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Julia D

@juliadassin.bsky.social
664 followers 470 following 6.7K posts

Slightly secretive Sydneysider. 🎥 🎶 🍳 🐕 I know a tiny amount about many things so I guess that makes me a scatty fox rather than a deep-thinking hedgehog.

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Reposted by Julia D
Sophie Hurwitz @hurwitz.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Got a weird one for you guys tonight www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Elon's fans erect 50-foot statue outside his company town
A studio promising "art so epic it will raise the birthrate" gifted a huge bronze Prometheus to Musk's Starbase.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 10h
The problem with this is they’ll need to pay the staff at the regulator similar salaries to those the AI companies pay. Which will be higher than *everyone* else in government including the Reserve Bank.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 15h
I don’t know about less stressful. But it helps that a lot of production companies have their overheads underwritten by studios through multi-picture deals.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I’m on a fairly full train. Our carriage has at least a dozen bogong moths flinging themselves against the lights and the windows and occasionally flying into people. A couple of the passengers are not dealing with it at all well.
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Ben Peake @reddishraven.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Finally, that remake of The Conversation cast entirely with Looney Tunes can happen.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Takes me right back to 1984. This, backed with REMs “Reckoning”, was on a c90 cassette in my boyfriend’s car, all summer.
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Sydney Knitting Nannas and Friends @knitnannassyd.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Good news at last as Australias High Court rules that emissions from Australia’s coal exports (Scope 3) must be taken into account when approving coal projects in Australia. This is massive as Australia is the 2nd largest coal exporter on the planet. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10...
abc.net.au
Breaking: High Court rules in favour of climate in Hunter Valley coal mine case
Australia's High Court rules in favour of a Hunter Valley community group in a landmark climate ruling that could redraw how fossil fuel projects are approved in Australia.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
God he’s an idiot.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Re-reading this old bit on copyright and David Lowery and man, he was right about Silicon Valley but here we are anyway. www.salon.com/2013/12/04/d...
salon.com
David Lowery: Silicon Valley must be stopped, or creativity will be destroyed - Salon.com
Silicon Valley's making money off the work of others. David Lowery is on a crusade for copyright, fairness and art
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Whenever I see clouds like this I expect a giant Terry Gilliam hand of God to descend.
Rays of light descending through clouds over the Tasman Sea
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Crowbar @crowbar.wtf · 05/10/2026
We are merely a few weeks away from Dave Hughes encouraging us to suntan our arseholes sans sunscreen, and trying to sell us an $15K anti Labor/Greens/Teal Lamp.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
It was lovely.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Evergreen
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Reposted by Julia D
David J Prokopetz @prokopetz.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
In spite of being of the correct generation to have grown up while "Peanuts" was still in active publication, it's always a little surreal to be reminded that the most popular comic strip in the English-speaking world for fifty solid years was about an eight-year-old with clinical depression.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Ordinarily I would frown on making fun of a woman’s insecurities. In her case I’m happy to make an exception. What a vile person.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Nope. Likewise no Twitter. Nuked that in 2017, well before the Ketamine King bought it.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
My god you have a high tolerance for pain.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
All the great aunts are still sitting in the same chairs they were sitting in last year.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
That’s enough about me. I have plenty to be sorry for.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I have an ancient FB account I haven’t accessed since 2017. I should delete jt (I’m aware of FB trackers, although I no longer have any devices that ever accessed that account). Otherwise no.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I used to run a few dev and SI businesses. I also worked in privacy. I was constantly surprised how many US companies did not actually know the difference.
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Reposted by Julia D
Movies Silently @moviessilently.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Also, Norma Shearer played dual roles in LADY OF THE NIGHT but for the scene where they meet, MGM opted not to use special effects but rather had Shearer play the demure maiden, while the lady of the night was doubled by an unknown actress one (checks notes) Joan Crawford.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Because none of the current vendors understand the difference between privacy and security.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I’m somewhat sympathetic to your view - I’ve come across it a lot when discussing it with people responsible for drafting legislation. But this tech hasn’t been designed as an assistance technology. If we want tech to do that, we should start from scratch.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
If you limit the tech to people who have a demonstrated need for assisted tech, you reduce the chance it will be part of said panopticon.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
