On one hand, the inevitable AI bubble burst will crater computer parts prices, and we'll be able to grab graphics cards from dead data centers for pennies on the dollar. On the other, it's 17x larger than the dotcom bubble, and according to Deutsche Bank, the only thing propping up the US economy.

One of my heroes. RIP.

Please join us for a symposium on Translation, Voice and Identity on 9 October. Co-hosted with COASIT & featuring Dr. Frances Egan (Monash University), Em. Prof. Marko Pavlyshyn (Monash University), and Em. Prof. Stephen Regan (University of Melbourne). Info&Register: www.coasit.com.au

YES! THIS on GenAI! Please read this absolutely splendid piece of writing that had me cheering, a little bit weepy, and writing in the margins: "An extraordinary amount of money is spent by the AI industry to ensure that acquiescence is the only plausible response. But marketing is not destiny."

my faith in humanity is renewed

The climate of rampant IP theft has given landlords ideas I want to remind everyone: NEVER waive your moral rights. Even if creators don’t own copyright in the work, it must still be credited to them & nobody else, & the work can’t be used in a way that harms their reputation. More info here:

"The technology industry is taking advantage of us, sometimes even speaking through us, to convince our students that these AI technologies are useful (or necessary) and not harmful.” doi.org/10.5281/zeno... 2/🧵

🧵 Thread with my favourite quotes from: 📝 Guest, O., Suarez, M., Müller, B., et al. (2025). Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia. Zenodo. doi.org/10.5281/zeno... 1/🧵

New: A deep dive with some alarming new revelations on the silencing of one of the few remaining independent progressive voices in Australian media. Who killed Meanjin?

Thank you Copyright Agency for telling Big Tech to get stuffed with their demand for a 'text and data mining (TDM) exception' Big Tech should also not be given government-sanctioned permission to steal artists' work It is odious that the Productivity Commission @pc.gov.au advocates 4 AI industry

Feeling seen

The National Climate Risk Report - my life for two years - has just been released. www.acs.gov.au/pages/nation... Minister Bowen press conference at: www.youtube.com/live/GLvd_fu... My specific report on the weather and climate hazards: climateservice.maps.arcgis.com/sharing/rest...

First climate risk assessment finds 1.5m Australians at risk from sea level rise by 2050 www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Bell's departure is overdue, but this crisis is not all her fault. ‘Regulators have failed to hold universities or university councils accountable.’ - Jack Thrower australiainstitute.org.au/post/bells-d...

ICYMI, regime change in Nepal after protests lead by its young people: www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/... “What this group is demanding is the end of corruption, good governance and economic equality,”

Get the nerd in your life a year-long gift by donating in their honor. You can choose EFF gear and a membership for them, too! eff.org/tribute

Reminder @theguardian.com has a partnership with OpenAI; which explains this thinly sourced excuse of an article that relies on ONE Masters student and OpenAI's International Education Lead countered by measly words of "caution" from ONE university admin.

Animation by Yogin 幺菁 ( @yoginnnnnn )* #Sakuga #2Danimation

If you thought people adding data collection software into your zoom meetings (in the form of 'AI notetakers') was bad, wait until 75% of your Signal chats are being screenshotted every 3 seconds by six massive tech companies. All preventable! -->>

Apposite cartoon from @nakedfella.bsky.social! www.theage.com.au/national/don...

“We’ve collectively decided to pretend a vascular disease that attacks every organ in your body is basically a head cold. We’ve decided that forty percent of infections happening with zero symptoms is totally normal and fine...” #COVID

‘Everything is gone’: Punjabi farmers suffer worst floods in three decades

I can’t volunteer to organise any more things right now - but someone needs to organise a pledge list of people who will subscribe to Meanjin if someone else takes it on. 500 people have signed the open letter to the unimelb VC

Aaaaand the main business case for consumer LLMs is revealed. It's for gathering data on users, creating profiles, and targeting us with ads and propaganda. Hooray -- it's Web 2.0 with chatbots!

