iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 9h

Oh that was a cracking match. About time the Poms blew it. Hoping their reign of boring rugby is over

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 12h

Model railway inside an actual Mk II

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 15h

Well, surprised the ABs didn't post a half century there! We really eased off in the last 30 mins. I suppose, though, there was no need to put the foot down, and the final score prob better reflects the quality of the teams: Wallabies a step below ABs, but not as bad as say 70–14 would've suggested

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 15h

New Yobo origin story just dropped

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 16h

Blockbuster half of rugby there from NZ, and the Wallabies weren't even having a howler either. If you'd told me forty minutes ago that Beauden Barrett would've run in for two tries among six I wouldn't have believed you

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 16h

Everyone else having a blinder while his radar has mostly been off, and not by a little bit

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 16h

Think this outdoes anything in my personal collection as niche railway ephemera

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 16h

I was worried there for a minute that Damian McKenzie had forgotten how to kick in the past week

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 17h

Also, I think it's *good* to have a multiparty system where various coalitions are possible and it's not guaranteed who will work with whom. Having just two blocs who always work together is a glorified two-party system

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 17h

It's really weird how TOP seems to be driving some people on the left to post properly unhinged things, especially those framed as if TOP is a serious threat to the Greens/TPM vote when their target audience is the traditional Lab/Nat swing voter who won't consider Greens/TPM!

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 17h

I could run all the cool new shiny trains (Fiat railcars, first-gen diesels) *and* keep the Wairarapa railcars as if they got redeployed post-Remutaka Incline to local services *and* old clapped-out steam locos running trains on rustic branch lines that are in slow decline with closure looming

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 17h

Oh you know I'm commissioning the model railway I've always wanted that requires lots of custom-made trains: an alt reality of the Wairarapa Line in the 1950s just after the Remutaka Tunnel opened; main line is dieselised but branches to Castlepoint and Martinborough/Lake Ferry remain steam-operated

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 20h

Oh man that looks really good, tell me more

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John Walton @thatjohn.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

My Shinkansen ended up emergency stopping right on that famous bridge looking up at Mt Fuji. I mean, if this is the way I go, this is the way I go. 🤣 #JohnDoesJapan

Looking over the famous bridge up at Mount Fuji

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

Gee the Bonza owner was going hundy on fraud? This is the single least surprising headline I could have possibly read today

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

Friend of mine moved back to Melbourne after a few years in London living next door to a Tube station and one of their first complaints was how long they now had to wait for trains

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Ben Raue @benraue.com · 16/10/2026

An under-rated part of the JSJ story is how he ended up in parliament. He didn't win a contested party preselection for a winnable seat - he was the #3 on the WA Greens Senate ticket in 2016 behind Ludlam and Siewert. No Green has ever come close to being elected from #3 (or #2 in a half-Senate)

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Anthony Zougras @anthonyzougras.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

Today we lose the perpetual comedy-generating machine that was Sarah Game's Fair Go for Australia party (it's been deregistered due to falling under the membership requirements). In its short life, it has given us plenty of comedic moments... #auspol #saparli

A snipping of the 15/10/2026 South Australian government gazette with text reading:

ELECTORAL ACT 1985
Part 6—Registration of Political Parties
Notice is hereby given that I have on this day de-registered the political party named below for failing to have the appropriate number of
members to continue as an eligible political party under the provision of Section 45 of the Act:
Name of Party: Sarah Game Fair Go for Australians
Dated: 15 October 2026
LEAH MCLAY
Acting Electoral Commissioner

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

I was going to say, I read the text and got a very “he’s dead” vibe (also… final graphs lol)

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

See also: a fruitful day in the archive photographing heaps of files, and reading them... sometime? (I've got some excellent stuff photographed at Archives NZ a decade ago just waiting for me to have time and inclination to look at it)

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Oscar Goff @theoscargoff.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

That this bot, which posts random stills and clips from the thousands of hours of VHS transfers on archive.org, landed on *this specific frame* feels like finding the monkey at the typewriter that managed to write Hamlet.

