Alistair K

Historian, mainly of science, art, tools and architecture in early modern Europe. Have also been a physicist, mathematician, educationist.

ICOM-UMAC.

Editor and writer of academic and technical things like research papers, theses and dissertations, monographs, essays, spec sheets, instruction manuals: I clarify ambiguity. I also bake, garden, and foster homeless dogs. Want something edited in LaTeX or Word? Get in touch!

Orc ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3890-9650
Profile picture: An ursine sow studying sunspots inside a camera obscura
Header picture: Oil painting of an old, decaying library

Public Key

npub14tmwwq4khw4j2q6jxs4mkqxneyev7572wtvey9f0pce5k93wcdusykh0qx

NIP-05 Address

libroraptor_at_mastodon.nz@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs24ah8q2mth2e9qdfrg2amqrfujvk020989kvjz5hsuv6tzchvx7gprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuumwdae8gtnnda3kjctvqy28wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hsz4q2vx

Publishing to

relay.snort.social

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub14tmwwq4khw4j2q6jxs4mkqxneyev7572wtvey9f0pce5k93wcdusykh0qx

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-08-24 00:51:12 UTC

I'm intrigued, and not in a happy way, that the newspapers are running article after article on rising living costs without mentioning that this is how employers routinely and systematically reduce employees' real pay: it's an intentional feature of capitalism.
Yet the reporters and the economists quoted all seem to pick words to avoid causality and choice: today I read that "food prices would tend to track up over time, so the fact they were at record prices was not entirely unexpected."
One could well think that the economists' inflation is as natural as, say, the expansion of an unconstrained ideal gas.

2026-08-13 21:44:44 UTC

- reply

Lately I've been losing some of my dream tests. One that worked well was to find something to read. The text would flow and transform in dreams. If I could get it to hold stable, I'd look away, then look back, and it'd be different.
But now it's often stable from the outset.
The pain test still works. In effect the well-known "pinch yourself" rule. Less talked about is that you can take it a much much further. I first learnt this with huge dog-like creature that bit my arm. It was about my height, with thick, wet, somewhat matted dark grey fur. Saliva dripping from its mouth. It didn't hurt so I tried pushing my arm harder into its mouth, then pulled back. It was confused and lost its aggressiveness, but didn't let go, so I was able to guide the puzzled creature around a bit.
Just last week I stepped into a dogfight in the waking world. Something that we all know never to do, but instinct is stronger than rationality and I just don't have much patience with fighting dogs. I suppose that I've done it too many times and been positively reinforcing myself each time, perhaps including in that dream with the huge dog-like thing.

2026-08-13 21:36:33 UTC

- reply

I still have dissertation dreams. Except that it's a different project and I can't remember whether I even finished the last one. At least I'm enjoying working on it, though.
To top it off, I have no idea where my PhD diploma has disappeared to so maybe it's not a dream.

2026-08-13 09:26:46 UTC

- reply

The closest I've had might be doorway dreams, the kind of door that crosses between worlds. And then disappears. Sometimes my dreams are lucid and it's annoying when the door I wanted isn't there any more.

2026-08-13 09:18:29 UTC

- reply

I don't remember ever having a corridor dream, but it's clearly a standard genre. What happens in them? What's it like?
I'm guessing that it's about uncertainty and liminality?
Maybe exposure? Because anything could come out of those doors, anything could watch you through keyholes and you'd have no idea. It's like this in Umberto Eco's Baudolino, the imprisonment of Deacon John who is absolutely free in principle but cannot do anything unnoticed.
Or is it about choice?
I like that vaulted ceiling and am curious about how it shapes the sound in there.

2026-07-16 10:51:38 UTC

Just been helping my son with chemistry, and accidentally flipped the narrative. He was looking at the Haber–Bosch process for making ammonia. I asked him about what ammonia's good for, the timing of the development, the timing of World War 1...
He was so suddenly interested like he's never been interested in chemistry before.
Then we got onto older ways of extracting nitrates from urine, something that Germany also had an advantage in because they drank so much beer.
And then to the initial extraction of phosphorus.
And then to calculating that, if only one person were involved, it'd take about a decade of collecting urine to replicate Brand and Kunckel's work.
Apparently the chem teacher never talks about things like this.
Even though we've been talking about the importance of doing so since the 1990s, and it's supposedly REQUIRED by the national curriculum.
#school #chemistry #histSci #histSciTech

