iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 23h

Thanks to @news.abc.net.au for a beaut interview with the local participant in #7Up to #70Up, Paul Kligerman. Loved the final question about eating his greens...

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 23h

Thank you for posting the article - it was a beautiful response to #70Up and all the emotions it brought to the surface. It was good to get some background and clarifications not given earlier in the series, and lovely to see Peter and Neil chatting together at the end.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Robespierre learned that the hard way...

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Reposted by David Neate

The Ecologist @theecologist.org · 07/10/2026

Britain will be particularly badly hit: a quarter of the food we import is grown in the most at-risk areas of the world.

theecologist.org

Godzilla El Niño is coming

What does the approaching El Niño mean for the world’s economies - and for us?

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-... Heartfelt thanks to @asifkapadia.bsky.social for the beautiful #70Up. A thoughtful & moving closure to the series that began all those years ago with #7Up. And thanks to all those participants whose lives we peeked into regularly. (My profile pic on here is from 1964!)

sbs.com.au

Watch 70 Up

Watch 70 Up for free with SBS On Demand, your ultimate destination for diverse entertainment. Stream now!

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Then there's the ongoing trashing of Palestinian olive groves in the occupied West Bank. It seems a twisted version of the story of the creation of the state of Israel, where environmental repair was part of the image presented. These people know how long it takes new olive trees to fruit heavily.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This report on the impact of #fossilfuel projectsshould be tabled at the upcoming #COP in the Pacific. Preferably, tabled, discussed, lamented & presented to the delegation from #Australia, led by @albomp.bsky.social. Then they can try and explain to our neighbours how trustworthy a friend we are.

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Reposted by David Neate

Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS @euanritchie.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy are staggering. This feels like cigarette producers touring oncology wards www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10...

abc.net.au

Live: Albanese heads to pre-COP in Fiji, Tuvalu

Anthony Albanese will attend a pre-COP meeting in Fiji and Tuvalu today with Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen. Follow live.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I need to acknowledge again that the photo on the sign was obtained via Bluesky - arigato @toritorihkd.bsky.social !

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

@aunz.theconversation.com the uses of technology mustn't be lost while recognising its misuses. This is a sign I helped design for a display at our local school's wetlands. Wondering just how you replace the technological interface between QR code & screen here. A cassette player & tape, perhaps?

Educational sign for the wetlands at our local school, with QR code enabling the students to hear the call of the Latham's snipe, which migrate to this site each year.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This survey rightly focusses on the use of screens in schools at present, & so provides helpful clarity amidst kickback against the use of technology on schools. But our memories are far too short. Does no-one recall how connection via Teams etc. enabled us to teach through the COVID pandemic? /2

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle... Good to see so many thoughtful responses to the local landscape & ecology in these often minimal impact, but always beautiful #garden designs across Australia.

theguardian.com

From urban rooftops to working cattle farms: Australia’s best home gardens – in pictures

The 20 best residential gardens have been revealed in the first-ever Landscape Australia awards shortlist

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"A country that cannot recognise a duty of care to future generations is not merely failing environmentally. It is failing morally. It is admitting that short-term political survival matters more than the safety, stability and dignity of the people who come after us." Amen to that!

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/envi... From @thesaturdaypaper.com.au - #AnjaliSharma with a brilliant summary of why anyone concerned for the world we bequeath to future generations should be appalled by the carefree politics of most political parties. There are boomers who support you, Anjali.

thesaturdaypaper.com.au

The Coalition’s ‘chainsaw’ climate policy

I am no stranger to the spiral of doom that inevitably follows a skim of the morning headlines. Perhaps that is a burden this privilege of youth must carry – the emotion in the immediacy of the world’...

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Just saw Murray Watt, "Environment Minister" who waved through ongoing attacks on Australia's diverse & precious ecosystems, berating @davidshoebridge.bsky.social for his 'anger', & hoping the @greens.org.au will be "constructive". How has your government been environmentally constructive, Murray?

