• Charlottesville rally white nationalist James Fields convicted of murder for driving into counter demonstrator - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): A white nationalist who drove his car into a crowd protesting against a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year, killing one of the demonstrators, has been found guilty of first-degree murder and nine other counts.
• 50 years ago, Douglas Engelbart's ‘Mother of All Demos’ changed personal technology forever But the presentation was more than seemingly disparate demonstrations of experimental computer operations. What Engelbart and his team had created from scratch was a holistic system designed to extend human communications capabilities, tools to augment human intellect — hence the presentation's official prosaic academic title, "A Research Center for Augmenting Human Intellect." Engelbart's presentation would later be more appropriately dubbed "The Mother of All Demos."
• European Union court rules UK can change its mind and pull out of Brexit - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): The European Union's top court has ruled Britain can change its mind over Brexit, boosting the hopes of people who want to stay in the EU that the process can be reversed. The EU stopping just short of sending someone around to Number 10 with a placard 'have another vote you fucking pillocks'.

• Next level bucket drumming.

• Isaac Asimov Asks, “How Do People Get New Ideas?” - MIT Technology Review: First and foremost, there must be ease, relaxation, and a general sense of permissiveness. The world in general disapproves of creativity, and to be creative in public is particularly bad. Even to speculate in public is rather worrisome. The individuals must, therefore, have the feeling that the others won't object.
• Sydney Opal Tower apartment building evacuated after reports of cracking noises - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Literal einstürzende neubauten..!
• German train-delay scarf sells for %u20AC7,550 on eBay | World news | The Guardian

(Direct link to YouTube in case this doesn't load)

See also: Spotify top 100 for 2018 (generated playlist). Spotify's wrap claims I am 'adventurous' as I listen to non-mainstream artists 105% more than the average Spotify listener. Err, go me?

Backstory if you care. Entirely optional:

1. A Tribe Called Quest - Luck of Lucien. Early in the year, chilling out at Thirty Coffee waiting for take-aways, just the perfect track that got stuck in my head for... well half of January. Thirty Coffee's playlist was always awesome (as was the coffee and food of course), pity the cafe's changed hands.
2. deadmau5 feat. Chris James - The Veldt. I realised that although I'd quite liked for lack of a better name I'd somehow never looked up another deadmau5 album since. So I dug into the extensive back catalogue. This track also has an interesting back story, with the random way the vocals came into it; and the fact it's based on a Ray Bradbury story.
3. Leftfield - Space Shanty. Saw Leftfield play Leftism start to end; which was basically a religious experience for me. While this was never my favourite track listening to the album, it absolutely came to life played live. So while the recording isn't great, it goes some way to how it felt.
4. Prophets of Rage - Unfuck The World. It's been years since I've reacted so strongly to a video clip. Sums up how fucked the world is at the moment.
5. Serj Tankian - Empty Walls. Having thrashed on System of a Down I moved on to Serj Tankian's solo stuff. Also ties in politically with the Prophets of Rage.
6. The Muppet Show Theme (metal cover by Leo Moracchioli). Leo's covers remain a source of joy. I mean, headbanging muppets - what more do you want?
7. Killing Joke - New Jerusalem. Reminded of the track after a discussion at work (we have a metalhead channel on Slack). Album subsequently went on high rotation.
8. Butterfingers - Big Night Out. Digging into Aussie hip hop while expanding a playlist. Tour promo blurb claims it's based on a true story, haven't seen it confirmed anywhere though.
9. Evil Eddie - Queensland. Probably a bit obvious why I find this one amusing.
10. James Gang - Ashes the Rain and I. Another playlist dig - this time listening to songs sampled by later hits (3:30 if you're impatient, the later hit if you're baffled).
11. Underworld - Between Stars. More back-catalogue digging, love Barking and this track seems to capture the vibe of it.
12. DJ Shadow - Fixed Income. Listened to a ton of DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist mixes on YouTube. Also after a long time digging trying to get myself my own copy of DJ Shadow's Live In Tune and On Time, I realised the solution was obvious and bought it off eBay. This is the track that opens the set. Also played the set while driving out to the Hunter Valley for a work event, adding nice associations of a drive in the country.
13. VNV Nation - When is the Future? New VNV, and love the clip.

