‘They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence’, rasps Kyle Reese in The Terminator, referring to the Skynet computer system that launched a nuclear attack against humanity in the catastrophe known as Judgment Day. The trope is as old as science fiction itself, and shadows the genre with all of the tenacity of an Uzi-toting T-800.
Reading
When Bob Hawke died in 2019, two days before the federal election, many mainstream commentators took the opportunity to remind the prime ministerial hopefuls that in terms of charisma, persuasiveness and popularity they didn’t exactly measure up to the example of the Silver Bodgie.
In 1741, the exalted members of the Bordeaux Royal Academy of Sciences met to consider sixteen essays written in response to the following question: ‘What is the physical cause of the Negro’s color, the quality of [the Negro’s] hair, and the degeneration of both [Negro hair and skin]?’
‘When profound ideas are introduced to the world for the first time,’ writes Professor Marcia Langton, in her foreword to The First Astronomers, ‘our world is fundamentally changed and the previous understandings consigned to history. There are those who continue to deny the intelligence and scientific traditions of Indigenous people. The idea that the only true science is that of Western thinking must be consigned to history.’
You only see these long lines in Blacklanta, where state law eliminated most dropboxes.
My heart goes out to those who waited for hours to vote in the cold and dark. If all Americans were as committed to democracy as Black Atlantans, our nation would be... READ MORE
The 2020s appear to be a never-ending parade of global groupthink. The Russian Oil Price Cap is yet another stupid and self-destructive idea that should have been suffocated at birth. It cannot possibly achieve what its supporters claim, and it represents emotional value signalling from the Big Hug Club rather than any semblance of rational thought.
Dominique Grubisa is claiming “the system” wants to stop her from sharing information they don’t want the public to know. read now...Now I am back in Australia for a while, I am using this time to continue my studies in the Japanese language to better prepare myself for when I return there to work in 2023. I have to learn 2056…
Neoliberal policies have resulted in an imbalance in Australia's wage system with a disproportional increase in senior management financial rewards. read now...“This was a calculated action to disrupt traffic in Sydney"
Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for “targeted closures” of “Moscow-backed” religious organizations in...
To illustrate the claims in this book, I rely on three primary metaphors throughout….The second is of history as molten glass. At present, society is still malleable and can be blown into many shapes. But at some point, the glass might cool, set, and become much harder to change. The resulting shape could be beautiful […]
"Finally, we'll no longer be treated as a fringe movement"
We can now count the Australian builders who lost their lives following Coalition calls to deregulate that dangerous industry. read now...Today’s Sunday cartoon, above, is from a time when Moses was younger than
the gray-haired, Charlton Heston version so many folks are familiar with.
The BBC's Doctor Who confirmed that filming has begun, with Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor and Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday readying for Series 14.
For the Race, Place & Critical Theory Reading Group, convened by Dallas Rogers, my role was to act as a reader of the final main chapter and coda of Abdoumaliq Simone’s The Surrounds: Urban Life within and Beyond Capture. Here is my write up of that reading.
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So here we are. We are surrounded.
In the Coda to Abdoumaliq Simone’s book The Surrounds comes the definition of the surrounds as ‘a space of exception’, or as ‘a shape-shifting matrix of spaces, times, and practices that exist right now within the turbulent processes of contemporary urbanisation’. Earlier in the text, instead of envisioning urbanism as the unfolding of definitive forces of value capture, asset creation, and resource extraction, he defines the surrounds as ‘a liminal interstice in between multiple, diverging trajectories of urbanisation that are always in the process of being sutured, more or less’, but always in an unsettled relation.
What are the major themes in the final main chapter of the book and how has “doing time” with this text been?
Cooking time: 6-8 hoursPreparation time: 45 mins.Main cooking utensils: 1 or 2 ovenproof bowls, foil or wax paper For 12-16 servings:1 cup all-purpose flour1 cup fresh soft bread crumbs1 teaspoon each mixed spice, cinnamon, and nutmegScant cup shredded suet½ cup brown sugar1 dessert apple, grated1 small carrot, grated¾ cup chopped candied peel2 eggsScant cup currants1⅓ […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about failure lately. Failure comes in many forms, but I’m especially interested in situations in which people *perceive* something as failing (or about to fail) and the contestations over failure that often arise in such situations. Given this, it’s hard not to be fascinated by all that’s unfolding around Twitter. […]
“I haven’t read the Constitution, but, from what I’ve been told, most of it is a waste of paper, quite frankly.”