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Robert Merkel

@rgmerk.bsky.social
394 followers 571 following 1.7K posts

code monkey, former SE academic. Obsessed with renewable energy.

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Reposted by Robert Merkel
Liam Hogan @liamhogan.id.au · 27/09/2026
This is a shopping list of Australian housing myths, including my favourite, ‘there used to be housing commissions’. Yes, and the absence of public housing is a real factor in crisis. But the Cwth and State housing commissions built a tiny fraction of our cities, the vast majority was private built
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This this this, and it doesn't just apply to the US and climate.
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This this this, and it doesn't just apply to the US and climate.
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
So the latest AI hype train is arriving for a tool called Jev, which is supposed to be a fast, cheap model designed for classification rather than generation.
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Reposted by Robert Merkel
Asher Wolf @asherwolf.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I absolutely refuse to get caught up in hype about a “hack” of a public service that simultaneously tries to block public access to data and also doesn’t know how to set permissions in their own data management www.croakey.org/on-secrets-s...
croakey.org
On secrets, Services Australia and a call for more transparent public governance
Introduction by Charles Maskell-Knight: One of the problems in delivering government entitlement programs fairly and legally is ensuring that the
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Reposted by Robert Merkel
Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
If ultimately there's no criminal responsibility for this incident here then FOI just became a lot easier if we ask AI agents to go find those documents for us. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Albanese says OpenAI hacked Medicare and told Australia months later via email to generic inbox
Prime minister says he told Sam Altman he was disappointed it had taken OpenAI ‘way too long’ to disclose breach
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Not often a bulk mailout from our local MP brings a tear to the eye…but this one did. Rest in peace, Dr Read. He was genuinely one of the good ones.
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Reposted by Robert Merkel
Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
New YouGov shows Reform increasingly suffering from tactical voting: Lab vs Reform Lab: 41% (+6 from Feb) Reform: 26% (-5) Con vs Reform Con: 35% (+4) Reform: 20% (-4) Lab vs Con Lab: 34% (+5) Con: 27% (-1)
Chart showing: How has tactical voting behaviour changed over the last year and a half?
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Interesting research about an extraordinarily fraught question.
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Read this. Not Nock’s main point but the national airlines of all the Pacific states are a disaster area: if they had any sense they’d merge the lot into a single airline.
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Reposted by Robert Merkel
Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Why does this micronation have a commercial airline with seven Boeing 737s? Because the Australian government goes to absurd and dangerous lengths to prop it up. The scandal of Nauru Airlines and Australia’s offshore detention regime. Now on my substack:
nickfeik.substack.com
The scandal of Nauru Airlines and Australia’s offshore detention regime
Why does this micronation have a commercial airline with seven Boeing 737s? Because the Australian government goes to absurd and dangerous lengths to prop it up.
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Sean Casten @seancasten.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This from a man who has asked his son to monitor his on-line porn consumption.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 16/09/2026
There are dissertations to be written about climate change vs. AI -- the nature of the risks, how they were communicated, how elites responded, on and on. A rich vein.
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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 16/09/2026
the hardest thing for the politician-bureaucrats to understand -- but which NSF staff *absolutely do* understand and always have -- is that you actually make scientific progress by giving young people money and promising not to bother them
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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
It’s darkly funny that data center bros are all installing gigawatts of diesel generators because batteries are girly and foreign, just at the moment the entire global diesel production system is breaking apart.
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Reposted by Robert Merkel
Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
New investigation: How Australia is propping up an entire international commercial airline (and a dangerously mismanaged one) for its offshore detention regime:
thepoint.com.au
Why is Australia propping up Nauru airlines to keep offshore detention alive?
Here’s a question you’ve probably never asked yourself: Why does Nauru Airlines exist? There’s a simple answer – Australia’s offshore detention regime. Australia’s “resettlement” program in Naoero req...
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
kids are natural cops tbh
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John Quiggin @johnquiggin.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Australian media: Migrants are pushing house prices up, and that’s a disaster Also Australian media: Tax policy is pushing house prices down, and that’t a disaster #auspol
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Tim Baxter @timinclimate.naruresearch.com.au · 13/09/2026
Australian energy efficiency maven Jenny Edwards is on an upcoming home reno series where the schtick is to fix up an old 1970s house to bring it into the 2020s for (relatively!) cheap. I don't know the show, but Jenny is great value. I will be watching. You should too for cheap idea!
Only two weeks to go until you get to check out a small selection of my energy geek t-shirts, the colour of my lab coat, how quickly I can V-tape a door and the coolest insulation I've ever hugged.

