Dr James Kite

Factchecking five Coalition claims about net zero, from power prices to the $9tn cost As Liberals join Nationals in abandoning a 2050 emissions target, we unpick some of the opposition’s talking points * Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here Are you trying to make sense of some of the big claims made by Liberal and National party MPs for abandoning their support for Australia reaching net zero emissions by 2050? We’re here to help. Continue reading...

Factchecking five Coalition claims about net zero, from power prices to the $9tn cost

I have never been able to get my head around why we let this system exist. Research money is limited and yet we give so much of it to pay a third party to host it on a website and charge us for the privilege to read it. Madness

The Drain of Scientific Publishing The domination of scientific publishing in the Global North by major commercial publishers is harmful to science. We need the most powerful members of the research community, funders, governments and ...

The Drain of Scientific Publishing details very clearly how for-profit publishers making >30% profit margins have corrupted any solution the research community has attempted.

Let's cut ourselves free.

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: bit.ly/StrainQSS
Oligopoly: bit.ly/OligSciPub

12/12

All the pushback amounts to is “I like driving fast”. No alternative proposals other than more education (which puts the blame for deaths/injuries solely on drivers), no evidence of how this would be detrimental other than vague claims of ‘economic disaster’. Typical of a car-obsessed politic

I'd appreciate help circulating this survey, part of our overall work on neurodivergence.

This one is on behalf of the graduate deans, to develop better supervision guidelines.

You can help by boosting and circulating the link in your various networks 🙏 redcap.unisq.edu.au/surveys/?s=D...

Sounds like a good spot for Spider-Man’s origin story

Identifying best practice in evaluation of Indigenous programs First Nations people should be meaningfully involved in the evaluation of Indigenous-focused programs, according to a new publication. The article,

“Without Indigenous engagement, and ideally self-determination, in the evaluation process, evaluation findings would be of little value to organisations providing services to First Nations people” - Summer May Finlay

This is really interesting. It’s going to be a challenge to enforce this, not least because the definition of ‘influencer’ is fluid, but I get why they’ve gone down this path.

@harvilla.bsky.social thought you might find this amusing. Cheat sheet: Albanese is the Australian prime Minister and Ley is leader of the opposition (aka the ‘Coalition’)

Very nice piece from @joshbutler.bsky.social pointing out the strange choice to attack Albos clothing choices. There’s so much you could go after him on - why Ley thought this would be a winner is baffling

Letting Silicon Valley Geoengineer the Atmosphere Will End Badly We already have plenty of evidence of what happens when things better left to governments — which in this case might decide to never flip the switch at all — are ceded to private industry.

"There isn't a reasonable scenario where we grant some rich people control over the planet's thermostat and everything turns out fine."

My latest:

Great read. How best to respond to AI use is a tricky issue but this highlights some key problems with demands for disclosure

oerc.ox.ac.uk/ai-centre/ai...

Switching 50km/h speed limits to 30km/h would protect cyclists while barely affecting commutes, research finds One expert says a cyclist hit by a car travelling 50km/h has about a one-in-10 chance of surviving, while at 30km/h it is a nine-in-10 chance

“If you get hit by a car travelling at 50km/h, you’ve only got a 1.5-in-10 chance of surviving. If it’s going 30km/h you’ve got a nine-in-10 chance.”

“But it was not enough to put up a sign that says 30km/h…there also needed to be design changes to slow down traffic.”

Speed is always a factor.

Is Ultra-Processed Food Destroying Men's Health? The details of a new study on ultra-processed food.

Ultra-processed food - the eternal enemy of the people. And, apparently, testicles.

Or...is it? My new piece.

gidmk.substack.com/p/is-ultra-p...

Time to Shut the Shops: Experts Call for Fewer Tobacconists

A new editorial in the @anzjph.bsky.social highlights the urgent need to reduce the number of tobacco and nicotine retailers in Australia.

Anita Dessaix | @drbfreeman.bsky.social | Raglan Maddox | Emily Stone

Seems to be the administration’s MO on everything: say what you want and then create the evidence to back that position

Quite the take!

Australian government should follow suit and fund more research into the benefits of sausage sizzles

University caught out using AI to wrongly accuse students of cheating with AI An Australian university has accused thousands of its students of cheating with artificial intelligence. The problem? Many have done nothing wrong.

man Australian universities are really just collapsing like a dying star hey

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

Now that the Deloitte report, about the government's unlawful administration of mutual obligations, is making international headlines, it's worth looking at what's actually in it (apart from AI slop) and WHY it was actually commissioned

A thread👇

The part on vaping is comically wrong. If you’re going to claim the benefits of unrestricted vaping (which is what you’re advocating for) you best come with more evidence than ‘some people, many of whom have a financial interest, passionately claim it helps people quit smoking’

University of Technology Sydney responds to concerns about planned cuts to public health

University of Technology Sydney responds to concerns about planned cuts to public health www.croakey.org/university-o... #publichealth

Countrywide natural experiment links built environment to physical activity - Nature By analysing the smartphone data of 2,112,288 participants, in particular observing and comparing the activity of the same individual in two different environments, we find that increases in the walkability of environments result in increases in daily physical activity, providing evidence of the importance of the built environment on physical health.

There's a really nice new study using phone data from Americans who relocated from one city to another to look at the effect of walkable environments on physical activity. E.g., people move TO New York and walk more, they move FROM New York and walk less www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Productivity commission under fire for failing to consult Australian artists about copyright issues around AI recommendations Productivity Commission under fire for failing to consult Australian artists about copyright issues around AI recommendations

😳
”The commission revealed at the inquiry it had not consulted with the creative industry or modelled either the impact of that recommendation or the benefit the industry injects into the economy.”
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

And that’s why we in the Democratic Party are going to direct every available resource to destroying our own candidates who want to do something about inequality or other crazy things like that

I’m proud to have signed this letter. Public health is important!

Public health cuts at UTS put students, staff and communities at risk: open letter

Public health cuts at UTS put students, staff and communities at risk: open letter www.croakey.org/public-healt... #publichealth

This must be why I always kill my house plants. It’s an instinct

Climate change & poverty are thrilled that they are being ignored

An interesting read. Not sure I agree that critical voices are being excluded from the conversation (at least at my institution) but the questions posed are valid and worthy of consideration regardless