I saw the Sun several times during the week of Monday 14 to Sunday 20 March 2022, but its effect was to illuminate the layers of mould that now seem to cover so many surfaces. My greatest challenge was finding a shop with stocks of mould killer. My escape continued to be hours and hours of history.
History is a great place to escape, but it can also be depressing. Recently I’ve been watching the YouTube series The Great War, and I’m not quite half-way through the — gasp! — 724 episodes. And as you may know, I’ve been watching the subsequent World War Two: Week by Week as they’re being produced.
People have been pointing out the parallels between current events and the late 1930s. Watching this history in more detail makes the parallels even more obvious. And watching the evolution of The Great War shows how stubborn incompetence can lead to so death.
Happy days!
Anyway, that’s why I chose this week’s featured photo. It’s the German A7V tank named “Mephisto”, the sole remaining example of the type, which was on display at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra five years ago.
Meanwhile my Pozible crowdfunding campaign, The 9pm Autumn Series 2022, reached 77% of Target Two. Thanks to everyone who pledged their support. You’ll now get five special guest episodes of The 9pm Edict podcast this season, plus whatever solo episodes I throw into the mix, plus whatever I decide to add in the way of extras.
If you missed the deadline, you can always subscribe for special benefits or throw a few coins into the tip jar. Please consider, because your support is an essential part of my personal revenue.
Podcasts
- The 9pm Everything in Brief on Tuesday with Two Days to Go, recorded as you might guess on Tuesday night. While it does contain plugs for the Pozible campaign, it’s mostly a half-hour of observations and mouth noises which are still worth listening to.
Media Appearances
- My paper The Encryption Debate in Australia: 2021 Update for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace was cited in testimony before the US Senate Committee on Finance (PDF) from Emma Llansó, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology.
- Two of my ZDNet articles from 2019 were cited in the paper Cybersecurity in the Philippines: Global Context and Local Challenges (PDF) from The Asia Foundation, namely Cyber Security Strategy 2020: Civil society experts slam ‘national security’ agenda and Renewed calls for dedicated Australian cyber minister and cyber leadership.
Photos
- The 90th birthday of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was celebrated on Saturday, so I created a Flickr album of my photos of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
- The photos in the Waratah sequence 2021 now span 201 days. How long will it be before these seed pods burst?
Articles, Videos, Corporate Largesse
None. You can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to an email compilation of any new stories each Sunday morning.
You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear.
Recommendations
- Given the recent floods in eastern Australia, ABC Radio’s Rear Vision has done an episode titled Cyclone Tracy — one of Australia’s worst natural disasters and what the government did. Let’s just say it’s a contrast. I’ll say more in my next podcast.
- Almost half the massacres of Aboriginal people were by police or other government forces, research finds, reporter here in the final instalment in the Guardian‘s special series on Australia’s indigenous genocide.
- Leaked Kremlin Memo to Russian Media: It Is “Essential” to Feature Tucker Carlson.
- An astounding story, this one, from On the Media. “Reporter Micah Loewinger brings us the story of a Twitch streamer named Pavel, who is known to his viewers as ‘Bobi‘. He was live-streaming from a military base in eastern Ukraine when he felt the earth move from a Russian attack. His reaction was captured in a now-viral clip, in which he can be seen giving an emotional goodbye to his viewers as he flees to his family. Over the next four days, Bobi and his family were guided through the war zone by two of his most devoted fans. The report is titled Escape from Tarkov, after the game where Bobi learned his skills.
- Yes, there’s some buff male bodies to ogle, but the most fascinating thing for me about the Mister Global competition is the weird array of “national costumes”.
- Friend of the Edict Justin Warren was recently a guest on ANU’s Talking Tech Policy podcast, Digital fever dreams?. A measured and rational discussion of digital rights.
- A brief tour of the PDP-11, the most influential minicomputer of all time.
- Would you like a Roland TB-303, TR-808, and now an SH-101 in your web browser? Sure! They’re at roland50.studio.
- Finally, A Robot Animal I Can Get On Board With. It’s a robot goat you can ride on! And there’s a video.
The Week Ahead
Once more there aren’t many fixed appointments, but the usual main themes continue: the SEKRIT geek-work that I’m plodding through, some editorial consulting, and possibly some writing for ZDNet.
I’ll also map out the podcast production schedule for autumn. I’ll probably do a solo episode some time this week before the special guest episodes kick off the week after.
On Monday it’s the March Equinox, but since it’s at 0227 AEDT any celebrations will have already been done the night before.
On Wednesday I’ll try to catch a conversation from the US Studies Centre, NATO Expert Talk Series: NATO and the challenges to the rules-based international order.
Friday is a Sydney day, with another mix of personal, social, and work-related errands. The big question is whether the trains will be running by then, or whether it’ll be another coach-enabled odyssey.
Further Ahead
- Budget Night, Canberra, 29 March 2022. While I may not be covering this directly myself, it’s bound to be a significant night.
- Aaron Chen at the Enmore Theatre, 5 May 2022.
- AusCERT 2022, Gold Coast, 10–13 May 2022 (TBC).
- Australian Cyber Conference 2022 Canberra, Canberra, 31 May to 2 June 2022 (TBC).
- Nigel Ng’s The Haiyaa World Tour, Enmore Theatre, 9 June 2022.
[Photo: The German A7V tank “Mephisto” on display at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on 18 March 2018.]