disassociated

Luke Cooper writing for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC):

Researchers found on days when maximum temperatures were 35C or higher, which the Bureau of Meteorology classifies as a “hot day”, a $5.4 million collapse in daily daytime consumer spending was recorded.

However, on a recent excessively warm day, consumer spending increased by five percent from six o’clock in the evening until about five hours later. That makes sense as people stay in their hopefully cooler homes, until it is a little more comfortable to go out later in the day.

The impact of climate change is indeed far reaching.

Mozilla, developer of web browser Firefox, and email app Thunderbird, among other things, is forming an AI “rebel alliance” to counter the industry’s big players, writes Ashley Capoot, at CNBC:

Surman is building what he’s described as “a rebel alliance of sorts,” using a phrase that’s long been part of Mozilla’s lexicon. In this case, the alliance is a loose network of tech startups, developers and public interest technologists committed to making AI more open and trustworthy and to checking the power of industry heavyweights like OpenAI and Anthropic.

The industry heavyweights the alliance is up against are well entrenched. Some sort of counterbalance however can’t be a bad thing.

I’m wondering why The Devil Wears Prada sequel is somewhat unimaginatively titled The Devil Wears Prada 2. Why didn’t the producers go for something a little more… groundbreaking, such as The Devil Wears Prada: Beyond the Runway?

Whatever, the release of the trailer for the second instalment caused some excitement in our household yesterday.

When I first read about the proposed follow-up eighteen months ago, Anne Hathaway was said to be undecided about about participating. But she’s indeed back, reprising her role as Andy Sachs, one time fashion intern, along with Emily Blunt and Meryl Streep.

David Frankel, director of the first film, returns to helm the sequel, along with Stanley Tucci in his old role as Nigel. Sydney Sweeney and Justin Theroux are among newcomers to the story. The Devil Wears Prada 2 opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday 30 April 2026.

According to a Reddit thread, that was re-posted at Marginal Revolution, the online publishing platform is requesting users in Australia submit to an age verification process.

Substack, as of the time I type, is not on the list of websites, or services, that Australians under the age of sixteen cannot access, so I’m not sure why Substack would be doing this. If indeed they are.

On a visit to Substack, again, as of the time I write this, I was able to access, and move around the site without hindrance. I was not logged in, but was using an Australian ISP.

Evidently some people are having difficulty though. Possibly age verification only applies to people in Australia who are logging in to gain access. I might try doing this another time.

But Substack is a platform, and who knows, may one day be added to the banned list. This is precisely why online writers should be publishing from their own, independent website, and not a platform.

And this is before addressing the concerns many people have with Substack in the first place.