once again these things boil down to “is your group a bohemian cultural identity” or “is your group actually trying to do things?” and the key tell is whether your activity centers on policing of in-group behavior or whether it centers on, again, tangible goals

This goes to my longstanding soapbox: everything is a disability policy from housing to health care to urban planning to mass transit.

One must infer their beliefs and values from the apparent purpose of their rhetoric, from what they do, what they support, what they vote for, because what they say, what they purport to think, is unreliable and quite typically false. Basically, they're usually inferred fascists, not honest ones.

Anybody arrested or charged protesting against war criminal & president of the terrorist state of Israel Herzog - my law firm will represent you pro-bono.

Here’s what they found: Women are interrupted more often than men—by about 10–20% in economics seminars. Those interruptions are more likely to: - Cut women off mid-sentence - Come from men - Be adversarial rather than clarifying in nature

just for noting that OpenAI Australia has told Australia's corporate watchdog about the change to its international holding company, marking its transition to a for-profit entity

As this new Aukus report outlines, Australia has committed, in USD: $3 billion to our own sub industry $3 billion to the US industry $3 billion to the UK industry And zero dollars of that *US$9 billion* is refundable. We don't get our money back when the stuff we ordered doesn't arrive.

Once all of the other, uh, things are settled we really need a serious public health campaign around everything involved in being part of a society.

Fire at O'Brien's Crossing, Lerderderg. Fuck. Another of my special places. Reckon this one wild be human-ignighted too, which makes it hurt more.

“In Australia, it’s perfectly legal to lie in a political ad. And thanks to taxpayer funding of election campaigns, you could be the one paying for the ad that lies to you," writes Bill Browne from The Australia Institute. Read the full piece on The Point: https://theaus.in/4kn5u5S

Fire Danger Ratings for tomorrow just came out. Yes Central is Extreme, so that includes all of Melbourne and Geelong as well. #VicFires #MelbWeather

Surely it’s time for journos to dump the recitation ‘Bad news for the govt today with official interest rates on the rise’ given a third of Australians own their homes outright and many living off term deposits.

Evil phish. My Medicare card *does need to be replaced* But Medicare mailed me my new card last week - I didn’t have to do anything to get it. Wonder how my Medicare expiry date and phone number got compromised?

News came out today of serious security vulnerabilities in seven popular Australian ‘RentTech’ platforms, leaving millions of documents containing renter personal information exposed. Renters often have no choice but to use these apps in order to secure housing. I wrote about it for the Guardian:

This is an excellent, accessible read on transport, policy, equability and social justice. Thanks @robwalls.bsky.social for sharing!

When an Australian government isn't doing enough for its citizens, it doesn't grow the left, it grows the right and the right adjacent. The great misunderstanding in Australian politics is confusing why people do that, and how what they want is different to the ideology attached to where they went.

Yes, there was a checky 50.0°C Yesterday. Andamooka is listed on the BoM site, but doesn't show regular data so I missed it in yesterdays recap. #Heatwave

Albanese must lead a strong response to the Boorloo Day of Mourning bomb attack. After the horror at Bondi we saw that leadership on violence and racism is possible with political will. The same urgency is needed on rising threats against First Peoples. My response: nit.com.au/28-01-2026/2...

I paid my therapist a zillion dollars to tell me this, so I’m passing it on to anyone else in MN who needs to hear it: Think of taking time away to recharge not as not doing the work, but as doing quality control for the work. You’re not going to be able to show up to do it well if you’re depleted

adding to this that there has been no pause to mutual obligations during this heatwave - the poorest people in the country forced into bullshit activities impacts the ability of all workers to improve their rights and conditions

Since a lot of people are losing their shit about One Nation at the moment - being scared of them is like being scared of the public. If you campaign that way you will lose. Scolding those voters will also make you lose. Blame firms, parties and candidates. Never blame voters or consumers, or lose.

WFH dairy free "affogato"

The first ice brick has been deployed to the pond. Aeration has also commenced. It's hot, but i am prepared. 🫡🐟🐟🐟

Meta’s new president and vice chairwoman is married to a Pennsylvania senator. This is further consolidation of political power with social network platforms. abcnews.go.com/Business/wir...

