Wednesday, September 02, 2026

The winners of the 2026 iPhone Photography Awards

 The winners of the 2026 iPhone Photography Awards. . . What rhymes with this famous photo (Behind the Gare St. Lazare) by Henri Cartier-Bresson


The Spectacle: Has Taking the Perfect Photo Ruined Tourism?


Fordite is an artificial gemstone made up of dozens of layers of automotive paint that built up and hardered over time.

This material is typically found in the paint booths of auto factories, where cars were spray-painted by hand. As the paint sprayed over vehicles, excess paint would build up on the equipment and surfaces around the painting area. Over the years, these layers of paint would harden, creating colorful, agate-like structures.

Fordite is no longer being produced: “The switch from solvent-based paints to more environmentally friendly, quicker-drying paints in modern automotive plants has virtually ended the creation of new fordite, making it a finite material.”


Infinite Digest: a collection of infographics about DFW’s Infinite Jest.


Inge Druckrey: Teaching to See, “a 40-minute crash course in design thinking”. Found this via Edward Tufte.


Debbie Millman on the fleeting euphoria of success (YouTube).


March Forth is a feature-length documentary about Reginald Dwayne Betts, who was incarcerated at 16; “after his release, Betts went on to become an acclaimed poet, author, lawyer, activist and MacArthur Genius Award winner”. Trailer.


The Professor Who Taught People How To Think (1962). This looks great; shades of Feynman.


Screenshots of various operating systems (1983-2005). See also The Virtual OS Museum (“1,700+ pre-installed operating systems, ready to run”).


The Unsolved Mystery of Lorem Ipsum. Got this from Andy so you know it’s good.


Speaking of Andy, he recently posted about Amazon’s decision to shutter Mechanical Turk. Kinda shocked it was still going tbh.

2018 PBS special hosted by Michael Keaton: Why Mister Rogers Still Matters Today. I’m gonna make some time to watch this one after my move is done.


AI privacy: What does AI know about you?

Proton Blog: “Every chat with mainstream AI leaves a record behind. Anything you type is stored and analyzed, and you’re liable to end up training their models and building a profile on yourself. 

Even casual prompts can reveal deeply personal details, from your work and routines to your relationships and identity. AI Paper Trail is a free tool that helps you see that exposure for yourself. Upload your exported data to get a private report of exactly how much your AI knows about you — and what you can do about it. Try AI Paper Trail – Pete Weiss

A single prompt might not give away much about you. But weeks or months of them — whether it’s drafting work emails, getting advice for personal health and relationships, or just something you were too embarrassed to Google — can reveal who you are with uncomfortable accuracy. Your personal data is extremely valuable. 

A behavioral profile based on what you ask, what you worry about, and what you’re likely to buy can be worth thousands of dollars to advertisers and data brokers. This is how AI profiling works in practice, and is exactly why Big Tech AI tools are designed to collect as much of your data as possible. Here’s what most popular AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, retain about you by default:

  • Conversations and responses
  • Uploaded files and documents
  • Usage patterns, such as how often you use the tool, what features you use, and how long your sessions last
  • Device and network data, including IP address, browser type, operating system, and approximate location
  • Account information, such as your name, email address, and any profile details you’ve provided..”

The Case for Tracking Everything

Gizmodo: “…I-Min Lee is an epidemiologist at Harvard University School of Public Healthwhose research helped debunk the idea that 10,000 steps was a golden ticket to vitality. She told me and others back in 2020 that a key motivation for identifying the origin of 10,000 steps was because people were so obsessed with the number and the quest to achieve it, despite the fact that “there is limited information on how many daily steps are needed for health, particularly as related to clinical end points and mortality,” she and co-authors wrote in their 2019 study in JAMA Internal Medicine. 

The Fitbit took a daily activity that up until this point had been more or less inconspicuous to the average person and made it extremely visible: When you looked down at your wrist, you could see precisely how many steps you’d taken that day, for better or worse. When it came to health, ignorance was no longer bliss. Subsequent studies revealed just that; the Fitbit was effective not because it simply tracked movement, but because it made behavior visible in a way that encouraged change. 

An oft-cited meta-analysis, which conducted a systematic review and analysis of 37 Fitbit-based trials, found that, among all participants who used the tracker, there was an average increase of about 950 steps per day as well as a statistically significant increase in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Another randomized-controlled trial (not funded by Fitbit) studied a group of 51 inactive postmenopausal women and split them up into two groups: one that received a standard pedometer and the other a Fitbit (along with some additional instruction and a follow-up call). 

The group that received the Fitbit and instruction, on average, walked 789 more steps per day than the comparison group. These studies revealed a key lesson: Tracking has the potential to make you healthier simply and precisely because you are more aware of it…”



How ideas of a vast censorship network moved from the online fringe to Trump policy

MIT Technology Review: “One morning in April 2025, employees of a small office in the US State Department got the email many of them had been dreading. For months, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency had been cutting a wide swath through federal agencies, gutting teams that worked on everything from scientific research to Social Security to international aid. 

