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Sorcha O’Brien

@sorchao.bsky.social

490 followers 200 following 380 posts

design history, technology & other hybrids. also crochet, SFF, gardening badly and occasional dye experiments. she/her. pronounced like ‘portia’.

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Sorcha O’Brien @sorchao.bsky.social · Jan 14

This was a really fantastic audience for a lecture, so happy to see it out and available to the public!

Caitríona Beaumont @caitbeaumont.bsky.social · Jan 14

& if your interest is piqued about #womensgrassrootsactivism you can watch & hear the great @sorchao.bsky.social give her fantastic public lecture on the ICA's craftivism & activism via this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggrN...
@womensinstitute.bsky.social

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Bevis Musson @bevismusson.bsky.social · 20h

You know what, let's do the Annual Mister Global National Costume thread tonight after all. Usual rules apply - this is all in fun, this isn't about the contestants looks or making fun of them, it's about the costumes and appreciating them (or, you know, making fun of them...)

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Paul Mara @paulmara.bsky.social · 21h

The Other Skies, Same Airspace: Military Uses of the Nonhuman in Speculative Fiction @octocon.bsky.social talk with Cristina Diamant and Iuliia Ibragimova was really cool

Beserkers! Sentient ships. Post-human. Cyborgs. AI. Cloned intelligence. Chrono-normativity ..more

#Octocon #SciFi #Ireland

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Saoirse McHugh @saoirsemc.bsky.social · 2d

In addition to being totally pathetic, he's also completely wrong.
EPA polls consistently show that the vast majority, across all ages, incomes , urban or rural, all want the government to take action.
So by polarising, he must mean that Micheal o Leary,Amazon, and Tirlan don't want it

Joe Noonan @joenoonan.bsky.social · 2d

“I don’t think we can mitigate for climate change.”

- Mícheál Martin, Taoiseach.

www.independent.ie/business/tec...

Taoiseach says some climate projects will not be fulfilled because they risk polarising society

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has rowed back on climate change commitments, saying Ireland may not be able fulfil all current initiatives due to the polarising effect it could have on society.

www.independent.ie

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West_Adrift @west-adrift.bsky.social · 1d

The reach on Bluesky is limited but on the off chance…the next mould making course I’m teaching @wmc-adultlearning.bsky.social starts 22nd November! www.wmcollege.ac.uk/course-detai...

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Adrian Kirwan @adriankirwan.bsky.social · 2d

This is not going to end well 'AI bubble is now a staggering 17 times the size of the infamous dot-com bubble' futurism.com/future-socie...

AI Investment Is Already So Much Larger Than the Subprime Mortgage Bubble That You'll Physically Flinch

The investment bubble created by AI hype is already magnitudes bigger than the dot-com and subprime mortgage bubbles, one analyst warns.

futurism.com

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Daryl FÉTH FÍADA Feehely 🎃 @darylfeehely.com · 2d

Where do you even start with this shit 😩

Do you know what else will polarise society?

Food shortages because we can't reliably grow as much because of...you guessed it Micheál...Climate Change.

13% more rain. Storms, floods, climate migration.

Fucking coward

www.independent.ie/business/tec...

Taoiseach says some climate projects will not be fulfilled because they risk polarising society

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has rowed back on climate change commitments, saying Ireland may not be able fulfil all current initiatives due to the polarising effect it could have on society.

www.independent.ie

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Wayne Talbot @waynetalbot.bsky.social · 2d

But they can subsidise Ai research and Tech companies who will damage the environment further.

I am so sick of these corrupt snake oil sales folk running the country.

Joe Noonan @joenoonan.bsky.social · 2d

“I don’t think we can mitigate for climate change.”

- Mícheál Martin, Taoiseach.

www.independent.ie/business/tec...

Taoiseach says some climate projects will not be fulfilled because they risk polarising society

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has rowed back on climate change commitments, saying Ireland may not be able fulfil all current initiatives due to the polarising effect it could have on society.

www.independent.ie

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Stilgherrian @stilgherrian.com · 4d

I think @drspacejunk.bsky.social will enjoy this one.

Tombmas Spooks @thomasfuchs.at · 5d

How many trillions of dollars have been invested into this technology so far?

Google search for "austria hungary in space"

Google excitedly tells you about the 1889 orbital flight, and that by 1908 there was a Mars research output with 30 people.