2026-07-11 22:03:14 UTC

I decided that I'm going to help out local naggy anglophones who can nae cope with reo Māori, just in case their reason for doing this is intellectual incapacity rather than racism.
Anyone want to help?
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/903/585/049/986/575/original/11517f136ae37ea5.png

2026-07-08 03:26:05 UTC

- reply

and, importantly, who presumes to authorise on everyone else's behalf? Space programs are a disaster on this front. My sky is not the business of any other country's government, and barely even my own countries' governments. This practice reeks of the same foul scent as when the petro lobbyists robbed us of customary rights that we'd held, as pedestrians, since prehistory.

2026-07-06 02:32:17 UTC

- reply

My wife once left a note on our front yard lamp post telling people not to steal our tulips. It happened again so she called the police. They had to explain that deer can't read her handwriting.

2026-07-06 02:04:35 UTC

- reply

I miss groundhogs and squirrels and deer. I like them. If I could do this all over again, my solution would be to make them the centre of the garden.

2025-11-05 01:14:14 UTC

- reply

maybe not a hoax so much as an exhortation

2025-10-17 20:27:16 UTC

- reply

any chance that it's just a big new face and hands, recycled from a clock elsewhere, and the mechanism is an older device still in its original location inside the building?

2025-09-11 04:12:38 UTC

Well, that's not very nice. I have a Microsoft Office 2019 lifetime license, and Word has decided to insist that documents can be viewed only, urging me to subscribe to 365.
We really need to get the world off this arsehole company's teat.
#microsoft

2025-08-14 22:48:59 UTC

- reply

That is the point where I stopped reading. I always stop reading when a site does that – I don't have all that much cognitive capacity, and it's quickly exhausted by visual clutter, so I walk away when disrupted by bullshit like this. Same with newsletters. I could go along with a login. But why a newsletter? And not a nice monthly or quarterly newsletter on paper in my mailbox, but daily clutter in my e-mail?
Until that popup, I was sympathetic. Now I don't, and probably won't, know what they're on about. But I do know that they don't really care as much as they initially seemed to.

2025-08-07 23:31:01 UTC

- reply

it meant architecture or law or me in my last university. But I restricted mine to graduation ceremonies; it was a long necktie otherwise. Most people didn't wear neckwear at all; I didn't stay long enough to adjust — despite the warmth and humidity – after wearing neckties nearly every day at the prior university and either neckties or bowties for evening functions at the university before that.
Where I live now, I rarely see anyone with neckwear. Except for in school uniform.

2025-08-07 08:43:10 UTC

- reply

It's definitely not the lack of uniform that's to blame! In terms of school management, though, uniforms are easy to specify for blunt enforcement. And then there are all the arguments about preparing kids for the "real world" (where I see hardly anyone dress like that!) and, when people are honest, grinding down their individuality and spirit.
Two more 'justifications' that I have heard surprisingly often are "It's tradition" and "The kids need it." I don't know what either of these mean; people who assert them don't seem to understand my request to unpack their claims. I have a feeling that they find these views obvious and self-evident in ways that I don't.

2025-08-06 21:55:11 UTC

- reply

Some groups factionalise, though – you end up with multiple clothing subcultures just like in the adult world.
Many schools here have no uniform for the last year, and some of the girls in particular take that opportunity to belittle and control others by flaunting their own privilege through dress.

2025-08-06 21:31:06 UTC

- reply

Just wait until it's university time and they insist on attending one where academic gowns are still worn!

2025-08-06 21:30:20 UTC

- reply

My son loves his necktie–and-blazer uniform. He says that it's comfortable and it's one thing in the morning that he doesn't have to make decisions about.
He's not alone: a group of boys recently got into minor trouble for trying out the so-called "eldritch" knot (I don't know what's eldritch about it) in class instead of doing the work.
The blazer in particular is damned expensive but we are also at a school where, if the uniform's cost is problematic, the school provides it.
The main problem that I have with the uniform is that the blazer is conspicuously school-branded with a grossly amateurish shield design so you can't repurpose it easily. Even the shirts have embroidery on the collar points (but it's white on white so easily overlooked). I cannot fathom that we have been dumb enough to create a monopoly plus a captive market.
The monopoly is doing exactly what one would expect: no range for body shapes except what makes them a profit. Polyester and nylon; no choice of only-natural fibres. My son's lucky because I can adjust the clothes to fit him. Some of the other kids slump around in horribly misfitting bagginess – I don't imagine that this is good for their comfort, dignity and self-esteem.
A dress code should suffice; it's really just a uniform without branding.

