My week of Monday 23 to Sunday 29 November 2020 wasn’t as productive as some recent ones, but it helped reduce my stress. There isn’t much listed here, but it feels like a pause before the run-up to the end of 2020. Also, there were critters. And hot weather.
The critters included these, photographed poorly with my phone and generally through a dirty window: another Australian white ibis, my local teen gang of Australian magpies, a stick insect, a large spider, and a tiny spider.
Monday’s day trip to Manly was very relaxing and much-needed, especially the delicious mackerel I had for lunch at the Hotel Steyne, though it cut into my productivity. Then the weekend ends with some of the hottest November weather ever recorded in NSW, which also killed productivity.
Meanwhile it’s just four weeks until Christmas, folks.
Articles, Podcasts
None, although there’s an article to be published at ZDNet on Monday, making it the secod for the month. Oops.
Meanwhile, you can always read some of my previous writing at Authory or listen to previous episodes of The 9pm Edict.
Media Appearances
- My ZDNet article Twitter bots and trolls promote conspiracy theories about Australian bushfires from January was cited in the paper #ArsonEmergency and Australia’s “Black Summerâ€: Polarisation and Misinformation on Social Media (PDF). In fact not just cited, but used as the core example in this analysis of Twitter activity around the correction of misinformation. Fascinating stuff.
Corporate Largesse
None. Will there be any before the end of the year? I doubt it.
Recommendations
- A postcard from Jan Morris 1926-2020. Remembering a fine travel and history writer, the last surviving foreign member of the first expedition to climb Mt Everest in 1953, and the first “famous” trans person I became aware of. Vale.
- Incredible photos show Niagara Falls after they were drained in 1969, and other remarkable stuff about the place. The text is a bit repetitive but it’s still worth scrolling through.
- Data from 45 countries show containing COVID vs saving the economy is a false dichotomy, for those who seem to have forgotten.
- Oxford Dictionaries: 2020 has too many Words of the Year to name just one, which I think is cowardice.
The Week Ahead
It’s week 37 of the Quarantimes at Bunjaree Cottages at Wentworth Falls.
On Monday I’ll get some writing done, and then in the evening there’s the Launch of Australia’s Cyber Security Sector Competitiveness Plan 2020 by AustCyber. The shopping can wait until Tuesday. Update 30 November 2020: Monday ended up being a brain maintenance day. I’ll try to do the writing on Tuesday.
On Wednesday I’m recording a podcast with Andrew P Street, which will be on the line on Thursday evening. It’s also a shopping-in-Katoomba day.
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Later in the week, the international Let’s Talk Cyber Informal Multi-stakeholder Cyber Dialogue kicks off, running from Friday 4 to Thursday 10 December. It’s all that United Nations and diplomatic stuff I’ve been reporting on.
Also on Friday, I might watch US Politics Web Series: A review from Australia from the US Studies Centre, the last of their monthly election roundups for the year. However I’m also heading down to Sydney for some medical thingies and the so-called weekend.
Further Ahead
- TimeGhostTV Pearl Harbor Minute-by-Minute, online, 8 December 2020. This six-hour livestream starts at 3am AEDT in my part of the world, I think, but I’ll definitely be watching it.
- The 9pm Edict with Genevieve Bell, to be recorded 11 December 2020.
- Linux.conf.au 2021, online, 23–25 January 2021 (TBC).
- Australian Cyber Conference, Canberra, 14–16 March 2021 (TBC).
[Photo: The Hotel Steyne, Manly, photographed on 23 November 2020.]