Disqus - Latest Comments for pigsonthewing

Re: If you’re not upset by Charlotte Owen, you should be

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 06:12:22 -0000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

not that Wikipedia does hit pieces

Re: FEMI OSIBONA: 360 Degrees Ikoyi: A Bold, Beautiful Lifestyle Statement in Lagos

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 12:50:50 -0000

There is no "Croydon University" in the UK.

Re: Balloon release held in memory of Jalen David

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 07:19:43 -0000

And where are those balloons now?

Balloon releases are harmful to the environment, to wildlife and to domestic animals.

It only takes minutes for the litter from balloon releases to suffocate, choke or strangle an animal, or days to cause a painful death from starvation. Would the organisers scatter plastic food wrappers, drinks cartons or other packaging in the countryside?

Re: British Museum Makes 1.9 Million Images Free to Download

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Tue, 05 May 2020 06:14:16 -0000

Many of those images - including some you reproduce on this page - are of works long out of copyright (or which predate copyright), yet the British Museum claim copyright in them - in effect, they are trying to appropriate rights that belong to us all.

Re: iPhylo: Wikidata and the bibliography of life in the time of coronavirus

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 08:09:29 -0000

"Wikispecies ... is a nightmare to parse"

Sadly that's very true. I've been plugging way at resolving that, most recently here:

https://species.wikimedia.o...

where we seem to have consensus to use templates for bibliographic data.

But progress is slow; and there is still the disconnect of the Wikimedia community effectively maintaining multiple databases of taxonomy (Wikidata, Wikispecies, Wikimedia Commons, the various Wikipedias - not to mention additional data on publications, in Wikisource), with many links between them, but no proper synchronisation.

Re: 'Little rays of sunshine': Students, teachers honor four who died in Bell County house fire

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 05:52:52 -0000

Balloon releases are harmful to the environment, to wildlife and to domestic animals.

It only takes minutes for the litter from balloon
releases to suffocate, choke or strangle an animal, or days to cause a
painful death from starvation. Perhaps the balloon retailer has assured
the organisers that the balloons are "biodegradable". Would they scatter
biodegradable food wrappers, drinks cartons or other packaging in the
countryside?

Re: Event, balloon release raises child cancer awareness - The Clanton Advertiser

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Thu, 12 Sep 2019 08:42:04 -0000

And where are those balloons now?

Balloon releases are harmful to the environment, to wildlife and to domestic animals.

It only takes minutes for the litter from balloon releases to suffocate, choke or strangle an animal, or days to cause a painful death from starvation. Perhaps the balloon retailer has assured the organisers that the balloons are "biodegradable". Would they scatter biodegradable food wrappers, drinks cartons or other packaging in the countryside?

Re: Crenshaw DHR marks World Elder Abuse Awareness Month with balloon release - The Greenville Advocate

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 11:19:11 -0000

And where are those balloons now?

Balloon releases are harmful to the environment, to wildlife and to domestic animals.

It only takes minutes for the litter from balloon releases to suffocate, choke or strangle an animal, or days to cause a painful death from starvation. Perhaps the balloon retailer has assured the organisers that the balloons are "biodegradable". Would they scatter biodegradable food wrappers, drinks cartons or other packaging in the countryside?

Re: North Face Added Product Placement Photos to Wikipedia to Game Google

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Fri, 31 May 2019 15:19:22 -0000

They might be half-decent marketing images. They are not good educational, documentary images. Unlike the great image reproduced here:

https://wikimediafoundation...

which they replaced with one of their (since deleted) spammy pics.

Re: North Face Added Product Placement Photos to Wikipedia to Game Google

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Fri, 31 May 2019 15:14:49 -0000

As one of the Wikipedia volunteers who spent time cleaning up the mess this spam caused, I find your assessment that it was "not that big a deal" rather insulting.

Re: North Face Added Product Placement Photos to Wikipedia to Game Google

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Fri, 31 May 2019 15:10:51 -0000

No, Leo Burnett Tailor Made have not "ended the campaign". Wikipedia volunteers ended it for them, days ago, removing the images from every article they spammed and blocking the accounts involved for breaches of Wikipedia's terms of use.

Re: Hatley hosts annual balloon release - The Clanton Advertiser

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Tue, 14 May 2019 10:01:25 -0000

And where are those balloons now?

Balloon releases are harmful to the environment, to wildlife and to domestic animals.

It only takes minutes for the litter from balloon releases to suffocate, choke or strangle an animal, or days to cause a painful death from starvation. Perhaps the balloon retailer has assured the organisers that the balloons are "biodegradable". Would they scatter biodegradable food wrappers, drinks cartons or other packaging in the countryside?

Re: View of the Town Hall

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Mon, 13 May 2019 11:35:19 -0000

Grange Court is the central building, shown in its original state and location, at the junction of Broad Street, High Street, Church Street, Drapers' Lane, High Street and Burgess Street.

