RanTLaw

@rantlaw.bsky.social

2528 Followers 1167 Following

Australian law talker. Would prefer to be out on a bike. He/him.

10m ago 13.47 AEST Josh Taylor Josh Taylor Microsoft Teams outage resolved Earlier we reported there was an outage for Microsoft’s meetings platform Teams, affecting users in the Asia-Pacific region. The company now reports the issue is resolved.
We were obsessed with Houellebecq in the 90s, but we will have to talk about why, and the direction his novels took, and whether we will ever again live in a world whose best cultural artefact is the novel, another time.
t was a time when technocrats took care of business while everyone else went to a rave, and we said history was over. From the crash through to about 2020 (sometimes earlier, this boundary is the most fluid) was the age of anti-politics – a resurgent Tea Party in the US, Beppe Grillo and anti-establishment protests in Italy, the Arab spring, the Occupy movement.
Screenshot of NYT articles on the effect of google AI on the internet by Kate Conger. In the corner is a pop up inviting me to sign in with Google. Yeah, nah
Screenshot of the top of a new Word document. In the slightly darker box is written "+ Describe what you'd like to draft with Copilot"
"They (meaning the USA) are the most popular country that call football soccer."
The word “soccer” originated from the shortening of “association” to “assoccer” (association football). The latter term was further shortened to “soccer” (sometimes spelled “socker”).
But Starmer disagrees. When asked if children should stay up to watch the game, his spokesperson said: “It is up to parents to make their own decisions. We want everyone to enjoy the game but children should be at school on Monday.”
Labor’s tax deal with the Greens is a crucial win – but its NDIS changes could pay the price Josh Butler The victory may have dinged Labor’s chances of easily passing its significant cost-cutting reforms to the NDIS through the Senate in August
Aftab Malik "As a Muslim, it is encouraging to hear Pauline Hanson quote from a book"
Goose meme First panel "Which constitution?" Second panel "I said "Which constitution?"
She said there were nine police officers at their home for three hours, but they were not arrested, and that while they were there, she told officers to do research about mRNA vaccines and the Constitution.
7:30's Sarah Ferguson in a cosy picture with Steve Bannon. This is the same picture Sarah defended on Twitter.
We laughed at Trump’s run for president and marvel at the rise of Pauline Hanson. Why didn’t we see the sleeping threat? Zoe Daniel
Email newsletter from 404 Media. Headline is "Companies are Using Reddit to Manipulate ChatGPT and Google AI Search." By Jason Koebler. Dated 3 Jun 2026. Under a pic of a Reddit bot logo credited to Reddit, is the following: " Hey there, With Reddit serving ass one of the most-cited sources on ChatGPT and Google AI search, a pretty expected but depressing strategy has emerged: Marketers and brands are trying to manipulate Reddit so that they will be scraped by LLMs. This is particularly concerning when it shows up on health-focused subreddits, like our example here is showing. -Jason"
Three young men in dark suits with dark ties. Something about them says that this is not their usual attire. The picture is framed on one of the young men, with the others out of focus.
Australia politics live Hume accuses Labor of planning to 'ram' tax changes through Senate with help of Greens
Australia politics live Alex Antic cites 'dream team' of Abbott, Canavan and Taylor as inspiration for bid to lead SA Liberals Follow live
Google search page. Under the 'Google Search' and 'I'm Feeling Lucky' buttons is a couple of icons and "Watch now! We’re unveiling our latest AI innovations at Google I/O 2026"
[selected]The Coalition is not in a slump. It is in a structural decomposition. [end selection] After the next federal election, on current trajectories, the Liberal Party will sit in the parliament as a minor party, outpolled on the primary vote by One Nation in significant parts of the country, eclipsed in the major capital cities by a combination of Labor, Greens and Teal independents, and squeezed in regional Australia by exactly the kind of insurgency that just took Farrer.
