This account is on Mastodon at @ajsadauskas.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy My main account is @aj.gts.sadauskas.id.au.ap.brid.gy on BlueSky or @aj.gts.sadauskas.id.au on Mastodon. I'm also on Pixelfed @ajsadauskas@pixelfed.social
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China is playing a long game to become the world's dominant superpower by 2049. Yes, that's a 20-year plan. Trump is superficially "anti-China". But alienating countries from the US (through tariffs), pushing them towards China, helps advance the 2049 strategy. www.brookings.edu/articles/the...
What they say: AIs can be useful, you just need to know how to word your prompt. What they mean: LLMs often spew out nonsensical or irrelevant garbage, so you must carefully word your prompt to get something that sounds (or looks) both cogent and plausible. Often after many attempts.
@dialogcrm.bsky.social @ajsadauskas When I first came here there was a guy playing the trombone in the next door playground around midnight every weekend. I could hear him from my room and it was *very* clear why he was not allowed anywhere within audible distance of his home.
There is someone who plays bagpipes at a local beach near me. I suspect he isn't allowed to do it at home and his carers think it is ok. I live in an area which has huge Scottish heritage (Otago) but bagpipes are out of tune & annoying to me. And I suspect to others - but no one will say that :)
So recently the first Auntie Annie's store in Australia opened in Parramatta. And the queues out the front are always massive, so it must be good, right? Well, I decided to try one of their pretzels and... It wasn't awful? But it was also nowhere near the […] [Original post on pixelfed.social]
Here's another CO2 comparison I've thought of, but I've never heard used. One kilo of carbon dioxide is literally one kilo of dry ice. So a metric ton of CO2 is a pile of 1000 bags of dry ice. So that's 40 billion piles, made up of 1000 1kg bags of dry ice, burnt into our atmosphere. Each year.
The Climate Council has released a petition calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to set the strongest possible 2035 climate target, and take urgent action to meet it. If you agree, sign it here: www.climatecouncil.org.au/actions/peti... #auspol #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis
Huge congratulations on a very well deserved milestone! And there's some absolute gems on that YT channel! Thanks for taking the time to digitise and upload them all 😊
Thrilled to announce that my Footy Vault YouTube channel reached 5 million views as of tonight! Well done to everyone who has helped uncover all the footy history. And of course thanks to every viewer !
A fascinating new art exhibition recently opened at the artist-run PARI gallery in Parramatta. Titled Stain, it explores the visible marks left by trauma. It's open 12pm–4pm Thursday–Sunday, until 26 October at Pari, cnr Hunter and O’Connell St, Parramatta. pariari.org/stain #art #arts #auspol
Parramatta's Phive building at night. #Parramatta #Sydney #NSW #Building #Architecture #StreetPhotography
No, these photos aren't from Vivid. They're Parramatta Square on a foggy weeknight. #Parramatta #photography #StreetPhotography #NSW #Australia
Parramatta tram no 5 (née 2165) at Carlingford station readies to run an L4 trip to Westmead.
Land of the Dharug people in Parramatta, Western Sydney. Sports oval in Parramatta Park taken with a wide lens. Green is calm balm #dharug #darug #parramatta #sport #green
Fess up. Whose cheeky idea was it to cover Sydney trams with a "National Gallery of Victoria ONLY IN MELBOURNE" ad? (And yes, all caps is a direct quote) 🤣 #tram #trams #lightrail #melbourne #sydney #australia
Australia has thriving biotech hubs at UQ (Brisbane), Westmead (Sydney) & Parkville (Melbourne). Were Mark Butler, Tony Burke, Andrew Giles & Tim Ayres on top of their portfolios they’d be all over this fast-tracking residency, citizenship & continuation grants to sacked #CDC & #NIH staff. #auspol
A call for speakers for upcoming #Sydney Linux Users Group meetings. Women are especially encouraged! The meetings are held in Pyrmont on the last Friday of each month. This is a great opportunity to highlight your work with #Linux, and any interesting #FOSS projects you're working on.
