Mike Dickison
@adzebill.bsky.social
My Jeopardy categories would be Wikipedia, natural history of Aotearoa New Zealand, Sondheim musicals, bird bones, and enough typography to get me into trouble. Ōtautahi, Dr Him.
0000-0003-1183-2550, Q56458901
0000-0003-1183-2550, Q56458901
Pinned
Mike Dickison
@adzebill.bsky.social
· Nov 11
Happy to announce that, thanks to a grant from Wikimedia Aotearoa NZ, in 2025 I'll be Aotearoa Wikipedian at Large, with a focus on beautiful Banks Peninsula. Anyone keen to help with article writing, book transcription, photos, or research let me know. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...
Did a photo shoot for early-career researchers at the MacDiarmid Symposium and uploaded the headshots to Commons under an open licence, eventually to attach to their Wikidata items (and they get a new profile pic for LinkedIn if they want).
November 28, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Did a photo shoot for early-career researchers at the MacDiarmid Symposium and uploaded the headshots to Commons under an open licence, eventually to attach to their Wikidata items (and they get a new profile pic for LinkedIn if they want).
Reposted by Mike Dickison
21 years ago today I thought, huh, looks interesting, and created a Wikipedia account. Things sort of snowballed from there. It's been fun.
21 thoughts on Wikipedia, in no particular order: 🧵
21 thoughts on Wikipedia, in no particular order: 🧵
October 30, 2025 at 9:54 PM
21 years ago today I thought, huh, looks interesting, and created a Wikipedia account. Things sort of snowballed from there. It's been fun.
21 thoughts on Wikipedia, in no particular order: 🧵
21 thoughts on Wikipedia, in no particular order: 🧵
Yesterday Sir Peter Gluckman at a speech to the MacDiarmid Institute symposium used the merger of CRIs as an example of removing redundancies in NZ science. I guess these are the redundancies he meant.
Ongoing erosion of public research capabilities in Aotearoa. When orgs are forced to restructure like this without $ to pay for it, this is what happens. Very curious to know what the new management structure is and how much it costs in salaries...
#NZPOL
#NZPOL
Bioeconomy Science Institute to ask for voluntary redundancies
CEO Mark Piper said the proposed voluntary redundancy offer was part of a financial improvement process to support the new organisation.
www.rnz.co.nz
November 27, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Yesterday Sir Peter Gluckman at a speech to the MacDiarmid Institute symposium used the merger of CRIs as an example of removing redundancies in NZ science. I guess these are the redundancies he meant.
Reposted by Mike Dickison
I feel you, ancient Mongolian ceramic hedgehog. I feel you.
November 26, 2025 at 10:17 AM
I feel you, ancient Mongolian ceramic hedgehog. I feel you.
Reposted by Mike Dickison
We're excited to share that University of Otago Wikimedian in Residence, Dr Tamsin Braisher (@thneed.bsky.social), will be continuing her placement in 2026! 🎓
Since mid-2025, Tamsin has been building a bridge between university staff, students, and researchers, and the world of Wikipedia ⬇️
Since mid-2025, Tamsin has been building a bridge between university staff, students, and researchers, and the world of Wikipedia ⬇️
Otago University’s Wikipedian in Residence sets sights on 2026
Official website of the non-profit charitable New Zealand affiliate of the Wikimedia Foundation.
www.wikimedia.nz
November 26, 2025 at 9:54 PM
We're excited to share that University of Otago Wikimedian in Residence, Dr Tamsin Braisher (@thneed.bsky.social), will be continuing her placement in 2026! 🎓
Since mid-2025, Tamsin has been building a bridge between university staff, students, and researchers, and the world of Wikipedia ⬇️
Since mid-2025, Tamsin has been building a bridge between university staff, students, and researchers, and the world of Wikipedia ⬇️
Post your warning label.
November 26, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Post your warning label.
I love the 🛬 > 🚍 > 🚊> 🏙️ public transport in Auckland now; much better than the expensive commercial airport bus I vividly remember sailing right past me early one morning as I tried to get home (missed my flight, lost half a day of work, good times). Also Puhinui Station had a green roof.