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Next level misuse of the Biblical text. Who'd have thought that Pete would so thoroughly trash Isaiah's message? A sober reminder to those who post "is he dead yet?" that the madness of this regime will not die with Trump. This time around, he's surrounded himself with ideologues as crazy as he is.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

A key point: note my deliberate use of the term 'society', not 'economy'. The Economy has its own algorithm that apparently doesn't need to be rigorously challenged. About time it was.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

A challenge for David Speers and @news.abc.net.au: stop banging on about "productivity" as if we agree on its meaning, do a deep dive into it & analyse what #productivity means for our society. For starters, if it takes 40 minutes for my bank to answer a phone call, how's that productive business?

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

share.google/wsPXLHxH0SY8... Even though it's 50 years hence, as soon as I played the 'Blue Hills' theme it came back to me. I never got into it, but utter silence was the response required of me as the program played in our kitchen. It must have made my parents & their rural cohort feel 'seen'.

share.google

Blue Hills - ABC Radio Theme

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

It's all the fault of phylogenetic studies overturning long-held taxonomies. In the same year that Perovskia was moved to Salvia, so was rosemary (now termed Salvia rosmarinus). Messes with our memories.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

An appropriate article to encourage lovers of birdsong to join in the @birdlifeoz.bsky.social #AussieBirdCount next month. Many of the 'small brown birds' are a lot easier to pick by their call than by sight.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Walking the dog down our road this morning, and we came across this beautiful patch of nodding greenhood #orchids (Pterostylis nutans) happily nestled in the leaf litter at the base of a messmate tree, and caught in the clear light of a #Ballarat sunrise.

Nodding greenhood orchids, Smythes Creek, near Ballarat, Victoria. Indigenous September wildflowers.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

And so to the nub of the issue: the last paragraph in the article: “Home and school norms and habits interact. We need to consider the whole pattern of childhood: sleep, physical activity, play, social connection, learning and recreational screen use.” That requires more than a knee-jerk reaction.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I still remember the year 9 student, who couldn't be bothered to go out & collect & press the plants for the herbarium homework I'd set, gleefully telling me she had her parents' permission to go onto TikTok after tea. No homework. She'd usually arrive at school, late, with the laptop battery flat.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I don't accept the argument that digital learning covered up our weaknesses in #pedagogy. You try portraying meiosis as elegantly as Crash Course does! But I still needed to explain the meaning & impact of the process. It was when laptops were de rigueur in every classroom that the rot set in.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Digital learning offered multiple advances over the preceding "I'll show you a video". Resources galore: @khanacademy.org , #Edrolo, #CrashCourse from @hankgreen.bsky.social . @geogebra.org enabled a student of mine student to draw graphs, & my advanced maths students to experience calculus.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/educati... There's a lot in Toni Hassan's article. In 2014, when the #DigitalRevolution was flooding into our schools, there was no time for caution; it was "Luddites, get out of the way". British neuroscientist Susan Greenfield raised the alarm re screen time back then.

thesaturdaypaper.com.au

The legacy of Rudd’s digital revolution in schools

As Australian students record historically poor results on key cognitive measures, states are moving to reduce screen time in classrooms, unwinding a key initiative of the Rudd era.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

#Hanami 花見 time in #Ballarat. An edible cherry, rather than ornamental sakura, but this year it's outdone itself in flowering. Might even get some 🍒! It's intriguing that the cherry flowers are being visited mainly by hoverflies; the honeybees are focussed on the prune that's flowering nearby.

Peak flower display from one of our cherry trees after a wet winter.

Close up of cherry flowers. I've forgotten the variety name.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Thanks for the series of graphs, especially for their historical comparison with past #ElNiño events. Hope the powers that be in #Australia are paying attention. It's not looking like a fun summer coming up beyond the inner cities.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Sad that the trust behind roadside honesty boxes is being abused. Still a few around Ballarat, mostly for eggs or bagged manure. My experience (putting out strawberry plants c. a note giving Landcare Group bank details) has been positive - plants go, & donations turn up later in the Group account.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

bsky.app/profile/news... A quirky take on the spring #equinox from #Bowral, NSW, the childhood home of PL Travers, author of 'Mary Poppins'. Love the involvement of schoolkids in the ceremony. From @news.abc.net.au

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

My dictionary gives the origin of "equinoctial" as the Latin 'aequinoctialis'. So you could try casually dropping "equinoctiality" into conversation twice a year, and see if it catches on 🤠. Even better in a book, or a play. That was how Shakespeare introduced new words into English...