As well as being moved to new location, it has had walls added at ground-floor level: https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

A bronze model of the building now stands near the original location, at 52.227935, -2.738849: https://www.openstreetmap.o...

Re: The timber-framed town hall, Leominster, Hereford & Worcester

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Mon, 13 May 2019 11:31:51 -0000

Grange Court, shown in its original state and location, at the junction of Broad Street, High Street, Church Street, Drapers' Lane, High Street and Burgess Street.

It has since been moved, and had walls added at ground-floor level: https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

A bronze model of the building now stands near the original location, at 52.227935, -2.738849: https://www.openstreetmap.o...

Re: Leominster

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Mon, 13 May 2019 11:30:24 -0000

This building is Grange Court, shown in its original state and location, at the junction of Broad Street, High Street, Church Street, Drapers' Lane, High Street and Burgess Street.

It has since been moved, and had walls added at ground-floor level: https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

A bronze model of the building now stands near the original location, at 52.227935, -2.738849: https://www.openstreetmap.o...

Re: Untitled (View of Tyburn at an execution)

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Mon, 13 May 2019 11:21:13 -0000

I think this is Tyburn London, not Tyburn, Birmingham.

Re: Heathfield House, Handsworth, Birmingham

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Mon, 13 May 2019 09:28:01 -0000

Heathfield Hall, (aka Heathfield House) was the home of the inventor James Watt, having been built for him in 1790 to designs by the architect Samuel Wyatt. It was demolished in 1927. Watt's workshop, which had been left untouched, was removed from Heathfield in 1924 and recreated in the Science Museum, London, where it is still on view.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Re: Aston Hall from the Walsall road near Birmingham

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Mon, 13 May 2019 09:10:05 -0000

"the Walsall road" is the modern-day Birchfield Road (A34). Judging by the alignment of house and church, and the fact that the right-hand side of the hall is just visible, the artist's viewpoint is approximately 52.5066,-1.9025 - i.e. https://www.openstreetmap.o...

Re: View of Mr Egginton's House near Soho Birmingham

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Tue, 07 May 2019 17:00:05 -0000

Presumably the home of Francis Eginton (1737–1805; sometimes spelled "Egginton"), a business partner of Matthew Boulton.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Re: Theatre, Birmingham

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Tue, 07 May 2019 15:55:00 -0000

The Theatre Royal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Re: Balloons released to honor victims - The Selma Times‑Journal

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 11:40:16 -0000

And where are those balloons now?

Balloon releases are harmful to the environment, to wildlife and to domestic animals.

It only takes minutes for the litter from balloon releases to suffocate, choke or strangle an animal, or days to cause a painful death from starvation. Perhaps the balloon retailer has assured the organisers that the balloons are "biodegradable". Would they scatter biodegradable food wrappers, drinks cartons or other packaging in the countryside?

Re: St. Mary's Residential Training School raising awareness this month for autism

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 08:58:52 -0000

And where are those balloons now?

Balloon releases are harmful to the environment, to wildlife and to domestic animals.

It only takes minutes for the litter from balloon releases to suffocate, choke or strangle an animal, or days to cause a painful death from starvation. Perhaps the balloon retailer has assured the organisers that the balloons are "biodegradable". Would they scatter biodegradable food wrappers, drinks cartons or other packaging in the countryside?

Re: Changes to Vernon Parish Relay for Life events

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 13:45:47 -0000

Balloon releases are harmful to the environment, to wildlife and to domestic animals.

They also waste helium, which is needed in the MRI scanners on which cancer patients depend.

It only takes minutes for the litter from balloon releases to suffocate, choke or strangle an animal, or days to cause a painful death from starvation. Perhaps the balloon retailer has assured the organisers that the balloons are "biodegradable". Would they scatter biodegradable food wrappers, drinks cartons or other packaging in the countryside?

Re: World Down Syndrome Day at the Bowling Green Ballpark

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 09:14:17 -0000

And where are those balloons now?

Balloon releases are harmful to the environment, to wildlife and to domestic animals.

It only takes minutes for the litter from balloon releases to suffocate, choke or strangle an animal, or days to cause a painful death from starvation. Perhaps the balloon retailer has assured the organisers that the balloons are "biodegradable". Would they scatter biodegradable food wrappers, drinks cartons or other packaging in the countryside?

Re: Rio to host suicide prevention walk - Gallipolis Daily Tribune

Andy Mabbett / @pigsonthewing — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 10:13:44 -0000

Balloon releases are harmful to the environment, to wildlife and to domestic animals.

It only takes minutes for the litter from balloon releases to suffocate, choke or strangle an animal, or days to cause a painful death from starvation. Perhaps the balloon retailer has assured the organisers that the balloons are "biodegradable". Would they scatter biodegradable food wrappers, drinks cartons or other packaging in the countryside?