And yes, I’m pretty much opposed to all of it. One product here, another product there, always with exemptions for law enforcement or national security, pretty soon you have a panopticon. We’re close enough to that already - see the whole Flock Camera debacle in the US and (now) W.A.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
If you’re interested in the legislative side of things, this is a dozen years old but still relevant. harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-12...
harvardlawreview.org
The Dangers of Surveillance Harvard Law Review
From the Fourth Amendment to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, and from the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to films like Minority Report and The Lives of Others, our law and culture are ful...
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Reposted by Julia D
Tony Martin @tonymartin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Test not reliable. Cabbage might be faking.
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Liam Hogan @liamhogan.id.au · 03/10/2026
Opposing military aid to Ukraine is not a ‘non-violent’ position, it is an explicit selection between the two available positions, both violent. You can’t say ‘we oppose Russia’, without then explaining, with what?
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Apple’s new watch has the same problem. It’s encrypted, but that doesn’t fix the normalisation-of-ubiquitous-recording problem.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
So you’re walking on the street. Or you’re in a park. You’re going to be identifying and incidentally recording dozens of people. That data goes back to Meta. If consent is a requirement, there’s no way to use these devices, because they will inevitably capture sound and vision of others.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Is there anyone left to vote for that isn’t disappointing?
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Yum. 🤤
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
It’s an underrated movie, for sure.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I can’t agree with that. Allowing blind people to use a technology that is otherwise banned is assistance. People have to jump through similar hoops to get disabled parking permits.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Obviously this level of lobbying is a worry, because it’s already drowned out some of the sensible voices (e.g. Husic, who is by no means a sceptic). Those of you who’ve ever donated to a party before (I have) should get on the phones.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
“According to colleagues, Taylor is immersed in the technology and its implications, bringing expertise as a Turnbull-era cybersecurity minister and a former management consultant.” Again no. I worked with Angus for 15 long months. He’s very like a LLM. Extremely confident, often completely wrong.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
“Albanese regards the company’s response, including directly from chief executive Sam Altman, as a “pretty comprehensive apology”” Ha ha no. It was somewhat akin to “I’m sorry I hurt you but I really can’t help myself. And I’ll probably do it again because scorpion and frog.”
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Couple of things in relation to this story: (Gift link) www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/share/3c2d74...
thesaturdaypaper.com.au
Exclusive: The former staffers influencing government on AI
In an interview with The Saturday Paper, Anthony Albanese asserts his relationship with AI executives – at the same time as the companies ramp up their lobbying.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Truly demented. The Eye is the Dutch equivalent of ACMI in Melbourne.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I haven’t seen it in at least two decades but I recall it with some fondness. I’ll rewatch it instead of the Snyder.
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Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
HYPOTHESIS: repeat exposure to the LessWrong discussion boards is functionally indistinguishable from mercury poisoning.
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freecialis @freecialis.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
the argument that LLMs are conscious appears to be just repeating “but how do you know theyre not” over and over. maybe convincing to some but i have a 3 year old so I am used to these convos
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
We could just license them to blind people. I feel like that edge case is being used to justify these things and for most of the population it’s not valid.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Since that would mean they could almost never be used, why not just ban them altogether?
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Put a little birdhouse in your soul
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Trying to resist crankiness.
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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 30/09/2026
So much of the lens on culture has been turned into a numbers game, where everything is about chart placements and streaming numbers and data. Its a horse race to who gets to do data best, and all of these dorks forget that people just want a song that will make them cry at the grocery store.
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The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
We've had the ability to watch, say, Counterstrike marathons, Street Fighter tournaments, or chess matches between computers since the 90s. Spectacles which, by their very definition, would be at a "higher standard" than human play. And nobody wants it. It's entirely meaningless. It has no appeal.
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Julia D @juliadassin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Had to drive the car (briefly). A bogong moth massacre occurred. I feel bad but they were in a thick cloud for about 1km.
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