Simon on stuff
@simonthomsen.bsky.social
Journalist covering tech and startups who likes a bunch of things, including a kinder world. As Guru Adrian said: "Having fun is half the fun".
February 10, 2026 at 11:42 AM
Reposted by Simon on stuff
social cohesion..
February 10, 2026 at 6:01 AM
social cohesion..
Sound familiar?
2. Linked to its alignment with the Netanyahu government is the Labour government’s assaults on the right to protest at home. Assaults that would have stopped the Labour movement in its tracks:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Here’s what you need to know about Starmer’s illiberal protest curbs: they would have killed the Labour party at birth | George Monbiot
The rights we enjoy in the UK, and the movement the PM purports to lead, were built on protest. Those rights are in dire peril, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
February 10, 2026 at 7:32 AM
Sound familiar?
Reposted by Simon on stuff
The award-winning cartoonist Jon Kudelka died in Hobart on Sunday, aged 53. Over 30 years, his work resisted the polarisation of the contemporary Australian media.
As beautiful as they were powerful: Jon Kudelka’s political cartoons were made with true conviction
theconversation.com
February 10, 2026 at 5:34 AM
The award-winning cartoonist Jon Kudelka died in Hobart on Sunday, aged 53. Over 30 years, his work resisted the polarisation of the contemporary Australian media.
There's a very simple test to apply to what happened. You could infer, without knowing, an element of civil disobedience in Muslim men praying outside Sydney Town Hall last night. But imagine another religious group praying similarly in public when police stormed them. What would the reaction be?
February 10, 2026 at 5:29 AM
There's a very simple test to apply to what happened. You could infer, without knowing, an element of civil disobedience in Muslim men praying outside Sydney Town Hall last night. But imagine another religious group praying similarly in public when police stormed them. What would the reaction be?
Reposted by Simon on stuff
"Social cohesion is a scam, a strategy employed by the powerful to delegitimise and suppress the voices of the less powerful... If you are othered by powerful groups, you become the victim of cohesion, not the beneficiary; what you get from social cohesion is a punch from an armed official."
Nothing says cohesion like a punch in the head: Violence of Minns' goons exposes the lie of 'social cohesion'
NSW Police's actions against protesters in in Sydney was about the powerful dictating the terms of free speech — through state-sanctioned violence if necessary.
www.crikey.com.au
February 10, 2026 at 2:55 AM
"Social cohesion is a scam, a strategy employed by the powerful to delegitimise and suppress the voices of the less powerful... If you are othered by powerful groups, you become the victim of cohesion, not the beneficiary; what you get from social cohesion is a punch from an armed official."
Keep thinking about 2020, when NSW police piled on Sydney Uni law prof Simon Rice observing a protest - confidential settlement for assault, battery & false imprisonment. 78yo Danny Lim at QVB, 2023, hospitalised with head injuries from excessive force. And TJ Hickey (2004), Jai Wright (2022).
February 10, 2026 at 5:08 AM
Keep thinking about 2020, when NSW police piled on Sydney Uni law prof Simon Rice observing a protest - confidential settlement for assault, battery & false imprisonment. 78yo Danny Lim at QVB, 2023, hospitalised with head injuries from excessive force. And TJ Hickey (2004), Jai Wright (2022).
Have to say the $16 million the NSW premier spent on bringing the UFC to Sydney is really paying off in terms of its impact on local culture.
February 10, 2026 at 12:54 AM
Have to say the $16 million the NSW premier spent on bringing the UFC to Sydney is really paying off in terms of its impact on local culture.
Reposted by Simon on stuff
SpaceX shifts focus from something that it will never do on Mars to something it will never do on the Moon.
February 9, 2026 at 3:32 AM
SpaceX shifts focus from something that it will never do on Mars to something it will never do on the Moon.
And then ChatGPT says: "But if your farm income drops below a sustainable level, consider a side hustle on Golden Encounters, where roaring cougars offer emotional connection to sensitive cubs at a price where everybody gets to sow their oats".
There's a ChatGPT ad about a family farm where the owner says her family has been doing this for a hundred years and she doesn't want to be the one to screw it up and that's why she's getting advice from ChatGPT and, my God, can you people hear yourselves?
February 9, 2026 at 12:06 AM
And then ChatGPT says: "But if your farm income drops below a sustainable level, consider a side hustle on Golden Encounters, where roaring cougars offer emotional connection to sensitive cubs at a price where everybody gets to sow their oats".
His linkedIn post: "Here's what agentic AI taught me about divorce", is a cracking read.
February 9, 2026 at 12:01 AM
His linkedIn post: "Here's what agentic AI taught me about divorce", is a cracking read.
Every time I see a number and argument like this, my first thought is "but as a % of total wealth, how much of it is owned by to the top 0.1% of earners?"
California relies heavily on billionaires and other high earners. In 2023, more than one-sixth of the state's personal income tax revenue came from the top 0.1% of earners -- or about 17,500 tax returns.
www.wsj.com/lifestyle/ca...
www.wsj.com/lifestyle/ca...
February 8, 2026 at 11:56 PM
Every time I see a number and argument like this, my first thought is "but as a % of total wealth, how much of it is owned by to the top 0.1% of earners?"
Hi hope Katharine Graham comes back to haunt and drive him mad like Banquo's ghost
Jeff Bezos could literally have subsidized the Washington Post for 20 years at a TOTAL cost of a fraction of 1 percent of his net worth.
Instead he put 300 professionals out of work and destroyed the institution that inspired me and a lot of others to become journalists.
Anyway, fuck that guy.
