We sure like our trash in Melbourne.

[Blog] Caslon is an underused typeface but Latinotype has just released Willy Caslon, an excellent contemporary revision that is currently on a 60% off sale on Monotype. I write about why I think this release is so cool. www.insanityworks.org/randomtangen... h/t @weandthecolor.bsky.social

Neat! A random, long scar in the Aussie outback was noticed on Google Maps. Researchers did some digging and found the 3-day window during which it appeared on maps. Connected the dots with a storm at the time. Results: a big tornado that nobody saw but actually happened! via @iflscience.com

Who had this on their bingo card? "Two Strong Hearts" by John Farnham may be banned under Queensland's ludicrous hate speech laws. www.abc.net.au/religion/two...

"I regret to have to inform you that I cannot review work that is partially processed by a product that in my opinion fails to meet standards of scientific integrity that I need to comply with.."

In 2025, more power was generated worldwide from renewable energy than from coal, and 91% of new renewables are now cheaper than fossil fuels. Each year nuclear adds only as much net global power capacity as renewables add every two days.

I was 6 when the Apollo 11 astronauts walked on the moon. In the style of children in the 60s, I wrote a letter to NASA saying how excited I was and asking how I could become an astronaut. I got a reply saying that I could never be an astronaut because I was a girl. They sent me some stickers tho.

“We need courage, not hope. … Courage is the resolve to do well without the assurance of a happy ending.” onbeing.org/blog/kate-ma... I loved that piece, and I still do. But yes, spite is not to forsake either.

"Inside you are two wolves..." NO. Read or listen to @marissalingen.bsky.social's poem STAT www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-...

This article highlights something really important: it is absolutely bonkers how many massive, energy + water hungry data centres are being built in Sydney suburbs that are already subject to worsening climate impacts and heat island effects. They'll make both worse

THEY TRAINED THE AI ON ACTUAL WRITERS. YOU CANNOT TELL IF SOMETHING IS AI SIMPLY BASED ON IT USING PROPER GRAMMAR. IT STOLE FROM US!!! IT STOLE!!! IT IS A THIEF AND I WILL NOT EVER BE QUIET ABOUT IT!!!!

"In a recent survey of product recipients, 58 percent of participants wished their partners had been automated sooner, 10 percent were too busy being pleasured to respond, and 32 percent incorrectly wished their loved ones hadn’t been murdered."

More context on this #Artemis II image: * This is the night side, lit by moonlight. You can see city lights in Spain & Portugal, & a sliver of day at lower right * The Sun is entirely behind Earth, which makes it a kind of solar eclipse, but w/ Earth doing the eclipsing instead of the Moon: ☀️🌍🚀🌕

The new podcast In Your Spare Time: From the Blog of Ursula K. Le Guin pairs Le Guin's blog posts with commentary from authors, librarians, critics, and more, including David Mitchell, Emily Wilson, Rick Riordan, Robin Hobb, and Vajra Chandrasekera.

"'I don't think people realize that every single file Claude looks at gets saved and uploaded to Anthropic,' the researcher 'Antlers' told us. 'If it's seen a file on your device, Anthropic has a copy.'" what could possibly go wrong www.theregister.com/2026/04/01/c...

It all just seemed too stupid to comment on but... they literally think they're giving instructions to an intelligent entity, don't they. I can't wrap my head around the idea of a whole industry worshipping the LLM like it's a 2001 alien space monolith when we *know* how the damn things work.

“Years of cultivating ‘good’ relationships with politicians were never enough to humanise Muslims in the eyes of those in power.” Sara Cheikh Husain on the limits of Australian Muslim political engagement.

Wait. You can just say "we might infringe on your rights" in your Terms Of Service?

I think efficiency might actually suck and we might all be better served by the belief that dying before we are "done" isn't something to avoid but a rather lovely universal outcome.

We could've phased out fossil fuels the gradual, smart and painless way starting in the 1990s The fossil fuel industry decided we have to do it the painful, unfair and cruel way instead. because that gave them an extra few decades of super-profits

"Whenever Israel is killing tons of civilians the western media always start churning out articles about “antisemitism” and Jewish feelings." The More Murderous Israel Gets, The More We Hear About "Antisemitism" www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-more-m...

ANTHROPIC IS USING AI TO FUCK UP OUR CLAIMS ABOUT THE USE OF AI???? okay I feel like we should sue again for this

So, here is my basic Anthropic story. In February, I submitted 14 books (some others were too complicated to submit) to the settlement. I got to the last page and...nothing. But it seemed to be finished. I got no confirmation number. Then, a few weeks ago, I got an email saying I had no submission..

