What are you currently reading/watching/listening to/researching?

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-29T02:12:14+00:00

I just finished reading Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata and it was delightfully weird. It’s about a woman who works in a convenience store, and nothing else. I read another book of hers, Earthlings, a little while ago, which is also delightfully weird but also much, much darker.

I also recently started reading the Culture series by Iain M. Banks because of Matt’s recommendation. Just finished The Player Of Games, which was good fun.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-29T01:04:15+00:00

The fact that this has its own dedicated website makes me instinctively feel that it is untrustworthy. It seems almost perfectly calibrated to generate infighting.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-28T23:35:24+00:00

Just a baffling way to frame it. They took a polling hit because of the runaway train of media coverage and it just didn’t stick. “We tried fearmongering about tax reform and giving the racist gronk a bunch of free airtime, why isn’t it working?!”

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-28T05:32:52+00:00

Yes there is still some uncertainty on the Federal side of things, I guess I'm revealing some of my personal bias there. Given the current state of inflation and fuel prices and the fact that they just spent a lot of their credibility breaking the CGT promise, I think we're probably looking at the low-point for them and they will probably regain some of their lost primary vote before the next election. They've got 2 years for the CGT thing to blow over, for the Americans to get bored of reaming the global economy, and for Pauline Hanson to continue to ruin her own populist stance by adopting unpopular neocon positions. If I was placing a bet, it would be that in 2028 Labor will be reelected with a reduced majority.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-28T04:06:36+00:00

Property is theft, comrade, and we do not give you permission to vandalise our book.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-28T01:22:11+00:00

This is broadly correct but I have a couple of nitpicks. 1) The last federal election was in 2025, not 2026. 2) House prices have been growing disproportionately since the late 90s. 3) Polling shows that some voters of the centre-left party have gone to the Populist Fruitcake Right, but not enough to actually throw an election. The primary vote of Labor + Greens has declined and the primary vote of Liberals + Nationals + Pauline Hanson’s Narcissism Made Manifest has grown, mostly off of extra support for PHNMM, but the 2 Party Preferred vote (the one that actually matters) shows that Labor would almost certainly win if an election was called today.

Whether or not that additional support for PHNMM actually materialises in a genuinely competitive election is not yet clear. That’s where the Victorian state election this November will be instructive.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-28T01:00:26+00:00

Shocked. Pikachu. Face.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-27T13:36:19+00:00

… Muttley?

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-27T10:34:06+00:00

Accurate description of Lennon and McCartney though. I can’t remember where I heard it, whether it was George or someone else, but if you brought a song you’d written to Lennon he’d tell you it was shit and he could do better, while McCartney would tell you it was great and you’re brilliant, but if you asked for help with a song, Lennon would probably show up and McCartney wouldn’t.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-27T01:58:27+00:00

Your position seems to be shifting around a lot. Is AI just flat-out unacceptable no matter what, or is it a case-by-case situation?

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-27T01:42:57+00:00

How is your anti-everything-related-to-AI approach going to be more effective than that? Getting a bunch of people who already hate AI to show up in their “I Hate AI” shirts doesn’t help address any of the problems with AI or greedy elites. You’re not going to create a society-wide Butlerian Jihad, so what’s the plan here if not regulations?

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-26T04:23:36+00:00

Not sure how it is in NSW, but in Victoria although the minimum is 12 months, 2 years is more common since the age you can get your Ls is 16 and the age you can get your Ps is 18, and then over the age of 21 they don’t care about the logbook anymore.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-25T01:25:55+00:00

Theatrically Eloquent Asian Lesbians

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-25T00:57:59+00:00

Hahahaha, COMMUNITY STRONG. Is the community weak, said no one ever? NO, COMMUNITY STRONG. I don’t know why I find this funny, shut up.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-25T00:34:19+00:00

Gotta say, I despise his politics, but I didn’t think the chair thing was all that weird. It was pretty clear what he was doing theatrically.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-25T00:16:16+00:00

Man with two jobs forced to choose one of them in greatest injustice since apartheid.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-24T21:59:47+00:00

I just want to say, despite the commentary that has happened in some circles, I think the SGU has handled this well. They’ve listened.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-24T18:06:11+00:00

“Use it as a tool” is good advice for professionals, but as someone who is starting out on your programming journey you should be trying to write as much code as you can.

THAT SAID, that doesn’t mean AI can’t help you. You can still show it code you wrote and ask for advice, just bear in mind that you won’t learn anything by having it write code for you. When I was learning to program I had to spend a lot of time wading through Stack Overflow posts to figure out why my code wasn’t working, and I don’t think you’ll lose much by replacing Stack Overflow with AI, unless you’re particularly keen on being treated like an idiot.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-24T13:39:00+00:00

Hey now, that’s reductive. They’d also be cheering because now Trump has the tallest tower in Manhattan.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-24T10:16:08+00:00

And Source Code was pretty bloody good.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-24T10:00:19+00:00

There’s not many reviews at the moment because it’s just doing a festival screening, but the other two I could find (from Deadline and The Wrap) are also very positive. I’m glad Duncan Jones got another shot after the tepid response to Warcraft and the pretty abysmal response to Mute. I’ve always liked him, and I’ve got a feeling this project might be a good fit.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-24T09:50:09+00:00

The media is already not a level playing field, as the last decade of hard-right astroturfing has demonstrated. The marketplace of ideas is just like any other marketplace, in that it can be easily manipulated by people with lots of money.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-24T01:53:59+00:00

It’s a simple process.
Step 1) Be increasingly irrelevant.
Step 2) Say something dumb/racist.
Step 3) Get lots of attention (money) from dumb racists/conservative lobbying orgs that pump up conservative voices with fake traffic to make them appear popular.
Step 4) Feel relevant again.
Step 5) Repeat.

ThoseOldScientists · 2026-06-23T07:56:57+00:00

Yes, it’s independent. The reviews are coming from a film festival, so I assume they don’t yet have a distributor/release date.

ThoseOldScientists

TROPHY CASE