iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 10/10/2026

This applies in Ireland too, worth bearing in mind when ministers burble on about going private and outsourcing healthcare

In Dining across the divide (4 October), the young participant, Ted, is quoted as expressing his “desire to abolish the NHS and replace it with a social insurance model. This would still have provision for free treatment at the point of need, but people would pay through insurance systems, and they would choose the level of cover they’ve got. Those models deliver far better outcomes for patients.”

As a retired insurance underwriter, I must disagree profoundly with Ted’s assertion. Let’s concentrate on business fundamentals. Insurance comes in two “flavours”: first, events that become likelier as time goes on – eg, life assurance. The older you get, the more likely you are to die and the more premium is needed to cover the risk; and second, events whose likelihood stays essentially the same over time, eg home insurance – the likelihood of a house burning down is much the same for everyone and the cost is spread evenly between policyholders.

Clearly, medical insurance is flavour one. Premiums need to rise with age. To reduce premiums and keep customers, insurance companies apply ever-increasing “excesses” and “co-pays” and can refuse to cover pre-existing conditions. The more you need medical insurance, the more expensive and difficult it is to get.

There is also the business case. When you buy an insurance policy, premiums are calculated to include the cost of claims (about 60%); administration (about 10%); sales (about 20%); shareholder profits (about 15%); less investment returns (about 5%).

In contrast, an NHS-style system does not require either sales costs or shareholder profits. Of course, there would be no investment return – but nevertheless, it is still about 30% cheaper to operate than an insured healthcare system. Like most sound business ideas, it’s simple arithmetic.
Susan Jones
Biggin Hill, London

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 09/10/2026

"Stepford wives are an underutilised approach, that's all I'm saying..."

Idiot boy Palmer Luckey with a stupid goatee showing how little empathy and intelligence he has.

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 05/10/2026

The Day After was amateur night.

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 03/10/2026

Barrow Way of an Autumn afternoon.

A cycle path beside a waterway, green foliage and blue sky skidded with clouds.

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026

There's a very tense standoff between residents and the Orange Order. When you make your public statement, who are your thoughts with?

Post on Xcom from @naomi_long
Naomi Long MLA

Today is our 31st wedding anniversary and looking at the headlines, we could be back in the 1990s.

It's all so utterly, utterly unnecessary and predictable.

My thoughts are with the @PoliceServiceNI who are yet again placed in an impossible position and with their families.
10:33 AM · Sep 27, 2026
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121.3K Views

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 27/09/2026

On AI... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanisl...

A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision.

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 23/09/2026

The only thing that should be named after him

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 11/09/2026

The thing about the Restore weirdos is I'm not sure which answer would upset them more..

At another meeting she was asked: "If an Indian girl was drowning, would you save her?"

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 11/09/2026

"No one knows who they were or what they were doing, but their legacy remains, hewn into the living rock of Trumphenge..."

Donald Trump holds up a small scale model of his Arc de Trump vanity project

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 09/09/2026

I knew this reminded me of aomething

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 07/09/2026

Why does bad history keep repeating?

1. Fascism has been tried on several countries.
2. Well did it work for those people?
3. No, it never does. I mean, these people somehow deluded themselves into thinking it might, but..
4. ...but it might work for us.

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 03/09/2026

Perfect example of AI brain rot here from the Collision "think tank" at Progress Ireland. "I don't understand this topic, but it won't stop me pontificating about it. And the mistakes in my reporting are because there were too many words for me and the LLM to understand."

The first thing to say is, it's hard to even find the 2022-2028 Dublin City Development Plan.
Despite being an electronic document, the council has chosen to split it into 24 separate PDFs. Added together, these 24 PDFs sum to 2,447 pages.
Note: I'm leaning on ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude a lot for this piece because no sane person could be expected to manually pore over two thousand pages of planning documents. If there are errors, blame the voluminous PDFs - not the LLMs. Nor

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 02/09/2026

The microleft have terrible instincts when it comes to populist first reactions

Richard Boyd Barrett, Brid Smith and Gino Kelly with raised fists wearing gilets jaunes hi-viz vests outside Leinster House.

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 29/08/2026

This meme isn't going away any time soon.

Next up we will discuss the topic with someone whose job is to be a well researched and respected expert in the area.
And in the interest of balance we will also talk to an idiot.

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 27/08/2026

Welcome to Bluesky. Please familiarize yourself with the following accounts to understand the range of opinions it is acceptable to express

William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, Jodie Whittaker, David Tennant, Ncuti Gatwa

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 27/08/2026

Remember that time Melania drooled over Trudeau?

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 25/08/2026

Let's face it, in real life Jolene never stood a chance..

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 24/08/2026

About 80% of the Threads timeline looks like this.

A priest, recognisable to devotees of Fr. Ted as Father Purcell, stands in a storage room alongside lots of clutter. He's got a cup of tea and saucer, and he's smiling. The caption reads "What's your favourite humming noise in Star Trek?"

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 23/08/2026

Indeed. More a series of peninsulas on the western edge. And strictly speaking, the supercontinent landmass doesn't have a name.* *"Eurasia" doesn't count

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 15/08/2026

Remember their mainstream view of Oliver is a bit different to ours. "except in Ireland"

English schoolbook which explains Oliver Cromwell was "a good man. He was deeply religious, and neither greedy nor — except in Ireland — cruel."

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 13/08/2026

Need variations on this idea to combat meta spyglasses ..

A man modeling a t-shirt with the "Little Bobby Tables" cartoon from XKCD

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Gerard Cunningham @faduda.eurosky.social · 12/08/2026

More American news outlets need to consider the possibility there was never a credible threat and it was just Netanyahu screwing with him. Trump lies. Bibi lies.