Ben Lever
@benleverau.bsky.social
Reposted by Ben Lever
Rental affordability is getting worse (or continuing at the same level of bad) in every part of Australia... except the ACT. The difference there? They introduced rent controls 4 years ago when the Greens were in government with Labor! Full article via @abcnewsbot.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Rental affordability is getting worse (or continuing at the same level of bad) in every part of Australia... except the ACT. The difference there? They introduced rent controls 4 years ago when the Greens were in government with Labor! Full article via @abcnewsbot.bsky.social
Reposted by Ben Lever
With a mixed-results at COP30 - i.e. good intentions but no concrete plans for the “transition away from fossil fuels” - don’t give up.
Let’s remember the progress made since the Paris Agreement and the options ahead of us. That’s the message of the image below
Let’s remember the progress made since the Paris Agreement and the options ahead of us. That’s the message of the image below
November 23, 2025 at 5:58 PM
With a mixed-results at COP30 - i.e. good intentions but no concrete plans for the “transition away from fossil fuels” - don’t give up.
Let’s remember the progress made since the Paris Agreement and the options ahead of us. That’s the message of the image below
Let’s remember the progress made since the Paris Agreement and the options ahead of us. That’s the message of the image below
A movie that takes place where you're from
November 24, 2025 at 12:24 PM
A movie that takes place where you're from
Reposted by Ben Lever
"Any bomb dropped by these planes can only do so because the Australian government has written a blank cheque to Lockheed Martin, selling them Australian-made parts with no human rights restrictions or monitoring.”
Human rights fears over Australia’s role in F-35 parts after Trump’s decision to sell fighter jets to Saudi Arabia
Experts warn US deal on ‘lethal’ aircraft presents issues for Australia that ‘we’ve tried desperately to ignore with the Israelis’
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 6:17 PM
"Any bomb dropped by these planes can only do so because the Australian government has written a blank cheque to Lockheed Martin, selling them Australian-made parts with no human rights restrictions or monitoring.”
Reposted by Ben Lever
Twitter pays people based on engagement (views, retweets, comments, etc). It appears that many MAGA accounts are based abroad and they use AI technology to generate low-effort rage bait.
My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.
My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.
November 23, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Twitter pays people based on engagement (views, retweets, comments, etc). It appears that many MAGA accounts are based abroad and they use AI technology to generate low-effort rage bait.
My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.
My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.
Reposted by Ben Lever
‘She’s a shrewd Green’: meet Alice Springs’ new mayor, determined to rewrite the story of her beloved home town
‘She’s a shrewd Green’: meet Alice Springs’ new mayor, determined to rewrite the story of her beloved home town
Criminal defence lawyer Asta Hill says she is putting human rights at the centre of her leadership – without shying away from addressing community safety
*
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
When Asta Hill drives into Alice Springs after swimming in one of the waterholes that dot the red centre, she is still struck by the shades of blue and purple in the Macdonnell Ranges that wet the brushtrokes of Albert Namatjira.
“There is a reason that many of the most prolific artists in the world are from this Country – we have such an incredibly beautiful palette that they can work with,” Hill says.
Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:02 PM
‘She’s a shrewd Green’: meet Alice Springs’ new mayor, determined to rewrite the story of her beloved home town
Reposted by Ben Lever
Any centrist uttering "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" is an absolute guaranteed pre-emptive alarm they're about to do something extremely bad
When @australianlabor.bsky.social trots out a warning to The Greens "not to "make the perfect the enemy of the good"" you can absolutely bet they're going to offer up crud & join forces with LNP to deploy media beat up strategies against people who want to prevent rubbishing of EPBC laws
Labor offers Greens forestry deal in exchange for support on environment laws
The ABC has been told the federal government is willing to ensure native forestry complies with tougher new standards within three years if the Greens back the reforms.
www.abc.net.au
November 23, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Any centrist uttering "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" is an absolute guaranteed pre-emptive alarm they're about to do something extremely bad
Reposted by Ben Lever
I once knew a Federal bank examiner, and one time someone asked him why we had to KEEP inspecting banks over and over. He basically said every new batch of business school grads invents bank fraud from first principles.
AirBnB CEO calling it “vibe revenue” just 👨🍳 😘
The underlying cause of every bubble - debt masquerading as financial innovation - depends on not just short financial memory & speculative neophytism, but reinventing jargon of finance, like how each generation of kids has new ways to say same things.
