Is the Covid-19 pandemic over, or did we just stop mentioning it by name?

Our 18-month-old learned the word bodhrán before wheelbarrow, so she calls it a wheel-bodhrán and I'll probably never correct her on it.

Historically, all of the best tools have reached widespread adoption through force.

HARMONIE model continues to show up to 80mm on Wicklow mountains by 6pm Friday with up to 50mm falling in 24 hours. Over 30mm at lower levels in Southeast too. Sadly this will cause further flooding if it verifies.

They forgot to change the doomsday clock for daylight savings, it's actually 65 seconds to 1 a.m.

Given our location and history, Ireland could be a superpower for peace and reconcilliaton - but there's no money in that for lobbyists and arms manufacturers, so we have to piss away our neutrality instead.

Once again the Government demonstrates remarkable ability to achieve things that nobody wanted and many are actively against.

Well, well, well.

Someone tell our government that banning X is now the populist position #speirghorm

Here’s the thing that happened and here’s the lie that the regime told about the event seems like a perfectly legitimate way to report the news.

Europeans after managing to prevent the collapse of NATO for another 1-2 weeks… #Europe #Rutte

4yo: 'Can I go to school in my fleecy pyjamas today?' Me: 'No, not today.' 4yo: 'Do I have to wear my human form?' Me: 'Your uniform. That's right.'

This day last year we were preparing for #StormÉowyn as it approached Ireland. Weather models were showing forecast of wind gusts that sadly proved to be accurate with huge impacts in areas worst hit. The forestry industry is still cleaning up after 50 million trees were damaged!

This small tortoiseshell féileacán needed to warm up its wings before takeoff.

1400 submissions on the JR costs cap & the majority appear to be questioning the legal validity of this. But instead of, you know, actually listening to the public, instead the Gov is said to be 'bracing for a legal challenge'. How about they just don't do it?! www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/co...

Long-range, streamlined, low-profile EVs like this one exist, but the predominant Irish suburbanite attitude remains: "But what if I have to transport an entire u12 football team across a furrowed field in a single trip, while under sustained anti-tank fire from opposition forces?"

As nothing has changed since I wrote The Abuse Factory Gist re X, the only thing an extra Gist has is a round up of the moral & intellectual collapse of policy and commentary Too painful for me to go back on, to little benefit. Niamh Smyth and Richard Chambers aside, it’s been a shocking failure

If your response to CSAM isn't knee-jerk, that's a problem.

The Philippines is the latest country to restrict access to Musk’s Grok, following Malaysia and Indonesia.

For the record: as of right now, the Grok app is still doing all the things they’ve said it is stopping, for users with free/unpaid accounts.

You have until 5.30 today to write in to the government consultation on these fees. They're trying to price people out of protecting our land and water. While on the other hand they're trying to give corporations an entirely new secret court to sue Ireland through CETA

been thinking a lot about James Baldwin recently - from a 1970 documentary

“So now you have the Gardaí, the AI Minister and multiple legal experts including @iccl.bsky.social saying the legislation is all there already - it’s going to be increasingly difficult for the Government not to take a position on this”.

Ireland is prioritising data centres.

UK regulator Ofcom launched investigation into X over sexual images generated on Grok. www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safet...

Have your say by January 15 deadline. In all our time in An Taisce, this is one of the biggest threats to environmental protection that we have ever faced. These proposed changes are clearly unlawful, undemocratic & unfair. For more: www.antaisce.org/news/all-han... #environmentaljustice

Someone from Cork telling you they’ve had a busy day

This is madness. Big Tech and their insatiable demand for energy coming before housing, transport and our environment. All our electricity bills will rise even higher to allow these data centres use more than a third of our total electricity.

In Dublin, on Fenian Street, there's a factory that makes child sex abuse material. You can pay it money, as a subscription, and that's one of the services it offers. This doesn't happen by mistake or because you've tricked or hacked the system. It’s a feature. www.thegist.ie/the-gist-the...

"Consequence-free physical and sexual abuse of children was part of the deal the institutional Church offered the Irish state for to run schools, hospitals and other expensive-looking services. This week the Taoiseach demonstrated the same mental habits." www.thegist.ie/the-gist-the...

The end of the line for me as a news reporter was my pieces or my posts being used as launchpads in comments or Quote Tweets for misinformation. If you're a conspiracy theorist or racist - jump straight in to the top comment spot or use the reporting to gather new followers, spread your message

The idea that journalists, politicians, groups or - you know, women, people of colour, LGBTQ+ people - should "stay on the pitch" doesn't really hold up. Foreign Minister's account has 60k followers - 40 likes, 13k views? Blue ticks straight to the top of the queue with misogyny, bile.

One reason I feel like I'm going mad is, even if Musk did immediately halt Grok and issue a grovelling apology - rather than PAYWALLING IT - he should *still* be prosecuted and his website banned. Very obviously! You don't get out of CSAM charges by just stopping. AND HE STILL HASN'T STOPPED.

Patrick O’Donovan’s statement here is farcically wrong, grimly idiotic and would be laughable if this were a situation which was capable of ever being a laughing matter. It should be quoted, cited or just played at him every time he opens his mouth on any matter, for the rest of his career.

Hard to know where to start with this? I would love to live in a world where government ministers treated the abuse of women en masse as being as important as, say, Irish beef.

This minister seems to believe that the State has no responsibility with regards to preventing a company, based here in Ireland, from providing the tools by which child sexual abuse material has been generated by its own paid subscribers. A truly bizarre thing to say. jrnl.ie/6921190

Can't believe that Patrick O'Donovan, of all people, is failing to meet the moment. I feel so let down. This man singlehandedly saved the animal crib.

THE MACHINE - BY DESIGN - IS ALLOWING PEOPLE TO REMOVE WOMEN'S CLOTHING WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT AND TO MAKE CSAM. How are we at 'good sides to it too, you know?'?

Yaaaargh

This Minister intervened personally to maintain the live animal crib in Dublin, so surely he'll intervene to stop the production of CSAM, right?

Government is ok with a little bit of CSAM?

Every media figure and politician could do exactly this right now. @garygannon signs off from X, the deepfake child sexual abuse material generation app.

it is just so 🥴🥴🥴 to me that governments and law enforcement bodies across the world have to be begged and pleaded with to even consider investigating what is quite literally sexual crime on an unbelievable scale, taking place openly on one of the most popular digital platforms in the world.

Tánaiste Simon Harris this evening asked if he'd delete his X account in light of the creation and sharing of non-consensual sexualised images of children and women on Grok, says he'll have to reflect on it.

Things stepping up. ICCL and Digital Rights Ireland have written to the Garda Commissioner calling for an urgent investigation of X.

Playing a rugby training match across the width of the pitch, with the goal line as the sideline, I received the ball and simultaneously ran straight into an (unpadded) goal post. My most memorable contribution to the sport.

The context here is that the US Govt has taken an adversarial position to the work of the ICC and has issued orders such that Microsoft, as a US company, has hampered the ICC’s access to their software. By the same logic, every state body outside the US should now do the same.

I accidentally clocked my 18-month-old dead centre in the forehead with a snowball this morning. Some might call it poor aim, but I call it killer instinct. She took it like a champ, once the initial shock wore off. #Sneachta