Former SysProg moved on to being a payments specialist - and now trying to fully retire. — @FunnellMike over with the pachyderms & on what might still be Twitter (sort of). Sydney, Australia.
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I wrote this for Crikey about how media coverage of Dezi Freeman as far back as 2018 fed his paranoia and sovereign citizen talking points. After last week's shootings, it's not great to see media today downplay the role of Nazis into the alarmingly attended March for Australia rallies yesterday.
You have to love the lady birds. I sure do - even (perhaps especially) when they’re not as flashy as the blokey birds.
I have now - and I can’t unsee ‘em 😂
His soon-to-be-former employers can go, ahem, ‘interfere’ with themselves..
There might be a reason you’re old enough to be old-fashioned 🤔🤷♂️😂
We should be aiming to make this routine, easy, and obviously so - not ‘fortunate’.
Where it can be done (I’m fortunate enough to live in a part of Sydney where it can be) almost all local trips (to shops etc.) can be done by walking or 🚲 and most further afield can be done by walk/🚲 + 🚂 I hardly ever drive my car, these days, because the alternatives are just better & easier.
A ‘random’ observation about @ronnisalt.bsky.social made in a private conversation (subject redacted, but the conclusion is generally applicable): “Ronni has impeccable taste (and even better distaste 😂)”
Liberalism is not going to save us: www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politic...
If it failed then one of Australia’s “big 4” banks would no longer exist (not as a bank, with a banking licence, and all). Since we do still exist (our share price has even gone up) then I think we succeeded. If auditors think it failed I suggest they might somehow need to account for these facts🙄
My offer of ‘proof’ - “we know it worked because it wasn’t on the front page of every newspaper in Australia” (which it would have been if it failed) was considered insufficient. 🙄🤷♂️
And if you think that sounds as boring as bat shit, and as frustrating as a horrid variant of bureaucratic hell - then you are 100% correct. And that’s not even mentioning dealing with auditors this morning over something that happened months ago 🙄 (which worked fine - but they’re asking for proof)
I have wasted FAR too much of my last full day in Canberra with my Dad: Explaining to a supposed “Security Architect” (paid way more than me 🙄) how PKI (public key infrastructure) works for out-of-band exchange of asymmetric key encryption keys so secure exchange of temporary symmetric keys works🙄
Must be in my other pocket, then 🤷♂️
Not invited to your very own mad Katter’s tea party, then? 🤔😂
I wish it was 😢
This piece below is a more polite version of my latest, but along the same lines. We have entered circling the drain territory www.thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2025...
Dearest Martha, The National Guard stand solemn watch at the Krispy Kreme tonight. I cannot tell if they defend the people from the donuts, or the donuts from the people. Powdered sugar hangs in the air like cannon smoke. Jensen took a hot coffee to the face, he may never recover. Yours in glaze,
Making them wear high-visibility vests over camo is such a good joke you couldn’t write it
[Note that when I say ‘prayer’ I don’t mean god-bothering 🐂 💩 - I just mean wishing and hoping - against too much experience - for a decent dose of dumb-arsed luck 🤞]
I think we’ve been reaching towards that somewhat independently and not nearly so acutely - but (🤬) seem headed in that direction nonetheless. Unless (🤞) we realise that’s where it leads - so decide to fix our own 💩 🙏 that we do. (Prayer might be needed 😢)
Or “The number of men subjecting their pregnant partners to #domesticviolence has jumped by almost 60% over the last three years.” Disgraceful and the right slant to put on the data imho. ( yes there’ll be a few abusive women partners in the stats but so few compared to men.)
No update in last 3 hours about the killer’s wife and children whom police have not been able to locate. #Porepunkah I’m so angry they are just a sidebar to this story, especially because Freeman was about to be interviewed about historical #childsexualabuse www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...
My view: bsky.app/profile/mike...
🤣
Perhaps I'm simply indulging in a very old-fashioned way of thinking - but I genuinely preferred it when governments thought it both desirable and *necessary* to obey their own laws. Perhaps that's just me 🤷♂️🤔
I refer, of course, to Australian Governments. That is a group which has a well-documented history of law-breaking, described in internal and external reports - yet refuses to obey any laws (their own laws) which they don't like. Most especially social security law, but also FOI and many others.
On a day when two police were murdered by a so-called "sovereign citizen", if I had an interview on #abc730 with the PM I would have taken the opportunity to ask about the *other* major group in Australian society which refuses to obey Australian law when they find it inconvenient.
I met up with the lovely @srpassesiton.bsky.social this afternoon in Crace (northern Canberra) for a 🍺 and a bite - which I very much enjoyed ❤️ I showed Sally something of recent camera technology - she snapped this test shot - Sally has an eye for leading lines in composition even in test shots 👏
Mike (80ish) leading, then Dad (90), then me (since I had the camera). A bit slower than our usual rides when it’s just Dad and me..
Of course, I also saw some colourful birds today as well. Here, an adult Eastern Rosella is feeding a juvenile. It was very swift, so I was lucky to catch it in progress..