"Of 545 positions on university governing bodies, just 137 were elected by staff, students and graduates, the report found, while 143 were corporate executives or consultants from for-profit organisations." 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃 #ToxicGovernance #HigherEd

#writesky #writingcommunity #meanjin

Actual GASP at this!!

“You are supposed to take for granted that it must be useful somewhere, to someone, for something, eventually. People who are rich and smart and respected are saying so, and it would be arrogant to disagree with such people.” People have been calling me arrogant since I was nearly six. I’ll live.

Completely agree. The Last Unicorn is a masterpiece.

Beautiful ….

We're at the Emerging Writers festival Friday 12 September! Come hear us complicate the notion of literary translation in Australia at 'No Island is an Island'. Free event but register at the link. emergingwritersfestival.org.au/event/no-isl...

The first story I did for Crikey back in 2021 was reporting on a leaked neo-nazi manual showing how "media baiting" — aka tricking journalists into writing about them — was a major strategy for them. www.crikey.com.au/20...

Are you fucking serious? "Neo-Nazi leader Thomas Sewell has gatecrashed a press conference held by Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, making false claims about protest rights as she addressed media." Sewell should be fleeing not the fucking Premier. Government's failure to deal with him is a joke

This questionnaire was very quick

Long COVID is more than fatigue. Our new study suggests its impact is similar to a stroke or Parkinson’s theconversation.com/long-covid-i...

Many translators fear and lament what will be lost as their work gets automated. Many were never in it for the money, but for love of the work—of translating games, prose and art. They worry AI-generated output stands to flatten and collapse culture itself, our very ability to understand each other.

I'm participating in a panel on literary translation in Australia at the Emerging Writers Festival this September 12 in Melbourne. The event is pay-what-you-wish and bookings can be made below. Come along! emergingwritersfestival.org.au/event/no-isl...

I wrote a thing about (not) translating place and time axonjournal.com.au/issues/15-1/... #translation #poetry #Faiz #academicsky #Urdu #French #English

It really does feel like a lot of formerly reasonable people have been infected by some sort of terrifying brain parasite when it comes to unthinking and total acceptance of using AI tools

I do kind of love how the whole AI thing is revealing how absolutely bananas tech hype cycles are, but also how insulated and incestuous (certain) tech and all VC classes seem to be. Which seems to be why they're so touchy and whiny when people point out the Emperor has no clothes.

Excelly, can you handle this? Calc, can you handle this? GSheetsé, can you handle this? I don’t think they can handle this, WOOOOOOOOO!! I don’t think you ready for this spready I don’t think you ready for this spready I don’t think you ready for this Cos my data’s too formulicious for you, babe

Suddenly imagining something like my four-axis bird taxonomy but for dogs. Like Muppet vs Shark Potato vs HORSE Tremble vs Stoic Employed vs Unemployed Maybe add in a slider - % Wolf.

It is full of Nazis: You Should Probably Leave Substack

HOW COOL IS THIS? Researchers have developed a DENTAL FLOSS that can DELIVER vaccines THROUGH the gums, a method that could one day offer a NEEDLE-FREE alternative for vaccination. This approach effectively stimulated immunity AND provided FULL protection against a lethal strain of influenza. 🧪🧵⬇️

Mama Alto is crowdfunding a new album. I'm not the biggest fan of jazz but her voice makes me burst into happy tears as soon as she starts singing. There's a sample at the donation link. artists.australianculturalfund.org.au/s/project/a2...

I finally have gotten around to turning my google doc of where to buy masks in Aus into a proper page that's sortable and filterable. I'm keen to add more places that sell masks if you have bought from anywhere else! masks.lizduckchong.com

Announcing 🥁 The Poetry in Translation Prize, a new biennial award for an outstanding poetry collection translated into English, run collaboratively by Giramondo, Fitzcarraldo Editions and New Directions. Submissions will open from 15 July to 15 August. Learn more: bit.ly/4ll3gmB

The age of the AI scraping free-for-all may be coming to an end—at least if Cloudflare gets its way. The IT infrastructure firm has switched to blocking AI crawlers by default for its customers and is moving forward with a Pay Per Crawl program.

Thus begins the #dadjoke thread for 2025 bsky.app/profile/hist...