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

'[FSU] chairperson Stephen Franks said its supporters had an opportunity to “vote against wokester rule” and suggested InternetNZ was charging more than it needed for “.nz” registrations while “siphoning off revenue to matey cause groups in Wellington”. (paywalled) #NzPol

Free Speech Union renews bid to reshape InternetNZ; says it opposes ‘wokester rule’

The lobby group is backing two candidates for the internet domain administrator’s board after last year encouraging supporters to join the organisation en masse to vote in its elections.

thepost.co.nz

The Records of the Canterbury Museum, journal of a public institution and paid for by the public, is—for some reason—not available for the public to read. It used to be, but they took it down, and now we have to read archived copies on a US website. If the museum were on Bluesky I’d ask why…

Siobhan Leachman@siobhanleachman.bsky.social · 7d ago

The @archive.org and the @waybackmachine.bsky.social in particular continue to be MAGNIFICENT! Was looking for an obscure ('cause the Museum no longer allows access on their website) publication to confirm the first description of a species. Wayback Machine delivers! web.archive.org/web/20160306...

Welp, hit a fairly common snag: the commercial photographer thinks they—not the client—own the copyright of some photos commissioned 20 years ago. No written contract, naturally. If you ever work with a photographer, sort this out in writing before any pics are taken! aipa.online/2019/04/copy...

Copyright and Commissioned Works

Photo © Fredrik Larsson / larssonphotography.co.nz One of the most important parts of the New Zealand Copyright Act for photographers, designers, artists, software developers and other creators of ori...

aipa.online

"Emeritus professor and the study's lead author David Norton said deer populations have grown back to levels seen in the 1950s and 60s. He told RNZ the decline might not be visible straightaway. He said deer were hollowing out forests of food sources which support forest ecosystems."

Rising deer numbers drive decline in native forests - research

Ecologists are calling for a deer management strategy, as a new report finds the pests threaten native forests' regrowth.

rnz.co.nz

At a recent archaeology conference I was shocked to see AI-generated reconstructions of Māori sites—these are racist tools trained on old northern -hemisphere assumptions. Maybe work with an artist, or learn to draw? theconversation.com/historical-i...

Historical images made with AI recycle colonial stereotypes and bias – new research

Generative AI is known to mirror sexist and racist stereotypes, but it also carries a colonial bias that is reinforcing outdated ideas about the past.

theconversation.com

Over the last 18 months @thneed.bsky.social and I have been experimenting with being Wikipedians (or Wikimedians) in Residence at conferences—photographing academics, checking they and their papers are in Wikidata, and improving Wikipedia articles related to their research.

Mike and Tamsin with their bestickered laptops at the University of Otago

Remember a year ago when we all joined Internet NZ to keep the FSU from succeeding in its takeover attempt? Well, they're trying again this year, and another TERF who runs a separate anti-trans hate group is also trying to get on the board. Let's keep them out again 💪

“but they remember things” nope! llms do not remember anything. the chatbot has an app layer between you and it that stores “memories” aka database records, and injects them into the conversation in a way that is hidden from you not unlike a data broker + a phone scammer