Eoin McLaughlin

This is why I'm still doing in-person exams....:“In my whole degree, I never had an in-person exam. That’s why ChatGPT has gone rampant. It’s just so easy to cheat.”

www.theaustralian.com.au/subscribe/ne...

Managing and mitigating future public health risks: Planetary boundaries, global catastrophic risk, and inclusive wealth There are two separate conceptualizations for assessing existential risks: Planetary Boundaries (PBs) and global catastrophic risks (GCRs). While these concepts are similar in principle, their underp...

I've written on existential risk too* onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Trump ally and tech billionaire Peter Thiel brings Antichrist warning to Paris “I heard more about the Antichrist during those 45 minutes than during the rest of my life,” one attendee tells POLITICO.

I've read a lot of literature on existential risk but this is a unique (unhinged?) perspective www.politico.eu/article/trum...

A recent fave for our mini reader subscribers was the very funny Once I Was A Tree by Eoin McLaughlin and Guilherme Karsten, we had so much fun creating an activity pack all about trees! 🌲 @nosycrow.bsky.social @eoinaldo.bsky.social #childrensbooks #BookSky

Gordon Brown on Mandelson: observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

The Gist: UK Labour's FG mastermind The UK Labour Party is being run into the ground, thanks to adopting FG's election tactics. This is the Gist.

This week’s Gist is about how the U.K. Labour Party unknowingly has been blowing itself up by following Morgan McSweeney’s FG electoral instincts.

They don’t know the patterns, but we do.

www.thegist.ie/the-gist-uk-...

This has been one of the most read articles on the RTE site in the past 24 hours

'We're seeing eviction rates not seen in Ireland since the 1850s' The issuing of 5,000 eviction notices in three months last year is quite revealing when viewed against Ireland's historical record

'We're seeing eviction rates not seen in Ireland since the 1850s'. The growth in eviction notices is quite revealing viewed against Ireland's historical record, write @eoinaldo.bsky.social @heriotwattuni.bsky.social @researchireland.ie & Richard McMahon MIC Limerick www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

We wrote an article on the high rate of evictions seen in Ireland last year and putting them in historical perspective www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

The dilemmas for the UK created by a rupturing world New priorities are needed to succeed amid unreliable and competing great powers

The global economic landscape has ruptured, how should the UK respond?: The dilemmas for the UK created by a rupturing world - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT

From Target to Disney, 2025 proved boycotts work. Here’s how to build on them | Michael Shank The US was founded on boycotts of British imports. As we mark the country’s 250th anniversary, that spirit is alive and well

And another www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

As the etymology of Boycott comes from the Land War in Ireland (Captain Charles Boycott was a land agent socially ostracised) I love seeing his name being put to use for honourable causes:
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a... (Archive link archive.is/L7FKw)

The Doomsday Clock timeline Explore the history of an internationally known symbol

The Doomsday Clock timeline explores every shift of the Clock—forward and backward— over the past 79 years.

Visit the timeline: buff.ly/UfYaZRZ

The rise of the answer machines Universities trained students to produce polished responses on demand. Then AI learnt the same trick. What now?

The rise of the answer machines - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT

AI is supercharging information warfare. Influence operations are being automated. A single setup can generate content, schedule posts, reply at scale, and run engagement loops. When this is self-hosted, it does not rely on a platform vendor and it is harder to detect, take down or attribute. (1/5)

The relatively high error rate & hallucination of AI would make any prudent company think twice before adopting current AI en masse (legal cost of repairing/compensating AI errors could be quite high!)

FWIW, I've been keeping tabs on unemployment for macro class. There's been no discernable difference in trend between unemployment for entry level and rest of labour market in UK but both rising suggesting it's macro conditions post Covid (rising interest rates, increased taxes, uncertainty etc).

The AI Shift: What millions of job ads reveal about AI displacement A close inspection suggests all is not what it seems

In a week the FT have gone from reporting AI took all entry level jobs to, actually looks like it's macro economic conditions www.ft.com/content/7fbc...

AI-induced cultural stagnation is no longer speculation − it’s already happening AI-mediated culture is already being filtered in ways that favor the familiar, the describable and the conventional.

#BrainRot is what my kids call this: theconversation.com/ai-induced-c...

Now available to pre-order www.waterstones.com/book/the-inc...

The great graduate job drought Economic uncertainty and the arrival of AI have brought a reduction in entry-level roles, with potentially disastrous consequences for young people

The great graduate job drought - www.ft.com/content/c894... brilliant piece, somewhat terrifying for this father of three

UK drops target for international student recruitment Government to encourage education providers to open campuses overseas as it focuses on reducing migration

Offshoring universities seems a bit short sighted. Like when industry was off shored, what could possibly go wrong?UK drops target for international student recruitment - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT

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E.P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution

Scoop: The EPA will no longer estimate the lives saved by reducing air pollution when writing clean-air regulations, according to documents reviewed by @nytimes.com.
Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...

UK grocers begin to feel impact of appetite-suppressing drugs Britain’s major food retailers are beginning to feel the impact of a new trend as the surging popularity of appetite-suppressing drugs starts to reshape shopping habits and sales.

UK grocers begin to feel impact of appetite-suppressing drugs reut.rs/3NeUsD5

Jesse Ventura calls Trump ‘draft-dodging coward,’ hints he may again run for governor The former Minnesota governor slammed the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis

I've always liked Jesse Ventura as a wrestling legend, but he's a real American
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Although original Grinch story is about finding the true meaning of Christmas, so not anti Christmas but more anti commercialisation of Christmas

Can advanced AI lead to negative economic growth? Considering the role of demand in the economics of AI

Nice piece on the possible collapse of demand from automation but surprisingly doesn't mention Marx (collapse of effective demand from the substitution of capital for labour) aleximas.substack.com/p/will-advan...

Editorial from Irish Economic and Social History congratulating Joel Mokyr for his Nobel recognition and highlighting the link between his studies on Ireland and his later work on the industrial revolution (it was only in print, not online but latest issue is here journals.sagepub.com/home/ies)

How a ferocious 19th-century hurricane helped Irish people get their British pension The devastating 1839 hurricane that hit the island of Ireland had unexpected benefits for some decades later.

My first piece for @theconversation.com is now online!
Is it weird to have a favourite natural disaster? Mine is the Night of the Big Wind.

theconversation.com/how-a-feroci...