Pete
@wellsenkind.bsky.social
A dark forest. Christian anarchist. Lapsed social scientist.
The Albanese govt cuts CSIRO jobs on advice from Treasury & Finance; now seems determined to create robodebt from scratch with their AI-managed NDIS plans. Maybe we were wrong to assume the problem was the Morrison government; maybe the problem is the senior leadership of the APS.
December 3, 2025 at 5:33 AM
The Albanese govt cuts CSIRO jobs on advice from Treasury & Finance; now seems determined to create robodebt from scratch with their AI-managed NDIS plans. Maybe we were wrong to assume the problem was the Morrison government; maybe the problem is the senior leadership of the APS.
Last night west BNE got hit with the worst storm I’ve seen in a decade. 100mm in 15 minutes. Flash flooding everywhere. New BOM site said it was moderate rainfall the entire time. Their new data design will kill people.
The BOM have destroyed their website - no current observations by weather station available anymore for example. Royal Commission now. I want people sacked.
October 27, 2025 at 7:47 AM
Last night west BNE got hit with the worst storm I’ve seen in a decade. 100mm in 15 minutes. Flash flooding everywhere. New BOM site said it was moderate rainfall the entire time. Their new data design will kill people.
More like land of the oppressed and home of the cowardly, am I right?
September 18, 2025 at 6:14 AM
More like land of the oppressed and home of the cowardly, am I right?
My apparently most controversial opinion working in tech is that we should maintain cash as a viable form of payment, regardless of cost, in order to ensure the robustness of our payment systems and the Australian economy. Digital payments are exponentially more complex.
Fiscally physical: why I’m not letting go of cash | Fiona Katauskas
Fiscally physical: why I’m not letting go of cash | Fiona Katauskas
Those of us who still prefer analogue money are seen as eccentric at best and desperately uncool at worst – but change is always possible
“Oh my God! You still use cash?!”
If I had a dollar for every time someone said that to me, I’d have about $1,326, and it’d all be in the cold hard stuff. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
September 3, 2025 at 5:08 AM
My apparently most controversial opinion working in tech is that we should maintain cash as a viable form of payment, regardless of cost, in order to ensure the robustness of our payment systems and the Australian economy. Digital payments are exponentially more complex.
Bandcamp Clubs seems like a great addition to their product lineup. I love Record Clubs but I struggle to justify the cost when there are a) already so many records I know I love that I'd like to own and b) the cost of vinyl makes getting albums you don't enjoy more painful (1/?)
September 1, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Bandcamp Clubs seems like a great addition to their product lineup. I love Record Clubs but I struggle to justify the cost when there are a) already so many records I know I love that I'd like to own and b) the cost of vinyl makes getting albums you don't enjoy more painful (1/?)
Reposted by Pete
Academics (including the journal’s founder) told Wiley to pound sand, started an open access journal, and Wiley just surrendered. I think more academics should tell academic publishers to pound sand. They are vampires.
Wiley officially closes the Journal of Political Philosophy, which was abandoned by its editorial team and shunned by academics after Wiley attempted moves that would have compromised the journal's editorial independence.
Journal of Political Philosophy Officially Ends - Daily Nous
"The Journal of Political Philosophy will cease publication effective January 1, 2026." That's from an email sent by the journal's publisher, Wiley, earlier today, calling the move "a difficult decisi...
dailynous.com
July 28, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Academics (including the journal’s founder) told Wiley to pound sand, started an open access journal, and Wiley just surrendered. I think more academics should tell academic publishers to pound sand. They are vampires.
I read a paper 3 years ago that predicted based on trends we'd hit $50/kWh wholesale around 2030. We're five years ahead of schedule. If we can get this kind of pricing for home batteries we'll transform our energy economy.
Battery storage just hit a watershed moment: $51/kWh in China, down 30% in 12 months. While fossil fuels get slower & pricier, batteries are getting cheaper and better. This isn’t a trend—it’s now a rupture. Solar + storage is now the default for new energy. Everywhere. ⚡📉 #BESS #EnergyTransition
“Watershed moment:” Big battery storage prices hit record low in huge China auction
Huge China auction delivers another stunning fall in battery storage prices. It is being hailed as a potential tipping point for “round the clock” renewables.
reneweconomy.com.au
July 10, 2025 at 6:28 AM
I read a paper 3 years ago that predicted based on trends we'd hit $50/kWh wholesale around 2030. We're five years ahead of schedule. If we can get this kind of pricing for home batteries we'll transform our energy economy.
Reposted by Pete
Good god. Meta is using their AI licensing deals with John Cena, Disney, and others to peddle sex chat bots to kids. Burn this company to the fucking ground. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta...
April 27, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Good god. Meta is using their AI licensing deals with John Cena, Disney, and others to peddle sex chat bots to kids. Burn this company to the fucking ground. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta...
Reposted by Pete
The student paper at the college at which I teach reports a "tsunami of takedown requests" from international students terrified of being targeted for innocuous, legitimate op-eds & opinions.. Many ask in person--leave no trace in writing. Reminds me of my father's account of studying in the USSR.
April 15, 2025 at 5:37 PM
The student paper at the college at which I teach reports a "tsunami of takedown requests" from international students terrified of being targeted for innocuous, legitimate op-eds & opinions.. Many ask in person--leave no trace in writing. Reminds me of my father's account of studying in the USSR.
Australians can’t be too shocked by Salvadoran gulags when we perfected its precedent in Nauru.
April 15, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Australians can’t be too shocked by Salvadoran gulags when we perfected its precedent in Nauru.
Will Jordan Peterson promote the inevitable Latino Gulag Archipelago we get from this atrocity? Or is it only literature if a white guy writes it? This and other questions you already know the answer to coming up.