The underlying cause of every bubble - debt masquerading as financial innovation - depends on not just short financial memory & speculative neophytism, but reinventing jargon of finance, like how each generation of kids has new ways to say same things.
November 22, 2025 at 6:02 PM
I once knew a Federal bank examiner, and one time someone asked him why we had to KEEP inspecting banks over and over. He basically said every new batch of business school grads invents bank fraud from first principles.
Reposted by Ben Lever
since the "google is now training gemini on your email contents" thing keeps bumping around here: it's _not happening_. I say this not to defend google but because I know a lot of people that have broken their filtering and made their lives much more annoying from sheer misinformation.
The malwarebytes Google opting-your-emails-into-ai-training thing is not true. The post is based on one bad tweet.
I know anti-tech lamenting is a Bluesky core principle, but please use the same judgement you would for any other clickbait.
www.theverge.com/news/826902/...
I know anti-tech lamenting is a Bluesky core principle, but please use the same judgement you would for any other clickbait.
www.theverge.com/news/826902/...
Google denies ‘misleading’ reports of Gmail using your emails to train AI
Google says “we do not use your Gmail content for training our Gemini AI model.”
www.theverge.com
November 22, 2025 at 9:30 PM
since the "google is now training gemini on your email contents" thing keeps bumping around here: it's _not happening_. I say this not to defend google but because I know a lot of people that have broken their filtering and made their lives much more annoying from sheer misinformation.
Reposted by Ben Lever
Reposted by Ben Lever
I think entirely too much about how California’s climate plan explicitly says that converting to EVs is not nearly enough to meet our greenhouse gas reduction targets so we need to reduce VMT 25% by 2030, and then we do basically nothing to try to achieve that goal
November 22, 2025 at 2:48 AM
I think entirely too much about how California’s climate plan explicitly says that converting to EVs is not nearly enough to meet our greenhouse gas reduction targets so we need to reduce VMT 25% by 2030, and then we do basically nothing to try to achieve that goal
Reposted by Ben Lever
Today on the blog, I take a look at the latest V/Line passenger stats and see how they're recovering from the COVID era the-iron-road.blogspot.com/2025/11/vlin...
V/Line's COVID recovery
How are V/Line passenger numbers recovering post-COVID?
the-iron-road.blogspot.com
November 22, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Today on the blog, I take a look at the latest V/Line passenger stats and see how they're recovering from the COVID era the-iron-road.blogspot.com/2025/11/vlin...
Reposted by Ben Lever
We all like freebies, but with little or no extra capacity expected to be added to V/Line trains over summer, services are likely to be packed.
V/Line travel is free on weekends this summer in Victoria but will you find a seat?
Victorians will benefit from free public transport on weekends this summer, but not all travellers are excited for the freebie.
www.abc.net.au
November 22, 2025 at 12:22 AM
We all like freebies, but with little or no extra capacity expected to be added to V/Line trains over summer, services are likely to be packed.
Reposted by Ben Lever
See Betteridge's law of headlines
V/Line travel is free on weekends this summer in Victoria but will you find a seat?: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-22/fears-free-ptv-will-further-strain-regional-train-services/106010924
V/Line travel is free on weekends this summer in Victoria but will you find a seat?
Victorians will benefit from free public transport on weekends this summer, but not all travellers are excited for the freebie.
www.abc.net.au
November 21, 2025 at 10:03 PM
See Betteridge's law of headlines
Fantastic, thoughtful piece from Rachel Iampolski
---
From Apple to Amyl: fighting for the soul of Federation Square – and what this weekend's chaos teaches us
www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-a...
---
From Apple to Amyl: fighting for the soul of Federation Square – and what this weekend's chaos teaches us
www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-a...
From Apple to Amyl: fighting for the soul of Federation Square – and what this weekend's chaos teaches us
On Friday night, thousands of people packed into Melbourne’s Federation Square for a free all-ages Amyl and the Sniffers show. Within minutes of the band’s scheduled set time, fences were buckling, th...
www.linkedin.com
November 22, 2025 at 3:47 AM
Fantastic, thoughtful piece from Rachel Iampolski
---
From Apple to Amyl: fighting for the soul of Federation Square – and what this weekend's chaos teaches us
www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-a...
---
From Apple to Amyl: fighting for the soul of Federation Square – and what this weekend's chaos teaches us
www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-a...
