Steph went to Perth for LNY, and Hillarys was looking STUNNING. Reader, I definitely got in that water.

LINKTIME

Steph knows these totally deadly and excellent young men:

The true betrayal at the heart of the Met’s undercover police scandal

Of course, the Metropolitan police has no monopoly on scumbags telling lies to women they want to have sex with. Plenty of people tell lies to their partners: big lies, little lies, lies that run from the to the quotidian to the criminal, from “I’ll respect you in the morning” to “it’s just a rash”. The fact that many of us consider this sort of deception normal, even inevitable, is a separate question about how we have become used to treating one another in this culture. There’s a different class of deception involved, though, when what you have neglected to tell your girlfriend is that you are in fact an undercover police officer fully intent on betraying them and everyone they know.

LOVED THIS: The House That Hancock Built: ‘Molly’ And The Rise Of The Very, Very Bad Aussie Historical Miniseries

However, the commercial miniseries as we know it today – typically spearheaded by Channel 9 – plays like Chris Franklin’s iconic ‘Bloke’ next to ABC’s Midnight Oil. Invariably billeted as the summer viewing events, they are positioned as definitive takes on the big, rousing dramas of our time. Coming hot on the heels of Invasion Day, at the start of the new ratings season, this brand of historical miniseries has become an annual event close to a very public but invisible, silent, and self-confirming ritual of celebrating the easy way of viewing the past.

Wearing Hijab: On Truth, Fear, and Empowerment

How can I even begin to explain what it felt like the first time I put on the hijab with the intention of committing to it? No matter how cool I try to be, internally I am given to melancholy, melodrama, all the melos, never mellow — but in that moment, I felt nothing but bubbly giddiness. It was the sort of happiness that belongs to children, happiness I used to think you lost when you first learned to worry about what hides in your mirror.

Ladies belaying: Protesters Belay From Yarra Bend Bridge To Unfurl #LetThemStay Banner

This article about Keanu Reeves is a love letter to which Steph signs her name. Keanu is one of her favourite actors, completely unironically. She watches his everything.

(When looking closer at Keanu’s career, loneliness comes into focus as a thematic preoccupation. He’s often disconnected from the world around him, forging relationships only with intense effort or by accident. While he’s a great romantic lead—more so in films where romance isn’t the main plotline—I think he’s even better suited to moments when he’s wading through the cold, dark waters of spiritual isolation.)

You already know just how much Steph loves Haw Par Villa, and this article makes her love it more: The last artisan at Singapore’s strangest theme park.

Australia, no:

The AFP and me: how one of my asylum stories sparked a 200-page police investigation

Many other journalists have been referred to the police for investigations of disclosure offences. Quite a few have been referred over their reporting on the government’s asylum seeker policies. They may find that requesting their own police files – at both the state and federal level – into exactly what steps the police are taking to investigate journalists working on public interest stories is an illuminating exercise.

Mediocre Confidence

I’ve written about nearly every single controversy within science fiction/fantasy fandom–broken more than my fair share of stories, in fact–and time and again, people take my work and choose not to give me credit. Sometimes it’s a case of parallel evolution, but other times, it’s clear that without my work, they wouldn’t have a foundation to build upon.

An early contender for Ask A Manager’s annual Worst Boss of the Year contest: Low performers in my office are paraded around and forced to wear dunce caps

A disturbing look at the MRA influence on family law in Australia: The men hijacking family law reforms.  It’s especially distressing considering that just last year, The Monthly exposed the damage caused under the existing regime.

A brief look at the history of menstruation (and the associated taboo) in Australia.

There is no such thing as a ‘gay manual’, but I wish I’d had this when I was a child.

Look, No Award is hilariously anti-koala what with their cries being the secret to opening a portal to hell, but who is this ‘we’ and what are they doing to our koalas: Why we might need to kill Australia’s koalas.

Don’t worry, climate change isn’t real, but I was there for this heatwave and had to listen to a radio interview with a dude from the Climate Council debating whether climate change is a conspiracy, so that’s nice: Perth swelters in heatwave, breaking 50-year-old weather record.