2025-06-24 06:15:53 UTC

How long do artichoke plants typically live? I have a feeling that mine have died. Possibly because I didn't dig them up and divide them. They'll be about seven years old now, or older.
#artichokes #gardening

2025-06-24 03:57:11 UTC

- reply

we could fix that by restoring ȝ. Irish still has it; why can't English? Not good enoȝ!

2025-02-05 04:58:59 UTC

I just received mail from Algeria that was sent last August. Or was it July? The duration is surprising but I'm even more surprised that it arrived at all, and I'm wondering where it has been: where does mail sit and wait, or slowly meander, on journeys so temporally long?
#mail #post

2025-01-23 21:29:04 UTC

- reply

Like a little Markov chain text generator? Cheaper than an LLM yet maybe good enough to pass for 'real' text in a training set.

2025-01-23 05:31:24 UTC

Any suggestions on how to tell the difference between Drosera capensis and Drosera arcturi? I can't tell which one I have and it matters because one of them's an invasive pest where I live.
#carnivorous #sundew #taxonomy #botany #gardening

2025-01-21 00:45:42 UTC

My American friends on facebook have started noticing they are following the accounts of Trump, among others, without having chosen to do so.
They're seething in violation. But also wondering whether it's actually the predecessors' official accounts being handed over to the new incumbents, and hence rebranded.

2025-01-19 21:04:15 UTC

- reply

I have not made a jacket for years for precisely this reason. Easing sleeve caps into armscyes that must be smaller than the cap going in always took me at least four tries.
I never figured out a good way to think about it. The closest I got is that the excess has to be distributed evenly around the scye but I have a strong hunch that this is not a sufficient understanding.
I also started wondering whether gigantic puffs were invented to turn the problem into its own solution.

2025-01-02 22:32:45 UTC

- reply

Just revert to the old date of New Year – 25 March. No one's forcing us to side with the Circumcisionists (which is what the 1 January lobby is called).
When 25 March comes, though, I don't have another solution at hand.

2024-11-29 02:34:58 UTC

- reply

Also had a weka who used to come by most days, also left the vegetables alone. It played with the empty clay flowerpots, tapping stones against them. Then it would come inside and stand between my feet. Eventually I started giving it snacks and then my wife found out and told me to stop because she was scared of it.

2024-11-29 00:40:07 UTC

- reply

I do like geese, and my maternal grandmother had a pet one that used to follow her around. But our front lawn's pretty small, maybe only 10 square metres, and most of the dogs whom I want to keep it as a hangout space for are unlikely to be goose-friendly.
My own dog isn't very goose-friendly, either. He's curious about them but can't figure out how to approach them without provoking their defensiveness.
We'd also thought about fencing it for a chicken run.

2024-11-28 23:36:29 UTC

- reply

What would you go for on a front lawn that gives a bit of visual intrigue but also an invitation to stop and spend some time there? We're at a cul de sac. I fallowed the front lawn for a year and the soil improved immensely. Mulched in woodchip now, and battling the couch that I hadn't previously noticed. But then that several neighbours revealed that they'd been enjoying our little wild meadow and some of their dogs want to lie for a while during walks.

2024-11-15 22:18:54 UTC

- reply

they bathed in vegetable stock?

2024-10-10 02:45:17 UTC

- reply

I felt similarly when I started finding historiography interesting. I suspect that it's one of the many forms of getting older.

2024-09-26 06:51:29 UTC

- reply

My great grandfather, who worked hard in New Zealand for twenty years, returned to China with our family having bought lots of land, and then had everything taken away as the Cultural Revolution took hold, said that a roof and two meals per day is enough; three meals is good luck; don't work too hard because it's too easy for everything to be lost again. That was his advice to his daughter, my grandmother, just before she escaped back to New Zealand with the kids.

2024-09-26 06:48:30 UTC

- reply

That's one reason why the curve's not linear – it curves ever more steeply upwards.
If we asked a different question – how much money would it take to live a good life? – we might anticipate a different relationship.

