Michael J

Don’t they have Habeas corpus in the USA

Internet was a godsend as a queer teen in late 90s Australia.

When HR bring in a mediator and set up a process between you and your bully

Butcher of Gaza says what

Photograph of a book entitled How not to be a grumpy old bugger sitting on a coffee table besides a remote control

If you don’t know what to give the grumpy old bugger in your life, you can’t go wrong with this, it’s funny and informative

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Enjoy Katabasis - I’m looking forward to it
I’m reading The Tainted Cup and it’s a very fresh read www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...

'The Red Witch: A Biography of Katharine Susannah Prichard' Biographers in Conversation interview with Nathan Hobby

'The Red Witch: A Biography of Katharine Susannah Prichard'
open.substack.com/pub/gabriell...

@nathanhobby.bsky.social

Jillian Segal is not Australia's Kultural Kommissar, and unlikely to become so. Universities need to stop bowing down

The ugly truth: have Trump’s tariffs finally put an end to Crocs’ 19-year reign? The Guardian’s Crocs correspondent traces the highs and lows of the rubbery perforated clogs that divide opinion

www.theguardian.com/fashion/2025...

Crocs 🤩

Jonathan Coe · Don’t we all want to be happy? Satie against Solemnity Erik Satie is the progenitor of torch songs and lounge music, systems music and minimalism, even (with his later...

Homeward bound and a lovely Jonathan Coe piece on Erik Satie to get stuck into.

@lrb.co.uk

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

So beautiful 🤩

Congratulations to Robert Jackson Bennett on winning the 2025 Hugo Award for Best Novel! #booksky @thehugoawards.bsky.social

What a shemozzle. Hard to predict what happens next: will other writers fests and cultural events have learned that pre-emptive censorship is a disaster, or will Bendigo-style speech-limiting contracts become the norm?

As good a summary of what’s going on in modern school libraries as you will find - and a very good primer on why well resourced and well staffed libraries are essential

Ugh that’s the worst thing

I loved that song but it was the Liv Maessen version I remember

I need you to understand that if you heard a song you liked in the 80s, you couldn’t Shazam it. You couldn’t Google the lyrics. You had to sing it to the guy at Tower Records.

It blows my mind that the same people who have been trying to falsely paint pro-Palestine protests around the country as being antisemitic have said nothing about the explicitly antisemitic rally being organised for August 31. Instead doing the opposite; offering to promote, support and endorse it.

I’ve been looking forward to Enid Blyton’s latest

It's been a while #WQuers Wordle 1,520 2/6

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Books don't need a classification system

They've tried book challenges and bans in Australia but it hasn't worked. Conservative forces will pivot now but as my 14yo son has exclaimed this morning: "Books don't need a classification system!" More on this in my blog. #books #libraries #freedomtoread

New Zealand woman and six-year-old son released from US detention Sarah Shaw was detained by Ice owing to a problem with her ‘combo card’ visa as she tried to re-enter the US from Canada

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Nobody in their right mind would want to go to Taliban America

Have men really stopped reading? We take a deeper dive into the data It’s clear that if there is a crisis in Australia, it affects both men and women, boys and girls. So what can be done to boost reading?

An interesting deep dive into the data www.theguardian.com/news/2025/au...

Universities Australia must reverse its decision to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which includes criticism of Israel, & define antisemitism simply, in accordance with the ruling of the Federal Court, & consistently with other definitions of racism.

Ditto all universities.
#Auspol

Did you know 85% of Kiwis say libraries improve their happiness and wellbeing?
The results are in from PLNZ’s latest Community Impact Survey — and the data confirms public #libraries uplift us all #impact

Anti-trans activist loses AVO appeal after 'highly intimidatory' X posts An anti-transgender rights activist has lost her right to appeal an apprehended violence order taken out by a transgender woman, after "highly intimidatory", "objectively harassing," and "unnecessaril...

Anti-transgender rights activist Kirralie Smith loses appeal against apprehended violence order www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

No I was too young, I didn’t start going to see bands until a few years later - missed out on Led Zeppelin at Kooyong - my biggest musical regret

Lots of talk around #Bendigo that La Trobe University have hung Bendigo Council and the beautiful regional city of Bendigo out to dry, while supplying pithy statements to the media and not doing interviews, leaving it to council employees to cop front up and cop it.