Oh, and (to quote one of my millennial co-presenters) you will also hear about: "an incredibly old hot water system"... the same age as me, that is finally getting a rest.

Things from the 70s have good bones! Well, if you exclude my three hip replacements. Let's just say my days climbing through chick-hatches (aka manholes) to install ceiling insulation came to an end around 2010. Another reason I love my thermal camera so much.

You will totally D.I.G. this show (where D stands for draught sealing, I stands for insulating and G stands for getting off gas).

Small changes that have BIG impact.

After 18 years testing it, I know a little bit of practical, cost-effective science can go a long way.9Life New TV series Big Little Reno 3.30pm Sunday 27 SeptemberThere experts
One original 1970s home
Budget under $50k
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Im not going to dispute the necessity and potential effectiveness of this advice but not being a campaigner I’m allowed to conclude that One Nation voters are, in fact, racist idiots. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Do not call her a racist: anti-Pauline Hanson strategists tell campaigners character attacks won’t work in Victoria
Exclusive: strategic rethink urges progressive activists to respectfully steer one-on-one conversations with One Nation supporters towards economic concerns
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Bill Kelty is right. The well-off would periodically take (concessionally taxed) money out of their super to avoid hitting the $3 million cap. It's a tax handout to the rich. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/economy...
thesaturdaypaper.com.au
Bill Kelty on One Nation’s ‘giant tax avoidance scheme’
The former ACTU secretary and architect of Australia’s superannuation system says workers will risk lower wages, higher inflation and a poorer future all round if super funds are tapped today.
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Reposted by Robert Merkel
Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I miss Old Internet a lot, but admittedly a major part of that is that the early internet had a very weird opt-in procedure that you can't recreate, the result of which is that the default user was a curious dorkwad. Plus, there was no money to be made, so no branding/positioning all the time.
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Aside from the obvious privacy and legal issues - I'm confused. What is the use case for this feature? I'm having a conversation with someone, I miss a point, and I stop and fiddle with my watch to get a transcript of their last statement?
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Congratulations to the journalist who bothered to ask a very basic question - is there a reason why road funding isn't keeping up - and got some useful answers.
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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
If you had to design a high school class that every person on earth were required to take, what would it be? (Keep in mind the problems of distribution at scale: your content will often be watered down and mistaught, like all high school classes)
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Reposted by Robert Merkel
Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Imagine if we had a national anti-corruption commission that exposed corruption
theguardian.com
The Icac allegations are astounding – even with NSW’s inglorious history of corruption and property development
The evidence presented so far raises some disturbing questions about the influence of certain figures in NSW politics
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
5 hours and 40 minutes on a paddle board? Swallowing salt water? I’d rather do an Ironman bike leg on a fat bike.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 02/09/2026
Just gonna toss out there that one of the central facts of US politics--all politics, really--is that the general populace knows very little about who holds power, how gov't works, what policies do & don't exist, the balance of economic forces, or really much of anything outside their lifeworlds.
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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 02/09/2026
it's a very old rule of moderated digital spaces that you need an "i know it when i see it" clause for harassment or else bad actors will aggressively toe the line without ever technically going over. that's why i don't think the "why cant you give me an exact definition" replies will go anywhere
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Nick Evershed!? @nickevershed.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
‘Scary’: how misinformation and AI hallucinations are infiltrating Australia’s parliament - Guardian analysis reveals that dozens of policy submissions from across the political spectrum incorrectly summarise real research and invent or wrongly cite sources www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
‘Scary’: how misinformation and AI hallucinations are infiltrating Australia’s parliament
Exclusive: Guardian analysis reveals that dozens of policy submissions from across the political spectrum incorrectly summarise real research and invent or wrongly cite sources
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
1970s trenagers talk a lot, at school, a bowling alley, and at an outdoor party. Nothing changes as a result.
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Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
🍺Cheers! Heat pumps aren't just for homes. Heineken UK is putting an industrial heat pump network into its Manchester brewery, recovering waste heat from brewing to replace gas boilers. Industrial heat is the next frontier. www.foodbeverage-outlook.com/sustainabili...
