Peter Murphy

A nice skit on data centres. www.youtube.com/shorts/CRUsa...

Couldn't happen to a better guy. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

Matthew's take is a badly unimaginative take. People have stakes in other countries and their elections, sometimes (Brazil) for the Amazon-custodianship, but also because they have *relatives living there*. (Like me. This naturalised Queenslander has rellies in Maryland, Ontario and England.)

Way to go, Facebook fact-checkers. #Lula #Brazil

Nobody should trust a "Best Cities in the World" list that has Cape Town at #6. www.capetownetc.com/news/latest-...

Your country might be great but does it follow Australia’s lead by colour-coordinating its currency with the nation’s favourite snack foods?

"But it is not fair to say that it was entirely unprovoked" is the language a defense barrister uses when their client is in the dock for bashing his wife. (When she complains about him listening to the same Cold Chisel song in the car on repeat.)

pearlsandirritations.com/post/2026/10... "But it is not fair to say that it was entirely unprovoked" is when I knew the article was cursed. People really should stop making excuses for countries invading other countries.

The first genuinely honest ad for generative AI I've ever seen, from Microsoft / CoPilot A mediocre white guy sees his non-white colleague getting praised for good work, he asks AI to *literally copy it*, and then he gets all the praise instead: www.ispot.tv/ad/SoDi/micr...

I reckon it would assist if my fellow men didn't encourage male violence. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10...

Alberta just had a referendum to secede from Canada. Fortunately, the "leavers" lost - by about 24% to 76%. I like Alberta; I'd prefer it to stay, thank you. Here's a picture of folks that chose to leave. Why does the word "cooker" come to mind? It's not a word in Canadian English. It should be.

Horrified to hear of the apparent attack on my friend and colleague Helen Haines. Helen is an extraordinary human being and brings people together like few others. In grief and solidarity wishing her a complete recovery.

"Ethical billionaires" is almost an oxymoron. If you're at Dolly Parton levels of wealth (450 mil USD - 646 mil AUD at time of death), you should do what Dolly did - find the most blessed forms of philanthropy to give your wealth away. You don't die a billionaire, but at least you die happy.

It does remind me of the last days of Hitler - Putin spending most of his time in a bunker. The big difference is that Hitler never used body doubles. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09...

This is an absolute masterclass in how to answer a political question.

The Kerwick Hotel (in Redbank, Ipswich): the place to see live music with dogs you can pet.

This clown is the rep for MD-1, a district in the east of Maryland. It takes in Bel Air, a Baltimore exurb, where my favorite uncle-in-law, favorite cousin-in-law, and their family live. The have the misfortune to be represented by this fool.

The more you know. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

Riddle me this - right now the Greens have the balance of power - should the ALP negotiate with them or the LNP? You love hypotheticals, I’ll stick with the fucking reality that the ALP decided the life skills my daughter receives don’t improve her wellbeing and so should not be funded.

"Let's do a concept album about dragons destroying the earth (as a metaphor for climate change destruction). And it's all metal and every song's a banger." AI could never. music.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Not everyone is happy with David Shoebridge's ascension to the leadership of the Greens. (It's true about my mum, FYI. She's also far, far better on trans issues than Drew.)

I didn't expect this. Health comes first; she can take all the time she needs. She's not stepping down from the Senate, just the leadership. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

I'm surprised an US LGA can go "Rightio" to a drone delivery service without getting the feds involved (their equivalent of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority) to greenlight it first.

The British right has now descended to the point where 'the England team are not English' is becoming the consensus position

Maybe Derek's a Motie Mediator. (Only Niven/Pournelle readers will get this.)

It's like Orwell survived his TB, and wrote a farcical sequel to 1984. All torturers have KPIs, and O'Brien has to justify his interrogation of Winston and Julia as meeting his '99.9% of Party-hostile viewpoints quashed' targets. en.vietnamplus.vn/new-regulati...

There's many things wrong with this, but it's the transparent ballot boxes that stand out for me. Has the Russian government ever heard of this thing called "secret ballot"? I doubt it would pass muster with the Australian Electoral Commission.

Salary caps sounds like a particularly USA problem. Other countries have no problems paying senior public servants more than their politicians. The Australian PM gets 600K AUD/yr. His cabinet secretary gets 1M AUD/yr. (Whether you get value for money is a separate question.)

Nice campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council about the declining lifespan of products. Enjoy!

Here's my policy for the Greens - make all entry visas cheaper and easier to access. (And that includes Visitor visa 600, for the record.)

In normal countries, "public office serves as a means to extraordinary wealth" is called corruption.

The setting moon, with Venus just behind it.

Here's a French video (with English subtitles) about what would happen if the far-right racists got their way and all foreigners and people of colour were forced to leave.

Please don't laugh, Labor only bring up the CPRS when they're very distressed bsky.app/profile/loui...

everywhere but africa we're a runaway invasive species.

Arguments about the "Media" are a distraction from what's happening in my party: we're too boring and we don't cut through. Mass media is biased, but mass media isn't so mass these days; folk don't get their news from TV or newspapers so much these day. Kos Samaras sounds mostly on the money.

For users of #Django, I created a small Django application/tag that renders your (or someone else's) latest skeets. github.com/peterkmurphy...

I think Sami Shah's criticism holds up quite well, honestly. www.crikey.com.au/2026/07/17/a...

Trump hates preferential voting is crooked. I'm not surprised. Adding more than one number on a ballot paper would be too suspiciously over-complicated for him.

Things have changed in the last 60 years if locals are restricting the R&R that visiting US service people can get up to. Sounds like a good thing, but how are they going to police it? Ban farangs with American accents? thethaiger.com/news/pattaya...

This is not quite "Kristina Keneally chosen as the candidate for Fowler over more deserving local members" levels of ALP cynicism. But it's up there.

I know Katseye, as daughter (12) asked to see their documentary on her birthday. It made me think they were over-sexualized and over-exploited. Someone should tell the members about Dolly Parton: how the royalties from composing 5,000 songs made her a wealthy woman. It'll be a learning experience.

What the fuck I thought at first the blog on screen was satire, it's actually fucking real. @cameronwilson.bsky.social at #PyConAU naomibashkansky.com/blog/telepat... someone actually wrote this! Dear lord, giving a company access to your thoughts, whyyyyy build the torment nexus