Plus: experience Gmail like Jeffrey Epstein ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

November 24, 2025 | Read online
# BOM website cost blowout, X reveals locations and powerbank plane ban Plus: experience Gmail like Jeffrey Epstein
{{OPEN_TRACKING_PIXEL}}
Edition 2466
"SGI Detritus" (Flickr: Steve Jurvetson)
Folks, put it in your calendar now: the last Sizzle of the year will be December 19!
# The News
### The BOM website that everyone seems to hate also cost an insane amount of money to make
BOM spent almost $100 million on a website that it previously said cost $4 million (SMH, $). BOM’s new chief Dr Stuart Minchin revealed the full price of the whole project which was launched last month: $4.1 million for the redesign, $79.8 million for the website build and $12.6 million for the testing and launch. Now the environment minister says he’s met twice with Minchin in the first two weeks of his job to speak about the website and its cost (Guardian).
The Sizzle: People complaining about how much more it costs the government to build websites is often a bugbear for me. Government departments can’t just roll out a stock Wordpress build because the higher standards and requirements for a public resource. BOM, in particular, has a lot of requirements because its weather data is used globally: from farmers to markets to defence forces. Any new BOM website build was always going to take forever, cost a shitload, and end up as a Franken-website.
With all that in mind: $96.5 MILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maaammaa mia!!!! To put that in perspective, that’s 1.6 million Sizzle annual subscriptions. (And I think the Sizzle website is better too).
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### X now shows user locations and it immediately revealed a lot of grifter accounts pretending to be someone they’re not
Elon Musk’s X now has a transparency feature that purports to show a user’s location information — and it immediately revealed some people are lying on the internet (Tech Crunch)! X now displays user accounts info like where they’re based, when they joined and how many times they’ve changed their username (X).
Wonder what he changed it from
People were quick to notice that quite a few major MAGA accounts were, in fact, supposedly based in Nigeria, Eastern Europe, Russia and India (Daily Beast).
The Sizzle: Take X’s data with a grain of salt: my profile says I’m based in America because I only ever crosspost to X using a third-party posting service.
or maybe I’m a CIA plant!
That being said, we should be 0% surprised that people around the world are pretending to be someone they’re not to cash in on online engagement. Earlier this month, an investigation revealed that a Sri Lankan influencer says he makes $100,000s by making AI-generated racist, anti-immigrant slop on Facebook for UK audiences (The Bureau Investigates). When platforms like X started letting users earn money from engagement, they supercharged the incentives for creating sensationalist, engagement-baiting content. Now, this is the world we live in.
Or, as one Bluesky user put it: “If I’m understanding this correctly, X is owned by a white nationalist who pays poor people of color in developing countries to pretend to be working class white Americans to scare other white Americans into being afraid poor people of color from developing countries are going to ruin America?”
Related reading: Majority of Australians encountering misinformation online, regulator finds
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Powerbank use soon to be banned on flights
Power bank use will be banned on major Australian airlines starting from early next month (Australian Traveller). Last week, Qantas and Virgin announced that usage will be banned on December 15 and December 1, respectively. This comes after a handful of reports about power banks short-circuiting mid-air. Travellers will still be able to take up to two 160 Wh power banks on a flight. Most planes offer some in-seat charging — but every plane in the airlines’ fleets use USB-A, so remember to bring your adaptor!
