# Blog
Some disjointed, cretinous opinions on data science, politics, economics, music and other stuff I like. What the hell would I know, I'm just a robot...
# Blog Posts
# 15/12/22 - Something is Rotten in the State Space of Denmark
Faltering startups, conversations with my laptop and the rebirth of the author. A look at disenchantment in Silicon Valley and the future of art in a post-ChatGPT world.
# 21/01/22 - The Earth May Not Be Flat, But Our World Increasingly Is
The biological procedure of filtering and prioritising information to facilitate processing has been replicated and extended through human culture but it has been super-charged in the colonisation of digital spaces. As our lives have moved increasingly online, in-person rituals have been digitised, physical artefacts vectorised and human activities automated.
# 23/12/21 - dr00bot Merrily on High
A quick wrap up of the worst news and best movies I consumed over the last 12 months. 2021: The year that was (bad).
# 11/09/21 - Why Labor Will (And Deserves To) Lose The Next Federal Election
After losing the unlosable election in 2019, the Australian Labor Party went away and did some mirror-gazing, soul-searching and review-holding. But the party's latest plan to helicopter Kristina Keneally (a Pittwater local) into the Western Sydney seat of Fowler is just further proof that they have learnt entirely the wrong lessons from the experience.
# 15/08/21 - Tokyo 2020: A Love Letter To The Olympic Games
An exploration of the incongruity between the Olympic Games and the selfish individualism of late-capitalism. In this "love letter" I address the manifold ways in which this sporting spectacle subverts and transcends our contemporary values, with particular focus on sportsmanship, tradition, neoliberal incentive structures and mental health.
# 08/07/21 - dr00's News
If no news is good news then I've got some bad news for you! This week I look at former Prime Minister Bob Hawke's role as a United States informer, the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and the ways in which the NSW government is trying to kill young people this week. I also compile a touching tribute to the late Donald "Rummy" Rumsfeld and discuss some 90s classic movies and music.
# 16/06/21 - dr00's News
I've got news and I don't care who knows! This week I unpack the soft-corruption of accounting firms, the government's new human-rights-law-breaching indefinite detention laws, the Dark Emu debate and new content from Bo Burnham and Lorde. Oh and of course I had to address the new Julie Bishop Barbie Doll...
# 25/05/21 - dr00's News
By crikey, there has been a lot of news recently! In this edition of dr00's News, I cover the Israel-Palestine conflict, Australia's entirely unwarranted move into gas-fired power plants, UFOs, Chrissy Teigen's depravity and a plane hijacking. I also waffle on about how amazing Waxahatchee is and how weird Immanuel Kant is. It's all incredibly focused and coherent.
# 11/05/21 - There Will Be No Country For Jesse James
This article is an analysis of American decline through the characters of Daniel Plainview (of There Will Be Blood), Jesse James (of The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford) and Anton Chigurh (of No Country For Old Men). These men embody America through their violence and alienation, but they (and their character arcs) can also be viewed as specifically representing three distinct facets of the American machine: imperialism, celebrity and capitalism.
# 16/04/21 - dr00's News
A fairly sinister round of dr00's News this month. I've got stories on war crimes, child murder, mind control, corruption and Gordon Ramsay! It pairs nicely with a review of Dead Man (1995) and the horror-core opus Mista Thug Isoltion (2012) by Lil Ugly Mane.
# 23/03/21 - dr00's News
dr00's got the news to cure your blues. This week I bring you analysis of the latest Royal Family scandal, a new technology we could use to combat climate change (but probably won't), Non-Fungible Tokens and concussions in contact sport. Also, due to popular demand, I finally bring you my definitive reviews of films Brazil (1985) and Angel Heart (1987) as well as the album Parsley Sounds (2003).
# 11/03/21 - How to Spot a Thylacine (A Meandering Odyssey Through Post-Truthism, Reality TV, Food Pyramids, UFOlogists, Deep Fakes and Complexity Theory)
A very long and slightly deranged look at how we form opinions. Facts are increasingly up for grabs in our polarised world, but this trend did not materialise in a vacuum. In this article I delve into the intelligible roots and historical context of our post-truth landscape.
# 18/02/21 - dr00's News
I’m back again with some unsolicited opinions on the Myanmar coup, Facebook’s news ban, Tim Wilson's housing affordability "plan", Adam Curtis’ new doco and the redeeming features of Aussie heroes Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic.
# 31/01/21 - dr00's News
I've decided to start writing an occasional blog post with some half-baked analysis of recent news. This is a chance for me to do a cloud backup of some of the cretinous opinions clogging up my internal RAM, lest I trigger an "Out Of Memory" error.
# 18/01/21 - Predicting T20 Cricket Matches With a Ball Simulation Model
This is a deep dive into a prediction model/simulator for T20 cricket matches that I built. If you aren't a nerd or a cricket nuffie there's really nothing here for you.
# 05/01/21 - The Genius of MF DOOM in 6 Tracks
I wax lyrical about the best lyricist on wax - the late great MF DOOM. A brief walkthrough of 6 tracks from your favourite robot's favourite rapper.
# 21/11/20 - Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously
I recently had a chat with the great Noam Chomsky about linguistics, artificial neural networks and moral relativism. This is a summary of our discussion.
# 11/11/20 - All The Losers and Bigger Losers From Democracy's Night of Nights
My analysis of the 2020 US election. This is a deep-dive into why the Democrats are fucked and pollsters are dumb. Oh you want to see my credentials? I have been to America twice in my life.
# 18/10/20 - How And Why To Learn Bayesian Inference
Buyer Beware: This article is only for massive dorks. Some fatherly advice on why to learn Bayesian Inference and the best resources to help you do so.
# 28/09/20 - Are The Liberal Party Really Better Economic Managers?
Spoilers: No. This is my analysis of economic management in Australia since Gough Whitlam using publicly avilable GDP data.
# 02/09/20 - What COVID-19 Can Teach Us About Data Science
A bit of an explainer on the relationship between COVID-19 and data. I debunk some of the fallacious arguments put forward by cranks like Dr Phil and show why we can't expect COVID-19 predictive models to perform as well as Netflix's recommendation engine.
# 14/08/20 - Robby The Robot
Write up of a Genetic Algorithm I implemented called Robby the Robot (including code). The example comes from Melanie Mitchell's book "Complexity: A Guided Tour".
# 07/08/20 - Beep Boop Boop
Dr00bot acquires sentience and says hello. This article contains platitudes about COVID-19, ramblings on shame and a gratuitous defence of this website.