So when the employees of the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub (R/FIMI)—a unit tasked with tracking foreign disinformation—received a note asking them to meet in half an hour, many sensed their time had come. “We all had heard … that there was going to be a day they would shut down our office,” says one former staffer, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. 

Darren Beattie, a far-right provocateur who had been serving as the acting undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, wasted no time with pleasantries, telling the gathered employees that the office was being shutteredand that their jobs were being eliminated. The mood in the room oscillated between somber and outraged, the former employee says, with “lots of young, dedicated staff crying and wrecked.” But elsewhere at the State Department, the closure of R/FIMI was cause for celebration. 

 “We ended government-sponsored censorship in the United States through the State Department,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced shortly after in a video interview with a right-wing internet activist named Mike Benz. “This is obviously amazing news,” Benz responded, before teeing up a theory he’d been promoting for years: “We now have so many people wondering, Was I censored because of something the State Department did?” Senior State Department official sought internal communications with journalists, European officials, and Trump critics. 

The notion that the State Department had been working to silence Americans is perhaps unfamiliar to many people, but it’s a key part of a larger web of conspiratorial ideas that have been promoted for a decade on far-right blogs, podcasts, and social media. The basic theory is that, under the guise of combating disinformation, a sprawling constellation of government agencies, academics, civil society groups, and Big Tech platforms—or what believers refer to as the “censorship-industrial complex”—has been working to suppress conservative and populist speech online. 

The fight against “disinformation,” as Benz put it on a 2025 podcast, “is censorship in disguise.” R/FIMI, along with a predecessor office with the same mission, the Global Engagement Center (GEC), had been among the right’s long-standing targets; now it was one of its latest casualties.  The second Trump administration’s war on censorship has contributed to the dismantling of numerous government agencies, like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), among others. It’s razed the infrastructure that tracks and counters attempts by foreign powers to influence elections and popular opinion. It has also been used to justify sweeping travel bans and sanctions on targeted individuals and entire industries

It’s provoked tensions with the European Union over its tech regulations, which these critics say silence Americans. And it’s even reshaped US national security strategy. Its reach, though, isn’t limited to US bureaucracy, academia, or civil society groups. The weaponization of ideas about censorship also affects the billions of people globally who get information, or interact with each other, online—which is to say, just about everyone…”

Dragon Flies at Little Bay

Little Bay Beach: A secluded beach nestled between headlands, making it calm, rip-free, and highly popular for snorkelling and families.





Ocean views, golf courses and community make Little Bay irresistible


From golf courses and parks to contemporary homes and vibrant apartments, this coastal suburb blends relaxed seaside living with urban convenience. Photo: Vaida Savickaite


Steve Ausling says postcode 2036 is a “sticky suburb”. The NGFarah agent, who has seen plenty of repeat clients over the 20 years he’s been selling homes in Little Bay, tells Domainthere are even residents with 2036 tattoos.

Ausling says there’s a legacy of family links in this coastal hamlet, encouraging lifelong living in the suburb, from first homes to downsizer dwellings.

The locals like staying local, and who can blame them? If you’re chasing the quiet life but don’t want to be too far from the city, this southernmost eastern suburb is a lovely option.

Neighbourhoods Little Bay
The median price of houses in Little Bay is $2.815 million. Photo: Vaida Savickaite

It helps if you like golf – three golf courses run along the eastern border – and a sea breeze. There’s a sheltered beach tucked into the foot of a cliff at the northern end of St Michael’s Golf Club, where the locals like to fish, swim and snorkel.

If you move into the Prince Henry development, the conversion of the former public hospital site, you’ll be able to tap into the perks of a master-planned community. Home to more than 20 heritage-listed buildings and landscapes, the site was designed to create a landmark coastal village.

Linda Mearing, general manager for the Coast Centre for Seniors, one of seven not-for-profit organisations (NFP) that operate from the hospital’s former nurses’ quarters, says Prince Henry is a synergistic set-up with visitors and locals patronising both NFP services and the local businesses clustered around Pine Avenue.

Neighbourhoods Little Bay
The Coast Golf and Recreation Club is regarded by many as one of Sydney's most spectacular coastal golf courses with ocean vistas from every hole. Photo: Vaida Savickaite

Mearing says strict design guidelines have led to a highly liveable neighbourhood, with 30 per cent of the site devoted to public space.

“View corridors have been maintained here and there’s restrictions on sizes and heights and there can’t be any deviations from that,” she explains. “It’s quiet and clean and not over-developed.”

“You come to Little Bay and you feel like you’re in a seaside town, but you’re 15 minutes out of Coogee and 10 minutes out of Maroubra,” says Ausling.

Coffee fix

I enjoy getting my coffee from Piccola Baia. They greet you by name, they remember your coffee order, and the coffee is always good. They’re open from 6am every day, they’re dog-friendly, and they’ve got an extensive breakfast menu.

Neighbourhoods Little Bay
Little Bay Beach is secluded with calm waters and golden sands. Photo: Vaida Savickaite

Suburb highlight

If you can get up at about 5.30am, you can watch the sun come up over the Coast Golf Course and fill Little Bay Cove full of that early morning light. The oranges and pinks bounce over the rock pools and the cliffs … it’s amazing.

