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Created
Fri, 05/11/2021 - 07:56

We have some good news to share. The FSF was one of several activist organizations pushing for exemptions to the anticircumvention rules under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that make breaking Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) illegal, even for ethical and legitimate purposes. We helped bring public awareness to a process that is too often only a conversation between lawyers and bureaucrats. As of late last week, there are now multiple new exemptions that will help ease some of the acute abuse DRM inflicts on users. However, the main lesson to be learned here is that we should and must keep pushing. Individual, specific exemptions are not enough. The entire anticircumvention law needs to be repealed. We want to thank the 230 individuals who co-signed their names to our comments supporting exemptions across the board.

Created
Fri, 05/11/2021 - 05:20
November 4, 2021 Indoctrination By Alfie Kohn Some years ago I gave a talk in which I outlined classroom practices that can promote caring and cooperation. When I was done, a woman stood up and informed me heatedly that she doesn’t send her child to school “to learn to be nice.” That, she said, would be “social engineering.” Besides, she ... Read More
Created
Wed, 03/11/2021 - 18:11
Ever considered doing research about online communities, free culture/software, and peer production full time? It’s PhD admission season and my research group—the Community Data Science Collective—is doing an open-to-anyone Q&A about PhD admissions this Friday November 5th. We’ve got room in the session and its not too late to sign up to join us! The …
Created
Wed, 03/11/2021 - 16:38

Ten years ago, in the lead-up to Australia’s short-lived carbon price or “carbon tax” (either description is valid), the deepest fear on the part of businesses was that they would lose out to untaxed firms overseas.

Instead of buying Australian carbon-taxed products, Australian and export customers would buy untaxed (possibly dirtier) products from somewhere else.

It would give late-movers (countries that hadn’t yet adopted a carbon tax) a “free kick” in industries from coal and steel to aluminium to liquefied natural gas to cement, to wine, to meat and dairy products, even to copy paper.

It’s why the Gillard government handed out free permits to so-called trade-exposed industries, so they wouldn’t face unfair competition.

Created
Sun, 31/10/2021 - 19:38
In Australia the last few years have seen each new episode of Doctor Who paired with an episode of the commentary show Whovians, featuring Rove McManus and team. Unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic put pay to plans for more Whovians on the ABC to accompany the Flux story… fortunately for Australian fans the DWCA’s Newcastle Local Group has that covered! You can join their team on Zoom after each episode of Doctor Who: Flux airs on the ABC on Monday nights – where they will be running a Whovian Panel to discuss the events of each episode, share theories and partake… Continue reading
Created
Sun, 31/10/2021 - 19:26
Doctor Who returns to Australian screens with the new series premiere on Monday 1 November. While timed to coincide with All Hallows Eve in the UK, the time difference means it won’t screen here for Halloween. Instead, it will be available to stream from 6.20 am (AEDT) on ABC iview and will screen at 7.30 pm on ABC TV Plus. This whole series will comprise of one epic six-part adventure taking the Doctor and her friends to the edge of the universe and beyond, in a battle for survival. Make sure you tune in to discover what the Flux is… Continue reading
Created
Sat, 30/10/2021 - 07:27
November 1–November 2, 2021 The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent losses in lives and livelihoods are looming over Sub-Saharan Africa. As in the rest of the world, the pandemic has exposed the enduring inequalities and injustices in stark terms, including those based on gender and those intersecting with gender, such as economic […]
Created
Wed, 27/10/2021 - 16:35

NSW is doing what Labor’s Bill Shorten could not – explaining why Australia’s capital gains tax concession is knocking first home buyers out of homes.

Shorten went to the 2016 and 2019 elections with a plan – Labor would halve the capital gains tax concession used by landlords who buy and sell properties.

Created
Sat, 23/10/2021 - 23:14

The team over at Arcbeatle Press have been in touch with details of their P.R.O.B.E.: Out of the Shadows, short story anthology, continuing from the BBV Doctor Who spin-off films, which is now available to purchase from Amazon.

"Welcome to the Preternatural Research Bureau, also known as P.R.O.B.E. For decades P.R.O.B.E. has defended Earth from the strange, the paranormal, and the alien. Hidden away from the eyes of the public. Times have changed. 

Created
Sat, 23/10/2021 - 20:54
The Hunter Street entrance to the Hunter Connection shopping arcade is a canopy of mirrored tiles and neon lights, like the entrance to a 1980s nightclub. The mirror panels reflect the street and the people walking past, the angles and edges scrambling and distorting the scene below. Go under the mirrors and inside and you’ll […]
Created
Sat, 23/10/2021 - 01:12
With the Comprehensive Spending Review due next Wednesday, I thought it might be worth making some general points about student loans (in anticipation of potential changes to repayment thresholds and other parameters). I do not think student loans are a good vehicle for redistributive measures. As I told a couple of parliamentary committees in 2017, […]