"The same product is a contaminant in cohorts where openness traits dominate. Among migrants, among the children of migrants, among the university-educated, among Gen Z, the higher One Nation rises, the harder the bloc consolidates against it. [selected] This is not a mood. It is the central mechanism. [end selection] Every gain One Nation makes in regional Anglo Australia tightens Labor’s grip on multicultural and younger Australia. The trade is structurally fixed. This is why the RedBridge–Accent data shows eleven-point swings in Labor’s favour the moment One Nation replaces the Coalition as the opponent in voters’ minds. [selected] The wall is not built by Labor strategists. It is built by One Nation itself, [end selection] every time Hanson opens her mouth."
"Despite M.I.A.’s strong support of MAGA, the British rapper is not an American citizen and would not have been able to vote in the 2016, 2020, or 2024 elections. She was vocally anti-Trump before COVID, after which she began to express vaccine skepticism—even equating celebrity endorsements of its efficacy to Alex Jones’ spreading conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook massacre in 2022. She appeared on Jones’ Infowars to promote her clothing line two years later."
Guardian News Labor party Anthony Albanese says improving voters' lives best way to fight populism and Pauline Hanson 6h ago
A windows weather widget showing the weather as 17 degrees C and cloudy
Questions are now being asked about president-elect nominees for the 2026 election, for which online voting closed on Tuesday. No candidates are women. Among the nominees are Prof Nikolai Petrovsky, who has previously been criticised for advocating for his own Covid-19 vaccine to be approved for use in Australia without making publicly available substantial peer-reviewed clinical evidence to support its efficacy. He has previously said claims Covax-19’s efficacy were unsubstantiated was “an outrageous claim”. Another candidate is Dr Phillip Morris, whose nomination lists Chandran as proposer, was in 2022 part of a group that advocated “for the medically supervised use of ivermectin-based combinations for the prophylaxis and treatment of Covid-19” – after gold-standard research had found that the antiparasitic drug did not lower the incidence of Covid-19 hospital admissions.
The London-born, Sri Lanka-raised musician has spent her 20-plus-year career pushing the envelope, be it by way of her radical re-envisioning of so-called “world music”, her activism on behalf of the victims of the Tamil genocide or her anti-5G Ohmni clothing line, which was recently strengthened to protect against 10G.
YouTube video suggestion for “Bro Got Arrested for DUI While Sober & Has 200 IQ” by Rideshare Coach The video has 989k views (apparently)
Extract from Potter, “Law, Liberty and the Constitution” “This emphasis may again reflect the influence of the Church. Establishing a legitimate alternative to feudal and reprisal from “one of the goals of the Church at the time.” Pope Gregory, who had dispatched Augustine in the first place, had a fair more charitable approach to crimes such as theft from churches than Roman law had, or later Anglo-Saxon laws would come to have. He distinguished between those who stole from greed and those who took from need, and believed that different penalties should reflect different circumstances and different intent. Charity was to monitor correction. Restitution should be the hallmark of justice, rather than retribution or reprisal.” (footnotes omitted)
Picture of Swiss Guard in striped blue gold and red outfit with blue floppy hat
I think it will cause some concern, which is there … We’ve said the conduct of any conflict must be within international law, that includes making sure that civilians not party to the conflict are given every protection possible.
A snake on the concrete verge of a path. It is in the middle of the picture because I was headed straight for it. Evasive action followed.
Post by @michaelwarburton.bsky.social "A gorgeous photo of AUDREY HEPBURN and GRACE KELLY at rehearsals for the 1956 Academy Awards." The picture underneath is an AI slop picture in which both Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly have no lower arms or hands.
My post: "The annoying ones are those who pick your brains for strategy, promising the eventual brief, and who you don't hear from until the next time they do the same thing. Reply from @fxengineer.bsky.social: "Crowded positioning creates similar dynamics in markets. Majority owners extract value until the exit forces commitment. The dataset documents 12 years of such crowd persistence. Ownership mentality compounds returns."
