Kim Chandler McDonald

A big part of the authoritarian playbook is war. War takes over the news. War blots out criticism. War divides a nation’s people, subjecting those against it to being called unpatriotic. War grants leaders all sorts of emergency powers. War consumes everything else.

We mustn’t let this war do so.

That's special place to be creatively. Imposter syndrome has a way of tagging along even when we’re doing exactly what we’re meant to be doing. Surrounding yourself with the people who inspire you is such a powerful antidote to that voice. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you’ve created!

My pleasure Pete! I completely understand the need to 'pause' post book (I've got 7 under my belt and still find moments where I need to take a breath when I think of them! I'm actually in the midst of the first draft of my 1st novel - talk about needing to take a breath!)
Congrats again!!

I enjoyed your article Pete - thanks for sharing it with us 😊

Last night I saw Nowhere by Khalid Abdalla. It was generous, playful, piercing & deeply human. It spoke to memory, erasure, survival & the quiet ways stories & voices endure. "They thought they were burying us - they didn’t realise we were seeds." Thank you, Khalid, for this act of truth-telling.

Nobel Prize for Innovation: what does that actually mean? The 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt for showing the role of public investment in innovation for economic growth. The award signals th...

When the Nobel Committee honours innovation itself, it’s a reminder: progress isn’t about doing the old thing better — it’s about daring to outgrow legacy thinking.

True innovators don’t just build; they rebuild.
www.actoninstitute.au/post/nobel-p...

#Innovation #FutureThinking #JazzThinking #Jazz

Does anyone know whether Orwell: 2+2=5 is available to stream/buy anywhere? I’m searching but it seems to have ‘fallen off the radar’. #movies #films #documentaries #documentary

If your week didn’t involve SIM farms or zero-days, congrats - you’re probably not in cyber. Europol took down 49M fake accounts (1/2 of which were likely patching TikTok exploits), trust is fragile, clouds are down, and AI’s still oversharing. #Friday. cybersecurityadvisors.network/2025-10-24-c...

Germany’s Privacy Win: Why It Matters for International Data Week Digital governance isn’t just about frameworks and policies, it’s about people, power, and the principles we’re willing to defend when technology overreaches. And this week, as delegates gather for In...

It’s easy to talk about trust and safety... harder to build it.
Here's my article noting that Germany’s recent stand against “Chat Control” is a reminder that digital trust starts with respecting privacy.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/german...
#DataGovernance #DataPrivacy #DigitalRights #TrustAndSafety

One Battle After Another - Official Trailer - Warner Bros. UK & Ireland YouTube video by Warner Bros. UK & Ireland

I RARELY do this, REALLY RARELY, but I’m just back from seeing this absolutely amazing movie and… hoodle doodle, I’m #Obsessed!

If you’re into fabulous films, do yourself a favour and see this one in the cinema! We’ll be talking about it for years to come! #NoNotes www.youtube.com/watch?v=feOQ...

Cooking for Seamus: celebrities and chefs clamour to cook for a disabled bull in this irresistible show The YouTube series is a lo-fi celebration of cuisine-as-care, starring a disabled rescue bull in regional Victoria who is obsessed with human food, and his best friend and carer

#SharedSmile: This may be the cutest thing I’ve seen in a long while (worth the read before watching the video): www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Banned! The 20 books they didn’t want you to read From Instagram poetry to Greek classics, the works of fiction that have caused uproar through history – and into the present

How marvellous - Margaret Atwood made it on this list twice… kudos!! www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a... #Books #BanningBooks

🇨🇦 Encryption, Accountability, and the Cliff Edge: Why Canada Must Rethink Bill C-2 I grew up in Canada. I’m a proud citizen, and still carry with me that deep, cultural belief that our country, at its best, strives to…

🔐 Canada’s Bill C-2 could force decryption through secret orders while still claiming GDPR alignment. You can’t build trust with backdoors. I wrote about what this means for encryption, privacy & cross-border data handling.

#DigitalRights #EncryptionMatters #CyberPolicy
medium.com/@kim_9194/en...

Not a Restaurant Review - But a Lesson in Hospitality Every Industry Should Heed Last night, I had the pleasure of attending a preview dinner at Prefecture 48, the soon-to-open Japanese fine dining experience in Sydney. I’m not here to write a restaurant review - others will do th...

In an industry as competitive as food & beverage, thoughtful service isn’t just memorable - it’s strategic. And tech would do well to take note.

Because whether you’re serving sashimi or SaaS, what people remember is how you made them feel. #customersuccess www.linkedin.com/pulse/restau...

When Politics Dictates AI: Why Trust, Safety, and Data Privacy Must Stay Non-Negotiable We’re hearing a familiar refrain again: make it neutral. Strip the bias. Clean it up. But whose version of “neutral” are we embedding in…

If your AI can’t name injustice, it’s not neutral – it’s unsafe.

The U.S. is banning “woke” AI from federal use. But when politics starts dictating what models can know, it’s not just bias at risk – it’s trust, privacy, and safety.
Here’s why that should concern all of us
medium.com/@kim_9194/wh...

