Anyone who has flown in Europe will already be very familiar with such charges which have been in place for many years. Now can we get the European style compensation from airlines for delayed and cancelled flights? www.theguardian.com/business/202...

‘Just an easy cash grab’: why Jetstar is charging customers for carry-on luggage

Add-on fees such as the new overhead locker baggage charge can make it more difficult to compare air fares, experts say

theguardian.com

Soldiers standing in front of a projector to stop a documentary about deforestation says more than the film ever could Pesta Babi has been shut down at 30+ locations across Indonesia since April. We trace the pattern & why it looks uncomfortably familiar from here blakandblack.com/2026/08/06/p...

Pig Feast: West Papua, Indonesia and Colonialism in Our Time

Censorship in the absence of government direction, even denial, underpins the continued destruction of culture and transparency.

blakandblack.com

“the proposed cuts to the NDIS - & potentially her own care - instilled fear in her & the wider disabled community. NDIS support is something she has had to fight for, advocating for herself..”Fight, fight, fight for everything. It's never been easy," Ms Carlson said” www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08...

'Where are the fakers'? NDIS recipient slams argument for overhaul

NDIS recipient Nicci Carlson, who is in constant pain and may soon lose her eyesight, says cuts to the scheme are making vulnerable people living with a disability scapegoats for Australians hit hard ...

abc.net.au

As I was saying

Ed Burmila@edburmila.bsky.social · 4w ago

At some point we are going to have to reckon with what percentage of the Thought Leadership we get from this class of people is just drug addiction. Either a lot of credulous reporters have never listened to someone tooted out of their mind go on a monologue or they're afraid to call it out.

Former Irish president and UN human rights chief Mary Robinson says Israel’s annexation of Palestinian land is unfolding in plain sight – and that the aim is to make Palestine disappear physically, economically, culturally and politically. #Palestine #Israel #WestBank

What I saw in the West Bank

Former Irish president and UN human rights chief Mary Robinson says Israel’s annexation of Palestinian land is unfolding in plain sight, enabled by impunity and a lack of international political will.

pearlsandirritations.com

I'm legit obsessed with Trump's effort to distract from his own corruption by having Scott Brady, who helped criminally frame Joe and Hunter Biden, claim to care about fraud. Here's the meeting they had today.

petty, maybe, but it always gets me, a person with adhd and aphantasia that would never use ai, when people claim adhd and aphantasia is the reason they *need* these in their life no, you're just a mark

Jean Cabot@prairiehamster.bsky.social · 8h ago

In a videogame roleplay server I'm in they just banned AI and this person flipped out, saying that because of her ADHD she needed it to manage her whole life and it turned out she had even been making her *tiny* game posts with it too! Then she called it her friend. Terrifying shit. She ragequit

This might open up a whole new group of plants, those with sticky hairs, to the possibility of being carnivorous (even including the tomato 🍅!) Here is a link to the article by Zhang et al. in Nature Communications… www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Identification of carnivory in the flowering plant Saxifraga via multidisciplinary evidence - Nature Communications

Carnivorous plants capture and digest insects for nutrients, an adaptive strategy typically found in wetlands. This study identifies carnivory in the alpine Saxifraga plant lineage, supporting Darwin'...

nature.com

Ray Bradbury's short story "There Will Come Soft Rains" included the above poem read by the automated house, long after its denizens were dead.

lol at Coles suddenly sending a letter to Getup demanding they take down digital ads about Coles surveillance data partnership with Palantir because it featured footage of a Coles staff member and “breached their privacy”

AI Due diligence - at this point in time, these two do not converge - which is interesting given that due diligence is written into Public Service law & I'm sure that there is something in corporate law as well. Listen to which BIG analytics companies can't handle AI's costs. youtu.be/XB55jZAYifQ

Big Tech Is Finally Paying for the AI Disaster It Created

YouTube video by House of El: AI

youtu.be

It’s official: @abdulelsayed.bsky.social wins the Democratic Primary for Senate! The People Prevail Over Corporate Profits Once Again!

www.youtube.com/live/1xeDiMn...

Michigan Senate Primary Result Live | Abdul El-Sayed Victory Speech Live | US Midterm Election 2026

YouTube video by CNN-News18

youtube.com

www.mediaite.com/politics/mic...

