• First home buyers tap the bank of mum and dad: just over 60 per cent of first home buyers are receiving financial assistance from their parents. DFA figures show that total lending by parents makes them the ninth-largest mortgage lender, just behind Suncorp Bank Hard to see how housing affordability will ever recover, it's so cooked. Policy makers don't care as they're the ones sitting on multiple investment properties.

• How broken is copyright law in America? This broken:

  ...a cease and desist I could understand. Seizing the damn car?! Completely fucked.

• The Mortifying Ordeal of Pairing All Day: From 2014 to 2020 I was part of an experiment: I paired all day, most days, for years. Hundreds of other engineers joined me in this experiment. I was working as a software engineer for Pivotal, in Cloud Foundry R&D, and everyone paired, often for eight hours a day. This was one of the best things I've ever done for myself, socially and emotionally, and it produced some great software. It also burned me out. I have occasionally done all-day pairing and it is exhausting. It is lots of positive things too, but I don't think it's permanently sustainable for most people.
• Long Before Tesla, The Comuta Was America's Favorite EV
• Security Researchers Hack A Tesla From A Drone
• Freenode IRC staff quit after new owner "seizes" control of network | Boing Boing
• Frontline: satirical skewering of TV current affairs programs is still uncomfortably relevant | Culture | The Guardian: When this behind-the-scenes look at a fictional current affairs show debuted in 1994, its mockumentary-inspired style and pointed caricature of sensationalist reporting was a relative novelty on local screens. Today, Frontline feels like the older, antipodean cousin to The Office and Veep, with insights into how the TV news sausage is made that remain depressingly relevant.
• Defence declares war on political correctness, bans morning teas aimed at inclusion and diversity - ABC News: [events] such as morning teas where personnel are encouraged to wear particular clothes in celebration are not required and should cease. ...he's pictured in his dress uniform.
• A Year in the Metabolist Future of 1972 - Failed Architecture: Tokyo’s Nakagin Capsule Tower is an exemplary expression of this vocabulary. However, from the moment of its completion in 1972, the utopian structure was a fascinating yet wholly anachronistic remnant of a past future, struggling to survive. In 2013, we had the opportunity to live there for almost a year, to share the experience of everyday life in the building with its remaining residents. (in 2021 it's slated for demolition as it is simply too far into disrepair)
• Google Pixel 6 will make photography more inclusive — and that's worth celebrating | Tom's Guide

• Write Better: The Coyote, the Road Runner, Sympathy, and Craft as the Art of Constraint | Snip, Burn, Solder Blog: the earliest instance of the Rules swelling beyond the Canonical Nine traces back to its *first* online incarnation back in 1999, which includes this 10th Rule: (Rule 10.) The audience's sympathy must remain with the Coyote. This isn't in Chuck's Nine Rules because it's something he explains a few pages earlier in his memoir, while setting up the discussion of the Coyote-Road Runner Rules.
• Scientists Grow Mouse Embryos in a Mechanical Womb - The New York Times (bring on the uterine replicators, say Bujold readers)
• 'Our biggest challenge? Lack of imagination': the scientists turning the desert green | Environment | The Guardian
• First home buyers urged to proceed with caution as Sydney's housing surge continues - ABC News. Basically potential first home buyers are being told not to buy property.
• Stranding of Ever Given in Suez canal was foreseen by many | Suez canal | The Guardian and Wind ... or worse: was pilot error to blame for the Suez blockage? | Oceans | The Guardian

• Selected machine learning attacks; first in a series.
  1. Cyberpunk
  2. Looney Tunes
  3. Magritte
  4. Witchcraft pic.twitter.com/1lcBtg6UI2

  — joey castillo (@josecastillo) March 22, 2021

• SA Premier denies 'deliberate' data collection through Liberal Party's NationBuilder campaign software - ABC News
• Skepticism and a shrug: Cubans greet the end of 62 years of Castro rule | Cuba | The Guardian
• Feeling Blah During the Pandemic? It's Called Languishing - The New York Times: It wasn't burnout — we still had energy. It wasn't depression — we didn't feel hopeless. We just felt somewhat joyless and aimless. It turns out there's a name for that: languishing. Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you're muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And it might be the dominant emotion of 2021.

• Brexit: 71 pages of paperwork for 1 lorry of fish - BBC News: Mr Samways says he initially felt "extremely prepared" for Brexit, but was surprised by the "excessive" amount of paperwork required.
• The epistemology of software quality – Increment: Teams: Work-life balance and wellness impact us in a subtler way than technical practices do. It’s easy to point to a bug and say, “This couldn’t have happened in Rust.” It’s a lot harder to point to a bug and say, “This wouldn’t have happened if the programmer wasn’t stressed out and sleep-deprived.” There’s no feedback loop that pushes developers away from too much stress and too little sleep.
• Ask Adam Savage: Origin of "I Reject Your Reality ..." - YouTube and The Origin of “The Only Difference Between Screwing Around and Science Is Writing It Down” - Tested
• John Deere Promised Farmers It Would Make Tractors Easy to Repair. It Lied.: It is now three years later. The agreement is supposed to be in effect. No right to repair legislation has been passed. Deere, the dealers, and the manufacturers got what they wanted. And, yet, farmers are still struggling to get anything promised in the agreement. [...] Like cars, farm equipment is increasingly controlled by an elaborate and complex web of computer sensors. When one of these sensors notices an error, no matter how small or serious, it puts the machine into “limp mode.” This allows farmers to move the machine slowly but not operate it fully. When the problem is diagnosed and repaired, the error code is cleared and the machine can keep working. The problem is that farmers often don’t have access to the diagnostic software and repair tools they need to make the fix.
• Australian coffee growers get innovative to encourage consumers to drink local - ABC News. A bit heavy handed to put it on consumers, since it's expensive and hard to find. Also when it can only supply about 0.5% of the market in Australia, the cost argument is not just about labour it's about economy of scale. But we should be growing that market all the same.
• Bitcoin is a mouth hungry for fossil fuels – Ketan Joshi: The implication with much of the focus on Bitcoin's energy consumption is simply that it isn't worth it. It is hard to disagree, unless you are literally invested in it. There is absolutely no other industry that consumes this much power while only giving back to society sea-lioning men on Twitter. [...] If Bitcoin mining is consuming ‘stranded’ renewables, it is holding back a more efficient grid and slowing down fossil displacement. If it’s consuming ‘stranded’ fossil fuels, it’s creating greenhouse gas emissions, and causing climate change (which is real, you know). There is no worse time in history for an energy-hungry, low-benefit industry that has a specific thirst for fossil fuels, underneath layers of greenwashing. Tomorrow will be an even worse time, as will the day after.
• 'The ketamine blew my mind': can psychedelics cure addiction and depression? | Health & wellbeing | The Guardian: What was once a fringe research interest has become the foundation of a new kind of healthcare, one that, for the first time in modern psychiatric history, purports to not only treat but actually cure mental ill health.
• Murray Walker, commentator once known as the voice of Formula 1, dies at 97 - ABC News. Absolutely was the voice of F1, particularly in the earlier years when I was still learning how the sport worked. Lovely tribute here - Formula 1 on Twitter: ""It was never work to Murray, it was never just commentating, it was simply telling the world about something he loved." Murray Walker remembered...
• The children of gods: how power works in Australia: It's often said that the eye-watering fees paid for places at some of Australia's elite non-government schools are an investment in a child's future social network, far more than in their academic future. ... And when you have leaders drawn from a very narrow, privileged background, that has serious ramifications – both in terms of understanding of sexual consent and beyond. ... Grattan’s chief executive, Danielle Wood, can cite innumerable examples, from childcare to superannuation to homelessness, where women are relatively disadvantaged.

• The story behind that photo of the Pinto in front of the Mt. St Hellens Eruption | Hemmings (dunno how reliable this is, but hey)
• Tucows closes its once-popular software download site | Engadget. End of an era. They handled it very well though.
• 51 Brutalist House Exteriors That Will Make You Love Concrete Architecture
• Kerry O'Brien rejects Australia Day honour in protest against Margaret Court's award | Honours system | The Guardian
• Anger management: study suggests lack of fans has made players calmer | Football | The Guardian: On average, the study found that there were 19.5% fewer “emotional” incidents, such as arguments or altercations, in matches without fans. The results also showed a stark decline in interactions involving the referee. The lack of crowd also reduced the "home advantage" and changed how many goals were scored.
• What is GameStop, where do the memes come in, and who is winning or losing? | Stock markets | The Guardian
• White supremacists chanting in The Grampians draws the anger of locals - ABC News
• 'In digital, the right-wing material is 24/7': How Sky News quietly became Australia's biggest news channel on social media | Business Insider
• Box seat: scientists solve the mystery of why wombats have cube-shaped poo | Animals | The Guardian
• NRL will not rush to follow AFL's lead on stricter concussion protocols | NRL | The Guardian: despite growing pressure on sports administrators to act, the NRL has refused to follow suit for now, expressing concern over the potential for players or coaches to cover up any head injuries in a bid not to be forced to miss any action
• Local workers are taking up farm jobs as Queensland farmers are forced to pay higher wages - ABC News: Critical labour shortages are forcing Queensland farmers to pay higher wages and provide better conditions to attract local workers.

• US police three times as likely to use force against leftwing protesters, data finds | US policing | The Guardian: The researchers found that the vast majority of the thousands of protests across the United States in the past year have been peaceful, and that most protests by both the left and the right were not met with any violent response by law enforcement. [...] The Guardian compared the percentage of all demonstrations organized by leftwing and rightwing groups that resulted in the use of force by law enforcement. For leftwing demonstrations, that was about 4.7% of protests, while for rightwing demonstrations, it was about 1.4%, meaning law enforcement was about three times more likely to use force against leftwing versus rightwing protests.
• What are sea shanties and why are they going viral online? - ABC Everyday
• He Created the Web. Now He's Out to Remake the Digital World. - The New York Times
• Bumble removed its political filter after people said they used it to lure conservatives who were at the Capitol riot into sending incriminating evidence | Business Insider
• Old Concept Cars - Concepts cars of the past
• Do 'elder Goths' hold the secret to aging successfully? – FREEMEDIA
• Regain smell after COVID: A biology professor's genius trick helped reawaken my senses, and more.
• The Wheelie Bin Radio Telescope | Spaceaustralia

• A majority of Australians would welcome a universal basic income, survey finds - ABC News: Nearly two-thirds of Australians say they would support the introduction of a universal basic income (UBI), according to a new poll.
• You know the outbreak is serious when... Sydney to Hobart yacht race cancelled due to NSW coronavirus outbreak - ABC News
• Inside Ballarat's tunnel gallery, where great art and high risk collide in the dark - ABC News

• 3D printed building that reached full certification in Germany (note - video sponsored by the builders, so you know, grain of salt with the big claim)

• Cyberpunk 2077: how 2020's biggest video game launch turned into a shambles | Games | The Guardian: Cyberpunk 2077’s creators have issued a series of apologies and promises to make things right. It might seem impossible that a game this prominent, that’s been in development for this long, with such a lot of money behind it (game studio owners I’ve spoken to estimate that it cost more than £300m to make), could launch in such a state. It certainly points towards problems at CD Projekt, whose staff must surely be exhausted after months of overtime during the pandemic; the game had already been delayed twice since April to allow more time for improvement. Anyone who works in software can tell you how this tune goes. There was a deadline, it wasn't ready, they launched anyway.
• Exceptionally well-preserved snack bar unearthed in Pompeii | Italy | The Guardian: Researchers said on Saturday they had discovered a frescoed thermopolium or fast-food counter in an exceptional state of preservation in Pompeii.
• Ten reasons we got Covid-19 vaccines so quickly without 'cutting corners' | Coronavirus | The Guardian: some are about good planning, some good science and some just good luck
• Feel drained after a year of Zoom meetings? There's brain science behind that fatigue - ABC News
• U-Haul Has A Thing For Renovating Historic Buildings Into Giant Storage Complexes, aka 'adaptive reuse'.
• Robin Williams's widow: 'There were so many misunderstandings about what had happened to him' | Film | The Guardian: After Williams died, it was widely reported that he had been suffering from depression, alcoholism, or both. To Schneider, this shows “how we as a culture don't have the vocabulary to discuss brain disease in the way we do about depression. Depression is a symptom of LBD and it's not about psychology – it's rooted in neurology. His brain was falling apart.”

Now in YouTube and Spotify flavours, noting each platform is missing a different track.

Background if you care:

1. Play Dead - Björk. I discovered that this track was a bonus track added to the Australian re-press of Debut. Despite it also being the third single released 'off the album', when I shared this on teh socialz a few people said they'd never heard it. It amazes me that this wasn't part of the original album, it fits so well. Though I like The Anchor Song, it's a challenging track to finish an album. Play Dead though... those soaring strings, big vocals and deceptively tricky drum line... what a finish. It's one of my Bjork favourites and I'm glad I got the allegedly obscure edition of Debut that included it.
2. Pneuma - TOOL. Tool turned out to be my only gig of the year, thanks to the covid lockdown. First time I had properly seen them live - despite seeing them at Alternative Nation in '95, I knew them but wasn't a fan yet so that didn't really count. It was a great gig :)
3. Catch 22 - Butterfingers. New album with an ecclectic mix, oddly this was the track I got stuck in my head the most (it was going to be this or Dem Billz for the mix tape).
4. (not in youtube playlist) The House - Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer. Mr.B dropped perhaps the most-2020 album of 2020 with A Very Modern Existential Crisis. Songs of isolation, garden envy and the social minefield of Zoom calls.
5. Inside - Moby. Having my own modern existential crisis, stuck at home, I went back to a fair bit of older music. This one's almost meditative.
6. Skyhigh - Yan Cook. Yan Cook was both a new discovery and my most-listened artist of the year. Drawn in by some cool tutorial videos he's made about music production, I listened a live set mix and I just haven't enjoyed a mix as much as that in a long time. So this track stands in for a whole lot more.
7. The Business - Tiësto. Not sure how I ran into this one, think it was a YouTube or Spotify recommendation/autoplay. At a tiny 2:41 it feels like a sketch for a full track that got cut off early, but the goofy film clip (zombie breakup song? why not I guess) and weird vocals got stuck in my head so here it is.
8. Avenue - Paul Van Dyk. Another one from the vaults, turns out I'll never tire of Out There And Back (2000). I love the big sweeping lines of this track, but most of all the chirpy/bleepy bridge at around 4:15.
9. Get Smart - Melbourne Ska Orchestra. Another YouTube discovery. It's just fun. I mean, why NOT do a ska version of the Get Smart theme?
10. Sad but True - The Hu. I think we can all agree now that Metallica just wasn't Mongolian enough.
11. Mad Poet - Phunkey Rhythm Doctor aka Cari Lekebusch. Somewhere along the line I got into a big 90s techno kick. As in, the actual genre Techno and not just 'some people call all electronic music techno'. A lot of this stuff is tenuously hanging on thanks to perilously-copyright-infringing YouTube rips of obscure limited-press vinyl. Some stuff is in Spotify/iTunes/Bandcamp though. Also I figure 14-20min tracks don't work well in the middle of the mix tape. So this is another kind of 'stand in' track for a whole lot of other stuff.
12. (not in spotify playlist) Goth Night (2020 mix) - Cari Lekebusch, Krister Linder. Another Lekebusch track, although I didn't know it when I first picked these two so it stays in ;)
13. The Blame Game - HVOB. This is used heavily in the soundtrack for Pikes Peak: On The Edge. So this track got in my head alongside images of cars ripping up the mountain, and it all just works together. Plus it's a weird crossover style of electronic and guitar, so I actually thought it was parts of two different songs until I gave this a listen. When you hit the change at 2:30 you can probably see why.

The Mr.B album isn't on YouTube, but you can listen on Bandcamp and Spotify:

The Yan Cook mix - my reaction to this is a bit complicated. Somewhere between wanting to dance in a very dark room, and feeling like I'm wrapped up in a warm blanket.

Whole playlist of 90s techno:

Honourable mentions to Leo's cover of Walk Like An Egyptian...

...and to The Police, think I need to spend some more time on their back catalogue.

Labels: mix tape

• New platforms are making the artist-fan connection more intimate — and more lucrative - ABC News
• Oxford Street Is Getting a New Cycleway to Make Your Morning Ride to Work Easier - Concrete Playground | Concrete Playground Sydney. This is good news. Oxford Street is the single biggest reason I have never been game to ride to work.
• Scotland becomes the first country in the world to make period products free for all - ABC News
• Romain Grosjean walks away from fiery F1 crash in Bahrain in opening lap, bringing halt to grand prix - ABC News
• Morrison government's updated Covidsafe app unlikely to improve results, experts say | Coronavirus | The Guardian
• Where the bloody hell is it? Did Scott Morrison lie about the report that saved his bacon at Tourism Australia? - Michael West: Scott Morrison was sacked as managing director of Tourism Australia in 2006 with a year left to run on his contract. For 14 years the reason for the sacking has remained one of the best kept secrets in Parliament. Now, FoI documents accessed by Jommy Tee reveal the PM either lied about a critical probity report, or numerous government departments and agencies are so incompetent that all of them – together, coincidentally, jointly and severally – lost it.
• Georgia Republican warns Trump is inciting violence over election: 'Someone will get hurt' | US news | The Guardian: Gabriel Sterling, a Republican who oversaw the implementation of the state's new voting system, also issued the stark warning that if Trump does not rein in his supporters then “someone is going to get hurt”. It's a hell of a speech.
• NSW Police admit they 'incorrectly' let German nationals fly to Melbourne without quarantining - ABC News: Questions have been raised about how the two travellers were able to bypass New South Wales' hotel quarantine measures, and how they managed to board a Melbourne-bound domestic flight. NSW Police said the pair — identified as a 53-year-old woman and a 15-year-old boy — were initially directed to board a bus to hotel quarantine after being screened by NSW Health.
• Fraser Island fire worsens as QFES increase warning level to 'leave immediately' for Happy Valley village - ABC News: The blaze was sparked by an illegal campfire seven weeks ago and has blackened roughly half of Fraser Island. ... More than 80,000 hectares of land have been burnt so far and as of Wednesday last week 1,000,000 litres of water had been used in aerial firefighting efforts. The fact we can't put out an early season fire on Fraser in seven weeks does not bode well.
• Sharp rise in RSV infections among children has experts warning parents not to relax COVID-19 social distancing measures - ABC News. Just before Christmas.

• Crooked not courageous: Adani renames Australian group Bravus, mistaking it for 'brave' | Adani Group | The Guardian: multiple Latin experts have pointed out that “bravus” does not mean “brave” and is more accurately translated as “crooked” or “mercenary”
• 'Fox News sucks!': Trump supporters decry channel as it declares Biden wins | Media | The Guardian: Trump supporters across the United States increasingly say they no longer trust Fox News, the Rupert Murdoch-owned TV network that has acted as one of the president's staunchest allies in past years. [...] Others said they felt Fox was “turning on” the president and said that they believed several Fox reporters had gone “full lefty”. Riiiight.
• Tom Morello's endless eyeroll at Trump dipshits missing the point of Rage songs rolls on: the incongruity of watching a pair of dipshits dance around in Blue Lives Matter kit while lyrics like “Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses” blare in the background really is a perfect encapsulation of this particular moment in American history—rolling eyes, lurching stomachs, and all. They really, REALLY, haven't listened to all the lyrics.
• Keep on digging: Trump team holds press conference at suburban garden centre | US news | The Guardian: “I could write jokes for 800 years and I'd never think of something funnier than Trump booking the Four Seasons for his big presser, and it turning out to be the Four Seasons Total Landscaping parking lot between a dildo store and a crematorium,” TV writer Zack Bornstein wrote on Twitter.
• 'Downright dangerous': Democrat alarm as Trump stacks Pentagon with loyalists | US elections 2020 | The Guardian: Extreme Republican partisans have been installed in important roles in the Pentagon, following the summary dismissal of the defense secretary, Mark Esper, at a time Donald Trump is refusing to accept his election defeat.
• State of Origin: NSWRL warned over Boyd Cordner concussion call | State of Origin | The Guardian: NSWRL have been issued a warning by the NRL after an investigation into an HIA on Boyd Cordner found the Blues captain should not have cleared concussion protocols. Everyone knew Cordner should not have played on, should be more than a warning.
• Australia to appoint investigator to consider alleged war crimes by special forces in Afghanistan | Australian military | The Guardian: A special investigator will be appointed to consider criminal cases against Australian special forces in Afghanistan, as Scott Morrison declared that a report to be released next week would contain “very difficult” and “disturbing” findings.
• Federal Government ends Robodebt class action with settlement worth $1.2 billion - ABC News: The Commonwealth has agreed to a settlement worth $1.2 billion over its unlawful Robodebt recovery program, which raised automated debts against welfare recipients.
• NSW Government bought land for three times its value for light rail project - ABC News: A joint investigation by 7.30 and The Sydney Morning Herald into the Government's purchase of the highly contaminated land can reveal it came after an urgent "out of session" meeting of senior government officials, which resulted in the reversal of earlier plans to get the landowner to pay to remediate the site or seek compulsory acquisition of the property.
• Productivity Commission report into effect of mental illness reveals $220 billion annual cost to economy - ABC News: The commission's recommendations extend beyond just the health system and into schools, workplaces and the housing and justice sectors. It suggests its recommended changes could save governments as much as $20 billion a year, if they invested up to $4.2 billion a year. Of course, being a Morrison announcement, no actual funding was committed and no actual action taken. They just announced the report.