Anybody willing to bore themselves for 3mins can look at video of our 3-person bike ride today in north Canberra. I'm working on my video-editing 'skills' (🙄😂) and figure 3mins is about all anyone will watch🤞, while still showing the flavour & scenery of the ride: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/smavp...
I've been posting some colourful bird photos lately, so I'll try some (mostly) black and white ones - Here's a Grey Butcherbird, a Magpie and a Currawong from today and a Little Pied Cormorant I saw in Gungahlin Pond a couple of days ago:
Watched Fit For TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser 1. They tried to set up Jillian Michaels but she has receipts dating back more than 15 years ago. Smart. 2. The show encouraged already unhealthy people to gain more weight for the shock value and exploited their personal lives/trauma for TV. ...
Maccas; KFC - apparently 🤷♂️🤬
In late-breaking news, 'sources' have confirmed that protests in Wollongong were smaller than protests in Sydney; protests in Dapto were smaller still; protests in Cobargo were smaller than protests in Dapto and protests in Brindabella (pop. zero) were smaller still. Nobody could quite say why..
The population of Brisbane is nearly 2.8 million people. The population of Canberra is a bit less than 460 thousand people. Even allowing for travel to the national capital from reasonably close population centres, to make a point, what did they expect? 🤷♂️🙄🤬
Until I was in my 30s I couldn't cook much - anything beyond "good ingredients, don't mess with 'em too much" was beyond me. Then: I had a housemate (the world's only Welsh Mexican: don't ask) who wouldn't eat *anything* not from takeaway. I taught myself to cook in reaction (and I'm glad I did)..
1978 was my last year of high school. Love was not in the air. “Goodbye cruel world, I’m off to join the Air Force” was my more likely song. (I did. I’m not sorry I did, though it didn’t stick.)
Recognising this would be showing my age 🙄😂🤣
Duttonissstan, surely? 🤷♂️😂
I'm going with "admiring", not "putting up with" 👏
A longer edit, showing some of the nicer bits of our ride as well is here for those willing to be bored for four or so minutes: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/zvp1u...
Dad and I rode our 🚲s to lunch today. We did NOT need people illegally riding motorcycles at us on the bike paths, nor being unsafely overtaken by a high-speed (and illegal, not that it's enforced) fat bike. Cyclists overtaking with fair warning by way of contrast.. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vaht9...
A photo showing that the female Red-Rumped Parrot is, in fact, green-rumped (it's the male, to the right in the quoted post) that shows red on the rump).
😬
Too many on the (self-professed) “conservative side” of Australian politics think the same way 😢 open.substack.com/pub/mikebroc...
I find the split between "white-cheeked" and "blue-cheeked" rosella groupings (and "yellow-cheeked" from West Oz) somewhat interesting: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosella
I finally managed to get some 'decent' shots of Crimson Rosellas today (they've been avoiding me) - a couple of adults and a juvenile (with the somewhat ratty-looking green plumage). By way of contrast, I've included an Eastern Rosella (also from today):
“.. today’s privatised government services are tomorrow’s royal commissions.”
We've lived on this property for 13 years and I've been trying to catch a quoll on my trail cams basically since we moved in. Never seen one. But today one turned up and tried to break into the (fortunately secure) aviary. This is the most exciting thing ever. #wildoz #ausmammals
The only thing I can say about this paragraph is read it. Sit with it. Read it again. @michaelharriot.bsky.social
Oddly (rather unplanned, really) we’re also going to Norfolk Island early next year. I suspect / hope the contrasts will be interesting 🤞🤔
I’m going back again this year, with my Dad again, and we’re both very much looking forward to it. www.flickr.com/gp/mfunnell/...
This is my favourite LHI Woodhen photo from my trip last year (one of the first bird photos I took on arrival) - an adult plus chick:
@RonniSalt so often wipes the insects off the national windscreen and tells us exactly what's going on.
The order said that authorities must remove "all generators, gas, sewage, and other waste and waste receptacles that were installed to support this project", within 60 days.
#3 looks the most dangerous..
I promised waterbirds - here they are: A silly old coot (as in: Eurasian Coot), a Dusky Moorhen, a Purple Swamphen and a (male) Maned Duck (aka Australian Wood Duck):
“The pro-Israel lobby in Australia does not have the numbers – they have puffery. They’re a farce, a smokescreen, a collection of paranoids intent on defending a foreign power’s despicable actions at the expense of Australia’s own social democracy.”
My latest in The Shot. "The pro-lsrael lobby in Australia do not have the power - they have bluff. They're a farce, a smokescreen, a collection of paranoids intent on defending a foreign power’s despicable actions at the expense of Australia’s own social democracy." 👇🏽 theshot.net.au/uncategorize...
FWIW: here's my only ever (at least so far) Substack post, talking about our (Dad and my) trip last year: open.substack.com/pub/mikefunn...
Lord Howe Island (in the alt text, too).
This photo from last year just, coincidentally, popped up on my iPad. The day after we paid the rather gulp-inducing bill to go back again this year. Looking forward to it, though 😃
In 2019 I promised I’d not complain about rain, ever again. If I’d not spent the past couple of weeks in Canberra my resolve might have been stretched..
