which ultimately killed off the dinosaurs. Photo National Geographic Society

Starlight, star bright, first star I see tonight: I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight.

On November 16^th and 17^th, Earth passes through a cloud of dust and debris left over from Comet 55P/ Tempel-Tuttle. This comet passes Earth every 33 years and leaves a cloud of dust behind it.

It is this dust that collides with Earth’s atmosphere and burns up, leaving a trail of light behind, known as meteors. Meteors is the scientific name for shooting stars.

These shooting stars are known as the Leonids meteor shower because they appear to come from the area in the sky near the constellation Leo the Lion.

These small pieces of rocky dust that burn up in our atmosphere are small and won’t hit the ground. Think the size of a piece of dust up to the size of a single piece of gravel. … Continue Reading

South Wairarapa Rotary News

Emma Rose

Di Banks, Leader of Learning Support and Vocational Pathways at Kuranui College spoke to Rotary about students that face various obstacles to learning and one of most common is dyslexia. This means that they have considerable difficulty reading and writing although they are often very creative and intelligent in other ways. Dyslexic children used to be thought to be slow, difficult or “allergic to school” but now dyslexia is much better understood. Some dyslexics have become famous and high achievers including Richard Branson, Orlando Bloom and Thomas Edison.

Rotary granted $1200 for the purchase of three C-pens, a device which converts text into speech and also includes a dictionary. This gives dyslexic students independence from readers. … Continue Reading

SOUTH WAIRARAPA REBUS CLUB

At our September meeting the Guest Speaker, Sarah Wright from Digital Seniors, asked us why our grandchildren should have all the fun. Supported by videos of typical Zoom sessions, and linking directly with two of her volunteers who contributed to her presentation, she demonstrated how Digital Seniors are encouraging seniors, like us, to get familiar with recent advances in technology.     

Digital Seniors was born in early 2018 from research into the “digital inclusion problem” in NZ which showed that there were significant numbers of people in the 65+ age group who were missing out. They had significant issues of access to and skills with the unfamiliar new technology, and didn’t trust it. There were also many who did not appreciate the potential of the new technology to impact positively on their lives.  … Continue Reading

Regional Council notes

The recent election has delivered a very different political landscape for New Zealand.  With a single party in power, that party has the mandate to deliver on its election promises and no smaller parties to put the handbrake on its chosen path.

At least one of those election promises has serious ramifications for local government.  On page 19 of the Labour Party Manifesto you can read that “Labour will reform New Zealand’s drinking water and waste water system and upgrade water infrastructure to create jobs across the country.”  The bit about creating jobs is a sweetener for a move away from localism to a much more regionalised way of delivering our water and waste water services.  The word is that these services will move into five or six regional stand-alone water bodies across the country.  … Continue Reading