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
Up at sunrise and photographing McLeans Grassland Reserve for Wikipedia. One of the last surviving fragments of the original Canterbury Plains dryland ecosystem, it became a reserve in 2021 and is being restored with native plants, but the mayor thinks it should be covered in solar panels instead.
November 15, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Up at sunrise and photographing McLeans Grassland Reserve for Wikipedia. One of the last surviving fragments of the original Canterbury Plains dryland ecosystem, it became a reserve in 2021 and is being restored with native plants, but the mayor thinks it should be covered in solar panels instead.
58. Min Jin Lee’s PACHINKO is the saga of a Korean family in Japan across 79 years, and it is very worthy and interesting and perfect for discussion in your book club, but it’s written in such a flat, workaday style I mistook it at first for a rather uninspired translation into English.
November 15, 2025 at 5:13 PM
58. Min Jin Lee’s PACHINKO is the saga of a Korean family in Japan across 79 years, and it is very worthy and interesting and perfect for discussion in your book club, but it’s written in such a flat, workaday style I mistook it at first for a rather uninspired translation into English.
Each morning before the conference started I'd go for a walk in a city park in Lisbon and listen for "exotic" (European) birds. I ended up writing the English Wikipedia article about it, mostly from Portuguese sources with liberal use of Google Translate. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A1...
November 12, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Each morning before the conference started I'd go for a walk in a city park in Lisbon and listen for "exotic" (European) birds. I ended up writing the English Wikipedia article about it, mostly from Portuguese sources with liberal use of Google Translate. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A1...
57. HOMEWORK by Geoff Dyer: a ’60s and ’70s Cheltenham childhood. Accounts of Airfix, Stingray, or conkers that take me instantly back 40 years. Charming, hilarious, moving.
November 12, 2025 at 3:26 AM
57. HOMEWORK by Geoff Dyer: a ’60s and ’70s Cheltenham childhood. Accounts of Airfix, Stingray, or conkers that take me instantly back 40 years. Charming, hilarious, moving.
Rearing up baby stick insects again, hatched from eggs laid by last year’s batch. Nice low-maintenance pets.
November 11, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Rearing up baby stick insects again, hatched from eggs laid by last year’s batch. Nice low-maintenance pets.
56. Norman Lewis’s NAPLES ’44, a scurrilous diary of wartime shenanigans in which few nationalities come off well. Published 30 years after the events, so one of those cellared memoirs which develop in the bottle.
November 5, 2025 at 10:29 PM
56. Norman Lewis’s NAPLES ’44, a scurrilous diary of wartime shenanigans in which few nationalities come off well. Published 30 years after the events, so one of those cellared memoirs which develop in the bottle.
Not convinced this "broad daylight attack" is even news (kid surely just dangled their arm over eels at a feeding spot), let alone requiring two reporters. Given the damage from an eel bite is a nasty graze, rather like falling off one's bike. As you can see they're not exactly toothy.
November 4, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Not convinced this "broad daylight attack" is even news (kid surely just dangled their arm over eels at a feeding spot), let alone requiring two reporters. Given the damage from an eel bite is a nasty graze, rather like falling off one's bike. As you can see they're not exactly toothy.
I’m presenting a selection of prods and spurs to thinking creatively about this kind of collaboration. For more ideas, see a strategy document I wrote for Auckland War Memorial Museum a few years ago (also free and open licensed of course). commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:An...
October 31, 2025 at 9:10 AM
I’m presenting a selection of prods and spurs to thinking creatively about this kind of collaboration. For more ideas, see a strategy document I wrote for Auckland War Memorial Museum a few years ago (also free and open licensed of course). commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:An...
And unfortunately the Commons team is overworked and photos like this that I took and Printopia and did all the legal release for sat uncleared for 30 days and were then deleted as copyright violations. Very frustrating.
October 31, 2025 at 8:10 AM
And unfortunately the Commons team is overworked and photos like this that I took and Printopia and did all the legal release for sat uncleared for 30 days and were then deleted as copyright violations. Very frustrating.
Aotearoa representing at the stickers swap table at #GLAMWikiPT.
October 30, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Aotearoa representing at the stickers swap table at #GLAMWikiPT.
Looking forward to #GLAMWikiPT kicking off tomorrow here in Lisbon with tours of heritage institutions. (The organisers have confirmed that’s the official hashtag, not #GLAMWiki or #GLAMWiki2025.)
October 28, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Looking forward to #GLAMWikiPT kicking off tomorrow here in Lisbon with tours of heritage institutions. (The organisers have confirmed that’s the official hashtag, not #GLAMWiki or #GLAMWiki2025.)
In Lisbon’s Cinemateca which has a cocktail bar and a bookshop, to see a performance of John Ford’s The Scarlet Drop with live piano accompaniment. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sca...
