One of the specific small things I miss most after moving away. The bigger thing I miss is just how much nature there is LA

‘This could be groundbreaking for Ireland Inc and the midlands’ – New research reveals transformative potential of ‘energy parks’ Bord na Móna (BnM) looks to be primed to become the major player in a potential radical transformation of swathes of the midlands under policies being drawn up to combine windfarms, data centres and m...

Yet another gushing story of how bogs are "prime areas for development" with plans for a "radical transformation of swathes of the midlands".

Bogs are important in their own right should be restored not converted to data centres

www.independent.ie/business/iri...

Absolute trash, a car could do this in under ten minutes while carrying a bunch of people

Wild life of the world: London ;F. Warne and co., 1916. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33270318

Wild life of the world: London ;F. Warne and co., 1916. (source: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33270318 #nature #illustration #art

This continual bombardment from a catastrophically failing money sink is so aggressively anti-human, anti-creator and anti-life that CEOs should absolutely be held accountable when they decide to farewell it.

'If we take more we can make it better' like some bank robbers promising one last job.

Screenshot: «AI JUST COMBINED STAR WARS ITH LORD OF THE RINGS» - a hovercraft in front of bag end

Deepfakes, synthetic media, AI slop etc. have often been discussed in terms of a «crisis of truth» or an «erosion of trust». Fair enough. But in my impression, there’s something else that gets lost in waves of AI slop flooding our screens: a «sense of wonder» – surprise, amazement and awe
1/

'Environmental impact of these vast facilities remains largely secret, despite the data flowing into a publicly-funded database.
... lobbying from major data centre operators was successful in keeping specific information from individual data centres confidential and out of the public domain'

Man the newly digitized Irish census rules, what an incredible resource

nationalarchives.ie/collections/...

A flatscreen display on a "smart" water fountain, demanding to be reconnected to the internet.

In 1999, I was playing a decker in Shadowrun, and tried to distract a guard by hacking a water fountain to overflow, and my GM said "why would a water fountain be on the network? That's fucking stupid. No you can't try."

Well it's 2026 and I just want you to know, Phil, that I FUCKING CALLED IT!

Really looking forward to this next week, although I can only attend half since I also have to go to a community-college-district-wide meeting on AI policy, a meeting that is sure to be the exact opposite of this extremely informative and practical book

This is exactly it because unless you get a confession, you can't prove they used AI. And the whole is not to become a cop any way, it's not a solution

You Do Not Need an AI Policy — Sonja Drimmer You do not need an AI policy. Forget the crisis in plagiarism and cheating; that’s yesterday’s news. It is becoming increasingly common for my colleagues, both within my own university and elsewhere,...

sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2026/...

Definitely. A substantial portion of the Irish population--like 1/15--actively took part by going to Britain to work or fight. So that's a much higher level of participation than most neutrals and even than some belligerents. But yeah the govt at the time saw it as a kind of test of independence

I want to note that I've lived here four years and have spoken with plenty of people about this but I haven't studied it in any serious way so I'm likely missing some key elements.

And if Britain were the danger (which seems historically well grounded!), it seems to me that most people refuse to consider the possibility, regard it as too difficult or expensive to counter, or, perhaps, imagine that Ireland drive the British out in the 1910s and could do so again if needed.

Indeed; my understanding is that people here generally don't consider there to be any real threat to security and that the political and moral benefits of neutrality far outweigh any danger. I think the idea is that any invader would have to get through Britain first and the US would probably help.

There's a deep tradition of neutrality here going back to the Second World War at least

Copy of the Penguin Classics edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1969 novel ‘The Left Hand of Darkness

‘I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination’.

Embarking today on Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1969 masterpiece ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’.

Happy days 🙂

Personally don't recommend these. As the article notes, these properties are typically achieved through PFAS, which can shed carcinogens in your home (which you then inhale) or come out in the wash (polluting waterways for decades). Will try to do a thread on how to treat stains in the wash.

Man, Brown was great against them. Considering it more, I think Brown's two sh goals in game 2 were the real pivotal moment. Game 1 might be written off as a fluke, and the Canucks game out gunning but for Brown to score that first goal in game 2 was the moment I started to think we could beat them

Franchise-altering moment

Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones

This was okay. Some interesting world-building but the plot felt all over the place.

Seems bad!

And I don't mean to say that all people with those attributes all have the same voice, have the same interests, or want to say the same things. But when there's a block of people with those attributes making interventions, they get heard

And by that I mean white men with (for lack of a better term) "traditionally Irish names", rural accents, and who possess or are associated with certain forms of capital such rural land, tractors, and animals. If you've got those things, your voice counts more than most others in Ireland

The Irish fuel protests can be seen from so many different angles but what strikes me most is how it's a clear example of when certain privileged social groups make interventions into public discourse, they get heard and get their interests attended to. In Ireland, one of those groups is "farmers."

Less is More: How Degrowth will Save the World, by Jason Hickel

Loved this. Some of the more historically-minded claims were a bit of a stretch--15th century "golden age," European men needing Husserl to inform them they have bodies--but I think the main point holds: permanent growth is the problem

The “Calvin’s dad explains two types” meme, inspired by a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. Clockwise from top left: 1) Calvin’s dad walks into frame to find Calvin trying to operate a record player. The dad says: “There are only two industries left in America: gambling, and fraud.” 2) The dad shows where the record goes, and how to turn on the player, while Calvin watches. Dad says “Derivatives? Gambling. AI? Fraud. Video games? Gambling. Social media? Fraud.” Calvin says “yeah”. 3) With one hand open palm up, Calvin’s dad cheerfully explains to Calvin out of frame below him, “The stock market looks like gambling, but it’s actually fraud.” 4) In bed in a dark room, Calvin clutches at his pillow, eyes wide in existential terror. There is no text in the panel.

The country's descent into fascism cannot be understood without interrogating U.S. policing. But folks across the political spectrum are allergic to this so here we are.

Edinburgh journal of natural history and of the physical sciences. Edinburgh [etc.]: Published for the proprietor [etc.], 1835-1840. https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33665323

Edinburgh journal of natural history and of the physical sciences. Edinburgh [etc.]: Published for the proprietor [etc.], 1835-1840. (source: https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33665323 #nature #illustration #art