Stephen Rowley

Stephen Rowley

@sterow.bsky.social

Urban planner, and author of “Movie Towns and Sitcom Suburbs” and “The Victorian Planning System: Practice, Problems and Prospects.” Also, cats, AFL (Essendon), Lego, films. www.sterow.com

904 Followers 714 Following 658 Posts Joined Aug 2023
2 hours ago

I think you are probably thinking of Sir Humphrey concluding John Halstead was “one of us.”

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5 hours ago
Possibly, the thinking would be that Ms Campbell thought the result
would find such favour with Minister Morrison as to lead to her
advancement. But quite apart from the speculation inherent in that
kind of reasoning, it is objectively a most unlikely proposition that an
already very senior, career public servant with a long and
unblemished record of achievement and recognition in both the APS
and ADF would so much desire further advancement as to
premeditatedly commit the serious criminal offence of deceiving ERC

NACC concludes that Kathryn Campbell didn't lie because she had no motive to

They say she had no motive because she was already successful, & wouldn't risk lying for further career advancement. I love it when people with no understanding of greed or hubris run corruption investigations

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2 days ago

I say this every year, but:

The uni students I'm teaching are thoughtful, intelligent, will make everything they encounter better.

With a new addition for 2026:

They deeply hate AI.

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3 days ago
TheCybersmith @thecybersmith.bsk... • 1d
• Joined May '23
Birth of a Nation is a misunderstood film, IMO, depiction is not endorsement, and DW Griffith's contributions to cinematography shouldn't be overshadowed by the fact that some people decided to interpret his film as supporting controversial political agendas.
O1
cartoon dog gf @jazzpomegranate.c... • 1d
• Joined Jul '23 @ Bard @2 Cleric have you seen it?
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•~...
TheCybersmith @thecybersmith.bsk... • 3h
• Joined May '23
Wait, I just found some clips online.
That's... look, I'll take Griffith at his word that he wasn't trying to seem borderline-fanatically bigoted, but really man; this could have used a second draft.
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TheCybersmith @thecybersmith.bsk... • 3h
• Joined May '23
Oh, fuck.
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91104日日.
TheCybersmith @thecybersmith.bsk... • 3h
• Joined May '23
Yes, I can see why people thought he was promoting intolerance here.
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TheCybersmith @thecybersmith.bsk... • 3h
• Joined May '23
Was it just impossible to find mixed-race extras back then? All of these half-breed northern soldiers are played by white actors in makeup! 目
TheCybersmith @thecybersmith.bsk... • 2h
• Joined May '23
Huh. The film's treatment of Lincoln is surprisingly sympathetic. I think I can see what Griffith was going for, but some of the choices he made really detract from the more nuanced ideas he wanted to put across (why do the black characters speak like that?)
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TheCybersmith @thecybersmith.bsky.social
• Joined May '23
THAT'S NOT A TRIAL! THAT@S JUST MURDER WITH EXTRA STEPS!
3:07 PM • Mar 8, 2026

friends, I have brought you a gift

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4 days ago

The other one you are thinking of is probably Threads, which was basically the British equivalent.

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5 days ago

Glad they keep getting all these draft concessions!

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1 week ago

Thanks for the reply. Totally get it, must be a lot of work. Will miss it though, there’s not another one I’ve found with such a good game by game focus. Thanks for your work on it over the years.

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1 week ago

Well said Rohan.

BTW is the Footyology podcast back this year? I’m not seeing a preview for this week in my feed yet and getting worried!

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1 week ago

Cometti was so good. The only caller, I think, who managed to be genuinely funny without it fucking up his call.

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3 weeks ago
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Ridiculous decision. Jason Bennett is easily one of the best AFL commentators & has been for a long time. Accurate, incisive, good judge of when to amp it up or back off. Yet Seven have always kept him in the shadows. Not sure what the rationale is but it's a really bad move.

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3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago

Yep, 100%. Same tonight, they disappear every time we go to a slightly different angle. Just another type of enshittification, making the product worse to wring out a few measly bucks.

