Adrian Vickers

Going down in a screaming heap

What streamer? Doesn’t appear on Kayo

Definitely not 65, I don’t think that’s still current

Last year’s fashion?

“The reason AI models resort to guessing when they are short on real information is that they also possess an innate desire to please the one asking the question. And this desire means…” just no

A number of worrying passages in that report

Global CO2 emissions plateau Global CO2 emissions from the power sector fell marginally by 12 MtCO2 (-0.2%) to 6,963 MtCO2 in the first half of 2025. The decline was possible because solar and wind power exceeded demand growth and led to a slight fall in fossil fuel use. Without solar and wind growth, emissions would have risen by an estimated 236 MtCO2 (+3.9%) globally, which is equivalent to almost all emissions (251 MtCO2) from Africa in H1-2025. At the country level, there was significant variation. Among the four economies that account for the majority of global emissions (64%), emissions fell in China (-46 MtCO2, -1.7%) and India (-24 MtCO2, -3.6%), as clean electricity outpaced growth in demand in those countries. In contrast, emissions rose in the EU (+13 MtCO2, +4.8%), where strong growth in solar was outweighed by shortfalls in wind, hydro and bioenergy, leading to higher gas and coal generation. Emissions also rose in the US (+33 MtCO2, +4.3%), as clean electricity growth was smaller than demand growth, leading to an increase in coal generation, which was exacerbated by gas-to-coal switching.

A complete flip of the usual pattern we see in these updates - China's and India's emissions fell, and EU and US emissions increased.....

ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

@ember-energy.org

Kate Ariotti reviews ‘Gull Force: Australian POWs on Ambon and Hainan, 1941–45’ by Joan Beaumont
@newsouthpublishing.bsky.social

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Protected areas hit hard as Mekong countries’ forest cover shrank in 2024 BANGKOK — The Mekong countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam lost a combined area of tree cover of nearly a million hectares in 2024, or an area almost the size of Lebanon. That’s…

The five Mekong countries lost nearly 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of tree cover in 2024, with nearly a quarter of which was primary forest, and more than 30% of losses occurring inside protected areas.

YouTube video by ABC News (Australia) Singapore PM talks Taiwan, Trump tariffs and Australian military presence | ABC NEWS

In Canberra, Singapore's PM Lawrence Wong wants to expand its military ties with Australia, discussing a bigger Australian troop presence in the island state, concerns about possible conflict in Taiwan and the impact of Trump's tariffs on Singapore www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnhn...

We may be witnessing (and be about to *experience*) the greatest misallocation of capital in human history.

The latest issue of our #OpenAccess journal Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia (BKI) is out now!

Access here: brill.com/view/journal...

@degruyterbrill.bsky.social

Tell Japan: Shut down the ivory market. Every year, tens of thousands of elephants are butchered for their tusks despite a global ivory ban -- and Japan’s massive domestic market remains one of the main drivers.But we have a once-in-a-gener

Tell Japan: shut down the ivory market, save elephant lives. action.eko.org/a/japan-ivor...

I can already tell this framing of global protests as "Gen Z" is going to age like milk

I need a sedative

Sometimes rugby league can be amazing

I swear at machines all the time

Although the latter case revealed the true nature of the Fat Controller

Sheffield Shield first round is going well, except for a couple of commentators who think they’re still in the 1970s

Wikipedia. Not unproblematic, but still perhaps the greatest thing to come out of internet utopianism and optimism about collective behaviour. And they want to destroy it.

Death toll from Indonesia school collapse rises to 14 as more victims found Authorities say they are using heavy equipment to look for the 49 people who remain missing.

Authorities say they are using heavy equipment to look for the 49 people who remain missing.

Anyone wondering why private equity firms remain interested in edtech - it's because of truly eye-popping speculative valuations like this:

"The global education market is expected to soar to $8trillion in value by 2030" www.privateequityinternational.com/private-equi...

Japan Set for First Female Prime Minister Amid U.S. Friction Over Trade, Security Sanae Takaichi, elected leader of the ruling party, wants more spending and has floated reopening trade agreement struck with Trump.

Japan is set to have its first female prime minister after the ruling party elected Sanae Takaichi as its leader.

As it's October and the 'Halloween as an imported American thing' discourse has begun, I thought I'd mention that in Australia, the Scottish diaspora, especially in the first half of the 20th century, celebrated Halloween as a particular Scottish tradition, as attested to by many articles on Trove.

Yes, nothing much happened at all

True

WoroniAustralia Institute Analyses ANU Budget Reports—No Deficit Found - Woroni The Australia Institute has released its audited analysis of ANU’s 2023 and 2024 budget. ANU’s unaudited deficit was reported at $142.5 million, while its audited revenue showed a surplus of $89.9 mil...

“Herein lies the question: if not to sustain ANU’s once diverse range of courses and degrees, and if not to retain the knowledge and skills of its academics, then what is that $232.4 million revenue for?”

www.woroni.com.au/news/austral...

Or my grandfather in 1937: Mr. R. A. Hassall, collector for the Grafton District Hospital insurance scheme in Grafton and district, who has been on the sick list, has resumed duty.