ConorFi

'Hateful people' won't impact plans of drag performers after attack in Cork City Lucina Schynning said it was 'sickening' that the attack on Sunday night was met with laughter and cheers from bystanders

“Hateful people' won't impact plans of drag performers after attack in Cork City”

More Than DNS: The 14 hour AWS us-east-1 outage A thorough review of a major cloud outage.

thundergolfer.com/blog/aws-us-... I think is a much better outage summary than the one that AWS published. I understand the time pressure AWS was under to get something out, but I found the initial report to be quite baroque and hard to comprehend.

Gardaí monitoring dissident republican fringe groups fuelling Dublin riots Security sources describe the groups as 'opportunists' looking to exploit tensions to boost their visibility

This is somewhat concerning..

“Fringe dissident republican groups are openly supporting and taking part in protests outside the Citywest asylum accommodation centre, with Garda security services keeping a close eye on their involvement.
“

Nearly 1 in 4 employers expect to increase hiring in 2026 Almost one in four employers expect to increase hiring in 2026, according to research from hiring platform IrishJobs.

Nearly 1 in 4 Irish employers expect to increase hiring in 2026

‘I have to do it’: why one of the world’s most brilliant AI scientists left the US for China – podcast In 2020, after spending half his life in the US, Song-Chun Zhu took a one-way ticket to China. Now he might hold the key to who wins the global AI race By Chang Che. Read by Vincent Lai

‘I have to do it’: why one of the world’s most brilliant AI scientists left the US for China.

In 2020, after spending half his life in the US, Song-Chun Zhu took a one-way ticket to China. Now he might hold the key to who wins the global AI race.

Millions across all 50 US states march in No Kings protests against Trump Crowds of Americans, many in costumes, aligned behind message that US is sliding into authoritarianism

Millions across all 50 US states march in No Kings protests against Trump

“Large audience seated at RebelCon inside the Marina Market venue, facing a stage with pink-lit ‘RebelCon’ banners and a presenter introducing the MC on screen.”

Fantastic day at RebelCon

The Marina Market was a brilliant venue.

Insightful talks on AI and its real-world impact
Sessions on wellness and the value of networks
Plenty of time for networking with inspiring people across the tech community

#RebelCon2025

Tesla investigated over self-driving cars on wrong side of road The US government said approximately 2.9 million cars could be impacted by the investigation.

Tesla is being investigated by the US government after reports the firm's self-driving cars had broken traffic laws, including driving on the wrong side of the road and not stopping for red lights.

Renewables overtake coal as world's biggest source of electricity Developing countries lead the historic clean energy charge but the US and EU rely more on fossil fuels than before, a think tank study shows.

“As China's clean tech exports surge, the US is focusing on encouraging the world buy more of its oil and gas.”

Fianna Fáil in crisis as Gavin exits presidential race Jim Gavin's departure from this election left many in Fianna Fáil stunned last night but tellingly the party leader said it was the correct decision.

Huge Shock in Ireland’s Presidential Race.
This dramatic exit reshapes the contest: it now seems to be a two-way race between Catherine Connolly (Independent) and Heather Humphreys (Fine Gael).

OpenAI launch of video app Sora plagued by violent and racist images: ‘The guardrails are not real’ Misinformation researchers say lifelike scenes could obfuscate truth and lead to fraud, bullying and intimidation

OpenAI launch of video app Sora plagued by violent and racist images: ‘The guardrails are not real’

We're about to lose a lot of foreign STEM workers : The Indicator from Planet Money Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa petitioners. Today on the show, we talk to an economist about how much H-1B visa holders have contributed to US gro...

A proposed $100,000 H-1B visa fee could push global STEM talent away from the U.S. — talent that’s fueled innovation and productivity for decades.

While countries like Canada and the U.K. are opening doors, the U.S. risks closing its own.

Scientists race to make 'living' computers powered by human cells BBC News goes inside the lab powering computers with 'mini brains' grown from human cells.

The somewhat eyebrow-raising term Dr Jordan and others in the field use to refer to what they are creating is "wetware".