Narrow Ambitions: NASA Quiet Quits NASA Quiet Quits - Part 1

NASA helps fight cancer. Seriously- tumour growth in microgravity, better imaging tech, radiation insights.
Now its science programs are being gutted.

Newton Campbell's piece is a sharp read on what we’re losing.

thenewtoncampbell.substack.com/p/narrow-amb...
#SciencePolicy #PublicInterestScience

From Targets to Co-Designers: Empowering Gen Z in the Age of AI Gen Z is the first generation to grow up entirely within an AI-powered world. From school apps that track their attention spans to platforms that curate their every scroll, they’ve been nudged, measur...

Gen Z didn’t opt in. They were born into the algorithm.
If we want real digital safety, we need to give them power not just protection, empowerment not entrapment; make them co-designers not targets.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-t...
#ResponsibleAI #DigitalEmpowerment #CyberSafety #YouthOnlineSafety

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: "Cyber Safety and Privacy for Youth - Responsible AI for GenZ". After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Organised by: Enterprise IT World MEA & CyAN

Cyber safety. Digital privacy. AI for Gen Z.
Join me on 11 July for a global convo on what it really means to protect and empower young people in an AI-powered world.
Open to all (16+). Register us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

#AILiteracy #EthicalTech #ResponsibleAI #TrustAndSafety #OnlineSafety

Not Just European, But Trustworthy: What DNS4EU Reminds Us About Sovereignty, Surveillance, and… When Infrastructure Becomes Political

DNS4EU is the EU’s attempt to build a privacy-first alternative to Google & Cloudflare. It promises more #Cybersecurity, fewer trackers, & data that stays in Europe. But if govs can still access your DNS logs, is it really private?
tinyurl.com/4z67jnxs
#DigitalSovereignty #Privacy #TrustAndSafety

Too Big to Fail, Too Centralised to Survive: What 16 Billion Leaked Logins Tell Us About the Wrong Kind of Scale When 16 billion credentials turn up in a single breach compilation, it should shake us. But it doesn’t.

Too big to fail? Try too centralised to survive. The RockYou2024 leak shows what happens when we build scale without resilience. 16B+ logins later, maybe it’s time we stop worshipping growth and start designing for safety.

Let’s talk about what needs to change.

www.linkedin.com/pulse/too-bi...

A sharp, urgent piece from @ninajankowicz.com on how political violence in the US is escalating & why it matters globally. Deeply researched, clearly argued, and well worth your time. Reposting with gratitude. #Democracy #PoliticalViolence #Disinformation #Extremism #GlobalImpacts #StrongerTogether

Hack the Planet? No. Just Hack the Tap: What exposed water systems tell us about the state of cybersecurity around the world I was already feeling twitchy about the state of critical infrastructure, but it was Ryan Naraine’s article in SecurityWeek - “Misconfigured HMIs Expose U.S.

Globally, the digital dashboards that run our water systems are sitting wide open online - often with no password at all. These are key #CyberThreats in the #CriticalInfrastructure we rely on every day.
#CyberSecurity #HackingRisks #ICS #SmartCities #WaterSecurity

www.linkedin.com/pulse/hack-p...

Used, Not Consulted: When AI Trainson Our Work Without Consent CyAN Context At CyAN, we often talk about trust, governance, and transparency aspillars of a secure digital future. But what happens when thoseprinciples are ignored, not in a breach or a ransomwar…

Keen to hear from technologists thinking seriously about data governance, consent, & AI training. What does responsible AI development actually look like when the training data includes us?
@danielvanstrien.bsky.social @emilyliu.me 
 (And anyone else thinking deeply about this.)
tinyurl.com/3kd6fsbf

There are so many brilliant authors here on Bluesky, I’d genuinely love to hear your thoughts on this.
What do we do when our words are used without consent, credit, or compensation to train AI?
@margaretatwood.bsky.social @joannechocolat.bsky.social @ianrankin1.bsky.social @doctorow.bsky.social

Used, Not Consulted: When AI Trains on Our Work Without Consent Introduction

If you’ve ever created anything - a report, a blog post, a book - your work might already be training someone else’s AI. No credit. No consent. No pay.
Here’s why it matters for all of us.
#AI #DigitalRights #DataGovernance #EthicalTech #SydneyWritersFestival #AIethics
medium.com/@kim_9194/us...

Blink and we’re back in the dark ages!

So you know how everyone was searching for Conclave last week... just wondering how many are searching for The Grifters this week.

Yep - just put 3kg of chicken breasts in the slow cooker to be shredded and frozen for easy dishes for yonks to come!!

Oh my my… how did you know this is my not so secret joyful space?!! :D

Elizabeth Holmes’s partner reportedly raises millions for blood-testing startup Billy Evans, father of Holmes’s children, says company can make diagnoses from users’ blood, urine and saliva

Elizabeth Holmes's partner reportedly raises millions for blood-testing startup :| www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...