The U.S. is in a position where anything less than complete victory is a loss for Democrats and anything more than a complete loss is a win for Republicans. They started by gerrymandering physical electorates, they’re now gerrymandering your entire national electoral system. It’s evil but clever.

The new “Slip, Slop, Slap” for 2026. If you try to SLIP me some AI SLOP, then I’m going to SLAP you upside the head. (Now all we need are some catchy accompanying lyrics and a seagull-themed mascot.)

It is a bitter irony that Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime, would pass away while “The Transformers: The Movie” is back in cinemas for the 40th anniversary “Apology Tour”.

It's humanity or billionaires

In light of recent food-related #auspol gaffes, I’d like to share with my fellow Aussies a few photos I’ve taken at local supermarkets here in my new home in Costa Rica.

Beginning to think that “things that would be flat out illegal if a human did them but are nothing more than the subject of awed discourse about how clever they are when AI agents do them” might not be a good foundational principle for future societies and maybe we need to do something different

Oh good, it seems like I was mistaken. There is a way to merge the home feeds on this app’s free version. The interface is just a little clunky and unintuitive. Still, that’s fine with me so long as it works.

Trying out SoraSNS for crossposting between Mastodon and Bluesky. The crossposting is a bit more clunky compared to OpenVibe, and it doesn’t have a combined home feed without paying, but at least there’s no unwelcome branding.

Okay, testing a new crossposting app. If this one works without adding some nasty branding, I think I’ll make the switch.

Oh ew. I haven’t posted for ages, so I hadn’t realised the app I was using on iOS had started adding that footer. Not sure what other clients are available that support both Mastodon and iOS though… Crossposted with @openvibe.social

Well, it’s official. Just got my confirmation this morning that my Digital Nomad visa has now been approved. I’m finally now a proper resident here in Costa Rica. Crossposted with @openvibe.social

Spent 20 minutes this morning sitting with my 12yo and asking the new Google search questions about Pokémon. After laughing at all the bullshit and wrong answers, we had a serious discussion about the power of his human brain and the necessity of using trusted sources like Bulbapedia.

Florida is a world leader in Sentence™ exports

We should be learning from other countries...

Extremely disappointed with this news out of Japan. Japanese #privacy laws were always quite robust. These changes for the sake of AI companies are going to wreck things badly. www.theregister.com/2026/04/08/j...

Japan relaxes privacy laws to make AI development easy • The Register

: Opting out of personal data use won't be an option because Minister says that's a 'very big obstacle' to AI adoption

theregister.com

Today, CDT joined the @globalencryption.org Steering Committee (Global Partners Digital, Internet Society Foundation, Mozilla ,+ @internetfreedom.bsky.social) in expressing serious concern over Meta’s decision to discontinue encryption for direct messages on Instagram.

Meta’s Rollback of Encryption on Instagram Undermines Privacy and Civil Rights

Today, CDT joined fellow members of the Steering Committee of the Global Encryption Coalition in expressing serious concern over Meta’s decision to discontinue encryption for direct messages on Instagram. Encryption had been offered as an opt-in feature, and users had to enable it in every individual chat. As a result, it was never widely deployed, […]

cdt.org

If an adjunct gets one fifth of that for teaching an entire semester-long course, it’s considered a good rate.

Victor Ray@victorerikray.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Also of note, Iowa paid Chris Rufo—perhaps the leading propagandist for the current assault on higher ed, an unqualified hack and admitted fabulist—$34,000 to speak. It's embarrassing that any higher ed institution would invite him, especially when they are cutting departmental budgets.

Well, that was certainly the Liz Truss of ceasefires.

I've been saying for a long time that AI tools promote shortcuts and by doing so skip the learning experience which involves persistence (like the article linked here suggests), but also making mistakes and learning how to solve a problem in a way that makes sense to you -> arxiv.org/pdf/2604.04721

The ceasing of the ceasefire.

We wonder why we are in such trouble? The richest 0.1% hide more untaxed wealth offshore than the entire wealth of the poorest half of humanity. A just system demands that contribution and accountability increase with power—rather than vanish behind tax havens and secrecy. #pinks #oxfam

Kathy Mortensen 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦🇺🇸 💙@kathyswords.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Investigation by Oxfam. Equality erodes when those with greatest resources are able to operate outside the responsibilities shared by the rest of society. A just system requires that contribution & accountability rise alongside power, not disappear behind it. www.downtoearth.org.in/governance/u...

❗️At pre-election rallies in 🇭🇺Hungary, the crowd began chanting: "Russians — go home!" The historic slogan "Ruszkik haza" emerged during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and was directed against the Soviet occupation.

Article 3-7-26 by Julie K Brown. I am not one to subscribe to conspiracy theories but there does seem to be more and more evidence that Epstein may have been murdered. Remember, Julie K Brown is the journalist who has doggedly followed this coverup from its earliest days.

Schooley@schooley.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Even before this, my main point of suicide skepticism is Epstein spent a lifetime building a get-away-with-it power network and I haven’t seen a lot to indicate he didn’t think they’d come through again for him.

The Onion

Social media created this nonsense idea that not exposing yourself to hatred is isolationist. Choosing to not spend your free time with bigots isn’t living in a bubble. I don’t need to know what’s going on at X. I won’t be smarter or more knowledgeable or empathic by being there. Neither will you.

So, in launching a huge bombing campaign on Iran they apparently didn't plan for: - Who takes over; - Interceptor shortages from sustained drone retaliation; - How to defend US bases in the region; - Threats to ships in the Strait of Hormuz; and - How to evacuate Americans with airspace closed.

This past week has left us feeling quite vindicated for having chosen to fly Air Canada and avoid transiting via the US.

Absolutely nuts. I fired up Google Gemini and asked it a bunch of questions about my own field — areas I know really well, that I write and publish in. Literally the first paper that it told me about had a hallucinated author name

Alexander Kustov@akoustov.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Sorry, Bluesky, but I have to say it: AI can already do social science research better than most professors with PhDs. And, for the first time in my life, I really have no idea what happens in five years. Things are changing already, we just need to wake up.

Having free wifi internet access on board an international flight is such a civilised way to travel.

So now that I’ve left Australia, at what point am I morally obligated to start getting teary eyed when I hear “I still call Australia Home”?