Market insight

Good quality stock is selling quickly at the moment, and a lot of it – maybe 50 per cent – is off market. So, if you see something that you like, make an offer straight away because it won’t be there next week.

For sale in Little Bay

8 McMaster Place, Little Bay NSW 2036

4Beds4Baths2Parking

With nothing but fairway and sea between you and the horizon, this award-winning property boasts an outlook worth waking up for. There are indoor and outdoor living zones on both the ground and upper floors, and a floating stairway connecting the two levels. Available fully furnished, the home comes with four bedrooms and en suites, including a main with a walk-in wardrobe and ocean views.

19A Dwyer Avenue, Little Bay NSW 2036

3Beds3Baths2Parking

There are five beaches and scenic nature trails within walking distance of this modern duplex, which enjoys a northerly aspect from its central position between the restaurants and shopping in La Perouse and Little Bay. Recently updated with a new kitchen and new bathrooms, the property features timber floors, ducted air-conditioning and vacuuming, and a low-maintenance garden.


The leafy green stretch of coastline of Sydney’s eastern suburbs has some of the lowest housing supply in Sydney, and opportunities to buy in this tightly held area are few and far between. 

A rare chance to make this sought-after area home is on the horizon, however, with the arrival of ESTE, a new development of 94 apartments in Little Bay providing oceanside living with easy access to lush natural surroundings and high-quality amenities. 

Located about a 25-minute drive from the CBD, Little Bay is part of a cluster of suburbs adjoining the Kamay Botany Bay National Park, home to untamed Banksia scrub and other native flora.

Neighbourhoods_Little_Bay_05_u1gb5p_egtoa1
Spending time outdoors is easy when Little Bay looks like this. Photo: Vaida Savickaite

While the area has a distinctly bushy feel to it, the development is just 11 minutes from nearby Westfield Eastgardens, where future residents will find groceries, chemists, cafes and a medical centre.  

Philip Thalis, founding principal of ESTE architect Hill Thalis, refers to Little Bay as “one of the hidden gems of Sydney”, a rare spot where panoramic views take in the ocean, native bush, and nearby St Michael’s Golf Club. 

“It has a quality which is so rare,” he says, “not just in metropolitan Sydney, but in fact in any big city.” 

Neighbourhoods_Little_Bay_03_gvppx2_airebm
The leafy green stretch of coastline of Sydney’s eastern suburbs has some of the lowest housing supply in Sydney. Photo: Vaida Savickaite

Developed and built by iCIRT-rated developer Urban Property Group, the ESTE apartments will range from cosy one-bedders to generous three-bedroom homes with over 160 square metres of internal space. All will feature natural stone, like travertine, and herringbone timber flooring.

“The materials have been selected for their lasting quality and to shape interiors that are sophisticated, refined and understated in their expression of luxury,” says Urban Property Group chief executive Patrick Elias.

Many apartments have multiple aspects to take full advantage of the ocean breeze and allow for cross-ventilation, while others are north-facing to maximise natural light.

ESTE Little Bay
Little Bay’s raw natural beauty 'has really shaped everything'. about ESTE's design. Photo: Artist's impression.

The build itself pays homage to its wild surroundings, with a colour palette inspired by the area’s natural sandstone.

The effect, Thalis says, is that ESTE has “a unique character that is derived from this sort of setting, quite specific to this setting”. 

Elias agrees that Little Bay’s raw natural beauty “has really shaped everything”.

“The buildings have been carefully positioned to frame views of the ocean and capture the changing light throughout the day,” he says. “The material palette and landscaping are drawn directly from the coastal environment.”

ESTE Little Bay
The build itself pays homage to its wild surroundings, with a colour palette inspired by the area’s natural sandstone. Photo: Artist's impression.

Elias expects the buying clientele to comprise a “mix of downsizers who know the eastern suburbs well and want quality without compromise, and younger families or professionals who are drawn to the lifestyle here – people who want a home that balances nature, design and connectivity to the CBD”.

Future residents, he adds, can enjoy “a lifestyle that feels restorative; you’ll have morning swims or coastal walks at your doorstep, ocean breezes and natural light at home”. 

Future ESTE residents will appreciate the easy access to the national park and surrounding bushland, which they can explore on well-signposted walking tracks that extend past the Malabar Headland as far north as South Coogee Beach. 

ESTE Little Bay
Beach or pool? Either way, ESTE is a haven for water lovers. Photo: Artist's Impression.

Buyers won’t be forced to leave the development to breathe in the fresh ocean air, however. The development features two sprawling rooftop terraces with workout pods, a sauna, shared barbecue areas, and garden beds where green-thumbed residents can grow vegetables. 

It’s home to the development’s most luxurious feature: an infinity pool with ocean views. 

Elias says the outdoor spaces have been designed to “encourage connection to nature and community”. 

From the rooftop, residents can enjoy the sunset and moonrise, watch the dramatic lights of nearby Sydney Airport and Port Botany twinkle to life, or take in the open vista to the blue horizon. 

“The outlook will be just sensational,” Thalis says.

ESTE is already under construction and is expected to be completed in August 2026.

11 Jennifer Street, Little Bay, NSW 2036