The main plus from my week of Monday 16 to Sunday 22 August 2021 was my second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine for COVID-19. This time the side effects were a little more full-on, which is odd because it’s meant to be the other way around.
Still, with the spring weather starting to kick in I was in a great mood, and I produced not one but two podcasts.
Podcasts
- The 9pm The Earth is On Fire and We’re All Going to Die with Ketan Joshi, recorded on Tuesday evening Australian time. Despite the title, it’s remarkably optimistic.
- The 9pm Bonus Ouroboroworm of Despair, from Scams to Afghanistan, an extra episode recorded on Sunday evening.
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Media Appearances
- One of my tweets about The Australian’s Sophie Elsworth and her phantom police helicopter was quoted by Pedestrian TV (Victoria Police Called Out A Journo For Lying About Their Choppers & God, It’s Brutal Out Here) and Junkee (A Journo From ‘The Australian’ Is Now A Meme After Lying About Police Helicopters Following Kids).
Articles, Videos, Corporate Largesse
None, but 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.
Recommendations
- ANZUS at 70: the past, present and future of the alliance, a new and free to download book from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
- What I Learned While Eavesdropping on the Taliban. As this former US air Force operator says, “I spent 600 hours listening in on the people who now run Afghanistan. It wasn’t until the end of my tour that I understood what they were telling me.”
- Every now and then a former Cold Warrior mate brings some great stories to my attention, like this one about little SIGINT satellites spat out the back of the Agena spacecraft: Little Wizards: Signals intelligence satellites during the Cold War.
- ‘No concept of how awful it was’: the forgotten world of pre-vaccine childhood in Australia.
- Photographer Reunites People He First Spotted On The Streets 40 Years Ago, and the images are as remarkable for the changes in landscapes as for the changes in the people.
The Week Ahead
This will be week nine of the current COVID-19 lockdown for Greater Sydney, and it’ll be continuing for at least another month. I’ve decided therefore to keep myself occupied — after taking Monday off anyway.
Tuesday to Friday sees the ANU Thai Update 2021 conference, a series of four online seminars. And on Wednesday there’s the UTS:ACRI webinar The Hugh White thesis — Ten years on, which of course is about the rising geopolitical threat posed by China. I’m not sure how many of these I’ll be able to catch, but I’ll try.
On Tuesday afternoon I’m recording an episode of the Edict on Antarctic and Arctic geopolitics and the like with Dr Liz Buchanan from the Australian War College.
If you’re a podcast supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC to cash in, I’ll need them by 3pm AEST that day. The finished podcast will be posted on Thursday.
Update 23 August 2021: Dr Buchanan has had to shift the date for family reasons. We’re still working out the details.
I’ll also try to get some writing done for ZDNet.
Further Ahead
- Cybersecurity, critical technologies and energy: Japan and its role in the Indo-Pacific, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, online, 30 August 2021.
- The 9pm Edict livestream recording, 31 August 2021. I’m wrapping up the Late Winter Series 2021 with an evening livestream starting at 9pm AEST.
- APNIC 52 conference, online, 14–16 September 2021.
- NetThing 2021, online, 4–5 November2021 (TBC).
- Australian Cyber Conference, Melbourne, 15–17 November 2021 (TBC).
- linux.conf.au 2022, online, 14–16 January 2022 (TBC).
[Photo: Stilgherrian getting his second shot of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on 16 August 2021.]