For the first time, Ireland generated more electricity from renewable sources than fossil fuels in the first half of the year 🍃 The chart below makes the trend clear. Will 2026 be the first year with majority clean energy? We at Green Collective hope to be the first to report it!

Inefficiency: for when just-in-time might be far-too-late.

Jonn Elledge@jonnelledge.bsky.social · 4h ago

"A decision that made sense in a British Rail spreadsheet does not in a regional economy." In praise of inefficiency.

If this is really true - and surely it can't be - then the US has suffered one of the most remarkable diplomatic and military defeats in its history. Total victory for Iran.

Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 3h ago

Iran and Oman have reportedly agreed that all ships transiting Hormuz have to go through an Iran-controlled corridor, and are finalizing tolls of 3, 5, or 7%. This would close off the path outside Iranian waters the US encouraged ships to use during the MOU, then started bombing again to keep open.

This is disturbing and grotesque.

Alexandra Lahav@alahav.bsky.social · 5h ago

New @bloomberglaw.com article by Olivia Carville - TikTok experimented on users, putting 10% (about 15M people) in a "filter bubble" exposing them to repetitive content that the algorithm thought they wanted, but was toxic. If you want to know why these cases are going to be massive...

Last month, renewable sources accounted for 53% of consumption, with solar providing 19% of that energy, followed by hydro (16%), wind (13%) and biomass (5%).

First time: solar power is Portugal's main source of electricity in July

Last month, renewable sources accounted for 53% of consumption, with solar providing 19% of that energy, followed by hydro (16%), wind (13%) and biomass (5%).

l.euronews.com

I used to overhear my son talking to people online while playing games. I would know the nationality of the person he was speaking to by HIS accent! He emulated the person he was speaking to without having a clue he was doing it.

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge.bsky.social · 2w ago

People are making fun of AOC for having a slight southern accent while speaking in Memphis but they clearly don’t know the pain of habitually and unconsciously imitating the speaking style of the people around you

"It’s as if we launched a war against nature, and that has turned place after place into something that resembles a war zone," writes @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social. "The climate movement is a peace movement, a movement to end this war and its casualties."

We launched a war on nature. Now we are in a climate warzone | Rebecca Solnit

Summer is not what it once was. We have been robbed of one of life’s great joys

theguardian.com

Plan for new town at Dunsink ‘requires €7.3bn water investment’ to proceed

Plan for new town at Dunsink ‘requires €7.3bn water investment’ to proceed

Construction of 18,500 homes only feasible if Shannon-to-Dublin water-supply project and Greater Dublin sewage project built

irishtimes.com

All Trump’s Reflecting Pool Lawsuits End in Total Failure newrepublic.com/post/213946/... via @newrepublic.com

All Trump’s Reflecting Pool Lawsuits End in Total Failure

The Department of Justice has dropped charges against the two remaining defendants.

newrepublic.com

Worth remembering how mind-bogglingly recent the Magdalene Laundries were. The last one closed down on 25th September 1996, which means the Magdalene system outlived Tupac by two weeks.

Saoirse Ní Chiaragáin@miseryvulture.bsky.social · 11h ago

The last Magdalene laundry closed in my lifetime. Homosexuality was decriminalised in Ireland in my lifetime. Access to condoms without a prescription in Ireland only came in 1985. We repealed the 8th. There's a lot of ways in which Ireland is still bad, but it is an entirely different country.

I feel we are a little too relaxed that NORTH KOREA is getting more and more involved in a war in Europe.

UK 🇬🇧 🤝 🇺🇦 □@ukbastard.bsky.social · 10h ago

North Korean missile unit deploys in Russia for Ukraine war, Kyiv says A North Korean missile unit has begun deploying to western Russia and could be equipped with 120 ballistic missiles and six launchers www.bypasspaywallreader.com/search.html?...

Greenhushing is the new greenwashing, pass it on as.ft.com/r/636d05c2-e...

European green bonds rebound to take share from ‘greenhushed’ US

Issuance in the region will drive global sales to record high this year, despite ‘death of ESG’ in Trump’s America

as.ft.com

Just off the top of my head, along with food: medical science; crime rates; pollution levels; public health and safety in general; rights for ethnic minorities, women and gay people (despite recent backsliding); phones and the internet; renewable energy; entertainment options.

Constantine@ajaxsinger.bsky.social · 16h ago

Food, man. Food is so much better than it was in 1986. All of it. Poor-people food, restaurant food, fresh food, frozen food. Food is just a hell of a lot better.

Mearsheimer approaching year five of having to invent elaborate new justifications for why his hypothesis of an unstoppable Russian juggernaut that had to be appeased at all costs is still correct despite all the evidence. The press also approaching five years of inexplicably still platforming him.

Sven-Erik Volberg@volberg.bsky.social · 9h ago

New pro-russian talking point, spearheaded by Mearsheimer, is that Ukraine is landlocked, russia is winning but it also means nuclear war. Looks extremely organic and based on reality. Spot the grifter!

