First day back at UWA! Nearly 13 years exactly since I first walked through these doors, and a bit less than 8 years since I walked out these doors. Building smells the same 😅 I'll be here for the next couple of years (pending miraculous job permanency...) […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

@ajsadauskas Akala Newman's website: https://akalanewman.com/index.html Her track Daughter of a Warrior People: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziSXyBP-joQ And Parasite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z83MC8TI7Mg Dobby's SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/DOBBYau His track I can't breathe […]

Sigh. The up escalator at Box Hill Bus Station, repaired only a month ago, has broken again. Counter updated accordingly: https://philam.github.io/days-since-box-hill-escalator/ #melbournebuses #melbourne #publictransport

Joining https://mirlo.space hoping to discover and buy music there instead of bandcamp. Hopefully more #futurefunk lands on there :) (Bandcamp chose to fire staff, if business interests aren't centered around people i don't wanna be involved. Not dissimilar to why i opted for bandcamp to begin […]

Alongside the ongoing Parramatta Midwinter Festival, on Saturday there was the Burramatta NAIDOC (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) Day Festival in Parra Park. (Burramatta is the name of Parra in the language of the traditional custodians, the Burramattagal-Dharug clan.)

There's a myth down in Melbourne that people in Western Sydney don't go to the footy. That's not true. The GWS members sit on the same side of the ground as the TV cameras. As you can see, both tiers are open and most of the seats on the members' side are full. #GWS #GWSGiants #afl

@ajsadauskas And the highlights from today's game. Geelong dominated the first three quarters. Then the Giants kicked nine of the last 10, including seven in the fourth quarter, to win: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUrnYmbDcs0

Australia's favourite Giants beat the Geelong Cats 86 to 73, after scoring nine of the last 10 goals. #AFL #GWS #GWSGIANTS #Geelong#afl#gwsgiants#gws#geelongcats

Wasn't there a good writeup somewhere about the marked rightward pull on the media and policy people who stayed on Twitter/X? Or was that just a bunch of good skeets?

@ajsadauskas I sometimes wonder if, someday, someone from the Fediverse will visit Parra and instantly recognise most of the buildings? 😂

Parramatta bus interchange. The big glass building on the left is the train station. #bus #Parramatta #transit #publictransport #nsw #australia

The local Ukrainian choir performs, as one of the musical acts at the 2026 Parramatta Midwinter Festival. #choir #music #photo #Parramatta #NSW #australia

Do you live in NSW??? Voters deserve to know when they’re being misled – but right now, it’s perfectly legal to lie in a political ad in NSW. ✍ Add your name to help get this petition to 20,000 so Parliament has to act […]

Another Australian retailer in financial trouble. This time, General Pants Co. I wonder what the issue is... Amazon? Changing market trends? The kids these days don't like jeans? "General Pants Co. was founded by Tom and Bronwyn Tsipris in 1972, specialising in local and global streetwear […]

@aj Private Equity just has no sole

@andyjennings I'm seeing all sorts of red flags that someone vibe coded a configuration change.

thinking today of all the brilliant engineers I worked with at Telstra. Almost all of them were made redundant at some time after I left. The idea that a company can fail in such a major way without suffering a serious (criminal ?) penalty is absolutely outrageous #auspol #telstra

Another Australian retailer in financial trouble. This time, General Pants Co. I wonder what the issue is... Amazon? Changing market trends? The kids these days don't like jeans? "General Pants Co. was founded by Tom and Bronwyn Tsipris in 1972, specialising in local and global streetwear […]

@kmmich @aj Interesting thought. I do not have a view higher than the wheel arches of the truckzillas that proliferate here these days but maybe the inside is tiny, matching their owners' brains.

Carnival rides at night. (Shot at Parramatta's Midwinter Festival.) #Parramatta #NSW #Australia #rides #photo #photograph #photography#photo#australia#nsw#photograph#cities

“Reshaping towns and cities, building flood walls or dykes in coastal regions... there are a number of things that need to be done, but the problem is that it is very expensive.” WMO: the cost of climate adaptation in Africa over the next decade is estimated at between $30 billion and $50bn a […]

@aj Why are cars *bigger* than they were in 1990? So there is room for the wrappers of the millions more shrunken kit kats that their drivers have to buy now.

Sellers of fossil fuels claim that buyers of fossil fuels are the problem. But it’s millions of us neither selling nor buying who will die. John sells a gun. Peter buys a gun. Sarah dies from a gunshot after Peter shot her. The victim is neither the buyer or the seller.

