Is climate change increasing the strength of Australian red wine?

Apparently red wines made in Australia — and quite possibly elsewhere, I imagine — have been increasing in alcoholic strength over recent decades. This seems like a mystery of the times, because the go-to culprit, global warming, may not be responsible. Rather, the way grapes are … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

The physics of running and keeping fit on the Moon

Rhett Allain, writing for Wired, looks at the physics of this important question. If humanity is ever to establish bases on the Moon, ways of keeping occupants fit in the low lunar gravity need to be worked out. A wall of death sort of gizmo, that’s a little like a stationary ham … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Threads first birthday gift to users: advertising?

Break out the coffee and the cake: a celebration is on the cards. Tomorrow, Threads, Meta’s answer — and much needed foil — to X/Twitter, notches up its first birthday. I was there as the platform began rolling out, and managed to score (just) a relatively low (five-figure) badge … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Potentially habitable Earth size planet forty light years away

That’s the good news. Tory Shepherd, writing for The Guardian, says the recently discovered exoplanet, dubbed Gliese 12b, might be able to host liquid water. We all know what that means. If there’s water, there may be life. Gliese 12b is so named because it orbits a star called G … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Australian bookseller Booktopia in voluntary administration

This is sad and concerning news. The Melbourne based bookseller had become well ensconced in the Australian literary realm, since being founded about twenty-years ago. The company, which is also listed on the ASX (though trading of shares has been suspended), had been struggling … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

I like your old music better than your new music

I might say that of U2, whose music I once really liked, especially the stuff they did in the nineties. Achtung Baby. Zooropa. Pop. Even 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind. These albums mostly represented their electronic music phase. I’d have them on loop for days at a time. … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

The 2024 Miles Franklin shortlist for Australian fiction

The shortlist for the 2024 Miles Franklin literary award for works of Australian fiction, was announced earlier today. Of the ten novels named on the longlist in May, the following six titles have been included today: Only Sound Remains, by Hossein Asgari Wall, by Jen Craig Anam, … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Teleportation: the superpower of choice of superheroes

Given the choice, a regular person, like you or me, who decides they’d like to become a superhero, will choose teleportation as their superhero superpower. In preference to three other choices they could have made: mind-control, flight, or supernatural physical strength. This is … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

The Honeyeater, the new novel by Australian author Jessie Tu

The Honeyeater is the second novel by Sydney based Australian writer Jessie Tu, and will be in bookshops on Tuesday 2 July 2024. That’s tomorrow. I read Tu’s 2020 debut A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing almost four years ago. It was the story of a once child prodigy musician, wh … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

The Tetris font, fun and games with typography

Is there a version of Tetris that requires the player to try and spell words with the Tetris pieces, as they fall from the sky? If there is, I’ve not heard of it. But, that’s not saying much, as I don’t know a whole lot about gaming. Anyway, Tetris Font, developed by Erik Demaine … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Did the universe exist before the Big Bang? Maybe…

What happened, or was there, before the Big Bang that is said to have brought the universe into being? Was there nothing, to which something came? It is the question of the ages. In his recent documentary series, Universe, British physicist Brian Cox posits that the universe exis … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Ye Old Blogroll, a trove of links to blogs, personal websites

My thanks to Ray for recently adding disassociated to Ye Old Blogroll, a directory of small and independent websites and blogs. Directory websites like Ray’s are invaluable when it comes to promoting the work of Indie and Small Web writers and bloggers, which is often overshadowe … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

The Artocalypse, an IndieWeb arts community by Chris Shaw

The Artocalypse is a subscription based community for artists on IndieWeb, created by Chris Shaw at uncountable thoughts. This a great cross-promotional idea, showcasing the work of artists, while also spreading the word about IndieWeb. I dare say some of the participating artist … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Windows 11 forces data backup to OneDrive, possible workaround

Maybe it’s time to start a Windows 11 is going just great website, similar to Molly White’s Web3 is Going Just Great. I say this after reading about another instance of heavy-handedness on Microsoft’s part, at Neowin: Quietly and without any announcement, the company changed Wind … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Put your Palace Cinema wine glass in the cup-holder carefully

Whether they are a part of an on-going series of light-hearted clips by Australian cinema group Palace Cinemas, remains to be seen, but the two I’ve caught to date, on their Instagram page, have been pretty witty. The first is in response to the apparent problem of patrons nickin … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

A book about ferns: the truth of the three-hour Gilligan’s Island cruise

Gilligan’s Island was a slapstick American TV series which ran from 1964 to 1967. Despite its popularity, the show was cancelled shortly before filming of a fourth series commenced. I first saw reruns of Gilligan’s quite some time later. A number of movies, featuring most of the … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Blogging about blogging versus adding value through your blog