November 25, 2025 at 11:12 PM
I love the 🛬 > 🚍 > 🚊> 🏙️ public transport in Auckland now; much better than the expensive commercial airport bus I vividly remember sailing right past me early one morning as I tried to get home (missed my flight, lost half a day of work, good times). Also Puhinui Station had a green roof.
The Metro Christchurch “real time” board just recites the timetable to you and doesn’t know when a bus is delayed, unlike Google Maps.
November 25, 2025 at 7:44 PM
The Metro Christchurch “real time” board just recites the timetable to you and doesn’t know when a bus is delayed, unlike Google Maps.
Reposted by Mike Dickison
Now I'm done with proofing "The Toll of the Bush", it looks like I'll be working on james Cowans' "Maori Folk-tales of the Port Hills" (which is a guide to place names) en.wikisource.org/wiki/Index:C...
en.wikisource.org
November 25, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Now I'm done with proofing "The Toll of the Bush", it looks like I'll be working on james Cowans' "Maori Folk-tales of the Port Hills" (which is a guide to place names) en.wikisource.org/wiki/Index:C...
Reposted by Mike Dickison
What happens when a global community of volunteers comes together to make a free library? You get Wikisource, a digital library of public domain and freely licensed texts, films, and more.
Join the celebration by exploring Wikisource – and maybe transcribing a page yourself ➡️ w.wiki/XWE
Join the celebration by exploring Wikisource – and maybe transcribing a page yourself ➡️ w.wiki/XWE
November 24, 2025 at 12:49 PM
What happens when a global community of volunteers comes together to make a free library? You get Wikisource, a digital library of public domain and freely licensed texts, films, and more.
Join the celebration by exploring Wikisource – and maybe transcribing a page yourself ➡️ w.wiki/XWE
Join the celebration by exploring Wikisource – and maybe transcribing a page yourself ➡️ w.wiki/XWE
Reposted by Mike Dickison
Christchurch Airport’s efforts to preserve a 200-year-old kōwhai tree, described as the city’s Mona Lisa, are being praised.
Christchurch’s ‘Mona Lisa’ preserved amidst sea of solar panels
Christchurch Airport’s efforts to preserve a 200-year-old kōwhai tree, described as the city’s Mona Lisa, are being praised.
dlvr.it
November 24, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Christchurch Airport’s efforts to preserve a 200-year-old kōwhai tree, described as the city’s Mona Lisa, are being praised.
Reposted by Mike Dickison
#librarians #Wikidata #Wikipedia if a library uses Primo VE software then there's a linked data feature they can turn on based on Wikidata. I did an explainer video to show people what it looks like. Lemme know if you see it in the wild! www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S4u...
Wikidata in library catalogues: Introduction to the Primo VE linked data feature
YouTube video by Dr Thneed
www.youtube.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:39 AM
#librarians #Wikidata #Wikipedia if a library uses Primo VE software then there's a linked data feature they can turn on based on Wikidata. I did an explainer video to show people what it looks like. Lemme know if you see it in the wild! www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S4u...
“there’s a huge range of views around deer…from people who think they should be totally eradicated in New Zealand to people who absolutely love them and are not as concerned about the impact on the bush.”
Not all views are valid views! How this spectrum has changed over time would be interesting.
Not all views are valid views! How this spectrum has changed over time would be interesting.
Biodiversity takes beating from land-trampling deer
In the second of a series on southern pest problems, Newsroom looks at the deer’s devastating impact on agriculture and the already-struggling conservation estate. Jill Herron reports.
newsroom.co.nz
November 23, 2025 at 6:19 PM
“there’s a huge range of views around deer…from people who think they should be totally eradicated in New Zealand to people who absolutely love them and are not as concerned about the impact on the bush.”
Not all views are valid views! How this spectrum has changed over time would be interesting.
Not all views are valid views! How this spectrum has changed over time would be interesting.
Reposted by Mike Dickison
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
November 22, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
Reposted by Mike Dickison
since the "google is now training gemini on your email contents" thing keeps bumping around here: it's _not happening_. I say this not to defend google but because I know a lot of people that have broken their filtering and made their lives much more annoying from sheer misinformation.
