Yes, in my week of Monday 14 to Sunday 20 April 2025 the first pilot episode of Another Untitled Music Podcast was finally posted, and people seem to be liking it? And this season’s crowdfunder hit its first target, thank you. I am a happy little boy.
FINAL HOURS: This season’s crowdfunder ends on Tuesday night
There’s just 48 hours left in this season’s crowdfunding campaign, The 9pm Mid-2025 Series.
This campaign combines autumn and winter, and for that matter also my birthday in the first half of May, so I encourage you to be extra generous.
The funding goes towards making more special-guest episodes of my inappropriate and often disturbing podcast for grown-ups, The 9pm Edict, and other projects including Another Untitled Music Podcast.
This afternoon we hit Target One, which is fantastic thank you, and at the time of writing we’re now 75% of the way towards Target Two.
Please click though, read, and consider. You have until 9pm AEST this Tuesday 22 April.
Podcasts
- Another Untitled Music Podcast | Pilot 1, recorded way back on 26 January but finally posted on Sunday — except a problem at the hosting provider meant it wasn’t visible until a couple of days later. Anyway, here it is at last.
The 9pm Edict and Another Untitled Music Podcast are supported by the generosity of their listeners. Please consider the crowdfunder above. If you miss that deadline, or prefer to pay me directly, you can always throw a few coins into the tip jar or subscribe for special benefits. Please consider.
Articles
- The Weekly Cybers #64. eSafety’s international fines slammed as “vibes-based virtue signalling”, warnings on election disinformation, US defunds CVE cybersecurity research database, and 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.
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.
Muskwatch
I was about to say “It’s a strange collection of Elon Musk stories this week”, but then it always is, right?
- TIME has of course included Elon Musk in their The 100 Most Influential People of 2025.
- Putin praises Elon Musk, compares him to father of Soviet space program. What, the great Sergei Korolev, chief engineer of the Soviet Union’s space program in the 1950s and 1960s? ROFL.
- Trump adviser Peter Navarro says ‘we’re great’ after Elon Musk calls him ‘moron’.
- Steve Bannon and Elon Musk are battling for the soul of Trumpism. “A growing rift within the MAGA coalition between populists and techno-oligarchs may determine the future of the Republican Party.”
- Tesla whistleblower wins latest legal battle in fight against Musk.
- “The tycoon and Donald Trump advisor has moved his businesses from California to a mostly rural central Texas county. What do the neighbours think?“
- From The Atlantic, The Harem of Elon Musk (archived). “The DOGE leader is offering the Republican Party a very different vision of fatherhood.” Yeah no kidding.
- And at the Guardian, Sci-fi Musk is brainstorming ways to breed his ‘legion’ more efficiently, riffing off a story in the Wall Street Journal, The tactics Elon Musk uses to manage his ‘legion’ of babies — and their mothers.
Some Interesting Links
Just a few videos this week. Enjoy.
- From the YouTube channel Whiskey Tribe, We try to match Churchill drink for drink… send help. Which is an interesting challenge, given that they also try to match Winston’s cigar consumption. But they’re both Americans and I can’t help but think they’re a bit soft. Maybe I should try this myself.
- From Asianometry, for no reason whatsoever, a video about historical tariffs in Asia and South America.
- Some infrared video captures of quolls and a Tasmanian devil in, um, Tasmania.
- Finally, there’s a new video from Ze Frank, True Facts: The Bizarre Magic of Water Walkers.
The Week Ahead
The week begins with me still in Sydney and it’s the Easter Monday public holiday, but I’ll be editing and posting that podcast with Snarky Platypus and doing some other bits and pieces.
The Weekly Cybers will appear on Thursday again this week, because Friday is the public holiday for Anzac Day. For most Australians it’s a very short work week indeed.
[Update 23 April 2025: Snarky Platypus has had to change his plans, and for very good reasons, so I’m juggling the podcast schedule yet again. You must be getting sick of this. Sorry.]
On that Friday, though, Snarky Platypus and I will record the second pilot episode of Another Untitled Music Podcast, and it’ll be posted a few days later. I’ll return to the Blue Mountains on Friday night.
On Friday I’ll be bumping out of my Sydney hide-hole and getting the train back to the Blue mountains.
NEW: On Friday evening I’m recording a podcast with Scottish author and social researcher David F Porteous, who will be asking me to explain Australian democracy. In return he’ll update us from his side of the world. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC for this episode, please let me know by 9am AEST this Friday 25 April.
In between all that I’ll be trying to catch up on client work.
Further Ahead
- Federal Election, 3 May 2025. I haven’t made any plans yet, although I’ll probably be down in Sydney somewhere.
- Takashi Wakasugi Comedy Samurai, The Comedy Store, Sydney, 4 May 2025. I am totally fascinated by this guy’s brain.
- NEW: .au member webinar: auDA 2026-30 Draft Strategy, online, 5 May 2025.
- Sydney Heli Grand Flight, Sydney HeliTours, 7 May 2025. Someone has been quite generous with this birthday present, my first helicopter flight. There will be photographs.
- Stilgherrian’s Nth birthday lunch, where N is divisible by 5, Blue Mountains, Saturday 10 May 2025. This date may or may not be my exact birthday. Some friends have organised lunch at a posh place in the Blue Mountains. If you’re of the opinion that you’d like to join us, please let me know and I’ll connect you with the organiser.
- NEW: Space traffic jam: Challenges facing space sustainability, US Studies Centre, online, 14 May 2025.
- He Huang’s White Man’s Burden, Concourse Chatswood, 17 May 2025. I really love her work. Look for her on YouTube.
[Photo: A NSW TrainLink V-set train at Mount Victoria station in the Blue Mountains, photographed on 18 March 2020. I’d travelled there to retrieve my phone, which the staff had helpfully retrieved from the train where I’d dropped it the night before.]