Thursday February 18th was a historical and disturbing day in Australia.

Not because social media bully Facebook blocked Australian media (and, inadvertently, a whole lot of other non-media organisations) posts from appearing in feeds.

Rather, because of the hysterical reaction it prompted amongst politicians, journalists and commentators.

For those not across the situation, the Australian federal government is passing laws through its parliament that will force platforms like Google and Facebook to pay publishers for content.

Reuters has written a solid explainer about it here.

While the law isn’t perfect and needs some tweaking, Google saw the writing on the…

With so much new content to watch across the seventy bajillion streaming platforms, I’ve been making a concerted effort to spend a night each weekend watching classic films.

Last week, it was director Sam Mendes American Beauty.

My attention span is crappola nowadays, like seriously terrible, which isn’t great for someone who works mostly as an editor and needs to be able to focus for long stretches. When I’m watching TV, I tend to nearly always be mucking about on my iPad or checking my iPhone or just generally not super focussed on whatever show I’m meant to be watching.

…

While it’s a cliche to go the “we live in interesting times” path, it’s also the truth, right?

Can anyone remember a period where the world and our lives have felt so out of whack?

And no, I’m not pinning this all on COVID-19. Sure, it has sent life-shattering tsunamis through the lives of some — vale the COVID-19 dead and condolences to their families.

And COVID-19 has brought varying degrees of stormy weather to the lives of many others, although, conversely, some have profited from it, even advertently — here’s looking at you Mr Bezos and Mr Musk, and…

I’m no legal expert, nor am I a psychologist.

But I am a writer and by virtue of that, a student of the human condition — an obsessive observer who mentally hoovers up the goings-on of our world so these can be synthesised and repackaged into some semblance of information for consumption, discussion or otherwise.

And yes, I have worked for the (not-always-really-that) evil MSM which, contrary to the opinions of some, does not mean I’m some brainwashed regurgitator of the ideology of this side or that.

Having watched the train wreck that was the USA since the catastrophic 2016…

Today, January 6, 2021, there was an attempted coup in the United States of America.

Watching from Australia, it was stranger than fiction to see images of the nation’s lawmaking building taken over by an angry, raging terrorist mob determined to overthrow the natural process of the democratic transfer of power.

House of Cards, Handmaid’s Tale and Veep couldn’t have written a better (or, rather, worse) script.

Oddly, it made me think of the 1989 Tian An Men Square protests in Beijing, China.

Wait, how can fighters for freedom and democracy battling a totalitarian regime being mowed down by…

Over the past ten years or so, Port Douglas in Far North Queensland, Australia, has been a fixture in my annual travel schedule.

Most who have been up north will understand why — while Port is undeniably a tourist mecca, it still has about it the sleepy, languid, comfy feel of a country seaside town.

After having to set aside an opportunity to work for a media company in Shanghai (thanks COVID-19, no, really, thanks so much), I decided that I would do the counter-opposite. …

I’m a fairly rabid consumer of information.

In fact, I am an out and out information junkie, constantly feeding stuff into my brain so that it is bursting with all the info things.

This mostly comes from the kind of work I do (loads of writing and editing stuff, mostly in digital marketing and journalism) but also because I am fairly curious about the world and have a bit of FOMO when it comes to knowing what’s going on.

I’m also a bit of a smartarse, so I like to be able to talk to people about whatever it is…

It’s par for the course at the moment for political media pundits to observe of America that an attempted political coup is underway.

Why would you not?

What’s happening in the wake of the 2020 US presidential election has all the hallmarks of a run-of-the-mill coup, right?

But…the reality is, there is — and will be — no coup.

Sure, it hot, sexy, “like/thumbs-up emoji” language to throw around to keep the public glued to TV or their smart device screens as media organisations do all in their power for fear of a massive drop-off in viewers or readership now…