Ping @natecochrane.bsky.social you'd make a great speaker. Maybe a preso on Linux and tech journalism?
A call for speakers for upcoming #Sydney Linux Users Group meetings. Women are especially encouraged! The meetings are held in Pyrmont on the last Friday of each month. This is a great opportunity to highlight your work with #Linux, and any interesting #FOSS projects you're working on.
Breaking news: Parramatta city council has discovered a creative new way to be a shitshow. The Supreme Court overturned a censure motion against a councillor who shared a link to a news article on Facebook that was critical of a sponsorship deal: www.smh.com.au/national/nsw... #auspol #nswpol
When they say “the party of Reagan”, know what they mean.
Have you ever had the feeling you're being watched? #cat #cats #caturday #PixelfedCats #CatsOfPixelfed #BlueSkyCats #CatsOfBlueSky #MastocatsCatsOfMastodon #MastodonCats #Catstodon
Here's something for young (and young at heart) space lovers. The Parramatta Powerhouse is organising a free full day "space festival" on 4 Oct. Fun activities include talks on the science of space, sci-fi character workshops, and a meet & greet with astronauts. powerhouse.com.au/program/parr...
Now, probably my favourite Wynne & Archibald Prize finalists for 2025. They're by Vincent Namatjira, whose portrait of Gina Rinehart is arguably the nation's most famous painting. Across 2 paintings Namatjira continued his "King Dingo" series from Vivid Sydney. #Art #painting #KingDingo
The Bulldogs AFLW shouted me a coffee this morning. Their men’s season may be over but the women are firing. Come down to Whitten Oval on Saturday night and watch them take on the Hawks. #aflw #doggies
@aj Eble 🐱☕
@aj ne tiel bone kiel mi volus, sed mi povas komuniki min
Saluton, ĉu iu parolas Esperanton? #Esperanto
Imagine, for a moment, what would've happened if the man who killed 2 police officers (after saying he doesn't recognise the Aus government's legitimacy) was named "Mohammed". How would've the media reporting and language been different? How would've the public discourse been different? #auspol
dam, im not surprised malls/shopping centres are a mess of what they were supposed to be https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/jun/24/bastard-developments-inventor-world-first-shopping-mall-denounced
Australian Raven, a scavenger according to a bird book…they sure do in Sydney, plenty of discarded human food for them. They are thriving in this city. #raven #bird #scavengers #parramatta
@ajsadauskas I guess the reason is the same you find random people playing instruments outdoors around here: if you played at home your family, your neighbours and your dog would all complain loudly.
Here are three of my four favourite finalists from this year's Wynne Prize. (The Wynne is Australia's most prestigious annual art prize for landscape paintings.) My favourite? I'll post that one tomorrow, because it's awesome 😁 #art #painting #paintings #artworks #draw #drawing drawings #Australia
And in today's installment of random people playing musical instruments around Parramatta, here's an old guy playing bagpipes near Parramatta Lake. I don't know why either. #music #scotland #bagpipes #Parramatta #NSW #ParramattaLake #Australia
100% Barangaroo St isn't in Barangaroo, it's in Dawes Pt, convenient only for residents and a few tourists. Next stop is town hall. LR is useless to most in the north of the city
Just curious, who else here agrees the Sydney light rail needs more stops through the CBD? #Sydney #Sydneylightrail #tram #lightrail #nswpol #auspol #urbanism #transport
Measures against shoplifters ain't where the extra money is coming from. Anti competitive behaviour, pricing of items, treatment of those in the supply chain - that's where the money is.
Same deal with the Sydney CBD light rail. Instead of the mid-block Town Hall, QVB, and Wynyard (but not near the station entry) stops, there should have been: George & Liverpool St George & Park St George & Market St George & King St George & Martin Pl George St actually at Wynyard Station
Rubbish. The few measures they put into "fighting" retail crime would have little to no effect on pro shoppies. A few CCTV cameras, some gates at the exit from self‐service and they've cured the problem? Really? Look to price gouging. That's where the profit comes from. This is just a cover.
