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Stephen Rowley

@sterow.bsky.social
922 followers 719 following 682 posts

Urban planner, and author of “Movie Towns and Sitcom Suburbs” and “The Victorian Planning System: Practice, Problems and Prospects.” Also, cats, AFL (Essendon), Lego, films. www.sterow.com

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Reposted by Stephen Rowley
Micah @rincewind.run · 02/10/2026
getting mad at the pope for not thinking the chatbot has a soul is easily the funniest thing I've read all week
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Does that mean Morris would be #1 if Brisbane didn’t keep going the long way through finals?
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Do we know how long this ridiculous situation is locked in for?
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 24/09/2026
This piece touches on an extremely important and terrible trend: AI-false-balance among polite centre-left politicians. Every critique HAS to begin with something like "AI is here to stay. With the right rules, it can be a force for good. But........." www.techpolicy.press/the-life-and...
Information integrity is one of seven critical issues in the Preliminary Report of the UN’s Independent Scientific Panel on AI released in July at the Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence. It warns that AI can erode shared reality and civic participation through “epistemic erosion,” the gradual wearing away of society’s ability to distinguish truth from falsehood. Opening the Dialogue, the UN’s secretary-general, António Guterres, tied that erosion directly to the viral and exponential nature of advanced data driven technologies: “A machine-enabled lie can now persuade as effectively as the truth, and authentic evidence can be dismissed as fake.”“A society that cannot agree on what is real cannot defend itself,” Guterres said.

And yet he did not reference the threat of AI to amplify inequality, unless governed effectively. Instead, Guterres casts AI as “the great equaliser of the 21st century ” achievable by developing countries on the technology fast-track through safe systems that honor human rights, with real transparency about labor and planetary impacts. Getting this right, he said, is “at the heart of our common future.”

Yet the Panel’s Report, subtitled as an “evidence-based assessment of the opportunities, risks and impacts of AI” provides no evidence that AI will be a ‘great equaliser’. On the contrary, despite its curious ‘balancing’ of every claim with a counter claim, the heavily referenced report actually demonstrates far more evidence of the negative consequences of AI, while doing very little to support claims that AI will help in the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Regardless, this did not stop the ‘great equaliser’ mantra from being repeated by numerous member states and heads of multilateral bodies who subsequently addressed the forum.

