Electricity from coal dropped worldwide last year. To show how surprising this is I had a bet it would happen in any year before 2030 made in August 2025 #climate

BBC presenter Desmond Morris dies aged 98 after ‘a lifetime of exploration’ Morris rose to fame in 1967 with his groundbreaking book The Naked Ape

www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...

Girl aged 2 sitting on chair with baby in long white dress on her lap, with woman in white nurse’s uniform crouching on right of image helping to hold baby

The newly released census of Ireland for 1926 shows “General trained and maternity nurse” Caroline Cassidy as a ‘visitor’ in my grandparents’ house. Now I know the name of the woman looking after my newborn mother in this photo. She’s the baby on her sister’s lap. #SpeirGorm #census #familyhistory

Version with updated spelling removed. It needs to be decided carefully where updating of spelling becomes unfaithful to the original text.

In 1994, at one point Michael Crichton had the number-one television show (ER), book (Disclosure), and film (Jurassic Park) at the same time

bsky.app/profile/iamr...

An gúm the Irish language publishers had some brilliant covers at the time

Modern Irish spelling version at github.com/cavedave/Man...
If you find any errors let me know and I will correct them.
The book was never republished or translated

Manannán
- first Irish language sci Fi 1939
- Máiread Ní Ghráda she also wrote The Trial (about Magdalene laundries and treatment of unmarried mother's. It avoided being banned by being in Irish)
- first Mecha robot outside of Japan
- first spaceship getting a gravity assist anywhere

First attempt at modern Irish spelling chapter is here github.com/cavedave/Man...
If you find any errors let me know and I will correct them.

The project has some great help. And I've accepted all changes submitted so far.

An Irish-language science fiction book sounds quite modern, doesn’t it?

Check out this one from 1939 #Spéirghorm

Bid to take down fake videos and images of garda response to fuel protests False viral information, much of it being generated abroad, is on a scale ‘never seen before’ in Ireland

Meanwhile, Aidan O’Brien, an analyst at the European Digital Media Observatory Ireland at Dublin City University (DCU), has been monitoring how the far-right in Ireland and abroad reacted to the fuel blockades. He said a “disinformation economy” went into full swing during last week’s protests. He uncovered conspiracy theories about the energy crisis and talk of “the great shutdown”, which were already in heavy circulation on Irish social media by the middle of March. “When the protests erupted, Irish right-wing social media influencers went into overdrive posting video content. Many of these influencers benefit from features introduced on the platforms, like algorithm promotion, and have monetised their accounts,” he explained. “There is now a disinformation economy. Influencers know the most dramatic footage, alongside the most sensational framing, will go viral, generating income. They aren’t just promoting this footage and their narratives because it suits their agenda, they’re making money doing so.” After that international far-right influencers pounced on the content, he said. “Nearly immediately, and often within minutes of the initial videos being posted, it was downloaded and repackaged by influencers outside Ireland. “It happened so quickly that you might assume these people are heavily immersed in the situation, but they’re chasing the content, and the story, often repackaging footage with false claims that the protest was about migration. “This happens because over the last five years our disinformation ecology has become exponentially complex and is fully integrated with the international far-right disinformation ecosystem.” Ireland has now become a “major focus of attention” for the international hard-right, he said. Canadian far-right influencer Ezra Levant travelled to Ireland last week as did Kevin Posobiec, whose brother Jack is an American far-right political activist and social media personality. Both filmed content while here. The fact both men…

The fact both men were willing to “jump on a plane” said a lot, added Mr O’Brien. “The foreign attention and amplification of these protests are concerning…Our Government needs to start demanding real accountability and action from these [social media] companies… “If the Minister [for Communications Patrick O’Donovan] is concerned about ‘lopsided coverage’ of the protests, he shouldn’t be worried about the radio but look at social media.” On Friday, Minister O’Donovan admitted he made a “hames” of his call for a “review” into broadcast media coverage of fuel protests. He said, “in hindsight”, he should not have suggested that the media regulator — Coimisiún na Meán — should “review” both local and national broadcast coverage of the fuel protests.

I spoke to the Sindo about the unprecedented scale of disinformation we witnessed during the fuel protests & the disinformation economy. It's not enough to get this content removed post-hoc; we need to hold the platforms accountable for promoting disinformation & hate speech.
archive.ph/AOVHC

There's a great 1909 Irish language book where the richest man in the world (an Irish speaker) arms the Gaeilgeoirs and starts a revolution

Oh it has the first mecha robot outside of Japan as well.

If it's just the gravity assist and the Mecha robot parts I can translate those if you ok with them not being perfect

No I'm afraid not
First step is get it into modern Irish. And then someone might translate the lot.

No need to be ashamed. You have an interest in the area which is great.

The book also has the first Mecha Robot outside of Japan. This is from ch3 and explains how they get speed out of the planet Manannán

I’ve be involved in various capacities in counter disinformation and counter hate speech activity on Irish online spaces for over 8 years.

I have never witness anything as bad as the abuse directed at Senator Eileen Flynn… it’s gamergate levels of targeted & coordinated harassment.

Manannan/caibidlí/old-orthography at main · cavedave/Manannan Attempt to convert 1943 Irish language sci-fi book Manannán to modern orthography - cavedave/Manannan

github.com/cavedave/Man...

I finally got Manannán transcribed. It is the 1939 Irish language sci-fi book with the first Spaceship using a gravity assist in literature.

Next up is conversion to modern spelling. If you know a list of known changes (annso->anseo) or can even just help by reading please let me know.

A Newly Discovered Recording Lets You Hear Delta Blues Legend Robert Johnson in Stunning Clarity Great swathes of rock music since the nineteen-sixties would never have existed, we're sometimes told, were it not for the recordings of Robert Johnson. Certainly the likes of Keith Richards, Eric Cla...

A Newly Discovered Recording Lets You Hear Delta Blues Legend Robert Johnson in Stunning Clarity

Finding out your kids computer game has a version of you wandering around of it's own volition acting like you is deeply Black Mirror

In the new Tomodachi Life you can make characters for the game. My daughter made a virtual me that is wandering around showing people graphs its made.

You are totally right.

And your cafe name search was clever as for stories about Ireland local knowledge makes fakes really obvious

Right the checkers I used are based on some artifacts genai leaves in images it creates. Not that clever human investigation stuff.

I ran it through a deep fake checker and that image is almost certainly fake. Not that it was likely real but just to double check

8 years ago, I told a story which changed my life forever. Shortly after, an old pal from college asked if he could turn it into a film.

So I am DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE that 'Me, Myself & Mary' is not only finished, but has been chosen to lead the Tribeca Festival's animated shorts roster this year.

Stamp art of the new logo, showing Irish language names on a signpost with Reclaim Your Placename.

Stamp doodle logo for the @cnagaeilge.bsky.social AthGhaelú campaign "to encourage people to use Irish placenames instead of English placenames in all aspects of life."
They've also created a Gealltanas Logainmneacha "to encourage individuals and groups to use Irish-only placenames" #SpéirGhorm

"There's a little boy and on his 14th birthday he gets a horse... and everybody in the village says, "how wonderful. The boy got a horse" And the Zen master says, "we'll see." www.imdb.com/title/tt0472...