"Australians could be given the option of opting out of powerful social media algorithms under new legislation cracking down on big tech, a minister said Monday." @en.afp.com www.msn.com/en-us/news/w...
Clare Dillon
@claredillon.bsky.social
Loves InnerSource and Open Source.
Homer Simpson disappearing into hedge (in Lego) Credit to Jason Allemann & Kristal / @jkbrickworks
Europe always chooses science and partnership. Japan too. Japan is now officially associated with Horizon Europe. This means Japanese researchers and organisations can take part in the world's largest public research and innovation programme. Let's break new frontiers together.
Keep this in mind when people claim cars mean business — closing Central #Madrid to cars over holidays resulted in a 9.5% boost in retail spending on its main shopping street: STUDY. There was also a 71% drop in air pollution. Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com. #citymakingmath #citiesforpeople
Closing Central Madrid To Cars Resulted In 9.5% Boost To Retail Spending, Finds Bank Analysis
City of Madrid significantly boosted the takings of its shops and restaurants last Christmas by banning cars from the CBD, finds an analysis by Spain's second largest bank.
forbes.com
This could honestly be given on prescription to cheer people up. A moment of pure joy, bottled.
Gavan Reilly@gavreilly.com · 2mo ago“The famine is over! The curse be damned!! Hit the nuclear button! Mayo have won the All-Ireland!!” An all-time great sports commentary moment from Stephen Grealis and Martin McHugh on Mayo’s Midwest Radio. #gaa
Very cool that Shopify’s CEO thinks the poor should have far less of a vote than the rich. Still worth that ad read money, folks?
More than half of land affected by Irish wildfires over the past decade overlapped Natura 2000 protected sites, @investigates.thejournal.ie can reveal. #Ireland #Speirgorm #wildfires #biodiversity
Ireland has one of Europe’s highest rates of wildfire overlap with protected nature sites
Following a spate of devastating wildfires, analysis has found that more than half of the land burned here over the past decade overlapped with protected nature areas – significantly higher than the E...
thejournal.ie
NEW INVESTIGATION: Despite escaping the 'mega fires' seen in countries such as Spain and Greece, Ireland actually has one of Europe’s highest rates of wildfire overlap with protected nature sites, we can reveal
Ireland has one of Europe’s highest rates of wildfire overlap with protected nature sites
Following a spate of devastating wildfires, analysis has found that more than half of the land burned here over the past decade overlapped with protected nature areas – significantly higher than the...
jrnl.ie
To carry 50,000 people per hour in each direction, a city needs a 175m wide road for cars. Even if those cars are electric. And then there’s all the parking. OR a city can move A LOT MORE people in a lot less space, with A LOT LESS public money, emissions, pollution, noise etc. Choices. Simple.
China built a 40-story tower that banks wind power by hoisting giant concrete blocks, then dropping them when the grid needs juice. A skyscraper-sized battery with no lithium in it.
China built a 40-story tower that stores wind power by stacking concrete
The Swiss company Energy Vault spent years pitching a novel idea: store surplus electricity by using it to stack heavy blocks, then recover the power by letting them fall. Boing…
boingboing.net
"based on the best available data, the model reached a sobering estimate: The shift toward vehicles with higher hoods caused about 3,000 deaths from 2016 to 2024. The estimate is conservative in many ways." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
The Deadly Rise of Giant Trucks and S.U.V.s (Gift Article)
The vehicles on American roads have grown larger — and they are killing thousands more pedestrians, a Times investigation found.
nytimes.com
“Since New York City introduced congestion pricing, the state has heralded significant reductions in traffic and rush hour delays, fewer crashes and noise complaints, & toll revenue projected to hit $500 million by the end of 2026. Now, Cornell researchers have tallied the environmental benefits.”
Congestion pricing improved air quality in NYC and suburbs | Cornell Chronicle
Cornell researchers tallied the environmental benefits of New York City’s congestion pricing program and found air pollution dropped by 22% in Manhattan, with additional declines across the city’s fiv...
news.cornell.edu
“You see, Jim O'Callaghan said, all of those EU limits on the police using AI were on the use of "biometric identification". But he had invented a unique new Irish activity called "biometric analysis" that didn't have any of those pesky protections” www.thegist.ie/the-gist-hum...
