Compare Leo Varadkar's ham-fisted comments on relative costs of rural and urban living www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...

...with Prof Frank Crowley's brilliantly concise summary of the issues www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Updating my bio with "amateur poet" according to Nature, one of the pre-eminent scientific journals in the world 😂

Ireland’s retrofit reality: From ‘amazing’ home energy results to ‘miserable’ and costly experiences Retrofitting offers cosy home and energy cost cuts but can also come with financial burdens and bureaucratic nightmares

Many people helped out with this - householders, Dr Ciara Ahern, Marie Donnelly & @marcusstewart.bsky.social among them. Grateful for the input and insights
www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

How Ireland dealt with the oil and energy shocks of the 1970s The 1973 oil crisis pushed energy into the headlines and led to massive changes across society

How Ireland dealt with the oil and energy shocks of the 1970s. By @finorgan.bsky.social @ucc.ie @researchireland.ie www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Thanks Josie!

“On my bike I’m a child, teenager and adult all at the same time. Sometimes I ask my friends, when did you stop cycling?”

Very pleased to be launching my debut poetry chapbook on April 25th as part of @corkworldbookfest.bsky.social

Get tickets! corkworldbookfest.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...

Does Ireland have enough public chargers for electric cars? Ireland's EV fleet of just over 4% of total cars is exactly the EU average, but our 4,000 public chargers are well below the number they should be

Does Ireland have enough public chargers for electric cars? Ireland's EV fleet of just over 4% of total cars is the EU average, but our 4,000 public chargers are well below the number they should be, writes @finorgan.bsky.social @ucc.ie @researchireland.ie www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Friends and colleagues in Irish academia! The wonderful Dr Mary McGill has asked me to circulate her @researchireland.ie - funded survey on Exploring experiences of gender-based online abuse among female academics in Ireland - please do share! forms.office.com/pages/respon...

"Tools like ChatGPT and Copilot are widely adopted. Over 80 percent of organizations have explored or piloted them, and nearly 40 percent report deployment. But these tools
primarily enhance individual productivity, not [profit & loss] performance."

"Despite $30–40 billion in enterprise investment into GenAI, this report uncovers a surprising result in that 95% of organizations are getting zero return"

Opening sentence from MIT Report, State Of AI In Business 2025

mlq.ai/media/quarte...

Good point Paul! The graph reflects its 1970 origins. It would be interesting to update it, though the GWP of a fruit fly might be a tricky thing to work out...

6% of the car fleet in Ethiopia is electric, compared to a global average of 4%.

It shows what can be done when policies such as tariffs strongly incentivise EVs and disincentivize ICEs.

(low-cost electricity thanks to a large dam also helps)

The Most Efficient Traveler Isn’t a Bird or a Fish—It’s You on a Bike A famous graphic, now updated, compares locomotion in the animal kingdom

Source: www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-hu...

A Human on a Bicycle Is among the Most Efficient Forms of Travel in the Animal Kingdom...

...and this is one of the most beautiful graphs ever!

In Europe, more heat is wasted during electricity production than is needed to heat all buildings.

Fact of the day from heatroadmap.eu

Evidence from Australia shows mandatory helmets & hi-vis will reduce numbers of people cycling.

Perversely, this will reduce accidents involving cyclists.

But Ireland also has targets and plans to increase active travel!

The Government needs to watch out for the law of unintended consequences.

I wonder what our President will make of this bill?

Dublin (pop. ~1.5 million) and Tokyo (pop. ~37 million) have the same amount of data-centres (in absolute MW terms)

(source: Nat Bullard's 2025 presentation)

I do my best thinking when I'm writing. And that also includes taking notes in seminars and talks.

Engineers seek restoration of public transport spending priority Heavy reliance on private cars for travel cannot continue, Engineers Ireland warns

Bring back the 2:1 investment priority favouring public transport over roads, say Engineers Ireland
www.irishtimes.com/transport/20...

"Hope is the opposite of despair. Hope is not naive, it includes serious critical perspectives. Hope is a transformative power. In the course of history, hope has changed minds and worlds."

Opening line from a short interview with Christof Mauch about 'Slow Hope'

thenew.institute/en/media/slo...

Marie Curie’s Research Papers Are Still Radioactive a Century Later Image by The Wellcome Trust When researching a famous historical figure, access to their work and materials usually proves to be one of the biggest obstacles.

Marie Curie’s Research Papers Are Still Radioactive a Century Later

"More than one-third of global emissions come from countries which individually emit less than 2 per cent of the global total"

But every country suffers if we don't get our collective act together to reduce GHG emissions

The western world used to look down China as “re-engineers” and not innovators. But now western car companies such as Volkswagen are desperately trying to learn from Chinese EV manufacturers such as BYD how match their quality and cost.

COP30: As the talks edge towards their scheduled end, publicly visible signs of progress seem to have stalled

91% of all new renewable electricity plants delivered cheaper electricity than the cheapest new fossil fuel alternative (i.e. coal, oil, gas) in 2024.

Standout fact from Renewable Power Generation Costs report from IRENA www.irena.org/-/media/File...

Norway plans to phase out EV subsidies in two years now that electric vehicles account for 98.3 per cent of all new cars sales
auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/passeng...

Norway plans to phase out EV subsidies in two years now that electric vehicles account for 98.3 per cent of all new cars sales
auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/passeng...

'Some confusion' over off-grid power back-up systems Clifford John has solar panels and a domestic battery for storing power in his house in Galway.

Good article by @colmanos.bsky.social clarifying some of the confusion around #solar pv and changeover switches in Ireland.
Living in #WestKerry w/ frequent power cuts, it was a no brainer. Of 12 quotes I got for solar 2 yrs ago, 3 were willing/ able to install
#speirgorm
www.rte.ie/news/2025/10...

Why Sally Rooney is stirring debate over free speech in Denmark Danish outcry at Sally Rooney and Kneecap shows a very different approach to Palestine outside Ireland

As European governments expand the scope of what counts as "support for terror", the question remains: are we criminalising the very kinds of political expression that lead to understanding – and eventually, resolution?

[Great article]

www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...