October 27, 2025 at 7:00 PM
In Lisbon’s Cinemateca which has a cocktail bar and a bookshop, to see a performance of John Ford’s The Scarlet Drop with live piano accompaniment. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sca...
This morning’s Merlin.
October 27, 2025 at 7:57 AM
This morning’s Merlin.
QRP with your skull art! 💀
October 25, 2025 at 10:01 PM
QRP with your skull art! 💀
Excellent Sicilian pizza in a little place in Coimbra that’s only been open a month. Surprised to see guanciale, something so expensive in New Zealand that you’d hesitate to use it as a pizza topping.
October 25, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Excellent Sicilian pizza in a little place in Coimbra that’s only been open a month. Surprised to see guanciale, something so expensive in New Zealand that you’d hesitate to use it as a pizza topping.
My first sighting of a yellow-legged hornet! Luckily it’s in Portugal rather than Auckland.
October 25, 2025 at 9:25 PM
My first sighting of a yellow-legged hornet! Luckily it’s in Portugal rather than Auckland.
Today Google Maps sent me up the 114 very tall Quinchorro Staircase, the steepest steps I'd ever climbed (and I used to live in Wellington). Nice view of Coimbra through.
October 23, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Today Google Maps sent me up the 114 very tall Quinchorro Staircase, the steepest steps I'd ever climbed (and I used to live in Wellington). Nice view of Coimbra through.
55. Jilly Cooper’s memoir THE COMMON YEARS: a decade of walking her extremely-badly-trained dogs on Putney Common. The past is another country, inhabited by Lady Diana, Thatcher, rapists, flashers, gypsies, and, most hideous of all, “joggers who have earphones plugged into transistors”.
October 23, 2025 at 10:04 AM
55. Jilly Cooper’s memoir THE COMMON YEARS: a decade of walking her extremely-badly-trained dogs on Putney Common. The past is another country, inhabited by Lady Diana, Thatcher, rapists, flashers, gypsies, and, most hideous of all, “joggers who have earphones plugged into transistors”.
Yellow-legged hornets have been found Glenfield and two other spots in Auckland. We don't want these here! They're twice the size of our other introduced wasps, kill and eat honeybees and lots of native species, and have a nasty sting. www.mpi.govt.nz/news/media-r...
October 23, 2025 at 6:54 AM
Yellow-legged hornets have been found Glenfield and two other spots in Auckland. We don't want these here! They're twice the size of our other introduced wasps, kill and eat honeybees and lots of native species, and have a nasty sting. www.mpi.govt.nz/news/media-r...
I'm in Lisbon, and just learned The Beths are in town as well (played the last show of the tour last night), and here I was walking around in my Beths T-shirt all afternoon and didn't even realise.
October 22, 2025 at 7:55 PM
I'm in Lisbon, and just learned The Beths are in town as well (played the last show of the tour last night), and here I was walking around in my Beths T-shirt all afternoon and didn't even realise.
When I lived in Hokitika we started getting this thing in our letterboxes. Anti-vax, anti-fluoridation, pro-Putin; the usual cooker nonsense. So I was to find Jacqui Grant, now mayor of Westland, appearing in it.
October 12, 2025 at 8:37 AM
When I lived in Hokitika we started getting this thing in our letterboxes. Anti-vax, anti-fluoridation, pro-Putin; the usual cooker nonsense. So I was to find Jacqui Grant, now mayor of Westland, appearing in it.
Have been reading this history of 20 years of xenophobic gunboat diplomacy and massacre by psychopathic Portuguese as they kickstarted globalisation 500 years ago, and it’s maybe not the best prep for a trip to Portugal.
October 12, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Have been reading this history of 20 years of xenophobic gunboat diplomacy and massacre by psychopathic Portuguese as they kickstarted globalisation 500 years ago, and it’s maybe not the best prep for a trip to Portugal.
But @thneed.bsky.social and I thought it would be great if there was a transcribed, proofread version of the book's first edition available too. So I've set up a Wikisource crowdsourced editing project; anyone can help out. en.wikisource.org/wiki/Index:G...
October 9, 2025 at 12:19 AM
But @thneed.bsky.social and I thought it would be great if there was a transcribed, proofread version of the book's first edition available too. So I've set up a Wikisource crowdsourced editing project; anyone can help out. en.wikisource.org/wiki/Index:G...
There's now an annual Frances Browne literary festival in Ballybofey-Stranorlar, and Tom McLean, Professor of English at Otago, is over there at the moment to give a talk and run a workshop on writing a Wikipedia article about Granny's Wonderful Chair. www.francesbrowneliteraryfestival.com
October 9, 2025 at 12:14 AM
There's now an annual Frances Browne literary festival in Ballybofey-Stranorlar, and Tom McLean, Professor of English at Otago, is over there at the moment to give a talk and run a workshop on writing a Wikipedia article about Granny's Wonderful Chair. www.francesbrowneliteraryfestival.com