Gerry has run over 120K this month to raise money for Carrickmacross Cancer Society. He's close to his fund raising goal if you want to throw a donation his way and put him over the top.

Man On Wire is one of the most amazing documentaries I’ve ever seen. I still meet people who’ve seen it and don’t believe it has no footage of the walk other than photos.

I saw a new version of the Back To The Future soundtrack recently that covered all 3 movies? But didn’t have Earth Angel or Johnny B Goode. What were they thinking. At least this version has both of those. Sadly it doesn’t have Mr. Sandman.

We invited a man into our home at Christmas and he stayed with us for 45 years www.bbc.com/news/article...

As many of us begin Christmas meal prep, allow me to share the advice that my ER nurse sister puts in the chat every year: A dropped knife has no handle. Jump away. Let it fall. You can pick it up and wash it.

Don’t write this like there’s something wrong with the prostitutes. Or that partying with them is some kind of gotcha. Parties with Prostitutes is not remotely as embarrassing as Parties with Republicans, or Parties with Jeffery Epstein.

Aaaand We’re done. I’m officially on holidays until the new year.

Merry Christmas to the best the now deceased Irish Twitter had to offer. #Speirgorm

Early Christmas present from me if you're reading this and you're a: - Senior web developer - In London - Really into books and libraries - Looking for work rn I am excited to inform you that the British Library is hiring a new head of web development ce0752li.webitrent.c...

These hunger strikers face something more dangerous than Thatcher. Thatcher was capable of making decisions. Starmer isn’t.

The #1 Christmas gift requests from the kids this year was vinyl. Lots of vinyl. I’m torn between “vinyl revival is marketing sham” and “at least they’ll have these gifts for years” I decided to buy a new turntable. The shitty one I had in my teens and stored in a shed for years needed to go.

What a time to be alive. 13yo remixed the Beatles “Real Love” to keep the 2025 John vocals but pack in all the George bits that they removed.

ireland has had self-id for a decade and there has been no increase in violence against women and there has been no erosion of women's rights or safety it's a success story @theguardian.com: ireland has had self-id for a decade. here's why that's a danger to women, children, and your grandma

Dammit. RIP Chris Rea. I’ve known this day was coming. His health wasn’t good for a long time. I saw some old footage of him on tv about a week ago and I actually thought something had happened. I have loved his music for as long as I’ve loved music. And he feels woefully under appreciated.

You won’t believe me, but It’s happened again today. This time an N driver. Realised his mistake immediately when he saw cars coming up the ramp towards him. Same motorway different exist. Bonkers

Getting off the motorway this evening encountered a car coming down the off ramp about to get on the motorway in the wrong direction. Pulled in front of him to stop him going further. He realised the mistake and backed up. He had taken a left turn at the wrong roundabout. Had small kids in car.

Work on the Mazda is done. Long list of fixes. Happy to have this corrosion on the boot sorted.

Was at the cinema last week and the “trailer” for the new Avatar movie was a panel of actors talking about the movie in really forced scripted answers. This is what they showed instead of action from the movie. It REALLY did NOT sell the movie.

I also want to say thank you to the person who introduced me to the French word 'beaucoup' this year. It means a lot.

I was at a Music Generation event last night. Established by U2 about 15 years ago. To give kids a place to learn and play music together. 5 Rock/Pop bands 2 Jazz Ensembles. All Kids/Teens All excellent. Genuinely good music. Far cry from my days of 30 tin whistles on a stage.

Before this was even fact checked I was screaming BULLSHIT!!! at the screen. What I don't know is whether the people making these videos know they're wrong. youtube.com/shorts/KRaAO...

These women prove her point literally while disagreeing with her. The reality is that NO, everybody does NOT have to work hard. Some people do have everything handed to them. And they comfort themselves by pretending they worked for it. youtube.com/shorts/lyJpC...

I have low expectations of this guy, but, even I thought this probably wasn't real. Even I thought whatever else he might do, he can at least read the room. Apparently not. It's real. I think what he hates most is the outpouring of love at someone passing they he knows he'll never receive.

