iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

If you didn't receive the AusAlert test signal, this might be why From www.ausalert.gov.au/receiving-al...

Black text on white background explaining the device requirements for receiving the AusAlert test signal on the 27th July 2026. Screenshot from https://www.ausalert.gov.au/receiving-alert/compatible-mobile-devices

Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

People, you simply have to come & experience our new 100-square-metre LED wall, complete with 3D, & immerse yourself in the universe's wonders. The team in our Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing have done some amazing things like this over the years, but this really stands out. www.svu3d.ai

A person in a long blue dress appears to be walking towards Saturn and its rings which are, in fact, visualised on an enormous LED wall.

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Huge power outage in Melbourne affecting, what, the entire CBD and then some? Map from Powercor: www.powercor.com.au/power-outage...

Schematic map of Melbourne CBD and surrounds with a large greyed out wedge seemingly indicating that entire area is experiencing a power outage.

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Very "approximately", Google. Very.

Screenshot from a Google search about the rate limit of the arXiv API. The image shows the "AI Overview" in black text on a white background, with "one request every three seconds" highlighted, and then falsely claims this is "approximately 3 requests per second".

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Struggling to make ends meet? At least you’re not having to “sacrifice”

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

The Age’s rolling coverage of the cost-of-living crisis never misses.

Banner heading of The Age, with a headline of black text on white background underneath. Smaller grey text beneath that and, finally a small picture of the author, a grey-haired male adult.

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

The change is coming, Melbourne. Geelong (red line) just dropped 13 degrees in 10 minutes.

Graph showing temperatures during the day in two locations, Melbourne corresponding to the blue line, and Geelong the red line.

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

You've heard of democracy, but have you heard of an ostracon? I hadn't. This is from a kids book about ancient Greece. Maybe we should bring back the ostracon?

Picture of 2 pages in a book. Left-hand page is black text on a green background below a heading "What is democracy?". Right-hand page is black text on white background under a heading "What is an ostracon?".

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Given how on-campus IT “services” have evolved in the last 15 years, I constantly find it astonishing that eduroam works. Anywhere. I haven’t looked into why or how it works, but I am guessing it’s one of these:

An Xkcd comic showing how dependency works, with an illustration where a small block is holding up a ton of other blocks, with the note that the one small block represents (in the sense of the comic) a passion project of a random coder in Nebraska upon which all modern technology depends to operate.

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

There's even instructions for running the telescope left on the whiteboard :)

A long corridor with a window on the right showing blue sky over a flat vista, while on the left wall of the corridor there is a whiteboard with black, blue and red text scribbled. While not readable to the untrained eye, the text provides technical details for running the Molonglo radio telescope for which this building used to be the control room.

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

Up is down over at The Age www.theage.com.au/business/ban...

Headline from an article in The Age. Black text on white background with grey writing underneath attempting to justify a manifestly untrue bold-face headline.

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

Pretty relatable stuff over at The Age

A picture of a man standing in a kitchen holding a black mug on a smooth white kitchen bench. The caption says he’s selling his home. The text above the picture (black on white background) describes the hardships he faced when living in Hawthorn. This may be comedy but somehow I think it isn’t.

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

This is one for the Pacific Islanders

Three men in suits, the one on the right being the current leader of the Liberal Party who just lost his electoral seat. The three men are laughing at Pacific Islanders who will suffer catastrophically from global heating-driven sea level rises.

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

I returned to the scene of the “crime”. Who can feel safe with this sort of stuff going on right outside our doors?

I very dry old Christmas tree lies by the side of the road.

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Cool change has passed Laverton now. Should be in Melbourne by about 17:40. Yay 😅

Screenshot of BOM's "Doppler Wind" map. Blue swathes are shown to the east of Laverton (which is ~20 km east of Melbourne), with the cool change seen as a switch from blue to red at Laverton, indicating wind moving away from Laverton towards Melbourne.

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Finally, the change has almost made it to Melbourne. Maybe another 1.5 hours?

Graph of temperature against time showing Melbourne temps in blue and Geelong temps in red. The Melbourne wind speed is a blue dotted line, with gust range shown as a blue shaded region. The current temp in Melbourne is shown as a number in the top left corner (39.1 deg).

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Looks like the #Xodous is spreading to Australian universities now. Below is my alma mater's main account:

Screenshot of the @UNSW page on twitter. Black text on mostly white background, announcing that "This account is currently not actively managed" and "You can find us on other platforms at @unsw".

