Neil Michael πŸ‡΅πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦πŸ‡±πŸ‡§πŸ‡¬πŸ‡±'s Avatar

Neil Michael πŸ‡΅πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦πŸ‡±πŸ‡§πŸ‡¬πŸ‡±

@anewshack.bsky.social

Hack, Social Justice Media Award winner. Chess player. Ex-Washington Post stringer/BBC pundit/ex News of the World, Daily Express, Daily Mirror staffer. Former carwasher, electrical goods salesman, labourer, barman. https://neilmichael.journoportfolio.com/

1,006 Followers  |  378 Following  |  62 Posts  |  Joined: 29.11.2023
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Posts by Neil Michael πŸ‡΅πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦πŸ‡±πŸ‡§πŸ‡¬πŸ‡± (@anewshack.bsky.social)

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Public health expert calls for probe into 400 Air Corps deaths Professor Anthony Staines says premature death rates among Air Corps personnel appear unusually high and warrant a formal occupational health study
26.02.2026 21:31 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Today’s @irishexaminer.bsky.social front page includes a story about the Air Corps being warned about - among other things - potentially toxic dust in the workplace.

27.02.2026 05:48 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Trump says he is sending a hospital ship to Greenland U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said he was working with Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry to send a hospital boat to Greenland, a Danish territory that Trump has said he wants to acquire.

I once (very briefly) studied Greek mythology as part of my secondary school Latin classes . . . www.reuters.com/world/trump-...

22.02.2026 07:36 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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I'm totally pinching myself announcing this, but a film about my life journey rewilding a West Cork farm, An Irish Atlantic Rainforest, will get its first screening at the Dublin International Film Festival on Saturday the 28th of this month.

Tickets are available here:
www.diff.ie/programme/an...

04.02.2026 12:33 β€” πŸ‘ 711    πŸ” 154    πŸ’¬ 54    πŸ“Œ 16

. . . not the sort of photo I expected to take when I turned up for work today.

19.05.2025 00:07 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Murdered farmer Michael Gaine’s remains being taken from his cattle shed by a friend of his and a relative.

19.05.2025 00:06 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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New from me 🚨

β€œDisinformation and Algorithms: Amplification, Reception and Correction”

I contribute to the theory around disinformation and misinformation studies and then carry out a corpus-based analysis of the use of tokens like β€˜disinformation’ on Twitter.

www.cambridge.org/universitypr...

07.05.2025 14:29 β€” πŸ‘ 18    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Orlando City Commissioner Tony Ortiz just switched from Republican to Democratic.

β€œThe Republican Party is not the party I signed up with... The marginalization of Latinos and immigrantsβ€”many of whom have helped build this countryβ€”is not leadership. It’s fear-based politics.”

07.05.2025 16:03 β€” πŸ‘ 27111    πŸ” 5102    πŸ’¬ 1304    πŸ“Œ 546

A personal statement apologising for provoking Deputy Lowry by filming him last week.
tinyurl.com/2s4x9k92

01.04.2025 09:52 β€” πŸ‘ 107    πŸ” 32    πŸ’¬ 12    πŸ“Œ 7
Thousands of protesters in New York

Thousands of protesters in New York

New York stands with Ukraine. #3E #USprotests #StandWithUkraine

02.03.2025 03:28 β€” πŸ‘ 9959    πŸ” 1655    πŸ’¬ 96    πŸ“Œ 70
Excerpt from a public letter Roald Dahl wrote encouraging people to vaccinate their children.

Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn’t do anything.

β€œAre you feeling all right?” I asked her.

β€œI feel all sleepy,” she said.

In an hour, she was unconscious. In twelve hours she was dead.

The measles had turned into a terrible thing called measles encephalitis and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her. That was twenty-four years ago in 1962, but even now, if a child with measles happens to develop the same deadly reaction from measles as Olivia did, there would still be nothing the doctors could do to help her.

On the other hand, there is today something that parents can do to make sure that this sort of tragedy does not happen to a child of theirs. They can insist that their child is immunized against measles. I was unable to do that for Olivia in 1962 because in those days a reliable measles vaccine had not been discovered. Today a good and safe vaccine is available to every family and all you have to do is to ask your doctor to administer it.

Excerpt from a public letter Roald Dahl wrote encouraging people to vaccinate their children. Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn’t do anything. β€œAre you feeling all right?” I asked her. β€œI feel all sleepy,” she said. In an hour, she was unconscious. In twelve hours she was dead. The measles had turned into a terrible thing called measles encephalitis and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her. That was twenty-four years ago in 1962, but even now, if a child with measles happens to develop the same deadly reaction from measles as Olivia did, there would still be nothing the doctors could do to help her. On the other hand, there is today something that parents can do to make sure that this sort of tragedy does not happen to a child of theirs. They can insist that their child is immunized against measles. I was unable to do that for Olivia in 1962 because in those days a reliable measles vaccine had not been discovered. Today a good and safe vaccine is available to every family and all you have to do is to ask your doctor to administer it.

The measles outbreak in Texas is reminding me of the public letter Roald Dahl wrote about losing his daughter to measles in 1962, just before the vaccine was publicly available.

15.02.2025 17:48 β€” πŸ‘ 26737    πŸ” 11760    πŸ’¬ 403    πŸ“Œ 548
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HSE commissioned external reviews into two stillbirths at MUH As well as commissioning external reviews at the Mayo hospital, the HSE also conducted additional internal reviews into another five stillbirths there in 2023

The narrative is - in effect: there really is not anything to be seen here. Everything is grand. Talk to mothers and fathers of babies that continue to die needlessly in Irish maternity units, and it's very far from grand. www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41...