Lads, I don't know how to break this to you, but do you remember a few months ago the Beatles Released "Now And Then" I just checked and apparently that was 2 years ago. Something ain't right with that.

I somehow missed The Pricess Bride when it was in Cinemas. I just wasn't aware of it. Maybe like many people I saw the title, and thought Disney, kids movie, and it never registered. Then one day at random I flicked a TV Channel and saw Columbo talking to Kevin Arnold.

This entire weekend

It is absolutely fucking terrifying to me that the people running Ireland haven’t realised that an LLM can read 5 years worth of social media in less than a second. They they think some human is going to be doing this reading tells me they’re completely unqualified to lead a country in 2025.

Tree is decorated a week after it arrived. This Christmas just feels incredibly busy. And for the first time in ages I’m working right up to Christmas Eve. Need to rethink things next year.

It only took ten years for a dedicated bunch of well-connected weirdoes to get the entire UK elite to unite against a tiny minority of the population that they previously barely noticed. The few to resist, like Robin Ince, deserve our lasting gratitude and respect.

BBC: This cage. How big is it? Ince: It’s infinite. BBC: That’s big is it? Ince: The biggest. So big. Infinite. BBC: And you’re in this cage? Ince: We all are. BBC: Can we put you in a smaller cage? Inside the big cage? Ince: You can try.

The IT jumping on the "regulate the user, not the social media companies" bandwagon

The BBC could ensure “Balance” and “Fairness” by being rigidly factual in its news coverage. And protecting a range of opinions in its other shows. Instead it treats opinions as fact in its news, and bans *some* opinions elsewhere. So be it. The world has more alternative platforms than ever.

Is there a name of the phenomenon of a nice small tradition (like musicians playing in Central Park on John Lennon's Birthday, and Anniversary), which then gets coverage on social media, and gets bigger, and Bigger, and BIGGER, until it eventually ceases to be what it started out as?

Thoroughly unprepared for Christmas this year.

The captions on Question Time are designed to make half the audience angry, and the other half cheer. It is clickbait for TV. "DO NOT WATCH QUESTION TIME" Question Time is, and has for a long time been an appalling show that has damaged Britain. Shout "FUCK OFF", And Change the channel.

Ugh. Last day of #adventofcode 2025 and this one just feels like work. Not sure I have the stomach for it.

I guess it's fitting that it's a reimagined, worse version of someone else's artwork

If it turns out I’m wrong, and there actually is an afterlife. I’m going to ask if I can just stay in the waiting room. An eternity of watching “religious” people getting turned away sounds like heaven.

Everyone grieves differently. youtube.com/shorts/ovypV...

Note: Only 18,561 people applied for asylum in 2024. That’s 0.003% of the population. Which means 99.997% of the population are not asylum seekers. Remember this is a “record high”.

Kids, pack your bags. youtube.com/shorts/VJd5-...

I'm watching this guy struggling, and I'm realising my decision to never try to build or fix anything was absolutely the right decision. youtube.com/shorts/4shLP...

It is amazing to me that in the wake of Liz Truss, the title of Britain’s dumbest PM is even up for grabs. But, here we are. It’s so depressing.

One of the things I find I disgree with other devs most is DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself). I like it, I use it, It's good. The issue is I also think duplicating code is exactly the right move in many situations. I think the urge to eliminate duplication can lead to complex over-engineered code.

Country that’s obsessed with a migrant crisis that doesn’t actually exist. And which imposed economic sanctions on itself a decade ago, can’t for the life of it understand why it’s not doing better.

I can’t believe that in this day and age, people are still wearing fir.

TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque: "This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".

This time every year I try my hand at advent of code. And usually I do ok. Sometimes I even surprise myself with an elegant solution. It's just to remind myself that I can still cut code, and the reason work is often difficult rarely has much to do with how good or bad I am at coding.

Our Christmas Tree stand is one of those things that we spent extra on and have never regretted it.