My week of Monday 5 to Sunday 11 August 2024 was packed with action. Editing and posting a podcast, recording another one, and spending a couple nights in the Hunter Valley. I celebrated World Oyster Day and even got attacked by a bird that wasn’t a pelican — but I don’t have time to explain that now. This is already a day late!
Podcasts
- The 9pm Tale of Madame Brussels with Barbara Minchinton, recorded on 18 July and posted on Friday. Great fun. You might also want to check out to book, Madame Brussels: The Life and Times of Melbourne’s Most Notorious Woman.
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Articles
- The Weekly Cybers #30. Just small items this week, because we’re in the calm before the storm of Parliament’s spring sitting — except for myGov fraud, Centrepay, and some routine reports.
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
- On Thursday I did ABC Radio’s RN Drive Big Tech spot, TikTok and body image, COSMOS using AI to publish articles. If you want to read more, check out the stories Just 8 minutes of TikTok ‘thinspiration’ content is enough to affect body image, Cosmos Magazine publishes AI-generated articles, drawing criticism from journalists, co-founders, and Where Facebook’s AI Slop Comes From ($).
Corporate Largesse
- On Saturday and Sunday I was in the Hunter Valley for TechLeaders 2024, courtesy of Influencing, and it continued into Monday. The list of session speakers will indicate who was ultimately paying for it: Coach travel from Sydney to Pokolbin and return with Vineyard Shuttle Service, two nights accommodation at voco Kirkton Park, meals and drinks. I also grabbed a couple of glass-cleaning cloths from NetApp.
Photos, Videos
None of these. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear and when livestreams are scheduled.
Recommendations
I wonder how many stupid things Elon Musk can say in one week?
- UK justice minister slams ‘deeply irresponsible’ Elon Musk comments about riots.
- Elon Musk is being ridiculous. Companies are free to choose where to advertise, it says here in the Guardian. Because, yes, Musk is suing companies that stopped advertising on X.
- Nature has a piece on Neuralink’s second brain implant.
- At The Conversation, “Elon Musk’s recent announcement on Twitter that “Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year” suggests that robots that have physical human-like characteristics and provide “genuinely useful” function might be with us soon.” But of course it doesn’t Musk says all kinds of crap.
- And speaking of crap, “Former United States President and Republican nominee Donald Trump will sit down with tech billionaire Elon Musk for an interview next week, he said Tuesday.”
In other news:
- “Archaeologists conduct first ‘space excavation’ on International Space Station, and discover surprising quirks of zero-gravity life,” including friend of the pod Dr Space Junk. We’ll be talking about this is a future episode.
- Two interesting is relatively superficial pieces from National Geographic. Is sleeping through the night the ‘right’ way to sleep? and Do you have a morning routine? Here’s how some historic figures started their day.
- From Queensland University of Technology, Social media algorithms are shrouded in secrecy. We’re trying to change that. It’s about the Australian Internet Observatory.
- Associated Press has an interesting feature, A chief architect of Project 2025 is ready to shock Washington if Donald Trump wins a second term.
- OK, OK, he’s a mate and I have him on my podcast and all that. but writer John Birmingham turned 60 this week and he’s written something lovely, The Big Six-Oh-My-God.
The Week Ahead
Monday will see saw me wrap up TechLeaders 2024 in the Hunter Valley and return to Sydney, where I’ll be staying overnight before returning to the Blue Mountains on Tuesday after the usual errands.
I need to focus on client work this week — no really — so while the podcast about space with Rami Mandow is ready to edit it might be pushed back to early the following week. Stay tuned.
Further Ahead
- The Sydney Dialogue, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Sydney and online, 2–3 September 2024 (TBC).
- NEW: NSW Local Government Elections, 14 September. This is mostly a reminder to myself.
- Queensland expedition, flying to Cairns on 13 October 2024, taking the Spirit of Queensland train down to Brisbane on 16 October and overnight, then visiting the Gold Coast on 20 October before flying back to Sydney on 21 October. I’m still fleshing out the details but there’s bound to be opportunities to catch up for drinks and such.
- Australian Internet Governance Forum (auIGF) 2024, formerly known as NetThing, Melbourne and online, 28–29 October 2024 (TBC).
[Photo: Six Australian pelicans (Pelecanus conspicillatus) wait patiently at the Sydney Fish Market in the hope that the workers will forget to put the lid back on the scraps bin. They do not.]