Jock Serong
@jockserong.bsky.social
jockserong.com
nocturnal mammal
Gunditjmara country, southwest Vic
Rep'd Melanie Ostell Literary / Booked Out Speakers
nocturnal mammal
Gunditjmara country, southwest Vic
Rep'd Melanie Ostell Literary / Booked Out Speakers
Big props to Ch.7 for having a grown-up conversation about Usman and racism. That's reaching all sorts of Australian ears that need to hear it. #Ashes
January 5, 2026 at 1:54 AM
Big props to Ch.7 for having a grown-up conversation about Usman and racism. That's reaching all sorts of Australian ears that need to hear it. #Ashes
Somehow Susssan Ley has managed to combine the confident vacuity of Liz Truss with the wounded spite of Pauline Hanson. That's no small feat.
December 22, 2025 at 5:18 AM
Somehow Susssan Ley has managed to combine the confident vacuity of Liz Truss with the wounded spite of Pauline Hanson. That's no small feat.
Reposted by Jock Serong
Remember how I said I have it written into my foreign-language contracts that my work has to be translated by an actual human? This shit is why.
Those book translations are gonna suck. They'll save money putting out books that are going to be painful to read. That's not a great long-term strategy.
Those book translations are gonna suck. They'll save money putting out books that are going to be painful to read. That's not a great long-term strategy.
French publishing house Harlequin decided to use AI translation instead of human translations.
All their freelance translators (some of whom had been working with Harlequin for +30y!!!) were told they would no longer receive work from Harlequin
All their freelance translators (some of whom had been working with Harlequin for +30y!!!) were told they would no longer receive work from Harlequin
December 18, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Remember how I said I have it written into my foreign-language contracts that my work has to be translated by an actual human? This shit is why.
Those book translations are gonna suck. They'll save money putting out books that are going to be painful to read. That's not a great long-term strategy.
Those book translations are gonna suck. They'll save money putting out books that are going to be painful to read. That's not a great long-term strategy.
“Hi, my name’s Cam, and I signed up for Bonesaw while they were still putting Kashoggi in bags…”
December 17, 2025 at 4:21 AM
“Hi, my name’s Cam, and I signed up for Bonesaw while they were still putting Kashoggi in bags…”
World Socialist website has been doing some great reporting on the NSW Cobar mine disaster - major media in Aus seem to have dropped the ball entirely on this. www.wsws.org/en/articles/...
Australia: Cobar miner warns fatal accident at Endeavor Mine could be repeated
“I don’t think what the company has done in sending workers back on the job is right at all,” a Cobar worker said, referring to the October 28 mine explosion that killed two workers.
www.wsws.org
December 10, 2025 at 8:56 AM
World Socialist website has been doing some great reporting on the NSW Cobar mine disaster - major media in Aus seem to have dropped the ball entirely on this. www.wsws.org/en/articles/...
I can no longer work under this constant surveillance
December 7, 2025 at 10:12 PM
I can no longer work under this constant surveillance
I had all this stuff I was going to get done, but the skydivers are on strike, so...
December 5, 2025 at 1:41 AM
I had all this stuff I was going to get done, but the skydivers are on strike, so...
Reposted by Jock Serong
Spotify is garbage on every count: Its treatment of artists, its ICE advertising, the CEO's investment in military AI, its leading role in the commodification and AI slopification of music, its terrible audio quality—you name it.
So I quit, and put together a complete guide to getting off Spotify:
So I quit, and put together a complete guide to getting off Spotify:
How to quit Spotify
This Black Friday, here's a guide to finding the best Spotify alternative
www.bloodinthemachine.com
December 3, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Spotify is garbage on every count: Its treatment of artists, its ICE advertising, the CEO's investment in military AI, its leading role in the commodification and AI slopification of music, its terrible audio quality—you name it.
So I quit, and put together a complete guide to getting off Spotify:
So I quit, and put together a complete guide to getting off Spotify:
I walked today to the spot where JS Prout made his 1846 painting of Wybalenna on Flinders Island. You can see the chapel in the centre of both frames and Prime Seal Island across the water. A beautiful place that’s steeped in tragedy.
November 30, 2025 at 9:49 AM
I walked today to the spot where JS Prout made his 1846 painting of Wybalenna on Flinders Island. You can see the chapel in the centre of both frames and Prime Seal Island across the water. A beautiful place that’s steeped in tragedy.
Politics is endlessly dispiriting, so when it throws up a gem, I’m shouting about it. Moyne Shire - our lot in western Vic- have just made progressive local Jordy Lockett mayor (Myra Murrihy deputy). Good times ahead. First official act: replacing the gavel with clap-sticks.
November 25, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Politics is endlessly dispiriting, so when it throws up a gem, I’m shouting about it. Moyne Shire - our lot in western Vic- have just made progressive local Jordy Lockett mayor (Myra Murrihy deputy). Good times ahead. First official act: replacing the gavel with clap-sticks.