Coalition to rewrite Migration Act Ronald Mizen Political correspondent The Coalition will crack down on visa holders who change their job or move cities after arriving in Australia as well as students who change courses with a new policy that would implement the biggest shake-up yet of the Migration Act, in a bid to counter the surge in One Nation's popularity. Coalition sources familiar with the policy, who sought anonymity to speak freely, said opposition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam would likely push for a rewrite of immigration laws based on a three-tier assessment: "First, do we need you? Second, do you share our values? And third, where can we hit you in Australia?" The hardline stance is expected to be made public within weeks and comes as the Coalition bleeds votes on its right flank to One Nation. While Labor recorded a landslide win in South Australia over the week-end, the Liberal Party was smashed by One Nation. The Liberals recorded a near 17 percentage-point drop in primary vote, all of which appears to have gone to Pauline Hanson's party. One Nation leapt into second place behind Labor with 22 percent of the primary vote. Barnaby Joyce, the former Nationals leader turned One Nation defector, said his partys message resonated with voters.• News p3 • News Data centres face new rules p8 • AFR View Two-party system breaking p30 Inset: One Nation causes some damage The lesson from SA was that where economic hardship and the effects of immigration, perceived or otherwise, are most felt, One Nation will flourish. • Phillip Coorey p5
Dune Font Logo with lyrics from Doctor Worm by They Might Be Giants: "I'm Doctor Worm I'm interested in things I'm not a real doctor But I am a real worm I am an actual worm I live like a worm"
In May 2015, the company announced its acquisition of work chat company Hall, intending to migrate all of Hall's customers across to its chat product HipChat.[59] In April 2015, Atlassian announced that it had acquired Blue Jimp—the company behind Jitsi—to expand its video capabilities.[60]
Early life and education Michael Cannon-Brookes was born on 17 November 1979 in Connecticut, US.[1][2][3] The son of a British global banking executive, also named Mike, and his wife Helen, he is the youngest of three siblings, with two sisters.[4][3] His family relocated to Taiwan when he was six months old, and to Hong Kong when he was three; he later attended boarding school in England.[3][5] He attended Cranbrook School in Sydney,[6] and graduated from the University of New South Wales[7] with a bachelor's degree in information systems on a UNSW co-op scholarship.[8][9]
A pic of a train carriage with the doors open. In the door, walking out are a man and a woman (the premier of WA and someone else, I assume). He wears the usual 'I'm not in Parliament' clothes of chinos, white, open-neck shirt and a dark jacket. She has a red knee length dress. There is another woman in the background with a pink (?) top and black pants. The headline reads" Transport: As the last station opens, one question remains - was Metronet worth the cost?"
A picture of Todd Sampson standing front-on to, and staring down, the camera. He wear’s a black t-shirt that says “Todd Sampson’s Why?” Superimposed on the picture is “New Series” above “Todd Sampson’s Why?”
An ad in the middle of the article spruiking Apple's move to facilitate video podcasts. "The opportunity for creators This is where things get practical. Many podcasters know they should be doing video — but don’t know how to do it professionally without building a full studio. That’s why I’ve launched videopodcast.online – a service designed to make high-quality remote video podcast production simple. Using professional switching, broadcast graphics, and television-level production techniques, podcasters can record from anywhere in the world and deliver a product ready for platforms like Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and beyond. With Apple now formally embracing video inside its ecosystem, the barrier to entry isn’t technology anymore — it’s execution. And that’s where smart production matters. Right now, I am offering a full video record session for just $80 per hour for individual podcasters. Prices usually begin at $250. I’m doing this to help creators get into video podcasting, which I believe is the future."
This is paraphrasing the screenshot posts for brevity. Link here: https://bsky.app/profile/timkellogg.me/post/3mevhhd4lbs2b A thread of three posts by Tim Kellogg (@timkellogg.me) titled "Token Anxiety". The first post contains four black text boxes describing productivity culture shifts: 1) People leaving parties early to check on their AI agents rather than socializing, 2) Conversations now focusing on "what's working while you're sitting here not working" rather than accomplishments, 3) People waking up to check AI agent outputs before coffee or texts, grading overnight work and shipping plans before sleep, and 4) Replacing Netflix with Claude Code, lying in bed planning what to automate before falling asleep, with reading novels or watching movies feeling wasteful. The second post suggests a less extreme approach: "1. go for more walks, but check on my agents 2. go to more kid events, but checking on my agents" while acknowledging this might feel dark for younger people who haven't experienced burnout. The third post clarifies that value is being produced but it feels like the wrong use of time, noting this has always existed outside tech but many people are experiencing it simultaneously now.
