@ivanobrien.bsky.social
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I remain absolutely furious that all this shit in Minneapolis started because a barely-literate homeschooled mormon made a video trying to run up in daycare centers trying to find people of Somalian descent doing fraud despite the ringleader (a white woman) being in jail since March. Demonic.
January 24, 2026 at 8:21 PM
I remain absolutely furious that all this shit in Minneapolis started because a barely-literate homeschooled mormon made a video trying to run up in daycare centers trying to find people of Somalian descent doing fraud despite the ringleader (a white woman) being in jail since March. Demonic.
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Hey #BBC let's look over at Le Monde:
The Trump administration is trying to introduce Mr. Pretti as an armed, violent and threatening attacker, but videos widely released by the American media contradict this version. “The odious lies uttered by the administration about our son 1/
The Trump administration is trying to introduce Mr. Pretti as an armed, violent and threatening attacker, but videos widely released by the American media contradict this version. “The odious lies uttered by the administration about our son 1/
January 25, 2026 at 12:56 PM
Hey #BBC let's look over at Le Monde:
The Trump administration is trying to introduce Mr. Pretti as an armed, violent and threatening attacker, but videos widely released by the American media contradict this version. “The odious lies uttered by the administration about our son 1/
The Trump administration is trying to introduce Mr. Pretti as an armed, violent and threatening attacker, but videos widely released by the American media contradict this version. “The odious lies uttered by the administration about our son 1/
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the nyt style section vs. der spiegel
January 24, 2026 at 11:20 PM
the nyt style section vs. der spiegel
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Which is fine, up until you remember what was left loose by Lloyd George in Ireland when it was still part of the UK. It wasn’t all that bright a bright line.
Arendt: "“The so-called hypocrisy of British politics was the result of the good sense of English statesmen who drew a sharp line between colonial methods and normal domestic policies, thereby avoiding with considerable success the feared boomerang effect of imperialism upon the homeland."
In my view, repression at home and thuggery abroad - most recently Greenland - are two sides of the same coin. Both reflect the worldview of people who think violence, power, threat and coercion are all that's required to push your agenda through & secure your interests.
January 24, 2026 at 9:51 PM
Which is fine, up until you remember what was left loose by Lloyd George in Ireland when it was still part of the UK. It wasn’t all that bright a bright line.
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“The notion that ever more garish clothing will compensate for distracted driving is a convenient fiction. No amount of fluorescent fabric can counteract the motorist scrolling on their phone or the driver travelling too fast.”
Sophie McDermott
#cycling #driving #danger #roadsafety
Sophie McDermott
#cycling #driving #danger #roadsafety
January 24, 2026 at 10:23 AM
“The notion that ever more garish clothing will compensate for distracted driving is a convenient fiction. No amount of fluorescent fabric can counteract the motorist scrolling on their phone or the driver travelling too fast.”
Sophie McDermott
#cycling #driving #danger #roadsafety
Sophie McDermott
#cycling #driving #danger #roadsafety
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Exactly that
If this were happening in a Latin American country, ICE would simply be described as a death squad
If the US were a geopolitical rival the headlines would be like: US Secret Police Execute Second Dissident In the Streets As Militarized Occupation Enters Sixth Week
January 24, 2026 at 9:47 PM
Exactly that
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The Barricades.
People have built a barrier of dumpsters one block away from the riot cops on 26th.
January 24, 2026 at 5:32 PM
The Barricades.
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"Evil sets in motion enormous forces - but only in vain, as it prepares fertile ground for unexpected goodness to sprout.”
JRR Tolkien
We can but hope.
JRR Tolkien
We can but hope.
January 24, 2026 at 5:48 PM
"Evil sets in motion enormous forces - but only in vain, as it prepares fertile ground for unexpected goodness to sprout.”
JRR Tolkien
We can but hope.
JRR Tolkien
We can but hope.
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“What hit me was the knowledge that if positions were reversed, he would not do this for me”
Two women trained as first responders were abducted by three ICE agents. One of the agents starts seizing. The other two don’t know what to do. The women jump into action and save the agent’s life, only to be re-handcuffed and processed.
www.startribune.com/detained-by-...
www.startribune.com/detained-by-...
Detained by ICE, two women became first responders during agent’s seizure
The women say they guided agents through the emergency, later raising concerns about medical protocols, weapons safety and accountability.
www.startribune.com
January 24, 2026 at 1:35 PM
“What hit me was the knowledge that if positions were reversed, he would not do this for me”
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A seller on Amazon to avoid if you're getting books.
Unbound did authors & readers dirty, with royalties never paid &, unless I'm mixing them up with one of the other ghastly publishers, preorders never delivered.
Treat their editions like they're coverless & stolen unless direct from the author.
Unbound did authors & readers dirty, with royalties never paid &, unless I'm mixing them up with one of the other ghastly publishers, preorders never delivered.
Treat their editions like they're coverless & stolen unless direct from the author.