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Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 4d

🧠 Alzheimer’s reversed in mice

A new study found that injecting nanoparticles can 'remind' the blood–brain barrier to function properly again, restoring normal brain activity in mice. Human trials could follow within years.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#SciComm #Alzheimers 🧪

Rapid amyloid-β clearance and cognitive recovery through multivalent modulation of blood–brain barrier transport - Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy

Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy - Rapid amyloid-β clearance and cognitive recovery through multivalent modulation of blood–brain barrier transport

www.nature.com

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Lilith Ferreyra-Carroll @trasinscneach.bsky.social · 4d

Not going to share 'grift' but Heather Humphreys has just said that I'm a man and the gender recognition act should be changed. Please do not vote for or give a preference for her. Having someone as president who thinks this way would be absolutely awful for minorities #SpeirGorm

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Sue Wilkes @suewilkesauthor.bsky.social · 4d

And some good news! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #manchester #museums

Manchester Science and Industry Museum Power Hall to reopen

Visitors will be able to rediscover engines that powered everything from cotton mills to railways.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 4d

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Sorcha O’Brien @sorchao.bsky.social · 4d

And on the other side, in a certain heritage site, we used to get fax spam, which would waste reams of paper and spend half an hour at a time printing out pages and pages of dodgy holiday deals

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 5d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

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Esther Schindler @estherschindler.bsky.social · 5d

I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.bsky.social · 4d

I'm old enough to remember when they abolished the college fees that were just reduced by €500

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Sebas @ohlookbirdies.bsky.social · 5d

"but it's everywhere now so we just have to accept it's the new reality" motherfucker we can just stop putting it everywhere! we did it with asbestos and CFCs and lead-based paint or petrol and make-up with arsenic in it! if everyone is using something and it's bad, we can choose to stop!

Sebas @ohlookbirdies.bsky.social · 6d

"anti-AI people should just learn more about it" motherfucker I know so much about it, that's why I'm anti-AI

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Anne-Marie @amflynn.bsky.social · 6d

The GRA was passed in 2015 with very little fanfare following years of courageous campaigning by trans people. We have yet to see any negative ramifications in society - and we won't.

We simply *cannot* have a President of Ireland who speaks about trans women or their human rights in this way.

Reg Coppinger @regcoppinger.bsky.social · 6d

I'm not linking to the article but Heather Humphries thinks the Gender recognition act needs to be looked at, and trans women are not women. #Aras25 #SpeirGorm

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Dean Buckley @deanbuckley.bsky.social · 5d

my bad landlord kept our deposit after letting a leak get so bad that mushrooms started growing in our bedroom and my partner got fungal pneumonia. so yeah, very difficult to relate to people saying "you'd have to feel sorry for Jim Gavin"

Dónal Hassett @donalh.bsky.social · 6d

I'm getting a sense of a generational divide (as well as an obvious class one) on the Jim Gavin story. Older people I've spoken to seem quite sorry for him but everyone my age and younger seems to see this as a kind of vicarious revenge fantasy for all the bad landlords they've had over the years!

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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 5d

Absolutely brilliant news. But can we expand it too?

Irish Literary Times @irishlittimes.bsky.social · 5d

Budget 2026: Basic income for artists to become permanent www.rte.ie/news/budget-...

Budget 2026: Basic income for artists to become permanent

The Basic Income for the Arts scheme will be put on a permanent footing in the Budget tomorrow.

www.rte.ie

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Dr Naomi Jacobs @ladylark.bsky.social · 7d

A wonderful thread involving secret compartments, secret treasures, care and kindness.

Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 8d

This could be a long and rambling thread. Be patient with me.

I bought an old mahogany bureau on Ebay. I didn't really want a bureau as we're meant to be downsizing, but it was a beautiful piece & obviously very old. Google lens suggests the brass chased handles are Queen Anne. That's 1702-1714 😯

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The Scales ⚖️ @shakethescales.bsky.social · 7d

It would take around 1.1 million acres of solar panels to (clean) power the world. That's less than a quarter of the number of acres devoted globally to golf courses. You can see where this is going, right...?

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Matt Ghoulberg @mattgoldberg.bsky.social · 8d

Obviously, this is loser shit, but I think AI has really cemented itself as the visual language of fascism. It's anti-human, flattened, uninteresting, and cheap. It's like looking at a Potemkin Village and thinking that's the same as architecture.

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 9d

Posted by the President of the United States.

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Stephen Blackmoore @stephenblackmoore.com · 9d

Six of my novels and an anthology I have a story in are part of the Anthropic settlement. I just filed my claim. It's easy, they have all the information you need to do it.

You can find the lookup here: secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup

Submit a Claim

secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 9d

The "AI" responses that Google gives about me and my work are consistently error-prone, which I know because I am me. If I know Google's "AI" responses give incorrect answers about things I know about, I can't trust it to give correct answers about things I don't know. So, no, I don't use it.

John Gordon 🇨🇦🇩🇰 @johngordon.bsky.social · 9d

I’m surprised you don’t use ai answer engines in research you currently do with Google

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