My week of Monday 11 to Sunday 17 May 2026 was moderately productive despite coming down with the dreaded lurgi, causing some things to be postponed.
It’s just some random respiratory infection, but it did mean I missed a few things, including Takashi Wakasugi’s comedy show on Saturday night. I am say.
As for the crowdfunder, all I want to say is that it’s still sitting at 67% of the third target, and that there still no progress in finding The Lost Module. I’d planned to have a longer update this week, but it will have to wait until next week.
Podcasts
- The 9pm Shootout at the OK Philippines with Erin Cook, recorded on Wednesday and finally posted on Sunday.
Articles
- The Weekly Cybers #117. The Budget invests in tech sustainment, Kickstarter dumps adult content, robot lawnmowers get hacked and go rogue, and way too much AI news.
Media Appearances
- One of my photos of laksa was used as part of a slideshow in Brazil, Laksa: prato tradicional representa a diversidade cultural e gastronômica da Ásia.
Videos, Photos, Corporate Largesse
None of these. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear and when livestreams are scheduled — like the one coming up on Tuesday night.
Some Interesting Links
- CNN reports: “A Russian ship sank in mysterious circumstances. It may have been carrying submarine nuclear reactors to North Korea“.
- From The Conversation, “New DNA evidence shows dingoes are almost 90% pure – and fall into eight distinct groups”.
- From the BBC Archives and the year 2000, Are Internet Mobiles Really the Future? Nah, it’ll never catch on.
- There’s an updated version of A Reference Guide For Recognizing Far Right Groups, Symbols and Dog Whistles.
- NASA has posted all the photos from the Artemis II mission.
- This week’s suggested follow: 3 Minutes of Aviation is a YouTube channel that does what it says on the tin. “I combine interesting aviation moments captured on camera and put them in context by giving you informative background information about each clip,” they say, but really it’s mostly just heavy landings and other less-than-perfect flying.
The Week Ahead
Assuming that I’ve recovered from the lurgi, Monday will be a day of chores and client comms and administrivia and whatever other small tasks I can knock off. That’s also what I’d planned for Monday last week.
Tuesday night will see another livestream in The Great Unboxening at 8pm AEST, this time focusing on everything else that’s left before it all gets posted on Gumtree or eBay or whatever. This will be the last in this miniseries, because I have to get rid of everything by the end of the month. And yes, this livestream has been rescheduled from last week.
[Update 18 May 2026: Alas, I have to push back this livestream once again. I’ve been a bit ill, and today it was confirmed as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and it’s not fun. The new date on YouTube is tentative only.]
I’ve got an important client meeting on Wednesday afternoon, so we’ll see what happens after that.
The Weekly Cybers newsletter will appear as usual on Friday afternoon.
On Friday evening, rescheduled from last week, I’m recording an Edict with Scottish author and social researcher David F Porteous, who’s also been on the pod many times before. If you’re a supporter with TRIGGER WORDS or a CONVERSATION TOPIC for this episode, please let me know by 9pm AEST this Thursday 21 May. The finished episode will be posted early next week.
I don’t have any plans for the weekend yet.
Further Ahead
- NEW: Edict recording with Dr Alice Gorman and Rami Mandow, 27 May 2026 (TBC). This will be another space-oriented episode, of course. If you’re a supporter with a TRIGGER WORD or a CONVERSATION TOPIC for this episode, please let me know by 8pm AEST on Tuesday 26 May.
[Photo: Revenge of the Ibis. This car, photographed on 14 May 2026, has been abandoned in Campsie for months. The local ibis clan has made its mark.]