I would have gone with 6 stops: Phillip & Church St George & Church St Macquarie & Church St Macquarie & Smith St Macquarie & Charles St Macquarie & Harris St Plus a branch line to CommBank Stadium. Even though the service would be slower, ridership would be higher.
Parra light rail has just one stop on Church St south of the river, one stop at Parramatta Square, and one near Harris St. So just 3 stops for the whole Parra CBD, and they wonder why it's under-used!
I definitely agree both Parramatta and Sydney CBD light rail should have had more stops. First, put light rail stops near intersections (like Melbourne) instead of mid block, so it serves the cross-street as well as the street it's on! And stops closer together is a good thing in the CBD.
Hope you feel better soon! And getting an appliance working again instead of replacing it is definitely a win 😊
Bob Carr also proposed an extension to Bondi Beach in '96. But he wanted it done as basically a backdoor privatisation to Macquarie Bank, and it got killed off by NIMBYs. www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05...
"Coles’ group sales rose 3.6 per cent to $44.35 billion, with underlying net profit rising 3.1 per cent to nearly $1.2 billion." www.smh.com.au/business/com... No paywall: archive.is/HnGCP #auspol #ausbiz #Colesworths #coles #capitalism #business
Or better yet, if you can't drive, an accessible train station or tram stop fairly close by. And for people with severe chronic illnesses, close to a hospital and medical facilities.
A few other suggestions: * Extend the Bondi line to the actual beach * Carlingford light rail to Epping * Future Olympic Park light rail to Strathfield * Northwest Metro to Schofields * Maybe a short branch line on the Parramatta light rail to CommBank Stadium?
Memo NSW Govt; If you are finally build missing inner city railway stations (✅ Woollahra), there’s plenty more you could also be building; -Art Gallery/Woolloomooloo -Waterloo on airport line -send new Parramatta metro SE via UNSW to Little Bay -even extend ES line to Bondi Improve urban coverage
The Archibald Prize is Aystralia's most prestigious annual art exhibition. Here are some of my favourite finalists from 2025. Official descriptions from the Art Gallery of NSW in the alt text (in so.e cases, abridged). #art #portrait #portraits #painting
A random band marching down Church St, Parramatta (part 3 of 3). #band #music #art #streetart #Parramatta #NSW #Australia
A random band marching down Church St, Parramatta (part 2 of 3). #band #music #art #streetart #Parramatta #NSW #Australia
A random band marching down Church St, Parramatta (part 1 of 3). #band #music #art #streetart #Parramatta #NSW #Australia
@timrichards In fairness, you have to wonder how many of those offences wouldn't have happened if Dutch-style bike infrastructure were more common in Australia? I mean, I can understand why delivery drivers wouldn't want to cycle in car traffic. I don't blame them! So where else is there to […]
@aj Totally agree that we need fewer cars and more space for pedestrians and bikes. I wrote to the council about it the other day - but the council is elected by a rotten voting system dominated by businesses.
I’m an AI skeptic because I’ve been involved in AI dev longer than a lot of you have been alive. I was obsessed with it before most people used internet regularly. And I know what a dangerous illusion it can be. #ai #cybersecurity
It's really cool how we get to watch Australian higher ed crumble in real time. It's not like having a highly-educated populace benefits the nation, or anything 🙃 #AusAcademia #HigherEd #AcademicChatter #AusPol […]
Remember before the last US election, when the Republicans claimed to be the party that's "pro free speech"? Funded by Elon, the "free speech absolutist"? Here's yet another example of how utterly full of shit the American right are 👇👇👇
But that's precisely the point: The right-wing press in Britain routinely blames the problems of neoliberalism on immigration! A shortage of hospital beds? A major factor is 40-odd years of budget cuts to the NHS. Immigrants are blamed. A shortage of affordable housing? A major factor...
