Monday 14 to Sunday 20 February 2022 was one of more productive weeks. Two podcasts recorded. A major update to a blog post. And a lot of attention paid to what was happening in parliament. I even managed to enjoy the almost-end of summer.
Podcasts
- The 9pm Kooyong Election Preview and Media Troll Fight with Six News Australia’s Leo Puglisi, a wonderful conversation recorded on Friday afternoon.
We’ve already recorded an episode with Justin Warren, which will be posted this coming Wednesday at a later date.
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Articles
- I’ve re-posted a much-updated post, Updated: Australian cyber-related legislation before parliament, plus current inquiries, following the end of parliament’s work for February.
- The great reveal of the solution to A challenge: Where is the Hill of Dead Pets? has been rescheduled to 31 March 2022 at 8pm AEDT. Partly because I want to give people more time to have some fun.
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
- The photos in the Waratah sequence 2021 now span 173 days, and it’s clear that there’s still some way to go before the seeds drop. Remember, this sequence of photos began on 1 September 2021.
Videos, Media Appearances, Corporate Largesse
None. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear.
Recommendations
- Let’s start with something important. “11,122 cocktails in database,” says the website of Kuletos cocktail bar in Newtown, Sydney. And it’s true. More than 11,000 cocktail recipes, all well laid out. To say it’s comprehensive is an understatement.
- And following that a fantastic short film, They’re Made Out Of Meat.
- Inside Facebook’s African Sweatshop, a TIME feature which shows that content moderation is still a shitshow.
- Their bionic eyes are now obsolete and unsupported, which makes you wonder how long Elon Musk will support anyone who’s foolish enough to have one of his brain implants installed.
- AI-synthesised faces are indistinguishable from real faces and more trustworthy, so that’s going to be a problem too.
- China’s New Submarine Is Unlike Anything In Western Navies.
- A brilliant podcast series, SPAM: How the American Dream Got Canned. No, really.
- From the always-excellent podcast Lexicon Valley, a well-argued discussion in Joe Rogan and the N-Word, by Way of Kyiv.
- From Jonathan Pie, Boris Johnson Is a Liar.
- I was reminded of the amazing photographer Fan Ho. Check him out. He died in 2016.
- And finally, a hymn for our times: Send Us Thine Asteroid, O Lord by Raymond Teodo.
The Week Ahead
There’s three main themes this week: wrap up the summer series of The 9pm Edict podcast, continue the geek-work that I’m slowly plodding through, and slot in some writing for ZDNet. These tasks will be scheduled in detail as the week goes on.
On Monday I’ll also try to catch the panel Increasing Resilience in a Post-Pandemic World, part of The Sydney Dialogue from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).
[Update 23 February 2022: I’ve rearranged the order of play for podcast production to minimise the chances of our comments getting out of date in this fast-paced modern world. Update 24 February 2022: And again. Sigh.]
Early on Tuesday morning I’m recording a podcast with Scottish author and podcaster David F Porteous. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC for this episode, I’ll need them by 5pm AEDT on Monday 21 February please.
That episode will be edited and posted on the weekend Thursday the weekend.
On Wednesday there’s another ASPI panel, The future of assistance to law enforcement in an end-to-end encrypted world. That’s definitely of interest to me.
On Thursday there’s yet another ASPI panel, The geopolitics of climate and security in the Indo-Pacific. How many of these I manage to watch remains to be seen.
Friday will be a Sydney day, with medical and social and logistical tasks. This will be “interesting” because Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink are currently a disaster area.
There’s also an all-day hearing of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security that I’d like to be across, so we’ll see how this goes, I daresay I’ll watch the recording on the weekend.
On Wednesday the weekend I’ll edit and post the podcast with Justin Warren that was recorded last week the podcast with David Porteous.
The podcast with Justin Warren that was recorded last week will now be edited after that, so it will become the final episode of the summer series. It might also end up appearing a few days into administrative spring. I hope that won’t destroy your perceptions of reality.
Further Ahead
- APRICOT 2022 / APNIC 53, 28 February to 3 March 2022.
- Aaron Chen at the Enmore Theatre, 5 May 2022.
- Nigel Ng’s The Haiyaa World Tour, Enmore Theatre, 9 June 2022.
[Photo: Rose at the Alexandra Hotel, Leura, 16 February 2022. The hotel has delightful collection of heritage roses in its garden. For some reason this one flower was blooming in late summer. This photo is available for re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) license.]