The great historian, @willdalrymple.bsky.social on Palestine:

Tom Lehrer wisdom www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIlJ...

Bugger ... Barry Jones writes from respite care ... Him seeing a world where "Facts, figures, evidence, testable proposition and rational debate no longer count" ... Just ... bugger. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topi...

A great analysis of the Bondi intelligence failures, and the diversions from the failure. Anti-semitism isn't the biggest problem: we're ALL (not just minorities) at risk - from agencies that are worse than unaccountable, that are rewarded when they fail. urbanwronski.com/2025/12/18/b...

The social media ban came in just in time so the younger generation can't exchange views and find out about any protests about the freedom of speech, thought, and assembly they are losing to argue against atrocities.

Adopting the IHRA definition is not only illogical, it is dangerous to democracy. But the surveillance state has wanted this extra power to chill speech and thought for a long time - and not just about our support of genocide, but western MIC use of force worldwide to empower the elites.

This statement is probably illegal now, or soon will be, given Albo has kissed the wall for Segal.

Singalong time with the Monty Python Channel youtu.be/csYnMGiB_5M

America isn't even bothering with another Colin Powell lying to the UN about WMD, America is just saying "We're going to war for oil", and all the vassal western states are "yeah, sure, go ahead - our voters don't care - and if they did, they soon won't be allowed to protest".

"If I could ask one question of the Prime Minister right now, I would like to understand his definition of “hate preachers that promote violence”, because signing missiles that fall on children and hanging out with a genocidal army would absolutely fit the bill if he was of any other religion. "

“You will never work in this industry if you don’t understand that your job is make this country as unsafe as possible so we can later win awards for reporting on what we stoked.” chaser.com.au/general-news...

Australia will not be made safer for Jews by making it unsafe for Australians to talk of wanting a world safer for Palestinians.

ASIO builds its case for expanded power through the very catastrophes it fails to avert, measures success not by the safety it delivers but by the scale of its next appropriation. michaelwest.com.au/bondi-attack...

Of course anyone with a brain will avoid the US - which is why scientists are organizing alternatives to conferences normally held in the US. (Although I'd imagine flat earthers, christofascists might pick up the slack) www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Actually, not just today ... I reckon I've got lifetime protection

Government to punters: "We'll fix housing crisis by increasing supply: your home's value can still increase, you'll feel richer" Smart punter: "Increasing my home's value will just increase insurance and rates. That won't make me FEEL richer, it will make me ACTUALLY poorer."

"Clearly the reason young people feel hopeless is all the Ticky-toks" - Prime Minister Albanese chaser.com.au/national/bac...

Great article by a major-general, calling out what he calls the "enshittification of our national security" by the capriciousness of the US, our politicians ditching our sovereignty, etc, etc.

This "how to survive 100 days of the post-nuclear apocalypse" is increasingly relevant and could be useful for some of you. But hopefully not if you're a banker, because I don't want you to use any food or water best left for a nurse or carpenter. youtu.be/It_pNDWxSNE

On the two types of First Australians www.sciencealert.com/dna-analysis...

The government's stupid ban of kids from facebook etc is only going to push kids onto the dark web - and the politicians have always known it. Which means the purpose of the legislation was always something else. But what? www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

This is gorgeous, from a Missa of Jacob Obrecht (1457-1505). Turns out, Erasmus, when a boy, sung in his choir at one stage. One has to wonder how that might have contributed to the boy's developing sensibilities. youtu.be/8aXFRpwwdUU

Why the hell can't a reporter sit down on camera with Albanese and/or Marles, play them this clip from Utopia, and get their reaction? Ask them what the figures are now? Have a split screen so we see the clip and a close up of them squirming? www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgsp...

We crunched the numbers to find out how many episodes of Bluey could have been made if the ABC had different priorities: chaser.com.au/entertainmen...

Woah. Newsmax’s legal analyst just said Pete Hegseth and everyone involved in the illegal boat strike should be “prosecuted for a war crime.” They’ve even lost Newsmax on this one.

Yes ... and yet our leaders (both our major parties are MAGTA - Make America Greater Than Australia) will suck up to the US, piss off China, and we'll have our trade hit as a result - hit harder than it was under Morrison when Morrison rattled the sabre.

Who poured alcohol into the cooling water for Google's datacentre, and how much?

Right to a jury in common law in the UK? Gone. You thought the rapidly disappearing rule of law was just a Trump thing? Moron. Don't expect the facade to be kept up much longer in Australia either. www.bbc.com/news/article...

And this is on cases in Sweden. Wonder what a study in Queensland, melanoma capital of the world, would show. www.sciencealert.com/study-links-...

www.nature.com/articles/d41... "21% of MANUSCRIPT REVIEWS for an international AI conference were found to be generated by artificial intelligence. ... more than half contained signs of AI use" 9% of submissions contained more than 50% AI-generated text. 1% completely AI.

Sorry Kerry, you are way too optimistic. It's already happened here. But would you have been given the platform, reported fairly, if you'd been as blunt and honest as needed?

Call me a traditionalist, but if I'm going to be bombarded with talk of a Black Friday, I want it to be about a complete financial markets meltdown, and lots of the entitled rich suddenly jobless, homeless, and naturally, friendless.

Just talking to Santa at my local cafe, relieved that the renewal for his Working With Children check had come back, just about to take it down to the Horsham Plaza so the kiddies won't be disappointed. Just in time ...

Excellent idea to avoid cruelty in the lab, an artificial tongue testing chilli heat - although I fear police states will misuse this new capability to make even uglier control tools. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The news has been coming so fast, I did another later which might not otherwise see the light.

It's the ALP engaging in class warfare against the underclass. If you are poor, you can be punished without even being charged, the police can order your Centrelink stopped without even having any evidence. But if you are rich, your innocence is assumed. thepoint.com.au/opinions/251...

Bring me your iambics, allusions and metaphors, to gimble in the slythy toves with Jabberwocks, and artfully unman the artificial men. arxiv.org/html/2511.15...

When someone puts a gmail-like skin over 20,000 pages of epstein emails so it looks like you are in his inbox, and can search through them ... and calls it "jmail" - with crowdsourced favorites getting starred. www.theverge.com/news/826901/...

Enjoying watching the #ashes so far

Good regulation is good for productivity growth. Lack of regulation is driving inefficiency. Poorly regulated building markets led to debacles like the cracking in Opal Towers and flammable cladding being expensively replaced across the country My column thepoint.com.au/opinions/251...

This is why you are feeling the pain - the LNP/ALP partnership have shifted more of the burden of the national debt to ordinary households than other countries, and households pay higher interest than government and business, so the banks profit more. (data via ai)

Mary Beard for about 30 minutes on the importance of "ἄνδρα" as a first word of the Odyssey, and the many possible wildly different (and perhaps simultaneous) meanings of "πολύτροπον" as its adjective - wonderful. (And I thought translating Latin was tricky at school!)

Australia's strategic policy needs to be the Hogwarts motto. "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus"

Mind-reading devices are bad enough - but now they are reading your thoughts before you know what your own thoughts are - perhaps letting you get convicted of not just thought crime, but pre-thought crime. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

When you can give insulin without sticking them with the pointy thing, but gently rubbing in a cream: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

LNP doesn't need to have the numbers to block progressive ideas and legislation, Albo does it for them.