Less blogging about blogging: The majority of my posts are either platform explanations/justifications or organizational posts. Stuff like, “I’m moving the Archives here” or “I’ve added a ton of Links there.” Other times it’s simple announcements about me moving my blog someplace … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Easy OS, an experimental Linux distro, by Barry Kauler

I’m in the process of migrating my OS away from Windows. I’ve been running Linux Mint, considered to be a user-friendly, Windows-like distribution of the Linux family of OS’s, on a backup device for almost two weeks now. It’s been a learning curve naturally, but so far, so good. … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Burritos power Guzman Y Gomez to hot sharemarket debut

Shares in Australian founded Mexican food restaurant Guzman Y Gomez (GYG: it’s not only an initialism, it’s a ticker code) had a stellar debut on their first day of trading on the ASX, with one market pundit describing the launch as “the hottest float on the stock market in years … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

The Peaky Blinders military unit helping to defend Ukraine

Kathryn Diss and Mathew Marsic, writing for ABC News: For Commander Anton, it’s difficult to imagine returning to his quiet life before the war. The 33-year-old former builder is now a battle-hardened soldier who risks his life every day, just kilometres from the Russian border. … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Before Sunrise turns thirty, my theory about what happens

It’s a favourite around here. Because don’t we love meeting someone we connect with at first sight? But Sunday 16 June 2024, marked the thirtieth anniversary (Facebook link) of the premiere of Before Sunrise, directed by Richard Linklater, and starring Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Now that we have IndieWeb how are others to find it?

How do people who don’t know about IndieWeb, but would like to escape the web-scape funk they’re beholden to, find out about IndieWeb, asks Delyo Dobrev. This is the million dollar question. Everyone and their grandma and their dog is talking about social media’s bad influence. B … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Are more first time authors struggling to get published?

Kate Dwyer, writing for Esquire: Almost everyone mentioned that debut fiction has become harder to launch. For writers, the stakes are do or die: A debut sets the bar for each of their subsequent books, so their debut advance and sales performance can follow them for the rest of … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney, on bookshelves in September 2024

Intermezzo, the fourth novel by Irish literary fiction author Sally Rooney, will be published on 24 September 2024*. The synopsis is classic Rooney: Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common. Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his th … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

The WWDC edition of the Talk Show, ChatGPT, tall poppy syndrome

John Gruber, of Daring Fireball, presented another edition of the Talk Show, at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). The live show featured usual Apple executives Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak, who were joined this year by John Giannandrea, perhaps best known … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

What about anti-virus apps? On going #IndieOS with Linux

As I wrote a few days ago, I’m in the process of trying out Linux operating systems, specifically Linux Mint. With the release of Windows 11, I think Microsoft has (finally) jumped the shark. Others will probably argue that happened long before Win 11 came along. They’re likely r … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Can you use Vison Pro in a group or social setting?

Or when snuggled up on the sofa, say watching a movie, with your better half? I feel isolated when watching media, and it’s also much harder to snack and get cozy. This is a point — raised by Hacker News/Y Combinator member archagon — and is not something I’d thought of, in regar … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Writers not using AI being accused of using AI… by AI apps

I’m not anti-AI (well, not too much), but when there’s a one-hundred percent reliance on their abilities, and more crucially, the judgements some AI apps make, then there’s a problem. News that (human) writers and journalists, who have never used AI-powered tools in their work, b … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Software vendors… supercharge their apps with AI. But why?

This is a disturbing trend, vendors of software and apps, in particular those that have been around for years, suddenly introducing AI functionality. Indeed, whose idea was this? What Apple announced looks like more of the same that’s been offered lately. Help writing emails that … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Well-built furniture should last centuries, not a couple of years

Tim Bray: When Lauren was pregnant with a child who’s now turning 25, we purchased a comfy dark-brown leather sofa which fits our living room nicely. What with kids and relatives and employees and cats and Standards Comittees and friends and book clubs and socials, the butt-suppo … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Hello Linux, farewell to toxic Windows operating systems

I’ve read a stack of articles recently about Windows 11 (11), the successor operating system (OS) to Windows 10 (10), and am not liking a single thing I’ve seen. Microsoft (MS) will soon begin forcing users to install Windows 11, whether they like it or not. If that’s not toxic b … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 3 months ago

Alien: Romulus, the Alien story continues. Great poster though

Best I keep this brief, especially after complaining about film franchises continually rebooting and retelling the same story. Alien: Romulus (isn’t Romulus a planet in the Star Trek universe? Yeah, I thought so), is a story about some people on a spaceship, whose lives are threa … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago

Wake Up Dead Man, by Rian Johnson, with Daniel Craig: Benoit Blanc returns

Great news for fans of 2019 thriller/comedy/whodunit, Knives Out… a follow up is on the way. Daniel Craig will reprise his role as private detective Benoit Blanc, in Wake Up Dead Man, due for cinematic release sometime in 2025. Check out the teaser/trailer, though it’s more tease … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago

Four-day workweeks are nigh, followed by zero-day workweeks

There has been talk of the four-day workweek for as long as I can remember. We were told about it when I started school. Yet it’s to fully, properly, officially, arrive. The work week is still, for the most part, in many places, five days: Monday to Friday. We don’t live in an ag … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago

An extremely simple way to detect potential late bloomers

Colonel Sanders founded KFC at age sixty-two. Anna Mary Robertson Moses AKA Grandma Moses, started painting when she was seventy-six, and had an illustrious career spanning twenty-five years. American actor Kathryn Joosten began her Hollywood career aged fifty-six. These are just … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago

People may not read longer novels, but they do win literary awards

Tangentially related to the last post. Longer novels might pose a challenge to certain readers, especially those who require apps to do the reading for them. But, longer titles are more likely to win literary awards: Judgment and decision-making research suggests several causes o … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago

Conquer your TBR with apps that read books in fifteen minutes

Such apps don’t exactly read novels in fifteen minutes, but they scan through them, and produce relatively short summaries. Seems like cheating to me, don’t we read books to be taken along on a journey? Still, I imagine these apps have their uses. Like, where were they when I was … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago

Five-thousand kilometre long cloud-band across Australia

The Daily Aus (TDA), Friday, 31 May 2024: Rain is forecast across 90% of the country over the coming days as a 5,000km ‘cloudband’ makes its way from WA‘s north to south-east Australia. According to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), a ‘northwest cloudband’ is an extensive layer of … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago

Guzman y Gomez goes to IPO, eyes burrito world domination

I’m not exactly a fan of large-chain food and beverage outlets. But Sydney based Mexican cuisine fast food restaurant Guzman y Gomez, AKA GYG (to me, anyway) is not quite large-chain. Not at the moment, though there are near to two-hundred stores in Australia, sixteen in Singapor … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago

Matt Adnate wins Archibald Packing Room Prize for Baker Boy painting

Matt Adnate has been named the 2024 winner of the Archibald Prize’s Packing Room Prize, with his portrait of Indigenous Australian rapper Baker Boy, AKA Danzal Baker. As the name suggests, the prize is awarded by the staff of the packing room at the Art Gallery of New South Wales … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago

Happy birthday WordPress, twenty-one and going strong

I’m a bit late to the party, but such is life in the twenty-first century. The other day WordPress (WP), the CMS that powers disassociated turned twenty-one (Facebook link)*. I’ve been on-board since 2007. You’ll only find a handful of posts from those days though, I rebooted my … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago

If Starbucks gives you lemon lattes, go co-work at McDonalds

Craig Meerkamper, writing at Spacing, laments the apparent demise of the once omnipresent commercial third place, a kind of neutral zone between home and work, such as a cafe, where people gather. Or where remote workers can set up shop for the day. Coffee houses are one of the e … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago

An art deco delight by night in the Sydney suburb of Randwick

Randwick is a large suburb located about five kilometres south east of downtown Sydney, Australia. It is home to the Prince of Wales hospital, Royal Randwick Racecourse, a thriving commercial and retail hub, large bus and light rail depots, the historic Ritz Cinemas, and arguably … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago

Creative environments, are they a place or a time, or both?

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: write about creative environments. Let’s have a go. A creative environment, as far as I can tell, is not necessarily a place. Not one I can put my finger on, at least. Nor is it a particular time. My creative ideas, if that’s what the … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago

The search for the distant Planet Nine continues

Weird stuff is happening out on the remote boundary of the solar system. Beyond the orbit of Pluto. You name it, it’s going on out there. Irregularities. Anomalies. Clustering of apsidal lines. Perihelia. And — saving the best for last — a surprising prevalence of retrograde Cent … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago

ICQ to close on 26 June 2024

ASL? Another artefact of the early days of the (mainstream) internet will soon be no more. Instant messaging service, ICQ, launched in 1996, will cease operating, as of Wednesday 26 June 2024. ICQ (I seek you, get it?) allowed users to chat to pretty much anyone who let them. I c … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago

Telstra redundancies, AI robots come in, the future is now

Australia’s largest telecommunications company, Telstra, announced this week it was making about three thousand employees, or ten percent, of its workforce redundant. About three hundred people were sent home straightaway — hopefully with some sort of pay-out — while the remainde … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago

Build bases on the Moon, instead of going for a week

NASA is dead set keen to return to the Moon. But their current plan, called Artemis, is dead set crazy, writes Polish-American entrepreneur and writer, Maciej Cegłowski: You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to wonder what’s going on here. If we can put a man on the moon, then … | Continue reading


@disassociated.com | 4 months ago