Ok I'm coming down to Sydney for the day on Friday and looking to have lunch with someone, if anyone's free/interested.

Lmao what do they think X is

Star of Rome's 'sexy priest' calendar admits: 'I was never a priest.' The now 39-year-old flight attendant instructor said he donned the priestly garb as a lark with a photographer when he was 17 years old u.afp.com/SR28

I'm still happy with the first 20 chapters of my book, and don't think I can cut any more from them at this stage. Now I have to try chapter 21 again. I hope my writing is good enough that it brings out some of the emotions for readers that some of these chapters evoke for me.

Something strange is happening in the markets just before President Trump posts on Truth Social. Our latest article (with @phzerosounds.bsky.social and Ella Chorazy) tells a visual story via a large-scale empirical analysis. stories.theconversation.com/the-market-m...

Oh this is easy: I prompted an AI agent to watch it for me

no it’s the people criticising the dystopia that are wrong

I’ve been to Cardiff, and now Swansea. I’ll have to visit Newport some time to complete my tour of (New) South Wales.

This is how I find out it’s been raining in Lennox Head.

Trump and Pope Leo should trade places.

start-up idea no. 25,368: 'Hot Takes', a takeaway service that only serves items there is food discourse about, which you order through your social media app by subtweeting the items you want

'The present, and the future, felt bleak.' Chapter 19 of my book, and today.

Yes, I suppose cyclists usually are

Slightly diminish a book: MP of the Rings

Another call! This time from "PayPal" advising there was an unusual transaction of $599, did I authorise it? Me: yes Him: what? Me: yes I did Him: are you sure??? Me: yes Him: but our records show you didn't receive the Bitcoin Me: I did receive it Him: *hangs up*

what people don’t realise who are not familiar with xenobiology is that alien is very much also under the age of consent

So like, other than the total failure to understand the work itself, what I find especially funny here is that if he were alive today then I suspect there are very few people on Earth that Tolkien would despise as much as Elon Musk specifically.

Birth rate discourse is like “It turns out if you give women more choices, they’re less likely to make ones that make their lives harder.” Which is really helpful in figuring out how we can improve society somewhat. But instead people are like wow giving women more choices was a mistake

Triple M standard host naming convention.

Did I mention that one of the people I've consulted about my book sent me a photo from the actual progressive dinner discussed in chapter 20?

The pattern people in the progressive space must break (I include myself): I support Leader A; all teams except A are evil. A has disappointed me. I am transfering wholesale huge expectations overnight to B. I support Leader B; all teams except B, especially A, are evil. B has disappointed me, etc.

Finished this round of edits to first three Parts of my book. Mostly minor changes, including tidying up a few errors caused by previous edits. Only reduced length by about 1000 words. But Part 4 is the bit I really should be doing more considered editing to, so that's what I'm now up to.

My feed is well-curated. No one has been posting about that genocide-excusing music festival thing that we used to watch.

The Gold Coast Chargers losing. Great 1998 nostalgia areas.

Greens preferences now flowing 86.7% to Labor in Stafford despite the open how to vote card.

I’m guessing the game went well, lol

Going to my first A-League game.

There are some tests that even today, only people I was friends with in high school manage to meet.

Early start for people who oppose Russia's war crimes, but support Israel's. Maybe not this show's most attractive demographic.

"It’s a submarine deal with no submarines … It was a terribly bad deal, a really stupid deal", #AUKUS #auspol

Who wants to see me if I'm in Sydney next weekend?

UK Labour can legislate Alternative Preference Voting by the end of next week if they wanted. It was done in Oz to save an old dying party. If Burnham can' defeat the Greens and Reform in a by-election with the Labour machine behind him then he can't defeat Greens and Reform in a General Election.

I deleted 800 words from the first two parts of my book, and put 400 words back in.

we thought the dystopia was going to be handing over control of the nukes to the smart computer, but it’s handing over the swiping left or right

After 9 games for every team, we're roughly far enough into the season that clubs can take stock of league trends and what adjustments they could make to adapt. In this piece @capitalcitycody.bsky.social and I dig into some of the trends shaping the 2026 AFL season.

Sadly no, they’re still being allowed to live

There’s a glaring historical inaccuracy in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film of The Odyssey: they didn’t have cameras back then. Theatres should have a blank screen and an old man reading out the script

Normal culture, obviously in need of special protections from criticism.

Pope Leo decries European military spending as 'betrayal' of diplomacy reut.rs/4wzKe2y

The Information Stupor Highway

Book editing update: I'm now putting material back in, including the bit about missing Mark Taylor's triple-century because I was watching the latest DS9 video.

The global fossil fuel economy is about to enter into the worst structural collapse in its history. But you wouldn't know that from reading the latest budget papers, @ketanjoshi.co writes. www.crikey.com.au/2026/05/14/a...

Bit of a grey day in Newy

Yes, but enough about my brother, come on in

Baw Baw

Neanderthals had a civilisation that could afford dental care. Meanwhile, me in 2026…

new NDIS legislation is up, massive explanatory memo, huge changes, big consolidation of power with minister, and gutting of many elements of the scheme www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar...

Like Russia's entries used to?

It's interesting how the sentiment of people who strive to lock themselves away and have everything delivered by human drones to their cocoons think that people who go out and engage with others, work in offices, drink in bars, eat in restaurants, play games etc – they think *we* hate society.

I was assured many times that this was just going to protect civilians. Oh well, better not think too much about what mission creep is and any lessons of the last, oh, 75 years.