Michael Moore Tells CNN He’s Begging for Progressives to Overthrow Democratic Establishment ‘Hacks’

Michael Moore told CNN he is so disgusted by the same old Democratic politicians he is willing to get on his knees and beg for Abdul El-Sayed to win in Michigan

mediaite.com

Thank you, Michigan, for voting out the pro-Zionist Democrats and voting for a pro-Palestinian progressive candidate.

The ultimate outcome of folks paying higher mortgages is not slower price increases, it's more of us being made *actually* poor, because employers fire people or cut casual shifts to maintain profit. Unemployment is by design & the RBA chief doesn't care a bit about how many lives she destroys.

The Australia Institute@australiainstitute.org.au · 21h ago

Why does the Reserve Bank want to make Australians feel poorer? 🤔 Co-CEO Richard Denniss answers this question and more in the latest episode of 'What's the Point?' 🏦🏦🏦 #auspol @richarddenniss.bsky.social

Welp.

Asawin Suebsaeng@swin24.bsky.social · 3d ago

an immigration lawyer working on some of these Haitian cases today says an ICE officer told them, re: the ankle monitors: “We’re following our orders.” Direct quote Hm

You're not special, penguin. I do that every day.

‘If we don’t fight back, we don’t have a future’: the journalist taking on the ‘tech fascists’ of Silicon Valley

‘If we don’t fight back, we don’t have a future’: the journalist taking on the ‘tech fascists’ of Silicon Valley

As Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and their peers have grown richer and more influential, Gil Durán argues they have all but abandoned democracy – and found the perfect government to enable them

theguardian.com

This should be seen in its proper context. It’s long been normal for the press to treat far right crackpots and straight fascists as valuable authorities on extremism, and to present them to the public as anti-radicalisation and as antiracists. They’ve been doing it for at least ten years.

flyingrodent@flyingrodent.bsky.social · 11h ago

Hodges is an occasionally useful guy to keep an eye on, mainly because he’ll say things that his less stupid colleagues are smart enough to keep to themselves.

What is truly "shocking" about the polling miss in Michigan is that it is completely average for a primary "The expected error on the margin between two primary candidates in a race for governor or U.S. Senate is a whopping 13.0 points." blog.fiftyplusone.news/p/2026-texas...

Do we really know who's leading the Texas Senate races?

Primary polls have historically been rather unreliable, and a surge in new primary voters means turnout assumptions matter more than usual

blog.fiftyplusone.news

|horses|@chemotaxis.bsky.social · 12h ago

Polling is like really fucked. Strikes me as a huge problem honestly.

Snort

Compliments to the photo editor for picking perfectly terrifying images of these power-mad freaks. Just a mystery why they have no loved ones.

Very scary deep dive. Invest in guillotine futures…

Steve Rose@steverose7.bsky.social · 13h ago

I spoke to Gil Durán about his new book THE NERD REICH, on Silicon Valley fascism and its roots iin a combination of extreme wealth, messianic narcissism and batshit right wing ideologies. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

You’re Dead To Me is covered in Podcast Review, with a quote from me podcastreview.org/list/august-...

3 Podcasts to Listen to in August 2026 | Podcast Review

Each month, Podcast Review’s staff offers recommendations on the best new shows to listen to. Here are our favorite podcasts for August.

podcastreview.org

This is wholly unsustainable

Mikey@mikeyt202.blacksky.app · yesterday

A 2 bed, 2 bath, 935 sq ft apartment should not START at $4300...

I'm the first person to post about this on social media. There has been no media coverage yet. DEWR themselves have not posted about it on their social media, despite making other posts today. This is a highly consequential decision of government that will affect many recipients. Not good enough.

Tom Studans@maximumwelfare.bsky.social · 22h ago

#BREAKING 🚨 The new DEWR Secretary announced they'll seek to resume suspending or cancelling welfare payments on October 26 in respect of: • Refusal or failure to accept an offer of suitable work • Failure to 'reconnect' with a provider within 4 weeks www.dewr.gov.au/assuring-int...

#Communiqué 🗞️ À l’échelle mondiale, l’aire de répartition d’au moins une espèce de papillon sur dix s’est étendue ces dernières années. Le changement climatique ou les événements météorologiques extrêmes concernent 78 % des espèces étudiées. 🦋 👉 www.cnrs.fr/fr/presse/la-di...