iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 16/10/2026

The photo is of a yellow-footed rock-wallaby in the wild at Warren Gorge in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia. (Photo credit: Talexbikes. License: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-...)

creativecommons.org

Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons

000 0

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 16/10/2026

Recently the "dark academia" aesthetic caught my attention. With respect to fashion, dark academia appears to favour a colour palette of browns, beige, greys, white, and black (as well as green, burgundy, and navy). This reminded me of the subject of an earlier post: the yellow-footed rock-wallaby.

100 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 13/08/2026

Naming university buildings after administrators ... it's like naming the major tennis arena in Australia after the CEO of Tennis Australia rather than Rod Laver.

020 2

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 05/08/2026

If having one or two soccer scenes counts ... I loved Our Little Sister (written and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, based on Umimachi Diary by Akimi Yoshida). Tonight I might check if my streaming services have any Ken Loach films!

010 1

Reposted by James Mahmud Rice

International Sociological Association (ISA) @isa-sociology.org · 04/08/2026

Call for abstracts for #ISAWCS27 is now open! 🎉 The XXI World Congress of Sociology will take place in Gwangju, Korea, 4–10 July 2027. 📅 Submission period: 3 August – 14 October 2024

186 8

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 03/07/2026

I may be wrong, but Caroline Kennedy (that's Dr Kennedy) might be teaching music at Goldsmiths in London at the moment. 👩‍🎓🎵 www.gold.ac.uk/music-englis...

gold.ac.uk

Dr Caroline Kennedy

000 0

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 03/07/2026

Have you ever wondered what Deadstar's Caroline Kennedy is up to these days? Some people might remember this fantastic song from 1996: youtu.be/gw2VJ2Wp8sg

youtu.be

Deadstar - Don't It Get You Down

YouTube video by stereomusicvideo

110 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 30/06/2026

Policy Dialogue on Intergenerational Equity 20 July 2026, Australian National University, Canberra I'll be speaking at this policy dialogue, along with many other interesting speakers. For more detail on the event and the speakers, see: www.cepar.edu.au/event/policy...

Title slide for James Mahmud Rice's presentation "Intergenerational Inequality in Living Standards: Findings from the Australian National Transfer Accounts".

010 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 29/06/2026

My favourite discovery so far this year: the yellow-footed rock-wallaby! There are several nice photographs here... www.australianwildlife.org/animals/yell...

australianwildlife.org

Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby

The Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby is the largest rock-wallaby species in Australia, growing to a height of 80 centimetres tall.

000 0

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 26/06/2026

This week the Actuaries Institute published an interesting report on how different generations contribute to, and benefit from, the Australian tax and transfer system. The report uses the Australian National Transfer Accounts, among other sources. www.actuaries.asn.au/research-ana...

actuaries.asn.au

Australian Actuaries Intergenerational Equity Index: Spotlight on the Australian Tax and Transfer System

New Actuaries Institute report examines how Australia's $1 trillion tax and transfer system is distributed across generations and what it means for intergenerational equity.

100 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 30/10/2025

When children are included, it is clear that changes to net public transfers have favoured both younger and older people. For a more detailed discussion, see: bsky.app/profile/jame...

000 0

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 30/10/2025

Here is a figure which includes children, taken from Rice et al, "Intergenerational inequality and the intergenerational state", 2021: doi.org/10.1007/s125... rdcu.be/cylFh (full-text, view-only)

130 3

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 30/10/2025

This figure is misleading. Notice how the chart does not include children, even though, as the article states: "People receive benefits from the state as a child. They attend childcare paid for by government subsidies and they get a free (public) or subsidised (private) education."

120 2

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 06/08/2025

The photo is of the La Trobe Reading Room, State Library Victoria, in Melbourne, Australia, as viewed from the 5th floor. It's by David Iliff (license: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-...).

creativecommons.org

Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons

000 0

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 06/08/2025

10 beautiful libraries, including the State Library Of South Australia and State Library Victoria: www.1000libraries.com/post/2025-to...

La Trobe Reading Room, State Library Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, as viewed from the 5th floor.

Photo by David Iliff. License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

110 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 18/05/2025

I've been having a fun time browsing through @chrispower.bsky.social's brief survey of the short story: www.theguardian.com/books/series... And, happily, the following books by Machado de Assis and Nabokov (both included in the survey) arrived in the post on Friday, just in time for the weekend!

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, The Collected Stories of Machado de Assis

130 3

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 17/05/2025

ANU study: "Australians over the age of 60 have enjoyed a post-tax income similar to that of mid-career working age Australians" Study's findings on post-tax income, 2018/19-2022/23: Mid-career working age Australians: $125K Australians over 60: less than this Australians over 75: $100K (20% less)

Figure 2 in the ANU study, which describes average real income per person after taxes and transfers by age for various years between 1993/94 and 2022/23.

020 2

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 15/05/2025

Without this blurring of lines, it is clear that changes to net public transfers have favoured both younger and older people, that is, those people who have always been net recipients of public transfers.

000 0

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 15/05/2025

This picture is only possible, however, because of the blurring of lines between the net public transfers received by younger people and the net public transfers paid by working-age people.

