Ciarán Mc Mahon

yes although not quite the same thing. Afaik there was an attempt to export boards to Poland or somewhere and it just didn't catch on. Not sure how much longer it will survive either sadly

OpenAI releases the newest version of the AI model that powers its popular ChatGPT chatbot, with CEO Sam Altman promoting it as like having a “team of Ph.D. level experts in your pocket.”

Anyone who has ever tried to get a team of PhD-level experts to split a restaurant bill correctly or agree on coherent wording for a simple paragraph of instructions will admit the justice of the comparison.

There were several but as far as I know, they all went out of business over a decade ago.

Robert Rochfort, 1st Earl of Belvedere - Wikipedia

plus this guy lived down the road from Edgeworth and also locked up his wife en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_...

yes, based on a true story apparently

b/w still of Ingrid Pitt in Countess Dracula. She is wearing an extravagantly low-cut dress, and fangs, and is rising from a coffin with her mouth wide open in a predatory if slightly comical manner

It’s the 465th anniversary of the birth of Countess Elizabeth (Erzsébet, to be pedantic) Báthory, the world’s most prolific female serial killer, murderer of virgins, blood drinker/bather, inspirer of Bram Stoker, and protagonist of a 1971 Hammer film that’s basically a documentary. Well... 🧵

great thread - reminds me of Castle Rackrent, wasn't there a woman locked up because she wouldn't give her diamonds to pay off her husband's gambling debt? Based on Belvedere House as I recall. no shortage of tales of wealthy women being accused of all kinds of crimes in Penal Law era Ireland

similar, but better imho - Battleship (2012). Always cheers me up!

That's a very interesting insight. You would probably have to run it as a hobby/non-profit/collective in that light. But is there actually a market for it at all? Or dare I say it, would yet-another-podcast be more likely to succeed?

I do really like this idea - & I reckon you’d get people to sub if you marketed it well - if you could got 1k people paying €5/m for 1-2 really good pieces a week you could pay writers a little above paper rates & make it work (but you wouldn’t make money)

bsky.app/profile/cjam...

those are very interesting numbers, thanks for sharing Liz

Ah yes! I actually signed up for that but unfortunately never got a confirmation, must try again

me: so i’ve been having pain in my shoulder.

dr: chatgpt, he’s been having pain in his shoulder

chatgpt: ask him if it hurts all the time or when he moves it

dr: does it hurt all the time or when you move it

me: chatgpt, does it hurt all the time or when i move it?

chatgpt: all the time

me: ok

use of ChatGPT or any other AI tool is incompatible with opposing fascism

really, Dermot? "ChatGPT o3-Pro with deep research"?

Academic Bluesky - most of us have been doing monograph covers ALL WRONG. A thread!!

yeah I was thinking of that one - but that's basically it, right?

I have a dream of a multi-author progressive op-ed Irish current affairs newsletter which I fear will remain just that, a figment of my imagination

yeah I'm starting to come to that conclusion alright

I don't think there is one, is there?

best Irish newsletter? like regular, dependable schedule, by an Irish writer, writing about (vaguely at least?) Irish topics? and which isn't pushing at podcast or similar? #speirgorm

otoh there are some literary writers who try to make a virtue of being needlessly oblique. tell me what actually happened, guy!

the obsession with when exactly to put the dishwasher on begins!

For the liberals who have come around to recognizing Israel's genocidal campaign, what are the implications besides Stop? Do you all support the war crimes prosecution of US citizens serving in the IDF? How does it shape your understanding of the Houthi leadership in Yemen? Should the universities reinstate suspended students? Should the pundits and politicians who slandered them as racists apologize? How should we hold accountable the American politicians — particularly the Democrats — who supplied, excused, and co-committed these crimes? Should Netanyahu be arrested if he steps foot in the US? How should Joe Biden pay?

Every word of this thread

🎯

The scale, complexity and importance of our relationship with Big Tech speaks to a need to address it in the round rather than piecemeal. Notably, there is a fundamental mysteriousness about the relationship with Big Tech that is being promoted by Thatcherism 3.0. On the one hand, it seems to demand a range of concessions on the part of the UK government (such as appointing an Amazon guy to chair the CMA). On the other, we are never told exactly what the UK is getting in return. For all the potential tactical pitfalls, we should therefore be intensely relaxed at the strategic level about conflict with Big Tech. Australia is a useful example. Canberra has legislated twice to clip Big Tech's wings, obliging it to restrict social media to over-16s and taxing Google News to support the old media it ransacks. Both times the catastrophe-laden warnings from Big Tech came to nothing. deoloaicall

reminds me of this passage in @williamcb.bsky.social piece on @renewaljournal.bsky.social -
renewal.org.uk/blog/towards...

And I hope they're mumbling because they don't know (inexcusable) and not because they don't want to admit that it's war crimes that they're happy to continue to facilitate

Every time the government or lobbyists are challenged on what these data centers actually do we get "mumble mumble competitiveness mumble sure aren't you on a phone now mumble mumble"

sure Daniel O'Connell was great and all but where does he land on the great @jaseomcn.bsky.social McDonalds Irish politics triangle? my hunch is the bottom left #speirgorm