WOUT VAN AERT SING-ALONG YouTube video by ACHTER DE SCHERMEN

Bringing this back for the day that's in it #parisroubaix youtu.be/LjTYwUr4WuA?...

Fire and ambulance services to be curtailed due to fuel shortages caused by protests Meanwhile, Micheál Martin has said Ireland may is on the precipice of “turning oil away” because of the blockades.

Fire and ambulance services are to be curtailed because of fuel shortages caused by the ongoing protests and blockades, the government's emergency group has said.

The public is also being urged not to stockpile fuel.
jrnl.ie/7008778

Hey. Wanna know something mad?

Ireland doesn't do daylight savings.

1/?

We Lived Happily during the War And when they bombed other people's houses, we protested but not enough, we opposed them but not enough. I was in my bed, around my bed America was falling: invisible house by invisible house by invisible house- I took a chair outside and watched the sun. In the sixth month of a disastrous reign in the house of money in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money, our great country of money, we (forgive us) lived happily during the war.

"in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money,
our great country of money, we (forgive us)

lived happily during the war."

- Ilya Kaminsky

“Every time I have come close to death under some driver’s wheels and had a conversation about it – the driver says they “didn’t see me”. I was there when you did not see me because you did not look.”

- Sarah Moss #spéirghim #cycling

CHARLES RAFFERTY The Problem with Early Warnings People don't like to leave a party unless the house is actually on fire. Even then, if the flames are far enough away to be pretty, they'll finish their drink, take one more pass at the hors d'oeuvres. How things happen has always been unclear. Hurricanes begin in a place where no one lives. Agents of the government start to wear masks. Fascism is a word my neighbors won't use yet. They are following the law, they say, and the sirens are coming for someone else.

This hit so fucking hard today.

‘Cyclists have become a nightmare in Dublin’: Judge reduces €50,000 damages award by 80% Court finds cyclist was mainly responsible for collision with motorbike in which he suffered brain and soft-tissue injuries

This is shocking loose, crude talk - something we expect the judiciary to be above

I’m gutted for all cyclists out there-we need more cycling for a safer calmer faster moving city

Judge O’ Donohoe should retract
If not, I think the Judicial Council must intervene
www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/co...

If you cycle paths don't allow for parents to help a child going up hill or social cycling generally, they aren't really being designed for all ages and abilities:

What he's calling "shut down" is people calmly and clearly pointing out the actual numbers which disprove the point he made.

That's not being shut down, that's being corrected. And I guess that doesn't feel nice but it's not you being "shut down". It's just actual facts.

Sorry but we literally debunked this like last month when he did this dog whistle. Fintan O'Toole literally did the maths, in the Times no less, that showed that this isn't true.

Why are we bothering to publish such an obvious lie when we know it's a lie?

First-of-a-kind study shows encouraging data for trans kids who socially transition Ninety-four percent of participants in a new study stood firm in their trans identity after five years, and "detransitioning" is rare.

The name "Popular Science" doesn't mean we shift our coverage depending on public opinion. It means we cover relevant subjects that are rigorously researched, reliable, and grounded in reality.

And trans lives are grounded in reality.

We see y'all. No matter what.

www.popsci.com/science/tran...

How rainy is Dublin? ‘Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it’ Mark Twain

How rainy is Dublin for biking? The answer will amaze you!

(OK, probably not if you already use a bike here...)

www.dublincycling.com/cycling/how-...

Today is 2025-12-14, the sun sets at 16:05:45 and the grand auld stretch tonight was 00 mins and 02 secs. #GrandStretch #TheGrandStretchIsBack

www.gibiris.org/eo-blog/2026...

2 seconds tomorrow, then 8, then 17, then 31. It will be 1 minute long before the solstice, 10 minutes long before January and 1 hour long before February.

Today is 2025-12-13, the sun sets at 16:05:43 and the grand auld stretch tonight was 00 mins and 00 secs. #GrandStretch #ZeroStretch

Dystopia - Wikipedia

The word dystopia was first coined by John Stuart Mill to describe the British governments rule in Ireland

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopia

"they ought rather to be called dys-topians... what they appear to favour is too bad to be practicable."

Storm Bram high tide hitting Clontarf seafront this afternoon. #stormbram #dublin #ireland

Excluding trans people won’t stop you getting sued | Good Law Project Girl Guiding and the Women’s Institute have announced that they will now exclude trans women and girls after legal threats – but organisations can and should remain inclusive.

Girl Guiding and the Women’s Institute have announced that they will now exclude trans women and girls after legal threats – but organisations can and should remain inclusive:
https://goodlaw.social/cpfx

Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

The Good Old Days   Pity the poor children of today, with their calendars stuffed with chocolates,   never to know the thrill of opening a small cardboard door and discovering behind it   a picture of a bell. Brian Bilston

This poem is dedicated to anyone making a start on their advent calendar today.

"Years and years ago, there was a production of The Tempest, out of doors, at an Oxford college on a lawn, which was the stage, and the lawn went back towards the lake in the grounds of the college, and the play began in natural light. But as it developed, and as it became time for Ariel to say his farewell to the world of The Tempest, the evening had started to close in and there was some artificial lighting coming on. And as Ariel uttered his last speech, he turned and he ran across the grass, and he got to the edge of the lake and he just kept running across the top of the water — the producer having thoughtfully provided a kind of walkway an inch beneath the water. And you could see and you could hear the plish, plash as he ran away from you across the top of the lake, until the gloom enveloped him and he disappeared from your view. And as he did so, from the further shore, a firework rocket was ignited, and it went whoosh into the air, and high up there it burst into lots of sparks, and all the sparks went out, and he had gone. "When you look up the stage directions, it says, 'Exit Ariel.”

A story Stoppard told several times, in several places:

a statue of a hippopotamus with its mouth open and teeth showing . Alt: A hippo being tossed a watermelon, which it crushes in its massive jaws.

I have been doing entirely too much earnest posting about deep things recently, I need to do a proper thread about hippo testicles or something just to keep myself sane.

Oh by the way hippos have migratory testicles.

THEN YOU PURCHASE THEM AND DO NOT USE THE PROPERTY OF OTHERS

important reference material

There’s a huge gulf between levels of fear of Dublin city centre, and levels of crime, new survey shows The City Centre Crime Victim Survey was commissioned by Dublin Inquirer and carried out by Amarách Research.

The survey also found a huge gulf between levels of fear of Dublin city centre, and levels of crime respondents had experiened here. And at what, then, drives that perception that town is not safe. 5/

There's been a great deal of debate about how safe Dublin city centre is, but when we @dublininquirer.com looked for data to resolve this, we couldn't find much useful – so we commissioned a survey to try to add some facts/data to the debate. Today we've published five articles about the results. 1/

Every far-right riot and protest that was tolerated, every racist dog whistle from public reps, every bit of hate and misinformation allowed to spread by social media companies, all led to this moment in Drogheda last night where someone felt emboldened enough to try to burn children alive.

Wed: “Our migration numbers are too high”-Simon Harris

Thurs: “Taoiseach and Donohoe back Tánaiste’s remarks that numbers migrating to Ireland are ‘too high’”

Fri: ”migration numbers too high outside of international protection…as well”-Simon Harris

*Arson attack on infants in IPAS centre.*

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Screenshot of reply stating that there are no leftover smarties