Instead he put 300 professionals out of work and destroyed the institution that inspired me and a lot of others to become journalists.
Anyway, fuck that guy.
February 5, 2026 at 2:30 AM
Hi hope Katharine Graham comes back to haunt and drive him mad like Banquo's ghost
I've walked along the shoreline of countless beaches where I'm the first person who's ever been there.
a Republican witness in the GOP's "Somali Scammers" hearing details how he drives by childcare centers and looks at how many footprints in the snow there are to determine how many kids are there. Psycho stuff.
February 5, 2026 at 2:27 AM
I've walked along the shoreline of countless beaches where I'm the first person who's ever been there.
Reposted by Simon on stuff
Today will be the State Funeral for Dame Prof. Marie Bashir.
Link has the streaming channel if you would like to watch the funeral.
The Rural Fire Service named one of their 737 air tankers after her, and so, at 12:30pm the aircraft will fly over the city.
#Sydney
www.nsw.gov.au/about-nsw/st...
Link has the streaming channel if you would like to watch the funeral.
The Rural Fire Service named one of their 737 air tankers after her, and so, at 12:30pm the aircraft will fly over the city.
#Sydney
www.nsw.gov.au/about-nsw/st...
February 3, 2026 at 10:34 PM
Today will be the State Funeral for Dame Prof. Marie Bashir.
Link has the streaming channel if you would like to watch the funeral.
The Rural Fire Service named one of their 737 air tankers after her, and so, at 12:30pm the aircraft will fly over the city.
#Sydney
www.nsw.gov.au/about-nsw/st...
Link has the streaming channel if you would like to watch the funeral.
The Rural Fire Service named one of their 737 air tankers after her, and so, at 12:30pm the aircraft will fly over the city.
#Sydney
www.nsw.gov.au/about-nsw/st...
It's funny how much the guy who used to yell "pedo!" at everyone else was in regular contact with an actual convicted pedo, planned to visit Pedo Island and as a fan of receipts, surely appreciates the email thanking him for touring SpaceX, contradicting his previous denials that it happened.
February 3, 2026 at 10:29 PM
It's funny how much the guy who used to yell "pedo!" at everyone else was in regular contact with an actual convicted pedo, planned to visit Pedo Island and as a fan of receipts, surely appreciates the email thanking him for touring SpaceX, contradicting his previous denials that it happened.
Any day now SolarCity is going to lob its bid to buy out the lot.
So in the last 3 months, X was bought out by xAI, xAI got bought out by SpaceX?
February 3, 2026 at 5:28 AM
Any day now SolarCity is going to lob its bid to buy out the lot.
I'm no expert, but my advice on the Science and Art of Longevity is the company you keep is as important as diet. So avoid crude sexual references in correspondence with a convicted child sex offender. Also avoid altogether anyone who pled guilty to soliciting prostitution from children
February 3, 2026 at 5:24 AM
I'm no expert, but my advice on the Science and Art of Longevity is the company you keep is as important as diet. So avoid crude sexual references in correspondence with a convicted child sex offender. Also avoid altogether anyone who pled guilty to soliciting prostitution from children
No new pictures. Where are you at mentally?
February 3, 2026 at 1:07 AM
No new pictures. Where are you at mentally?
Donald of Orange, setting up to get at least 113% of the votes in the mid-terms
Trump today: “We should take over the voting in at least 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting because we have states that are so crooked.”
February 3, 2026 at 1:01 AM
Donald of Orange, setting up to get at least 113% of the votes in the mid-terms
Reposted by Simon on stuff
I tried to answer what "Melania" tells us about the first lady as a concept and this first lady in particular at a screen alongside 3 or 4 older women and another lone man (he and I are surely on a watchlist now):
www.crikey.com.au/2026/02/02/m...
www.crikey.com.au/2026/02/02/m...
Sitting through the Hoyts Highpoint screening of 'Melania', staring into the void
In which Crikey becomes one about 10 people to have seen the first lady's new vanity project.
www.crikey.com.au
February 2, 2026 at 2:48 AM
I tried to answer what "Melania" tells us about the first lady as a concept and this first lady in particular at a screen alongside 3 or 4 older women and another lone man (he and I are surely on a watchlist now):
www.crikey.com.au/2026/02/02/m...
www.crikey.com.au/2026/02/02/m...
Reposted by Simon on stuff
I wrote about my childhood friend Alexi Pretti. Please read it and share it and remember him as a human being. @theverge.com
I grew up with Alex Pretti
The kind-hearted ICU nurse shot by ICE agents was my childhood best friend.
www.theverge.com
January 27, 2026 at 4:45 PM
I wrote about my childhood friend Alexi Pretti. Please read it and share it and remember him as a human being. @theverge.com
Wait til China, which has around US$800bn in US Treasuries, brings a gun this financial knife fight.
Yes, but Europe collectively holds a significant chunk of our national debt - enough to crash our economy if they weaponized it the way Trump weaponizes tariffs against them. The unnecessary arrogance of these clowns will be their undoing.
January 23, 2026 at 3:47 AM
Wait til China, which has around US$800bn in US Treasuries, brings a gun this financial knife fight.
Imagine how the Canadian PM must feel being univited to join something that will ultimately read like the defendants charge sheet at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
January 23, 2026 at 3:36 AM
Imagine how the Canadian PM must feel being univited to join something that will ultimately read like the defendants charge sheet at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Patel really does make Mr Bean look like Jack Reacher
January 23, 2026 at 3:24 AM
Patel really does make Mr Bean look like Jack Reacher