I was having a think about what kind of things might actually excite me in a new tech device, in the way a new Creative MP3 player used to (lol):

  • no AI included, or somehow even blocked entirely at OS/hardware level
  • look more visually interesting as an object, not just a glass block
  • physical buttons? Or more of a sense of the materiality of design beyond glass and screens
  • deliberate restrictions or limited affordances, like no screens or only audio interfaces (Apple TV+’s Sunny had an interesting depiction of this, thought this’d require even more AI I guess)
  • dumbing down devices and ability to impair their surveillance at a more foundational/hardware level
  • making some actual design decisions that lead to functions or features being removed?

Designers seem to need constraints to do interesting stuff. We should be demanding more limits on devices instead of affordances.

  • Sent from my Nokia 7110

This article by Andrew Lynch and César Albarrán-Torres dunks so hard on A24, I absolutely loved it:

A24’s brand aura: commodifying “alternative” cinephilia

Tried to explain this, one of the greatest moments on the internet, to my kids and it was surprisingly difficult. We are losing the ancient texts.

A screenshot of a Twitter exchange from September 2017, during the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey on same-sex marriage.&10;&10;At the top is a tweet from verified user “dan” (@dannolan), posted three hours earlier. His profile photo shows a man with short dark hair and a moustache. The tweet reads: “I work at the australia post in chatswood and I’m using a torch to check all ballots and throw out ALL no votes”.&10;&10;Below the text is a photograph of what appears to be an unopened Australian Bureau of Statistics postal survey envelope. A bright torch is being shone through the envelope, making the paper partly translucent. Through it, the word “No” and a marked box appear visible. Parts of the envelope read “Australian Bureau of Statistics”, “Reply Paid 91204” and “Don’t delay”. The tweet shows 109 replies, 251 retweets and 722 likes.&10;&10;Beneath it is a reply from the verified Australia Post account (@auspost), with the red-and-white Australia Post logo as its profile image. The reply reads: “does not work for Australia Post. Please remember tampering with mail is a federal offence.” It is timestamped 9/13/17, 4:26 PM.&10;&10;The exchange occurred during the 2017 Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, in which eligible Australians were mailed survey forms asking whether the law should be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry. The joke in the original tweet is therefore about an Australia Post employee supposedly using a torch to identify “No” responses through their envelopes and discard them before they could be counted. Australia Post’s reply treats the claim seriously, publicly denying that the poster was an employee and warning that interfering with mail is a federal offence.

monodump

A series of water fountains spray upward in an urban plaza with wet, reflective stone pavement and tall buildings in the background.A cat stands on a worn concrete surface in front of an old brick house with a white iron gate and fence.Two people are walking along a sidewalk next to a large textured mural wall in an urban environment under bright sunlight.A narrow, dimly lit alleyway at night features a solitary person standing on the left side, with buildings and framed pictures lining the walls.A black and white photo of a small dog sitting indoors with a home office setup visible in the background.A cup of coffee features latte art depicting a cute bear face with a small heart above it, accompanied by a spoon on a white saucer.A solitary person stands by tall, narrow windows in a dimly lit, minimalist hallway.A deserted underground train station platform is illuminated by wall-mounted lamps, featuring a curved ceiling and a dark tunnel at the far end.A quiet outdoor seating area with numerous benches arranged around trees and a person walking along the paved pathway.A set of wide stairs leads down between modern buildings towards a crosswalk surrounded by trees.

I was wondering what they’re up to on Chapo Trap House since Matt Christman had his stroke/left the show (I haven’t listened in a long time). Only Australians will understand how poorly it must be going:

Screenshot of the Chapo Trap House podcast episode “Koala Killers feat. friendlyjordies” (12 Aug 2026). The episode description says journalist and YouTuber Jordan Shanks-Markovina joins to discuss Australian politics, One Nation, organised crime and bikers, koalas, and the criminal prosecutions and firebombing linked to his reporting.

This sounds like something to know in advance. At 2pm AEST next Monday 27 July Australia’s new national warning system will send a test alert to phones and some tablets and smart watches. They’ll vibrate and emit a siren-like sound for about 10 seconds.

www.ausalert.gov.au/alerts-ex…

There must have been some Thierry Lasso CROIRE bullshit going on in that change room.

What I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. Like destroying every shoe and cable in your house.

A small, serious-looking dog walking down a hallway towards the camera.

If coffee is routinely >$6 now I feel like being good should be factored in as part of the cost.

With every day I’m more convinced we’re living in Eddington. Even though the film was set six years ago, it’s happening now (and probably for the foreseeable future).

”Drawing on a critical meta-synthesis of cross-disciplinary literature, supported by ChatGPT-4o DeepResearch, the paper develops a reflexively grounded research guide for navigating methodological practice in an increasingly complex research landscape shaped by geopolitical contestation and renewed demands for equity and inclusion”

A “reflexively grounded research guide” based on whose reflexivity exactly?

A small toy dinosaur is placed on a mound of soil with young plants growing, set against a background of a garden and a building wall.

People routinely misunderstand Judge Dredd but this is an all-time standout: a LinkedIn post saying the lesson we need to learn from it is about human-in-the-loop AI use.

That torment nexus tweet wasn’t satire at all.

Text shot: Judge Dredd exemplified a future where technology enhances decision-making but does not replace human judgment, emphasizing the need for human responsibility and accountability in justice.

Neighbourhood Watch

A small dog is sitting and looking out through a second floor window of a brick building.

When this masthead visited Merrylands on Thursday to talk to locals about their experience of organised crime, no one approached was willing to share their story.

lmao

Uber For Nursing

This is bleak, even for the Torment Nexus.

The modern university does not exist

One thing became clear very quickly: the modern university does not exist… First of all, they are nothing like the institutions that outsiders imagine. Rapacious devil-take-the-hindmost student recruitment means they are more like aggressive medium-sized enterprises struggling for market share than the school-like cloisters that voters perhaps picture. That has utterly changed their internal character. As all power has passed from frontline lecturers and departments to senior management working at ‘the centre’, universities have increasingly struggled to work with, count, even understand what is happening across their unwieldy empires. Many resemble nothing more than a paper bag with the word ‘university’ written on it.

Thanks to Kate for the link

Fake Ass Writer Challenge

I’m terrible at picking AI writing. A coin toss would be more reliable than me.

“My Students Can’t Read: The generational collapse in literacy is measurable, persistent, and likely to get worse”

We shouldn’t over-sentimentalise reading as a practice, however I now get student feedback complaints when I set 4 page HBR magazine-style articles as course readings.

Watching The Movie Show episodes from 1999 on SBS on Demand. What an incredible year for film, every episode has a film I still watch or need to rewatch.