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Alistair K

@libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy

15 followers 4 following 32 posts

Historian, mainly of science, art, tools and architecture in early modern Europe. Have also been a physicist, mathematician, educationist. ICOM-UMAC. Editor and […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ mastodon.nz/@libroraptor, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 12h

@pipesunlimited just came back from a multicultural festival and had the same problem. Nearly every stall had the same too-busy menu posters. It gets overwhelming very quickly – it's like they all say "STUFF! STUFF! STUFF! MORE STUFF! STUFF!" with a Los Angeles accent.

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Reposted by Alistair K

Harald Klinke @hxxxkxxx.det.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

How can museums retain control over AI, cultural data, and derived models? ICOM is inviting contributions for an issue of Museum International on “Artificial Intelligence in Museums”. Topics range from provenance and long-term preservation to Indigenous knowledge, computational costs, and […]

Original post on det.social

Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

Just in case anyone needs to hear this: NZ has teams at the international skate sport competition in Ascunción, and the hockey team has beaten at least Canada and Brazil over the past few days. Lost hard to Spain today. Still more games to go, though, to determine the rankings. (I'm not […]

Original post on mastodon.nz

Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

@chris About the mechanism ... it steams the grapes, and they release their liquids as they break down? Do you mash them a bit? I've never seen one of these before.

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

@chris is it pasteurised grape juice that this produces?

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

Just looking at some US Lincoln Memorial pennies from 1973, 1974. Anyone know why it says "UNITED STATES oF AMERICA" with that lower-case o? #coins #numismatics @CoinOfNote

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

@grumpyyetamusin.bsky.social let's all do it just for fun – where do you submit the claims?

Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

Still sorting out cupboards. Found two sea cucumbers. They cost about a dollar per gram, and one of these is a conspicuously large one. Prepping them is a lot of work. First, hydrate in fresh water. Then scrub the skin off – it's horrible; they look and feel like they're still alive, evading […]

Original post on mastodon.nz

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

@phil_stevens I hope that you're right. Winter protection from air and ground alike would be good throughout the country. American feedlot practice is commonly horrific – not about water protection, and the runoff is often identified as the source of crop contamination back when when lived […]

Original post on mastodon.nz

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

There's another effort afoot to bring dirty American crappy food production and animal abuse practices to New Zealand, now with an initial step of government approval. As much as America did for me, and as much as I miss living there, I'm not at all conflicted by the thought that it's high time […]

Original post on mastodon.nz

Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

Something nice happened on my city's perpetually negative bitch-and-moan facebook group yesterday. Someone posted video footage of a dog abuser beating up a puppy in public. Calls were made to the SPCA, Council and Police – who all did nothing because animal abuse laws are largely trumped by the […]

Original post on mastodon.nz

Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

@SusiArnott Obviously so, for anyone with a rudimentary notion of how image generation NNs work and are trained. We need somehow to translate that for the people who've never come across the word "ontological" and are scared by the word "statistical"? I think that's where the problem front is […]

Original post on mastodon.nz

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Reposted by Alistair K

Robyn Nuthall @robynnuthall.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

Ka kanikani te kanakana, ae! A lamprey! An ancient native fish under threat spotted in the Waimakariri River An ancient native fish under threat spotted in the Waimakariri River share.google/mxZg8tQ8fB9oRtZjB

An ancient native fish under threat spotted in the Waimakariri River

An ancient native fish under threat spotted in the Waimakariri River

Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

@joncounts @ObsidianUrbex It's obviously just a wok burner. If you've ever been to an 81-course Chinese banquet, you'll understand. Someone's clearly repurposed it for a chimney hotpot with those two vertical risers in the middle; they weren't part of the original configuration.

