A hand-drawn and photocopied poster for a Fugazi, Def FX and Hellmenn all ages gig at Manly on 26 Oct 1991.

A wonderful, detailed article about Fugazi’s music and legacy. They were the first band I every saw live (someone dug up the poster but sadly not the recording) and they remain unparalelled. I’m looking forward to seeing the new We Are Fugazi from Washington D.C. doco.

Another busy night under the flight path

😳😳😳 Bonkers

The Labs also lead a comprehensive program in nuclear security, focused on reducing the risk of nuclear war and securing nuclear materials and weapons worldwide. This use case is highly consequential, and we believe it is critical for OpenAI to support it as part of our commitment to national security. Our partnership will support this work, with careful and selective review of use cases and consultations on AI safety from OpenAI researchers with security clearances. Open A.I. - Strengthening America’s AI leadership with the U.S. National Laboratories

Living under the flight path

Runner

A smiling toddler running with raised hands.

Take care of yourself, stay cool, and don’t be a numbnut. Check out HeatWatch for evidence-based ways to cool down.

Screenshot of HeatWatch web page, showing my risk of heat health risk is currently extreme. It suggests "drink water, wear light clothing, rest in the shade, wet your skin, ice in wet towel".

Menthol cigarette ban overturned by new U.S. Administration

For those who are wondering where menthol bans are coming from, they’ve been recommended by WHO in line with the Frakework Convention on Tobacco Control. I was hoping governments might tackle ma’assel as well - unlikely now.

Transitory

Engaging AI in education requires far more resources and time than anyone wants to admit. It also calls for a level of nuance we’re not going to find on our social media feeds. I don’t know enough about generative tools and you likely don’t either to make the important decisions necessary to chart the best path forward for myself or my students with the AI we have today, let alone the AI that is on the near horizon.

Relatable points from Marc Watkins.

Who’s Afraid of the Little Red Book

A really interesting and timely dive into Xiaohongshu/RedNote.

“Who’s Afraid of the Little Red Book” - The China Story by Wing Kuang

In the United States and Australia, Xiaohongshu is widely used by Chinese students studying at universities and young first-generation migrants, who find it useful for locating Chinese restaurants, Asian grocery stores and Chinese-speaking trade services as well as researching immigration policies and sharing their immigration experiences.In Australia, Xiaohongshu attracts almost 700,000 users, including Chinese Australian citizens and temporary residents such as international students. In 2021, I interviewed three Australians who are on Xiaohongshu. Sebastian, who first came across Xiaohongshu through his Chinese partner, treated the platform like a ‘Chinese Instagram’ where he posted his daily outfits in exchange for hundreds of likes – often much more than on his Instagram where he shares the same content.

…we compared how ants or people tackle an identical geometrical puzzle. We find that when ants work in groups, their performances rise significantly. Groups of people do not show such improvement and, when their communication is restricted, even display deteriorated performances.

A figure from a scientific journal article that shows and overhead view of four similar T-shaped objects being manoeuvred through two narrow gaps. The top two figures show individual and groups of ants completing the task. The bottom two figures show individual and groups of humans. The scales range from approx 3 centimetres for the individual ant puzzle to approx 18 metres for the puzzle for groups of humans.

David Lynch was a visionary in an era bereft of them

Three humanoid rabbits (humans wearing rabbit suits on an apprent TV sitcom set. These are the rabbits from David Lynch's Inland Empire.

I’ve read a few things about Lynch over recent years that expanded my appreciation his impact. I thought others might be interested in them following his recent death.

Agency and Imagination in the Films of David Lynch: Philosophical Perspectives is an interesting companion to eight of his films and Twin Peaks: The Return.

Deviant obsessions: how David Lynch predicted our fragmented times - Phil Hoad in The Guardian.

Another Article about David Lynch - Patryk Chlastawa in The Point

Our doubles, ourselves: Twin Peaks and my summer at the black lodge - Linnie Greene’s reflections on her time in Lynchian darkness

This book is esoteric and academic but discusses his impact on transmedia aesthetics in a novel way - Networked David Lynch: Critical Perspectives on Cinematic Transmediality.

This podcast (in French) had an interesting discussion about Lynch.

The new are hotdogs sandwiches is are lozenges soup?

A blue can labelled “Progresso Soup Drops: Soup you can suck on”

Whenever I beat the RSS drum, someone always asks about discoverability, so I want to put this bluntly: it is through algorithmic discoverability features that harmful posts become visible. Whether they are original posts, reposts, or replies, harmful posts are only able to successfully reach their intended audience by depending on those features functioning as social media websites built them.

Microsoft has partnered with a utility company to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in US history - Behind the Money podcast

To paraphrase Frederic Jameson it seems to be easier for us today to imagine the thoroughgoing deterioration of human knowledge than the breakdown of academic publishing models. This paper by Williamson, Macgilchrist and Potter tries to conceive what that could look like.

Legacy AI systems have been removed from publishing infrastructures, and Big Tech partnerships have expired without renewal. Peer reviewers are remunerated and review times have been extended to 4 weeks or more, to protect time for rigorous reading and thoughtful response.

An important example of how public knowledge is being controlled through intimidation, doxing and brigading.

Heritage Foundation plans to ‘identify and target’ Wikipedia editors

I really enjoyed this post/newsletter on skibidi toilet and dialectic analysis

Diagram from the article that shows a flow sequence. Text is:&10;&10;Discomfort with algorithmically recommended content &10;Leading to &10;Discomfort with new internet content&10;Leading to&10;Desire to annoy Absurd or self- referential&10;language like "skibidi," "gyat," "rizz," "sigma" &10;Leading to&10;Reactive language like "brainrot," "touch grass," and "iPad kid"&10;Leading to&10;Even more "brainrot" language; emergence of an aesthetic&10;&10;Superimposed on this is the “How do you do fellow kids?” Steve Buscemi meme from 30 Rock.

Cam Wilson has taken over venerable Australian tech(ish) newsletter The Sizzle - Cam’s first issue is out today.

All the best to Anthony Agius for his non-retirement.

The two genders: Githyanki and Githzerai.

(The New York Times seems unable to stop beclowning itself)

Screenshot of a New York Times article. The image is a top-down view of dice and a dungeon master screen, typical of a Dungeons and Dragons game. The text is:&10;&10;Heading: Dungeons & Dragons&10;Rolls the Dice With New Rules About Identity&10;&10;Image caption text (oddly not very descriptive of the image itself): Wizards of the Coast, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, endorsed a trend throughout role-playing games in which players are empowered to halt the proceedings if they ever feel uncomfortable. Simon Simard for The New York Times&10;&10;Body text: The role-playing game replaced "race" with&10;"species" and divorced several character traits from biological identity. Some longtime players are upset (as is Elon Musk).