Josh Holloway
@jholloway.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer in Government at Flinders University. Democracy | Parties | Elections
Happy ten year anniversary of the 2016 blackout in South Australia. I was told that as clean power grew in Aus, we'd see a blackout apocalypse. The chart below shows blackouts for generation shortfall as columns, and renewable proportion as a percent of the eastern grid. Enjoy :)
Forget grandiose talk of curing cancer - this is what AI is actually doing to healthcare. In the words of one cardiologist: “it’s bots fighting bots, agents fighting agents, a horrible dystopic future nobody wants to live in.”
Wtaf is this question my university just asked me about my project?
The only difference from 22 years ago is 'politically correct' has been replaced by 'woke' www.smh.com.au/national/pm-...
PM unfurls his patriotic school agenda
smh.com.au
Tim Lyons@picketer.bsky.social · last wk.Ah yes, something never before seen in an Australian school.
Rent tech is an unavoidable part of modern renting – and renters have little control over what data they have to give up and what happens to it afterwards.
Personality tests, dodgy reward programs, AI bots: how rent tech platforms make renting a ‘dehumanising’ experience
theconversation.com
The AI debate has forced me, somewhat agst my will, to grapple a bit more closely with the "longtermists", basically a movement or subculture of morons who propose novel forms of moral reasoning based on sci-fi ideas they imagine might happen hundreds, thousands or millions of years in the future.
Faine Greenwood@faineg.com · 2w agoNick Beckstead, noted longtermist and "effective altruist,” just comes out and says it: "But it now seems more plausible to me that saving a life in a rich country is substantially more important than saving a life in a poor country, other things being equal."
can add the Flinders x Google deal to this as well
Senator David Shoebridge@davidshoebridge.bsky.social · 2w agoUNSW and the University of Sydney are signing huge deals with chat GPT. Students can't afford a haircut but they're stuck with a lifetime of debt. Meanwhile vice chancellors are handing our universities to AI vampires on a million bucks a year.
Watch this space at Flinders University too. Just happily voted yes in the Protected Action Ballot in response to intransigent management.
Brendan Keogh@brkeogh.bsky.social · 2w agoThat's my uni! Instead of actually listening to staff and working with us to make QUT a better and fairer place to work and study, our overpaid management has gone crying to the FWC. Tomorrow we're taking a 2 hour strike to insist they take us seriously www.removepaywall.com/search?url=h...
You don't have to be an advanced scholar of fascism to know about how often the "respectable right" have been happy to associate with "conservative business figures" who were happy to do the unpleasant work of funding for the street thugs........
Just some "concerned Christian businessmen" giving neo-Nazis wads of cash to harass the PM. www.theage.com.au/national/tai...
‘Tail, film, heckle’: Inside the Brethren’s secret election influence plot with the far-right
Leaked messages reveal the full story of how the Exclusive Brethren secretly recruited far-right agitators and neo-Nazi associates to harass MPs at the election.
theage.com.au
Very forceful statement by Terry Tao about AI and math. terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/09/11/a... Note, he is not claiming the models aren't real and powerful. He's talking about how that power should be used. This, I believe, is what all AI discussions should center.
A Severe Misalignment of AI in Mathematics
I am proud to be among the list of 25 initial signatories — all Fields Medallists — to the declaration below, which grew out of discussions between ourselves over the last week. We have…
terrytao.wordpress.com
It turns out that Netanyahu was warned, in shockingly specific terms, about October 7 — and not only chose to do nothing, but hid the warning from the people who could have stopped it www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
Netanyahu got an explicit warning before Oct. 7. He didn't brief security chiefs
In September '23, UAE President bin Zayed called Netanyahu to deliver a harsh warning. Netanyahu did nothing. An extensive investigation, conducted for a new book, reveals the PM's failures surroundin...
haaretz.com
Exclusive: US-controlled weapons corporations and forces have control or access to more than 100 facilities across the continent, which some analysts describe as a ‘colonisation’ of Australia’s military.
Defence officials today tried to prevent the sharing of public evidence on social media at a hearing into Defence land sales. The fact I am posting this should tell you how that went.
This 🧵 will have readings that I assign in my Sociology of AI class.
