What a celebration across schools today for SNA Appreciation Day, the second one ever. We were sent a huge amount of photos from across Ireland, so these are just a snapshot! They deserve every bit of recognition for their incredibly valuable work #SNAAppreciationDay

Cœur de Bœf is a French apple which might be a descendant of De Rouviau, an apple which featured in chants of Paris fruit sellers in C13 (Leroy 1873). Ready for harvest between October and November. #heritageorchard

A friend once worked at institution which briefly hosted Pope Benedict on his UK visit. The pope's rider: a private room where he could rest, said room to contain a piano, a litre bottle of Fanta, and twenty Marlboro.

I've heard of the occasional posthumous pardon, but I see Jack Chambers has seen fit to posthumously revoke a pardon – or the promise of one. Specifically: the 1827 "Proclamation promising His Majesty’s most gracious pardon to the accomplices of the person who actually struck Peter McCann."

They've lost the 9yos

‘Nickname’ is not ‘nick’ + ‘name.’ It was originally ‘ekename.’ ‘Eke’ was the Middle English word for “also” or “in addition.” Since ‘ekename’ began with a vowel, people used ‘an’ before it. Over time, 'an ekename' became 'a nickname.'

Jim Henson would've been 89 years old today. Commemorate his life and legacy by celebrating creativity, diversity, imagination, peace, and just plain silliness. Walk with me a bit while I talk about Jim and his work--and leave your comments about what he means to you. Right this way. /1

12/ My guess is that this is one giant colossal fuck-up. This sort of thing would have been a potential intelligence gold mine. Instead, it was loudly and publicly busted up. Why? My bet is "Keystone Cops" (no surprise, the federal government seems to have fired everyone competent).

11/ Could some elite international spy network be using *checks notes* unencrypted SMS to communicate with agents in the field, over unencrypted international networks? Well, maybe, but they would not be a very competent one, and spycraft tends to be a highly competent field.

10/ Working our way down the list of possibilities, there could be bank and/or payments 2FA fraud in the mix. That would at least be somewhat under USSS jurisdiction, but I bet this was the Uniformed Division, not the Special Agent Division. I would love to be a fly on the wall during THAT meeting.

9/ Similar to DrugDash, let's make up another service we'll call "Boober," or Uber for prostitutes. Like drug users, prostitution consumers likely aren't technically sophisticated so would be more likely to communicate over unencrypted SMS. If this was it, NYPD and USSS are gonna have some beef.

8/ This could be some sort of cartel messaging service, but I consider that less likely. Why? Cartels are technically sophisticated, and they have money to invest. They make extensive use of encrypted communications apps. They even run their own encrypted radio networks in territory they control.

7/ I'll cover some of these in the order of what I think is most and least likely. Given that drugs and money were found at the sites, I think what was probably busted was something I'll call DrugDash, akin to DoorDash For Drugs. If so, the DEA is gonna be *pissed* at the Secret Service.

6/ Phone farms are used for everything from committing ad fraud to running romance scams in Asia. From the news articles, it seems like this infrastructure was set up to send and receive text messages. Lots of potential criminal uses for this sort of thing in the US, and some benign ones too.

5/ What would you use this kind of setup for, if you were a criminal? I can think of a few things, none of them having anything to do with the UN, terrorism, or disrupting national cellular infrastructure. We see these kinds of phone farms all the time in Asia.

4/ Even if this infrastructure was set up as jamming infrastructure, with the express intent to cause disruption, it'd still be marginally effective. The reason is that New York is so densely populated with so many towers covering it. Think "small, localized disruption" vs "mass scale outage."

3/ A few hundred (or even thousand) SIM cards set up to send text messages just won't make a dent in the ability of cellular networks to operate. There are almost 8.5 million people in New York, almost all of them with cell phones, making calls and sending texts and using data every day.

2/ Let's start with some of the claims. I haven't seen anything that isn't public, but there is nothing about this infrastructure that would be hugely disruptive or damaging to mobile phone networks in New York. This is a densely populated area with thousands of cell sites.

1/ Hi, I'm TProphet. I write the Telecom Informer for @2600.com. A lot of people have been asking me about www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat... given that I'm somewhat knowledgeable in the area. Here's my take: I'm kind of astonished that this is public, and it isn't normal that it would ever be.

