Tim Baxter

Screenshot from isithotrightnow.com. Text reads: Is it hot in Melbourne City right now? Hell yeah! It's bloody hot!

If you're in Victoria, this is your reminder to drink some water, and pester your loved ones to ensure that they have drunk some water.

We'll see when I go back. 🤷‍♂️

The only reason I'm taking this eye thing a bit more seriously is because of the contacts, which I only want to try ahead of upcoming scuba diving. If it doesn't work out, so be it. I don't think I'm rapidly going blind.

I have been using the eye drops, and taking an antihistamine semi-regularly, and it hasn't made that much or a difference I don't think. I have to pick up my new contacts this week, so I had better try something different I think.

Don't want to be rubbing my eyes like this with them in! 😳

I was going to say something, but I figured I could only do it once.

Oops forgot this figure - I thought a pretty a good representation of the battery / gas dynamic.. 🔌💡

Potential explosive device thrown into crowd at Perth Invasion Day rally, police say Police say they are investigating whether a device thrown into an Invasion Day rally crowd in Perth contained explosives, in addition to ball bearings and screws found inside.

No big deal, just a white fulla throwing bombs around .....I mean, it's not like we are the protected few.
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

I think all three of those are that in different ways. Not sure about the Japanese though.

Preshil was pretty much doing alternative education before it existed. Berengarra has a big focus on care first. Box Hill Senior is a bit more mainstream, but with a lot more room for arts and sports.

I don't know loads about it but Berengarra School is supposed to be good. Box Hill Senior secondary College is good, though your kid's suitability for it will depend on their specific strengths.

Preshil is apparently incredible, but AFAIK quite expensive.

Living in or near Collingwood and working in Clayton would be a daily nightmare. I say that as someone who lives out in the east (foothills of the Dandenongs, so roughly equivalent to Clayton in terms of difficulty to CBD) and whose work is based in Collingwood.

There's a reason I WFH full time.

If you're working at Clayton, you're better off somewhere in the middle or outer east. Suburbs like Blackburn and Mitcham are really nice and a straight shot to Clayton.

Depending on your 15 yo's specific needs there are equivalent alternative education options out here.

This is marketing nonsense 👍🏽

The part of the world is one of the reasons that I don't think I could live anywhere other than Victoria.

I would hope the fire can't get too deep into the rainforest proper, but it has been pretty dry in that part of the world over the last couple of years. 💛

Forecast temperatures across the world at 5pm AEDT on Tuesday 27th January (Source: Bureau of Meteorology)

With winter in full swing in the Northern Hemisphere, Australia really stands out as exceptionally hot looking at the forecast temperatures across the world. Possible record-breaking heat tomorrow in the southeast. www.bom.gov.au/australia/ch...

www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

Obviously the above map is static, and copied from the VicEmergency Facebook page. If you are at risk or directly helping those who are, please rely on official comms from emergency services, not this map!

Bushfire map showing an enormous evacuation zone for the Otways fire, centred just above Cape Otway and with the "evacuate immediately" region extending almost to Lorne, the best part of 40km away.

It really is fucking unbelievable how big the evacuation zone is for the Otways fire is.

For those not familiar with Victoria, the map below shows about a third (...?) of the Western Vic's whole coastline. The "evacuate immediately" region in the middle is about 60km x 40km. 😟

(Today I learned that the Windy app now has ACCESS-C available! Thanks James! That will probably make my kayaking forecasts a bit safer.)

The highest temperature ever recorded in Victoria is 48.8°C at Hopetoun on 7 Feb 2009.
The forecast for Tuesday at Ouyen Victoria is 49°C.

Definitely. Once you get past core features at a certain point it is all emotional.

One of the things I really liked about the Dolphin was it had the same TARDIS-like quality that the Jazz has, where it feels like you can fit way, way more into it than you should be able to.

I've tested the MG4, Dolphin and Atto 1. I had overlooked the Inster because I had heard it was expensive, but at that price it isn't so bad. I need to go check it out properly.

So far my choice is the MG4, because it is a nicer drive, but I don't think it's enough nicer to justify the price gap.

👀

Abc didn't listen to one single speaker obviously.

Millie Ingram read a statement on behalf of Uncle Mark Brown, who was booed while giving a welcome to country at an Anzac Day service last year.

Uhhhhhm. It was Millie Telford who read this statement.

10/ Seems like v little to it.

In the meantime, it looks like some bloke has done a cheeky li'l Hitler salute on the steps of the VIC state parliament.

And along w the rich kid, the vanguard of the rally was once again (former -- LOL) members of Tom Sewell's nazi kvlt.

7/ Finally, it's fitting that the face of the March for White Australia in Naarm/Melbourne is Hugo Lennon:

a little rich kid from Toorak, Scotch College graduate, & heir to a multi-million dollar property-developer fortune.

Precisely the kind of wealthy twat police & racist tradies grovel to.

Thomas Sewell, leader of the very recently dissolved neo-Nazi kvlt National Socialist Network, speaks at the “March for Australia” rally on 31 August 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Ye Myo Khant / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images)

6/ > the colonial-settler state being something that the white nationalist organisers of the March for (White) Australia celebrate & identify with as their own conquest & property.

It's painful to have to spell this out when they're screaming at the top of their lungs the evidence for it.

5/ The March for Australia organisers chose January 26 not b/c of some false notion that Indigenous peoples wanna celebrate #STRAYA on some other date ('Boo!'), but precisely b/c it has become a date on which Indigenous peoples assert their rights against the colony >

'On Invasion Day, we rally to stand with First Nations peoples across this continent and demand: Freedom for our peoples, lands and waters Treaty and truth for our old people and for future generations Justice for babies and kids so they can grow up safe, loved, and free An end to deaths in custody, forced removals, and ongoing violence from systems built on invasion Join us on our annual day of protest for First Nations peoples across this continent.'

2/ It's not about Changing the Date.

Ask the organisers.

Or attend, and listen.

Police step up security as Melbourne braces for Australia Day protest and counterprotest Anti-immigration protesters and Invasion Day demonstrators are set to converge on Melbourne’s CBD on Monday.

'March for Australia rallies are typically anti-immigration, however Monday’s event appears to focus more on Australia Day and keeping the public holiday on January 26, directly opposing the Invasion Day rally’s push to mark the day on a different date.'

Bro. No.

www.theage.com.au/national/vic...

A shockingly large area of the Surf Coast and Otways is under emergency evacuate immediately orders right now.

Fossil fuels pushers and their enablers are destroying everything we cherish about summer.

Stay safe friends, get out now if you are in the impacted areas.

emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/

Canada's new non-alignment What sovereignty means now

Sovereignty requires a population willing to withstand pain for what they believe in - that was the background to Carney’s Davos speech. Tim and I chatted about what Canada has actually been doing the past year - building a coalition that will endure suffering inflicted by the US: