Jamie Hall

I want to build Sydney’s first 40-storey pub

Congratulations! 🎊

if australia wasnt so stupid we'd offer terry 400 million dollars to come home but we are stupid so we won't

For all the moral panic around AI and university assessment, the solution seems very simple. Decide how important unassisted output is for the subject and assign a commensurate % of the total grade to supervised exams or viva voca.

Assume AI will be used on everything else.

Who you gonna call? In Indonesia, firefighters tackle ghosts and broken hearts In Indonesia, firefighters do not just battle flames — they pick up school report cards, banish ghosts, and comfort the broken-hearted. But these acts of public service throw a spotlight on other prob...

Who you gonna call? In Indonesia, firefighters tackle ghosts and broken hearts www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

Me three months ago:

Ah interesting. Thanks!

Such a good movie!!!!1

Can I ask a dumb but sincere question: why is patient consent for training on medical images important? As a patient, I care much more about medical tech getting better than I do about an abstract sense of personal ownership. Is that so crazy?

Retail spending has increased 35% since the December quarter 2019.

But the volume of goods sold has been broadly unchanged in recent years, due to higher prices.

And volume per capita is almost 6% below its peak.

So we are spending more, but consuming less #ausbiz

Many Iberal persons defend levies like the tobacco tax on the curious grounds that tobacco is not a necessity-that poor people may or can avoid the burden by not consuming the commodity This position invites two comments. First, it is hardly accurate to say that no burden is involved in getting along without the commodity Second, it seems a little absurd to go around arguing that poor people could or ought to do without tobacco, especially if it is taxed, in the tace of the facts that they simply do not do anything of the kind, that the commodity was selected for taxation because they are not expected to do so, and that the government would not get much revenue if they did The plain fact, to one not confused by moralistic distinctions between necessities and luxuries, is simply that taxes like the tobacco taxes are the most effective means available for draining government revenues out from the very bottom of the income scale The usual textbook discussions on these points hardly deserve less lampooning than their implied definition of luxuries (and semi-luxuries) as commodities which poor people ought to do without and won't.

This incisive excerpt from Henry Simons in 1938 is as relevant now as it ever was

They estimate that the out of pocket cash money cost for working in the city is $75 per DAY. Are they commuting by limo service!?

An AI summary explaining that Native Cali is a solid black jeans colour without any fading distressing or whiskering

This is okay but I want them in vantablack

The #hottest100 number one will be “(He’ll never be an) Ol’ Man River”

‘Turned inside out with disgust’: Australia must sanction Benjamin Netanyahu, Bob Carr urges Former Labor foreign affairs minister says Canberra must seek to be a world leader – not wait for the US or UK – and recognise a Palestinian state

🚨Bob Carr had a good idea www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Aussie Dashcams 2027—
Robotic vocoder monotone voiceover: 🤖“Look at that bloody idiot… [bleep boop] ahhh jeez”

Some thoughts on the sorts of policies that produced this map: kenopalo.substack.com/p/a-historic...

Story in The Australian Super tax ‘the last straw’ for this cattle farmer Helen Trinca Craig Huf, a farmer from Burringbar in far north NSW, will pull one of his farms out of super because of the tax on unrealised capital gains Cattle farmer Craig Huf says the federal government’s proposed superannuation tax will likely be the “straw that breaks the camel’s back” forcing him to pull his $3m farm out of his self-managed super fund.

Good!!! A farm is NOT MEANT TO BE IN YOUR SUPER!!!

The ONLY reason anyone would put a farm in their super IS TO AVOID PAYING TAX!!

My first reaction was "just looks like a photo", and sure enough, it's a stock photo from 2021.

I have many issues with generative AI, but one of its depressing consequences is people pointing at everything that they think looks slightly off, blaming AI for it, and everyone uncritically agreeing

In previous decades, young and thoughtful writers would always eventually turn into boring old farts. Interestingly, that never happened to Gen X. Now all I need to do is take a big sip of coffee and check what Matt Yglesias has been up to recently

If I had a dollar for every time somebody’s called for a redo of Goodreads which doesn’t suck ass, I’d have enough money to fund a redo of Goodreads which doesn’t suck ass

You might be right. But it’s important to cut kids a lot of slack.

Runciman argues very cogently that the minimum voting age should be around 6. This would be a teensy step in the right direction.
If we make it voluntary for kids, would there be distortionary GOTV campaigns? Possibly… but it’s nice to imagine parties pandering to children instead of ignoring them

Survey of Income and Housing results will not be released

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will not be releasing the 2023-24 Income and Housing Survey due to 'data quality problems'. This is the main Australian data collection for household incomes, poverty and inequality. The last survey was for 2019-20.
www.abs.gov.au/media-centre...

Social services department warned Tanya Plibersek she faces uphill battle amid ‘political polarisation’ Brief obtained under freedom of information laws shows new minister told of ‘increased risk of entrenched disadvantage’ in Australia

Maybe this is naive but I don’t understand why this is FOI-able. Public servants should be able to give candid advice without worrying that they’re going to end up in the newspaper www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Becoming a “simple linear models for everything” contrarian

This is ideonomy

gwern.net/ai-daydreaming

A typewritten message card saying “If you love what you do, you’ll never work day in your life.” — Charlotte Brontë

So true ❤️💯

Jillian Segal and husband funding far-right group "Advance" - The Klaxon Antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal and her husband are among the biggest funders of far-right group "Advance”, which spreads hateful propaganda and racist tropes.

theklaxon.com.au/jillian-sega...

I think it's interesting that Australian commentators frame this as a uniquely Australian conundrum when it's been the fate of the neighbourhood for decades and decades. Hmm, if only there was some sort of precedent we could turn to.