A Walk to Kobe Haruki Murakami walks to his hometown after the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995. Translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel.

Two essays about walking that I've really enjoyed are
Haruki Murakami's "A Walk to Kobe" granta.com/a-walk-to-ko...,
and @hadas.bsky.social The Ego Trip www.the-hinternet.com/p/the-ego-trip

Anyone have other good ones for me to read?

Apparently there's a China-Pakistan railway construction/upgrade project underway. I imagine that will become a bit higher priority now.

It'll be interesting to see if the US car industry follows Australia's trajectory of
- protectionism,
- foreign competition who offer an objectively better and cheaper product,
- shrinkage,
then total destruction.

Yeah. Just say what you mean.
He's obviously had some pushback

jesus. I'd nearly finished uni. I would not have guessed that.
It seems especially bizarre, because I feel like that was the proper start of school mass shootings in the US, and surely there couldn't have been so many since 1999...

Professor Haslam doesn't want to be seen as "the language police", but he wonders what will happen if psychiatric terms continue to be used in a wider and wider way.

How about instead of using the construct "I don't want to be seen as X, but [statement that demonstrates they are X]." people just state what they're thinking.

www.abc.net.au/news/health/...

Or worse, has libertarian tendancies!

I don't know how they're managing to survive in Brisbane against the foxes and cats, but they seem to be doing ok.

sequenced breakdown of the question in 4 parts about questioning if there is any need for the task to be done and/or if the person needs to be involved

Does this have to be done by me?

An inverted Agile question - identifying tasks that people don't want to do - what are BS Experiences?

Headline: EV drivers are being left waiting with just 45 chargers per car in Australia

The ABC can't even get the headline right for this stupid article. With 45 chargers per EV, you wouldn't have to wait very long.

In his “most notorious [job] interview,” Karp met Louis Mosley, an Oxford graduate whose grandfather Oswald Mosley was the British fascist leader during World War II and once named “worst Briton of the twentieth century.” As soon as Mosley sat down, Karp began reciting from memory, for several minutes, one of Oswald’s 1939 speeches demanding Britain seek peace with Nazi Germany. When finished, Karp executed tai chi moves and walked out without saying goodbye. Mosley sat stunned, convinced his family’s past had torpedoed him. Instead, he was hired and now runs Palantir’s UK business.

Crazy? Would a crazy guy do this?!?

I’m baffled by the ABC’s approach to reporting on EV ownership. People might have actually learned something from some factual reporting, relevant statistics and informed opinion. Instead, this article mostly focuses on the self declared ignorance of the author alongside a handful of random facts.

That bit got me too. You summed it up better than i did though.
bsky.app/profile/wile...

Yeah, I remember seeing some posts (yours I think) about boomers charging to 100%. I didn't expect an ABC journalist to then go and demonstrate, but hey, I probably should have.

The NRMA recommends charging "to 80 per cent unless more range is absolutely needed" as a courtesy to other drivers. That's because the time it takes to charge from 80 and 100 per cent really grinds down. It's also considered rude to hog the charger.

But for this experiment, I charge from 46 to 100 per cent. It takes about an hour.

If I could charge faster and more conveniently, maybe I'll be back behind the wheel.

Come on man...
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04...

In the same manifesto, Palantir's owners argued that we need a national military draft, that soft power is over, and that we were too hard on Germany and Japan after World War II. I don't think that company should be allowed to exist anymore.

any advice from writers for when you desperately need to start writing something but you can't because you're terrified of it being terrible

Norway and Qatar show Australia doesn’t have to give the gas industry a free pass For decades, Australia has tolerated a rapidly growing gas industry that pays little tax and royalties, employs few people, pushes up gas and electricity prices for Australian families and businesses,...

"Norway and Qatar show Australia doesn’t have to give the gas industry a free pass" by @jack-thrower.bsky.social @thepointau.bsky.social
thepoint.com.au/off-the-char...

We can hope...

Yes they are. My spoken Chinese, although not fantastic, is a million times better than my written chinese.
I can't imagine the UN making much use of purely oral chinese though.

Chinese would be a lot more widely used if you didn't have to learn a few thousand ideograms to even start to be considered literate.

China passes new ethnic minority law, prioritises use of Mandarin language Critics say the move will further erode the identity of people who are not majority Han Chinese and risk making anyone challenging that "unity" a separatist punishable by law.

According to recent Chinese legislation, there is only one correct language.
www.reuters.com/world/china/...

My friend who would say this to me is now our next door neighbor in the urban cottage court we both moved into

Boston Councilor Durkan files amendment to eliminate residential parking minimums.

“The lesson from every city that’s taken this step is the same: developers don’t stop building parking when they’re no longer required to. They build what the market & residents actually need.”

An amusing theme in the article is that Tokyo won the war on cars by mistake.

Japan’s road & auto registration fees were intended to pay for roads; its ban on street parking to get more off-street lots.

But a result was that streets just around Tokyo’s commercial core look & sound like this

I keep seeing people say that the Rav 4 sales drop is from the model changeover, and that it will rebound. With the current oil situation, I just can't see it happening.
I have some friends with two Toyotas, and they're planning to sell their Rav 4 to get a novated lease on an EV. 🤷

That looks terminally closed

12–13th century BCE bronze Chinese Zun wine vessel in the shape of an owl. Image from Minneapolis Institute of Art promotional material.

this thing is amazing: 12–13th century BCE owl-shaped Chinese Zun bronze wine vessel! On display at Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gallery 214 🦉

'Feel it when I breathe': Canberra's first dedicated vaping support program opens The number of young people who have tried a vape has almost tripled since 2018, but Canberra's first dedicated vaping support program says young people are taking it upon themselves to overcome addict...

We are now at the point where folks have been vaping long enough to see the damage being done to their lungs. Its no longer going to be the hypothetical risk we tried to raise the red flag about when we first started assessing their safety. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04...