Even Liberace would have told his interior designer to tone it down a bit…..

This should have happened a long time ago (and the quota should probably be higher), but this is a step in the right direction.

Reagan's approach to the world prominently featured two things: 1) Russian aggression bad, Western democratic alliance good 2) Free trade good, tariffs and other barriers to trade bad Pretending it's the opposite is the sort of reality inversion only someone who rejects truth itself could buy.

Can’t wait for this!

I don't like him personally, but David Simon on AI is the final word on the subject.

The episode of the Middletown Centre for Autism podcast about Someone Like Me is up! Cat @naturetable.bsky.social Hughes, always an excellent host, interviews the editors @clembastow.bsky.social and @jocaseau.bsky.social. I've been looking forward to this! www.middletownautism.com/social-media...

Looks like The Rapture is not happening, once again Belinda Carlisle vindicated youtu.be/NOGEyBeoBGM

This, exactly. GenAI, as I'm experiencing it in my working life, is a machine for shifting cognitive burden from one colleague (the AI user) to another (the person who receives, must interpret, and must almost always re-do the work).

Five publishing outfits and four of them have women founders. Thanks to @womensagenda.bsky.social for republishing my piece in the Conversation

"I don't like either one of these parties," Rogan said on Thursday's episode. "I don't think there's a solution that's correct."

Worth linking to Eli McLean's Overland essay on Meanjin's closure and the state of publishing if you haven't yet

It felt like Australian publishing was shrinking with mergers and the shock closure of Meanjin - waiting to see the full story behind that! But there's a few new players bring fresh energy and new books in recent months. With thanks to @jocaseau.bsky.social for excellent editing.

We were very pleased to get the news today that the Australian National Dictionary Centre will be saved, thanks to an anonymous donation and the halt on involuntary redundancies under the Renew ANU plan. We thank everyone for their generous support through these difficult times.

Hear! Hear! Dr Holbrook 👏 theconversation.com/the-australi...

Rewatched All the President’s Men in honour of Redford … and noticed Family Ties’ Mrs Keaton has a bit part as the wife of a White House staffer involved in Watergate, interviewed by Woodward & Bernstein. This 80s kid has had her mind blown!

RIP Robert Redford. The Way we Were, All the President’s Men … classics dear to my heart. And he really knew how to wear a sweater. 💓

Reposting this for no particular reason www.themonthly.com.au/may-2025/ess...

Not the most important thing, but reading Epstein's emails, he kind of comes off as pathetic and incapble of doing the simplest of tasks on his own. And then, of course, the way he talks about women and girls is abhorrent. www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

Big turnout at this morning’s rally against @mupublishing.bsky.social vandalism of Meanjin. @beneltham.bsky.social called for Meanjin’s name and archive to be surrendered so the magazine can be published by someone who deserves to and appreciates the honour

ABC’s new show is about journalism students ‘with autism’ (see line 1) the same way The Stella Prize is for writers ‘with womanhood’ (or with non-binary identities). Autism is not a disease we catch (or can be cured of or grow out of); it’s who we intrinsically are. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Anytime I talk to medical researchers, I come away thinking "We're so close to something cool." So many nerds slave away in the dark trying to eradicate disease and nobody will know their names. And it might be completely wiped out.

I really miss the world of the past. Is this a symptom of being nearly 50, or of it being 2025?

So many unanswered questions posed in this excellent piece on the Meanjin closure. eg. -Why the sudden irreversible decision? -Why didn't they try to save it (community, donor drives etc)? -Why the secrecy? -Why use the financial viability argument now? As if the v wealthy UniMelb can't afford it.

FYI MEAA Rally: Save Meanjin! Thursday 11 September, 9am Outside the Melbourne University Publishing office, 715 Swanston St, Carlton.

If Melbourne University Publishing doesn’t want to keep publishing Meanjin, they should hand over the journal to someone worthy of the responsibility. Me in The Conversation theconversation.com/the-decision...

The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn't a strongman, he's a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.

