For context - this is costing us approximately a quarter of the cost of the children's hospital. A building which will serve every child in Ireland and last decades. We're spending a quarter of that cost on making sure private businesses make money. Fuck sake.

Turkeys with nice salaries and pensions tend not to vote for Christmas

The government have a big job to do to clarify the ins and outs of the events of the last week to the public.

OMG this! Can our governnent not see this! 😬😬😬

That's because it's not a protest, it's a pressure group driven by businessmen looking for subsidies.

So, it’s a bit of a bold claim to make that the poll shows what the people of Ireland really think of protests. (What was the response rate? Was it demographically balanced? Did the analysis exclude responses from outside Ireland? Did the survey ask leading questions?) m.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZ...

An analysis of what happened in Ireland this week: “That is not a fuel protest. That is a fascist audition with a diesel-soaked script.” Heartbreaking to watch Ireland being stress-tested. I sincerely hope enough people see through the tricks and ploys of the usual grifters and agitators.

If anybody in rural Ireland will be OK no matter what happens the price of diesel, it's the guys with a couple of million euro tied up in these huge machines.

If there aren’t legal consequences in the near future for the owner of every one of these vehicles, then ffs what’s the point of registration numbers?

Disabled ppl have been protesting the Irish govt for €400 to help with the cost of living crisis after cuts last budget that went to hospitality sector tax cuts A few right wing business owners block traffic because they own heavy machinery, suddenly the govt has hundreds of millions of euro spare

Have to say, I'm losing a lot of respect for local Sinn Féin TDs for saying the government should meet these wealthy "protestors" holding the country hostage while they block fuel and people going to medical appointments. #Spéirgorm

An interesting report today on the Garda response to an attept by a pro-Palestinian group to march to Dublin Port. Just by way of a compare and contrast. www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/20...

Very much this. There is an element of pals together & lads having the chats about the soft touch dealing with these "protesters" that is galling when compared to other not fascist protests. It's galling, sad & speaks to the truth of Conor's point. I think @viriconia.bsky.social made a similar point

The Left cannot insert itself into protests that are this comfortable with racists and transphobes and expect to suck the poison out from the inside. I love rebellion but only built on a charter of anti-bigotry. Nothing worthwhile will grow from poisoned seeds

I've got my conspiracy board out again desperately trying to find a connection between: "Gardaí escort far right harassers into library" "Far right board bus of refugees to headcount them" "Far right blockade runs unchallenged for months" & "Far right shut country down for several days unchecked"

Deeply ironic that the Irish Govt is going to use its upcoming EU Presidency term to advocate for less regulation on the very tech companies that are profiting from the radicalisation that is currently crippling parts of our economy and society. Hmmm.

@shazbear.bsky.social is 💯 when she says "it's a nazi rally dressed up as people movement" - government handling of this is beyond frustrating. It needs to be shut down ASAP & the funding/roots of this made clear to those who might not see or realise it for what it is.

it's rather interesting that the assumption is that people who have concerns or express opposition to AI must be doing so out of ignorance, instead of awareness, of the impact of technology on society

Sorry about the noise I make when I sit down. I would say "get used to it" but it's different and surprising every time.

Working the morning shift as a scholar in 1540, a browser tab and a word document opened on two screens, other needed texts opened and handy, an overfull mail account nearby, and a hot beverage in reach to make for the best working condition. Bonus: wearing a thinking hat. #academicchatter

I've been watching this series over the last few days. Thorough and very well done. Always felt there was something off about CK even before the news broke about him. Boy does it run deep, as this series goes into. As someone else said, he's all kayfabe.

"The wind has become a project manager. The cones are its staff. Nobody has overruled them." Someone sent me this essay about roadworks in Dublin, which I think is genuinely funny, in a Kafkaesque kind of way. So I wanted to share it with you. 1/ telegra.ph/The-500-Metr...

"What can be done?" Stop using AI, you shower of arseholes.

fundamentally, almost no county councillors or Oireachtas members wanted to nominate Steen, even if they agreed with her on plenty of issues, because they'd have had to explain to their voters why they nominated someone who still wants to ban divorce. she is a legitimate extremist in modern politics

As Anna explains in this thread, "automation for thee, handmade care for me" This is GenAI too, particularly when used in advertising and other creativite media, slop for the masses, human creativity for luxury/elite. An example would be the Coke ad last Christmas.

The fuckin' strait was fuckin' open before he fuckin' started to bomb Iran.

I've said it before an I'll say it again: This entire project of identity verification with Apple/Google-account bound mobile devices is going to lead the continent down a dark, dark path into full technological submission to the US

It's my mother's birthday today, and it occurs to me that it's been a while since I told one of my favourite stories about her - how she became the world's best hacker.

@viriconia.bsky.social Wicker bunnies!

Smash Hits from when Top of the Pops was cut to 30 minutes and moved to Thursdays #TOTP

Questions like childcare and career development (oh hey! and access to abortion! and divorce! and contraception!) have very different answers when you have ample wealth to fund your own solutions.

If you're facing down a water crisis, you don't bet the national economy on opening more waterparks than any neighbouring nations. Ireland doesn't need more data centres. We're overburdened by the ones we already have. It could not be more obvious.

Supply chain materials are like oxygen, they're not important until you're not getting any.

Wikipedia now has higher standards than all universities

But what if I quite like the honse? What if I want to keep it? It looks like quite a nice honse HONSE!!!

One of the reasons I hate AI from the pit of my soul is that is is designed to prevent you from doing the things that you were designed to do, the things work & the grind makes it difficult but not impossible to do. It's designed to destroy our shared human ability to make art out of nothing.

"He was kinda funny lookin'." Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) interviews an interesting pair (Larissa Kokernot and Melissa Peterman) in Fargo (1996)

4/6 These billionaires massively benefited from the systems of liberalism and democracy. Now that they have made their fortunes, they want to dismantle those very same systems to increase their profit and control over others. It is an insane level of greed

For example, in 2022, with a budget of some 20 billion, the amount of actual fraud accounted for 0.1% of that budget. Not even 1%. www.rte.ie/news/politic... Ireland does not have a lot of welfare fraud.

By contrast, we lose literal billions to tax avoidance strategies every single year publicpolicy.ie/governance/t...

Moral of the story: always keep a Pocket Banana on your person.

Such a lovely read. Kat has principles & sticks to them, Tim loves her for her & her principles 💕 & they both love Heater. Just lovely. I can't vote for Kat, but I would. I wish there were more like her with her straightness & bravery over here. Hoping for her potential constituents that she wins 💪

This is a good analogy. Very useful in carefully controlled settings for specific usages, but unfortunately being widely inserted into everything and used without training or PPE and poisoning a lot of things and people and we’re going to pay a tonne of money to remove it safely in the future

Amazed & awed at the breadth of games here! 💚 Well done to @craigbreathnach.bsky.social for bringing this together! 💚 I never knew Ireland has such a vibrant games industry 😊 Thanks to to @paddypadman.bsky.social who brought it to my time line 😊

@tupped.bsky.social @darach.bsky.social Timeline magic! Great minds and all that 😊

FFG BLAME CHART (a) pandemic (b) another government (also us) (c) Sinn Féin/Labour (d) no magic money tree (e) the troika (f) our bff Trump ❤️ (g) environmentalists (h) global financial issues (i) war! (j) judicial reviews (k) refugees/immigrants (l) human rights (l) the horrible demanding Public

Morning.