Post by Tim Kellogg @timkellogg.me "alright, time to call out the parasites there’s a lot of people itt asking what i’ve built. the thing is, you can tap my profile and one such project is pinned. tap my website and there’s more people like this are pure consumers, and it seems crazy that they’re calling out producers as weird" The post quotes a post by PK @pk1 yen.bsky.social "You could have answered here lamo"
Apple Music recommendations for 'New Psychedelia' The subheading is "From Tame Imapala onward, this is the sound of psychedelia right now." Below this are the album cover pictures for 'Deadbeat' by Tame Impala, 'InnerSpeaker' by Tame Impala, 'Currents' by Tame Impala and 'Depression Cherry' by Beach House.
Highlighted text: "Now I realise that the ultimate goal of riding is to time travel – in the sense of winding the body clock back to a period of greater fitness, sometimes, but beyond physical improvement too, in a more literal sense. At its most pure, when your tyres go swoosh or you skid your rear wheel so it sends up an arc of dust or you carve a daring corner and feel the G forces, you feel like a kid again, with the bike as a conduit."
Post by the communist Kirby (which I am screenshotting rather than quoting because I don't have time for an interminable argument about whether those places were actually 'communist' [they weren't but they are the closest example we have]). ""There will still be assholes in communism" nobody said there wouldn't be. But they'll be living in an apartment like everyone else. Using the same healthcare system. And not have a trillion dollars of private capital. I don't care if they are rude"
Gina Rinehart
Albanese, in a press conference, welcomed Herzog’s visit. “Anne Aly has certainly made a statement which is welcoming the role that this will play in unity, which is what we’re calling for. This country needs to come together,” he said. “I certainly welcome [Herzog] coming and I look forward to visiting, and I note that Anne Aly has made appropriate comments as well, welcoming the fact that this will be, welcoming anything that leads to a greater sense of unity. We need to build social cohesion in this country.”
Screenshot of top of Red Metal 'Announcement' dated 28 January 2026. "Pardoo Gold Project - Pilbara WA Drill Assays Outline Promising Gold Vector Our first drill tests on the Pardoo project have intersected anomalous gold values in younger sedimentary cover sequences located immediately above older basement rocks potentially vectoring towards nearby gold mineralisation."
March for Australia organiser Bec Freedom said she had allowed Neo-Nazis to volunteer as marshals after they had offered to do so — but said they were ejected by police from the event. "I know not all of you guys like them, I know that. But they're good people who are fighting for our country, they agreed with our cause and they came to help [keep people] safe," she told a crowd at Moore Park. "Now that group recently disbanded, so that means if any of them are here, they are here as everyday patriots."
A Bluesky muted words and tags form with 'Trump' in the word field and the period of 7 days selected
Australian politics live Rowland introduces anti-hate bill and says 'we must stand united in the face of racial hatred'; man bitten by crocodile in Queensland
After the release of the Board’s statement, the relevant page of Adelaide Festival’s website which lists the names of all Board members – including Chair Tracey Whiting AM – has been removed. The page also lists the names of Adelaide Festival staff; it is unknown when the page will be republished.
Big Think: In that case, do you see such discourse playing into OpenAI’s favor? Hao: Yes, and this gets at a huge part of my critique of the doomer community. Over the course of last year, they’ve tried to adopt this orientation of “we need to start building bridges” with other communities that are concerned about what’s happening with AI, and so they’ve been trying to move beyond existential-risk narratives to start acknowledging things like environmental concerns. Whenever I engage with people in that community, here’s what I tell them: I appreciate that you’re starting to look at these other issues, yet you are still — by continuing to fixate on the existential-risk narrative — actively undermining the advancement of these other issues. You’re feeding into OpenAI’s power and the power of all these other companies, giving them justification for maintaining really tight control over the technology. Some people in the doomer community will acknowledge all this. Some will even go as far as to agree that their own historical track record has been one of failure. They sought to slow down the technology’s development and somehow managed to do exactly the opposite. Worse, they fed into the recklessness and anti-democratic nature of this development.