I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the Gold Coast. I'd love to see them win against Brisbane this week. I think it would add a bit of spice to this finals series.

After an international flight I'm a few hours in to Hollow Knight: Silksong. I have thoughts:

• The game is very similar to the original Hollow Knight which is a good thing
• The default down attack is now a sideways dash which took a bit of time to get used to, the combat and bosses so far have been excellent
• The game still makes you go back very far (to a bench) when you die, this can be punishing but it makes for a unique old school game mechanic
• The art style is beautiful, it's the same as the old game with even more lushness and detail
• The music is atmospheric and blends with the game perfectly, the character voices and sounds are also perfect
• The Hunter's March section of the game is punishingly hard however I think I attempted it too early, there's a gauntlet section and it's just so difficult to do with the tools and weapons I had
• The currency is quite difficult to attain as only certain enemies actually drop, so far I've had to go to a bench and then go on a dedicated "get currency run" to ensure I have enough money to pay for things
• There's a lot of game elements that need currency (benches, tools etc) so you need to be smart and try not to waste anything, this can happen if you die and you're a million miles from a bench and then it's too hard to go all the way back to the spot where your silk is

Adelaide Crows fans have written to the club and threatened to cancel their memberships after they were left embarrassed and devastated in the wake of heavy crowd booing of Isaac Quaynor in Collingwood's qualifying win.

Quaynor was the target of a homophobic slur from Adelaide's Izak Rankine in round 23, which resulted in the Crows star being handed a four-match ban that all but ended his finals campaign before it had begun.

Fans at the game said it was not just the booing. They also overheard slurs and offensive homophobic language being used by a small number of supporters towards the Collingwood players.

Disgraceful behaviour.

After seven years of development, the sequel to local game Hollow Knight released overnight, immediately crashing global stores.

Team Cherry, which is based in South Australia, were relatively silent during the development process but announced a surprise release date two weeks ago.

When it launched overnight, demand was so great that players crashed online PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo and PC stores.

Well the developers just made a lot of cash. Good on them. Some of the best talent in Australia in the tech industry.

As usual the pudding.cool data visualisations are terrific.

Social trust is critical for us to tackle some of the biggest problems ahead of us: the erosion of democracy, the emergence of Al, our warming planet, and more.

In a 2021 study, researchers looked at why social trust has decreased on an individual level. What they found was that income dissatisfaction, our experience of losing a job, and our decreasing confidence in political institutions account for most of the decline in trust. In short, we've created a world that is precarious and unstable for most people.

I feel this, too. I'm scared by the big and small things happening in our world. I feel my environment crumbling around me, my sense of safety waning. I've looked at homes for sale in remote areas where I can disappear with my friends and family-where I don't have to rely on strangers.

We have a new Mac DeMarco and Earl Sweatshirt album within a week of each other.

They're both pretty good albums too!

Are we back in 2013 again?

About time.

Crows fans will remember this game.

I'm tipping Collingwood tonight. I genuinely believe with the break and a number of players coming in to form at the right time we'll be okay.

So much hype. It better not let the community down.

Umpiring/refereeing is hard; especially Aussie Rules.

I wonder if one day there will be tech (likely in glasses) that will live record a game from an umpires point of view and be able to judge free kicks.

So you'd have some kind of model (AI I guess) that understands all the different rules (free kicks/fouls/penalties) in a sport.

The model would be trained to interpret in real time when a free kick needs to be awarded and notify the umpire maybe via some kind of display in the glasses.

The umpires job would then become a lot simpler. They and just be to actually award the free kick and be in control of the game.

My Hoenn Pokedex is slowly coming together. I feel like the last 30% will take way longer to do than the first 70% especially when Silksong is coming out tomorrow.