Ben Eltham

In Crikey today, I have a long read on Canberra’s endearment with AI and the dubious promise of data centre riches. While Australia’s creatives are being sold down the river, you don’t need to fire up Claude to spot some cracks in the hype-doom sales pitch ($) www.crikey.com.au/2026/10/08/a...

Autumn leaves 🍂

Really looking forward to the launch tomorrow night of “The Culture Wars” by @timdunlop.bsky.social, moderated by @paulbarclay.bsky.social @readingsbooks.bsky.social here in Melbourne. It’s a terrific read about a complex and crucial aspect of Australian political #history. #auspol

'Now entering its 21st week and with no end in sight, the current strike involving University and College Union (UCU) staff is the longest in living memory in British higher education, originating from a staff marking boycott in April over proposed job cuts.'

The Australian University Census on Staff Wellbeing (Second Wave) is now open. Have your say on psychosocial safety and wellbeing at work. This independent national survey will examine psychosocial working conditions across Australian universities. Complete the survey: nteu.info/census2

Academics, students, anyone. Let authors know that you enjoyed reading their work. It matters.

Fewer than five students a year graduate from honours programs in Chinese studies with language skills. We can barely talk to our neighbours, let alone understand them. @louisalim.bsky.social sharing her remarkable Boyer Lecture in @themonthly.com.au. Louisa is the first ever Asian Boyer lecturer.

“After days of confusion, the West Australian government has confirmed it is now actively investigating repeated large methane emissions from Chevron's Gorgon gas project off the state's Pilbara coast.” www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10...

It's very, very telling, I think, that the markets are so concerned about the pro-democracy incumbent winning

Why does the government insist on trying to recover blood from a stone? If they want to aggressively recover so-called debts from people who've relied on Centrelink payments, they should at least wait until they can actually afford to live. @kristin8x.antipovertycentre.org on the latest debt BS

🤣🤣the Deloitte report is SO WOEFUL the West Australian govt wants it's $$ back Expert in public governance on Deloitte errors:“they’re so extensive tt you probably need a new report, or at the very least someone to go thru that material from the ground up & rework it manually without the use of AI"

The Govt's new aged care algorithm has been assessed as neither fair nor consistent. The Govt must listen to experts and ensure they don't pursue another robodebt-style automation designed to cut costs at the expense of desperately-needed support #auspol

Finally, a raisin to visit Mildura

“LULA!” Progressives Hail Brazil’s Stunning Election Result thenationmagazine.substack.com/p/lula-progr...

*ANTHROPIC FILES PUBLICLY FOR US IPO www.sec.gov/Archives/edg...

“The principal purpose of Carbon Capture & Storage has never been to tackle the climate crisis. Instead, CCS serves to align public opinion & government policies with the fossil fuel industry’s plans for unrestricted expansion under the cover of “net-zero". www.nationalobserver.com/2022/04/06/o...

So how did Lula come from behind to defeat Bolsonaro? In short, turnout. Bolsonaro's vote share barely moved. But Lula banked millions of votes from those who didn't vote in the first round & won eliminated candidates' votes. A remarkable mobilisation. Second round turnout is usually below first.

It's really important to pay attention to the fact that Lula beat the fascist candidate not by compromising and trying to meet fascist voters in the middle, but by sticking to his guns, promising prosecutions for election interference, and mobilising his own voters to turn out in greater numbers.

Research shows there were 430,365 heat-related deaths in Europe between 2000 and 2025 The proportion of those deaths attributable to human-induced climate change increased from 39% in 2000 to 68% in 2025 www.nature.com/articles/s44...

'A 1,000-year-old embroidery may be an unusual candidate for a pop culture moment, but young people are seemingly more willing to shell out for tickets for the Bayeux tapestry than spend money on Hollywood blockbusters.' #Skystorians

Very easy for western culture writers to step into the pitfall of “the internet was AIM and MySpace and geo cities!” when in reality that was a specific internet mostly for North American teenagers. This essay really dives deep into a specific zone of internet lore as it relates to literature.

#Newspoll Vic (state) ALP 24 L-NP 33 ON 20 Grn 14 others 9 2PP 55-45 to L-NP (I assume respondent prefs, I would expect around this or slightly less) Netsats Carroll -28 Wilson +10 Better Premier Wilson leads 48-34 This would easily be a Coalition majority. #springst

cool, cool

The achievement of Serbian students overthrowing Aleksandar Vučić can't be overstated. In 2024, they began protesting. In 2025, they transformed a protest movement into civil dissidence. In 2026, they became a political party — and two months later, crushed a corrupt state-entrenched authoritarian.

CSIRO scientists warn Australia is ‘wandering towards dystopia’ pearlsandirritations.com/post/2026/10...

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s strongman leader Aleksandar Vucic has conceded defeat to a student-led movement in a seismic political shift.

Tomorrow I’ll be doing a talk about the centenary of the 1926 general strike in Edinburgh. It was a moment of determined class struggle and violence in Scotland’s capital, its surrounding coalfields and across Britain. Sign up 🔽

Incredible gender difference in voting intention in Brazil.

Headline of the week

Some of the burns on User Was Blocked are white hot

“Immediately deliver a trusted working relationship with the Special Envoy”

Ordinary people aren’t just angry. They’re scared. thepoint.com.au/new/261021-c...

Good morning from the heart of Africa. I cross villages on foot in the rain and under tropical heat with no salary and no organization behind me,because the Congo rainforest still breathes for all of us. It stores vast carbon, shelters over 10,000 plant species.

As a former comedy writer turned investigator, I believe that bullying losers like Marco Rubio can literally save lives.

"Just four percent of the songs streamed in Aotearoa in 2025-26 came from local artists." Which means (I suppose) that 96% of streaming royalties collected in NZ head offshore. www.rnz.co.nz/life/music/i...

your moment of calm

We can build technology that helps our liberatory movements learn from the past, in order to build a better future. Our newest project is an archive of higher-ed campus protests, designed to support campus activists and others working on left and liberatory organizing. campus-protest.org

'Since 2024, the industry has been gifted $1.5 billion of taxpayer funds to exit. One Nation now wants to spend even more taxpayer dollars subsidising its return.' pearlsandirritations.com/post/2026/10...

"I'm proud of my record." Qld Crisafulli govt Minister Amanda Camm resigns citing personal vilification. She pledged reform but instigated DFV budget cuts. Children were found to be housed in government offices & 91 children known to child safety died last financial year. #qldpol

It's a grim moment when "scam to get investment cash" is actually the best case scenario, as the alternative is bio-engineered murder dogs. This is the company that stuck a couple of genes into a wolf and claimed (/were reported to have claimed) to have recreated the prehistoric dire wolf

I once wrote "taking the piss" as part of an article and the American editor commented that 'piss is a liquid and therefore cannot be taken hold of' and I think I'll never receive a more perfect edit in my career

Chris Wickham, remembered fondly, appreciated finely.

Security through obscurity is a terrible principle but in practice a lot of things didn't get hacked bc people ignored them, or didn't know they existed, or just generally got missed. AI makes it easy to probe all of these things at scale + makes it easier to find/develop exploits