Unliveable but it has its moments

Circular Quay in Sydney. A harbour scene featuring the distinctive Sydney Opera House, ferries, skyscrapers, and a partly cloudy sky.

“…my “collaborations” with generative AI are no more collaborative than my body’s folding to the contours of the chair I sit on, or the way my drawing is a collaboration with the pencil, or how the air I breathe buoys my thinking.“ – Rachel Horst

Stay cool today gang

Close-up garden photograph showing tall purple-blue flower spikes, some kind of salvia, in sharp focus against soft, feathery fennel leaves. A blurred green lawn and shed is visible in the background

The river this morning

A river flows between lush, green trees under a blue, partly cloudy sky. It’s the Parramatta River in Sydney, Australia.
UNSW campus in the morning. A modern architectural building complex features a tall brick structure, a large geometric sculpture on the lawn, and a staircase leading to other buildings.

I grew up in a town where there were several Aboriginal deaths in custody in the ‘80s. The final report of the RCIADIC was released 34 years ago.

Nothing’s changed.

“More First Nations people have died in custody in New South Wales so far this year than ever before, the state coroner has revealed”

A colorful graffiti ibis is painted on a brick wall above a gas utility cover.

Western Sydney University students and alumni emailed to say their degrees had been “revoked”. These incidents are damaging because they mirror the officious and depersonalised tone of so much comms. If acting in more human and humane ways was the norm, these incidents wouldn’t be so harmful.

The Sorbonne ditches university rankings

“Sorbonne University has chosen to withdraw from the World University Rankings, produced by Times Higher Education (THE). The university will stop sharing the data required to be included in the ranking as of 2026… This choice marks a new chapter in Sorbonne University’s ambitious and voluntarist strategy for Open Science and the reform of research assessment."

Mrs Mop

A black spider with a distinct red marking is crawling on a metallic, perforated surface - a redback on the inside of a mop bucket.

I’m proud to announce my new role as Chief Content Officer for SlopApp and I look forward to the many challenges of the role.

“OpenAI Is Preparing to Launch a Social App for AI-Generated Videos”

University of Technology Sydney plans to cut public health at the worst possible time - Daniel Demant at InSight+

voids

A building interior void with curved balconies, red-carpeted stairs, and a glass wall.

Rick Morton in the Saturday Paper:

> The University of Technology Sydney denied the existence of a KPMG spreadsheet ranking the research performance of academics, in breach of its own enterprise agreement, until it was forced to release it.

Bert Flugelman’s Six figure group (1963) outside Goldstein Hall at UNSW

A group of abstract bronze sculptures in expressionist style stands on a rectangular platform surrounded by a shallow pond in a building courtyard. A jacaranda’s branches are visible, partly shading the area.

A small way of showing your support for students and staff at UTS:

Petition · Save UTS Public Health – For Students, Communities, and Equity

Prestige over merit: An adapted audit of LLM bias in peer review

The ever-diminishing set of use cases for LLMs…

A Croakey post by me: Calls for action to stop public health cuts at University of Technology Sydney

Me 🫴 The Center for the Alignment of AI Alignment Centers 🦋 is this real? (It’s very well done)

Three influential policy groups that together receive almost $20m in donations a year refuse to reveal their key donors, including those whose commercial interests may overlap with their public advocacy campaigns. The progressive Australia Institute, the right-leaning Centre for Independent Studies and the conservative Institute of Public Affairs argue they cannot reveal their donors without exposing them to attack from political opponents.

Slack. Good on Grattan, CEDA and Per Capita for being more honest about their funding.

Reported by Henry Belot for _The Guardian _