I was very, very tired in the first half of the week of Monday 21 to Sunday 27 June 2021, and a tad depressed. But I also managed to write a bit, and plan a bit, and get some medical appointments out of the way before the Greater Sydney area went into COVID lockdown on Saturday. Oddly enough I’m kinda feeling OK with all that.
Articles
- Australia’s cops need reminding that chasing criminals isn’t society’s only need, ZDNet, 25 June 2021.
You can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to get a compilation of new stories by email each Sunday morning, when there are some.
Media Appearances
- For reasons which aren’t clear to me, one of my rather ordinary tweets was cited in an article in the NZ Herald, Barnaby Joyce palms off photo-bombing kid as he’s sworn in as deputy prime minister.
Podcasts, Videos, Corporate Largesse
None.
Recommendations
- Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away. A “secretive safety team” tries to hide all the bad things, and there are many bad things.
- How the CIA Helped Shape the Creative Writing Scene in America, a remarkable tale that parallels the CIA’s involvement in abstract impressionism.
- The woman who forced the US government to take UFOs seriously.
- Tiddlywink stuck up Christchurch woman’s nose for 37 years.
- And finally, since I discovered that 59% of my male-identifying Twitter followers have beards, some background: The most popular facial hair styles over the last 200 years, and the fascinating history behind how beards have evolved.
The Week Ahead
Chaos, all is chaos. I’d planned to spend some time in Sydney starting on Thursday, another burst of cat-sitting for friends taking a holiday, but COVID-19 restrictions have wiped that off the calendar. We’re in lockdown for two weeks.
That said, the structure of the week now becomes clear. Monday to Wednesday I’ll be writing as much for ZDNet as I can. Thursday is administrivia for the new financial year and stuff. And on Friday I’ll produce an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast.
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Update 29 June 2021: On Wednesday I’ll also try to catch Electronic Frontiers Australia’s EFA Talks: Stepping Stones to Dystopia, as well as the Lowy Institute discussion, The Communist Party’s big birthday.
This week is also the start of a tweak-the-meds period of a month or more, so there may be significant changes as we go along.
Further Ahead
This is still looking a bit thin, but I’ll address this next week.
- In-Conversation with Will Cathcart, Head of WhatsApp, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, online, 8 July 2021.
- It’s likely that I’ll make a cautious trip to Sydney for health-related appointments on 12 July 2021.
- Second COVID-19 vaccination, Sydney, 2 August 2021.
- Australian Cyber Conference, Melbourne, 15–17 November 2021 (TBC).
[Photo: Hooked! The view from platform six at Sydney’s Central station on the afternoon of 26 June 2021, taken just before I caught a train back to Wentworth Falls and the city went into COVID-19 lockdown.]