Parking shapes our streets more than most people realise.

Today we’ve launched Ahead of the Kerb: a new report on the hidden costs of parking, and how we can use parking policy better to create people-first cities

👉 transform.scot/2026/04/21/h...

Wow missed this.
“Norway reached 117% renewable electricity use in 2023, producing more than it consumes and exporting the surplus. “

Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial Scientists caution that more research is needed, but nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later.

"Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial: Scientists caution that more research is needed, but nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later."

Dublin City has no active travel projects under construction, putting rollout of 214km network by 2030 into further doubt Progress building cycle routes has slowed in Q1 of this year and now — at least temporarily — ground to a halt, a city councillor has highlighted. Cllr Feljin Jose (Green Party) raised …

Dublin City has no active travel projects under construction, putting rollout of 214km network by 2030 into further doubt irishcycle.com/2026/04/18/d...

Ep 13 - The Iniskea Prospect Should Ireland leave all its oil and gas reserves in the ground or drill to achieve energy independence?

The suggestion that Ireland should reverse the ban on drilling for oil and gas has popped up again.
I made a programme looking at this from every imaginable angle.

Listen: 👉 www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

Spoiler alert: The arguments for drilling don’t add up.

“The reality is that we don’t have any food security in Ireland because the vast majority of what we consume is imported and the vast majority of what we produce is exported”
– Emma Howard, economist, Technological University Dublin.

Another excellent article by @codohertynews.bsky.social

We are not in the "AI era." We are in the "source: trust me, bro" era.

Attention #SpeirGorm - you probably have a "green bin". You'll notice it's not called a "recycling bin". The overwhelming majority of what's in that bin gets incinerated, not recycled. Yet more #GreenWashing for the benefit of the plastic packaging industry.

Police used AI facial recognition to arrest a Tennessee woman for crimes committed in a state she says she’s never visited | CNN A Tennessee grandmother spent more than five months in jail after police used an AI facial recognition tool to link her to crimes committed in North Dakota – a state she says she’d never been to befor...

This 50 yr old woman spent 5 months in jail accused of a crime in a state she's never even been to, because Clearview AI misidentified her as the suspect.

A judge signed off on it, cops went along with it, no process in place to even question the AI.

www.cnn.com/2026/03/29/u...

Pretty radical design to convert a multi-storey carpark into 111 apartments in Staffordshire

I’d estimate this would save around 30% embodied carbon compared to a new build!

www.bbc.com/news/article...

The Ride-Hail Utopia That Got Stuck in Traffic Uber and Lyft said they would ease congestion. Instead they made it worse.

Never forget, for many years Uber insisted it would reduce traffic in cities. Instead, Uber drivers cruise without passengers 40% of the time. Uber & Lyft no longer claim they reduce traffic. They now admit they increase congestion.

Now boosters lie about driverless cars. Don’t believe them either.

1. Here’s a thread on #NIMBY (“not in my backyard”) and the challenges of change in cities:

First off, although it might feel that way, NIMBY isn’t unique to your city, and it’s (probably) not worse in your city than anywhere else. It’s also not surprising, since it’s largely about human nature.

A viral dog rescue from 2016 is now immortalized with a statue in Kazakhstan. When a dog fell into the Sayran reservoir, bystanders formed a human chain to pull him to safety. The statue is a reminder of the value of unity, solidarity and collective action. 14/10 for all

Before-and-after green street transformation in Paris

Transformation of urban Square into forest in front of Paris City Hall

Street transformation of “School Street“ in central Paris, including greening

According to the City of Paris, in the last 10 years 150K trees have been planted, and 45ha of parks created in the already hot city, all intended to not only improve quality-of-life today, but also help the city adapt to & manage summer heatwaves of 50℃ (122F) by 2050.

Keep going with this, Paris.

Lie: Bike-lanes cause traffic congestion.

Truth: Bike-lanes help solve traffic congestion.

Lie: Bike-lanes hurt street shops if they replace parking.

Truth: Bike-lanes help street shops more than street parking does.

Lie: Bike-lanes cost us too much.

Truth: Bike-lanes save us all public money.

Rewilding "only" 8% of Irish farmland would make a BIG difference to collapsing nature.

Those 8% of farmers would be happy too, and it would cost the other 92% nothing.
www.farmersjournal.ie/news/news/in...

Sign saying “sorry no petrol.”