This is the image our regional paper, The Standard, used to illustrate a story about road safety on the Great Ocean Road, Given we drive on the left side of the road, I wonder if the use of AI here was journalistic best practice.
November 11, 2025 at 1:17 AM
This is the image our regional paper, The Standard, used to illustrate a story about road safety on the Great Ocean Road, Given we drive on the left side of the road, I wonder if the use of AI here was journalistic best practice.
Offset Alpine Offset Alpine Offset Alpine
November 8, 2025 at 4:54 AM
Offset Alpine Offset Alpine Offset Alpine
News Corpse CEO Robert Thomson strides through the media release sludge with a barrage of five-dollar words: 'non-pareil,' 'inflexion point,' and my personal fave, 'efficacious.' Writes like a swollen bollock.
Lachlan Murdoch’s top adviser Siobhan McKenna resigns from News Corp
Company’s Australian broadcast chief, who was involved in negotiations over Murdoch family’s succession plans, to depart media giant
www.theguardian.com
October 30, 2025 at 4:04 AM
News Corpse CEO Robert Thomson strides through the media release sludge with a barrage of five-dollar words: 'non-pareil,' 'inflexion point,' and my personal fave, 'efficacious.' Writes like a swollen bollock.
Reposted by Jock Serong
“Tell your children who the cowards were.”
October 27, 2025 at 10:19 PM
“Tell your children who the cowards were.”
ffs every news story has some boggle-eyed American screaming ‘weaponise’ Are there any other serviceable verbs we could be using here, people?
October 8, 2025 at 7:57 AM
ffs every news story has some boggle-eyed American screaming ‘weaponise’ Are there any other serviceable verbs we could be using here, people?
Just got a participant survey from Bendigo Writers' Festival. A naïve part of me thought good - looks like they're reflecting. Nope. Not a word of contrition. Not even a mention of Codes of Conduct, Gaza or external lobbying. 'How was your festival experience?' Don't waste my time.
October 7, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Just got a participant survey from Bendigo Writers' Festival. A naïve part of me thought good - looks like they're reflecting. Nope. Not a word of contrition. Not even a mention of Codes of Conduct, Gaza or external lobbying. 'How was your festival experience?' Don't waste my time.
BREAKING: First images of Tony Abbott's new "mothership" concept for UK asylum seekers.
October 7, 2025 at 10:34 PM
BREAKING: First images of Tony Abbott's new "mothership" concept for UK asylum seekers.
Reposted by Jock Serong
What’s this? Yet more research concluding that robust public investment in the arts yields economic benefits?
A great outcome for Ireland, and a rebuke to all those tired cliches about freeloading artists sapping the resources of the state.
But also, art enriches us all, economic benefits or no.
A great outcome for Ireland, and a rebuke to all those tired cliches about freeloading artists sapping the resources of the state.
But also, art enriches us all, economic benefits or no.
Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...
October 7, 2025 at 4:14 AM
What’s this? Yet more research concluding that robust public investment in the arts yields economic benefits?
A great outcome for Ireland, and a rebuke to all those tired cliches about freeloading artists sapping the resources of the state.
But also, art enriches us all, economic benefits or no.
A great outcome for Ireland, and a rebuke to all those tired cliches about freeloading artists sapping the resources of the state.
But also, art enriches us all, economic benefits or no.
Christ on a bike - Dan Tehan just managed to tether nuclear power to AI and the US government. What could possibly go wrong with that combo?
October 1, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Christ on a bike - Dan Tehan just managed to tether nuclear power to AI and the US government. What could possibly go wrong with that combo?
Manuscript's gone to the publisher. Every living witness interviewed, every rabbit chased down each burrow. And then... 'oh, would this box of 250 Kodachrome slides be any use?' Unseen for sixty, seventy years. A treasure trove...
September 23, 2025 at 3:42 AM
Manuscript's gone to the publisher. Every living witness interviewed, every rabbit chased down each burrow. And then... 'oh, would this box of 250 Kodachrome slides be any use?' Unseen for sixty, seventy years. A treasure trove...
It’s fascinating that, given a clear choice, Americans have binned the first amendment and not the second.
September 18, 2025 at 3:09 AM
It’s fascinating that, given a clear choice, Americans have binned the first amendment and not the second.
A thousand speechwriters couldn’t come up with a better endorsement of a policy
September 4, 2025 at 4:42 AM
A thousand speechwriters couldn’t come up with a better endorsement of a policy
Got to say, the universities are really excelling themselves at supporting Aus lit right now
September 4, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Got to say, the universities are really excelling themselves at supporting Aus lit right now
And here’s me thinking Drax was the bad guy on an Arctic whaler
I thought James Bond sorted out that rotter
Drax investigated by UK watchdog over biomass sourcing
August 28, 2025 at 8:45 AM
And here’s me thinking Drax was the bad guy on an Arctic whaler