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3 weeks ago

I don’t love it when they actually paint them in the ground, but… okay. But this really bugs me as it basically falsifies the record of what is happening.

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3 weeks ago
Shot of the AFL state of origin. Ads for AAMI and the event itself have been superimposed, made to look as if they are painted on the turf.

AFL state of origin highlighting one of my most despised advertising practices - computer-generated ads made to look as if they are painted on the turf.

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1 month ago

Over the past two weeks I've begun to realize that rich people only started funding chatbots once they could no longer email Jeffrey Epstein

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1 month ago
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I found the 50 most cathartic seconds of that Angela Collier video I linked earlier. Imagine of we could somehow get this to autoplay for everyone the next time they opened LinkedIn. Full video here: youtu.be/7pqF90rstZQ

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1 month ago
YouTube
this is what 2 years of chatgpt does to your brain YouTube video by Angela Collier

Angela Collier is so good on AI. Revel in the righteous anger. Her discussion of the AI users proudly talking about how much they love it especially hit home for me. youtu.be/7pqF90rstZQ?...

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2 months ago
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another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls

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2 months ago

LOL - although to be fair cracking it and refusing to pay an Adobe subscription is probably the most relatable thing Elon Musk has ever done.

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2 months ago
News Team,
Thank you for the notes and texts. I apologize for not reaching out earlier.
I learned on Saturday that Bari Weiss spiked our story, INSIDE CECOT, which was supposed to air tonight. We (Ori and I) asked for a call to discuss her decision. She did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity.
Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now-after every rigorous internal check has been met is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.
We requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed
to kill the story.
If the administration's refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a "kill switch" for any reporting they find inconvenient.
If the standard for airing a story becomes
"the government must agree to be
interviewed," then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast.
We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state.
These men risked their lives to speak with us.
We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their
stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless.
CBS spiked the Jeffrey Wigand interview due to legal concerns, nearly destroying the credibility of this broadcast. It took years to recover from that "low point." By pulling this story to shield an administration, we are repeating that history, but for political optics rather than legal ones. We have been promoting this story on social media for days. Our viewers are expecting it.
When it fails to air without a credible
explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of "Gold Standard" reputation for a single week of political quiet.
I care too much about this broadcast to watch
it be dismantled without a fight.
Sharyn

Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:

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2 months ago

Probably will come across as a contrarian choice, but I think I might say Every Sperm is Sacred. I respect the mix of satire, absurdity, and genuine production value.

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2 months ago
Headline: "Microsoft Scales Back AI Goals Because Almost Nobody Is Using Copilot" by Jan Martindale Dec. 10 2025

we can kill them all if we just work together and ✨believe💫

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2 months ago

There’s also the fact that I feel like we are perpetually living in a Gaston backstory at this point.

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2 months ago

The cultural impact of Rob Reiner cannot be understated. Legend isn't big enough a word. It goes to 11. You can't handle the truth. As you wish. I'll have what she's having. I'm your number one fan. You guys wanna see a dead body? The very idea of a bucket list. The West Wing.

All from his movies.

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3 months ago
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3 months ago
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Every new word in this sentence is worse than the last

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3 months ago
Preview
What teachers need to know before using AI for Indigenous education If you ask ChatGPT to write a Welcome to Country, it might caution that only an elder can deliver a Welcome and instead offer you a template of an Acknowledgement of Country. There’s just one problem:...

slop machines “know” exactly nothing, a simple web search would be a better strategy, slop users <will> cause cultural harm, and people with sufficient knowledge are required to check and correct the slop, again demonstrating slop to be a huge drain on productivity.

thepoint.com.au/opinions/251...

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3 months ago
The Age headliner: ‘I wouldn’t move to Victoria’: Pauline Hanson speaks at Melbourne anti-immigration rally

The good news just keeps on coming

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3 months ago
Headshot of a woman applying lipstick. It has been used to illustrate a story with the headline “APPARENTLY YOUR PERFECT LIPSTICK SHADE IS ACTUALLY THE COLOUR OF YOUR NIPPLES.”

The worst version of this I have seen in this poor woman whose innocent headshot got made really weird.

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3 months ago

Yikes.

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