23.02.2025 08:10 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

The stock market is tanking so badly it almost feels like we are being governed by someone who went bankrupt six timβ€”

Oh wait.

03.02.2025 00:16 β€” πŸ‘ 20926    πŸ” 3711    πŸ’¬ 373    πŸ“Œ 108
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High resolution image of #StormΓ‰owyn yesterday as center moved away. I’ve had reports that all are safe on Aran Islands but no power of connectivity there at present.

25.01.2025 17:35 β€” πŸ‘ 57    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0
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Heavy rain and sleet moving into the West with thunderstorms in Southwest and lightning strikes in Kerry. Wind will increase as band of showers cross the country too.

25.01.2025 10:56 β€” πŸ‘ 27    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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A milder morning with a lot of cloud but some sunny spells developing today, feeling fresh in breeze.

18.01.2025 07:53 β€” πŸ‘ 22    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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CountryWide - RTÉ Radio 1 The CountryWide team feature the events, people and happenings that bring colour and life to communities, towns and villages across the country.

I'll be on RTE Countrywide with @philipb-h.bsky.social from about 8:15 to talk about this week's Draft Programme for Government.

Get the coffee on and join us! β˜•οΈ
www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

18.01.2025 07:53 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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BREAKING: Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman has announced that the Gaza ceasefire will start on Sunday at 8:30 am [06:30 GMT].

πŸ”΄ LIVE updates: aje.io/dcziju

18.01.2025 07:28 β€” πŸ‘ 386    πŸ” 131    πŸ’¬ 19    πŸ“Œ 15

"You can't have trees and bikes replace the cars on this street. The Dutch just love their cars too much and it rains sometimes."
- Dutch automobile lobbyist, 1988

12.01.2025 22:40 β€” πŸ‘ 21    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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California Fire Facts | Governor Gavin Newsom Get the facts about the Los Angeles fires.

Gavin Newsom made a website to fight the misinformation about the fires. Give it a read.
REPOST

gavinnewsom.com/california-f...

12.01.2025 12:57 β€” πŸ‘ 13740    πŸ” 6531    πŸ’¬ 380    πŸ“Œ 295

Wow!

12.01.2025 20:55 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
A screen shot of this morning’s Irish Examiner, which carries - as its main picture - a photo of a mother and her two children standing in the snow blocking the driveway to her house.

A screen shot of this morning’s Irish Examiner, which carries - as its main picture - a photo of a mother and her two children standing in the snow blocking the driveway to her house.

This morning’s @irishexaminer.bsky.social

09.01.2025 08:24 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Live updates: Pacific Palisades wildfire is most destructive in LA history with at least 1,000 structures burned The Palisades fire, Pasadena's Eaton fire and Hurst fire in the San Fernando Valley are raging in the Los Angeles area, fueled by powerful Santa Ana winds. At least two people are dead and over 1,000 ...

BREAKING: The Pacific Palisades fire is now the most destructive in Los Angeles city history, with an estimated 1,000 structures destroyed.

Follow AP's live coverage.
apnews.com/live/live-up...

08.01.2025 20:19 β€” πŸ‘ 881    πŸ” 375    πŸ’¬ 33    πŸ“Œ 61
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Qualitative findings from North America’s first drug compassion club In Canada, the ongoing fatal overdose crisis remains driven by the unpredictable potency and content of the illicit drug supply. From August 2022 until October 2023, the Drug User Liberation Front [DU...

DULF's 3rd paper gives us a look at a Compassion Club and Fulfillment Centre.
What once stood as a safe haven, offering dignity and hope in a society bent on punishment, has been crushed under legal pressures and political scorn.

#Drugsky

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

09.01.2025 08:04 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Hear UCC scientists talk food, ancient scripts and dinosaurs at these free lectures Find out more for free.

Hear UCC scientists talk food, artificial intelligence, ancient scripts and dinosaurs at free public lectures!

Our popular @ucc.bsky.social Science in Society lectures will run from 14 January to 3 April, every Tuesday & Thursday at 6:00 PM in Boole 2. Details below

www.yaycork.ie/hear-ucc-sci...

08.01.2025 20:44 β€” πŸ‘ 19    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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'A deep, dark son of a bitch': Trump posts video of historian criticizing Netanyahu ***

Trump posts video of controversial economist Jeffrey Sachs calling Netanyahu "a deep, dark son of a bitch" who is responsible for orchestrating U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East

08.01.2025 19:01 β€” πŸ‘ 50    πŸ” 16    πŸ’¬ 6    πŸ“Œ 3

Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips says that Elon Musk's attacks have "turned her world upside down" and left her fearful for her own safety.

The X billionaire "knows absolutely nothing" about grooming gangs scandal, she tells @itvnewspolitics.bsky.social

07.01.2025 18:37 β€” πŸ‘ 831    πŸ” 183    πŸ’¬ 31    πŸ“Œ 9

Couldn’t agree more!

07.01.2025 19:00 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I spent most of my adult life watching schools say they can't expel professors for sexually assaulting and harassing students and colleagues only to see how quickly they react over social media posts against genocide

07.01.2025 17:46 β€” πŸ‘ 4667    πŸ” 1672    πŸ’¬ 34    πŸ“Œ 16