The malwarebytes Google opting-your-emails-into-ai-training thing is not true. The post is based on one bad tweet.
I know anti-tech lamenting is a Bluesky core principle, but please use the same judgement you would for any other clickbait.
www.theverge.com/news/826902/...
I know anti-tech lamenting is a Bluesky core principle, but please use the same judgement you would for any other clickbait.
www.theverge.com/news/826902/...
Google denies ‘misleading’ reports of Gmail using your emails to train AI
Google says “we do not use your Gmail content for training our Gemini AI model.”
www.theverge.com
November 22, 2025 at 9:30 PM
since the "google is now training gemini on your email contents" thing keeps bumping around here: it's _not happening_. I say this not to defend google but because I know a lot of people that have broken their filtering and made their lives much more annoying from sheer misinformation.
Very much enjoying these mugs from Curios Ceramics, who had perhaps the busiest stall at Encraftment Ōtautahi yesterday (and they’re still there today). www.instagram.com/curios.nz
November 22, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Very much enjoying these mugs from Curios Ceramics, who had perhaps the busiest stall at Encraftment Ōtautahi yesterday (and they’re still there today). www.instagram.com/curios.nz
Reposted by Mike Dickison
I reckon you can learn a lot about the atmosphere in various Oxford colleges by looking at what they choose to name their cats (courtesy of @oxfordclarion.bsky.social ). We should all aspire to the energy of a Teabag, Isambard Kitten Brunel, or an Admiral Flapjack
oxfordclarion.uk/college-cats...
oxfordclarion.uk/college-cats...
November 21, 2025 at 1:01 PM
I reckon you can learn a lot about the atmosphere in various Oxford colleges by looking at what they choose to name their cats (courtesy of @oxfordclarion.bsky.social ). We should all aspire to the energy of a Teabag, Isambard Kitten Brunel, or an Admiral Flapjack
oxfordclarion.uk/college-cats...
oxfordclarion.uk/college-cats...
The designer of the controversial book covers has responded, claiming that generative AI was just one component and hours or days of tweaking go into their covers. Perhaps that’s true! But the covers are despite all this work still Not Very Good. www.sugarcubestudios.com/quentin-book...
November 21, 2025 at 6:01 PM
The designer of the controversial book covers has responded, claiming that generative AI was just one component and hours or days of tweaking go into their covers. Perhaps that’s true! But the covers are despite all this work still Not Very Good. www.sugarcubestudios.com/quentin-book...
Reposted by Mike Dickison
Whenever this is mentioned, it is obligatory to post xkcd 2381, in which @gretchenmcc.bsky.social shares forbidden linguistic knowledge with the masses.
November 21, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Whenever this is mentioned, it is obligatory to post xkcd 2381, in which @gretchenmcc.bsky.social shares forbidden linguistic knowledge with the masses.
Reposted by Mike Dickison
It's just PR, with no budget. They might as well add mosquitoes, wasps, Putin and Lex Luthor to the list. Community groups and regional councils are already killing wild cats. This announcement will not add 1 dead cat to the cause, unless the Govt forces DOC to divert $ from threatened spp programs
November 20, 2025 at 6:09 PM
It's just PR, with no budget. They might as well add mosquitoes, wasps, Putin and Lex Luthor to the list. Community groups and regional councils are already killing wild cats. This announcement will not add 1 dead cat to the cause, unless the Govt forces DOC to divert $ from threatened spp programs
Reposted by Mike Dickison
Today’s Wikipedia DYK section has been taken over for Trans Day of Remembrance. 🏳️⚧️
November 20, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Today’s Wikipedia DYK section has been taken over for Trans Day of Remembrance. 🏳️⚧️
Reposted by Mike Dickison
Really, all I want is to become Theo Jansen and build wiggling wind robots on a beach for the rest of my life
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANhA...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANhA...
Strandbeest evolution 2025
YouTube video by theo jansen
www.youtube.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Really, all I want is to become Theo Jansen and build wiggling wind robots on a beach for the rest of my life
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANhA...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANhA...