August newsletter

I spent the first half of August with the family, doing a variety of fun things. I overdid the fun a bit, straining my back while go-karting, which wasn’t too painful, but forced me to stop running for several weels.

I also took part in a workshop on AUKUS, organized through the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. I gave a presentation, then used an AI to turn it into text. With a bit of tweaking, it produced 1000 words in a passable imitation of my style. This is one of a relatively few useful applications I’ve found for generative AI so far.

With all of these commitments, I didn’t pitch many opinion pieces, but I got a sudden rush of requests at the end of the month, which seems to be continuing into September.

Although I had to cycle instead of running, my fundraising effort for Fred’s Big Run was a huge success, raising over $3000 to restore sight. Thanks to everyone who helped. If you didn’t get the chance, don’t worry, I’ll be doing another fundraiser soon.

I’m now in taper mode for the Sunshine Coast 70.3 on Sunday 8 September. As usual, my training has been disrupted by various things, so my main goal is to finish. It would be great to beat last year’s time of 7:20, but I have no idea how things will go.

Newspaper and magazine articles

Gina Rinehart’s latest grab-bag of opinions is more proof billionaires are no smarter than the rest of us The Guardian 24 August

Researchers analysed 1,500 climate policies to find what works. These are the lessons for Australia The Conversation, 26 August

Australians should be angry about Coles’ latest billion-dollar profit. But don’t blame the cost of living The Guardian 27 August

The RBA is making confusion about inflation and the cost of living even worse, The Conversation, 28 August

Media

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