Here in lucky Canberra the weather was nice enough to 🚴♂️ then take my camera for a walk. I went in a different direction today - towards a pond, looking for waterbirds (I might post later) but going there then, later, coming back I saw two (maybe one 🤷♂️) Red Wattlebirds:
Putin’s “land swap” is really a grab for Ukraine’s fortress belt He wants Trump to secure for him what Russia’s army cannot www.economist.com/europe/2025/...
(Mind you, I was driving a clapped-out Saab 900GLE at the time. I’d bought it for $2 only because I didn’t have a $1 coin on me - and was shamelessly overcharged. Primary structural material: duct tape. Maybe if I’d had a more flash car? 🤔🤷♂️)
Nothing made me appreciate farty people on crowded trains more than being stuck in traffic jams on Mona Vale Rd, to Belrose (the land that public transport forgot). But: I’ve worked from home (against preference) since 2016 - before it became either mandatory or fashionable. What would I know 🤷♂️
Dad & I watched “Air Crash Investigations” on the C-130H (civillianised) firebomber crash near Adaminaby a few yrs ago. Dad was qualified to fly C-130s. Me: no, but I’ve flown ‘em: RH seat, supervised. We have questions.🤔 Tomorrow morning we’ll ask them of someone with thousands of hrs on C-130s.
A truly classical cartoon, for sommeliers everywhere:
Thank you 😃
Lindeman’s Ben Ean Moselle either “really goes down well” (according to the adverts of the time 🤷♂️ - not *my* choice of words 😂) - or maybe really throws up well 🤔
Every time I hear “Bruce is appealing” I immediately think “to who?” 🤷♂️🙄🤬
Contemplating life.
Today the rain hitting elsewhere hit Canberra as well - so no bike, no photo-walk. Instead, here's a photo-nerd illustration of how narrow the plane of focus is with a long lens (400mm; 35mm-film-sized sensor) from a few days ago. The closest Crested Pigeon is in focus - the others not so much..
If ever an image needed a content warning. Via @strangerous.bsky.social
I can recall that, for reasons only to be guessed at, our mess committee had bought a sh1t-ton of Spumante some time in the mid-1970s when (apparently 🤷♂️) it was popular. By the late ‘70s, when I joined up, a case of it was 2nd-last prize in mess raffles. Last prize was two cases 😂
Sure was 😱 Never touched it again after a swimming club function with unfortunate consequences 🤢
I think it might have been the added diethylene glycol .. 🤷♂️ en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Au...
Why would anyone want to get relations ‘back on track’ with a nation committing genocide? www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politic...
It was cloudy, windy, cold and had a few raindrops 💦 here in Canberra. I used the best part of the day to 🚴♂️ - not take photos - and otherwise didn't brave the cold. I did take this quick photo of an Eastern Rosella from the balcony, though..
Last time I was in Wagga Wagga I took the time to visit Daryl’s clinic, music hall and gun club..
I’m avoiding the rain here in Canberra at present (though it hasn’t been warm) - riding my bike every day (which I sure wouldn’t be doing back home). Good (lucky!) timing .. 🤞it holds.
It might well be that you have a better (or at least more realistic) understanding than if you’d been inducted into what passes for “consensus economics” these days (see: Michelle Bullock).
Remember folks, productivity is the ratio of output to inputs. You'll hear a cascade of bullshit this week around productivity and 90% of it will be policy lobbying, grifting, shareholder maximisation, public relations and political positioning -with nary an ounce of substance on changing that ratio
Between "other things" and the weather (the light, really) turning a bit naff I didn't walk my camera today. Here's an Eastern Rosella from yesterday:
Real estate agency plays the honesty card. Lol
It's improved for me since I started using the bell to insure I am notified of all posts from favourite posters. It's improved a lot, do you use it?
A patient with type 1 diabetes has begun producing his own insulin after receiving a transplant of pancreatic cells. For the first time, islet cells have been edited so they wouldn't be rejected by the patient, removing the need for immunosuppressant drugs. www.sciencealert.com/first-of-its...
That bridge would give any structural engineer nightmares. Also, the alt text is *chefs kiss*
See this is a great use case because its really hard to find photos of sydney harbour
89 million Americans need to.
🚨Antisemitism Envoy Jillian Segal is so aware of her husband's "donations" they have one literally named after them. That specifically celebrates their shared “values”. The "Roth-Segal" scholarship. …Handed out by the Governor-General. Devastating. theklaxon.com.au/z68j
Explain this Abundance disciples!!
“Note: this opinion piece was originally commissioned by The Age, which declined to publish it once it was submitted. It was also declined by Guardian Australia and The Conversation. Opinions expressed are those of the authors alone.”
They found almost one quarter of HR professionals [age not specified] now classify workers aged 51 to 55 as "older". Big change from 2 years ago! www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
Some days, you can just get lucky without too much effort. I saw these colourful characters by the side of the road while walking my camera towards the reserve: an Eastern Rosella feeding on the median strip and a male Red-Rumped parrot in one of the trees planted there..
The Crimson Rosellas have been avoiding me 😢 Today I did manage to get this shot of a juvenile, despite an awkward angle and lighting:
Ted O'Brain .. the pain .. the pain .. 🙄