Richard Chirgwin

Hating the NDIS, how unconventional.

Energy Analysis Environment Technology Australia’s data centre lobby stumbles in its dance to avoid real regulation Google’s new data centre is entirely self-sufficient when it comes to power. Sounds like a good thing, right? Think again. Ketan Joshi Ketan Joshi Mar 4, 2026 7 min read

Hey!!! Got a new piece up at @crikey.com.au for you, about how Australia's data centre lobby is trying the subtle dance of avoiding regulation by suggesting weak voluntary actions

But something new has thrown them off balance.........

www.crikey.com.au/2026/03/04/a...

Like perfectly normal people whose only mistake is to ask ChatGPT Health about their symptoms?

Won't be long until we regard some of this technology with the affection we have for Tetraethyl Lead.

Single frame. Karoline Leavitt on the press briefing lectern with a US flag and a large “chocolate wheel” with coloured panels showing: “REGIME CHANGE -YAY!; THEY’RE TERRORISTS!; THEY HAVE NUKES!; THEY DOT HAVE NUKES YET; WE WANT TO REPLACE THE LEADER; WE KILLED THE REPLACEMENTS; ARMAGEDDON!!!; PRE-EMPTIVE SELF-DEFENCE; BIBI IS OUR FRIEND; (SOME SCHOOLGIRLS MAY HAVE DIED); WHAT OIL?!; MID-TERMS - YIKES!” Leavitt says, “Next question?”

Spin.
My @smh cartoon.

A screenshot of Google's AI Overview answer to the question "is haggis an animal". It says "Yes, the haggis is a small, furry mammal native to Scotland" and goes on to give the typical "asymmetrical legs" details.

The Scottish have won the AI Wars.

Adelaide University cancels literary festival event with UN Gaza investigator Francesca Albanese Festival organisers criticise the university for last-minute booking cancellation of event headlined by special rapporteur for Palestinian territories

Zionist really are just universally shitty people.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Quit ChatGPT: right now! Your subscription is bankrolling authoritarianism | Rutger Bregman As a historian, I’ve studied the major consumer boycotts of history. We can take down ChatGPT and send a powerful signal to Silicon Valley, says author and historian Rutger Bregman

Quit ChatGPT: right now! Your subscription is bankrolling authoritarianism | Rutger Bregman www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Ya reckon???

Jack Dorsey’s 4,000 Job Cuts at Block Arouse Suspicions of AI-Washing When Block Inc. laid off nearly half its staff this week, co-founder Jack Dorsey offered a seemingly simple explanation: artificial intelligence was allowing the company to do more with fewer employee...

Jack Dorsey’s 4,000 Job Cuts at Block Arouse Suspicions of AI-Washing
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

In war, civilians suffer, while the rich line their pockets.

Oil profits are up. Weapons companies are booming.

Meanwhile, schools and hospitals get bombed, and thousands die.

War makes billionaires and their corporations even richer. It’s just another business model for them.

Polymarket is essentially Timothy May’s assassination market at scale

The answer to problems in sociotechnical systems is not always "more software", "better software" or "open source software".
A lot of the time the best solution is _less software_ and sometimes even _no software_.

Australian police are using criminal checks to punish critics of Israel Charges that fail in court are continuing to damage reputations

A core tenet of our justice system is the presumption of innocence. But for two years, police have been undermining this fundamental principle, inflicting lasting damage on innocent people whose only 'crime' is disagreeing with government policy.

www.deepcutnews.com/p/australian...

Cartoon showing the backyard of a house. Two persons are standing next to various thrash bins, while one says: ‘No, that goes into the green bin. C’mon, the govt really want us to get this right’. Behind the backyard, we see massive data centers of Google, Amazon and Meta.

Data centers have a massive environmental impact. Today’s cartoon by @infiniteguff.com. More cartoons: www.cartoonmovement.com

#BigTech #DataCenters #environment #climate

Tech firms and AI farming tools ‘playing with the food system’, warns thinktank Google, Microsoft and Amazon among companies using algorithms and AI to influence what crops are grown and how, say critics

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

A screenshot of the Polymarket website showing a prediction market titled "Nuclear weapon detonation by...?" under the Geopolitics and Ukraine categories. The market displays three betting options with their current probabilities and "Buy Yes" or "Buy No" prices: "March 31" at 5%, "June 30" at 12%, and "Before 2027" at 22%. The total trading volume shown is over $843,000.

Polymarket has created a betting market on the use of nuclear weapons. Everyone involved in this should be put in prison for life.

I wish I knew.

Look - Canberra is more expensive in general than other jurisdictions, but choosing to have your 'cost of living crisis press conference' in one of the most expensive suburbs in Canberra,where the median house price is $2.1m and luxury cars are parked all around you is maybe not the greatest optics

Why is this allowed

What's this crap about peoples' right to vote being "challenged" ffs???

So, BlueSky is only sorta half-working now, yes?

We have people who moved to these places to avoid paying taxes, while still getting the benefits of an Australian passport - and at the first hint of trouble, want to bludge off the taxpayer to get the government to bring them home. If their primary tax domicile isn't Australia, bill them for it.

while cracking down on my draft I missed today's newsletter from Ed, who also covered this subject (and more) with aplomb: bsky.app/profile/edzi...

(genuinely grateful we have more Anthropic-skeptical voices in the room; this weekend drove me nanners)

I’m so pissed off about this. 🤬

Brilliant. An expat im Dubai has a startling revelation, by @stephencollins.bsky.social

AFR story about data centres' rising emissions

Meanwhile, Au server farms are complaining nobody's nice enough about their "aspirations" ...

www.afr.com/policy/energ...

Bar graph comparing emissions from Grok's fossil-fuelled data centres to avoided emissions from Tesla's products for the years 2023 and 2024.

Comparison of emissions from manufacturing xAI's chatbot responses (5,127,553 tonnes CO2e) versus all Tesla products (1,056,000 tonnes CO2e) with respective analyses.

*New short blog* - finally (with help) got around to getting a total estimate of Grok's climate pollution 🫠

- Once all fossil gas online, = to between half and all of Tesla's ANNUAL GLOBAL avoided emissions

- Currently, 5x the emissions of Tesla's total manufacturing

ketanjoshi.co/2026/03/02/m...

"You can't take away GenAI what about the people who use it?! 😭😭😭"

Fuck 'em. Fuck every last one of them. The scrapers DDoS us every waking fucking hour, making it a nightmare to keep things running. I have ZERO sympathy for folks addicted to the plagiarism machine that lies to you.

this is so ghoulish and disgusting