Remember Erebor, the mountain where Smaug killed the dwarves and stole all their money? And then every nation in the world fought a bloody war to try to get their money back? Techrbos named their new bank after it.

A year ago, I came up with the phrase Doom Dopamine: the unconscious reward we give people for spreading doom. Take a minute to like positive posts. Cause when alarmist content goes viral & positive posts get 5 likes, it engineers our brains to think doom is rewarding & positivity is not. 🧵

The US Administration has banned Americans from *adopting babies* from much of the African continent. Adopting. Babies. What trait do those babies have that, when they grow up as fully American adults, would make them a threat to our country in any form?

Do you remember this? Back in 2019 *this post* caused quite a stir on social media.

This is brilliant. Well done @davidshoebridge.bsky.social www.toomanyguns.org There are 82 registered gun owners and someone in my inner city postcode with 23 bloody guns. Outrageous.

New Absolute Units episode is here! We’re back with Professor Paddy Bullard (University of Reading) and Isabel Hughes (The MERL), with a bonus episode marking 250 years since Jane Austen’s birth. Listen below or wherever you get your podcasts: merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...

Animals with misleading names. I'm seeing this go around as part of a viral tumblr thread so I thought I'd reshare it.

If not today, then when? Is the state with some of the weakest gun laws in the country still going to proceed with this gun lobby driven change?

The kind .. you find … in a second hand store

Some thoughts on Bondi Beach, the sliding doors surreality of knowing my sister could have been there, and how it feels to be lighting candles tonight to celebrate our resilience www.newstatesman.com/world/2025/1...

What happened at Bondi is a tragedy and a crime. If there's one thing I hope for, it's that we don't fall into "now is not the time to talk about gun control" bullshit. Now is EXACTLY the time to talk about gun control. We need to stop this from happening again. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Sam Altman: hey I made a machine that stole literally all your stuff in order to make CSAM of your child actors, sometimes it encourages people to kill themselves Disney: Holy shit here's a billion dollars Altman: the machine loses more than that each week but thank you. Soon it will become god.

Time again for my favorite christmas post ever, one that still makes me laugh every time i read it

Is he mugging for the camera here or is this just his resting face? Does he ever stumble into bad lighting?

Study after study shows campaign ads barely move the needle. So where does money’s real power come from? I ranked the five ways money corrupts politics—from least to most corrosive. What I’ve learned from 15 years of tracking political money:

Tech bros lack originality even in their paranoias. The rich fearing that a slave revolt will murder them in their beds is not exactly new........

This is the most horrific trophy I’ve ever seen. It looks like a cursed object found in a desert crypt.

When the story of the last 10 years is finally written, historians will identify a core causal element: cocaine.

This has been shared via a bunch of sites. It is worth noting that the report, relying on anonymous internal sources, seems to be coming from the right (complaints about ongoing Trump Derangement Syndrome, lack of Fox News, welcoming end of DEI). nypost.com/2025/11/30/o...

The best way to understand the current regime is that we're effectively being governed by an unofficial, extra-constitutional junta mostly dominated by Miller, in which Trump himself is a marginal and disengaged figurehead making few if any substantive decisions.

An issue we're seeing at all levels of university is that many students are simply refusing to do *anything*. They aren't reading the syllabus, aren't following assignment guidelines, aren't engaging with material, ignoring deadlines. And this might seem like old news, but it truly has ramped up.

There was no state. Who does she think crucified him, an anarchist collective?

i’m not sure how but this is real antipolygraph.org/blog/2025/10...

what stage of capitalism is this

For added context, see also my article with Alexandra Chalupa: www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianou...

This story should be covered waaaaayy more than it is. The US has sanctioned six judges if the international criminal court ICC, because Trump didn’t like them issuing arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant. www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...

"What sort of monster makes casinos pay tax and bans them from money laundering?" chaser.com.au/business/bil...

The extent to which our society has enabled this kind of sociopathy among the wealthy and powerful truly is the story of our time.

Marriage A-la-Mode, Plate V: The Death of the Earl, by Simon François Ravenet, after William Hogarth, 1745, 📸 by @evanvucci

Not going to read too much into it, obviously Trump is the worst man alive, and is going to revert to saying the most odious shit imaginable in like an hour, but it's funny that this is coming a couple hours after 90 democrat losers voted to say "socialism is bad" for no reason.

Trump if Mamdani was WH chief of staff:

"Should this Al bubble pop, we should not be entertaining a bailout of these corporations while healthcare is being denied to Americans and SNAP is being denied to Americans." Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

As a working title, they are calling it "Monday"

This thread, plucked from this week’s newsletter, will likely change your perspective on extreme wealth.

For the Aussies, the zoologists and the architects out there. 💩🧊🧪 By @chazhutton.com

Very impolite Tommy Robinson fan learns important lesson after allegedly making racist remarks towards black youth on London bus ...

So, we are plumbing new depths in this season of the United States, I see

I’m not sure that the extent of the #Epstein client list will ever be fully known, but I do think that everyone should be prepared to be very disappointed in people they have admired and respected. Anyone working in media, journalism, politics, higherEd, entertainment: you will have some awful peers

While not a single cold record was broken in Florida (despite the fake US "experts" and media who lied to the public), Record heat continues in Greenland,Mexico,CA America and Carib (not a word from them) +12C in GREENLAND with Mins up to +9.2C +4.6 Qaarsut Hottest Nov. night

Great candidate, not least because he can do a very plausible Australian accent www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Apparently someone hasn't seen Germanys multi-billion dollar oma porn industry

It's so cool that when the right person lands a direct hit on ol' Elon he can't stop from lighting up and spinning his bowtie like a carnival game clown

John Laws is dead. One of Australia's most successful broadcasters. As a teenager I rang his show. We argued for 10mins on air. He hung up on me with the words "you're obviously a loser in life & going nowhere. Goodbye."

There had better be trials. And not just for the low-level thugs carrying out these orders, but for everyone up the chain of command. If we get past this, the solution isn’t to pretend it never happened and invite Stephen Miller to Harvard’s Institute of Politics. It’s trials w real punishments.

Hegseth Is Purging Military Leaders With Little Explanation The moves to fire or sideline generals and admirals are without precedent in recent decades and have rattled the top brass.

The Philippines are bracing for yet another typhoon, as the huge and sprawling Tropical Storm Fung-wong steadily strengthens in the Philippine Sea. #Fungwong #UwanPH Latest track and forecast here: zoom.earth/storms/fung-...

The Australian Education Union has today released Investing in Australia’s Future (2025), a comprehensive report outlining the urgent reforms and targeted investments needed to ensure every child in every public school can thrive. Read more: https://bit.ly/4pbNrkn

On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.