Simon McGarr

Faced with rising oil prices caused by its own actions, on the 3rd March the US Govt quietly slipped out a Notice punching a hole in sanctions on Russia selling oil internationally.

ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actio...

I’m not surprised. We went through this process last year and while it’s great it is crazy expensive even with the heat pump / solar grant and it’s not certain that you will get the grant when doing the work. Policy needs to include low cost long term finance so people can afford this.

Yes, hello, is that God? Yeah, hi. I have a complaint. You gave me this brain that’s designed for finding berries and avoiding lions and now people are ‘just circling back’ to see if we can ‘move the needle’ on ‘key initiatives’? NONE of those things are berries.

This is the government's solution to the housing crisis: selling off the country piecemeal, so that you're endlessly paying rent to offshore landlords.
#speirgorm

In unrelated news, I have been waiting 6 months for one of our major energy providers to get back to me with a quote for solar panel installation.

AI cameras are everywhere — and people are paying the price for their mistakes Flock Safety's license plate readers are used by police in thousands of communities. When the cameras make mistakes, the consequences can be severe.

'Flock Flocked up'

How a license plate camera misread unraveled one man's life.

Horrifying story of Flock misreading plates.

The driver was then mauled by a police dog while officers comment he is acting like a petulant child.

The license plates weren't stolen, and he was the registered owner

This is like that bit in the first Iron Man where the last thing he sees before being knocked out is his own logo on the explosive, if instead of rethinking his life Tony has been like, "that could be any weapons manufacturer named 'Stark'!"

What’s your sign?

1. Are you currently using an AI tool for work-related tasks or projects? * Yes * No, but I would like to (PLEASE SKIP TO QUESTION 7)

My employer asks me to complete a survey on AI usage for which this is the first question (required):

People Hate AI Even More Than They Hate ICE, Poll Finds The only things less popular than AI in the poll were Iran and the Democratic Party.

“The complicity of AI companies in widely unpopular government actions worldwide has also contributed to the bad reputation AI is building for itself.”

Coin used as Leeds bus fare was 2,000‑year‑old currency The coin was handed down to Peter Edwards from his grandfather in the 1950s.

This is the sort of thing a cashless society robs us of, the opportunity to try to get away with paying the bus fare in Carthaginian currency www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Once again, another example for the “fascists unable to imagine what it is like to be Another Person”

In first, CIA acknowledges 1953 coup it backed to overthrow leader of Iran was undemocratic While other American officials have made similar remarks in the past, the acknowledgment by the CIA in a podcast about the agency’s history comes as much of its official history of the coup still rema...

I wonder what percentage of Americans knows that the CIA helped overthrow a democracy in Iran in 1953, installing a brutal dictator who tortured and murdered people. Republicans keep citing the 1979 Islamic Revolution as if that was the start of U.S.-Iran hostilities. Go back 26 years earlier.

All the videos of my son from when he was a toddler look like shaky, found footage reels of people chasing cryptids.

I really recommend it. It feels like an escape from the world, like a trip to the library, but for Looking.

Either that or fixing fishing nets on Inis Mór

Now, my version is clearly not an accurate reproduction of the Gallery’s.

Which is fine, as we already have one of those.

But it did give me the chance to look at the proportions of the arm, to see the folds of the shirt and the draping from the seat to his feet

None of which registered at first

One of the ways to see something properly- to get past letting your eyes slide over something and think you looked at it- is to stand and try to sketch it.

I was in the National Gallery and decided to draw a version of, I think it’s John the Baptist being woken up by an angel.

Her full follow-up explanation of the conversation is hilarious. She told people in Cushendall that she was trying to visit every part of the UK 😂😂😂

“Ah, well, that is an interesting question this time, because the key was to anticipate the transfers mid-way down the ballot”

If I was in American and said I was Irish and they asked "so who'd you vote for" I'd be thrilled, we all would. It'd be, like, well how long have you got.

The upset comes from the implication of having to take responsibility for your actions.

Her trip to Ireland was ruined by this one question?? Gee, I wonder why…

The Gist: The Very Hungry Killerpillar Seemingly to their own surprise, the Trump administration goes to war with Iran. This is the Gist.

"Which takes us to Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, a man who achieves the rare feat of being both eager to show off his hard muscles and yet somehow also personifying erectile dysfunction."

www.thegist.ie/the-gist-the...

"But the chancellor of Germany Fredrich Merz, while admitting the Iranian operation carried “risks”, told the world on social media: “Now is not the time to lecture our partners and allies.”"

Shona Murray: Powerful countries no longer bother with international norms Europe appears to have accepted the law of the jungle supplanted by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, writes Shona Murray

If 176 children were slaughtered in their classrooms in Dublin, Brussels, Berlin, Tel Aviv or Texas by a foreign adversary, the world would rightfully be at a standstill.

- Shona Murray

www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/colu... @shonamurray.bsky.social

That's why I'm so against ChatGPT. I'm against letting a machine do your homework for you. I think you should cling to Doing Your Homework Yourself like it's the last opportunity you have to liberate yourself from mental enslavement. Because it basically is.

Anyway shout out to Kai Cenat.

i need this shirt

Guest Gist: Empires of Certainty Dermot Casey responds to "The Age of Diagnosis" and its suggestions that there are just too many ADHD people around these days. This is the Gist.

thank you. its here www.thegist.ie/guest-gist-e... published on a @tupped.bsky.social excellent newsletter

The Gist: The Very Hungry Killerpillar Seemingly to their own surprise, the Trump administration goes to war with Iran. This is the Gist.

“The Trump administration is now slowly discovering that War is not an end in itself.

Fighting, killing and dying is not actually the purpose of a military.”

www.thegist.ie/the-gist-the...