• Electric Audi With Formula E Motors Does Brain-Breaking Perfect Donut. This move is going to be in a movie, you can bet on it. Hooning looks different with electric vehicles...
• Mark Latham agrees to pay damages to ABC's Osman Faruqi in defamation case | Australia news | The Guardian: In August, federal court judge Michael Wigney struck out Latham's defence in its entirety, labelling the 76-page document “extraordinary” for its references to, among other things, the martyrdom of Christians in the Roman Empire and the persecution of ethnoreligious Huguenots in the French kingdom during the French wars of religion of the 16th century.
• Encryption bill could have 'catastrophic' outcomes for Australian business, industry leaders warn - Science News - ABC News: A joint submission from the Communications Alliance, the Australian Industry Group and others echoed these concerns, stating that "the draft bill poses a real risk for the IT/communications export industry which Austrade values at $3.2 billion". If the Liberals were hell bent on destroying the tech industry, this is what it would look like.
• 'The candles sell very well': the quest to be the last video store standing | Film | The Guardian
• Payless Pranks Fashion Influencers With Fake Luxury Shoe Brand Called 'Palessi' | HuffPost Australia (Instagram 'influencers' with no actual expertise? That's unpossible!)
• Qantas call for Christmas airport volunteers has workers seeing red: The airline is being accused of "wage theft" and "Grinch" behaviour after an email to staff asking them to volunteer time at the airport during its busiest period was leaked on Friday. Particularly shitty move given how much fares are jacked up around Christmas.
• The curious origins of the lemon, lime and bitters, Australia's national drink - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): An unassuming drink, made with ingredients from all over the world, the lemon, lime and bitters is the story of colonial Australia in a glass. Our forebears made it by mixing together what they had — a mongrel drink for a mongrel country.
• An Open Letter to Bill Shorten from the Tech Community: YOU BUNCH OF IDIOTS! ...I mean, there are details, but that sums it up.

• Fraser Anning dumped from Katter's Australian Party for views on race, non-European migration - Politics - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): Mr Katter said he had repeatedly warned Senator Anning not to use racially charged language or call for a European immigration program. Nineteen Votes Anning continues to shine.
• Running against Tony Abbott in Warringah | The Saturday Paper: And all of that ... is what made me think I should consider running for Warringah. ... [I]f all my candidacy and others like it does, at first, is force those in power away from the hard right and a little towards common sense, that will be something.
• Donald Trump's words mattered in a week in which bombs were sent to Democrats, CNN - Donald Trump's America - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): On that theme, blink-and-you-missed-it-comms-director Anthony Scaramucci has attracted attention with these comments: "He's an intentional liar. It's very different than just being a liar-liar," he told Bloomberg. "Yes, the President is speaking mistruths, yes, the president is lying, but he is doing it intentionally to incite certain people which would include left-leaning journalists and most of the left-leaning politicians."
• ...speaking of pathological liars: Tony Abbott describes conditions on Nauru as 'very, very pleasant' - Politics - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
• Cricket Australia 'arrogant' and partly to blame for ball-tampering, report finds | Sport | The Guardian: An independent report into the organisation's culture found there was “strong systemic and organisational input” into the decision to cheat during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town in March. Interviewees said Australian cricket's governing body adopted bullying behaviour, ostracised people and created a “win-at-all-costs” mentality that pushed players to “play the mongrel”.
• Tim Berners-Lee launches campaign to save the web from abuse | Technology | The Guardian: A %u2018Magna Carta for the web' will protect people's rights online from threats such as fake news, prejudice and hate, says founder of the world wide web
• Thousands still watch TV in black and white - BBC News: A black and white licence has one distinct advantage over its colour equivalent: it is a third of the price at £50.50 a year compared with £150.50. Neither does TV Licensing carry out checks of households claiming to watch a black and white set. "It's entirely done on trust," a spokesperson said. Curious uptick of black and white licenses predicted after this article ;)
• Can these massive bricks solve storage for renewable energy?: A new solution that uses basic physics could cut the cost of storage in half, or by as much as 80% over the total life of the system.