• Are you suffering from 'COVID brain'? You're not alone: It's called brain fog – or, as some have colloquially nicknamed it, 'COVID brain' – and, thanks to the largely unprecedented levels of stress so many of us are experiencing right now, it's popping up everywhere.
• Too much candy: Man dies from eating bags of black licorice: The problem is glycyrrhizic acid, found in black licorice and in many other foods and dietary supplements containing licorice root extract. It can cause dangerously low potassium and imbalances in other minerals called electrolytes.
• What Research in Antarctica Tells Us about the Science of Isolation - Scientific American
• Trump's Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidance - The New York Times: Ultimately, Mr. Trump has been more successful playing a business mogul than being one in real life. ...and New York Times' Trump Tax Returns Investigation: 18 Revelations - The New York Times... the broad summary is his "wealth" is a huge accounting trick: inheritance and TV money balancing massive losses on almost everything he touches.
• Jacqui Lambie sinks Coalition plan to ban mobile phone access in immigration detention | Jacqui Lambie | The Guardian: The Coalition's bid to ban access to mobile phones in immigration detention is set to fail, after Jacqui Lambie revealed she will oppose the bill. Lambie announced her position on Friday in an email to voters who took part in a poll she ran, which concluded with 100,000 responses and 96% opposed to the controversial bill.
• Don't call me brave for living with mental illness – it's condescending | Mental health | The Guardian: While sitting across from this woman with short hair and a loud button-down shirt, I'm removed from existing on the same plane as her. She has placed me into Susan Sontag's idea of the “kingdom of the sick”. I am apart from her; I do not belong.
• Activists Turn Facial Recognition Tools Against the Police - The New York Times: Law enforcement has used facial recognition to identify criminals, using photos from government databases or, through a company called Clearview AI, from the public internet. But now activists around the world are turning the process around and developing tools that can unmask law enforcement in cases of misconduct.
• Gladys Berejiklian accused of breaching code of conduct after admitting she hoped to marry MP | Gladys Berejiklian | The Guardian: Legal experts have warned that Gladys Berejiklian is likely to have breached the state's ministerial code of conduct by failing to disclose her secret relationship with the disgraced former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire.
• Sydney's Martin Place metro station caverns officially complete - ABC News: "I think it's amazing to think anyone walking up and down Martin Place would be completely clueless as to the caverns that are below their feet. Some 23 metres below ground," NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance said. "Hardly anyone's noticed." As someone who works at Martin Place I can say this is complete and utter bullshit, the noise was colossal and relentless. We fucking noticed.
• NSW coronavirus cases increase by seven, with six in hotels, while Gladys Berejiklian urges mask uptake - ABC News: NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has issued a "desperate" plea to commuters on Sydney's public transport to wear masks amid a decline in the COVID-safe practice. If only she was in some position of authority. I mean, imagine it, she could set actual restrictions instead of weakly asking people to do things they clearly are not doing.