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KnitMeAThneed

@thneed.bsky.social

730 followers 1.7K following 1.3K posts

I'm a Wikimedian and I run the NZThesisProject from Ōtepoti Dunedin in Aotearoa New Zealand. OpenRefine, Wikidata, Wikipedia... all the Wikis! Inventor of WikiWashiTape. According to skuas, I am too big to carry away and too alive.

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KnitMeAThneed @thneed.bsky.social · Mar 20

Delighted to announce that my long-awaited paper on the NZ Thesis Project is published (& is open access)! Deborah and I worked hard to write this because we would love for all academic libraries to link their data to Wikidata - this tells you why and how
www.iastatedigitalpress.com/jlsc/article...

The New Zealand Thesis Project: Connecting a Nation’s Dissertations Using Wikidata

Introduction: Libraries hold large amounts of bibliographic data, with great potential for enrichment with linked open data. The New Zealand Thesis Project explored this potential by uploading thesis ...

www.iastatedigitalpress.com

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Kylie @styla73.bsky.social · 2h

"These people make trans people their whole personality and spend their entire day checking their socials and being angry."

OK but Perimenopop is a GREAT album title and also, fuck yeah Sophie.

www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...

Sophie Ellis-Bextor: ‘Playing the baddie was a protective layer for me’

Two years after ‘Saltburn’ sent ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ surging back up the charts, the singer-songwriter has returned to pure pop with a glistening new album. She speaks to Adam White about ‘Perim...

www.independent.co.uk

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KnitMeAThneed @thneed.bsky.social · 4h

Come and help me transcribe a charming book of fairy-tales at the University of Otago central library tomorrow! 12.30-1.30 in seminar room 2 (look for the Wikipedia banner). See Mike's thread below for why we are doing this! #Dunedin

Mike Dickison @adzebill.bsky.social · 6h

Here's how you can help make a book of 19th century fairy tales available for everyone to read for free.
Frances Brownes was a 19th century Irish poet ("the blind poetess of Donegal"), whose best-known work is Granny's Wonderful Chair, an 1857 fairytale collection. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances...

The only photo of Frances Browne, circa 1879

Frontispiece from the 1906 edition of Granny's Wonderful Chair, illustration by Dora Curtis.

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Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand @wikimediaaotearoa.bsky.social · 6h

There's just about something for everyone in the Aotearoa Wiki community this weekend!

Come along to an event near you, or join us from the comfort of your home. Newbies are always welcome!

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KnitMeAThneed @thneed.bsky.social · 6h

Yep Dunedin and Otago both get “what on earth do I do with this?” looks from foreigners. Great fun when you have someone overseas introducing you on zoom 😁

KnitMeAThneed @thneed.bsky.social · 11h

That’s one way to leak things I guess…

Newsroom NZ @newsroom.co.nz · 11h

Exclusive: The Government has avoided questions about whether it’s joining preparations for a US confrontation with China. Until now, the public has had no insight.

Secret defence notes pointing to sensitive China preparation left at op shop

newsroom.co.nz

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KnitMeAThneed @thneed.bsky.social · 11h

Quite cool to see how it all works

The Press @thepress.co.nz · 22h

Well before the sun rises, the roller doors open to an unassuming warehouse in Christchurch. Voting papers for most local body elections in New Zealand will be processed here.

From about 5.20am, tens of thousands of votes from across the country are delivered, sorted and processed by Electionz’s…

Reposted by KnitMeAThneed

Russell Brown @publicaddress.bsky.social · 1d

Fucksake. It's quite clear now that they only looked at this benefit policy as political marketing and took no advice on who it would impact – which includes young people with serious health issues and disabilities. Just feckless and cynical. Shame on them. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Hundreds of teens with a health condition, disability may be cut from Jobseeker benefit

The government is ending Jobseeker payments to 18- and 19 year olds whose parents earn more than $65,000.

www.rnz.co.nz

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KnitMeAThneed @thneed.bsky.social · 1d

It’s Hyacinth mucket

Harkthorn @harkthorn.bsky.social · 1d

Hyacinth macaw sketch. Originally just ballpoint pen, but I added the yellow digitally, then flat blue and grey too because why not at that point

