The week of Monday 22 to 28 November 2021 saw the Bureau of Meteorology declare another La Niña event, and rightly so. There’s been so much rain in the Blue Mountains, but of course we’ve escaped the flooding that’s happening elsewhere in NSW.
With the Weekly Wrap number clocking over another hundred, I’d considered writing something more reflective this week. My work queue is already too long, however, so I’ll delay that until things slow down as holiday season approaches.
Just 27 sleeps until Christmas.
Meanwhile, if you’ve been following along on Twitter then you’ll know that the local mob of sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita) has learned that I’m good for fresh seeds. The numbers gathering each day have risen from between two and four to up to 20 at a time, and they’re increasingly fractious. I have created monster.
Podcasts
- The 9pm Big Long High-Gravity Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Lovefest with Dr Alice Gorman, recorded on Saturday morning. This is a wonderful conversation.
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Articles
- Morrison’s pamphletocracy of critical tech holds barely a quantum of substance, ZDNet, 22 November 2021. I’m glad I have an editor who lets me coin new words.
You can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to an email compilation of any new stories each Sunday morning.
Photos
- I have of course updated my Waratah sequence 2021 for another week. The photos now span 89 days. We’re now starting to see the ovaries develop, from which we’ll soon see some seed pods.
Videos, Media Appearances, Corporate Largesse
None. However you can subscribe to my YouTube channel for when new videos do appear.
I plan to compile and publish the videos I’ve taken of our avian visitors, but not for a couple of weeks. That said, here’s a taste.
Recommendations
- For nuanced discussion of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, try this week’s Rational Security podcast. It’s also worth listening to for the stunned reaction from the American hosts to Australian Evelyn Douek’s description of how quickly our gun laws came to be and how much we approve of them.
- “The world’s fifth stored-memory electronic computer (and Australia’s first) went live on 25 Nov 1949,” tweeted CSIRO. So here’s an article about it: CSIRAC: The Only Surviving 1st Generation Computer.
- When can the Next Federal Election be Held? Here’s Antony Green’s explainer and the Australian Electoral Commission’s explainer.
- Since she’s going to be on the pod — see below — check out Alex Lee: the funniest things I have ever seen (on the internet).
- The inimitable Armando Iannucci considers The Armando Iannucci Shows (2001) to be one of his greatest comedic works, or at least he did back when. Here’s a playlist.
- “[Photographer] Peter Mitchell, born in 1943, has been quietly building a career for 40 years. Living and working in Leeds for much of his life, Mitchell treats his surrounding with a unique sense of care that is evident in his work.” Check it out, especially if you appreciate the beauty of urban decay.
The Week Ahead
On Tuesday I’m recording the final episode in the The 9pm Edict podcast’s Spring Series 2021 with the wonderful Alex Lee: TV writer, actor, comedian, Dragon Friend, and of course creator of comedy on SBS TV’s The Feed.
If you’re a podcast supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or CONVERSATION TOPIC to cash in then I’ll need to know by 9am AEDT this Tuesday 30 November.
I’ll edit that podcast in the afternoon and post it that night, and thus will end the Spring Series in the very last hours of spring. Whew!
On Wednesday and Thursday I’ll try to catch some sessions in the Lowy Institute conference, The Indo-Pacific Operating System: Power, order and rules for the 21st century, though I do have some other things to do.
Update 1 December 2021: On Thursday I may also try to cover parts of Group-IB’s CyberCrimeCon streaming live from Singapore.
Meanwhile in Canberra it’s the final parliamentary sitting week for 2021, with everything wrapping up on Thursday. I’m hoping there will be some things for me to analyse, or at least laugh at. Either way I’ll update my post Australian cyber-related legislation before parliament, plus current inquiries on Friday so it’s ready for the new year.
Also on Friday — that’s a new date — I’ll try to catch the panel discussion “Quantum Quandary: Securing a Sustainable Advantage in an Accelerating Race”, another part of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s The Sydney Dialogue.
In between all that I’ll try to tackle my backlog of geek-work for clients and writing for ZDNet. As careful readers will have noticed, the things in this “The Week Ahead” section usually outnumber the things that appear in the subsequent Weekly Wrap.
On Saturday it’s the NSW local government elections, so that will be a whole thing to enjoy.
Further Ahead
- Internet Governance Forum 2021, online, 6–10 December 2021 (TBC). There’s a lot of sessions and they’re being streamed live from Poland, so I’m not sure how much I’ll watch.
- Catsitting in Sydney, 20–30 December 2021. This does run over the Christmas period, and that’s kind of the point, I’ll also load it up with all the things I’ve been meaning to do in Sydney but have delayed due to the Quarantimes.
- TwoSet Violin 2021 Virtual World Tour, online, 28 December 2021.
- linux.conf.au 2022, online, 14–16 January 2022 (TBC).
- APRICOT 2022 / APNIC 53, 28 February to 4 March 2022 approx.
[Photo: A sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) investigates my iPhone at Bunjaree Cottages on 22 November 2021.