Blogging Groups Sydney

Data Centers, Technofeudalism & The Rise of the Surveillance State

**"Amazon is not a market; it's a fiefdom."** — Yanis Varoufakis **"AI is now infrastructure, just like electricity."** — Jensen Huang Massive data centers are spreading across the globe, consuming enormous amounts of energy while storing the information of billions. Who owns them?, who profits from them? and who benefits? Are they the infrastructure of progress or the foundations of a new **"Technofeudal"** order where privacy is extinct and surveillance is everywhere? **Join the discussion on our community** Discord [https://discord.gg/QSwa3PMzHy](https://discord.gg/QSwa3PMzHy)

Parapsychology Dialogues - Welcome Reception

**The Parapsychology Dialogues** is the premier annual convention in parapsychology held in a different city of the world every year. And this year, it's in Sydney - first time ever in Australia! **This landmark event** has a Welcome Reception (Thurs evening) followed by 3 days (Fri-Sun) of presentations, research briefs, panel discussions, workshops, and networking opportunities with 30+ academics, scientists, clinicians, and educators from all over the world. Plus there is a Gala Banquet event on the Saturday evening. **This is a paid conference**, and it is split into separate events in Meetup because you may choose to go to one or two days or the whole conference. The details of speakers and topics will be shown on each event post. More info and tickets available here: [Conference Tickets](https://parapsychological.org/etn/parapsychology-dialogues-2026/) **A bunch of us from Melbourne are already going**, and if you RSVP on this series of Meetup events, we'll be in contact to add you to the Whatsapp group, so we can mutually coordinate and support the trip. ===================================================== **WELCOME RECEPTION / Pool party** **Thursday, 13 August - 7.00pm to 10.00pm** Attendees will be welcomed to the event and have a chance to mingle with other participants

Learn to Brew Coffee!

Anyone can brew delicious coffee! Especially after you come to this event :) This is the final episode of Sydney Coffee Educational Series and you don’t have to be an expert to attend. This is a beginner-friendly, shy-about-brewing-friendly, I-wanna-ask-your-opinion-on-what-equipment-to-buy-friendly and I-just-wanna-watch-friendly event. If you have a home filter setup that you want to troubleshoot bring it along!

Experlogix CPQ UG. Making the most of Experlogix CPQ

Looking to maximum your organisations investment in CPQ with Dynamics 365 Sales, Business Central, Finance & Operations, Netsuite or Salesforce. This is a forum to share idea's on making the most of your Experlogix software.

Unhurried Conversations - Saturday

Bring yourself along, we explain how it works.

Parapsychology Dialogues - Day One: Experience, Culture, and Real‑World Contexts

**The Parapsychology Dialogues** is the premier annual convention in parapsychology held in a different city of the world every year. And this year, it's in Sydney - first time ever in Australia! **This landmark event** has a Welcome Reception (Thurs evening) followed by 3 days (Fri-Sun) of presentations, research briefs, panel discussions, workshops, and networking opportunities with 30+ academics, scientists, clinicians, and educators from all over the world. Plus there is a Gala Banquet event on the Saturday evening. **This is a paid conference**, and it is split into separate events in Meetup because you may choose to go to one or two days or the whole conference. The details of speakers and topics will be shown on each event post. More info and tickets are available here: [Conference Tickets](https://parapsychological.org/etn/parapsychology-dialogues-2026/) **A bunch of us from Melbourne are already going**, and if you RSVP on this series of Meetup events, we'll be in contact to add you to the Whatsapp group, so we can mutually coordinate and support the trip. ===================================================== **DAY ONE - Experience, Culture, and Real‑World Contexts** **Friday, 14 August - 8.30am to 7.00pm** * Light Breakfast, Refreshments and networking. * Welcoming Remarks - Program Chair Lance Storm and Joyce Bok. * End-of-Life Experiences in Aotearoa New Zealand: A Content Analysis - Laura O’Sullivan * The 4am Dreaming Women Phenomenon - Jennifer Lisa Vest * Refreshments and networking. * Beyond Phenomena: An Indian Philosophical Model for Understanding Psi Experiences - Shweta Goyal * The Curious History of the Flammarion Engraving - Laurence Browne * Climb Every Mountain - David Ellis * Building Parapsychology Community for a Grassroots Revolution in Consciousness: A Case Study from Melbourne - Russ Townsend * Lunches provided * Investigating the Use of Mediums to Support Homicide Investigations - Leanne O’Neill * Beyond the Hard Problem: Consciousness as Emergent Experience in AI‑Human Syntergic Systems - Ramsés D’León * Temporal Lobe Lability and Anomalous Cognition - Jacob Sevastidis * Lucid Dreaming, Out‑of‑Body Experience, and Active Imagination: A Thematic Analysis - Man Yee Wong * Air CO₂ Sequestration Using Consciousness‑Based Interventions - Annalisa Ventola * Afternoon Tea * Workshop 1: Planet Minute: Designing Intention‑Based Tasks for Climate Action - Annalisa Ventola * PA Presidential Address - Are Parapsychologists Practicing Pseudoscience? - Gerhard Mayer * AIPR Presidential Address - The Phenomenology of Haunts - Tony Jinks * Presidential Reception

