always complete this checklist before leaving the house

why am I crying #screaming_at_clouds 🙃 www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

Hanoi in Autumn Vietnamese music show in Canberra

Happy Budget Night, for all who celebrate ✨💜✨

everyone worked hard 🙏 #mystery_music_recc youtu.be/sSkWGfeFjsM

COME ON, PEOPLE! It's Barrie Cassidy! Not Barry Cassidy! B.A.R.R.I.E. Barrie. Let's show the good man the respect he deserves and spell his name correctly in our BlueSky posts. #auspol

YOU MUST MAINTAIN YOUR STRENGTH AND POWER! TOUCH SOMETHING SOFT.

The full story about spacesuit seamstresses is *way* better than the meme ... www.bbc.com/future/artic...

not enough taxation discourse

The sounds of Scotland flowed through Brisbane today as Queensland celebrated Labour May Day for better working conditions. #qldpol

My new paper is out and its free! Adult neurons resist influence more than neurons of younger animals, but once the system is altered, recovery in adults takes longer or never happens at all! This could be why adults resist emotions, drugs, and even learning when compared to children!

Welcome to Country ceremonies are a particular flashpoint of racism and hate directed at First Nations people, writes Karen Barlow. It is the second year in a row that dawn services have been shattered over Indigenous participation and recognition. satpa.pe/LCQqsee

I read a history of early 20th century socialism and it's crazy how much of it is just clubs doing art or reading books and trying to get miners and factory workers to do art and read books.

Fantastic piece this on neuroscience, brain development and what this tells us about AI in educational settings:

For the past couple of months we have been working on this investigation into the NACC’s leadership. What we found was alarming and does not reflect well on the NACC.

"casual interest in cannibalism" yeah nah this is a #brandnewsentence

This is their goal but it's not JUST an abortion drug. It's also used to treat stuff like Cushing's I'm pointing this out because the crackdown on reproductive health (they also want to get rid of birth control) doesn't just stop there. It has knock on effects for female health broadly*

Also: conspiracy theories sometimes fill in for the disbelief that accompanies the reaction to things that are very stupid. As in: it can't really be that stupid, it must be a conspiracy. Lots of people underestimate stupidity.

The move comes directly in response to 404 Media’s coverage about how the FBI was able to recover incoming Signal messages from an iPhone because the messages were saved in the device’s notification storage.

“We’re so back” except it’s a second round of seasonal depression

250 staff. $65 million per year. Almost three years operating. Over 6000 referrals. Not a single public hearing. Not a single major corruption finding.

Grateful to The Verge for publishing my essay on why large-language models are not going to achieve general intelligence nor push the scientific frontier. www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

okay but what if. the world collectively agrees that Australian English is the superior English and we swap out 'white trash' for 'bogan'.

ICYMI www.sbs.com.au/news/article...

sorry but I have to say this: I fucking called it ten months ago

Say what you will about governance dysfunction in the US or UK, but they haven't yet cleaved themselves into duplicate structures supporting TWO presidents, one of whom only has a few more weeks of tenure left. #MedSky- The saga of the once-great Royal Australasian College of Physicians 😵‍💫

Disabled people in the U.K. are facing harassment from the public for using a Blue Badge. Many said they have been verbally abused for “faking”, with some being filmed on phones, physically intimidated, or having their mobility aid pulled away. My exclusive: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

“They can be as young as 10? Being shackled?”💥 David Shoebridge shocked as Sandy Leonard (NAAJA) describes the “incredibly humiliating, distressing experience” young Indigenous kids go through as they’re flown 1500km from Alice Springs to Darwin for lock up Gobsmacking. #auspol

Quote of the day, from a friend who founded a software startup: "You can’t use an LLM in any context where being wrong is a problem."

My favorite art history genre is "Judith beheading Holofernes"

We fought a revolution over this

Just signed up to possibly test Moderna's new bird flu (H5N1) vaccine. They're looking for 3,000 folks in the UK and 1,000 in the US if anyone is interested. H5N1 has a mortality rate of around 30-50% (!), so if it spreads human-to-human we're a bit fucked without a vaccine. UK link:

on a Sunday? grim.

We now have a complete set of teaching case studies on our law and language website! 🤗🥳 These case studies share the experience of 8 Australian academics who have incorporated a law and language focus into their teaching, across diverse, units, disciplines and universities.

Blooming heck. The gendered, racial and economic violence of climate change. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

"Participants in the Frontier Wars March will gather at 9.30 am at the corner of Anzac Parade and Constitution Ave, Parkes. The March will proceed along Anzac Parade following on after the RSL ACT Branch Anzac Day Veterans' March. Participants are encouraged to bring a banner or flowers."

Suicide hotlines, even the "reformed" ones that allege to not involve cops, are the outsourcing of care that really should be done by the community, & the community's excuse for not providing care. Tell them to push this button & make the problem go away.

I spent 6 months working for a Swiss NGO researching the tactics used by Big Oil and how similar they are to Big Tobacco’s tactics, and I can tell you that the ones used by ‘Big AI’ are virtually identical.

"you're so mature for your age" because I had to be.

13 years ago, the Rana Plaza factory collapsed in Bangladesh, killing over 1,100 garment workers. The fashion industry said 'never again' – but today brands are still cutting corners, trying to avoid their responsibility for the safety of their workers.

"Income support payments are so low that people cannot meet their needs, let alone look for paid work with any dignity or stability. That has to change in this budget."

We should all select a random Friday and call it the Last Friday, just to see what happens.

Wrapping changes to NDIS and aged care – and responses – Croakey Health Media www.croakey.org/wrapping-cha...

Autistic kids are one of the main groups who are actually getting support through the NDIS, with the rationale being that they’re salvageable as potential workers, potentially saving the government buckets of money. Not sure how cutting support saves the government buckets of money though

A drum I keep banging is that full training of an academic worker (from undergrad through tenure) is about 16 years. We may JUST NOW be beginning to feel the full first wave effects of the 2008 austerity. The ability of our fields to reproduce themselves has not been addressed as any point.

from the alt-text: "In her hand, she holds a small, black lacquered insect cage, a common accessory in Taishō-era art that suggests a refined appreciation for the ephemeral sounds of nature."

#OtD 21 Apr 1856 stonemasons in Melbourne, Australia, went on strike demanding a maximum 8-hour working day. Very well organised, they soon achieved it for workers on public works in the city with no loss of pay stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9337...

You should write your book now so you can write it without having to write it for the rest of your life after that

This is such a weird way to say that age of diagnosis is correlated with various differences in the person, some of which have genetic bases. Which is a very unsurprising finding, when you look at it that way.