AusPSA PSA for Nov: wear what you like, I'm not your dad, and no one much cares
Connor Ewing@cmewing.bsky.social · 4w agoAPSA PSA: - Khaki pants? Brown shoes + belt - Blue or grey pants? Black or brown shoes + matching belt - Black pants? Just don’t - Mix patterns and textures - Don’t be afraid to look good Remember: 10 years from now no one will remember what you presented. But they will remember what you wore.
Pathetic and revolting. University managers in this country will do anything to get rid of the actual pesky academics standing between the managers and even bigger salaries.
Robbie Moore@robbiemoore.bsky.social · 4w ago“Instead of a group discussion or a tutor teaching you, it’s a class activity done with a robot,” the student said. “I feel like I’m teaching this robot how to take jobs away from my teachers.” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Finally built a new PC this week after speccing it out last December. Exact same parts, same build, but waiting til now cost me nearly 40% more.
Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · 4w agoNeed a new computer or phone? Want a new or 2nd hand gaming console for Christmas? You're going to burn a hole in your wallet, all thanks to the AI slop boom sucking up resources like a black hole www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09...
Once you have a lot of money it becomes easier to get more money by doing nothing, which disincentivizes work. This is why all our billionaires post insane bullshit all day. If they had to work they'd be too busy to act like this, doubly benefiting society
Good. Julie Bishop should never be heard from again in any role. An absolute cancer. www.smh.com.au/national/anu...
ANU apologises to whistleblower after ‘indefensible treatment’
Academic Liz Allen named then-chancellor Julie Bishop and two other senior leaders as having threatened, bullied and intimidated her.
smh.com.au
In what is possibly one of the pettiest Zionist hit-jobs yet, The Australian’s James Madden, at the behest of the Zionist Federation of Australia, platforms ZFA president Jeremy Liebler’s idea that anti-genocide, anti-Zionist views should preclude an academic from being interviewed about… aged care
Guardian analysis finds one section of age assurance technology trial report includes links to academic articles that do not exist, but authors deny the references were made up by AI. Story @joshtaylor.bsky.social and me www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Report supporting Australia’s teen social media ban appears to contain AI hallucinations, Senate hears
Exclusive: Guardian analysis finds one section of report includes links to academic articles that do not exist, but authors deny the references were made up by AI
theguardian.com
🚨 The archived version of the suppressed Amnesty report into the anti-trans network operating to dismantle human rights in the UK has been "excluded" from the Wayback Machine. JKR is working very hard to scrub its existence from the eyes of the public. Thankfully, I kept screenshots.
On their latest witch hunt, the DOJ arrested Heidi Beirich, leading expert on far-right extremism. Purpose: to frighten others investigating dangerous rightist creeps and because she knows far too much. Like their other vindictive prosecutions, it will not work. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Trump’s justice department arrests expert on far right as part of SPLC crackdown
Prosecutors charge Heidi Beirich with financial crimes as part of case against the Southern Poverty Law Center
theguardian.com
"utes and US-style pick-up trucks were associated with around 60% higher pedestrian fatality risk than conventional passenger cars"
Yung En Chee@yungenchee.bsky.social · 2mo agoReally important research with clear findings, implications & policy recommendations to arrest the trend of oversized cars & trucks killing & maiming more pedestrians 🙏 & kudos to Milad Haghani, Abbas Rajabifard, Iman Taheri Sarteshnizi, & Neema Nassir @aunz.theconversation.com
Really important research with clear findings, implications & policy recommendations to arrest the trend of oversized cars & trucks killing & maiming more pedestrians 🙏 & kudos to Milad Haghani, Abbas Rajabifard, Iman Taheri Sarteshnizi, & Neema Nassir @aunz.theconversation.com
Big US-style trucks are killing more pedestrians in Australia – our research proves it
Pedestrians are more likely to be killed by heavier cars – and even more so if the vehicle is taller, Australian-first research has found.
theconversation.com
Using ~8.5k election-poll-party observations from 372 elections in 32 countries, we find a persistent partisan asymmetry: polls tend to overestimate the left relative to the right. On average across elections, polls the month before an election overstated the left by about 1.4 points