Here's another example. A golf course in Kogarah, in Sydney's southern suburbs, is closing. And it's getting replaced with a data centre: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-golf-course-in-the-middle-of-sydney-s-data-centre-land-rush-20260706-p60cyn.html Meanwhile, up in the Blue Mountains […]

In the unlikely event that at some point in the future I'm in charge of a chocolate factory, I'm going to create a new category of ultra-large chocolate bar. I'll call it "1990 size". It will be the same size and weight as a typical chocolate bar in 1990, before shrinkflation and […]

I do not even think they have a working theory of inflation. If any price increase is, definitionally, "inflation", and all "inflation" is to be dealt with by suppressing demand, that's not a framework that can respond to actual economic conditions.

I do not understand the neoliberal economic theories that lead reserve banks to respond to supply shocks by intentionally depressing the economy. I am, however, quite sure the theory is wrong, because this course of action reliably does not work. #nzpol

@Aedius @BrianHarrod Yeah, they probably should've hired a structural engineer. One with experience doing building inspections. (And if they had one, then they should've hired a better one.) #engineers #engineering #structure #structuralengineers #structuralengineering #structuralengineer

A once-in-a-lifetime shot — the moon perfectly framed by a rainbow. [📸 Mark Ham / frugalbastard]

Telstra still down yeesh. Felt like I was in Death Stranding travelling from home wi-fi to gym wi-fi

They're far braver and more skilled than me! Fire twirling performance, in front of the bus statue in Parra Square, as part of the 2026 Parramatta Midwinter Festival. #performance #performanceart #prrformingarts #art #Parramatta #nsw #australia #firetwirling #dance #dancing

the fediverse right now https://fediverse.info (stats by https://fedidb.com)

RE: https://aus.social/@BenLeverAU/116876678676000265 This is a really fantastic analysis. Key finding: after the protected bike lanes were installed, midblock crashes went down, intersection crashes were up, overall crashes are down (relative to ridership). Ridership is up. #melbourne #cycling […]

@aj I'm shocked by the number of multicultural people that think Hanson may be a good choice ... Till I tell them, you won't be here, her ideal would be for a white only country Hugz & xXx

Pavement color differentiation matters in urban design. Grey asphalt for everything is sterilizing and looks like car infrastructure. Segmented, color specific pavements define conflict zones and say who belongs where.

Western Sydney, Australia's most multicultural region has a lot to teach the country, and the world, about diversity. Namely, how to make it mundane: "Pauline Hanson recently argued Australia should be a monoculture. Whether or not that view finds an audience elsewhere, it feels completely […]

Night market food stalls at the Parramatta Midwinter Festival at night. #Parramatta #city #NSW #photo #photograph #photography#photo#cityStreetPhotography #Australia #market #urban

Western Sydney, Australia's most multicultural region has a lot to teach the country, and the world, about diversity. Namely, how to make it mundane: "Pauline Hanson recently argued Australia should be a monoculture. Whether or not that view finds an audience elsewhere, it feels completely […]

Toasting marshmallows at fire pits, and other attractions from this year's Parramatta Midwinter Festival. #Parramatta #NSW #australia

A lot of people acting like Trump is a uniquely American problem because of some integral flaw in the character of Americans. Folks sure aren't looking too close to their own right wings, which is how America got where it is now. There is a general rise in stupid awful fascism around the world […]

50 years ago on The Mall in DC I saw the fireworks and the same day the new DC Metro. Somehow I expected the 250th to be a bigger deal (1/4 of a millennium is more to celebrate than 1/5). It doesn’t appear to be.

The US will never recover.

Best thing ever Caught him already The transphobe using other people's bins .... which he has always said he never has or would Hugz & xXx

I'm not saying these are connected, but...

The official opening of this year's Parramatta Midwinter Festival, which runs from 4 – 18 July. I'll post more photos over the coming days. More info here: https://atparramatta.com/midwinter #Parramatta #NSW #Australia #city #urban#australia#festival

Remember the culture war outrage around a decade ago over the idea that statues of Confederate Soldiers and slave owners should be removed? Including the far-right violence in Charlottesville in the US? Remember the self-righteous indignation at the suggestion that displays highlighting Ben […]

Good read from Stan Grant, arguing that 'The West' has always drawn on contributions from other cultures, and relies on mixing and immigration: --- The West is not made stronger by keeping people out. Migration is a human story […]

Remember the culture war outrage around a decade ago over the idea that statues of Confederate Soldiers and slave owners should be removed? Including the far-right violence in Charlottesville in the US? Remember the self-righteous indignation at the suggestion that displays highlighting Ben […]

@aj I see things haven't changed much since I left in 2002.

The media: Support for One Nation is up! The public: How come? The media: Disillusionment with the major parties! The public: Disillusionment over what? The media: Not being listened to! The public: Listened to about what? The media: Free speech! The public: What kinds of free speech? […]