William Nordhaus said there'd be minimal economic costs from the global warming of our oceans by toxic fossil fuel pollution. Unfortunately, he failed to consider that warmer oceans would mean more severe rain in some areas. And more rain means more landslides: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKo6...
...public services with *very* little spare capacity. And then when there's any increase in demand at all, they fall over. The real cause of those problems immigration. It's 40-odd years of neoliberal privatisation and austerity.
...is more than 40 years of underinvestment in, and privatisation of, public housing. Immigration is blamed. Overcrowded and crumbling government schools. Again, austerity and neoliberal cuts are the cause, immigrants get blamed. After 40 years of austerity and neoliberalism, you have many...
But that's precisely the point: The right-wing press in Britain routinely blames the problems of neoliberalism on immigration! A shortage of hospital beds? A major factor is 40-odd years of budget cuts to the NHS. Immigrants are blamed. A shortage of affordable housing? A major factor...
"No one sought a return to empire." Go back and look at the first post in the thread. Or some of the fantasies that were floated before the Brexit vote: www.dw.com/en/canzuk-co...
Recently, the Wynne, Archibald, and Sulman Prize exhibitions for 2025 closed at the Art Gallery of NSW. Unfortunately, I was overseas for most of the time the exhibition wad on, but I just managed to capture it in its final days. (For the uninitiated, the […] [Original post on pixelfed.social]
nice selection
Here are five of my favourite Sulman Prize finalists' paintings this year. (As I mentioned in my previous post, the Sulman is basically the Art Gallery of NSW's annual prize for the best abstract painting of the past year.) #art #painting #AbstractArt #AbstractPainting #Sydney #NSW
@ajsadauskas @DanielleVossebeld That too! 😁
@ajsadauskas Or an oversized boombox from the 80s?
A modern descendant of a speelklok in Parramatta Square...
Another clip of the Sunny Sound System (on a less than sunny day!) and its bubbles in Parramatta Square.
"No one blamed non-whites for the uncontrolled immigration from the EU." I suggest you take your own advice, and ask a few more Brexit voters what they really think about Black people and Asians.
"No one sought a return to empire." Go back and look at the first post in the thread. Or some of the fantasies that were floated before the Brexit vote: www.dw.com/en/canzuk-co...
But then seeing a return to Empire, instead of Europe, as the solution to all that? That takes some deep unawareness of the uncomfortable parts of the British Empire's legacy. And yes, blaming non-white people instead of the elites is kinda racist, I'm sorry to say.
And yes, 40-years of neoliberalism and underinvestment in public goods turned to crap. A bit like the untreated crap the privatised water boards dumped in the rivers. Blaming those very real problems on immigrants was brilliant misdirection by Murdoch and his cronies.
It's not immigrants who squandered billions invading the Falklands and Iraq and Afghanistan. It's not the immigrants who blamed country post office staff for dodgy computers in the privatised Royal Mail, it's cut funding for schools and social services repeatedly.
It's not immigrants who repeatedly cut the NHS budget, underfunded then privatised public housing, mismanaged the privatised railways so badly they had to be bailed out, ended industry support for British manufacturing.
I'd say it's blaming non-white people, many of whom became British subjects as a result of colonialism, for the consequences of 40-odd years of neoliberalism. That's 40-odd years of underinvestment in public goods under Thatcherism, Blairism, austerity, and continuing under Starmer.
Once again, the xenophobic fears about non-white people in Britain failed to acknowledge how South Asian or African people first came to be British subjects. Because Brexit supporters tend to be people who haven't thought a great deal about the uncomfortable legacies of British colonial rule.
But that is the core of Brexit. Because 'closer ties with the former colonies instead of Europe' only seems like a viable option to someone who's not fully aware of how British colonial rule is viewed by millions of people around the world.
As opposed to the universe where Google and Meta defeated the open web, but not until after Marc Andreesen became a billionaire? Because I'm not so sure we wound up in the good future...
