@robbomck.bsky.social
Canuck in Oz, mucking about here for now. Interests include tech, music, politics, economics, journalism, photography, bushfire preparedness, cooking... and so on.
It’s be nice if governing was more thinking and less reactive sound biting
#auspol
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
#auspol
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
‘We can’t police our way out of fascism’: experts urge holistic approach to counter Australia’s neo-Nazis
Reactive lawmaking and off-the-cuff ideas won’t deal with the problem, counter-terrorism expert and researcher at ANU says
www.theguardian.com
November 15, 2025 at 2:03 AM
It’s be nice if governing was more thinking and less reactive sound biting
#auspol
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
#auspol
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
#usa #america #politics #mustread
Seriously, a good piece. We need more people living like this. Also… a good reference for #auspol when thinking about role models ;)
www.techdirt.com/2025/11/13/a...
Seriously, a good piece. We need more people living like this. Also… a good reference for #auspol when thinking about role models ;)
www.techdirt.com/2025/11/13/a...
A Love Letter To America
I love America. You’re so fucked up. But I love you. You’re built upon a beautiful and preposterous idea: that ordinary people—you and I—can govern ourselves. Together. Not through superior intelli…
www.techdirt.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted
Let's stop pretending that the billionaire media, endlessly attacking the BBC, has the slightest interest in balance, impartiality and accuracy. They won't be happy until the BBC is more rightwing than Vlad the Impaler. And then it still won't be enough.
November 11, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Let's stop pretending that the billionaire media, endlessly attacking the BBC, has the slightest interest in balance, impartiality and accuracy. They won't be happy until the BBC is more rightwing than Vlad the Impaler. And then it still won't be enough.
Listening to @coverville.com 1557.
Dunno if I’m just in a mood but my word these are AWESOME covers. Y’know what, stuff Spotify and just listen here. Fantastic #music.
Dunno if I’m just in a mood but my word these are AWESOME covers. Y’know what, stuff Spotify and just listen here. Fantastic #music.
November 10, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Listening to @coverville.com 1557.
Dunno if I’m just in a mood but my word these are AWESOME covers. Y’know what, stuff Spotify and just listen here. Fantastic #music.
Dunno if I’m just in a mood but my word these are AWESOME covers. Y’know what, stuff Spotify and just listen here. Fantastic #music.
“Black people were not more susceptible to TB because of… race; they were… because of racism.”
John Green, Everything is Tuberculosis, p82.
Excellent sentence.
John Green, Everything is Tuberculosis, p82.
Excellent sentence.
November 8, 2025 at 6:34 AM
“Black people were not more susceptible to TB because of… race; they were… because of racism.”
John Green, Everything is Tuberculosis, p82.
Excellent sentence.
John Green, Everything is Tuberculosis, p82.
Excellent sentence.
Reposted
At Sydney’s mighty arms convention, weapons are sold as ‘solutions’. No one mentions the people they will target
At Sydney’s mighty arms convention, weapons are sold as ‘solutions’. No one mentions the people they will target
As protesters outside condemn war, inside the Indo-Pacific International Maritime Exposition the defence minister praises the ‘beautiful, menacing and extremely cool’ technology on show
*
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Inside the heavily guarded, aseptically cool halls of the Indo-Pacific International Maritime Exposition, Australia’s defence minister, Richard Marles, describes it as, for some in the room, “a kind of Disneyland … the happiest place on Earth”.
Standing outside, facing barricades and a broad line of armed police, those protesting the very presence of the arms conference in Sydney view it is anything but. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:04 PM
At Sydney’s mighty arms convention, weapons are sold as ‘solutions’. No one mentions the people they will target
Reposted
this is a pretty great comparison between llms and a tiny living intelligence, ants
My favorite comment on the FT story
November 6, 2025 at 9:48 PM
this is a pretty great comparison between llms and a tiny living intelligence, ants
Reposted
I'm telling ya, we take one to the guillotine & the rest will suddenly find more moral & ethical conscience than a Dalai Lama who's just smoked a bowl
November 6, 2025 at 3:42 AM
I'm telling ya, we take one to the guillotine & the rest will suddenly find more moral & ethical conscience than a Dalai Lama who's just smoked a bowl
Reposted
Too many people thinking about "AI threats" as "threats from AI agency" (which is science fiction) and not "threats from human agency used to productize LLMs in evil ways" which is in the news every day.
November 4, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Too many people thinking about "AI threats" as "threats from AI agency" (which is science fiction) and not "threats from human agency used to productize LLMs in evil ways" which is in the news every day.
Reposted
Reposted
One of the major fruits of research is delight. Think of how often you’ve read about a discovery and really enjoyed it. Often the most pleasurable kind of news. Public delight isn’t discussed enough as one of the major outputs of funding research.
I strongly recommend everyone do research sometimes 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘶𝘯.
Look something up on Wikipedia. Go to the little citation. Follow it. Read the article it's referencing. Follow links to the original interview. Read the paper written by the interviewee
It genuinely makes you appreciate journalism
Look something up on Wikipedia. Go to the little citation. Follow it. Read the article it's referencing. Follow links to the original interview. Read the paper written by the interviewee
It genuinely makes you appreciate journalism
November 2, 2025 at 3:06 AM
One of the major fruits of research is delight. Think of how often you’ve read about a discovery and really enjoyed it. Often the most pleasurable kind of news. Public delight isn’t discussed enough as one of the major outputs of funding research.