Reposted by Ben Lever
“If Australia is serious about supporting Ukraine and upholding sanctions, it must follow the UK and EU by announcing a ban on imports of fuels refined from Russian crude and shutting down the backdoor channels that continue to finance Russia’s aggression.”
Isaac Levi, CREA
Isaac Levi, CREA
November 22, 2025 at 2:01 AM
“If Australia is serious about supporting Ukraine and upholding sanctions, it must follow the UK and EU by announcing a ban on imports of fuels refined from Russian crude and shutting down the backdoor channels that continue to finance Russia’s aggression.”
Isaac Levi, CREA
Isaac Levi, CREA
Today on the blog, I take a look at the latest V/Line passenger stats and see how they're recovering from the COVID era the-iron-road.blogspot.com/2025/11/vlin...
V/Line's COVID recovery
How are V/Line passenger numbers recovering post-COVID?
the-iron-road.blogspot.com
November 22, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Today on the blog, I take a look at the latest V/Line passenger stats and see how they're recovering from the COVID era the-iron-road.blogspot.com/2025/11/vlin...
This is such a goddamn shame. Geoscience has been a core part of the institution for 175 years, and those skills are crucial to our present and future economy. And still they cut it.
I spent most of my adult life studying or working there and I've never been more worried about its future.
I spent most of my adult life studying or working there and I've never been more worried about its future.
Geoscience students are left feeling "in the dark" and "ripped off" as Federation University becomes the latest university to ditch its geology specialisation.
Federation University scraps one of Australia's oldest geology courses
Geoscience students are left feeling "in the dark" and "ripped off" as Federation University becomes the latest university to ditch its geology specialisation.
www.abc.net.au
November 21, 2025 at 11:42 AM
This is such a goddamn shame. Geoscience has been a core part of the institution for 175 years, and those skills are crucial to our present and future economy. And still they cut it.
I spent most of my adult life studying or working there and I've never been more worried about its future.
I spent most of my adult life studying or working there and I've never been more worried about its future.
Reposted by Ben Lever
[watching every law and order svu episode where benson and stabler threaten some random innocent person with obstruction charges or wrongly use their police powers to get some more info about their case]
me: ahhh the wheels of justice
me: ahhh the wheels of justice
November 20, 2025 at 10:46 AM
[watching every law and order svu episode where benson and stabler threaten some random innocent person with obstruction charges or wrongly use their police powers to get some more info about their case]
me: ahhh the wheels of justice
me: ahhh the wheels of justice
Reposted by Ben Lever
Reposted by Ben Lever
What is motonormativity? I'm on my way to an air pollution event in a city centre and the organisers have put the driving directions ahead of the public transport directions in the email
November 20, 2025 at 8:14 AM
What is motonormativity? I'm on my way to an air pollution event in a city centre and the organisers have put the driving directions ahead of the public transport directions in the email
Reposted by Ben Lever
At this rate, Melbourne won’t have a fully accessible tram network until the year 2160.
Read our statement calling for more State Government action on tram accessibility. www.ptua.org.au/2025...
Read our statement calling for more State Government action on tram accessibility. www.ptua.org.au/2025...
November 20, 2025 at 6:15 AM
At this rate, Melbourne won’t have a fully accessible tram network until the year 2160.
Read our statement calling for more State Government action on tram accessibility. www.ptua.org.au/2025...
Read our statement calling for more State Government action on tram accessibility. www.ptua.org.au/2025...
Reposted by Ben Lever
Not satisfied with just destroying their own brand goodwill, OS companies are now using AI to try to destroy the good names of the apps users install. (Scrivener taking out adds to explain how it has no AI but Apple adds some anyway.)
November 19, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Not satisfied with just destroying their own brand goodwill, OS companies are now using AI to try to destroy the good names of the apps users install. (Scrivener taking out adds to explain how it has no AI but Apple adds some anyway.)
Reposted by Ben Lever
The Auditor General has published their update on tram service accessibility... the progress by the State Government in the past five years has been minimal.
Read more: www.audit.vic.gov.au...
Read more: www.audit.vic.gov.au...
November 19, 2025 at 8:27 PM
The Auditor General has published their update on tram service accessibility... the progress by the State Government in the past five years has been minimal.
Read more: www.audit.vic.gov.au...
Read more: www.audit.vic.gov.au...