Alistair K
libroraptor@mastodon.nz
<p>Historian, mainly of science, art, tools and architecture in early modern Europe. Have also been a physicist, mathematician, educationist. </p><p>ICOM-UMAC. </p><p>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!</p>
Posts
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Post #3858110
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...
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Post #3546779
RE: https://mstdn.ca/@dbattistella/116840120508755510 Historians of science have spent about thirty years battling hagiography and hero-worship. Quips like this show how ineffectual we historians are.
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Post #3498093
I asked a friend a few weeks ago whether she could show our workshop group how to paint 梅花 plum blossoms, after I'd just shown the basic techniques for painting bamboo. She said she didn't know how. So I've been mulling it since then, and trying it for a few days and it looks like the beginnings are just starting to come together tonight. #mastoart
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Post #2516895
What&#39;s going on at the Privacy Commission? They told me to e-mail them to follow up on my Manage My Health complaint, but their mail server tells me that the address that they supplied &quot;is no longer active&quot; so my e-mail&#39;s been blocked by &quot;a custom mail-flow rule created by an admin&quot;. It was just an update to say that another fifty days have passed since I last reported that MMH still haven&#39;t addressed my query about what personal infor...
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Post #1382253
I&#39;m intrigued that &quot;viral&quot; now carries positive connotations whereas &quot;bacterial,&quot; &quot;fungal&quot; and &quot;microbial&quot; still do not. #linguistics
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Post #868986
Got another evasive e-mail from #managemyhealth, who appear unwilling to tell me what of my personal information they hold. Or, more likely, not intelligent enough to understand that I want a list, not directions to mess around with their website. Forwarded to Privacy Commission as an addendum to my complaint, qua evidence of continuing to drag heels in poor faith.
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Post #868985
Progress made with parents! Relieved the edema in mum&#39;s feet; she was all giggly this morning because her toes look like toes again rather than the sausages that she&#39;s been putting up with all this time. She did a full lap around Pak&#39;n&#39;save, after weeks of barely being able to walk up and down the hallway. The GP came by to check on her today and was utterly confused by how well she&#39;s feeling. He was expecting her to be immobile. These are still the end d...