Reposted
![VEX
@vexwerewolf
Right-wingers literally straight-up admitting "it's harder to discredit the left because the left is almost always telling the truth"
Scott Jennings
@Lum_ · 21h
um, yes, that's really a problem
Show this thread
[Unnamed User] · 9 points · 12 hrs
The problem with left-leaning media is they're intrinsically more strict with their propaganda to only using verifiable sources so it's really hard to poke holes in their ideology and arguments in comparison to a lot of low quality rightwing content.
That makes attacking their points with fact checkers not very effective unless the fact checkers use misinformation tactics as well.
In essence people on the right have to work harder and more creatively to push their agendas as statistics and studies frustratingly aren't usually on our side](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:lxm3v43kiuo4gdun45a4zivh/bafkreifno6jfhml6z4pdce7dudnx7ksy2whkvoa75gimn73uowme5dtwoi@jpeg)
Reposted
When a government starves people to prove they’re “earning” help, that’s not policy, it’s economic violence. Labor’s Centrelink regime is indistinguishable from Morrison’s.
#EndPoverty #RaiseTheRate #auspol
#EndPoverty #RaiseTheRate #auspol
Centrelink threatening payment suspensions at rate of five a minute, new analysis suggests
Exclusive: As jobseekers continue to have payments suspended, advocates call for the regime to be stopped until it’s proven to be lawful
www.theguardian.com
November 1, 2025 at 10:17 PM
When a government starves people to prove they’re “earning” help, that’s not policy, it’s economic violence. Labor’s Centrelink regime is indistinguishable from Morrison’s.
#EndPoverty #RaiseTheRate #auspol
#EndPoverty #RaiseTheRate #auspol
Reposted
Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House.
Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.
They are not the same.
Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.
They are not the same.
October 30, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House.
Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.
They are not the same.
Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.
They are not the same.
Huh. Phone is now too old for the Amex app, apparently.
Ok, deleted!
Ok, deleted!
October 29, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Huh. Phone is now too old for the Amex app, apparently.
Ok, deleted!
Ok, deleted!
Reposted
Guillermo del Toro on wealth: "a wealthy man is a man who has enough, not a man that needs more. If you have enough to invite someone for a beer? You're rich. If you have a yacht, planes, islands, and you still need more? You're not rich."
October 27, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Guillermo del Toro on wealth: "a wealthy man is a man who has enough, not a man that needs more. If you have enough to invite someone for a beer? You're rich. If you have a yacht, planes, islands, and you still need more? You're not rich."
Reposted
BREAKING: economist discovers “second shift,” a concept coined by sociologists almost 50 years ago; gives it new, stupider, and less explicitly labor-oriented name
October 26, 2025 at 1:58 PM
BREAKING: economist discovers “second shift,” a concept coined by sociologists almost 50 years ago; gives it new, stupider, and less explicitly labor-oriented name
Reposted
Just a thought: How about we stop shaming the poor for buying things that may not be essential, and start shaming the rich for making a profit off things that are essential?
October 23, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Just a thought: How about we stop shaming the poor for buying things that may not be essential, and start shaming the rich for making a profit off things that are essential?
Isn’t “access money you are entitled to and give it to me” a foundational scam premise?
#auspol #healthcare
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
#auspol #healthcare
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
Healthscope under fire over proposal to take employees' tax benefits
In-receivership hospital group Healthscope is taking radical steps to stay alive, converting to a charity and proposing to take 90 per cent of a benefit intended to reduce workers' taxable income.
www.abc.net.au
October 19, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Isn’t “access money you are entitled to and give it to me” a foundational scam premise?
#auspol #healthcare
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
#auspol #healthcare
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
We ought to listen to folks like Me Kohler instead of Thiel/Musk/Zuck/Farquhar/Altman…
Thinking and talking sense instead of whatever BS passes for tech lad big thoughts.
#ai #crypto #economics #tech
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
Thinking and talking sense instead of whatever BS passes for tech lad big thoughts.
#ai #crypto #economics #tech
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
If AI is a good investment, we're in trouble
Speculative manias where the first investors win because there isn't a bust are rare occurrences.
www.abc.net.au
October 19, 2025 at 8:23 PM
We ought to listen to folks like Me Kohler instead of Thiel/Musk/Zuck/Farquhar/Altman…
Thinking and talking sense instead of whatever BS passes for tech lad big thoughts.
#ai #crypto #economics #tech
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
Thinking and talking sense instead of whatever BS passes for tech lad big thoughts.
#ai #crypto #economics #tech
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
Reposted
He’s not wrong, IF one accepts his self serving priors including the premise that LLMs are the right tech and application.
#ai #auspol
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
#ai #auspol
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Open AI breaks ranks with Tech Council of Australia over heated copyright issue
Chief global affairs officer of company behind ChatGPT tells Sydney audience ‘we are going to be in Australia, one way or the other’
www.theguardian.com
October 17, 2025 at 9:58 PM
He’s not wrong, IF one accepts his self serving priors including the premise that LLMs are the right tech and application.
#ai #auspol
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
#ai #auspol
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Reposted