April 15, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Will Jordan Peterson promote the inevitable Latino Gulag Archipelago we get from this atrocity? Or is it only literature if a white guy writes it? This and other questions you already know the answer to coming up.
I don't think we can call these new genetically modified wolves direwolves.
They're gattacawolves.
They're gattacawolves.
April 9, 2025 at 12:58 AM
I don't think we can call these new genetically modified wolves direwolves.
They're gattacawolves.
They're gattacawolves.
Dutton can’t even stand for his own ideas but will *totally* stand up to Trump.
A Coalition promise to send public servants back to the office has been jettisoned, and plans to cut 41,000 Commonwealth jobs walked back significantly, in a mid-campaign backflip.
Coalition commits extraordinary about-face on 'end' to work from home
A Coalition promise to send public servants back to the office has been jettisoned, and plans to cut 41,000 Commonwealth jobs walked back significantly, in a mid-campaign backflip.
www.abc.net.au
April 6, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Dutton can’t even stand for his own ideas but will *totally* stand up to Trump.
Lots of speculation this morning about how Trump arrived at his calculations of 'tariffs imposed on the US' but all you really need to know is that his list explicitly includes tariffs on two islands populated only by penguins. www.wired.com/story/trump-... #auspol #tariffs
Trump Tariffs Hit Antarctic Islands Inhabited by Zero Humans and Many Penguins
The Heard and McDonald Islands are among the dozens of targets of President Donald Trump's latest round of tariffs. But they have no exports, because no one lives there.
www.wired.com
April 3, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Lots of speculation this morning about how Trump arrived at his calculations of 'tariffs imposed on the US' but all you really need to know is that his list explicitly includes tariffs on two islands populated only by penguins. www.wired.com/story/trump-... #auspol #tariffs
Things you'll never see @albomp.bsky.social promote for Australia this election:
It’s time your government got back in the business of building affordable homes.
April 1, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Things you'll never see @albomp.bsky.social promote for Australia this election:
Show me the incentives and I'll show you the outcome. (hint: who does the maintenance?)
Wired surveyed 730 coders and developers about how they use AI chatbots & tools. “Freelance coders seem to like AI more than full-time coders.” [wired.com]
How Software Engineers Actually Use AI
We surveyed 730 coders and developers about how (and how often) they use AI chatbots on the job. The results amazed and disturbed us.
www.wired.com
March 27, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Show me the incentives and I'll show you the outcome. (hint: who does the maintenance?)
The last 20 years has shown us that both major parties in Australia will govern against the interest of the people when they're in power. I suspect the only readily available way to moderate that instinct is minority government. #auspol
March 18, 2025 at 11:08 PM
The last 20 years has shown us that both major parties in Australia will govern against the interest of the people when they're in power. I suspect the only readily available way to moderate that instinct is minority government. #auspol
I want Standards Australia to stop paywalling their content so people can see what the standards are without having to fork out hundreds of dollars.
I want Standards Australia to write standards for wider park benches and more shelters for tram stops and bike racks every 100m and green spaces every 200m and
I cannot understand why Standards Australia is rewriting standards for parking spaces, car parks etc to accommodate huge American trucks. Much better to remove the tax concession for them and ban them from CBD. When will we take measures to prioritise people? #auspol
March 17, 2025 at 9:36 PM
I want Standards Australia to stop paywalling their content so people can see what the standards are without having to fork out hundreds of dollars.
I’m amazed that the Australian government’s travel advisory for travelling to the US is still “normal precautions” when foreign visitors with legal visas are getting disappeared. Though I’m sure there would be diplomatic consequences for actually providing said warning.
March 17, 2025 at 7:52 AM
I’m amazed that the Australian government’s travel advisory for travelling to the US is still “normal precautions” when foreign visitors with legal visas are getting disappeared. Though I’m sure there would be diplomatic consequences for actually providing said warning.
My new retconned headcanon is that @lowtheband.bsky.social 's "Witches" is actually about @algreen.house.gov and not, you know, the other one.
"Cause when you've finally submitted to embarrassing capture
All you guys out there gonna wish you were Al Green"
"Cause when you've finally submitted to embarrassing capture
All you guys out there gonna wish you were Al Green"
March 6, 2025 at 1:59 AM
My new retconned headcanon is that @lowtheband.bsky.social 's "Witches" is actually about @algreen.house.gov and not, you know, the other one.
"Cause when you've finally submitted to embarrassing capture
All you guys out there gonna wish you were Al Green"
"Cause when you've finally submitted to embarrassing capture
All you guys out there gonna wish you were Al Green"
Peter Dutton runs away from Cyclone Alfred and the only media to report on it is... the financial review?
Bit of a gamble if his electorate ends up copping it...
Bit of a gamble if his electorate ends up copping it...
While south east QLD prepares for cyclone, where’s Peter Dutton???
This should answer your question!!
This should answer your question!!
March 6, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Peter Dutton runs away from Cyclone Alfred and the only media to report on it is... the financial review?
Bit of a gamble if his electorate ends up copping it...
Bit of a gamble if his electorate ends up copping it...
DOGE is Grover Norquist's "I want to make government so small you can drown it in the tub" but using AI so 'the government' is now a toaster.
February 13, 2025 at 4:35 AM
DOGE is Grover Norquist's "I want to make government so small you can drown it in the tub" but using AI so 'the government' is now a toaster.
Wasn't expecting Bonhoeffer's wrestling with the limits of pacifism to ever be more, personally, than an abstract philosophical problem. But here we are.
February 4, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Wasn't expecting Bonhoeffer's wrestling with the limits of pacifism to ever be more, personally, than an abstract philosophical problem. But here we are.