Alistair K

I edit things like articles, books, theses, dissertations, reports, brochures and spec sheets for researchers and tech companies.

Me – PhD in history of sci & med with art/arch hist and material culture; ICOM-UMAC.

I clarify ambiguity. I also bake, garden, and foster homeless dogs.

Posts auto-delete to avoid eternal storage costs.

#fedi22 #editing #histodons #museumeducation #museum #materialculture #polymathy #histsci #architecture #calligraphy #writingcoach

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npub1lc99lfzy9d6rt6qqmvnvg4499gq2d8t9j2d68ec2mlqrqjp6w3mqrmuz05

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libroraptor_at_mastodon.nz@mostr.pub

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relay.damus.io

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Last Notes

2024-08-06 09:51:28

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@npub17nc…9dam I am always amazed by how far they wander from the ecliptic. Maybe I am still misled by the books that I read in childhood.

2024-07-29 07:32:57

I met a new student today. She's from a country that's been heavily colonised. She expressed interest in New Zealand's whakapapa and mine. I told her various things and the story naturally led to how Palmerston, Palmerston North, Auckland, Mt Eden, Eden Terrace are named after two of Britain's great drug barons.
She burst out laughing.
I added quietly, "Most New Zealanders don't actually know this."
But we should know it, right?
#NZ

2024-07-28 01:01:12

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@npub1zg9…nh26 what a pity that they didn't meet at a BYO pot-luck serve-yourself party

2024-07-25 23:44:58

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@npub1zg9…nh26 I feel weird about sight words in the alt text, like "visible in the background". I think that it's because I like my alt text to be about the objects and space, rather than about a person's perception.

2024-07-17 10:11:44

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@npub12nm…wh2s I could do with one. Wanted an e-trike with a bit of a trailer but they're far too expensive – very much a luxury item rather than the regular transport that we need them to be.

2024-07-17 01:59:54

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@npub12nm…wh2s No one's got a monopoly over abbreviations, surely. And SS one might be nicely prescient.
But "Republican senator meets SecS recruit at airport restroom"

2024-07-11 05:11:32

The police were stopping traffic entering and leaving our valley, breath-testing every driver.
My dog was in the car, and he stuck his head over my shoulder for a closer look.
And the police officer said "Hi, pup, breathe in here" and held out the machine for him to have a go.
#NZ

2024-07-01 05:53:08

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@npub1zg9…nh26 how distant do they need to be to prevent cross-pollination?

2024-06-23 03:52:31

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@npub19xu…e8yd Ten commandments for US congressmen and senators to follow! Would even a handful survive?

2024-06-17 07:33:43

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@npub17nc…9dam There's a good spot behind the big dining hall window at Queens College in Melbourne if you're keen on dead lorikeets.

2024-06-17 07:29:51

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@npub17nc…9dam Yale has a bird-friendly campus project. I remember when they asked everyone to report any birds found dead or dazed from window collision.
https://bird-friendly.yale.edu/

2024-06-04 22:00:51

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@npub12nm…wh2s I wish that more podcasters supplied transcripts.

2024-05-23 02:51:41

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@npub1ke3…xcva Maybe because it 'knows' that PVA is an ingredient in some icecreams, among other things. There's a market out there that enjoys the mouthfeel.

2024-05-23 01:59:42

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@npub147m…7rue Do you have any measurements that'd say what the particles are? (Much harder to get, I know – but maybe new-tech counters can do much more than the old-tech ones that I'm thinking of.)

2024-05-16 03:17:15

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@npub12nm…wh2s I'm wondering whom government as lined up waiting for the cheap, manipulable labour supply. And how far things will go before those employers have decided that we're now desperate enough to start exploiting.

2024-05-12 01:28:22

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@npub147m…7rue Is that looking into the geomagnetic pole?

2024-04-12 02:30:52

I've got the back door open and a mouse just came in, maybe to get out of the rain.
I turned my head to it and we locked eyes for a few seconds.
It left.
#nature #autumn

2024-04-11 04:41:19

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@npub1zg9…nh26 The career advisor at my grad school told us, find a job far enough from your in-laws so they don't visit very often, but close enough that they never stay the night.

2024-04-11 04:40:47

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@npub1zg9…nh26 The career advisor at my grad school told us, find a job far enough from your in-laws so they don't visit very often, but close enough that they never stay the night.

2024-04-07 01:01:20

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@npub1rx7…acx3 don't trip on your shoelace ...

2024-03-24 19:20:08

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@npub147m…7rue so ... well before dawn? Dawn comes around 7 here in Nelson. I'm in a valley so that just means a lightening of the sky; sighting the sun isn't until much, much later.

2024-03-24 19:10:26

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@npub147m…7rue As clear as day! How long's your exposure?
Or am I mistaken about when the moon is setting – I'm thinking about 3am.

2024-03-23 21:29:58

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@npub1p80…vay3 This page is a bit helpful but it's Dunedin-focused and tells you to follow them on twitter. http://auroraalert.otago.ac.nz/aurora/index.html

2024-03-21 08:24:03

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@npub17nc…9dam I just followed some of the trail starting from Berlese funnels, and realised that I didn't know words like "capture" in this context. That led me to something very promising. So much of looking things up is knowing how the community speaks.
https://academic.oup.com/jcb/article/36/4/584/2735742

2024-03-21 07:55:17

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@npub17nc…9dam I wondered also about putting a net onion bag of rotting leaves out and waiting to see whether critters would move in.
Maybe trying to scoop stuff with a net, though all I've got is a butterfly net (used more for catching wasps) and the creek's pretty narrow, shallow and somewhat clogged with tall plants at this time of year. Still, that could be more feasible in a few months' time when the plants die down.

2024-03-21 07:50:16

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@npub17nc…9dam
How's it done for water–mud–silt critters?
I've been thinking that I should try digging down maybe 20 cm and letting a few cupfuls of dead-leaf muck settle out in a tray with lots of water, and suck them up with a syringe.
It would be a pity to go in blind and end up killing a whole lot just to learn that this way doesn't work.

2024-03-21 05:29:30

@npub17nc…9dam Would you mind giving some practical advice? I'm wanting to catch some detritivorous amphipods to live in my fish-free fishtank. There's a little creek over my back fence, but how does one summon the amphipods?
I tried bringing in some silt from the clearwater stony creek in a nearby park (ended up with filamentous algae and a few insect larvae) and some silt and a couple of plant cuttings from wetlands in the next valley over (I got a tiny snail). Amphipods are eluding me.

2024-01-23 01:08:35

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@npub1ckj…7633 @npub1uw8…88kr I don't know anything about this but I do have a question – does "burn up" mean that the stuff is removed without a trace? Or are they thinking only about collisions while dodging engagement with other consequences of atmospheric pollution?