Britain has never fully reckoned with all the violence and bloodshed that continues to happen around the world to this day as a direct result of British colonial rule. So there's a massive disconnect between how the Empire is viewed in Britain, as opposed to how it is seen in many former colonies.
The Stolen Generations in Australia, slavery in America, the residential boarding schools in the US and Canada are all a direct consequence of British colonial rule. And that's without going into the long-term impacts of divide and rule tactics in British India or the British Palestine Mandate.
Under whose rule First Nations land was stolen in America. Under whose rule many Africans were subjected to transatlantic slave trade. Under whose rule First Nations land was stolen in Canada. Under whose rule Aboriginal land was stolen in Australia. Under whose rule Maori land was stolen in NZ.
The right-wing press vilifying those communities in Britain and blaming Europe was always a cop out that sidestepped uncomfortable questions about British history. Speaking of uncomfortable questions, lest we forget: Under whose rule the Irish potato famine happened...
What's conspicuous by its absence is a frank discussion of how the ancestors of many non-white Britons first came to be subjects of the British crown. Think Jamaicans, Indians, Kenyans. Because it wasn't when they moved to Britain. It was when Britain invaded their ancestor's countries...
Okay, so why seek closer ties with the Commonwealth (in some cases literally on the other side of the world) over closer ties with England's neighbours across the English Channel? Part of it is a sense that things were better in the past, when Britain had an empire. As for immigration...
At Lions games after a goal they play a song of the goal-scorer’s choosing. Charlie Cameron’s song is Country Road. The fans just like singing that one so they sing it a bit longer.
Each Brisbane player has chosen a song they want played after scoring a goal. Charlie Cameron’s song is Country Road
Brisbane win 11.23 (?!?!) 89 to Hawthorn 11.13.79 at the Gabba. Just 10 behinds (?!?!) in it in the end. The Lions will want to kick straighter than that if they want to win back-to-back premierships. #AFL #Brisbane #BrisbaneLions #Hawthorn #HawthornHawks
Brisbane are up to 15 behinds and it's not even three quarter time yet. Some of them have been set shots directly in front, real AusKick stuff! The Hawks are basically still in the match because the Lions haven't kicked straight.
Can someone explain why the Brisbane Lions supporters were all singing "Country Road" just then? #AFL #Brisbane #Hawthorn
Poor Dutchy Holland. Left to fill Dermie's boots in the lean years between Hawthorn's '91 and 2008 flags. Now a divorce...
I get the distinct impression that there'll be some goalkicking drills in the Brisbane Lions' training session this week... #AFL #Brisbane #Hawthorn
Awkward --- Maine police officer detained by ICE agrees to leave US https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/19/maine-police-officer-immigration-ice
A pipeline of projects is the cheapest way to build rail. It means workers take their experience from one project to another with fewer consultants. Minns is incompetent at budget managent and out if touch with the public […]
I have a PhD in transportation planning, did a post-doc in disaster resilience and recovery, and have multiple ongoing research projects on how families cope with (a) unreliable school transportation and (b) critical infrastructure closures. If I can't figure this out, then FFS how can anyone?
I am spending far too much time dealing with the fact that my child was not assigned a bus route to get to her school, which is separated from our home by two 5-lane highways and a greenway that'll be closed for over a year due to flood damage. #SafeRoutesToSchool
Louise Adler, the director of Adelaide Writers’ Week, on the Bendigo Writers' Festival shitshow. (For those who haven't followed: 58 authors withdrew after a sponsor, Latrobe Uni, attempted to censor a pro-Palestine author.): “We have witnessed a succession of pre-emptive buckles by arts […]
@aj WTF 😕 or as the Dutch saying goes: One can steal a cow, the other one is not allowed to look over the fence.
When it comes to copyright, it seems like there's one rule for big tech and another for everyone else. So earlier today, the well-known music YouTuber Rick Beato posted a video about how the record company UMG had filed a number of seemingly automated copyright claims against his channel […]