When we think about the big differences between European and North American city-building, a primary turning point was the 1970s Energy Crisis. European cities and nations learned, and took their city-building, urban transportation, and renewable energy development in very different directions. 1/2

📣 New Research just published.

Adoption of EVs, solar PV, and heat pumps in Ireland is driven by affluence. Current grants favour high-income groups, risking a "green divide." Policies must focus on equity and lower upfront costs.

Open access: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Social Capital and the Built Environment: The Importance of Walkable Neighborhoods Objectives. I sought to examine whether pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use neighborhoods encourage enhanced levels of social and community engagement (i.e., social capital). Methods. The study investigated the relationship between neighborhood design ...

“…persons living in walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods have higher levels of social capital compared with those living in car-oriented suburbs. Respondents living in walkable neighborhoods were more likely to know their neighbors, participate politically, trust others, and be socially engaged.”

A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator YouTube video by Forbrukerrådet - Norwegian Consumer Council

WATCH: This is my favourite thing on the internet right now. Well done Norway! youtube.com/watch?v=T4Up...

4-panel comic. (1) [Person with white hat talking to another person.] PERSON 1 with white hat: As Sherlock Holmes said, When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. (2) PERSON 2: What about the possibility that you forgot to eliminate a possibility? Or that you eliminated one incorrectly? Both of those remain, too. (3) PERSON 1: You’re being pedantic. It’s just a general rule for deduction. PERSON 2: But it’s a *bad rule*. (4) PERSON 2: How often have you thought, “I can’t find this thing, and I’ve searched the whole house. The only place I haven’t looked is the car, so it *must* be there.” PERSON 2: ...And then it’s never in the car. PERSON 1: *It’s never in the car!*

Eliminating the Impossible

xkcd.com/3210/

The Gist: A Balancing Act The Minister for Justice wants to break the EU’s encrypted messaging security. This is the Gist

"Simon Harris had denounced the Deskerati as a shadowy force of people with terrifying horizontal wooden surfaces at their disposal, preventing him from bringing in facial recognition via CCTV."

www.thegist.ie/the-gist-a-balancing-act/

‘. . . The rapidly growing field of computer vision is contributing to the legacy of surveillance technologies, technologies that have infringed on privacy, limited free expression, exacerbated disparities and created conditions facilitating abuse of power.’

Age verification vendor Persona left frontend exposed, researchers say Behind a basic age check, researchers say Persona’s system runs extensive identity, watchlist, and adverse-media screening.

A good example of how age verification techniques can backfire, leaving you open to security risks. My main issue with biometrics for online IDs is that *you can’t change them* if your identity is stolen.

And you can’t change your PPS number either.

#SpeirGorm

www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...

still unclear to me how the species made it this far

‘Privacy Nightmare on Wheels’: Every Car Brand Reviewed By Mozilla — Including Ford, Volkswagen and Toyota — Flunks Privacy Test Mozilla’s latest edition of *Privacy Not Included reveals how 25 major car brands collect and share deeply personal data, including sexual activity, facial expressions, and genetic and health informat...

Privacy is a big deal for cars, especially electric cars. Many are worried about Chinese cars. What is worth remembering is that Western car manufacturers all fail on respecting user privacy www.mozillafoundation.org/en/blog/priv...

#Privacy #EV

Ireland, Day 1056 of The Rain. Everything is saturated to the grey of the sky. Moss covers every surface. The outdoors sounds like constant static. The entire staff of Met Éireann is on mental health leave. I’ve forgotten what dry clothes feel like.

It is still a yellow weather alert.

#SpeirGorm

“A key driver of China’s AI momentum stems from its aggressive embrace of open models, a shift sparked by DeepSeek’s breakout success. Since then, Chinese AI labs have jumped on the open-model bandwagon.The turn to open models in China “has dramatically reduced costs for developers & enterprises,””

As AI enters the operating room, reports arise of botched surgeries and misidentified body parts Medical device makers have been rushing to add AI to their products. While proponents say the new technology will revolutionize medicine, regulators are receiving a rising number of claims of patient ...

When AI was added to a tool for sinus surgery: “Cerebrospinal fluid leaked from one patient’s nose. In another… a surgeon mistakenly punctured the base of a patient’s skull. In two other cases, patients suffered strokes after a major artery was accidentally injured”

www.reuters.com/investigatio...