2024-09-04 23:33:25 UTC

- reply

I see that this one's from a Chicago company so you could check the Museum of Science & Industry there for further material. Or try the Smithsonian's American History Museum – they have a huge interest in the history of technology. They've got online scans of trade catalogues that might give you some enjoyment.

2024-09-04 23:18:30 UTC

- reply

See where the branding is on it? That's a water tank with a kerosene burner inside it.
You still need to pour the water in or fill it with a hose, and to attach a hose to drain it when you're finished. If you search old catalogues you can also find the rubber aprons for protecting the floor.
And old newspapers have articles about the fires.

2024-09-03 22:15:41 UTC

- reply

I wonder whether there's been a drop in the number of people who'd be proud to descend from a bastard child of Henry VII?

2024-09-02 05:21:12 UTC

- reply

I try to find a truce with birds. The wekas at our last house used to pick up a stone to tinkle the terracotta plant pots by the back door and wait there, hoping that I'd take them something to eat.
The "watch out; they'll dive bomb you" magpies at Old Government House in Auckland used to stand on the ground in a little arc around my feet waiting to be hand-fed.
I still don't know how to make a truce with seagulls, though.

2024-09-02 01:21:40 UTC

Who else is baking mooncakes this year? I'm looking for advice on making fruit fillings suitable for the Cantonese type.
#moonFestival #baking #mooncake #Chinese #cantonese

2024-09-02 01:15:24 UTC

- reply

I remember how the water from each stream in our area had its own flavour, and there were koura in the drains that ran through our market gardens. And then I remember, almost overnight, the whole country was ruined with cryptosporidium.
I remember driving through and flying over a country of forest. These days, it's nearly all scarred grassland. It looks beaten, gashed, and hurting.
Recently I measured the nitrogen in our local brook. It was at the top of the chart.

2024-09-01 23:08:26 UTC

- reply

No problem at all! Just keep lying – the 100% Pure campaign was lies from the beginning and it brought tourists and propped up exports regardless. Throw in some of Peter Jackson's Tolkien pap and it's fine!
When you do encounter a dissenter who knows better, just swamp them by refusing to engage and advertising louder and harder – it's a proven method. That's how 100% Pure worked so well.

2024-09-01 22:16:52 UTC

- reply

The curator's decided that the man deserves the respect of being named, and the respect of being approached as a deceased human being. It's only quite recently that museums have started recognising mummies as people. The libraries with their cartonnage seem yet to start.

2024-08-31 22:30:11 UTC

- reply

Stop setting up pedestrians as ok to hit. Dramatically less bad is still not ok.

2024-08-29 04:43:48 UTC

I just picked up my vegetables and fruit for the week – a $15 pack that would typically cost twice as much at the supermarket. There were only four orders this week versus twenty-ish a year ago. I asked what was going on. The answer, I'm told, is that people are cutting back; so many people don't have $15 so they've completely cut fresh produce from their diets.
Once again, being healthy and saving money are for the rich.
#publicHealth #NZ #poverty

2024-08-20 10:35:25 UTC

- reply

It's the full moon of the Chinese hungry ghost festival.

2024-07-31 05:47:44 UTC

- reply

I'll be interested to hear how the learning process goes – things like which insights into wood selection, froe bite, leverage come at which points and how quickly your production rate ramps up with practice.
I got a little taste of this when I decided that I wanted an olive spoon, was scandalised by the prices, so found myself an elm branch and carved one. Actually several elm branches because of all the failures. Wood has so much to tell us.

2024-07-31 05:13:25 UTC

- reply

I tried to get a froe a few years ago and discovered both that just about no one around here knows what they are, but happily there's a stockist only about 20 km from where I live! But they're too expensive.
I only wanted it for firewood, not for shingle-making. I am going to look up celery top pines now.

2024-07-31 05:10:55 UTC

- reply

It looks like it could be a very restful reprieve from the sun, but I am biased by thinking how it would feel in my college in Melbourne. I am imagining the combination of breeze and sun (and thinking of our ghastly hellhole dining hall – the architect was either evil or stupid; there's no other possibility).
I dropped out of undergrad architecture and was lucky to be able to get back in touch with it for my PhD, too. Good to see that I am not the only one.

2024-07-31 04:58:59 UTC

- reply

Is that essentially a cleaned-up tree trunk in the middle?