Michael Murphy

And still not a single mea culpa from the architects, many of whom continue to be regarded as sages by much of the press.

Total bill for BoM’s new website came in at $96 million In his first interview, new Bureau of Meteorology chief Stuart Minchin has revealed the eye-watering true cost of its lambasted new website.

How can a website cost $96 MILLION?! 🤯

Yes the BOM website is complex, but this seems like is a waste of taxpayers dollars that we need see some accountability for so it doesn’t happen again.
www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features."

There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.

YouTube video by Professor Dave Explains Avi Loeb is a Fraud Part 2: 3I/ATLAS Shrugged

I helped Professor Dave lay out exactly how Avi Loeb has manufactured doubt and pushed a false narrative about 3I/ATLAS, which is still an interstellar comet. Please enjoy the video and please repost this to share the word.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf9o...

Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad

CSIRO 350 job cuts a damning indictment on Government priorities, misses 'golden opportunity' on research The announcement this week that CSIRO are to cut 350 research jobs is another damning indictment on Australia’s ongoing failure to prioritise research and development.

I seriously cannot get over how stupid it is to be cutting back on research right now #ThePoint
thepoint.com.au/off-the-char...

Most people don’t read beyond headlines. This isn’t responsible, ABC News

💯

Do. It. Dan!

(Not a bad campaign slogan, maybe…)

David Pope in Canberra Times

CSIRO 350 job cuts a damning indictment on Government priorities, misses 'golden opportunity' on research The announcement this week that CSIRO are to cut 350 research jobs is another damning indictment on Australia’s ongoing failure to prioritise research and development.

"CSIRO 350 job cuts a damning indictment on Government priorities, misses 'golden opportunity' on research" my column on the CSIRO research cuts #ThePoint
thepoint.com.au/off-the-char...

CSIRO to cut up to 350 research jobs in major overhaul After 440 positions were slashed last year, the CSIRO has announced more staff cuts across the country in a bid to remain financially viable.

“CSIRO has announced it will slash up to 350 jobs as the national science agency grapples with long-term financial challenges … with current funding failing to keep pace with the rising costs of running a modern science agency.”

Not “challenges”. They’re choices. 😡

CSIRO to slash hundreds of jobs in cost-saving drive The staff association at the nation’s leading scientific research organisation says the latest round of cuts marks “a sad day for publicly funded science”.

That's more than 1,100 jobs lost at the CSIRO over the last two years.

"Combined, the staff association estimates that equates to cutting the agency’s size by a third."

This is more cuts to the CSIRO than was attempted by the Abbott government.

www.smh.com.au/national/csi...

🙃🙃🙃 cannot believe how short sighted this government is, honestly. Now is the time to be POURING money into research, not cutting it.

They know not what they do

'Beyond belief': PM tells states to spend less on hospitals Health ministers are furious with a letter from the prime minister demanding they rein in spending if they want a public hospital funding deal honoured.

When I was a kid and the windshield & windows in our family car would fog up, my father would say:

“Everyone stop breathing for a few minutes”.

It was a joke, of course. Just like this is

So the Liberal party now have no climate policy.

Narrator: They never really did*

(*Except for the ones to make climate change worse)

In an Australia first, I used FOI to get the AI chat logs of Australia's top national security bureaucrat.

They show how he used Microsoft Copilot to ghostwrite speeches and messages to colleagues.

This comes as the government looks to push AI use in the public service.
www.crikey.com.au/20...

OK, that’s weird then. It’s possible that the verification of an extension is distinct from the place where the system is told to have a different deadline for it. I think that’s the case in Canvas, for example, but I would have to check it specifically. Anyway, they should set it straight!

…may not even look at it 'coz of this. So, definitely just contact the grader, or person who initially emailed, and they'll sort it out.

…entered into the system. Then the same grader (who has forgotten the email interaction, because they're dealing with possibly dozens of other, similar situations) will just be shown a late assignment and, most likely, the system will have labelled it with "0" automatically – the grader …

It will have been easy for them to make a mistake, given the "unintuitiveness" of most online assessment systems (e.g. Blackboard, Canvas etc.) and lack of actual, allocated time to deal with individual cases. All it takes is for an extension request to be approved but not manually …

I feel like I've heard this story before, somewhere…

What we just witnessed was state-sanctioned Nazism What on earth did the NSW Police think a rally organised by the National Socialist Network would be about?

I'll entertain technical arguments about the Summary Offences Act (NSW) when someone can explain how Police can kettle and move on small groups protesting climate issues but somehow this out front of state parliament renders them powerless. www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...

OUP acquires Karger's long tail Hello fellow journalologists,

"Acquiring the Karger journals will provide OUP with many more downstream transfer destinations, helping OUP to publish more of the articles that get rejected by their higher impact journals."

Depressing assessment of the commercial strategy guiding academic publishing.

still mulling Musk's fellowship @royalsociety.org❓

Just, not amongst them

Gambling regulator stops accepting gifts from betting companies, for now The announcement comes six months after the ABC first reported the Northern Territory Racing and Wagering Commission chair had accepted corporate hospitality from bookmakers.

Gaming regulator announces temporary halt on accepting bribes www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...

I just checked and my institution has stopped using twitter. In September, apparently. Took a long time, but at least it's done.

Yikes. The UCs have benefited tremendously from the President's Postdoctoral Fellowship program. It is an outstanding recruitment tool for talented faculty; this is a major loss.