100 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 15/05/2025

The picture painted by the Varela et al figure is one in which changes to net public transfers have largely favoured older people and older people alone.

100 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 15/05/2025

Grouping together these increases in net public transfers paid and received leads to the modest changes over time depicted in the Varela et al figure for working-age people. These modest changes, though, hide the substantial changes for younger people and working-age people identified in Rice et al.

100 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 15/05/2025

The trends over time for working-age people in the Varela et al figure are also, in a rough sense, the result of grouping together the increases in net public transfers paid by working-age people and the increases in net public transfers received by younger people, as identified in Rice et al.

100 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 15/05/2025

The lines for working-age people in this figure are, in a rough sense, the result of grouping together the lines for younger and working-age people in the figure from Rice et al.

100 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 15/05/2025

Here is the figure from Varela et al. I assume the vertical axis should read "transfer payments minus taxes". The figure does not cover the entire life cycle, because public transfers received by children (like school education) are grouped together with those received by their working-age parents.

100 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 15/05/2025

The trends over time are straightforward. As incomes have risen over time, the amounts of net public transfers paid by working-age, net payers have increased, while the amounts of net public transfers received by younger and older, net recipients have also increased.

100 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 15/05/2025

As this figure shows younger people are net recipients of public transfers, while working-age people are net payers of public transfers. Older people, like younger people, are net recipients of public transfers.

100 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 15/05/2025

Both papers include a figure that describes net public transfers (public transfers net of taxes) across the life cycle, where this difference can be seen. Here is the figure from Rice et al.

100 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 15/05/2025

In contrast, in Varela et al public transfers intended to benefit children are allocated to their parents, rather than to the children themselves. For example, increases in public resourcing of schools are allocated to working-age people who do not attend these schools (the parents).

100 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 15/05/2025

One of the most important differences relates to the treatment of children. In Rice et al public transfers are allocated to the intended beneficiaries of the transfers, including children. For example, increases in public resourcing of schools are allocated to students at these schools.

100 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 15/05/2025

Intergenerational inequality and the intergenerational state Rice et al, 2021 doi.org/10.1007/s125... rdcu.be/cylFh (full-text, view-only) Measuring the changing size of intergenerational transfers in the Australian tax and transfer system Varela et al, 2025 crawford.anu.edu.au/content-cent...

100 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 15/05/2025

A few years ago I published an article on the effect of public transfers on intergenerational inequality in income. A recent working paper by Peter Varela, Robert Breunig and Matthew Smith approaches the same topic with a similar methodology. The papers (see below) differ in important ways however.

100 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 14/04/2025

...Personally, I think it can be a good experience for sociologists to immerse themselves in a variety of social systems, where social norms and policies are different to those with which they are familiar. I hope the move is going well!

210 2

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 14/04/2025

I'm pretty good. I've been away from social media for a while, partly because of contracted work for the government on recent child care reforms. As a result, I only learned about your huge, intercontinental move very recently (following a path to Hong Kong previously travelled by Jack Barbalet)...

110 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 04/04/2025

I switched on the radio in my car on Wednesday and, after a minute or so, thought "I know that voice"!

110 1

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 04/04/2025

That looks like a nice place to walk in the springtime!

200 2

Reposted by James Mahmud Rice

Isidro F. Aguillo @isidroaguillo.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

RetractBASE, el mayor buscador especializado en publicaciones retractadas (retracted article), notas de retractación (retraction) y artículos retirados (withdrawn). IESA-CSIC Más de 120 mil publicaciones científicas aparecidas entre 2000 y 2024. retractbase.csic.es

retractbase.csic.es

Find retracted and withdrawn research publications with detailed retraction notices. Search our open database of over 60,000 records from 2000 onwards

Retract Base | Search Retracted Publications & Notices

42119 21

Reposted by James Mahmud Rice

Ariadne Vromen @ariadnevromen.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

I just read this @thesiswhisperer blog, then went to the Atlantic site to find my publications are mentioned 105 times in Meta’s AI pirater 😳 Seems everything via Taylor & Francis, Palgrave, Routledge, & Cambridge Uni Press! 😭😭

272 7

James Mahmud Rice @jamesmahmudrice.info · 14/03/2025

In his book "Dimensions Of Urban Social Structure" (University Of Toronto Press, 1969), Frank Lancaster Jones makes some interesting observations on the value of social research that "states the obvious" or produces "commonsense" results rather than surprising ones:

"Surprise may be the essence of mystery stories and science fiction but it is not the test of fruitful and important sociological research. Indeed, I do not know how one could surprise the common sense that affirms on the one hand that 'Too many cooks spoil the broth', but on the other that 'Many hands make light work'; that advises 'Penny wise, pound foolish', yet warns 'Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves'. Common sense in fact is little more than a treasure-trove of mutually contradictory statements in terms of which any social event or human experience can find a reassuring interpretation. While I would never presume to steal a march upon common sense, it is obviously worthwhile to investigate the conditions under which one segment of common sense may be more applicable than another."

010 1