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

@joncounts @pezmico We need to finish the branch line to Nelson, too! Ideally to Motueka, though we could alternatively – or also – restore the Nelson–Motueka–Wellington water routes. Let's replace the Mapaurika and Arahura! I think it ran as far south as Greymouth? I really do not like having […]

Original post on mastodon.nz

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

Started sorting out the stuff in my parents' house today. Was thinking about getting started on Mum's clothes so that there's a little start for Dad to continue on in his own time rather than having to confront emptinesses where all of it once was and now is no more. Found that Mum had already […]

Original post on mastodon.nz

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

A little quiz: can you identify the New Zealand school lunches? The pictures actually mades me think of Air New Zealand. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf…

Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

Where's Hipkins gone? I thought I remembered his staking out a hard line over petrol prices exceeding $3/L – but it seems not to be of concern any more?

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

@grumpyyetamusin.bsky.social We've been barely giving a shit about a fair few genocides since then. And still happily complicit in keeping our allies' genocides out of history education. Something that always riled me at school was how we could spend so much time on Nazi Germany in which our […]

Original post on mastodon.nz

Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 23/03/2026

@grumpyyetamusin.bsky.social Seymour might have a genius flashbulb moment, like sending the fuel directly to the schools to bypass the whole middle-man step of converting the petrol and diesel into food. After all, it's energy-dense, isn't it? And if they get the really low-grade crude, it'll be […]

Original post on mastodon.nz

Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 23/03/2026

Travelling through the North Island over the past couple of days, and struck by the feeling of collapse and decay everywhere from Wellington to Taihape. It wasn't until Ohakune that things started feeling right. Before that, the towns and people and even the land itself felt so bleakly depressed […]

Original post on mastodon.nz

Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 27/11/2025

@grumpyyetamusin.bsky.social My current one once told me that she'd talk with the DHB and St John's about their handling of people in psychiatric distress (a psychotic friend, specifically, deep in hallucinations and paranoia, whom I'd been calming down while my wife phoned for help that never […]

Original post on mastodon.nz

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 31/10/2025

@SimonCHulse @cloventt We clearly need a feline precedent...

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 31/10/2025

@SimonCHulse @cloventt so my cat to driving a car is not illegal in the same way as for a Tesla algorithm driving a car? Because I don't recall any laws forbidding cats from doing this. Nor much else – plays right into the hands of those who say (erroneously) that the Law recognises the rights […]

Original post on mastodon.nz

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 30/10/2025

@cloventt I suspect that this is because we have old laws written by people who reasonably presumed that cars would have human drivers, and therefore didn't explicitly legislate a requirement for one.

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 28/10/2025

@lucky automation of so many kinds saps the joy from so many things

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2025

@jackyan We have a strong hunch that she wasn't in danger of death, but certainly in danger of sickness. He stepmum was there but, having taken sleeping pills, couldn't help. But had also taken the girl's phone away so there wasn't a way to call; she ended up messaging my son and another friend […]

Original post on mastodon.nz

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2025

@tillmanreuter Nice idea! Maybe I'll remember t try it next time I hit 29.

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2025

My son told his mum that he'd eaten a good healthy breakfast of eggs. He avoided mentioning that the eggs were in the form of pavlova.

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 20/08/2025

Nick Smith talking bullshit again... I wonder whether he'll fix it by proposing a re-setting of earthquake risk categories, like he did to fix our polluted waterways? www.1news.co.nz/2025/08/19/nelson-m…

Nelson Mayor wants to stop a $3m promise for new museum building

The Nelson Provincial Museum has a collection worth $20m but it is housed in a building that leaks when it rains.

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 19/08/2025

Spent the morning judging art entries at the local science–technology fair. Lunchtime conversation included substantial grumbling about how several of the works are so much more conceptually and technically substantial, and communicate more clearly, than the gratuitous self-aggrandising bullshit […]

Original post on mastodon.nz

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 15/08/2025

I saw some Lemonade apples at the greengrocer. Just cut one to try it. Tastes of nearly nothing! Is there a particular use that these are especially good for?

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Alistair K @libroraptor.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 13/08/2025

Some speakers of the house need to grow a spine.

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