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!

Last Notes

2026-08-21 02:59:51 UTC

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@nprofile…5w5c @nprofile…kpw3 I tried to get something done about this when I was on a primary school board. But principal and board were never willing either to isolate obviously sick kids at school, nor to send them home.
The argument was always the same: a total non-argument about parents not having sick leave for it. So the solution is apparently to multiply the burden across tens of further parents who also don't have sick leave for it. I could never figure out how to get it through to them.
Son is currently at a secondary school where the principal says that a sniffle is ok to bring to class. I say that the principal is a Luxon–Seymour bootlicker. I know this from his missives about phones-away-for-the-day and attendance – it's all written in terms of compliance, hinting at his KPIs; he never had anything to say about education until only a couple of months ago (so maybe my niggling got through!)
Keep pressing the system; the pro-contagion practices don't stop.

2026-08-10 10:51:56 UTC

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@nprofile…fh5u I don't think that they ever truly burn the bridges. It's all theatre for the moment, and then when their hands are forced they cry pragmatism.
I also don't get how Shane Jones is still there after decades of continual disgrace. I'm not usually very tolerant of body-shaming but Jones really does look like how he acts. He gives me the feeling of needing to scrub with a wire brush, and rinse out my sinuses with sea water and vinegar. And let's say that we're talking physiognomy here, not body-shaming. What do his voters see in him that's positive?
Or is it that they actually don't support him, but vote for him strategically to balance someone else?

2026-08-10 08:37:48 UTC

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@nprofile…fh5u Though I was disappointed that Hipkins didn't say something along these lines last week, it's come so late that I feel it's just a voter appeal.
And what Peters said is pretty much what I think, too: anyone says anything at this stage. It's not until the votes are counted that the claims start to have any meaning.
What I want to hear is not whether they'll work with NZ First, but where their values stand and what they will and will not concede.
Alas, even that may still be no more than electioneering babble. They all have a long, long history of promising the earth and providing not even a pebble from the moon.

2026-03-25 08:48:03 UTC

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@nprofile…r769 They'd also push urban planning in the direction that pretty much every urban planning expert would have it go, rather than in the opposite direction. Probably also sack all the council planners who don't have an actual urban planning credential. I've met too many who have generic degrees in things like geography. The system stacks the odds against doing a good job.

2023-07-17 23:22:47 UTC

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One thing that often goes wrong with historical microscopes is that they've been greased with the wrong kind of grease. If you're good with a screwdriver (I mean that sincerely – conservators handle them with great concentration and suffering), you can usually open up the workings, clean the decayed grease out, and apply a lubricant closer to what it was designed for. Otherwise the rank-and-pinion mechanism may be badly gummed up.

2023-07-17 23:17:32 UTC

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@npub1rmy…6xpc I did some research in the Adelaide heritage collections. They've kept a lot of their scientific stuff, and the people there are eminently hospitable and have ethics very high among their priorities. I can put you in touch with them, if you like.