Data centres in space? Jeff Bezos thinks it's possible Amazon founder and executive chair Jeff Bezos said today that gigawatt-scale data centres will be built in space within the next 10 to 20 years, predicting they would eventually outperform Earth-based...

“One of the things that's going to happen in the next - it's hard to know exactly when, it's 10 plus years, and I bet it's not more than 20 years – we're going to start building these giant gigawatt data centres in space,"

Apple pulls US immigration official tracking apps The creator of ICEBlock accuses the tech giant of "capitulating to an authoritarian regime" by removing his app.

The app's creator contacted BBC Verify after receiving an email informing him of the removal and accused Apple of "capitulating to an authoritarian regime."

Gaming giant Electronic Arts bought in unprecedented $55bn deal EA is known for making best-selling games such as EA FC, The Sims and Mass Effect.

“there were concerns that the deal would result in $20bn of debt - which would need to be paid back.”

"The revenue generated by big games like EA Sports FC, Madden and Battlefield 6 will be needed to service this debt, which may impact EA's ability to invest in new games"

Amazon to pay $2.5bn to settle US FTC ‘dark patterns’ case Amazon will have to pay a $2.5bn fine in response to a case brought by the US Federal Trade Commission for duping people into buying Prime.

“According to the FTC, Amazon manipulated consumers into signing up for Prime membership without their consent and also made it difficult to cancel subscriptions.”

Elon Musk and Prince Andrew named in new Epstein files The documents by the estate of convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein were released by Congressional Democrats.

“In addition to Musk and Prince Andrew, the files released publicly also contain the names of other prominent figures including internet entrepreneur Peter Thiel and Steve Bannon, a former adviser to US President Donald Trump.”

Cork firm wins start-up of the year at Enterprise Ireland innovation competition AI-driven tools to inform decisions on farms, a solar-powered feeding machine, and low-emission manure management systems were among the cutting-edge solutions which took centre stage in this year’s f...

Cork-based firm ScanInsights has won the ‘Start-Up Innovator of the Year Award’ at the Enterprise Ireland Innovation Arena competition at this year's National Ploughing Championships for its innovative technology, which uses artificial intelligence to give real-time information on bovine scanning.

TikTok accused of 'quietly' laying off Irish workers amid global job cuts A union has said that TikTok is laying off workers gradually in numbers that don’t require public announcements.

TikTok accused of 'quietly' laying off Irish workers amid global job cuts

A union has said that TikTok is laying off workers gradually in numbers that don’t require public announcements.

Atlassian acquires productivity tech start-up DX for $1bn DX will be integrated into Atlassian alongside tools such as Rovo Dev, Jira, Bitbucket, Bitbucket Pipelines and Compass.

“Atlassian acquires productivity tech start-up DX for $1bn”

AI impact varies widely: in some industries, up to 50% of work could be affected, while in others only 2–3%.

Net effect: while AI will change worker skills dramatically, the expectation is that it will create more jobs than it eliminates — with new roles like AI prompt engineers emerging.

Will the world really be 50 million workers short by 2030? Podcast Episode · More or Less: Behind the Stats · 13/09/2025 · 9m

Job shortages
• Blue-collar/industrial work makes up 60% of shortages
• Healthcare and education: 12–15%.
• Office admin: 10%.
• White-collar/tech roles: 10%.

Geographic concentration: 90% of labor shortfalls are in just 20 countries.

The U.S. now owns a big chunk of Intel. That’s a huge deal. Podcast Episode · Planet Money · 12/09/2025 · 25m

“The U.S. Now Owns a Big Chunk of Intel. That’s a Huge Deal.”

When the U.S. government acquires a 10% stake in Intel—making it the company’s largest shareholder—it marks one of the boldest shifts in economic strategy in years.

Deepfakes, Big Tech, and the Coming AI Crash?”

“AI investment is exploding: the ‘Magnificent Seven’ of Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, Tesla, and NVIDIA, are ploughing almost 7% of US GDP into AI and data centres.”

“These companies now make up 34% of the S&P 500”

Asking for a friend … which jobs are safe from AI? Podcast Episode · Planet Money · 10/09/2025 · 29m

The evolving nature of AI and the types of jobs that might be more resistant to automation.