There wasn’t much remarkable about my week of Monday 4 to Sunday 10 March 2024. I edited a podcast. I recorded another one. I spent an afternoon doing social things. And I was introduced to a big green insect.
I’ve noticed that most of my photographs here lately have been of the local fauna. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that — although I think it does mean I need to get out more.
There isn’t really a story about the big green insect, except that for some reason I named her Geraldine. Yes, it’s a female, because she has very small wing cases and can’t fly. Which seems a waste.
Thank you!
This season’s crowdfunder, The 9pm Autumn Series 2024, has been a great success, surging past Target Two in the final hours, and then some.
Cheers, thanks!
For all the details of what happens next, here’s the official update.
The brief version is that there will be six special-guest episodes of The 9pm Edict podcast between now and the end of May — subscribe in your podcast app of choice if you haven’t already done so. There’s also that Public House Forum episode that you’re still owed.
Three people will also get The Special Treatment™ but you’ll have to click through for those details.
Podcasts
- The 9pm Extruded Cheese Snack of Destiny with David F Porteous, recorded on Saturday 24 February and posted this Thursday. It’s turned out reasonably well given how drunk I was toward the end.
- On Friday I recorded an episode with Professor Johanna Weaver, former cyber diplomat, director of the Tech Policy Design Centre at ANU, and presenter of the podcast Tech Mirror: Reflecting on technology and society. That one will be posted on Tuesday 12 March.
The 9pm Edict is supported by the generosity of its listeners. You can throw a few coins into the tip jar or subscribe for special benefits. Please consider.
Articles
- The Weekly Cybers #8. Toughest anti-encryption laws still not being used (maybe), the politician-spy was working for China, and much more.
You can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to an email compilation of any new stories each Sunday morning. That will include a link to The Weekly Cybers if you don’t mind clicking through.
Photos, Videos, Media Appearances, Corporate Largesse
None of these. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear and when livestreams are scheduled.
Recommendations
I am continuing to wallow in the schadenfreude of Elon Musk’s world becoming increasingly about his bitchfights with all and sundry and less about any actual success. I am here for it.
- Elon Musk has hit out at OpenAI for its for-profit plans, but OpenAI has released emails to show he backed the plan. As the Financial Times writes, “ChatGPT maker says Tesla boss wanted top job and board control as feud over AI start-up deepens”.
- The feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman – explained.
- And as CNBC puts it, “Legal experts are skeptical of whether Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI has any hope of success”
- SpaceX faces hearing on engineers fired after criticizing Elon Musk over sexism.
- Ex-Twitter executives sue Elon Musk for $128m in severance pay.
- Usage Of Elon Musk’s X Dropped 30% In The Last Year, Study Suggests.
- Jeff Bezos topples Elon Musk to reclaim title of world’s richest man, reports Aj Jazeera. “Bezos has gained $23bn in 2024, while Musk has lost $31bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index,” although apparently it only lasted a very short time.
In other news:
- “Billionaires are building bunkers and buying islands. But are they prepping for the apocalypse – or pioneering a new feudalism?”
- Enjoy some very big numbers in The Scale of Space Will Break Your Brain.
- Have a squizz at this data, Income inequality vs. GDP per capita. The US stands out for being rich but with much greater inequality than its peers, and South Africa is weirdly off the scale. You can also see how nations took their trajectory through these numbers from 1985 to 2022 — although some nations don’t have data for the most recent years. You might have some fun browsing the whole site, Our World in Data.
- From the archives of my client Meanin, the quarterly literary journal, comes this essay by Canada’s oath Margaret Atwood, If You Can’t Say Something Nice, Don’t Say Anything at All (Winter 1995). I won’t explain it. You’ll be hooked from the first words.
- British comedy writer Joel Morris explains how they developed the character Philomena Cunk.
- Trump’s White House Was ‘Awash in Speed’ — and Xanax. We knew some of this when the audit of the White House pharmacy records was published a couple months back. This has some more colourful details.
- AIDS Denialism Is Back. We Can’t Let It Take Root.
The Week Ahead
It’s another of those weeks when I’ve got plenty to but little of it is locked into specific dates.
I’ll post the podcast with Johanna Weaver on Tuesday, which probably means I’m editing on Monday. In any event Monday is a public holiday in various parts of Australia but not here in NSW.) And I have client production meeting on Wednesday. But the rest is flexible.
Further Ahead
- Sydney day, 20 March 2024 (TBC). The building I inhabit at Bunjaree Cottages is being fitted with a new roof, so I might just get out of the way.
- Sydney housesitting period, 22 March to 2 April 2024 (roughly). Should you be wanting to catch up with me in Sydney, this would probably be a good time.
- NEW: AI Confidential, Info Sphere Education, online 27 March 2024. “Join your hosts, Kate Carruthers and Kobi Leins, for an online session where we delve into the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact across industries.”
- NEW: Meanjin Autumn 2024 launch, Gleebooks, Glebe NSW, 24 April 2024 (TBC).
- Aaron Chen’s Funny Garden, Sydney, 27 April 2024. I am thrilled for Aaron because he’s now doing six performances at the State Theatre. As a prelude, you might like to watch his show from last year, If Weren’t Filmed, Nobody Would Believe. As he says, “Lucky were filmed”.
- He Huang Tiger Daughter versus the World, Chatswood NSW, 5 May 2024.
- Nina Oyama is Coming, Marrickville NSW, 12 May 2024.
- The Sydney Dialogue, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Sydney and online, 2–3 September 2024 (TBC).
[Photo: A female false garden mantis (Pseudomantis albofimbriata) photographed at Bunjaree Cottages on 5 March 2024. I don’t know why she has “false” in her name because she is a praying mantis.]