@rathmacan.bsky.social
Just a reminder, the Irish government has used its time holding the EU presidency to introduce a proposal to weaken EU data privacy regulations. This measure would allow AI companies to scrap private information from hundreds of millions of EU citizens to use for their training models.
Dr Abeba Birhane@abeba.blacksky.app · 2w ago"Today's AI summit brings together businesses, governments and civil society together" Minister Peter Burke TD (fact: there are no civil society representatives, not in the list of speakers) #AISummitIE
Taoiseach Micheál Martin favours a complete ban on all vapes, the product used by most people to quit smoking. Sometimes you have to ask, do they want people to quit at all? www.rte.ie/news/ireland...
Vapes are the 'revenge of Big Tobacco', says Taoiseach
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has signalled his personal support for an outright ban on vapes while outlining proposals to limit the number of vape shops.
rte.ie
Oh My God Shut The Fuck Up About"Antisemitism" “Antisemitism” watchdog groups are flipping the fuck out about hip hop artist Macklemore saying “Free Palestine” while opening for Ed Sheeran. www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/oh-my-god-...
Oh My God Shut The Fuck Up About "Antisemitism"
Video reading by Tim Foley:
caitlinjohnst.one
Tobacco control loses credibility when opposition to industry turns into opposition to harm reduction itself. Cigarette companies deserve scrutiny, but that does not make every argument for safer nicotine products a tobacco industry tactic clearingtheair.eu/en/post/toba...
Tobacco Control Advocates: Big Tobacco’s Useful Idiots - Clearing the Air
Source Madonna has spent her entire career tracking what the young are into.
clearingtheair.eu
You know how everything bad gets blamed on video games & the internet? I have a theory that it’s golf destroying our society. Few activities have such an outsized effect on the environment, public health and epitomizing the corruption of wealth & privilege. Limit and restrict access to golf.
100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions. They told YOU to recycle better while they polluted more. Don't fall for it. Hold systems accountable. #ClimateCrisis
If you'd benefit from a reminder of how fortunate we are in a material sense, hit this interactive essay. ordinaryabundance.com
Ordinary Abundance
A walk through a modern apartment, through the eyes of the people for whom everything in it was new.
ordinaryabundance.com
Oh look! Related. bsky.app/profile/iris...
Simon McGarr@tupped.bsky.social · 3mo agoNew Gist: Ireland's Biometric Laundromat Ireland quietly passed a law in July potentially undermining every EU citizen's protections against law enforcement use of biometrics. Jim O'Callaghan's Irish 'biometric analysis' wheeze has gone international. www.thegist.ie/the-gist-ire...
"If something’s not stagnant, there is hope: Change requires movement," writes @kiransidhu41.bsky.social. "THR advocates have faced derision, ostracization and slander. They have made things happen all the same."
Finding Optimism in the Tobacco Harm Reduction Maelstrom
It's easy to feel that competing against the misinformation juggernaut is futile. Yet certain reflections fill me with hope.
filtermag.org
R.I.P. Cannot express my shock at the news youtu.be/mURWLMEEUKA?...
Heyday on the stoop of No 4 - Glen and Marketa
YouTube video by Peter O'Brien
youtu.be
The Minister is gradually building a coherent worldview, based on truly terrible ideas. www.thegist.ie/the-gist-the...
The Gist: The Price of Ugliness
Jack Chambers announces his new policy to fill Ireland with ugly things. This is the Gist.
thegist.ie
Fred Logue @fplogue.bsky.social · 3mo ago
The recent surge is expected to continue. It's unsurprising that more people—especially women—are using pouches to quit smoking, reports @kiransidhu41.bsky.social. But some are switching to pouches from vapes, and the reasons for this are more complex:
What’s Behind the UK’s Migration to Nicotine Pouches?
It's unsurprising that many people are using them to quit smoking. But some are switching from vapes, and the reasons for this are complex.
filtermag.org
“They have not considered the unintended consequences," says one expert, including "increased smoking rates across the age spectrum." Ireland's government appears more determined than ever to make tobacco harm reduction harder, reports @kiransidhu41.bsky.social:
Disposables Banned, Flavors Next: Irish Vape Crackdown Gathers Pace
With one ban just confirmed and more restrictions imminent, the government continues to make tobacco harm reduction harder.
filtermag.org
Tobacco harm reduction is harm reduction. The principle is the same: reduce risk, respect autonomy and meet people where they are, rather than demanding abstinence as the only acceptable outcome. open.substack.com/pub/skipscor...
Tobacco Harm Reduction IS Harm Reduction-Part 4
A Look at NHS England
open.substack.com
Behold! The US teen nicotine vaping "epidemic" SPOILER: You need a magnifying glass to see it NOTE: This is "at least one time in the past 30 days" To see daily use, you would need a microscope... fda.gov/media/191376... tobaccocrst.org/data-briefs academic.oup.com/ntr/advance-...
An inability to imagine change as a positive, even as potentially positive, has frozen our 100 year Government into universal inaction, as a main policy. Whatever you’re doing now, they want you to keep doing. Doing anything else is to be discouraged, blocked or banned.
“What’s upsetting is that the anti-nicotine agenda being pushed on/by Palau … will do nothing to assist the people who are using deadly oral products.” filtermag.org/palau-global...
Tiny Pacific Nation Applies for Global Nicotine Ban. Who’s Behind It?
The WHO process could in theory lead to nicotine being scheduled internationally. Advocates believe Palau is being used as a "puppet."
filtermag.org
A society with one trillionaire and millions of people in poverty is something to be deeply ashamed of, actually
Disappointed to learn that this is not, in fact, the first drama series as Gaeilge set in the Pleistocene
All books belong in every library. Pay no attention to any argument by loo lahs presenting themselves as concerned parents that *any* book is inappropriate in a library. Ireland was famous for its avid censorship of books throughout the 20th C, the same time it is now famous for abusing children.
This new book on Australia’s drug policy is highly recommended. Why harm reduction matters ‘Desmond Manderson’s High Time – How Australia changed its mind about illegal drugs’, is a social history of Australia’s drug policy and a must-read for policymakers. pearlsandirritations.com/post/2026/06...
Hailing Australia's under-appreciated life-saving heroes
Desmond Manderson’s High Time – How Australia changed its mind about illegal drugs, is a social history of Australia's drug policy and a must-read for policymakers.
pearlsandirritations.com
Alan Gor rightly celebrates World Vape Day. Vaping is world’s most popular quit smoking aid and world’s most effective quit smoking aid. open.substack.com/pub/09algor/...
The Treaty That Lost Its Way: Why the FCTC Needs Reform, Not Reverence
When the World Health Organisation adopted the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003, it was hailed as a landmark moment in public health.
open.substack.com
Another superb piece from @clivebates.bsky.social Opposition to tobacco harm reduction has become a religion! @algore09algor.bsky.social @jmenezes.bsky.social @ianamossyd.bsky.social @igas2.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/clivebat...
A ridiculous but revealing conference declaration
In the perpetual contest for the dumbest public health conference declaration, the Europeans are going for gold.
open.substack.com