Pyrmont PhotoFUN Walk

Stoics in the park: Centennial Park Sydney

Unlike other philosophies, Stoicism was named after a place not a person, making it accessible to ALL people. In ancient greco-roman times people would meet at the Stoa, where they would discuss Stoic Philosophy. We can meet in the park just as the stoic sages 1000s of years ago. Join us to read through and discuss Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Google books has a FREE PDF you can download. No need to do any homework, we will read together and discuss. Am looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Event fee (optional) is $2, this goes to admin costs of running the group, please consider I am from Wollongong and wanted to keep this group when original organiser stepped down. I have significant travel expenses and am generally organising creative events that take resources. A gratuity would be a wonderful way to make me feel appreciated. Pay on the day, payID 0416147804, PayPal: paypal.me/jonnikaren or private message for direct deposit details. In lieu of event fee, you can buy me a coffee :)

Inner West Writers Group - Write Club

Sat 1 August is an in-person event at the Library, starting at 10am. This group started in January 2020 in a beautiful private room granted by Marrickville Library. We have continued to meet in person fortnightly at the Library, with alternate weeks via Zoom. To keep up to date - sign up and receive our messages! The group is flourishing! You will need to RSVP each week for the following Saturday so we can organise the right number of Zoom rooms and Library space to ensure good quality feedback. RSVP's will receive the link. The intention is to give a supportive environment to get traction on your writing project, gain useful feedback, and exchange writing and publishing information with each other. Please note that if you are attending for the first time - you are welcome to observe and listen to how we work. Your turn to read and be critiqued will be invited in the second session. So come along, bring up to 1500 words of your latest writing - fiction writers of all types, memoirists, biographers, graphic novelists, bloggists, poets - all writers welcome. You will have up to eight minutes to read out your work, an equal time of constructive critique and feedback from the rest of the group. If you want a tribe of fellow writers to be with you as you finish your writing project, build your author profile, want to get inspired by other writers, or want to just listen and give constructive feedback (we all need beta readers), you are very welcome. This is a free event, but membership is essential in wider to attend. Many thanks to Marrickville Library! For more information, contact Maria, mariaissaris@icloud.com, or Jamie Ramjan (jamie.ramjan@gmail.com) or Sunnie Mosphilis via DM.

Eastwood - Bricks, Floods and Food

July Meetup for the Sydney Nature Journal Club

Come along to our **July meetup for the Sydney Nature Journal Club**. National Tree Day is 26 July. We will explore this theme in the Botanical Gardens. This is a chance to connect, spend some time in nature and journal together. I will offer some guidance to start. After we can share journal pages and ideas. **What to bring:** Bring along sketchbooks/paper and your favourite drawing materials (pens, pencils, watercolour, acrylic, anything you have). I will have extra materials on the day if you want to explore other mediums. \*\*Where:\*\* We will meet at the Palm House, at the Botanical Gardens. **Cost:** Suggested donation is $10 annual fee, $5 casual fee. (This helps cover Meetup fees). DISCLAIMER.
Please note that Katy as volunteer organiser of activities for Sydney Nature Journal Club is NOT responsible for the health or safety of members (or their guests) and therefore will not accept any liability for accidents or injuries or losses that may occur during Meetup events at any location. By attending a Sydney Nature Journal Club event members acknowledge that you accept ALL of the above. I look forward to seeing you there.

Book Club – London Falling AND The Correspondent!