Somebody needs to introduce the Canberra Times news bot to the ABC News bot for a tutorial on how not to intrude on the timeline

Judgment of the NSW Court of Appeal declaring that anti-protest laws introduced by the NSW Government in the wake of the Bondi Massacre impermissibly burden the implied freedom of political communication #auslaw #nswpol www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/19d...

While far from being an academic, I feel seen …

A screenshot of a NYT opinion piece by Cal Newport: “There’s a Good Reason You Can’t Concentrate” - with a “12 Min Read” estimate

I need a cribbed version

The machine may be more eloquent, it may generate far more dazzling images than we could ever draw, but it will never experience human truths. And so in art, literature and all other creative processes it is a cuckoo, pushing out the human to consume resources and generate hoarded wealth

I like to make an appearance now and again for very special occasions like state elections!

Screen grab from The Guardian reporting Pauline Hanson had spent the past week campaigning in “regional Bernardi”

It’s not sparkling populism but instead a regional Bernardi

Hot off the print www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u...

It is very difficult to defeat the government on any terrorism judicial review

It is also very difficult to defeat the government when challenging a statutory instrument, terrorism or otherwise.

Legally this is a *huge* achievement for the applicants.

The UK High Court judgment ruling that the UK government’s proscription of the Palestine Action Group was unlawful www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u...

Shipman has been one of the best long form chroniclers of British politics since Brexit - and this is just searing.

Not since the Paul Kelly of old or Pamela Williams, could we say we’ve had such sustained reporting of our politics

‘Authority is like virginity. Once it’s gone, it’s gone’: Inside Keir Starmer’s downfall Years ago, Peter Mandelson shared a key lesson with his protégé Morgan McSweeney. Reminiscing about his involvement in Labour’s 1987 general election campaign, he called it the ‘spray-paint election’....

“‘How do you build a project around someone who doesn’t have any politics and hates the very idea of a larger project?’ asks [one defining] Starmerism.”

A 3500 word epitaph for Starmerism, and a salutary lesson for those whose capacity exceeds their ambitions app.spectator.com.au/2026/02/11/a...

As a recent subscriber to Meanjin, I hope it prospers under QUT’s aegis, but I wonder how it will fare pitted against the distinct identity already secured by Griffith Review - how to balance a hometown sensibility with the needs of a broader audience

Learnt another favourite haunt from long ago in Pyrmont is now in the Laundy empire - great taste in hostelries

It’s a Laundy Hotel! (I learn from the bowels of the building) - guess I’m keeping Ben Fordham in clover this ratings diary

The Story of Capital For decades, David Harvey has been teaching Marx's work, particularly Capital, to great acclaim. He has analysed chapter by chapter - sometimes line-by-line - Marx's three volumes and the Grundrisse. ...

The book in question is here www.versobooks.com/en-gb/produc...

Like lightning in a bottle, here @firstdogonthemoon.bsky.social honours @kudelka.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Was going to bristle at $13 for a sausage in a bun (ok, onion and red cabbage too) at an Ed Sheeran adjacent Olympic Park hostelry

But then I remembered last night’s estimate of £19 postage for a book of lectures on Marx from Verso

(I’m here for muscle to navigate a way through to the train home)

[Redacted]

It's that kind of day eh.

Where’s @colvinius when we need him? 😞

Then there was his love for Margaret, Kay and Oskar - who each were vividly drawn to life by him in words and deeds - to them my thoughts and prayers.

To Jon - tonight, a salute from a top shelf Tasmanian malt. Vale.

The late Jon Kudelka’s tea towel asking Labor rusted ons to better make their case

And there have been so many images shared the past few days, but I like to think I was among the first online to encourage him to produce the “Rusted On” tea towel - because behind so much of his work - across Tasmania, Australia and the globe - , was an imperative to “do better”

There were so many Jon Kudelkas one could enjoy and appreciate: the sheer wheeze of him and First Dog on that crowd sourced whisky tour; the whimsy of his penguins in the Southerly; his insistence that you not trouble Tasmania with your presence …

An essay on Yeats, Auden and Eliot from Colm Toibin in the @lrb.co.uk had me dwelling on Yeats penning:

Things said or done long years ago,
Or things I did not do or say
But thought that I might say or do,
Weigh me down, and not a day
But something is recalled,
My conscience or my vanity appalled.

For weeks since Christmas, I’ve been devoted to my two year old niece who’s fighting a rare form of childhood leukaemia - and her not much older brother who’s doing his best to navigate this unsettling world.

They’ve given me a sense of perspective I’ve never had to now, calling on all my sinews

My query was knitting focused - but thank you for conserving fruit!

Any yarns?

I’m still in my Hawaiian floral print shirt and defamation season is already under way?

The judgment in Monis v The Queen - the court split 3-3 (on gender lines) so the NSWCA judgment prevailed - ruling agains Monis’ challenge to his conviction on implied freedom of political communication grounds www.hcourt.gov.au/sites/defaul...

Virginia Bell’s role in protest laws under scrutiny as Albanese weighs royal commission Judgments handed down by former high court judge Virginia Bell and another contender, former Federal Court of Australia chief justice James Allsop, are under scrutiny as the government decides on a ro...

Objections to former High Court judge Virginia Bell seemingly raise her judgment in Brown v Tasmania concerning the right to protest but neglect to mention her upholding the constitutional validity of the criminal laws used against Lindt siege gunman Man Haron Monis www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...