Sorcha O’Brien

They’re very keen on you identifying people in photos, for their facial recognition database (which I don’t), and my cousin tried the ‘animate your photo’ feature, which was apparently so dreadful she wouldn’t show me. I guess this is the next logical step for them 🤨

Or ‘didn’t have a partner and couldn’t afford increasing rents, so ended up moving home to parents’. I actually got laughed at by a bank mortgage advisor, because I was on yearly contracts at a certain art college.

My parents used to do that, hah! Never seriously thinking of buying, just a hobby. Thankfully the idea of releasing equity from their mortgage-paid house never got further than talk, either…

Belmayne Redux… Sorcha O’Brien, a colleague from the Design Research Group, has forwarded the following images of the Belmayne site. As she notes: I took [these photographs] of the Belmayne junction back in …

I have to follow up on this with the photo of what the Belmayne site looked like then. I must photograph it again - the ‘town centre’ part of Belmayne was a victim of the crash and work was only restarted on a version of it recently. designresearchgroup.wordpress.com/2007/07/04/b...

Irony, design and image “@” Belmayne…or lifestyle as amnesia An interesting piece in the Sunday Independent [free subscription required] deals with the advertising campaign for the Belmayne estate on the Malahide Road. This campaign has involved websites and…

My fave of those images is the one where a woman is throwing expensive champagne from a glass into a pool! Can't find the image but it is hilarious. Very good article by the Design Research Group ( including @sorchao.bsky.social ) on that here, designresearchgroup.wordpress.com/2007/07/03/i...

Belmayne Redux… Sorcha O’Brien, a colleague from the Design Research Group, has forwarded the following images of the Belmayne site. As she notes: I took [these photographs] of the Belmayne junction back in …

I have to follow up on this with the photo of what the Belmayne site looked like then. I must photograph it again - the ‘town centre’ part of Belmayne was a victim of the crash and work was only restarted on a version of it recently. designresearchgroup.wordpress.com/2007/07/04/b...

There is also no sink visible in the kitchen at all (or anywhere near that toilet, yuk)! Both sets of taps are set over stove tops, for some reason.

Well, this is going into a class next year for sure - how many impossible, dubious or just incredibly dangerous things can you spot? I’m up to 8 here.

Post from "The Rundown" July 18 at 5:30 PM · DuckDuckGo has introduced a new feature allowing users to filter out AI-generated images from search results, addressing growing concerns over synthetic content overwhelming authentic visuals online. The filter can be activated through a dropdown in the Images tab, search settings, or by using a dedicated AI-free domain: noai.duckduckgo.com. The system relies on curated blocklists, including uBlockOrigin’s Huge AI Blocklist, to detect and suppress AI-generated imagery. While not perfect, it significantly reduces synthetic content visibility. This move sets DuckDuckGo apart from competitors like Google and Bing by giving users direct control over their exposure to AI-generated material. Source: TechCrunch

DuckDuckGo has added a feature to filter out AI images from search results.

YouTube video by A/V Geeks 16mm Films Basic Computer Terms (1976)

Watching this Computer Programmer instruction guide from 1976, I'm reminded that being a programmer was somewhat gender coded as a woman's job, like an advanced secretary job, until the modern computer era.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-gp...

If I were in charge of a small liberal arts school, I would start thinking about aggressively marketing my institution as a "knowledge-first" college. One where students can escape the intrusion of constant AI and focus on deep learning and engagement.

That's how you can tell human authors from AI.

AI will put in some em dashes, then apologise and take them out when told off.

Human authors will climb the filing cabinet, hissing, and defend their right to em dashes with a loaded stapler.

Be ready to be shocked and offended at university, students told Guidance has been published by the Office for Students on new free speech rules coming into force this year.

*first year lecture, academic strides in*

“right you sickos, im here to tell you once and for all THE FOOTNOTE GOES AFTER THE PUNCTUATION”

*students wail, gnash teeth, vomit*

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

An Grianán, modelled on @womensinstitute.bsky.social Denman House, a place 'we could go at any time & discuss our mutual problems...& learn how to be good citizens of Ireland & the world'. Venture supported by WI & WINI highlighting little known cross border co-op 1950s+. #womensgrassrootsactivism

“The ‘grown women’ of Ireland remember very well what erasure and control and lack of bodily autonomy feel like and it’s for this very reason that we stand so passionately with the trans community today”

#TransRightsAreHumanRights @independent.ie

Working on article re cross border activism of #ICA, @womensinstitute.bsky.social & WI Northern Ireland. This photo of An Grianán, #ICA adult education college is where our @ukri.org #womensgrassrootsactivism podcast was recorded 70 years later. Listen to it here:
historyhub.ie/womens-grass...

girls only want one thing and it’s the railroad museum of pennsylvania

Daniel O'Connell released from prison in 1844 after serving three months of a year long sentence for conspiracy. Daniel O'Connell, 1775 – 1847, aka The Liberator or The Emancipator. Irish political... Download this stock image: Daniel O'Connell released from prison in 1844 after serving three months of a year long sentence for conspiracy. Daniel O'Connell, 1775 – 1847, aka The Liberator or The Em...

Right? And I thought the top hat looked wrong, but then he was depicted similarly in some other illustrations c 1900. Not really a fan of the illustration but it seems to be based on the cultural impact of the event.
www.alamy.com/stock-photo-...

No AI on Daniel O'Connell stamp with TV aerial - An Post An Post has said AI software was not used to generate the artwork on a stamp, which appears to show a television aerial on a building behind the nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell.

Forget the tv aerial, what about the harping elf and the one horse open sleigh?
www.rte.ie/news/ireland...

Women’s status is very rapidly eroding—in their civil rights protections, healthcare, access to the public sphere, and the cultural support for their independence and dignity. But there is no feminism: our public gender discourse is divided between transphobia and handwringing about man’s feelings.

It feels like we should be making a bigger deal of “we actually did in fact find a cure for AIDS”

... please, can that dialogue happen amongst yourselves and somewhere far, far away from us, because watching "have interests and consider treating her like a human being with agency" wash over dudes as revelatory is exhausting and honestly pretty alarming to witness.

Women are seen to exist in a kind of perpetual emotional and moral debt, owing care, attention, sexual access, or empathy to men who are not seen to owe this back to women in equal quantities.

I know I posted about this already but I truly cannot get over how fucking stupid and disconnected from reality this is

ALL OF THESE JOBS INVOLVE *KNOWING WHAT WORDS FUCKING MEAN*

Smithsonian removes Trump from impeachment exhibit in American History Museum A temporary placard, on display since 2021, described the president's historic impeachments. Officials said the exhibit was restored to an earlier version following a review of legacy content.

👀
www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

“Some of us aren’t creative enough to brainstorm without ChatGPT!” Well then maybe you should sit this one out.

Sure, let’s expose our country’s young minds even further to technology that has been built on bad, unfiltered data, makes search less accurate, falsifies search results and sources, is profoundly biased, reduces the capacity for critical thinking and is environmentally disastrous.

Great idea.

We are BACK, baby!

I got Covid, my second dose in the 5 years it has been a thing. Big thick red line on the test. It's out there folks.