The Gist: Humpty Dumpty's Wall of Biometric Bamboozlement
Jim O'Callaghan proposes AI powers for the police 'irrespective' of EU Law
thegist.ie
Today, while reviewing submissions to the AbSciCon 2026 Creative Writing Contest, I discovered a new tell for gen AI. Now, I had assume that gen AI, when asked to write fiction, would at least come up with unique character names. Turns out, I was wrong. Let me tell you about Eva Rostova
Under the council’s "5% policy", developers are delivering arts spaces – but who will pay for the fit-outs? The new four-storey Juno Building on Upper Sheriff Street is built, but it’ll cost millions to finish the interior so arts organisations can put it to use.
Under council’s "5% policy", developers are delivering arts spaces – but who will pay for the fit-outs?
The new four-storey Juno Building on Upper Sheriff Street is built, but it’ll cost millions to finish the interior so arts organisations can put it to use.
dublininquirer.com
watched this on repeat losing my shit for two nights now
I'm currently working on an AI safety review and the extent to which "tech bro makes car, the wheels fall off" is an extended metaphor for the last decade is not to be under-estimated
David Roberts@volts.wtf · 4mo ago🤣
Traffic cameras popping up everywhere Aren't police cameras It's a private co What's the purpose? www.pcmag.com/explainers/t...
The Creepy Reality Behind the License Plate Cameras in Your Town
Those cameras you keep seeing? They're run by Flock Safety, a private company that tracks more than just your car's plates.
pcmag.com
A rough estimate of doing as much generative AI coding as the CEO of Nvidia recommends : an increase of 2.7x of the global annual emissions footprint for the average person By Boris Gamazaychikov www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
“Since New York City introduced congestion pricing, the state has heralded significant reductions in traffic and rush hour delays, fewer crashes and noise complaints, & toll revenue projected to hit $500 million by the end of 2026. Now, Cornell researchers have tallied the environmental benefits.”
Congestion pricing improved air quality in NYC and suburbs | Cornell Chronicle
Cornell researchers tallied the environmental benefits of New York City’s congestion pricing program and found air pollution dropped by 22% in Manhattan, with additional declines across the city’s fiv...
news.cornell.edu
Paris urban biking investment helps cut pollution in half: “Between 2005 and 2024, levels of nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter — 2 of the most harmful pollutants to human health — have been slashed by 50% and 55%, respectively.” Via @momentummag.bsky.social momentummag.com/paris-proves...
Transportation historian Peter Norton doesn't buy into the robotaxi hullabaloo: "What robot cars are promising is the next generation of car dependency." In @bloomberg.com, my lengthy conversation with @norton.bsky.social
Why Cities Shouldn’t Fall For the Robotaxi Hype
Transportation historian Peter Norton sees a pattern in the promises that autonomous vehicle companies make as they push self-driving cars into cities.
bloomberg.com
“It’s not data OR storytelling, it’s both. That philosophy is already visible in the Collective’s early output: bold and brash visuals and messaging designed for a scroll-heavy audience. The kind of work that doesn’t require a planning degree to understand, & doesn’t pretend the audience has one.”
Urban Truth Collective@urbantruth.bsky.social · 5mo agoNEW: “The initiative is less an advocacy group & more a communications intervention. Its premise is blunt: the reason so many good urban ideas stall isn’t because they’re wrong—it’s because they’re losing the narrative war.” Read about us in @momentummag.bsky.social! momentummag.com/urban-truth-...
Open source projects provide opportunities for people to build leadership skills while learning how to positively influence without the power that comes with more traditional managerial roles. Thank you to the crew at @allthingsopen.bsky.social for sharing my post! allthingsopen.org/articles/pow...
Power vs. influence: What open source teaches that business school doesn't | We Love Open Source • All Things Open
Open source leadership requires influence without power. Learn how contributing to projects builds essential management skills that traditional hierarchies can't teach.
allthingsopen.org
Noah Hawley wrote a short, excellent, and chilling piece about attending Jeff Bezos' Campfire "ideas" retreat in 2018, and you can read it through Flipster at the library if you don't have an Atlantic subscription. longreads.com/2026/04/21/j...
What I Learned About Billionaires at Jeff Bezos’s Private Retreat - Longreads
"For the richest men on Earth, everything is free and nothing matters."
longreads.com