-3197 🎨🐡🪶 #art

A ballpoint pen sketch of a hyacinth macaw, from the chest up, viewed mostly from the side with it facing to the right of the image. The beak is open slightly. Flat digital colours have been added

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Michael Bain @mikejbain.bsky.social · 1d

So I stumbled across a protest today outside an Aerospace Conference. Pro-Palestine protesters calling shame on an industry that supplies satellite info to the IDF to target innocent Palestinians. Judith was there as was RocketLab & the US military. 1/ #nzpolitics #KeepSpace4Peace

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KnitMeAThneed @thneed.bsky.social · 1d

Found the voting bin in the Link building at university. Get your vote in by noon Friday if you’re voting here #Dunedin

Putting an envelope into the orange wheelie bin for council votes

Position of the orange wheelie bin in the university Link building, near the table tennis table

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Daryl Green @ilikeoldbooks.bsky.social · 7d

by the way, all those benign AI bots crawling the internet for for-profit LLMs, yeah it turns out when 9,000 hit your archive catalogue or image database all at once they break the system. This is an emerging sector issue.

The last weeks have literally seen humans labouring to feed the machines...

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KnitMeAThneed @thneed.bsky.social · 2d

Ha! Knew I couldn’t be the only one. It’s textural right? Something about those little green squishy florets.

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KnitMeAThneed @thneed.bsky.social · 2d

I hope things get less dramatic for you. Have the buttonhole I made for my son’s formal that he refused to wear

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Mike Dickison @adzebill.bsky.social · 2d

Vote! Vote in your local election! Post your vote by 5pm today! It matters. Hayden explains this more hilariously than I can: thespinoff.co.nz/politics/06-...

One hundred and eighty five billion dollars.
That's the estimated bill to repair our terrible water infrastructure and experts think that estimate is too low. Why is it going to cost so much? Mainly because angry people who didn't want to pay rates were the only ones who voted in local elections. They elected other angry people who didn't want to raise rates and those people kept costs down via the foolproof method of "letting the pipes rot in the ground". Just a few years ago, 8,000 people in and around Havelock North got poisoned when sheep poo seeped into some poorly maintained water infrastructure. Four people died! Wellington's streets are now equal parts sewage and concrete. For a while there people in Otago were drinking lead.

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Jessica de Heij @jdeheij.bsky.social · 2d

VOTE!

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KnitMeAThneed @thneed.bsky.social · 3d

Oh gosh I read all the Cormier I could when I was at high school. They don’t seem well-known now though

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 4d

“Advocates are particularly concerned over the facilities’ use of Pfas gas, or f-gas, which can be potent greenhouse gases, and may mean datacenters’ climate impact is worse than previously thought. Other f-gases turn into a type of dangerous compound that is rapidly accumulating across the globe.”

Advocates raise alarm over Pfas pollution from datacenters amid AI boom

Tech companies’ use of Pfas gas at facilities may mean datacenters’ climate impact is worse than previously thought

www.theguardian.com

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Chise @sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 4d

GOOD NEWS! Researchers have made a HUGE breakthrough towards a UNIVERSAL antiviral. By targeting sugar molecules found on the surface of many viruses that SHARE structural similarities, they identified FOUR compounds that successfully BLOCKED infections from SEVEN different viruses.

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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 4d

History repeats.

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MeatMechSuit @meatmechsuit.bsky.social · 5d

Every other vaccine is given to infants before they are exposed to the disease.
In NZ covid vax is gatekept for most kids until they are 5, and then most people can’t get ongoing updated covid vax until after 30 😒
Oh yeah, we also continue to ignore indoor air …

Aotearoa Covid Action @covidactionnz.bsky.social · 5d

We need to get serious about protecting our tamariki. Study finds Long Covid risk for children doubles after a second infection.
stillcoviding.ca/en/news/long...

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Mike Dickison @adzebill.bsky.social · 6d

Ah, the joy of freelance life. A couple of 2026 funding pools have just dried up, so if anyoneʻs interested in a project with a Wikipedian, now’s the time to get in touch. www.rove.wiki