My week of Monday 21 to Sunday 27 July 2025 saw very limited productivity and quite a lot of sleeping, alas. But at least both king parrot couples visited me, and both males insisted on being fed separately from the rest of the avian babble. Oh, and there was a new music podcast. You should listen to that.
Podcasts
- AUMP 00001: Uni Tunes, being the first “real” episode of Another Untitled Music Podcast. Snarky Platypus and I chose some songs from our university days — there’s quite an age gap! — and judged someone’s musical tastes. Recorded on 13 July and posted on Thursday.
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Articles
- The Weekly Cybers #78. There?s quite a lot about internet age restrictions this week, plus extended powers for ASIO, the politics of short-form video, and a lot more.
You can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to an email compilation of any new stories each Sunday morning.
Media Appearances , Photos, Videos, Corporate Largesse
None of these. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear and when livestreams are scheduled.
Muskwatch
Ah yes. Grok goes even more fascist. Tesla shares plummet again. Starlink goes down. But hey there’s a new Tesla Diner selling overpriced strip mall diner food.
- “How Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok could be helping bring about an era of techno-fascism.”
- From ABC News, “Elon Musk’s social media company has accused French prosecutors of launching a ‘politically motivated criminal investigation’ that threatens its users’ free speech, denying all allegations against it and saying it will not cooperate with the probe”.
- Also via ABC News, “Tesla reported a 12 per cent drop in quarterly revenue, the biggest decline in more than a decade“.
- Elon Musk ‘sorry’ after Starlink satellite internet suffers global outage.
- Via the Guardian, “Elon Musk opened a diner in Hollywood. What could go wrong? I went to find out”. I will have some observations about this in an upcoming podcast episode.
- UPDATE: Neuralink claims that it filed for federal diversity certification by accident. It’s a mistake we’ve all made. In between inserting wires into people’s brains.
Some Interesting Links
- From The Conversation, “Time to ditch splitting the bill? Shouting a close friend could actually make you happier.” So yeah, you know where to find me.
- J Draper has done a wonderful video about the history of public toilets in London, Victorian Ladies Don’t Poop: The London History Show.
- I don’t know much about cars. I’ve never held a river license. But I enjoyed these two guys taking 1970s cars along America’s famous Route 66. We bought cheap 70s cars to see if they’re as BAD as everyone says, followed by Route 66 roadtrip in a CHEAP classic car from 1979. There’s a slight spoiler in those two titles. Personable and knowledgeable presenters, great videography.
- While I wasn’t ever a Black Sabbath fan, the death of Ozzy Osborne led to me being introduced to a remarkable cover of War Pigs by French-Ethiopian band uKanDanZ.
- From China, “A man who used an onboard emergency hammer to smash a hole in the window of a stalled train to relieve the suffering of his fellow passengers in a sweltering carriage has become an unlikely and memeworthy hero.”
- And Hokkaido’s own SHOW-GO has a new track, My Dance.
The Week Ahead
So yeah, after limited productivity this week, Monday will be about sorting out that little mess. I’ll be focusing on some client work for most of the week, with The Weekly Cybers as usual on Friday.
On Saturday, somewhere in Sydney Snarky Platypus and I will be recording Another Untitled Music Podcast episode 2, or should I say 00002, with the completed episode to be posted a few days later.
Further Ahead
- Mandarin Live Webinar: Interview with Services Australia CEO David Hazlehurst, online, 14 August 2025. I daresay I’ll learn something, but I might also need to have a drink handy.
- TechLeaders 2025, Hunter Valley, 16?18 August 2025.
- NEW: A curious evening of drinks and nibbles to which you are not invited, Darlinghurst, Sydney, 29 August 2025.
- Sam Campbell: Window Sucker, Sydney, 31 October 2025.
[Photo: A male Australian king parrot (Alisterus scapularis) insists on being fed individually on 22 July 2025.]