In the wake of last week's horrific shooting, @jordanmck.bsky.social and I unpack the similarities and differences between preppers, Sovereign Citizens (aka Karens), small-s survivalists (bushcraft) and Big-S Survivalists (anti-govt)... theconversation.com/what-is-prep... @jocaseau.bsky.social

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

Literally nothing Australia won't let fossil fuel companies get away with.

I wrote a review of The Paper, about a local newspaper in Toledo, Ohio. The show is kind of about journalism, but it's mostly about how we have lost touch with the world that we live in every day, and gotten used to nobody being held accountable for their actions. www.vulture.com/article/the-...

I worked with meanjin a few years ago on supporting its sales to close the incredibly small gap between its revenue and costs. It had made progress. The small amount needed to subsidise could be found if UofM saw literary culture as important. It clearly doesn't.

My latest for SRB. sydneyreviewofbooks.com/reviews/bast...

Weirdly specific denial in this Guardian article that Melbourne Uni’s board didn’t play any role in killing Meanjin

My article in the Conversation today with @tomdoig.bsky.social on prepping culture in Australia. It’s not all guns and bunkers.

Excellent overview of prepping in Australia, in the context of Dezi Freeman, by @tomdoig.bsky.social & Jordan McKenzie. (Tom's writing a book on prepping.) Here, prepping is distinctive: less about guns than food, water & community. @aunz.theconversation.com theconversation.com/what-is-prep...

It’s been corrected to $100k BUT that doesn’t explain the loss on financial grounds if one reads this 2019 article: “…the university claimed MUP had run at a loss since its inception, and that it had spent $26m on bailouts over the life of the publisher.” www.theguardian.com/culture/2019...

This is shocking news. Literary magazines - and all the other small orgs now under pressure or closing or gone - are the bedrock of culture and their ongoing costs are barely a blip in any institutional budget. Melbourne University ought to be ashamed www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/04/m...

As Anna Krien said today, “The public statement that this turn of events is a financial decision is laughable. I highly doubt Meanjin, in its entire 85 years, has ever made money.”

Then, a decade later, I was commissioned to take this long look at the history, present, and future of arts criticism in Australia [paywall but just ask if you want to read]. I ended that essay on a hopeful note. That hope is much diminished today. meanjin.com.au/essays/on-cr...

Like so many of us, I'm deeply sad about the closure of Meanjin, after 85 years. @aunz.theconversation.com theconversation.com/australian-w...

I bought a beautiful navy silk shirt with white piping from a high-end clothing label from an op shop on weekend … and today, wearing it, I suspect I inadvertently wore a pyjama top to work.

Mainstream publishers persist in bringing out books full of 'what I reckon' and 'my friend sells spirulina in fancy bottles' pretendy-cure wellness influencer/celeb nonsense for everything from menopause to cancer to immune disorders to endometriosis.

Every time your electricity bill goes up for the next 10 years, it can be traced back to this Administration’s actions. They are making solar and wind power illegal to build in the United States. They are artificially restricting supply while demand is going up.

On a flight and the pilot just announced a 7yo boy’s birthday and invited him to visit the cockpit for a chat on his way out and it warmed my heart in this shitty, scary, too-disconnected world. Bless that pilot! And the birthday boy. 💓

Congrats to everyone on the Ditmar finalist list - and of course especially to @joanneanderton.bsky.social and Rjurik Davidson, whose essays for SI are up for the William Atheling Jr Award for criticism! www.conflux.org.au/2025-ditmar-...

In the fight against slavery abolitionists eventually prevailed over slave owners. The fight wasnt won in the sensible centre but by ‘extremists’ who risked everything to save the lives of others. It scares me to think how the ABC would cover such a debate today. theconversation.com/friday-essay...

By all means, let’s believe the heinous sex offender who lies like she breathes. Todd Blanche is shameful for conducitng this idiotic inquiry designed only to protect Trump www.thedailybeast.com//cackling-ma...

Israel must allow independent investigations of Palestinian journalist killings – and let international media into Gaza theconversation.com/israel-must-...