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Yeah, exactly once in my career have I received 5 reviews, for my Journal of Genocide Research article. I think otherwise it has always been 2–3 reviewers, be they Aus/NZ-based history journals or the overseas journals to whom I've submitted

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

It's the Dandrews social media style taken to irritating new extremes

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Hard to say which of them this reflects worse on

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Completely unnecessary. I also disdain the American practice of putting "Some Fucken Wanker, PhD" on the cover or just in general writing "Flamin' Galah, PhD" rather than "Dr Flamin' Galah"

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

If you are unfamiliar with this episode in the history of Australian political shenanigans when Gair was plied with prawns and whisky, enjoy the Wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gair_Af... And two videos from Anne Twomey: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofju... and www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GH0...

youtube.com

The Night of the Long Prawns - Senate manipulation during the Whitlam era

YouTube video by Constitutional Clarion

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I am teaching my undergrads that they should be "whiskymaxxing" (no seriously, this week includes the 1974 night of the long prawns)

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Ben Eltham @beneltham.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Merging the three WA universities is a really bad idea. Petition against it here

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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I recently published a piece in Future Campus in which I argue that citations are moribund as an indicator of research performance: futurecampus.com.au/2026/10/12/w...

futurecampus.com.au

Why Citations Are Moribund

Its hard to see how citations can continue to be used as an indicator of research performance, Peter Woelert writes.

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I honestly just don’t get it. They’re WTC champions, the team is obviously excellent, facing an arch rival, with two enthralling days falling on the weekend… and it looks worse than a Sheffield Shield match

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I knew this was going to be either Australia or China but alas I guessed wrong

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

The analysis the people wanted, nay required

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Excellent! I imagined that would be so, and now don’t have to worry that if I score a poster I’m taking something an archive would love And here’s the setlist, which hangs by my bed. This show was on the eve of my 29th birthday so I was AMPED. I made sure I souvenired Martin’s set and got it signed

Martin’s setlist from The Chills’ gig in Melbourne, 15 Jan 2016 (my birthday is 17th), signed by the whole band

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Has much of his material gone to the Hocken or Otago Museum or similar? I recall the museum has at least a few of his treasures... much as I'm tempted to bid, I'm the sort of historian who's even happier knowing things are in an archive than in my lounge (tho I have framed a Chills poster + setlist)

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

When I lived in Brunswick the "not tasteful house" was only a block or so from my place and I always got this stuck in my head walking past it

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

It's darkly funny that when ON Vic's deputy leader is asked what this list would contain, after predictable vile anti-treaty views, she goes into a really niche gripe about the history curriculum on a point that would take up a few minutes of class time at most, rather than any policy of substance

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

You might also enjoy that Barn’s father is called… James Joyce

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Tim Wilson is out making a dim freedom-of-speech argument that blocking it will “creat[e] the artifice to block content on the internet and create an online portal of censorship” and is he not aware of exactly the sorts of blocks you mention. We already clamp down hard on CSAM, beheadings, etc.!

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Pretty embarrassing when *Barnaby Joyce* has more of a moral backbone than you do

ABC politics live blog:

‘Matter for them': Taylor declines to weigh in on execution live stream

By Courtney Gould

Angus Taylor has declined to weigh in on whether Australia should block the live streaming of a US execution by military firing squad.

Last week, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution of a former army psychiatrist who killed 13 people would be available for the public to watch.

The Greens have written to the esSafety commissioner and Communications Minister Anika Wells asking them to make sure it won't be shown in Australia on TV or online.

"I obviously don't agree with … that policy but that's a matter for the United States," Taylor told reporters.

"It's not a matter for us."

ABC politics live blog:

'Roman amphitheatre stuff': Joyce backs ban on live stream execution

By Holly Tregenza

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has likened the planned live stream of Nidal Malik Hasan's execution, the first US military firing squad execution since World War II, to a Roman amphitheatre.

