List 3 things you can talk about for 3 hours with no prep. 1. Narrative structure 2. The social functions of dystopia 3. Capitalism

Let’s give it all away to AI scrapers!

All the trigger warnings apply to #ThePeopleVSRobodebt. True Australian horror.

It was only because of the social media campaign that the looping effect of pressure was built thru the voice of people telling their stories. Justice was never ensured. It should not be taken for granted and the work that it took should not be underestimated

A lot of people worked for years to expose the scandal of Robodebt. But the big lie of ‘mutual obligation’ is still official policy in Australia. Until we treat people seeking help with respect, this stuff will continue

MEDIA RELEASE: SA Premier spreads gas industry misinformation Premier Peter Malinauskas told an event sponsored by the gas lobby that a new gas project in Narrabri, NSW, is needed to firm up SA's electricity supply. Our research, using the government’s own data, proves this is simply not true.

"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply." me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...

hello, i made this bot. i am a trans autistic anti-fascist. you are following a work of trans autistic anti-fascist art. that is why it is screaming

A bit of good news to share creative.gov.au/news-events/...

very funny to be the child of two people who have at various points made a career out of having a savant's skill for quickly grasping complex problems within a narrow field of knowledge and have the president tell me it's tylenol that made me this way

Just gonna leave this here for anyone who is finding the discourse particularly evil today

Autism does not need to be cured Ableism does The end

Prepping

Jimmy Kimmel, brother. Get your people to call my people.

Hear, hear. overland.org.au/2025/09/no-g...

Riding around in the royal carriage looking for all the world like someone who’s going to turn back into a mouldy orange after midnight

‘Instead of seeking ways to legitimise the greatest act of copyright theft in history, the Commission should support the ethical, responsible, and sustainable development of AI, which relies upon the appropriate licensing of copyright work,’ says ASA CEO Lucy Hayward.

In our submission to the Productivity Commission we strongly oppose the Commission's proposal for a TDM exception to copyright laws, calling for the introduction of a mandatory Code of Conduct. Read more: www.asauthors.org.au/news/asa-rejects-productivity-commission-proposal-for-tdm-exception/

"Anthony Albanese's claim that more fossil gas is needed for the energy transition is unscientific nonsense - it is gas industry propaganda raised to the level of state policy – and reflects a stampede toward more fossil fuels rather than a transition away."

Saw my first beach cricket setup for the season today and for a small moment, everything seemed normal and good

A little ditty I wrote

The werewolf seems to have escaped from the local high school.

The $1.5 billion Anthropic settlement has been delayed, with Judge Alsup scheduling another hearing on 25 September. Prior to the settlement announcement, Anthropic was facing billions of dollars in damages for using pirated books to train its AI model. Read more: apnews.com/article/anth...

On Arts in 30: With Meanjin set to close after 85 years, @greenj.bsky.social looks at the finances of running a literary mag and @beneltham.bsky.social explains why he's organising a protest to save it. And @jennifermills.net.au on what the $1.5 billion Anthropic settlement will mean for Aus writers

RALLY TO SAVE MEANJIN Thursday 11 Sep 9am Outside the Melbourne University Publishing office, 715 Swanston St, Carlton. A number of Australian writers and editors will speak in support of this vital cultural institution

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...

I wrote for Crikey about the decision to shut Meanjin down - and to sever a connection to a hopeful progressive vision of Australian culture

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.

I’m on a panel called ‘justice’ as part of this new writers festival coming up on Kaurna yarta SLSA 20-21 September www.eventbrite.com/cc/writers-a...

Attn all ICE agents! Here’s an announcement from our front window: Chicago hates you, and you are not welcome here!

Haha! Now do Meta and OpenAI apnews.com/article/anth...

The ASA is dismayed by the news that literary journal Meanjin will cease publishing this year, with the final issue due to be released in December. Read more: www.asauthors.org.au/news/asa-dismayed-over-meanjin-closure/

The little Meanjin collection that I helped bring into the world as editor. Just a fragment of its 85-year catalogue. What an act of bone-stupid arrogance to kill it.

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

Since our very first issue Meanjin and Overland have been comrades, mates, rivals, and drinking buddies. The UMP board’s decision is a shockingly myopic act of cultural vandalism which will grievously harm the Australian literary community.

Melbourne Uni is killing the literary journal Meanjin. It's cultural vandalism. Australian universities are now deeply anti-intellectual places www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/04/m...

I am distressed and angered by this decision - but want to interject that in the current dire Australian cultural funding environment, and in the context of equally dire cuts to universities, a few hundred thousand dollars is hardly a trivial demand. Our sector has been pared to the bones.

Meanjin Journal is 85 years old; older than the Sydney Opera House. Closing it down is cultural vandalism of the highest order, roughly equivalent to demolishing the above mentioned opera house. I am disgusted @meanjin.bsky.social

This is why it doesn't make sense to make decisions about culture on "purely financial grounds" (quote from a university administrator). Meanjin is a critical part of Australian literary culture, an outrage it is being shuttered so unceremoniously.

The loss of Meanjin is devastating news for Australian writers and readers. Always meant so much to see my work there. Some of my best experiences of being edited. An entirely avoidable disaster.

Exclusive: Australia’s second-oldest literary journal, Meanjin, is being shut down today for "financial" reasons, Crikey can reveal.

Putin’s translator shimmers and a skeleton appears. This way old men, Death grins, waving a scythe. A portal opens in the earth and the military parade descends #dansemacabre

I'm looking for stories about how AI is killing creative work, and I'd love to hear from you—artists, writers, illustrators, actors, designers, editors, voice actors and narrators—if your job or practice has been hit. This is going to be a big one. [email protected]

I spoke with Indaily for this piece on the Botanic Gardens of SA dropping its naming rights deal with Santos. A fantastic decision and good on them for listening to community concerns. www.indailysa.com.au/news/in-dept...

The Museum of Economic Botany (in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens) is no longer named after Santos. The partnership is over! I welcome this news. It's a great example to organisations who have naming-rights contracts hanging over their heads...you can change the name and survive!

The first story I did for Crikey back in 2021 was reporting on a leaked neo-nazi manual showing how "media baiting" — aka tricking journalists into writing about them — was a major strategy for them. www.crikey.com.au/20...

It would be a massive mistake for progressive folk to convince themselves the March for Australia was a bust, or can safely be ridiculed. It was an alarming escalation of far-right action, and we need to reckon with it. More thoughts (un-paywalled) here: www.lamestream.com.au/how-mainstre...

Adelaide today

Best/worst named dog at the show. ACD obviously