My week of Monday 1 to Sunday 7 July 2024 saw me pump out a solo podcast episode, but little else of note. I’ve said in the past that I seem to have a cycle of productive and non-productive weeks, and here we are. I did a lot of sleeping. I’ll tell you about that some day.
Thank you for supporting The 9pm Winter Series 2024 crowdfunder
This season’s crowdfunding campaign, The 9pm Winter Series 2024, wrapped up on Thursday night.
I’m pleased to say we reached 88% of Target Two, which means five special-guest episodes of The 9pm Edict podcast across July and August, plus solo episodes and those with Snarky Platypus when I can be bothered when appropriate.
Thank you, everyone.
Four of those episodes have already been pencilled in. Below you’ll see that two of them are scheduled to be recorded in the coming week, and one the following week.
If you missed the campaign deadline, you can always throw a few coins into the tip jar or subscribe for special benefits. Please consider.
Podcasts
- The 9pm Three Minor Irritations, a solo episode recorded and posted on Wednesday to kick off the winter series.
- I had planned to post the episode with Snarky Platypus tonight but that has been delayed again.
Articles
- The Weekly Cybers #25. Amazon scores $2 billion for a top secret data cloud, online child safety gets more attention (yet again), and much more. Published on Saturday morning this week.
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, 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
Elon Musk has so many great ideas.
- Musk’s brilliant plan to combat child labour and forces labour in the cobalt mines in his supply chain is to take a satellite photo once a month. He had previously suggested, admittedly while giggling, that he’d set up a webcam and people could let him know if they saw a child. This Forbes story is also a good explainer on African mining operations generally.
- Apparently Elon wants to remove a bunch of buttons from X’s interface so people swipe right or left. The only metric shown will be total views. I know it’s called the attention economy, or was, but this says more about Musk’s need for attention than anyone else’s.
- Grok 2, a new version of the AI chat bot will arrive in X in August, allegedly.
- ”Elon Musk keeps hyping unrealistic projects that Wall Street eats up, diminishing the focus on Tesla’s falling sales,” writes New York Magazine.
- And from Space.com, Starlink satellites: Facts, tracking and impact on astronomy.
In other news:
- From Asianometry, The Milky, Murky Origins of Bubble Tea.
- I’ve been enjoying British comedian Sarah Millican’s standup clips, especially this one, When Your Cat Brings ‘A Gift’ Home.
- From Mumbrella an important reflection on Australian television culture in Weekend Mumbo: In honour of Toadie – the longest, mightiest soap opera runs in Aussie TV history.
- If you follow my socials you may see me talking about a wonderful critter called the antechinus. Here’s one in action. While that’s an agile antechinus, not then brown antechinus and yellow-footed antechinus we have at Bunjaree Cottages, trust me, they’re all that agile.
The Week Ahead
It’s a podcast-oriented week, beginning on Monday when I edit and post the episode already recorded with Snarky Platypus.
[Update 9 July 2024: Illness has caused the podcast schedule to be shuffled a little, which of course happened just after I’d emailed the original dates to everyone. No blame.]
[Update 10 July 2024: And the other guest is also ill, also with a throat infection. So that podcast is delayed a week too. The publication dates for each episode are still to be set.]
On Wednesday morning I’m recording an episode with Dr Miranda Bruce, who worked on the World Cybercrime Index. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC for this episode, please let me know by midday AEST this Tuesday 9 July. That one will be posted this coming weekend. Postponed one week. See below.
On Thursday morning I’m recording with Barbara Minchinton, author of the new book Madame Brussels: The Life and Times of Melbourne’s Most Notorious Woman. Check the Wikipedia entry. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC, please let me know by midday AEST this Wednesday 10 July. That one will be posted a few days thereafter. Postponed one week. See below.
There’s The Weekly Cybers as usual on Friday, then Saturday will see a day trip to Sydney for social purposes.
Further Ahead
- RESCHEDULED: Podcast recording with Dr Miranda Bruce, who worked on the World Cybercrime Index, 17 July 2024. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC for this episode, please let me know by midday AEST on Tuesday 16 July.
- RESCHEDULED: Podcast recording with Barbara Minchinton, author of the new book Madame Brussels: The Life and Times of Melbourne’s Most Notorious Woman, 18 July 2024. Check the Wikipedia entry. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC, please let me know by midday AEST on Wednesday 17 July.
- NEW: Podcast recording with Scottish author and social researcher David F Porteous, 19 July 2024. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC for this episode, please let me know by 8pm AEST on Thursday 18 July. It will be posted on the weekend of 20–21 July.
- NEW: Opening of Sydney Metro Chatswood-Central-Sydenham, 4 August 2024. I was originally going to leave exploring the new Metro line to another day but I have been persuaded to join friends on a Metro-based pub crawl.
- TechLeaders 2024, Hunter Valley, 10–12 August 2024.
- The Sydney Dialogue, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Sydney and online, 2–3 September 2024 (TBC).
- Australian Internet Governance Forum (auIGF) 2024, formerly known as NetThing, Melbourne and online, 28–29 October 2024 (TBC).
[Photo: Against a grey cloudy sky are highlighted two massive construction cranes at Railway Square, Sydney, their bright colours highlighted by the setting sun. This is the Atlassian Central building site, photographed on 3 July 2024.]