Midway through my week of Monday 8 to Sunday 14 April 2024 I realised I’d been fighting an infection, because I suddenly got some more energy. There’s a really nasty cold doing the rounds, although I avoided the worst of it. And on an errand in Katoomba, I ran into an old adversary.
Podcasts
- The 9pm Curious Case of Case, a solo episode recorded and posted on Sunday. What was meant to be a 5-minute reward for a supporter turned into a 20-minute ramble.
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Articles
- The Weekly Cybers #13. Australian startups sook about proposed mergers regulation, a new way to measure the cyber threat, and are smartphones really bad for teenagers?
You can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to an email compilation of any new stories each Sunday morning.
Media Appearances
- Yet another use of my photo of a union march in Sydney, this time at ZNetwork to illustrate Don’t Fear “Collectivism”.
- Back in 2004 I blogged about the amount of spam coming into an email server that I ran, The Rise of Spam. Weirdly, the chart in that post has turned up in a presentation at the University of Modena in Italy, HoneySpam: Honeypots fighting SPAM at the source (PDF). No they’re not using data that’s two decades out of date. The slides are from a conference titled “Conference on Steps to Reducing Unwanted Traffic on Internet” from 2005.
Photos, Videos, 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
The themes in Elon Musk news continue to be the usual ones: He’s getting into fights with regulators, losing other fights in courtrooms, distracting us with bold yet unsupported predictions for the future, and generally being bad at business.
- Elon Musk predicts superhuman AI will be smarter than people next year, which almost guarantees it won’t be.
- After all, Musk Admits He Doesn’t Fact-Check Himself and Has Two Burner Accounts on Twitter, as Rolling Stone reports. “In a humiliating deposition his lawyer tried to keep under wraps, the CEO struggled to justify tweets that prompted a defamation lawsuit.”
- Elon Musk divides Australians even as Tesla sets record sales. It’s a triple j Hack report so more of a backgrounder, and “divides Australians” in news-speak just means that some people have one view and some other people have another view.
- Tesla is in serious trouble, reports Disconnect. “Elon Musk spent years pushing self-driving fantasies, now that’s all the company has left.”
- Robotaxi regulators say Tesla hasn’t contacted them about plans teased by Musk, which will surprise no one.
- Brazilian judge orders probe of Elon Musk amid X disinformation row, reports Al Jazeera, so that might be amusing to watch.
- For more background, see WIRED: Elon Musk Is Platforming Far-Right Activists in Brazil, Defying Court Order.
- I’m not sure this is Elon’s fault, but AI-generated Elon Musk videos flood YouTube with fake eclipse streams to promote crypto scams.
- Anyway, Musk is now on his way to meet with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In other news:
- NYC Chicken Shop Replaces Cashier With Woman in Philippines On Zoom.
- After watching this engaging video, What it was like to visit a Medieval Tavern, and its recipe for medieval bokenade, or beef stew, I’ve been exploring this guy’s work a little more. And yes, they’re fun and informative videos.
- Indigenous message stick database offers a new way to understand Aboriginal culture.
- US Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore’s Salvage Plan | MV Dali & Francis Scott Key Bridge. I’m liking this guy’s channel, What is Going on With Shipping?, because it is exactly what it says on the tin.
The Week Ahead
It’s another of those weeks when nothing has been scheduled into specific days, apart from The Weekly Cybers on Friday, and maybe a podcast episode if I line up a guest. Watch my socials for details as they unfold.
Further Ahead
- NEW: The 9pm Edict podcast recording with Ketan Joshi, researcher and communications consultant on climate stuff. He’s been on the pod before, in 2021. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC for this episode, please get them to me by 6pm AEST this coming Sunday 21 April.
- Meanjin Autumn 2024 launch, Gleebooks, Glebe NSW, 24 April 2024. Book here.
- 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.
- NEW: 1,000,000 Years Celebration, somewhere in Sydney,
11May 2024. Details TBA, including an explanation of what this is actually about. - 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 sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) in :atoomba Street, Katoomba, photographed in 11 April 2024. It’s the same bird as featured in this story at the Guardian from 2019, Chick flick: cockatoo gives anti-nesting spikes the bird in viral video. I’m quoted in that story, and because I have news alerts in place I keep seeing it crop up in low-end news aggregator sites years later.]