In fact the report highlights the lack of — and unevenness of — evidence, including on some of the big ticket items: productivity gains, labor market effects, value-chain impacts, and …
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 24/09/2026
Leaving a bomb with a timer in a building doesn't get reported as "bomb tries to blow up building", and OpenAI's employees designing an extremely clumsy, badly designed self-prompting language model hooked up to public actions that can cause harm shouldn't be reported that way either
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is an extremely interesting and powerful account of AI addiction. I’ve never come across this person before but she deserves a lot of credit for speaking about this. youtu.be/Hhx_frnyxNM?...
youtu.be
It's Time to Stop: Chatgpt Addiction Ruined My Life
YouTube video by cinematic psychology
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C. Robert Cargill @crobertcargill.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Occasionally I'm reminded of the time I got into an argument with a Scottish film critic over something I said. I was like "My dude, you're just arguing semantics," to which he replied "I'm not arguing semantics, I'm arguing what bloody words mean," and that shit forever lives in my head rent free.
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I really miss teaching. But am so glad I don’t work for a university any more.
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I’m out of higher education now, but have never come across employers with as much contempt for their employees as universities. It’s so deeply ingrained I don’t think many in the sector quite realise how big the issue is.
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Gigz @andrewgigacz.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I think the most important part of the Essendon coach selection process is that they take their time and not be rushed into a decision that's FOOLHIRDY. #AFL
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Good thread. We live in a world of financial titans who are intellectual minnows.
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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 19/07/2023
Under a Binface government, anyone who doesn’t accept human-made climate change as fact will be sent back to school, from Year 1 right the way to A Levels, to see if anything goes in the second time round. #VoteBinface
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Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
I have never been shown one advantage of using AI to write or research. Every single example of someone saying how they find it helpful is accompanied with "But make sure you check it because you can't trust it". Enshittifying your writing and research should not be an aim.
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Damon Young @damonyoung.com.au · 29/07/2026
Another one bites the dust. Just *do the work* you lazy poseurs. You want all the laurels of scholarship and publication without the labour.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Just loving how John Cleese, now reduced to one of his own caricatures, rages about immigrants coming to the UK and failing to accept "our" culture, from his home in ... (checks notes) ... Nevis in the Caribbean.
Telegraph article: John Cleese: I trust Rupert Lowe more than any other leader
Monty Python star backs the Restore Britain founder in a series of social media posts
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Tough watching the #afl tonight as a neutral. I can’t stand Collingwood so normally happy to watch a good team (hopefully) beat them. But these Crows supporters booing Quaynor for detestable reasons makes it hard to barrack for them.
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
This is the video Musk is quote-tweeting when he says he'll deliver a feature length version of The Odyssey, just in case you were curious how dogshit it is
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Switched on Brisbane vs West Coast and these alternate jumpers might be the ugliest I have seen in an #afl game.
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Enjoying watching UK politics atm but I am waiting for Count Binface to get Milkshake Ducked. (There’s a bizarre sentence that says a lot about the state of politics.)
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Hell I’m 50 and missed Gunston; even Hogan was just his brief late revival with Crocodile Dundee when I was a kid.
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Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Posted at 1:56pm, got an email at 3:03pm from Jane Norman cancelling my membership of the press gallery
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Andrew Stafford @andrewstafford.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
I can't think of another industry that hands out as many awards to itself as journalism, nor one with a glassier set of jaws
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Today’s AFP has a story about the head of Dan Murphy whose surname is “Hrdlicka.” This is scarcely believable, was someone pranking the journo?
AFP story about Dan Murphy CEO Jayne Hrdlicka.AFP story about Dan Murphy CEO Jayne Hrdlicka.
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stranger @strangerous.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Australia Institute Chief Economist Greg Jericho shuts down claims that Labor’s CGT changes will hike rents & reduce housing supply, saying actually, “the best thing about this policy is over the long term it will reduce rental rates & increase home ownership rates.”🎯 #auspol
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Elizabeth Lopatto @lopatto.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
this is the ideal newspaper columnist. you may not like it but this is what peak performance looks like
Pump-action soap dispensers are a disgrace -and I won't put up with them any longer
By Adrian Chiles, a perfect man
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
“Move along, nothing to see here!”
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Vikram Bath @vikrambath.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
The top 2026 X accounts gives insight into the lie that X is the town square. These people are niche celebrities and their influence on X does not represent influence elsewhere. Your participation is not going to change this graph www.natesilver.net/p/social-med...
Top accounts are all right-wing
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
lol, a reply to that very good piece about the decline of unis due (in part) to AI has been withdrawn because they used AI to write it. Beyond satire, and so emblematic of the way AI use corrodes judgement. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Sydney academic used AI to write SMH opinion piece urging students to avoid using tech to ‘cut corners’
Sydney Morning Herald removes piece by Cath Ellis, despite Western Sydney University saying her use of AI was ‘appropriate’
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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 30/05/2026
