My week of Monday 14 to Sunday 20 September 2020 was both productive and not productive. I spent many hours working, but only a podcast emerged. That’s why the feature image is from last week. Still, it’s an excellent podcast, even if I do say so myself.
Podcasts
- “The 9pm Excess Garlic Biosupremacy with Upulie Divisekera”, being The 9pm Edict episode 117 recorded on Wednesday. This is the third of five episodes in The 9pm Spring Series 2020.
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Articles, Media Appearances, Corporate Largesse
None. What a remarkably quiet week. I have, however, moved all my freelance writing since 2007 over to my Authory archive, and stripped back the media output page to focus on older items.
[Update 9 October 2020: Actually, the video has just been posted of my appearance in the AusCERT Conference Speed Debate from 18 September. I was only mildly inappropriate.]
Recommendations
It’s all about politics in Thailand this week. It’s something I find fascinating, and right now there are dramas.
- Today in Bangkok protesters called for reform to the monarchy and a general strike. Their demands for curbs on the king’s wealth were unthinkable until the recent emergence of what the Guardian calls a radical grassroots movement.
- Last month my friends at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in DC wrote a solid backgrounder, Two Thailands: Clashing Political Orders and Entrenched Polarization.
- Here’s a piece from NPR, Demands For Democratic Reform Surge In Thailand, also from last month.
- And this piece from March helps set the mood: Coronavirus: Thai king self-isolates in Alpine hotel with harem of 20 women amid pandemic.
- Update 1935 AEST: Finally this piece from August includes the full list of demands from a protest at Thammasat University. The wording is inflammatory by Thai standards, though I don’t know how this relates to the letter given to the Privy Council today.
The Week Ahead
It’s week 27 of the Quarantimes at Bunjaree Cottages at Wentworth Falls, at least once I return there on Monday evening. I must concentrate on writing this week, because I am way behind on my revenue targets for the month.
On Tuesday I’m recording a podcast with Fiona Patten MLC of the Reason Party, formerly the Sex Party. She was also on Public House Forum 4 in 2016 and a Probe episode earlier this year. If you have TRIGGER WORDS or CONVERSATION TOPICS you’ll need to get them to me by midday AEST on Monday so my people can get them to her people. That podcast will be edited and posted on Wednesday.
Tuesday night is also the September Equinox.
On Thursday there’s a clash of online discussions. The Space Age: Closer Than We Think? from Cicada Innovations, and In conversation with Michael Outram APM, Commissioner of the Australian Border Force from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Which will I watch live?
Update 21 September 2020: Also on Thursday, a Lowy Institute panel discussion, Coming undone – Australia and China’s fractured ties. This one looks really good.
On Friday I’ll probably watch the Dialogue between Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Coroneos.
Further Ahead
- NetThing, online, 1–2 October 2020. There are also physical sites for this conference.
- US Politics Web Series – A monthly review from Australia, US Studies Centre, online, 2 October 2020.
- Australian Cyber Conference, Melbourne, 27-29 October 2020 (TBC).
- Trolling in Chinese and English – Research Findings, Information Innovation @ UTS, online, 27 November 2020.
- Linux.conf.au 2021, online, 23–25 January 2021.
- Australian Cyber Conference, Canberra, 14–16 March 2021 (TBC).
[Photo: The view towards Balmain East from Bangaroo Reserve, Sydney, photographed on 13 September 2020.]