While the Greens want the government to block Australians from viewing the stream, the Coalition and some cabinet ministers have raised concerns about free speech and the practicalities of enforcing a ban.

Joyce says Americans have the right to decide whether to use the death penalty, but Australians should not be exposed to the execution online.

"We don't have the death penalty in Australia, and I certainly don't want children, or anyone for that matter, witnessing another human being shot by a firing squad," he says.

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Ben Gracewood @ben.gracewood.nz · 11/10/2026

The absolute worst possible version of this service is incredibly popular. Imagine a decent electric set that ran all the way tthrough the CRL 🤯

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

...that I have no ties, and I could never share fully a party's platform. Even if the Greens, Labor, Socialist Alliance, and Vic Socialists didn't have shortcomings and each stood for specific leftwing principles, I'd find myself humming and hahing about which to join

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Oh I get this, and in a way I'm hypocritical as I think it would be positive to have more people involved in politics as party members rather than the weirdest freaks preselecting lunatics (Libs as canary in the coal mine here). But esp given my line of work as a political historian, I value...

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

The irony is I keep meaning to visit Woodman Point properly (and get some pics for my history of quarantine lecture) but uhhh maybe not this

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

I'm not and will never be a member of a political party because I value my independence, but AU GRN are usually my 1, and if Shoey keeps up this bullshit and fails to support Ukraine for the most illogical reasons, they won't get my 1 next time (likewise if they go mask-off antisemitic as w/ GPEW)

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

I agree with the moral force of your point: a genocide is happening in Gaza and genocide poisons a body politic. But also I'm shocked how few people know the most successful ethnic cleansing of the 2020s occurred a month before Gaza kicked off: Azerbaijan expelled Armenian pop'n of Nagorno-Karabakh

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

How are we defining "intact"? An astonishing amount of genocides have occurred of which most people are unaware. I lectured on post-colonial African genocide in the 2010s; these are my 2016 slides with a non-exhaustive list of post-colonial African mass killings that could be considered genocidal

Slide titled "Genocides?" (question mark to prompt the class to reflect on the definition of genocide and whether it applies to these cases; this sldie and the next include 14 episodes of mass killing that have been described as genocide by at least some prominent observers and were not presented as my own judgement or definitive list)

1955–2005, Sudan: Government forces target Southern Sudanese, especially Nuba.
1967–70, Nigeria: Government targets Biafra separatists.
1968–79, Equatorial Guinea: Francisco Macias Nguema targets practically everybody who threatns him, including the Bubi.
1971–79, Uganda: Idi Amin targets practically everybody who threatens him, especially Acholi and Lango.
1972, Burundi: Tutsi target Hutu.
1977–78, Ethiopian Red Terror: Mengistu targets political opponents—politicide is genocide under Ethiopian law. The Ethiopian Army has also been accused of genocide of racial minorities in subsequent decades, e.g. Eritreans, Oromo, Anuak.

Second slide also titled "Genocides?"

1986–now: Uganda: Both government and rebels target Acholi.
1990s, Somalia: Warlords target Bantu in the Jubba Valley.
1993, Burundi: Hutu target Tutsi; Tutsi target Hutu.
1994, Rwanda: Hutu target Tutsi.
1998–2003 (–now), DR Congo: Both sides of civil war target Pygmies. Also “gendercide”, organised rape.
2003–now, Sudan: Arabs target black Africans in Darfur.
2012–now, Central African Republic: Muslims vs Christians
2013–now, South Sudan: Dinka vs Nuer.

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

I've had it on in the background since I got up and from about 15 to go it just felt like there were going to be shenanigans of some sort. Even before De Pasquale ran out of fuel it had been entertaining enough with Kostecki putting on his charge for the podium!

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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

What an insane finish, this is why I tune in to Bathurst every year even though I don't watch much motorsport

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pixelatedboat aka “mr bluesky” @pixelatedboat.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Australopithecus 3 million years ago:

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