Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Richard Chirgwin @rchirgwin.bsky.social · 9m

Christ, TV ads for cybersecurity are awful.

Richard Chirgwin @rchirgwin.bsky.social · 15m

I've got this really great idea, let's have journalists who completely ignore one half of politics because of your *specific* electoral preference. Brilliant!

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Richard Chirgwin @rchirgwin.bsky.social · 42m

They were crowded out by ...

The cows and the sheep and the birdies and horses ...

(Runs away and hides)

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Richard Chirgwin @rchirgwin.bsky.social · 47m

In 1981, a worker's cottage in Lawson rented at $45 a week. And somehow I didn't understand that the universe was dropping me a hint!

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Reposted by Richard Chirgwin

Mr. Beat @iammrbeat.bsky.social · 9h

Journalists should stop interviewing liars. Since liars lie all the time, what new information are we really learning by interviewing them? You’re only platforming their lies.

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Richard Chirgwin @rchirgwin.bsky.social · 1h

I doubt anyone is going to fuck around and find out if journalists still get shot.

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Richard Chirgwin @rchirgwin.bsky.social · 2h

"Between Galston Gorge and Pizza Hut"! :-)

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Richard Chirgwin @rchirgwin.bsky.social · 4h

Including the bits to the south ... to steal from Denis Carnahan, "Western Sydney's everywhere!"

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Reposted by Richard Chirgwin

Damien Harrison @slaymo.bsky.social · 6h

The Christo-fascists running America don't understand 'bottom up' cultural dynamics and like anyone who doesn't understand how the world works they subscribe to conspiracy theories which fit their limited worldview.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 18h

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 19h

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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Reposted by Richard Chirgwin

Kerry Jaggers 🇦🇺 @kerryjaggers.bsky.social · 7h

I 🥰 this shot. It's the Black Mountain tower in Canberra. Once an iconic tourist destination, it was closed to the public in 2021 due to a state of disrepair. Telstra and the ACT government have agreed to work together on a plan to refurbish and reopen it. Thumbs up to that.
#Canberra

Tall tower on a hill framed by green leafy trees. Vivid blue sky behind it.

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Reposted by Richard Chirgwin

Asher Wolf @asherwolf.bsky.social · 6h

Authoritarian censorship keeps no one but bigots and fascists safe

CNA @channelnewsasia.bsky.social · 8h

YouTube warns Australia social media ban will not keep children safe

SYDNEY: Australia's push to ban children from social media is "well intentioned" but will not make them safer online, video streaming giant YouTube warned on Monday (Oct 13).Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last year unveiled landmark laws that will

www.channelnewsasia.com

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Reposted by Richard Chirgwin

Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 9h

The ALP might as well merge with the Minerals Council of Australia

Miners to get an early look at Labor’s new green laws

Tom Rabe
WA political correspondent
Oct 12, 2025 – 3.26pm

The Albanese government will give mining companies and other stakeholders draft extracts of its environmental protection laws before they go to parliament, as Environment Minister Murray Watt tries to rebuild trust after earlier negotiations on the reforms collapsed in acrimony.

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Reposted by Richard Chirgwin

Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 7h

As of now there is nothing Albanese's govt has done that has changed the country in any structural way.

No change at all to how the fundamental debates of the nation are addressed.

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Reposted by Richard Chirgwin

Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 7h

Didn't even have the bottle to stick with changes to super that affected only the wealthiest 0.5%.

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Richard Chirgwin @rchirgwin.bsky.social · 6h

The "one world government" has been a bogeyman of America's evangelical hard-right longer than I've been alive.

If it's such a threat, how come more than 60 years hasn't even forced metric units on America?

(Utterly fucked in the head, yes.)

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Reposted by Richard Chirgwin

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 8h

Both Headspace and Project Rockit making the point that if the ban is about getting kids to go outside and socialise in person, a lot of in-person places for young people are taken away now. They're moved on, can't hang around shopping centres etc anymore.

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Richard Chirgwin @rchirgwin.bsky.social · 7h

...and bureaucrats love. It distracts people from the mundane and achievable: new rolling stock for NSW's country services, track upgrades so trains capable of (say) 150km/h aren't hobbled half their trip.

But no, we keep yelling "I WANT A PONY", and giving politicians room to lie to us. Sigh. /end

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Richard Chirgwin @rchirgwin.bsky.social · 7h

3. People ignore, for example, how expensive a rail corridor is, in a democracy.

4. We also ignore what goes wrong overseas. For eg, the Hokkaido Shinkansen is running nearly 10 years late.

5. Our national inferiority complex about high speed rail is a distraction politicians
... /more

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Richard Chirgwin @rchirgwin.bsky.social · 7h

Australian *voters* keep expecting very fast trains. Politicians like this, because:

1. It's an easy promise to make in a campaign.

2. The studies will always let you off the hook, by finding fast rail is too expensive the operate without subsidy.

/more

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Reposted by Richard Chirgwin

Bin Chicken @binchicken9000.bsky.social · 3d

Even if cutting ppl off was ever ethical, it's a mistaken binary of payments/find a job. The govt classifies more than 40% of JobSeekers with a Partial Capacity to Work. This can be permanent, or can last years. Does she not know this, or is she pretending?

Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 4d

Labor's employment minister rep admits that payment suspensions "cause harm", but they're "an important part" of the (unlawful) mutual obligations system, because

"At the end of the day we want ppl to get off payments and find a job"

gross 'best form of welfare is a job' stuff from the ALP here

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Reposted by Richard Chirgwin

Robyn D @koparafallskid.bsky.social · 12h

Some good news!

Electricity from renewables overtakes coal in Australia for the first time

Electricity from renewables overtakes coal in Australia for the first time

Power from solar, wind hydro and biomass totals 9.24 terawatt hours, compared with 8.8 terawatt hours from burning the fossil fuel

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Richard Chirgwin

ABC News Bot (unofficial) @abcnewsbot.bsky.social · 14h

As Western Sydney University prepares to shed hundreds of staff due to its dire finances, leaked documents reveal it is paying consultants as much as $2,850 a day.

Uni staff 'very, very angry' as high-paid consultants work on redundancies

As Western Sydney University prepares to shed hundreds of staff due to its dire finances, leaked documents reveal it is paying consultants as much as $2,850 a day.

www.abc.net.au

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Reposted by Richard Chirgwin

Dr Ingrid M @ingridm.bsky.social · 13h

poor old Tony Abbott is on the public broadcaster dismissing the oldest and longest continuous oral histories in the history of humanity as “hearsay” how’s your morning going.

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Richard Chirgwin @rchirgwin.bsky.social · 22h

Also. We don't even need new technology. We only need dinosaurs out of the way. We have all the electricity we need, forever.

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Richard Chirgwin @rchirgwin.bsky.social · 22h

Dead set, so bloody *what*?
1. Is JDV mostly right, or mostly wrong?
2. For all of the non-you in our overlapped world, Reverend, are our lives improved by an injection of that fuckwit's "thoughts" into our timelines??
Quit boosting him.

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