• Sydney Opera House ordered to display horse racing advertising on its sails | Australia news | The Guardian: The NSW government has ordered the Sydney Opera House to display a racing trophy with the word Everest on it and jockey numbers and colours on its sails in contravention of a policy to prevent the commercialisation of the building. The decision by premier Gladys Berejiklian came late on Friday afternoon after intense pressure from the Daily Telegraph and 2GB's Alan Jones to accept a plan by Racing NSW to promote the Everest Cup on the iconic landmark. Turning an architectural icon into a billboard because Alan fucking Jones had a tantrum. What a shining vision Gladys has for the state. Gambling ads on the Opera House during Responsible Gambling Awareness Week.
• Opera House must never again be used as 'billboard': Shorten: Opposition leader Bill Shorten says if Labor comes to power, he will review the laws protecting Australian World Heritage-listed sites such as the Opera House, to see if they need strengthening against commercial use.
• Opera House backlash 'surprised' Racing NSW chief, building unlikely to be used for promotions again - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) - note that 'surprised' bit, and think about how this industry is often allowed to 'self regulate'.
• Legion of lobotomized unices: This was back when the motd was likely to contain a pithy quotation from the fortune file, not just a dry legal notice about the Computer Misuse Act. This was a tiny yet significant reminder that the system was meant to be used by humans, all working together. Now there's no excitement when logging in, because there's nobody else there. It's just solitude, loneliness. None of the shared magic that made computing social in the first place.
• Fake email claiming Kerryn Phelps has HIV part of 'dirty tricks' in Wentworth by-election campaign - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Gosh the Liberals are a class act.
• Fold N Fly: A database of paper airplanes with easy to follow folding instructions.
• Metadata laws under fire as 'authority creep' has more agencies accessing your information - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): To allay privacy concerns, access to the metadata was limited to 22 specific police and intelligence agencies, such as the Australian Federal Police, ASIO and state police forces. ... The Communications Alliance told the parliamentary hearing telcos are getting around 1,000 requests for metadata each day. It is not clear exactly how many agencies are now able to request access to stored metadata. Precisely as every fucking expert in the field predicted.
• That Trippy Green Code in %u2018The Matrix' Is Just a Bunch of Sushi Recipes - MUNCHIES

• We won't save the Earth with a better kind of disposable coffee cup | George Monbiot | Opinion | The Guardian: Amid the general incoherence, one contributor stated: “It comes down, I think, to us each taking responsibility for the personal choices in our everyday lives. That's all any of us can be expected to do.” This perfectly represents the mistaken belief that a better form of consumerism will save the planet. The problems we face are structural: a political system captured by commercial interests, and an economic system that seeks endless growth. Related: Neoliberalism has conned us into fighting climate change as individuals | Martin Lukacs | Environment | The Guardian: While we busy ourselves greening our personal lives, fossil fuel corporations are rendering these efforts irrelevant. The breakdown of carbon emissions since 1988? A hundred companies alone are responsible for an astonishing 71%. You tinker with those pens or that panel; they go on torching the planet.
• Questions over 'war on drugs' as data shows NSW drug busts were accidentally counted twice - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): Data used to back up the use of drug sniffer dogs at music festivals and praise police busts has been "double counted", raising questions over the legitimacy of drug-related strategies in NSW.
• The reality is more nuanced than NRL players being blokey boofheads | Catharine Lumby | Opinion | The Guardian: One of the issues is that when guys who are already perceived as “education proof” do the wrong thing, it is seen as confirmation that they'll never change. That it's futile to try. This wrong-headed belief is, I think, grounded in class prejudice. A guy in a suit at a corporate function once even asked me: “Why do you even try with these animals?”
• Ipswich woman 'terrified' by nursery rhyme alarm - BBC News. World's creepiest burglar alarm.
• A New Wheel-Driven Speed Record Has Been Set At The Bonneville Salt Flats: Team Vesco's Turbinator II set a new world record for a wheel-driven car, an insane 483 mph. That's 777 kmh.
• NRL 2018 news: Footy Show axed by Channel Nine | Fox Sports. Maybe we'll get a show about footy now ;)

• Women's Pockets are Inferior. Shown with data and neat illustrations.
• Peter Dutton Business | ten daily: the minister responsible for the most powerful law enforcement agencies in the Commonwealth, and in whose hands lies the future of the Prime Ministership itself, is under a legal cloud. The Constitutional question: is he entitled to sit in Parliament at all.
• Anger over Tony Abbott's Indigenous envoy role: 'Haven't we been punished enough?' - Politics - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): Jackie Huggins, the co-chair of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, said there was a feeling of deflation in the community. "Haven't we been punished enough in Indigenous affairs? How long can we put up with a paternalistic government who does not choose to engage or to talk to us?"