They don't exist any more, so there's no danger of giving them money. But if you buy any of the remaining Unbound books by ex-Unbound authors, the authors get nothing. A company called OOINYA is selling them on Amazon, and should be avoided.
January 24, 2026 at 12:25 PM
A seller on Amazon to avoid if you're getting books.
Unbound did authors & readers dirty, with royalties never paid &, unless I'm mixing them up with one of the other ghastly publishers, preorders never delivered.
Treat their editions like they're coverless & stolen unless direct from the author.
Unbound did authors & readers dirty, with royalties never paid &, unless I'm mixing them up with one of the other ghastly publishers, preorders never delivered.
Treat their editions like they're coverless & stolen unless direct from the author.
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There's nothing theoretical about it melting. In 2025 100 billion tons of it flowed into the North Atlantic. The long-term trend is over 200 billion tons a year. The big uncertainty is where is the tipping point (may already have passed) & how long melt will last (hopefully centuries).
Its ice sheet could theoretically melt and raise the sea by 7 metres.
Why Greenland plays an outsized role in climate change science
Its ice sheet could theoretically melt and raise the sea by 7 metres.
tcnv.link
January 23, 2026 at 12:07 PM
There's nothing theoretical about it melting. In 2025 100 billion tons of it flowed into the North Atlantic. The long-term trend is over 200 billion tons a year. The big uncertainty is where is the tipping point (may already have passed) & how long melt will last (hopefully centuries).
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This is a great analogy, a paramilitary force there merely to spread terror. Staffed by bitter failures of men.
If you're Irish you recognise ICE. They're the Black and Tans.
Reminder: ICE has a budget bigger than most militaries around the world.
It has increased its spending on weapons by 700% since Trump took office.
Trump is building his own personal military to terrorize American cities, trample on civil rights, and intimidate his opponents.
It has increased its spending on weapons by 700% since Trump took office.
Trump is building his own personal military to terrorize American cities, trample on civil rights, and intimidate his opponents.
January 7, 2026 at 9:09 PM
This is a great analogy, a paramilitary force there merely to spread terror. Staffed by bitter failures of men.
From today's excellent AI-and-publishing newsletter from @georgewalkley.com "when I checked this morning, not one of the Big 5 trade publishers in the UK were addressing AI bots through robots.txt on their websites." That's shocking! How can those big companies be so negligent?
January 23, 2026 at 12:08 PM
From today's excellent AI-and-publishing newsletter from @georgewalkley.com "when I checked this morning, not one of the Big 5 trade publishers in the UK were addressing AI bots through robots.txt on their websites." That's shocking! How can those big companies be so negligent?
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Most of the moral messaging in children's television programming when I was a kid was utterly uncontroversial at the time, and would be attacked as woke indoctrination today.
This is quite literally one of the stupidest human beings alive
January 22, 2026 at 11:06 PM
Most of the moral messaging in children's television programming when I was a kid was utterly uncontroversial at the time, and would be attacked as woke indoctrination today.
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Publishers told: "if you have not blocked and you think that it is too late to block, you are wrong. It is never too late to block.
“The LLMs will come back and they will recrawl content in order for that information to stay fresh and relevant and accurate.” pressgazette.co.uk/platforms/ei...
“The LLMs will come back and they will recrawl content in order for that information to stay fresh and relevant and accurate.” pressgazette.co.uk/platforms/ei...
Eight in ten of world's biggest news websites now block AI training bots
Almost eight in ten of the biggest news website publishers in the UK and US are blocking AI training bots.
pressgazette.co.uk
January 22, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Publishers told: "if you have not blocked and you think that it is too late to block, you are wrong. It is never too late to block.
“The LLMs will come back and they will recrawl content in order for that information to stay fresh and relevant and accurate.” pressgazette.co.uk/platforms/ei...
“The LLMs will come back and they will recrawl content in order for that information to stay fresh and relevant and accurate.” pressgazette.co.uk/platforms/ei...
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Grok AI generated about 3m sexualised images earlier this month, including 23,000 that appear to depict children, according to researchers who said it “became an industrial scale machine for the production of sexual abuse material”.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Grok AI generated about 3m sexualised images this month, research says
Estimate made by Center for Countering Digital Hate after Elon Musk’s AI image generation tool sparked international outrage
www.theguardian.com
January 22, 2026 at 4:05 PM
Grok AI generated about 3m sexualised images earlier this month, including 23,000 that appear to depict children, according to researchers who said it “became an industrial scale machine for the production of sexual abuse material”.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
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I said this several weeks before Renee Good's killing, but man, it's incredible how brave these women out there are. Thousands of them, spending days, weeks, months just trying to get a phone number from detainees. They've prevented so many disappearances. ICE hates them for a reason.
I've watched countless videos now of confrontations between DHS agents and ICE observers, and it's awesome how many are women recording, challenging male agents, refusing to give up their rights. I'd say the number of women involved in documenting ICE crimes outnumber men three to one or more.