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Truly saddened – but unsurprised – by this news about charges to Australians publishing in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. They want $5k per paper? They're dreaming. I've published 102 papers in MNRAS. At $5k a pop, that's the same as hiring an actual researcher for 3 years! 🔭🧪

$Screenshot of part of an email sent to members of the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA). Black text on white background. It reads as follows: "Dear ASA members, Many of you are already aware of changes associated with publication in MNRAS. From 1 Jan 2025, publishing in MNRAS will attract an Article Processing Charge (APC). Our community publishes a substantial fraction of its work in MNRAS, so this is a significant change. The reason for this change is the recent failure in negotiations between Oxford University Press (the publisher of MNRAS) and CAUL (the Council of Australian University Libraries) to include Gold Open Access to MNRAS in the new OUP – CAUL deal. I am presently trying to get more details from CAUL, specifically relating to the timeframes for this arrangement and how it was arrived at. However, it seems certain that for 2025 at least (and likely beyond) publishing in MNRAS will come with a financial cost to the authors."$

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 24/10/2024

I’m hiring! Come and work with me at @Swinburne in Melbourne on a 3-year postdoc in precision astronomical spectroscopy as part of COMBS – the ARC Centre of Excellence in Optical Microcombs for Breakthrough Science. AAS Job Register: aas.org/jobregister/... 🔭🧪

$Alt text: Pairs of vertical stripes comprised of a series of dots, ranging from bluey-green to red, on a black background. Image credit: ESO https://www.eso.org/public/images/ann15037a/ Explanation: This image is from a test of two visible frequency comb systems on the HARPS spectrograph on the 3.6-m ESO Telescope in Chile. The ‘echellogram’ – the different diffraction orders of the echelle grating in the spectrograph – shows the frequency comb modes distributed in wavelength from top to bottom and left to right, colour-coded artificially for illustration. By knowing the precise frequency of each mode, we can calibrate and characterise the spectrograph.$

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 30/08/2024

We've opened applications for summer internships in our new ARC Centre of Excellence, COMBS. 2nd & 3rd year students can be part of a COMBS research project for 6–8 weeks (paid at $750 per week). Apply by Friday 20th September here: combs.org.au/summerintern...

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 10/08/2024

Maybe her performance was a sort of protest? The authors (she is lead) She sounds angry & worried in the intro to this article. bsky.app/profile/incr...

Screenshot of the introduction of academic article by breaking competitor Rachael Gunn providing some insight into how she felt, and apparently how others in the same community felt, when it was announced that breaking would be included in the Paris Olympics 2024.

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 04/06/2024

Phew. A lot of work, but definitely less than in previous years. Thank goodness the application form has been simplified. (It could be further simplified – especially the budget.) Now, reviewers: please be kind 😀

Screenshot of the submission status for my Discovery Project grant in the ARC's RMS portal showing that my grant proposal has been submitted.

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 11/05/2024

Not the best #Aurora photo you’ll see, but it’s mine. From the darkest alley I could find near my place in urban #Melbourne. 🔭🧪

Image of the sky from an alley way with the surrounding houses either side. Pale green near the horizon over South Yarra in Melbourne and a pinkish hue around the Southern Cross.

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 29/04/2024

I thought it was common knowledge in Melbourne, but apparently some need a reminder – specifically the person getting irate at my child & I for cycling home from school on the footpath: Here's the law👇 Don't like it? I'm afraid I can't help you🤷‍♂️ From www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/safety-and-r...

Image from VicRoads about the basic rules of who can and cannot ride on the footpath (i.e. kids, and adults accompanying or carrying kids). Simples.

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 20/03/2024

Awesome front cover of Nature for a fascinating result led by Fan Liu at Monash, Swinburne & ASTRO-3D. We found compelling evidence that some planets like our Sun have "eaten" up planetary material, leaving a distinct chemical imprint revealed by high-precision spectroscopy. 🔭🧪

A terrestrial planet being captured by one star in a binary star system. Artist's impression by intouchable, ©OPENVERSE.

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 02/12/2023

Bean*ettes*?? Crunchy *and* tender??

Picture of a Woolworths “beanettes”, which are just green beans, labelled “crunchy & tender”. Huh?

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Michael Murphy @michaelmurphy.bsky.social · 17/08/2023

Mike Merrifield @astromikemerri.bsky.social posted these on twitter about it. Only one side of his conversation, but maybe indicates it's muddled, but that needs clarifying. Absolutely has to be changed.

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