Eleanor Rigby was born - and died - sixty years ago today. And a Yellow Submarine was launched. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/08/05/e...

Eleanor Rigby was born – and died – sixty years ago today. And a Yellow Submarine was launched.

This “Double A” side was released on August 5th 1966 – the same day as the album Revolver. There are a number of reasons why “Eleanor Rigby” is one of the Beatles/Paul…

conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com

Datapoint nr. 940 indicating a structural inability within UK elites to grasp how much European integration has become a state-building project

Simon Usherwood@simonusherwood.bsky.social · 9h ago

Not reading any more viable in its full version demos.co.uk/research/bey...

We too easily skipped over the part of the Ceuta story where thousands of young people were manipulated into risking or losing their lives for a lie; to orchestrate images that then led the news agenda for the weekend, and kneejerk reactions from EU Govs And the Irish failures that let this happen

Deirdre O'Shaughnessy@deshocks.bsky.social · 10h ago

If you were confused about what happened in Ceuta last week read this piece by @lizcarolan.com who's looking at how it blew up online and who's behind it... www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

In March and April it looked like UK yields for 2026 were on track to meet or even exceed 10-year averages. Now it looks set to be the worst since 1984. ECIU report: eciu.net/analysis/rep...

George Smeeton @gsmeeton.bsky.social · 10h ago

British farmers are facing a "completely brutal" year, with analysis suggesting the 2026 harvest could be the worst on record due to extreme summer weather: www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Palantir is shifting profits from its European operations to the U.S., allowing the Florida-based data analytics giant to pay minimal taxes in Europe, a new report finds.

Palantir funnels earnings to US to avoid European taxes, report finds

A new study finds that Palantir, which boasts of high profit margins in the U.S., barely scrapes a margin in Europe, which helps slash its tax bill.

politico.eu

"And as the EU’s digital rulebook enforcer, a big part of that blame sits right with us here in Ireland." Spot on, and will we do anything. No. We are a vassal state for US and big tech.

Deirdre O'Shaughnessy@deshocks.bsky.social · 10h ago

If you were confused about what happened in Ceuta last week read this piece by @lizcarolan.com who's looking at how it blew up online and who's behind it... www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

1/ New column from John Naughton in The Observer asks an important question: why do tech moguls talk such confident nonsense about AI? Worth reading in full — here’s what he argues. 🧵

“Since attacking Iran…Trump’s immediate demands have shrunk from a sprawling list of concessions involving Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, ballistic missile production and support for proxy militias to just one: that Iran allow…Hormuz to return to its prewar state.” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Donald Trump trapped between escalation and an Iran deal on Tehran’s terms

US president faces few good options to exit a war he once said would end swiftly with the Islamic republic’s surrender

giftarticle.ft.com

Their conclusion about what this all means is better cyber hygiene. I would suggest policymakers might also wish to come back to questions of agent liability and who is responsible when things go wrong

Fairly sober testing report from the AI Security Institute: they gave internet access and removed some guardrails from latest AI models and found without them they were capable of potentially harmful activity directed at real people and organisations www.aisi.gov.uk/blog/inciden...

Don't look now, but the world has now installed 3TW of solar. Took 10 years to get from 100GW to 1TW. Less than 3 years to get to 2TW. Less than 2 years to get to 3TW. Analysts expect *9TW* by 2036.

The World Crossed a Major Solar Milestone. No One Noticed

The next phase of the boom may reveal a shift in who is gaining access to the technology.

bloomberg.com

#DailyPhoto #PictiúrAnLae Orange / Oráiste

‘Hundreds of residents in Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta gathered to oppose a planned far-right anti-migrant rally, forcing organisers to cancel the event amid heightened tensions following a temporary influx of migrants crossing from Morocco.’ www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfe...

Residents of Spain’s Ceuta shut down far-right anti-migrant rally

Hundreds of residents in Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta gathered to oppose a planned far-right rally.

aljazeera.com

👇🧵🇩🇪 Parallels here to the failure of years of What Democrats Must Do advice from Ezra Douthglesias & others in 🇺🇸 & similar debates/results in other countries about how to win back far right voters.

Ned Richardson-Little@historyned.bsky.social · yesterday

The past few years have been an explicit test of two theories of how to win back AfD voters: first, the CDU just needed to pivot to the hard right under Merz and second that the Linke as a party was too woke and needed to turn to workerist anti-migrant nationalism via BSW. Both failed.

Reminded of Susan Calvin's disdain for the idea of a "female robot" with "feminine intuition" which essentially boiled down to "the scientists falling over themselves to talk to the feminine robot". #Azimov

Kate Manne@katemanne.bsky.social · yesterday

Generative AI is catnip to the men who miss female sycophants katemanne.substack.com/p/a-culture-...