• Kuwaiti police has shut down a fish store that was sticking googly eyes on fish to make them appear more fresh than they are. :-)
  via Al Bayan newspaper, @bayan_kw. pic.twitter.com/CcPa73fDQh

  — Mohamed El Dahshan (@eldahshan) September 1, 2018

• This Is A Sailboat And Those Are Sails: Most sails you've seen rely on the wind directly acting against them to provide propulsion. But these new types of sails, known as “rotor sails” rely on a physics principle called the Magnus Effect.
• Minister for Women Kelly O'Dwyer says intimidation and bullying occurred during Liberal leadership spill - Politics - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): Minister for Women Kelly O'Dwyer says she has spoken to both male and female MPs in the wake of the leadership spill and says, "It is clear to me that people were subject to threats and intimidation and bullying".
• Peter Dutton's backers refused to leave Liberal Party members' offices, demanded they reveal votes during spill - Politics - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): Mr Dutton's backers would enter colleagues' offices uninvited, and sometimes first thing in the morning, and refuse to leave unless they signed the petition to bring on a spill. ... The ABC understands Liberals were also told their preselection would be at risk unless they backed Mr Dutton's challenge and, on the day of the spill, were pressured to show their — supposedly — secret ballot paper to another MP to prove which way they had voted.
• 'Darkness' coming if Scott Morrison not re-elected, Pentecostal leader claims | Australia news | The Guardian: Thompson, who says he can interpret dreams and that supernatural signs and manifestations accompany his ministry, said he'd received a message from God that Morrison and the Coalition must win the election.

• The Addams Family Secret | The New Yorker
• The Cure's permanent twilight | The Monthly
• These Bizarre Glasses Promise To Cure Your Motion Sickness, But At What Cost? | Gizmodo Australia
• The Blackfly Flying Machine Is So Cool I Don't Mind That I'll Probably Never See It Again
• Great Pacific Garbage Patch Is Bigger and Mostly Made of Fishing Gear: Microplastics make up 94 percent of an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch. But that only amounts to eight percent of the total tonnage. As it turns out, of the 79,000 metric tons of plastic in the patch, most of it is abandoned fishing gear—not plastic bottles or packaging drawing headlines today.
• There is no social license for My Health Record. Australians should reject it | Julia Powles | Opinion | The Guardian: An example of one of the apps already accessing information from My Health Record was revealed by an ABC investigation last month. Health Engine, a booking service part-owned by Telstra Health, has been passing sensitive health information to personal injury lawyers – precisely the kind of opportunistic “entrepreneurship” that would be anathema to patient expectations.
• A New Zealand company that tried 4-day workweeks says people were more creative, more punctual, and more energetic — and they want to keep it going | Business Insider: “Supervisors said staff were more creative, their attendance was better, they were on time, and they didn't leave early or take long breaks,” one of those researchers told The Times. “Their actual job performance didn't change when doing it over four days instead of five.”
• This 1.8-Mile Train Travels on One of the Most Extreme Railways in the World
• Investing Outside The Bay Area – Haystack.vc: And, so, I began to ask myself, in the face of intense local inflation for rents, for talent, for simply getting around — are the fundamental of the Bay Area's local conditions simply inhospitable to fledgling startups that I am trying to invest in? Will folks be able to buy a house and raise their families here? Will the Bay Area's cost structure compress the precious runway these newco's have? Will the next company to raise $100M in financing just poach from decent seed-stage companies and pay triple the amount to lock up talent?
• Endometriosis action plan follows decades of lobbying – and suffering | Society | The Guardian
• Coding and confectionary combine to give chocolate lovers a true taste of Sydney - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
• Ontario Basic Income Pilot Cancelled By Minister Lisa MacLeod: The pilot project, which reached full enrollment in April, was supposed to last three years. ... Asked by reporters how she knows the program isn't working if the data hasn't been studied yet, MacLeod said, "for the amount it was costing the province of Ontario ... it was certainly not going to be sustainable." The project was budgeted to cost $150 million over three years.
• Malcolm Turnbull defends surprise $444 million Government donation to tiny reef body - Politics - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): Malcolm Turnbull insists the Government's nearly half-a-billion-dollar donation to a private foundation with links to big resources companies has been done transparently, despite the body itself not asking for the money.
• Why Daniel Ricciardo Broke Free of Red Bull: While it's probably true he could have asked for almost any amount of fizzy drink cash to stay, this is the first time we have ever seen a Red Bull junior leave the programme of their own accord with no complication. ... this makes Daniel's decision to move to Renault so much less surprising. And much more sensible.