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
I’m in the ABC talking about the Wieambilla mass shooting inquest which mentions using AI to monitor online to caught potential shooters… Social media giants refuse to sign pledge for under-16s ban (Australian Financial Review, $) An offer he couldn’t refuse: The young Aussie who couldn’t say no to Zuckerberg (The Sydney Morning Herald, $) When your patient trusts the AI but not you: ‘One patient told me ChatGPT was much nicer than their specialist’ (AusDoc, $) Carla Zampatti AI bot to inspire women entrepreneurs (SmartCompany) A Visit To ACMI’s Game Worlds Exhibition (Decryption)
Rest of the world:
Meta buried 'causal' evidence of social media harm, U.S. court filings allege (Reuters, $) Chinese researchers simulate large-scale electronic warfare against Elon Musk’s Starlink (South China Morning Post, $) Bro boost: women find LinkedIn traffic ‘drives’ if they pretend to be men (The Guardian) Google says it isn't using your Gmail to train AI (Mashable) The most popular social media platform among US adults isn't Instagram or TikTok (Engadget) It’s YouTube We Asked Roblox’s C.E.O. About Child Safety. It Got Tense (NYT) Raycast launches for Windows (Raycast) Linux comes for Windows at 40 — and gaming can't save it (MakeUseOf) Meet the AI workers who tell their friends and family to stay away from AI (The Guardian) Dark Mode Sucks (Tome Changosubanana)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### Experience Gmail like Jeffrey Epstein
When all those Epstein estate emails were dropped the other week, the dump was a complete mess. Thankfully, someone has now figured out the formatting and is helping sharing them as a recreation of Jeffrey Epstein’s inbox so you can experience his emails just like he did!
Why not put yourself in the shoes of the guy and read messages from Paul Keating’s daughter, Katherine Keating, or see what disgraced cosmologist Lawrence Krauss had to say about allegations of sexual harrasment at an Australian event! What a treat.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
Commbank customers get $15 cashback when you spend $100+ Good Guys customers gets $30 off $150+ spend BlueAnt X3D MAX Portable 40W Bluetooth Speaker - Nobility Blue - $55.99 at Gravitech AU via eBay Edifier W830NB Wireless Over-Ear Headphones with Active Noise Cancellation - $59.99 at Edifier Apple AirPods 4 at Hub by Triforce AirPods 4 for $152.10 AirPods 4 w/ANC for $206.99 Sony WH-ULT900NB Wireless Noise Cancelling Over-Ear Headphones - $219 at Telstra (Down from $349) Sonos Ace - $385 at WestCoast hifi JBL Bar Soundbars at The Good Guys JBL Bar800 5.1.2 soundbar for $589 JBL Bar1000 7.1.4 for $885 Noble Audio FoKus Apollo Wireless Headphones - $599 at Addicted to Audio DJI Osmo Pocket 3 4K 3 Axis Gimbal Camera - $607 at Sydney Mobiles eBay LG UltraGear GX7 27" 240hz Oled QHD Gaming Monitor 27gx704a - $839 at LG Online (Down from $1199) Sony a6700 Mirrorless Camera (Body Only) - $1689 at digiDirect Hisense PT1 4K Laser Projector - $1995 at JB Hi-Fi
Computing
Razer Naga V2 HyperSpeed Wireless Mouse - $89.60 at EB Games eBay Razer Basilisk V3 Pro Customizable Wireless Gaming Mouse - $146.56 at Razer eBay Lenovo Thinkpad L490-Intel i5-8265u, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, FHD Graphics, Win11 - $189 at Corporatepc (Used Grade A) LG 32” QHD 100z HDR IPS Monitor with USB-C - $249 at JB Hi-Fi (Down from $389) Lexar Professional Go Portable SSD 2TB - $298.97 at Amazon (Down from $449) Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 2 14" Laptop Ryzen 5 5650U 16GB 256GB SSD W11P - $417 at Max Direct Computer (Used) LG UltraGear GX7 27" 240hz OLED QHD Gaming Monitor 27GX704A - $839 at LG Online (Down from $1199) Asus Vivobook 15 i7-1355u 16GB / 1TB 15.6" Laptop F1504VA-BQ505W - $898 at Bing Lee Surface Pro, Copilot+ PC, 12-Inch - $999 at Microsoft HP OmniBook 7 Laptop 16" 2K OLED Touch Intel Ultra 7 255H 32GB 1TB SSD RTX 4050 - $1798.40 at HP Official Store eBay MacBook Pro 14" M5 10/10 Core CPU/GPU 24GB/1TB Space Black - $2847 at Emporium Electronics
Mobile
EzySim Ultimate 12 12-Month 100GB eSIM Plan - $90 at EzySim (Down from $175) Google Pixel 8 Pro 128GB - Obsidian - $698 at Harvey Norman
# The End
😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.
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