Long-promised animal cruelty prevention laws quietly shelved by Victorian government Exclusive: Labor bill recognising all animals as sentient and raising care requirements won’t be introduced before state election

Shame on you Jacinta Allan! www.theguardian.com/australia-ne... @vicgovernment.bsky.social @australia.theguardian.com #animalcruelty

JRG is a failed program entrenching inequality & lumping students from law to commerce with crippling debt.

It's been in place for longer now under the Albanese Govt than under Morrison Govt.

Reform is overdue & desperately urgent but progressing at a snails pace.
www.crikey.com.au/2026/03/16/s...

Good luck to Julie Inman Grant; we want it and need it, but what a battle

Image of three people examining a sampling quadrat over oyster clumps in an estuary. Includes the Macquarie University and University of St Andrews logos.

A joint Macquarie/St Andrews fully funded PhD scholarship is available to optimise the design of oyster reef restoration projects for biodiversity outcomes. The PhD will be jointly supervised by @melaniejbishop.bsky.social and me. See lnkd.in/e_Tr2EXQ

Silicon Valley's capture of our political institutions is all but complete The tech lobby kills off two key California AI bills, and why it matters. Plus: How Sam Altman played Hollywood with Sora 2, organized mass social media deletions, and more.

CA governor Gavin Newsom vetoed both of the major AI bills on his desk that Silicon Valley meaningfully opposed—one making it illegal for bosses to use AI to fire workers with no oversight, one requiring chatbot sellers to ensure their products do not harm children before marketing to them.

We Aren’t Ready to Live in a World of Algorithmic Enchantment | TechPolicy.Press New, creative thinking is needed to address the tech policy challenges of the coming decade, writes José Marichal.

New, creative thinking is needed to address the tech policy challenges of the coming decade, writes José Marichal. In an increasingly irrational environment, tech policymakers need to broaden their views of policymaking, moving away from pure rationality towards storytelling, he says.

Starting a #PhD. Borrow some theses from the library. Ideally on a similar topic to yours. Look at how they are structured. How many chapters? How many words? Look at the bibliography. This could be a good starting point for your literature review. #PhDchat #PhDforum

Can all benefit from less addictive SM!

Good to hear this feedback. I've just left X, and miss the updates in academia as I work out how to leverage BSky in the right way. But, X was nasty!

Bad Actors are Grooming LLMs to Produce Falsehoods Our research shows that even the latest "reasoning" models are vulnerable

Are you aware of LLM grooming? Reasoning ≠ resilience
#AI #Misinformation

Tasmanian salmon is still being used by the Sushi Jiro chain with an RSPCA tick associated. Huon is not an ethical farmer of salmon and the RSPCA has not endorsed them. Objections here: sushijiro.com.au/contact-us/ @simplysushijiro #responsiblefishing #crueltyfree

So important to keep misinformation and information literacy in the spotlight. Getting caught in echo chambers a real threat to compassion, logic, truth etc.

Trump cuts satellite data on Antarctic sea ice just as it’s needed most Scientists at the Australian Antarctic Partnership Program are just beginning to understand the dire effects of extremely low sea ice in the Antarctic summer, but they will lose access to their main d...

Unforgiveable vandalism www.smh.com.au/environment/...

日本語話者と日本語学習者共に見られる『横文字アレルギー』に付いて研究した論文。
カタカナに関係する社会的な信仰(信念？思い込み？)を日本語話者と日本語学習者両方の視点を交えて見るそうです。
なんと、無料で読めるとの事！

Proposed Macquarie University restructure will ‘hollow out’ humanities, academics say Macquarie blames prospect of international student caps and ‘uncertainty’ about domestic student numbers for proposed academic job cuts, fewer arts courses

Excellent coverage of Macquarie Uni’s proposed restructure:
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Dr. Carla Hayden Featured in AARP Dr. Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to lead the national library, was nominated to the position by President Obama. She was the first African American to receive Library J...

" #Libraries are a cornerstone of #democracy — where information is free and equally available to everyone. People tend to take that for granted, and they don’t realize what is at stake when that is put at risk."
Carla Hayden www.rmwritersfest.org/dr-carla-hay...
#Librariesmatter

The Ancient Societies and Ancient Artefacts Conference. Date: Sunday June 8, 2025 from 10-5pm Location: Macquarie University Arts Precinct, Building C, Room 122 (25 Wally’s Walk. This conference explores the role of material culture in teaching all aspects of ancient societies. It is concerned with teaching in secondary schools and in universities. Among its themes are: 1. Teaching HSC ancient history with artefacts 2. The use of museum collections 3. Bringing ancient artefacts and replicas of ancient objects into schools 4. Using ancient coins 5. The use of 3D videos and the printing of replicas Keynote speakers (confirmed): Assoc. Prof. Clare Rowan (Warwick) Call For Papers: The call for papers is now open. To offer a paper, please submit a title and abstract (max. 250 words) to Assoc. Prof. Kenneth Sheedy (ken.sheedy@mq.edu.au) by May 20 2025. Presentations should be 20 minutes in length.

Last day or two to submit an abstract to the ACANS/Macquarie University Ancient Societies and Ancient Artefacts conference if you are so inclined! A great exchange on how we use material culture in the classroom awaits! :-)

This is a very cool repository of Ashby's travels to Australia, via Sri Lanka and Malta.

Background of a bookshelf with thick antique books. Under the text is the Teles Angels icon.

Calling all History and Archaeology students! We are looking for mentors to onboard for session 2, 2025. If you are passionate about History or Archaeology and wish to help students develop in the classroom and beyond, don't hesitate to apply!

MQ staff and researchers: we'll be presenting on Choosing a Journal next Tuesday. Find out about subscription tools to narrow the search, open access, predatory publishers and measuring journal reputation and impact, etc. Register at myrdc.mq.edu.au/registration...

One week 👀👀👀

Timely.

More disturbing news from the US. The Library of Congress is is valued for it's integrity. The controlled vocabulary it manages allows us all to find each other's work - but not by reducing the word count, or policing wokeness. What now?

Opportunity knocks ....

University of Michigan Library search results including catalogue results, and "Talk to a Library Specialist" sidebar. One of the specialties mentioned is "Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands."

New experience for me--very cool. Doing a search for this narrative of the Napoleonic-era French expedition to Australia generated a sidebar prompting me about the particular subject librarians that might specialize in Pacific area studies. Very smart. 🗃️ 📚

Just in case anyone's wondering how bad she's lying: the only people who can check books out of the LOC are congressional staff.

Library cards for use of the research centers are only available to people over the age of 16, and researchers under 18 need permission from a parent or guardian.