The big positive for Govt of Irish cabinets being capped at 15 members is the max of 30 feet that ministers can shoot themselves in. Semi-state chiefs in line for huge pay top-ups after controversy over €430,000 for Housing Tsar www.independent.ie/irish-news/p...

Sad to see this. 'The Feast of the Goat' in particular is the most terrifying exploration of the inner working of the court of a dictatorship. www.bbc.com/news/article...

I’m glad people are out there asking the important questions about emerging technologies. Such as “why DO so many AI company logos look like bum holes?” velvetshark.com/ai-company-l...

In markets jargon what we are now seeing in equities is classed as an 'absolute shit show'.

Not too far from where the Ardagh chalice turned up.

This is huge. By way of comparison Angela Merkel was just about convinced, eventually, to do just barely enough to prevent a collapse of the euro after years of the debt crisis spiral.

My take on project cabin - and why it really means operation shanty www.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Excellent. A childish motion that won't build a single shed. Take that housing crisis.

Why would you report as fact a claim that even the person making it admits is entirely made up? www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

Did we change things so a Tanaiste can appoint senators now or is that we've all just abandoned the idea of having a Constitution?

Le vieux chief de la route difficile, as we say in English. www.ft.com/content/d18a...

Wait, if they sack all the spooks where does that leave Palintir? www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

this is modern journalism. @wired.com "built software to systematically check the status of 1,374 government domains. The tool runs periodic scans, tracking whether sites remain accessible, how their servers respond, and if the domain names still resolve."

Russian billionaire #oligarch Suleyman Kerimov held a stake in SpaceX while he was sanctioned - good scoop from Bloomberg www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

A smart assessment, though I'd caution that Ireland is certainly not immune from anti-Semitism either.

You'd need a heart of stone not to laugh etc OpenAI says it has evidence China’s DeepSeek used its model to train competitor - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT

So it doesn’t matter if you're a company in the US, China, or elsewhere. DeepSeek should be a cue to pivot HARD toward investing in far more efficient methods of AI development. Even if you care nothing about community & climate impacts, it’s just better business. 19/

On Thursday night I was at a dinner in Davos, where the example of US primacy given was that Nvidia’s market cap is bigger than the entire German stock market. Someone remarked that Europe’s only hope is that the Davos consensus (this time about US primacy) is always wrong. And lo…

This is why you don't design curricula around "jobs of the future". We can't predict the future but we do know what general skills and knowledge will be valuable whatever job you do.

‘Learn to code’ Should’ve done a proper degree like sociology or political science

If you need a sense of how resistant Irish people are to infrastructure changes just check out reaction to the renaming / rationalising of Dublin bus routes. Yes, its nice you first shifted your now wife/played a walkman/mitched off school on the 46A. No, its not a reason to keep the route.

“Just what level of exuberant disinhibition led Musk to this moment or why this unmistakable gesture came so naturally to him … well, that’s really not my problem. Everyone knows what they saw here.” talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/elon-...

A run down of the new Govt but the failure to restore Defence as a full cabinet role is the most glaring and alarming decision. Ireland is sleepwalking into a potential catastrophe. www.independent.ie/irish-news/e...

Wonder which one will get it?

The Edgelord Bro Mind Virus is breaking containment, as evidenced by this brave and yet curiously unnamed truth warrior. Take precautions against brain rot: stay at least 2 metres away from giant morons, read books, and wash your hands. on.ft.com/3WityvA

Delta’s new boarding system at the gate doesn’t require your boarding pass — a camera scans your face and it beeps yes or no and you proceed. And that’s it. Oddly, it’s a bit slower than the normal ticket/app scans. Also a bit… dystopian?

New The coming battle between social media and the state Behind the alignment of X and Meta with Trump is a cold business logic — and a position of weakness rather than strength By me, in todays @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/917c...

For the first time, one of the hundreds of victims of Opus Dei’s cruel system of grooming and coercing impoverished young girls into a life of servitude tells her own story. Anne Marie Allen’s new book SERVE comes out in May. A THREAD 🧵 linktr.ee/annemarieallen

This is BIG news in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis is naming the U.S. Catholic Church's leading liberal bishop & leading intellectual, Cardinal Robert McElroy, as the new archbishop of Washington, D.C. Almost certainly a direct response to Trump's election. www.washingtonpost.com/religion/202...

Sun setting behind Woodcock Hill, Co Clare, looking west from Castleconnell.

Ok fellow procrastinators it's finally here. Christmas shopping day. Unless you go for online vouchers or a subscription, in which case you're probably fine till the morning.

“A 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar.” Peter Neumann, expert in terrorism at King’s College

2024 is about to fade away, hear all the business and economic parts being analysed by me, Donal O'Donovan of Independent.ie, and Catherine Sanz of the Businesspost.ie. 🎧🎧🎧 To be found at- www.smurfitschool.ie/podcast/

Whether you call it a pogrom or a boycott the outbreak of anti-semitism in Limerick in 1904 was pretty violent, sustained and targeted at the tiny Jewish community for their Jewishness. Describing it as 'a business boycott' is pretty shocking. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2024...

Wow. Amazing how Buddhist poets over 2000 years ago perfectly anticipated social media

Closing my embassy, to own the people who want me to close my embassy

No. Slowing down public transport further to increase electric car sales would be, to be blunt, immensely stupid.

Live horse, eat grass.

If Eoin Hayes is outside the Soc Dem camp can he nominate his own alternative for co-option onto his Dublin city council seat?

Bogus ideas around human perfectability inevitably pop up when things take totalitarian turn. But these guys honestly think breeding the human equivalent of Crufts winners will put one over on the local wolves.

The grad trainee programme at the FT is extraordinary. We train you for THREE years you get decent money and an overseas placement. I've seen other news trainee schemes and this one is exceptional. It's open now. Pls share with anyone you know who would benefit d/l 14/1/25 www.ft.com/content/314f...

Seeing the Eoin Hayes thing being put down to a leftist anti-heretic culture but he won a seat from SF with transfers from People Before Profit, there is straight forward electoral hay to be made here, no need to over think it. Also, no good dead goes unpunished. www.independent.ie/irish-news/p...

The fall of Damascus has been so swift there may not have been time to destroy the state's intelligence files. Be fascinating to see what the Assad regime has bankrolled down the years

Whisps of snow on Grafton St

Hawk Tuah is going to end up being president, isn't she?

I much prefer Bluesky to Twitter but this is going to be insufferable during The Toy Show, isn't it?

spotify wrapped day was originally a pagan feast day. it wasn't even originally in december until emperor constantine changed the date in 325 AD at the music fest of nicaea

In terms of mobility, e-bikes are selling faster & having bigger effects on emissions than EVs, much less self-driving EVs. And yet they get vastly, vastly less attention. www.fastcompany.com/90994141/why...

#tonightvmtv is rapidly descending into farce here as an angry man endlessly insistes that poor old Fergus Finlay present himself for duty at Govt Buildings whether he likes it or not.

The throwing of the Greens under the figurative bus, ironic as it was, will make coalition talks extremely difficult.