Most people here have a very optimistic belief in the American dream to begin with, and that’s why these TV shows are reinforcing their attitudes. In other countries, they don’t have that high level of belief in economic mobility to begin with. The TV shows don’t have the same effect because the baseline is different.

I'd be interested to learn whether economic mobility is actually higher in any of those countries don’t have the same high level of belief in economic mobility.

This was an interesting read. (Peevish, but Benton's "lightly edited version" of the conversation would benefit from removing Kim's excessive use of "like" as a filler word).

Great song. Featured to great effect in GTAV.

Vast amount of (other peoples') money pissed away to poison Google Search. It does seem to have done the job, though.

Bloody interesting read. So if I understand correctly, Microsoft doesn't stand to lose by OpenAI's collapse. Is there any chance the company would actually benefit from its collapse?

Six years ago when he passed the Executive Order restricting citizens of Muslim countries from entering the United States, the university I work at came out with a statement that the decision impeded our ability to engage with peers in America and undermined the tolerance on which understanding and exchange are built.

It was a fairly innocuous statement. We got hammered by the Murdoch press. I was fielding hate mail and angry phone calls for a week.

Actually pretty impressive that nobody involved in the virus's development has spoken out publicly to admit the leak, if so. There must be hundreds associated with the project.

Awesome. I hear Japan is cheap as chips to get to at the moment (even from here in Australia, with our currency crashing through the floor). Enjoy the onsens.

It is interesting how much AI is being viewed by management at my own workplace (though not by the actual academics on the ground) as something that is going to greatly improve productivity, and something that we all need to be utilising.

I'm using AI to generate reports that will be read only by AI.

Good luck re the job. Where are you travelling for vacation?

We've sold the apartment, which is great. Signed the agreement on Monday night. Weirdly numb to the thing since it happened. Still haven't celebrated with a glass of champagne. I think the two of us are just mindful of how many other challenges (domestic and work) we need to navigate over the next month or two.

Settlement on the apartment occurs the same day as settlement on our new house, which means having everything packed and ready to go first thing in the morning, so payments can be squared and keys collected around midday, so we can unpack at our new place that afternoon, while arranging for cleaning of the apartment at the same time.

It's actually not that complex now that I've written it down.

Also, I have to draft a massive, whole-of-institution green paper in the next week.