January 21, 2026 at 9:09 PM
I said this several weeks before Renee Good's killing, but man, it's incredible how brave these women out there are. Thousands of them, spending days, weeks, months just trying to get a phone number from detainees. They've prevented so many disappearances. ICE hates them for a reason.
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I doubt if anyone respects me, but:
1. I've worked in AI on and off since 1985
2. I have a PhD
3. I used to manage an academic department of ~40 AI researchers
4. I've published ~100 articles on it
This AI tech is a con. It's a play for corporations to steal industries, wealth, & governance.
1. I've worked in AI on and off since 1985
2. I have a PhD
3. I used to manage an academic department of ~40 AI researchers
4. I've published ~100 articles on it
This AI tech is a con. It's a play for corporations to steal industries, wealth, & governance.
Calling all the PhDs I know to make monumental annoyances of themselves (and honestly, who better)
January 21, 2026 at 10:08 PM
I doubt if anyone respects me, but:
1. I've worked in AI on and off since 1985
2. I have a PhD
3. I used to manage an academic department of ~40 AI researchers
4. I've published ~100 articles on it
This AI tech is a con. It's a play for corporations to steal industries, wealth, & governance.
1. I've worked in AI on and off since 1985
2. I have a PhD
3. I used to manage an academic department of ~40 AI researchers
4. I've published ~100 articles on it
This AI tech is a con. It's a play for corporations to steal industries, wealth, & governance.
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Just ONE person posting these kinds of images would earn them a criminal conviction. But I suppose the law doesn’t apply to mass crimes committed by tech companies.
So we have figures now.
Grok created and shared 1.8m sexualised images of women between December 31 and January 8, after Elon Musk promoted the feature on X.
Overall, the Grok chatbot generated and posted 4.4m images — 41% were sexualised images of women
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/t...
Grok created and shared 1.8m sexualised images of women between December 31 and January 8, after Elon Musk promoted the feature on X.
Overall, the Grok chatbot generated and posted 4.4m images — 41% were sexualised images of women
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/t...
Musk’s Chatbot Flooded X With Millions of Sexualized Images in Days, New Estimates Show
www.nytimes.com
January 22, 2026 at 1:05 PM
Just ONE person posting these kinds of images would earn them a criminal conviction. But I suppose the law doesn’t apply to mass crimes committed by tech companies.
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🚨 Ireland will not join Donald Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ “as currently constructed”, Simon Harris tells the Dáil
(only an hour or two after Mícheál Martin said it was being considered)
@virginmedianews.bsky.social
(only an hour or two after Mícheál Martin said it was being considered)
@virginmedianews.bsky.social
January 22, 2026 at 12:30 PM
🚨 Ireland will not join Donald Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ “as currently constructed”, Simon Harris tells the Dáil
(only an hour or two after Mícheál Martin said it was being considered)
@virginmedianews.bsky.social
(only an hour or two after Mícheál Martin said it was being considered)
@virginmedianews.bsky.social
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This is an excellent analogy, because my recollection from grade school is that the pen on the right looks fun and exciting, and then you play with it for a few minutes and realize it's not actually useful for anything and in fact makes some tasks more cumbersome, and never think about it again.
yeah, just out of interest, how many people choose the pen on the right for real work or art? See a lot of them in professional workplaces, do you?
January 22, 2026 at 12:21 PM
This is an excellent analogy, because my recollection from grade school is that the pen on the right looks fun and exciting, and then you play with it for a few minutes and realize it's not actually useful for anything and in fact makes some tasks more cumbersome, and never think about it again.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will skip the signing of US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” in Davos after Switzerland confirmed it would enforce the ICC arrest warrant over war crimes in Gaza.
January 22, 2026 at 7:55 AM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will skip the signing of US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” in Davos after Switzerland confirmed it would enforce the ICC arrest warrant over war crimes in Gaza.
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Your first look the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards 2026 longlist 🤩
The quality of titles this year were truly extraordinary. Our judges have managed to narrow it down from a total of 151 submissions to these 17
Congratulations to all nominees 🏆
childrensbooksireland.ie/news-events/...
The quality of titles this year were truly extraordinary. Our judges have managed to narrow it down from a total of 151 submissions to these 17
Congratulations to all nominees 🏆
childrensbooksireland.ie/news-events/...
January 21, 2026 at 12:03 PM
Your first look the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards 2026 longlist 🤩
The quality of titles this year were truly extraordinary. Our judges have managed to narrow it down from a total of 151 submissions to these 17
Congratulations to all nominees 🏆
childrensbooksireland.ie/news-events/...
The quality of titles this year were truly extraordinary. Our judges have managed to narrow it down from a total of 151 submissions to these 17
Congratulations to all nominees 🏆
childrensbooksireland.ie/news-events/...
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to fucken vanquish someone wearing scissor shoe
January 21, 2026 at 3:09 AM
to fucken vanquish someone wearing scissor shoe
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Reposting w alt text so everyone can access it bc, as Keri said, im sorry what
January 17, 2026 at 4:29 PM
Reposting w alt text so everyone can access it bc, as Keri said, im sorry what