This Andy Weir quote annoyed me so much that I wrote a whole-ass response to it: fozmeadows.substack.com/p/politics-i...

More flagrant than South African apartheid.

Surveillance is a one-way ratchet toward authoritarianism. Yes, even by private companies. Even when people “consent.” Even when the company gives you “free” stuff, or let you stand in a shorter line, or make your life more convenient somehow.

The Press Club cancelled Pulitzer winner Chris Hedges after he submitted a speech on the killing of Palestinian journalists, then booked Israel's ambassador instead. If you wonder why media reporting on Gaza genocide has been so disappointing this is what they think is normal.

Seriously, if you are a woman, live in Victoria and have weird #longcovid #postcovid symptoms, these researchers 🧑‍🔬 are desperate to hear from you! 🫵Please email now!🌋

I think often of a New York Times photo of a little Iraqi girl tending to her parakeets in a bombed house, probably from 20 years ago now. I will think of this man and his sweet dog often now too. People just want to love what they love, care for their little beings, and instead we do this to them

Your periodic reminder that there is a website that lets you listen to local radio stations anywhere in the world This is honestly one of the coolest inventions ever, imo. Global access to hyper-local imagined communities

Universities: you must complete a risk assessment and ethical review for this perfectly safe activity. Also universities: please embrace this energy-hungry water-guzzling plagiarism machine that is frequently wrong. Also, it makes you thick and may encourage you to kill yourself.

Remember the good old days when we couldn't cite Wikipedia because its standards weren't good enough and now university standards aren't good enough?

✊ donating to Wikipedia is a good thing to do

This is an excellent summary of the US War on Iran current situation. I’m an existentialist and borderline absurdist and even I struggle with the current moment. This summary is just fantastic.

"Get 'em early" an auto exec told me about the industry's focus. And just like we reshaped our physical landscape around the profit-making car rather than people, we seem to be repeating the same pattern w/ AI - reshaping school and work infrastructures around it pretending that it is for people.

Ohhhh

"AI is not a magical tool built by people in San Francisco making millions of dollars a year and pushing their companies to insane valuations. Artificial intelligence is an extractive technology that relies on the brutal labor of underpaid workers around the world" www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...

We only rate dogs. This is clearly a gigantic mouse that someone just found in their home. Please gently return them to the garden and only send dogs. Thank you… 12/10 #SeniorPupSaturday (IG: kitsune_inu)

fuck me for being this person, i guess, but public universities are a civic good and shouldn’t be run like businesses. and if you’re going to insist on running them like so, at least do some market research. students like their professors; they don’t want MOOCs taught by ChatGPT.

This whole thread.

Why Do Some People Still Wear Masks In 2026 And On A Completely Unrelated Note Why Is Everyone In The Office Sick Right Now Apart From The Guy In The Mask?

“Senator Wong, what exactly are the rules?” “It’s very simple Brian. We can’t rule in or rule out that there are rules, due to the International Rules Based Order directed to us by our ally the United States. That’s the rules”

"Your steadfast commitment to our strategic mission, despite the multiple tramplings, maulings, and other encounters we shall henceforth refer to as 'terminal networking opportunities' has not gone unnoticed." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-m...

I'm suing Grammarly over its paid AI feature that presented editing suggestions as if they came from me - and many other writers and journalists - without consent. State law requires consent before someone's name can be used for commercial purposes. www.wired.com/story/gramma...

I'm all for using ethical efficiency tools like macros, wildcards, and text expanders in developmental editing. But the thinking, the craft, the expertise, the customized support—that's why writers hire human editors, not a plagiarism machine that spits out generic and frequently incorrect advice.

The danger to my job from AI isn't that AI can do my job, it's that my job is made even more precarious by the way AI is shaping ideas of the value of work. It can't do my job, but it can be part of convincing people (incorrectly) that my job isn't necessary.

How many of the people screaming about how anti-vaccination parents should be tarred and feathered mask during surges in COVID? Or when they’re around vulnerable people? Asking as someone whose mother passed away of Covid complications likely from infections contracted by unmasked visitors.

"For a while now, journalists have been telling everyone the AI boom is about to collapse. Listen, bubbles tend to pop. But if history has demonstrated anything, it’s that tools that make murdering people faster and cheaper rarely struggle to find investors."

This is a basic and crucial point for any discussion of LLMs’ use in teaching research or writing. Whether it can ape us, fool us, or get facts right or wrong is, in the end, irrelevant. The LLM is not the thinker we are trying to encourage; the LLM is not the writer that we are trying to improve.

amazing, no notes. Microsoft gets tired of people using the term “Microslop,” bans the word on its Discord, then locks the server after backlash to the ban www.windowslatest.com/2026/03/02/m...