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The #spring #equinox without (so far) equinoctial storms - instead #Ballarat is hidden from view by morning fog, and there's a light frost at home.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Meanwhile, down the Midland Hwy & side roads between Ballarat & Geelong, another invasive species is taking over on roadsides - soursob (Oxalis pes-caprae). Infesting native vegetation along the coast near Barwon Heads, & near impossible to eradicate. vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/...

vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The series showcases so well the restless energy that the pīwakawaka (NZ fantail) shares with its Aussie cousin, the grey fantail. And at one point, the tūi character gets to display the reality of its intricate song, recorded here by Tony Palmer on Youtube: #Birds 🪶 share.google/v9LknGFLZtdp...

share.google

Tui Talk

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

share.google/ecOhooKEziFr... On the subject of NZ #birds, it was a delight to find on #SBS the series #Bird'sEyeView, where a cast including tūi, kererū and pīwakawaka narrate the crazy ways of humans. The humour & the natural inclusion of Māori words make this a quintessentially Kiwi show. /2

share.google

Bird's Eye View | Trailer | RNZ

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s... During my time in Aotearoa NZ, the recovery of the Chatham Island #robin from the brink of extinction was a gripping drama. This win is testimony to the hard work in the 1970s by the team led by the late Don Merton. @forestandbird.bsky.social #birds 🪶

theguardian.com

The black robin, once down to just a single breeding pair, wins NZ bird of the year

Fondly known as the ‘goth’ of New Zealand’s bird world, the black robin now has a population of 350 adults thanks to a pioneering breeding programme

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Celebrating a sunny spring day in Ballarat with Prunus 'Elvins'.

Prunus 'Elvins' - Mrs Elvins' gift to gardening - originated in her Melbourne garden. The flowers open white, then turn pink.

This specimen of Prunus 'Elvins' is about 5 years old. It has settled in nicely next to a native Westringia. I got one fruit off it last year. This is a variety of cherry plum, but the fruit tasted much more like a cherry than a plum.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

It'd be good to see this "see-saw" explained in daily tv weather forecasts. Ditch the gormless "summer is here" (urban beach footage required), then "winter is back". No, this is spring weather. But even that will be made more extreme by El Niño + climate change. Bumpy see-saw ride ahead.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... With you 💯, Rebecca. The travails of the northern hemisphere - its human population & its whole ecosystem - as it has endured a long, hot summer are likely a harbinger of what lies ahead for us here. Not looking forward to it at all.

theguardian.com

Australia’s approaching summer fills me with dread. I’m not equipped to battle 40C | Rebecca Shaw

When people say they love the heat, I presume they either have air conditioning or are lying

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

4. For the *Government* to join a right wing populist nutcase in this sordid race to the political morass is so disgusting. The people who we invited here because we needed them economically are also needed socially. Story from my birthplace (Bordertown) showed this beautifully on #abctv #BackRoads.

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

3. It's an Australian trope, and a well-worn one historically. The shameful "blackbirding" which brought slaves from the Pacific to work in Queensland's canefields lasted as long as it was economically valuable, then after Federation, they were sent back home. No thanks, just get rid of them. /4

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

2. Then, when their numbers are enough that they become a visible minority, they are the ideal ones to blame for the cost or availability of housing, etc. And they're "debated" about as though they're not here amongst us, doing their utmost day by day to keep our country running. /3

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The "debate" on immigration into Australia expertly summarised by @amyremeikis.bsky.social. Australia's treatment of migrants has been void of ethics for some time. Sure, we'll use them (the only way to put it) - to fill our need for rural doctors, abattoir workers, fruit pickers & uni students. /2

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David Neate @neatedavid.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

There's an ethical question here that needs to be fully answered by those who tout "Australian values". If, as we're reminded each time the Reserve Bank raises the rate, the unemployment rate *needs* to rise, then the unemployed are serving an economic role for the rest. Why are they then punished?

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