If I had the resources to pound pavement and publish, I’d focus on quality of life in housing commissions and urban heat islands during severe heatwaves. Not sport

I just read the 11 am sitrep for the Carlisle River fire. My thoughts are with the 300+ responders on the fire ground and the communities in the evacuation zone.

It's my birthday and I'll write off i want to... Some thoughts and feelings that are coalescing as we live through sequential tipping points. shapeofthingstocome.org/2026/01/26/d...

People: I don't want to pay more taxes! Mother Nature: Fuck it all... burn it all down. People: Why didn't the government buy equipment to deal with it? Government: We don't have the money. Should we increase taxes to pay for it? People: Fuck NO! Mother Nature: it's me again.

Eugh, the current Wordpress interface is awful. No wonder it's not used any more. It's the writing place I have though, so it's where the writing goes. Please forgive the formatting. shapeofthingstocome.org/2026/01/26/d...

we should take all their money. not joking. these guys are completely incompatible with democracy. there’s no reason we have to tolerate them with any kind of power. take their money and give them a garbage route so they can be useful to society for the first time in their life. otherwise, prison

Signal will never message you like this. If you get a message like this, SOMEONE IS TRYING TO HACK YOUR SIGNAL. DO NOT GIVE THEM THAT CODE.

I wish i could name the artist. Seen at the Tweed Regional Gallery a year or two ago, and fitting for today.

Holy shit. This is really bad.

Read this story. It’s perfect.

Magical

Checking up on the office tank after Saturday's re-scape and new introductions. Being a work tank, managed collectively, we keep it low maintenance. I think it's looking nice now, though we really need to upgrade to an extremal filter.

So, who else is an anxious mess? I feel scared, tired, angry, sad, lonely, disempowered, horrified, revolted, exhausted, vindicated and lost for what to do next. I'm a mess of jangly nerves, not helped by lingering smoke, bad sleep and severe heat on its way. Love to you all.

Remember that literally every single one of the billionaire freaks behind generative AI has very publicly aligned themselves with trump and his policies Their CEO's are in and out of the oval office for photo ops, they're donating mountains of money to him, they're literally getting military titles

Hello to whoever sent me a DM! 👋 I am refusing to do the age verification thing, so i can't see your message, I'm sorry!

I'm starting to think these guys like it when i scrape the glass... It's nice they're so chill with me sticking my hand in, as it's such a tiny track there'd be trouble if they panicked.

I really hate this. A sunset spent inside because outside is on fire. Because doing anything about climate change before we got to this point was "too expensive", aka hurt profits of the powerful. Air quality is awful here today. Take precautions.

Too. Many. Hots. Too. Much. Racecourse. Doof. Eugh.

Work tank inhabitants: 20 green neon tetras (new), ~20 ember tetras (5 added today to make up losses), 4 Siamese algae eaters, 1 rosy barb (lone survivor of the previous set up), 3 baby peppermint plecos (super cute!), and assorted cherry shrimp. The haziness will clear up soon.

Midnight Woodpecker Happy Saturday #watercolour #textures #midnight #woodpecker #birds

Three work fish tank is a collaborative project between 4 of us. Lately, the overgrown aesthetic had been annoying me. I'd been promising getting some green neons for ages, so today finally got 20 and took the opportunity to re-scape the tank. It needs a week or two to settle, but it's better.

Hey lovely people sharing their writing on Substack: I want to read you, but I can't unless I provide age verification. Yes, the insane pre-emptive compact with our dumb social media laws means i can't read your work unless I'd already subscribed and get it as an email I hate this.

It's annoying that we already had so many existing problems to solve before these assholes created a bunch of new ones for no reason

This is a fascist technology that fundamentally -by its core design and characteristics as a technology- serves the goals of bigots, racists and bloodthirsty white supremacists It has no role in progressive or left advocacy, no matter how much time it saves you. When you use it, you're helping them

ABC Indigenous doesn’t mince words