Trump getting his ludicrous self-lawsuit dismissed was letting him off too easy. These retired federal judges would like his lawsuit to be properly taken apart in court. ICYMI @kimwehle.bsky.social:
lnk.thebulwark.com
Retired Judges Call Out Trump’s “Unprecedentedly Fraudulent Scheme”
Former federal jurists ask the court to void the dismissal that led to Trump’s giant slush fund.
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Are bulldogs and demons both using their indigenous jumpers this weekend? It is going to be a jumper clash hall of fame if so. #AFL
Bulldogs 26 indigenous jumper. It is substantially blue and red. Melbourne 26 indigenous jumper. It is substantially blue and red.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
NEW — My first true foray into AI haterdom is about how those of us not convinced by AI’s inevitability are a real constituency worthy of a voice. Give it a read:
thehandbasket.co
Hating AI is good, actually
LinkedIn may be awash with boosters, but shunning AI is the human choice.
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jesse, head of endorsement deals at BOOingo Wireless @killgoldfish.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
my gf works corporate and is on a training about AI and there's a word cloud for "what do you use AI for." the largest word by far is "Nothing" and the trainer is PISSED
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 20/05/2026
ChatGPT was never Google’s biggest threat; it was always its own hubris. With Search now being sacrificed on the altar of AI dominance, the time has come for users to get serious about moving off Google services. It’s not only destroying its products; it’s trying to further degrade the web itself.
disconnect.blog
Google is its own worst enemy
In its bid to push AI, it’s destroying its products and trying to kill the web too
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marque lawyers @marquelawyers.com.au · 14/05/2026
The screws just keep being tightened on our universities, formerly independent institutions of academic learning and research, now corporatised compromised degree factories that are managed, not led. This rubbish is just another nail in their coffins.
abc.net.au
Entire university sector accused of antisemitism failure
The special envoy on antisemitism has found not a single Australian university has met its requirements for adopting a definition of antisemitism.
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Dr Ingrid M🪁 @ingridm.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
apparently knowledge institutions that employ thousands of experts on racism, colonialism, and geopolitics did not conform to a specific form of words acceptable to this one tiny powerful lobby group who provide cover for a livestreamed genocide. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05...
abc.net.au
Entire university sector accused of antisemitism failure
The special envoy on antisemitism has found not a single Australian university has met its requirements for adopting a definition of antisemitism.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 10/05/2026
I really wish people aspiring to write understood what a competitive advantage being able to write without AI will be in the coming years.
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Robert Komaniecki @komaniecki.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
A lifetime of Dawkins pityingly asking religious people how they could believe in something so silly, and now he thinks the computer is his girlfriend
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
The Mother olgoolgarbleblurble. FFS this tech drives me crazy.
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Imagine having someone bring a gun to a ballroom and thinking the answer is ballroom reform. (I suspect this is probably a joke / point a gajillion people have made but I’ve been offline).
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pixelatedboat aka “mr bluesky” @pixelatedboat.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
This is not the time for wild speculation about what happened. It’s time to bet on Kalshi about what happened
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Robey to chooses to bump, leaves the ground, could be in trouble. #afl
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Indie Book Spotlight @bookspotlight.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
I ... It hurts, fam. I am hurt by the way people have devalued themselves. :(
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Not one but two clear examples of Betteridge’s law of headlines (if a headline has a question mark, the answer to the question is “no”) in this YouTube clip. #afl
YouTube video for the Sounding Board footy podcast with  Craig Hutchison and Damian Barrett’s grinning faces over the text:
SHOULD THE SHOWDOWN BE MOVED TO THE MCG?Is Damo's controversial idea a
WINNER?
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Another of those real stories that feels like overwritten satire.
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Just realised Raiders of the Lost Ark came out halfway between now and when it was set. So it is as old now (45 years) as the setting (1936) was when it was made. I feel so old.
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Sooz Kempner @soozuk.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
The new VERY hagriographic Michael Jackson biopic starring MJ's nephew is out at the end of the month. But back in 2004 an unauthorised and EQUALLY flattering biopic was made in Canada. Here is a clip and I promise you have NO idea where it's going. I haven't done a single edit here.
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Those shows were so odd. The whole thing was basically “Boba Fett but less villainous,” but then they introduced Boba Fett and span him off into his own show where he was less villainous. Did they not know they were already making that show?
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SJones @sjoneswastaken.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
We didn't create "AI." "AI" is an app that plagiarizes & turns its theft into slop. It's designed to make Boomers think they can code without knowing how to code, create art without ever making a drawing, & write a book with no new ideas or talent. All using water & raising electric bills. 🙄
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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
The conservative / low growth option in my super fund is currently putting 30% in bonds, 30% in property, and 40% in the Bulldogs to beat Essendon at Marvel this weekend. #afl
Odds for the Essendon / Bulldogs AFL game this weekend showing the Bulldogs paying $1.00 for a win.
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Ingrid Burrington @lifewinning.com · 01/04/2026
www.microsoft.com/en-us/micros... is it good to build an entire economy and software infrastructure on this
Highlighted section of the Copilot ToS which says "Copilot is for entertainment purposes only"
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