The End of Everything by M John Harrison wins 2026 Booker Prize

12 November 2026

Harrion’s novel is the first science-fiction title to win the literary award, presented annually to English language works, published in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

The End of Everything is the thirteenth novel (lucky for some?) by the British author, and is described as being a “slyly satirical and unsettling post-apocalyptic” story:

Phillip Tennent makes his living at the tideline, collecting artefacts that wash up from the Channel. It’s been years since the crisis changed everything, but its exact nature remains obscure. Government barely functions, the seas are full of new creatures, Europe has been mislaid. It feels like the end. Now Phillip has fished out of the water an object he can’t keep. A creature that keeps changing. An artefact he must take inland, before it destroys everything he thinks he knows.

Usman Khawaja evades ball tampering questions during 730 interview

12 November 2026

Retired Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja has re-ignited controversy surrounding the infamous 2018 ball tampering scandal, with the recent publication of his memoir, Sabr.

Three members of the Australian men’s cricket team were sanctioned, after admitting to interfering with the ball during a game in the 2018 series against South Africa.

In his book, Khawaja claims all members of the Australian team were aware of what happened, rather than only Steve Smith, the captain, David Warner, and bowler Cameron Bancroft. The trio were later banned from playing for a time, as a result of their actions.

But Khawaja says the whole team should have been held responsible, rather than three. Several members of the squad have rebuked Khawaja’s contention everyone had knowledge of the plot.

Despite agreeing to appear on ABC current-affairs show, 730, hosted by Sarah Ferguson on Tuesday evening, Khawaja was coy — to say the least — in response to Ferguson’s questions about his knowledge of the incident. It makes me wonder what he expected by going on the show.

Khawaja could not have been unaware of Ferguson’s reputation for asking tough questions.

It may well be Khawaja’s allegations — being the whole test team was complicit — are correct, as Warner asserts, but Khawaja’s poor 730 showing does not leave him sounding convincing.

Now the New York Times might be buying Letterboxd

11 November 2026

Pat Saperstein, writing for Variety:

The price is reported to be about $[US]330 million, which amounts to more than 20 times Letterboxd’s projected earnings for 2026 of about $[US]15 million. The New York Times said that the deal was not yet final.

If the deal proceeds, it is said Matthew Buchanan, and Karl von Randow, the New Zealand based founders of the social film cataloguing website, will retain their leadership roles.

The same thing happened of course when Meta, then Facebook, bought Instagram, but let’s not to think too much about that. Meanwhile, it seems efforts by Netflix to acquire Letterboxd have stalled.

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entertainment, film, social media

A short film by Maria Tomazou made with Microsoft Excel

10 November 2026

London based Cypriot animator and filmmaker Maria Tomazou recently made a short film (just over a minute long) using Excel, the Microsoft spreadsheet. Great work.

Imagine electing to use Excel instead of Generative-AI for the job…

Salon ceases publishing after thirty-one years

9 November 2026

The announcement was made last Thursday:

The business realities of independent digital journalism have changed profoundly over the years. After careful consideration, we have reached the difficult decision that our publishing model is no longer sustainable.

I haven’t read Salon much in recent years, I was following their RSS feed though maybe the URL changed and I didn’t notice.

Many of their articles piqued my curiosity, such as the one about a uni student living in his van parked on the campus, or the story of Anthony Perkins being absent during the filming of the shower scene in Psycho. Say what?

Apparently there are plans to keep Salon’s articles online, at least for the time being.

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current affairs, publishing, technology

Vibe coding an ad free TV viewing experience

6 November 2026

Vibe coded apps are improving the TV viewing experience by doing away with adverts, removing bloatware from the device, and blocking tracking apps, enhancing viewer privacy in the process, says John Higgins, writing for The Verge.

Maybe now we can settle into an evening of watching some TV, without being watched by the TV.

AI the elephant in room as Canva announces large staff layoffs

5 November 2026

The Australian founded graphic design platform says it plans to retrench almost a quarter of its global workforce. Canva CEO Melanie Perkins refrained however from attributing the job losses to AI, instead citing “new technology” as the cause:

New technology is transforming what people can create, how they create it, and what they expect from the products they use.

Terrible news for about twelve-hundred Canva employees, as the company looks to consolidate operations to its Sydney base, and compel those who remain to spend more time in the office. The terms for departing staff seem as reasonable as can be expected under the circumstances, and include an incentive to start their own companies:

Departing staff will receive at least six months’ salary, 12 months of healthcare where Canva provides it, and they can keep their work MacBooks. They can also apply for $US10,000 grants to start their own ventures.

Starting a new venture isn’t a half bad idea in this environment, as I fear what happened at Canva yesterday may become commonplace. It seems a stretch, but there may be more job security doing your own thing rather than working somewhere that will repeatedly restructure and downsize.

A data centre by any other name still has thorns

5 November 2026

If OpenAI has its way, AI data centres may soon be known as AI compute campuses. When a product or service develops a reputation beyond redemption — and data centres could hardly be any more abhorred than they are presently — don’t withdraw or cease production, rename instead.

Who on earth is going to know the difference? I for one would much rather be living across the road from a compute campus than a data centre.

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Democrats take Congress in US Midterms, Trump still wields much power

5 November 2026

John Lyons writing for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC):

Many Democrats are now openly expressing their claim that the result of these midterms indicates Trump has become a lame-duck president. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Some things might change, but some things won’t.

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America, current affairs, politics

Bid your name into the next novel of a best selling author

4 November 2026

My old English high school teacher once told us authors take great care choosing the names of their characters. He said many writers opted to go with more common names such as, for example, John Smith or Mary Brown. They refrained, we were told, from using unique, made up names. This lest it turned out there was someone named thusly, who might threaten legal action for whatever reason.

But now well-known writers including Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, and Zadie Smith, are giving people — however common or not so common their name is — the chance to be characters in their upcoming novels. The move is in support of Freedom from Torture, a British charity organisation. I’m not sure if you have a say as to what sort of person — good, bad — your name sake will be though.

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