If it’s the first week of January, it must be time for the BBC’s Sound of 2026.
Aussie duo Royel Otis kick off this year’s tip list - and here’s my interview with the band.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
"Showgirl, however, sounds freeze-dried, prepacked, obvious. Though the album’s genres are superficially diverse – you’ll hear flashes of grunge, trap, and, yes, reggae – its arrangements could work fine as royalty-free background music for content creators."
Ouch!
www.afr.com//life-and-lu...
Reading this from @molly.wiki, and it really does sometimes feel like the demise of Google Reader coincided with a worse internet, as most people never picked up another RSS reader and many sites stopped using RSS at all.
www.citationneeded.news/curate-with-...
"The building has received regular upgrades, including the removal of an in-house shooting range and squash courts in 2001."
Damn, Australia's central bank didn't mess around.
www.afr.com/policy/econo...
Gosh this is a good piece of journalism from my colleagues over in the Herald - but infuriating!
www.smh.com.au/interactive/...
It's winter in Sydney, where a "polar air mass" descends bringing the horrors of... a few days of rain in a row and temperatures just under 10C. The horror.
Still getting used to the different standards here.
www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...
This chap, who says he modified another person's work from a reddit thread: youtu.be/lUZjpIhYOEw?...
#China’s Didi car hire service company has the wildest ads playing in the breaks for the footy in #Australia…
A screenshot of the Obisdian notetaking software, with brightly multicoloured folders on the left, a central panel with notes on SQL database queries in the centre, and a panel on the right with a complex web of links and nodes - all in a calm, deep pastel blue colour scheme
I've updated my @obsidian.md theme so everything looks pretty and that's basically the same as actually accompishing the work I have to do today, right?
I spent several years as a tech reporter and remain a deep AI sceptic. Other reporters seemed to think it crazy that I don't see the revolution. But years in, all we've got is still a cool toy with no business model.
A screenshot of the Bluesky profile page showing a biography that lists David as Newsletters editor at the Australian Financial Review and as ex-BBC News. The banner image is now the Financial Review logo.
New job, new bio.
This is pretty cool: my favourite podcast app, @pocketcasts.com, has just opened its web player to everyone (previously a paid user benefit). Just go there, search for your podcast, play - no sign-in of any kind, works in incognito mode - neat! play.pocketcasts.com/discover
I bet it's all very calm and reasoned discussion... right? Right!?
Adrien Brody with his hand up telling the Oscars to turn off the exit music
Me filing my long ass drafts to my editor
That's really rather good and well expressed. Far from cheery, but that's the industry these days!
open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/... Absolutely essential piece on why journalism is broken just when we need it most and what we can do to fix it. Please read - or you could click on a story about a man with three nipples. Your choice…
Star Trek Voyager scene. We're on the bridge and see Seven of Nine (Tertiary adjunct of Unimatrix -01) standing and handing a PADD to Chakotay. Chakotay is in red uniform, Seven is in her 'not yet ready for prime time Starfleet officer' bodysuit thing. Closed caption reads, "I have no good news to report."
Here's the PDF of the actual study. Always good to see the BBC doing research like this and publishing it. I've always admired the R&D parts of the corporation.
www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/...
Saw a sneak peek of this research internally a few weeks ago - interesting formal look at what we all suspected. Most interesting nugget to me are the factual errors cited to BBC stories which don't *actually* contain the inaccurate cited info.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0m17d8827ko
Flat farmland sits in front of a looming snow-capped mountain range with colours hanging halfway to the summit
A bridge through a rural town bends slightly around the river curve with a mountain ridge visible against a blue sky
A country laneway lined with bare winter trees.
I've been spending a few weeks back in Europe - took a nice stroll around the French mountains near Grenoble this past weekend.
Over the moon that the BBC's Tech Decoded newsletter, which I launched internationally last year, is finally available to UK audiences!
It's been in good hands since I've been on parental leave and you can and should sign up here: www.bbc.com/newsletters/...
“Columbian president condemned something,” notification from X reads
Apple Intelligence’s commitment to writing incomprehensible summaries is unparalleled
A teacup with the words “Conas ata tu” in Irish, which means “How ar you?”.
I left summer storms in Sydney and flew to Ireland for winter storms. Holy moly has it been breezy here in Dublin. Nothing for it but a cuppa tae and wait for it all to blow over. #Eowyn
Great round-up here which also serves as a cheat sheet to Trump policy going forward:
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Holy god, the latest edition of Molly's newsletter is jam-packed - and great prep reading for journalists who'll need a handle on the current state of crypto as Trump prepares to take office.
My Australian wife tells me she can't remember anything like it.
