If you liked this week's disinfo as narrative paper, you might like this earlier paper about the moral panic about Drag Queen Story Hour and how anti-trans narratives recreate older anti-queer narratives, which, we argue, is why they are so successful. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... [Paywalled]
NSW Water single-handedly committing ecocideโฆ wow. And I read about it in a cartoon. Thanks First Dog!
Wow
Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Tim Curry in Clue
Tim Curry in The Three Musketeers
Tim Curry in Muppet Treasure Island
Happy 80th birthday to Tim Curry who has always, *always* understood the assignment.
The Palentir statement on its desired โTechnological Republicโ is one of the scariest things I have seen in a while. It is a call for a world dominated by an authoritarian U.S., generated by AI (both the statement and the world), run by tech-surveillance companies. Technofascism pure!
Itโs hard to express how important Iris was to ACT UPโs scientific development. She was the catalyst who started it all. Iris Long, Scientific Mentor to AIDS Activists, Dies at 92 www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/h...
To read asap too. I love when folks articulate things Iโve been struggling to say - no surprise that boyd seems to be the one doing it.
(Thanks to Fabio for the link!)
#OutNow in #iCS
When HBOโs Watchmen and Lovecraft Country revisited histories of racial violence, Reddit became a site of contestation. Analysing thousands of comments, this article traces how users resist, defend, and rethink racial narratives online.
doi.org/10.1080/1369...
Wtf. I have some of their shoes, made from reused plastic waste. They were all in in sustainability. I am very baffled. And sad that there wonโt be replacement shoes when the current pair wears out.
Bungie laid off my entire team on a Zoom call from the Legal Department conference room with Pete Parsons sitting at the table with the resin top that we paid for with our morale budget with embedded counterfeit merchandise. But at least he got to buy a fancy car on the same day.
I said a few words in this - my first Aussie press quote!
something that wrinkles my brain every time I remember it is the fact that total eclipses are only possible on earth because the moon and sun appear to be the same size in our sky, due to the insanely, astronomically unlikely fluke that the moon is 400x smaller than the sun but 400x closer to us.
๐งต New report just dropped ๐จ "Fractured Reality: How Democracy Can Win the Global Struggle Over the Information Space" โ from the EU Joint Research Centre, led by Mario Scharfbillig and I. A landmark read for anyone working on disinformation, platforms & democracy. ๐
1/10
Happening on Monday! With a stellar line up @annettemarkham.bsky.social @riederb.bsky.social & @snurb.info ๐ฅ
Still time so sign up ๐
Hi! I'm a scientist studying artificial stuff in animal nests, and I'm looking for a #Pokรฉmon expert. ๐ Yup, I found some Pokรฉmon in a nest!! ๐ฒ
Specifically, the question concerns dating pieces of packaging, which might be tricky. Who knows EVERYTHING about Pokรฉmon? Who can I send a DM to? ๐
A QUT Digital Media Research Centre study led by Professor Amanda Lotz has found Australiansโ social media use is far more private, varied, and personalised than thought, and that YouTube now functions less like social media and more like a vast โvideo encyclopediaโ.
www.qut.edu.au/news?id=203994
"๐ช๐ฒ ๐ต๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐ป๐ผ๐ ๐ผ๐ฏ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฎ ๐ป๐ผ๐๐ฎ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฎ๐ป๐ด๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ป๐๐บ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฏ๐๐น๐น๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ถ๐บ๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ-๐ฏ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฎ๐ฏ๐๐๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ฝ๐น๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ผ๐น๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ-๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฐ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ผ๐๐ป๐๐ across the platforms in January and February 2026 ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ป ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐บ๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ผ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฑ." -Australian eSafety compliance
www.esafety.gov.au/sites/defaul...
I have a music degree and yeah I agree this is genuinely a great cover :) Sound on and listen in for this one. I didnโt know this version so thank you!
Great cover! I'm unironically a big fan of this piece of music. I was first introduced to it (and the logic behind it) by a housemate at uni, who was doing a music degree in a house otherwise full of biologists.
now with 100% more page, volume, and issue numbers:
Tapping the sign
Iโm just loving that weโve gone moon-mad again
Incredible footage from a United Airlines flight of the Artemis II launch.
He has however been diagnosed with adhd. Hyperfocus is a hell of a drug. (Also I do think I was 12.)
So Long and thanks for all the fish.
This week's episode of the Read Them Sideways podcast is a roundtable discussing the 20 year anniversary of Twitter with Jean Burgess, Axel Bruns, Kateryna Kasianenko, and Luke Pearson
Front cover of the Strategic Examination of Research & Development review report. Purple background with pink title text "Ambitious Australia". The graphics below the text are some curvy, bubble-like shapes with what seems to be a sunset viewed through some drops of liquid. That is, a distorted view of the horizon โฆ a metaphor?
The Government released the final report of the Strategic Examination of R&D yesterday. It's called "Ambitious Australia"๐
Haven't read much, yet, but it says we should fund the ARC more. Like every single previous review.
Can we got on with it & do that, now?
www.industry.gov.au/publications...
Since Hormuz is briefly on your radars now; this by a friend, Nooshin Samimi, from the hellsite:
โDaughter of a geologist here: the spectacular colors of the Hormuz Formation (seen in Hormuz, Qeshm, and Hengam islands) are a unique sequence of evaporites, exposed as active salt glaciers.โ
