@treleanor I have become like my former students. Five minutes in and I am on my phone.

And yet again the winner is …. #auspol https://mas.to/@mikegalsworthy/114584609202908831

It’s a 40k zone in my street (we have 2 primary schools). There is a recording camera placed there doing a survey. I’ll be interested to see what they do when it shows average traffic speed 70k #melbourne

@MsDropbear42 i'm puzzled also. If someone was going to (for example) heavily guide the aged voters to select a particular party - then the informal vote should drop.

@andyjennings Not an uncommon subject honestly. There's a study that goes out every couple years about it usually.

https://cityfutures.ada.unsw.edu.au/documents/644/Synthesis_report-final_version_12.06.pdf

we continue to under-estimate how insane the US leadership actually is

"Miran envisions a scenario where the United States, after shocking the world with aggressive tariffs, summons global leaders to Trump’s Florida resort and gets them to voluntarily agree to strengthen their currencies against the dollar and also lend the U.S. money for free. Not figuratively free. Literally zero-interest century bonds. Yes, the plan is for foreign central banks to swap their interest-bearing U.S. Treasuries for bonds that pay nothing for 100 years. It’s a little like convincing your landlord to reduce your rent to zero for the next century in exchange for you threatening to set fire to your own apartment." #auspol

(from https://medium.com/the-future-is-electric/sane-washing-the-trump-tariff-circus-29d0594c6ead - subscription required) #auspol #finance

BTW, I'm really not the anti AI guy, I just find any technology applied poorly amusing, and frustrating...

If you spent any time spent at any modern organisation you would soon deduce that the volume of interruptions cosplaying as communications was the issue and introducing yet another interruption, no matter how good, without reducing the amount of existing interruptions was going to be ineffective.

Chat is just the modern invocation of every organisation having 5-10, or more inconsistent documentation or information systems, and no one knowing what the authoritative source is.

Study looking at AI chatbots in 7,000 workplaces finds ‘no significant impact on earnings or recorded hours in any occupation’

https://fortune.com/2025/05/18/ai-chatbots-study-impact-earnings-hours-worked-any-occupation/

@jedsetter @treleanor similar at Melbourne Southern Cross. But there you have to go up an escalator, down an escalator look at the board and then have to do it all again to get to your train. While choking on diesel fuels

I was going to write an article about the three great Australian corruptions: gambling, housing and fossil fuels. An uplifting article about how we can overcome these dark things. But honestly I think Australians literally worship money, and it’s not going to happen. #auspol

do we have a single major study in Australia of how expensive housing acts as a drag on productivity? #auspol

Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go” is absolutely brilliant, and very important. #fiction - it is the most philosophical of his books, and actually has a go at the really big questions.

You know how politicians often end up in high paying roles at private companies after they leave politics?

Sadly that also does happen in Iceland.

However the nation's previous President decided that he would rather go and work as a national park ranger this summer (during winter time he is a professor of history at the national university).

This just feels too wholesome not to share.

https://www.ruv.is/frettir/innlent/2025-05-26-fyrrverandi-forseti-maetir-ardags-i-ljoma-i-sumarvinnuna-a-thingvollum-444735

DeepSeek says to panic when US 20 year bond yields hit 7% Seems right. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-28/us-dollar-dive-pressures-australian-superannuation-pool/105345312?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web #auspol

Nick Reece (Melbourne mayor, Age today) is absolutely correct on international students. Let's hope we are past the ridiculous blaming of problems on students. It is our most important export industry and it needs our support. #auspol

https://australiainstitute.org.au/store/Vantage-Point-Foundation-Subscriber-p736151923 #auspol

I now understand the “unrealised capital gains”. This means the super fund has shares in it. To pay the tax bill you sell some of the shares. These are quite rich people who can afford to pay tax. https://fairdinkum.one/@John/114582025698584727

Can you upload a human mind into a computer? A neuroscientist ponders what’s possible.

From @TheConversationUS: https://flip.it/1zmt1r

#Brain #Computers #Neuroscience #Science #AI

I spent some of yesterday wondering about the long term effects of US debt - Ferguson’s Law (superpowers can’t have big debts). This was wrongheaded. The US will simply default on its debts. #auspol (got a problem with that? Try getting through the missile shield)

@spiegelmama Yes, off course. They will just default.

@lindamciver really cramped. The starter battery is in the boot. Mechanic was scathing about the very limited petrol saving you get from putting a whole extra motor in.