During the week of Monday 29 June to Sunday 5 July 2020 we ran out of rainwater. With all the COVID-19 dramas, we’d forgotten that we’ve still got all the other things happening. Such as climate change and the resulting lack of rainfall. Still I got some work done.
Podcasts
- “The 9pm A Brief Message 1”, being a quick thank-you to all of you for your support throughout the last financial year.
- “The 9pm Official Karening of the American Doom Timesâ€, being The 9pm Edict episode 109 recorded on Thursday.
- “The 9pm Eurostar Mystery in Briefâ€, being The 9pm Edict episode 110 recorded on Friday, being a quick update to an item in Thursday’s episode.
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Articles
- China’s influence via WeChat is ‘flying under the radar’ of most Western democracies, ZDNet, 30 June 2020. This article was also published in French as L’influence de la Chine via WeChat passerait-elle (quasi) inaperçue ?.
- COVIDSafe might actually be useful after all, ZDNet, 30 June 2020. Note the weasel words. It hasn’t proved useful yet, but this is some interesting research.
Media Appearances
- On Monday my December 2018 piece What’s actually in Australia’s encryption laws? Everything you need to know was cited in Mark Nottingham’s What limits legal access to cloud data in Australia?. It pleases me that this less screechy explainer of the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act 2018 continues to be found valuable.
Corporate Largesse
None.
Recommendations
- The 1995 TV miniseries Blue Murder is one of Australia’s most remarkably police dramas ever. It’s on ABC iView until 13 August, or if you don’t mind adverts on SBS On Demand for quite some time into the future. If you’re not in Australia, you’ll have to look for it on your favourite streaming service or, um, equivalent.
- Stop Celebrating Stan Culture. It’s Toxic. A fascinating article from Junkee explaining the dark side of the pop-fan mobs who’ve recently been players in the Black Lives Matter movement.
- I told you last week that I’d be plugging more of TimeGhost TV‘s excellent documentary series. Here’s one they did recently on The Indonesian War of Independence in six episodes, a pre-WW2 prelude then one per year 1945–1949. Every Australian should know this stuff.
- CORRECTION: While I said “Korean DJs” last week in relation to Seoul Community Radio, the DJ in the photo is Indonesian, either Defashah (Batavia Strut) or Abice, who played in this set. Now I just have to figure out which one.
The Week Ahead
The isolation continues at Bunjaree Cottages at Wentworth Falls. Mostly. And I’ll continue trying to get some writing done. But that said…
Wednesday is a Sydney day, and I’m staying down in the city until Saturday. I really need a change of scenery, and there’s some fantastic hotel deals at the moment.
Wednesday evening I’ll drop in to Andrew Fowler in conversation with Mary Kostakidis about his updated book on Julian Assange, The Most Dangerous Man in the World. As you may know, I’m not exactly a fan of Mr Assange, and I find the whole cult of personality a bit disturbing. However Fowler’s original edition was a great read, and I’m curious to see how his perspective has changed.
Further Ahead
Laugh at these tentative bookings, O Mortals!
- AusCERT 2020 Cyber Security Conference, online, 15–18 September 2020.
- Australian Cyber Conference, Melbourne, 27-29 October 2020 (TBC).
- Australian Cyber Conference, Canberra, 14–16 March 2021 (TBC).
[Photo: The Pump of Productivity. A petrol-driven transfer pump is being used to shift water from one rainwater tank to another through the scrub at Bunjaree Cottages, Wentworth Falls.]