My week of Monday 4 to Sunday 10 May 2020 saw lots of talking, a little bit of writing, and a birthday party via video conference. That last bit worked better than I expected. Sunday was a far shorter day than most, for some reason.
This was my eighth week of lockdown. Soon it’ll reach 66 days, which is the average time to form or break a habit. This research from 2009 showed that people’s actual times can be as little as 18 days to as much as 254 days, though, so I don’t know what this proves. And NSW is starting to lift some restrictions.
Podcasts
- “The 9pm His Plague Diary 8â€, being The 9pm Edict episode 104 recorded on Friday. It’s also on Spreaker and SoundCloud, as well as Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, and Spotify.
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- I was guest co-host on “TVs Just Don’t Smash Like They Used To”, this week’s episode of Well May We Say, the Australian politics podcast by Jeremy Sear-Pirko. I’ve cross-posted it as a special episode of The 9pm Edict.
Articles
- Australia’s COVIDSafe contact tracing story is full of holes and we should worry, ZDNet, 4 May 2020. This piece puts together some of the “maybe it won’t work” angles that have largely been ignored in major media coverage. It seems to have struck a chord in some sectors.
Media Appearances
- On Monday I spoke about the COVIDSafe app yet again on ABC Adelaide.
- That ZDNet story mentioned above was citied in Coronavirus Government Global Briefing: May 5 at The Mandarin, which is nice.
- Tuesday’s semi-crank Twitter thread about barraging journalists with questions after a story was published was picked up by Seamus Byrne at Influencing on Wednesday, in The post-story follow up: good or bad PR?.
Corporate Largesse
None, but thanks as always to the new and returning supporters who hit the tip jar. You’re more than welcome to do the same.
The Week Ahead
The isolation continues at Bunjaree Cottages at Wentworth Falls, with Monday being a day of writing. The House of Reps is sitting on Tuesday, and the Senate from Tuesday to Thursday, so all that parliamentary action is bound to provide reasons for more writing.
On Tuesday I’ll drop in to Lowy Institute Live: In conversation with Julie Bishop and Gareth Evans, two of Australia’s former foreign ministers. Should be fun.
There will probably be another His Plague Diary episode of The 9pm Edict at some point.
Further Ahead
The following Monday I’ll drop in to John Martinkus in conversation with Mark Davis, about Davis’ book The Road: Uprising in West Papua.
Beyond that…
- AusCERT 2020 Cyber Security Conference, Gold Coast, 15–18 September 2020, except they’re now saying it will be a “virtual conference”.
- Australian Cyber Conference, Melbourne, 27-29 October 2020 (TBC).
- Australian Cyber Conference, Canberra, 14–16 March 2021 (TBC). OK, so they had actually updated the website. I didn’t see the new dates.
[Photo: The Hopetoun Hotel in Surry Hills, Sydney, which has been closed since 2009. It may re-open one day but probably not any time soon — despite this hopeful news story from November 2019. Photographed on 4 May 2020 during Sydney’s COVID-19 lockdown, which is why the streets are empty. I was walking through the suburb on my way to a health-related appointment.]