My week of Monday 23 to Sunday 29 October 2023 began in Hobart but ended in Sydney. Despite three days of food and wine, I still managed to push out two podcasts and the usual blog post.
Despite the running gag that Tasmania is awful and never go there, I really do like Hobart, and we had a lovely time. I may write more about that during the coming week, because some of the food was truly magnificent.
Podcasts
- The 9pm Rampant Gerontophilia with Jon Kudelka, recorded on Tuesday and posted Friday. It’s chaotic, but it’s interesting.
- The 9pm Extra: Vertical Hold episode 452, “Twitter demands $1, Tinder wants your Mum to approve your dates, Aussie Feds caught using facial recognition (again)”. This podcast was a lot of fun, and maybe I should regularly repeat the fact that I’m great podcast guest so feel free to invite me on.
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Articles
- Digital developments from Canberra 59. Public servants defend each other from criticism, the AFP does dodgy things with tech yet again, and junior public servants are a tad sexist. Also, a government minister performs an Elvis cover.
You can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to an email compilation of any new stories each Sunday morning.
Videos, Photos, Media Appearances, Corporate Largesse
None of these. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear.
Recommendations
Friday 27 November 2023 was the anniversary of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, now X, and hasn’t that gone so well!
- Twitter takeover: how a year of Elon Musk rendered the platform useless.
- “The banks which loaned Elon Musk money to help buy Twitter expect to lose $2 billion on the debt, report says”
- And yet, “Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, rolled out two new subscription plans on Friday, including a Premium+ tier for users willing to pay for an ad-free experience.”
- Elon Musk gives X employees one year to replace your bank. “Elon Musk wants X to be the center of your financial world, handling anything in your life that deals with money. He expects those features to launch by the end of 2024, he told X employees during an all-hands call on Thursday, saying that people will be surprised with ‘just how powerful it is.'”
- Elon Musk offers $1 billion to Wikipedia to change their name to ‘Dickipedia’.
- Elon Musk Mocked Ukraine, and Russian Trolls Went Wild.
In other news:
- We Finally Know What a Dinosaur’s Butthole Looks Like, adding to the store of vital knowledge we already have regarding the back end of these things.
- The Theory That Men Evolved to Hunt and Women Evolved to Gather Is Wrong, because the idea isn’t supported by the available evidence. I had no idea the theory this is all down to evolution is only half a century old. Still, we do know what shape people’s buttholes are.
- The 2023 BirdLife Australia Photography Awards finalists.
- A new paper from ANU scientists includes a diagram of all objects in the universe, showing how some objects are simply impossible.
The Week Ahead
On Monday I’ll be wrapping up my current session of housesitting in Sydney, so there will be chores and laundry before the bump-out, then some shopping and a train back to my Blue Mountains lair.
Tuesday will involve quite a bit of client work. I’m keen to get as much done as possible before the close of the month that evening.
At some point I hope to be recording a podcast with scientist and science communicator Upulie Divisekera about, among other things, frogs. The next paragraph explains why frogs. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC then please let me know by 8pm AEDT on Tuesday night, 31 October.
[Update 3 November 2023: We’re recording the podcast on Sunday afternoon, so TRIGGER WORDS and CONVERSATION TOPICS with me by 8pm AEDT this Saturday 4 November please.]
Friday is the start of Frog ID Week. Please be doing some science! I’ll also do my usual Friday blog post about digital developments from Canberra.
By the way, Upulie has been on the pod several times before, and if all goes well I’ll post this new episode on Friday Sunday night.
Further Ahead
- NEW: Catsitting, or rather being hissed at by a cat, Ashfield, 10–12 November 2023.
- The War On 2023: Annual Comedy Gala, Bathurst, 5 December 2023. For reasons which are not entirely clear, Snarky Platypus and I will be taking the train to Bathurst to see The Chaser’s end of year show there rather than in Sydney. We’re then continuing on to Orange the next day, returning to our respective starting points the day after.
[Photo: One of the ferries which takes people to Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Mona Roma MR-1, although if you look it up you’ll see that it’s actually named MV Ena. Presumably that’s the Irish female name meaning “fire”. Similarly, Mona Roma MR-2 in its desert pattern camouflage is actually MV Freya. Anyway here’s the Ena tied up at Franklin Wharf on 24 October 2023.]