• Teenager suffers electric shock while walking near Sydney light rail construction - ABC News. The cursed project staggers onwards.
• Australia's fair work watchdog takes legal action against Foodora | Business | The Guardian: In what could become a landmark case for the gig economy, the ombudsman is arguing that Foodora workers are entitled to the minimum award wage, and the company should be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for underpayment, sham contracting and breaches of the Fair Work Act.
• I Met Japan's Highway Racers In The Middle Of The Sea
• Blues Brothers Guitarist Matt 'Guitar' Murphy Dead at 88 - Rolling Stone. RIP Matt Guitar Murphy.
• Harry rotters: Warner Bros cracks down on Potter fan festivals in US | Film | The Guardian: Chestnut Hill isn't the only community to receive cease-and-desist letters from Warner Bros. Festival directors in Aurora, Illinois and Ithaca, New York were also told the new guidelines would prohibit most Potter-themed activities, which are typically free events.
• Food fight over 'traitorous, manipulated mung beans' in meat fridge - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) - traitorous proteins? Future of food, really. People will get over it when it gets cheaper.
• Anthony Albanese lays out his Labor manifesto: reform, growth, aspiration | Australia news | The Guardian. Albo's leadership challenge is a bit overdue.
• 'Welcome to 2018': NRL praised for response to State of Origin kiss | Sport | The Guardian: The NRL has been widely praised for its response to comments posted below a photo it shared of opponents – and partners – Vanessa Foliaki and Karina Brown sharing a kiss after their State of Origin game on Friday night.
• GLOBAL STREET ART — Amazing transformation of @unionbeerstore in...
• What happened to Sydney's grand plans for a canal from Botany Bay to Sydney Harbour? - Curious Sydney - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

• Why whingeing at work could be good for you - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): Dr Pouthier is not the first researcher to question the need for relentless positivity at work. Joseph Forgas, a social psychologist at the University of NSW, told Radio National that a mildly negative mood might actually improve performance.
• Universal basic income should be seen as a rightful share of society's wealth - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
• Expo '88, the post-Joh era and Malcolm Fraser's sore back: how Brisbane put the world on show | Books | The Guardian
• Boaters warned of debris after 83 shipping containers fall from cargo ship off NSW coast - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
• This Ferrari Testarossa Rat Rod Is Being Built In A Home Garage
• Shark Tank: Contestants fail to net deal once show goes to air: of the 50 businesses which appeared on Shark Tank last year, 27 received investment from the sharks on television, however only four of these investments actually went ahead
• NSW in constitutional crisis as government MP crosses floor over secret reports | Australia news | The Guardian: The three reports – the Tune report into child protection services in NSW, the business case for the upgrades of Sydney's two major stadiums, and the business case for moving the Powerhouse museum to Parramatta – have already been ordered to be released [...] But the government has ignored the formal calls for papers saying they were cabinet documents.
• The Cure's Robert Smith: 'I was very optimistic when I was young – now I'm the opposite' | Music | The Guardian
• Anthony Bourdain, celebrity chef and television presenter, dies aged 61 - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (pardoning them for mentioning Drumpf, it's an otherwise good piece).
  Film Crit Hulk: Anthony Bourdain, Suicide, and Grace | Observer - which is a good if difficult read as it talks honestly about living with depression and suicidal thoughts. It also puts this very well: For decades Anthony Bourdain graced our pages and television sets as a “host,”—a perfectly inadequate word to describe what he somehow managed to accomplish with the programs of No Reservations and Parts Unknown. Shows which could naively be reduced to being about food or travel, yet were really just brilliant meditations on culture, boundaries, sociology and the human condition.
• The dog squad sniffing out the critically endangered Baw Baw frog - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)