I was on The Hard Shoulder yesterday talking about the PISA results. open.spotify.com/episode/7sIY...

PISA 2025 study ranks Irish students first for reading in EU

The Hard Shoulder · Episode

open.spotify.com

This was excellent.

That Tesco ad where they speak about all the wonderful things they do for the community, yet find men having and discussing emotions hilarious, has really annoyed my children. My son was shocked when I pointed it out. Great message to young fellas. Well done Tesco.

I was talking to Claire Byrne about the use of laptops in school. With Dr. Áine Moran. link.goloudplayer.com/s/pG2kY2SRkEBq

Do students prefer school books?

Whether you are a secondary school student yourself, or the parent of one. You arelikely have a laptop or tablet.   Covid drove a huge impetus towards technology-based learning, but could the pendulum swing back again? Claire discusses this with Conor Murphy, an English Teacher at Skibereen Community School and Dr Áine Moran, Principal of Sancta Maia College in Mayo.

link.goloudplayer.com

Please, everyone, stop using the phrase "it's been a minute" unless it has, in fact, been a minute. Thanks.

Any media, or individual, showing or sharing footage of teenagers breaking the law for likes is doing what the teenagers want, and are exacerbating the problem. Discuss the problem, debate the problem, highlight the problem, but don't do what they want and share the footage

A tech journal worked with a bookshop to put an AirTag into a shipment of books that it suspected were part of a scan-and-shred AI operation. The company which operates at the final destination - an Amazon-operated LLM trainer - has a logo depicting … [checks notes] a dinosaur shredding a book.

We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility

We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.

404media.co

Finished season five of ER, thank god. Veered too close to Grey's Anatomy nonsense at times. Poor attention to detail was the overriding issue.

Dr. Ross is about to leave ER (season five). Wonder will he find where all the electricians and cleaners went.

Season 5 of ER has some issues with its depiction of race. Previous seasons attacked racism and bias in a more subtle and interesting ways. This season has some serious problems.

Season five starts with a reintroduction of the ER and all the cast. A bit weird but maybe they were getting even more popular at the time and wanted to let the new audience know the layout etc. But it had that character short hand moment that works so well.

One of the quietly interesting aspects of ER is watching the technology develop. From no computers to computers to better computers to more etc.

Just let him do a Yeltsin and leave us all alone.

Gavan Reilly@gavreilly.com · last mo.

As reported on @virginmedianews.bsky.social at 12:30: Donald Trump is expected to be in and out of Dublin in just a few hours next month - he's scheduled to meet the President at the Aras, the Taoiseach at Farmleigh, and make a quick stop to the new Embassy in Ballsbridge, then head away to Doonbeg

ER Season four. The contrast has been turned up, and the lighting brighter. Means the makeup is stronger. More characters means more domestic dramas at the expense of patient stories. Some brilliant writing but you can feel the series changing.

I wrote about film adaptations a good few years ago. I wouldn't change much in here. (Mainly about their use in school) thevideotrolley.blogspot.com/2014/01/nove...

Wyck: I told you! Don't use the cursed mayo to make sandwiches for the Irish tourists! Tom: They were hungry! What was I supposed to do? They'd have posted bad reviews online! Patricia (running in): Okay, the Irish tourists ate the cursed mayo sandwiches and are now killing everyone with big sticks.

Conor Murphy@conorsmurf.bsky.social · last mo.

Season two of Widow's Bay better have an island version of Mayo and The Curse.

Season two of Widow's Bay better have an island version of Mayo and The Curse.

I always felt that Telemachus was a bit of a drip. His moments of violence felt like over compensating. A weedy character. And, with the above in mind, I think Tom Holland played him perfectly, especially with how the character was rewritten. Dont get the hate thrown his way.

Season three of ER goes for major dramatic storyline and a few famous faces in the cast to compensate.for Dr Lewis' departure. Some great episodes in there. (And fewer silly bits)

Masters of the Universe is great fun. Yes, a little too long and wants to have its cake and eat it (like its big sister Barbie) but a perfect film for the summer evening.

Just back from The Odyssey with child no 2 and child no 3. They loved it! As one of them said, it was like someone was telling you a story, you just sat back and time dissappeared. The other just loves Nolan. I liked it.

Nobody told me The Odyssey was part of the anet of the Apes franchise!

People eating nachos in the cinema should be shot.

ER Season three introduces slapstick whilst going in heavy on the Drama. Season one had some funny, subtle, visual gags. This humour, though, feels heavy handed and out of place.

I'm thrilled for FIFA that they got that standard in the final. The perfect match to out before America's new king.

Looking at the hoarding that says "The Final" I'm presuming the semifinal had "A Semifinal" hoardings.

I'm not watching and obviously the concept of some nonsense show extending half time of a soccer match is unutterably shit. But if they did have to do it, it would have been great if Chappell Roan got to do Pink Pony Club live in front of president dickhead and dickhead infantino.

Galway United used to raffle a hamper of meat at half time and it was more entertaining than this.

Not even live.