The execution on this gag is *superb*.

#OtD 24 Sep 1994 residents of Dublin, Ireland who had been opposing new council water charges formed an all-city federation of groups. A widespread campaign of non-payment eventually defeated the charges stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9702...

POV: You are watching TV in 1994 as my grandfather tries to use the remote to increase volume but pumps up the contrast instead.

To disprove a conjecture about knots, the mathematician Susan Hermiller and her longtime collaborator Mark Brittenham bought laptops at an auction and ran geometric analyses on them for over a decade. At one point, a machine “actually sent out sparks.” www.quantamagazine.org/a-simple-way...

Piercing xkcd.com/3145/

On a train to Paris in carriage 18, seat 71.

Michael Collins? Never heard of him

Led by 'Orchid Summer' author @dunnjons.bsky.social & local Sicilian naturalist legend Andrea Corso, and staying in glorious rural Sicilian agriturismos with amazing food and architecture, this is a feast for the senses. And guarantees a donation to support the work of @bsbibotany.bsky.social. (2/2)

🌨️Europe can’t rely on private tech giants for public services. EPSU is calling for worker-owned & public clouds, full implementation of the AI Act, and workers’ say in digitalisation. Read more in Euractiv’s coverage of our letter to the Commission: dlvr.it/TNDnhl

There have been about 430 people shot dead in America since Charlie Kirk’s murder

🇵🇸 🇮🇪 Extraordinary bravery by Fórsa member Donna Schwarz. She's part of the civilian flotilla sailing to Gaza. We demand her safety and the safety of everyone onboard. And that their call - an end to the genocide - is finally acted on by global leaders. An-bhródúil as tu, Donna.

Hanging out the washing Artist: Harry Wingfield (Helping at Home, 1960)

After today's performance on Morning Ireland, you have to wonder if Robert Troy will be sent to the back benches and left to languish there for the rest of his career as a renewed warning to TDs not to be deliberately stupid in public – to become his generation’s Willie O’Dea.

Mercator size vs. true country size by @neilrkaye.bsky.social

Magical walk in #Mountsandel Wood looking for #flower photos. Sunny between heavy showers. Dappled sun on Himalayan Balsam #Wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social @botanybeck.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social @plantlifeuk.bsky.social #wildflower #September #Autumn

Magical walking in #Mountsandel Wood looking for #flower photos - sunny between the heavy showers. Here: Hedge Woundwort #Wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social @botanybeck.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social @plantlifeuk.bsky.social #wildflower #September #Autumn

Magical walking in #Mountsandel Wood looking for #flower photos - sunny between the heavy showers. Here: Forget-me-nots #Forgetmenot #Wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social @botanybeck.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social @plantlifeuk.bsky.social #wildflower #September

Magical walk in #Mountsandel Wood looking for #flower photos. Sunny between heavy showers. Last of the Rosebay Willowherb #Wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social @botanybeck.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social @plantlifeuk.bsky.social #wildflower #September #Autumn

Magical walk in #Mountsandel Wood looking for #flower photos. Sunny between heavy showers. Maybe the last of Campion #Wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social @botanybeck.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social @plantlifeuk.bsky.social #wildflower #September #Autumn

Here’s one from Waterford’s Meagher’s Quay: Ragweed on spoil where improvements are being made #WildflowerHour

Hollyhock, West Pier, Dún Laoghaire. #wildflowerhour

Magical walk in #Mountsandel Wood looking for #flower photos. Sunny between heavy showers. Vetch still looking for bees #Wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social @botanybeck.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social @plantlifeuk.bsky.social #wildflower #September #Autumn

Lemon balm, The Metals, Dún Laoghaire. #wildflowerhour

Small teasel, West Pier, Dún Laoghaire. #wildflowerhour

Shepherd's-purse, West Pier, Dún Laoghaire. #wildflowerhour

Scarlet pimpernel, West Pier, Dún Laoghaire. #wildflowerhour

Beautiful everyday Ladybird things Before the blue Smartie Artist: Harry Wingfield (First Picture Book, 1970)

Ragwort providing for these Small coppers this week in Donegal. #wildflowerhour

Forget me nots at the coast. #wildflowerhour