foodbeverage-outlook.com
How Heineken UK is Using Heat Pumps to Slash Brewery Gas Use by 45% - Food & Beverage Outlook
Heineken UK is installing a GEA low-carbon heat network at its Manchester brewery, using heat recovery and industrial heat pumps to reduce reliance on natural gas and support its production decarbonis...
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evacide @evacide.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
If you're writing a story about police abusing Flock access to stalk current/former/potential partners, I'm begging you to please follow up on the consequences these cops face for getting caught, because a lot of the time it's barely more than a slap on the wrist.
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
This one might bring back some particular feels for Australian audiences of a certain age. Spectacular rendition.
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
TL;DR: It's Ben Roberts-Smith. One Nation supporters are exactly who you think they are. www.theage.com.au/politics/fed...
theage.com.au
The surprising figure One Nation supporters back more than anyone apart from Hanson
No.1 among One Nation voters is, as you’d expect, Pauline Hanson. But No.2 is not Barnaby Joyce or Donald Trump or any conventional political figure.
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Never thought ASCII art would become an aesthetic, but here we are:
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
It remains one hell of a listen. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/a...
theguardian.com
‘It was a damn unicorn’: the pioneering, divisive power of Paul Simon’s Graceland at 40
On its anniversary, the author of a new book about the album explains the complex legacy and masterful musicianship of the 1986 classic
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Reposted by Robert Merkel
mate13hd.bsky.social @mate13hd.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
From today's Melbourne Age.
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Reminder: as well as being professional racists, One Nation produce objectively terrible policy ideas: News live: Hanson says Australians should be able to use super for cost-of-living pressures www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
News live: Hanson says Australians should be able to use super for cost-of-living pressures
Follow live updates
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
If the Dems do a Project 2029 type thing of shovel ready policy papers it's gonna be a lot of shit like "loan forgiveness for pell grant recipients who start business" when it should be "we asked 50 retired OEM dealer relations lawyers how to fuck over car dealers and here's what they said"
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
If the Liberals wwre serious about easing regulation to make housing affordable, nandated parking minimums would be a mich more sensible place to start. But they aren’t, so they won’t. grattan.edu.au/news/axe-car...
grattan.edu.au
Axe car-parking rules to ease the housing crisis
The rules that require new housing developments to include off-street parking needlessly drive up the price of homes and should be scrapped.
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
*raises eyebrows*
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Ben Eltham @beneltham.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Seems like an easy productivity win which is why I’m sure it will be ignored
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
So Jacinta Allan has resigned. While they aren’t the things that will get attention, Fingers crossed this might mean the end of the pro-gun, and pro-feral deer nonsense this government and specifically Allan has been responsible for.
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Liam Hogan @liamhogan.id.au · 27/07/2026
My own inner 20thC progressivist says: The kind of irrational anxiety people are displaying about the AusAlert test is very bad and I don’t know how it’s healthy to share a democracy with people who demand these kinds of fear-mongering superstitions be respected.
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Andrew Elder @awelder.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Vale Bill Oddie, magnificent bastard, it was important to me as a kid that people like you existed too
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Robert Merkel @rgmerk.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
I finally had the chance to set up my Commodore 64 Ultimate (a modern, hardware-based replica of the classic 80s home computer) and played a couple of games against my 10 year old daughter. While the graphics are blocky, the SID tunes still rock and the games are surprisingly fun.
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Will Harris @sandwichpick.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
The perfect parody doesn't exis-
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Dr Kathleen Neal @kbneal.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Begging writers of recipes to specify if they mean fan or non-fan forced oven in *every* recipe that mentions temperatures. Not mentioning it in passing in your blog intro. Not expecting everyone to know by default. Just spell it out. Please.
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stuart @stuartp.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
iron rule of British politics is even if a guy who dresses as a bin becomes prime minister he will have been to Oxbridge
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