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Karlin Lillington

@klillington.bsky.social
1.8K followers 439 following 2.9K posts

Retired (mostly...) Irish Times tech columnist. Chair, New Music Dublin. Privacy/infosec/human&digital rights. Likes 🦇. Lots of 4-legged talls/smalls 🐕🐈‍⬛🫏🐴. Talkative. 🇨🇦➡️🇺🇸➡️🇮🇪 www.newmusicdublin.ie

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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 5h
The new boy in the gang very sleepy after running nonstop in the woods with the others. A little firecracker with lots of attitude
A Black and Tan cavalier spaniel puppy is asleep on a blanket in an armchair
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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 19h
Lethal injection is horrific in a very literal way but in a metaphorically fitting one - we embrace it because, while it is slow and likely painful, it doesn’t look as bad to outsiders as a firing squad
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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 8h
There are still some places on my book illustration course, starting at @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social in Dublin next week! Join us to learn about visual storytelling! It's more about communication than creating pretty pictures, so it's suitable for beginners with basic drawing skills. #SpeirGorm
The promo card for the course, featuring a photo of me, a middle-aged white guy with glasses. The text reads: 'In person, 6.30-8.30pm. Book Illustration, Oisin McGann. 6 Weeks from the 6th of October.
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Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 5h
Finally a president who solved our age old problem of being a country where people wanted to be
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A happy man on his favourite table
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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 29/09/2026
Meta's "Muse" launched with a nasty zero day flaw that gave hackers the ability to spy on Mac users, openly gives root access to people pretending to be Muse agents, and invited strangers over to another guy's house without telling him
karlbode.com
Meta's Latest AI Product Is A Terrifying And Hilarious Mess
Authoritarian-friendly mass surveillance has never been more adorable
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Jeff (Hot Type) Jarvis @jeffjarvis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Oh, yeesh. Now Meta and OpenAI are trying to make AI agents cute and cuddly (Muse and Dots). A little late after the AI boys have been screaming that they can kill us all: Now their killer AI Tribbles will make you a reservation for lunch then kill us all by dinner.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I want you to imagine Harry Truman doing this with the Manhattan project scientists
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FactPost @factpostnews.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Trump on data centers: They're going to work to make the community happy
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
😂 Trump's new government AI chatbot is... correct!! on this answer anyway
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
ahahahahahahaha what could go wrong wapo.st/4rGgH55
wapo.st
Trump launches government chatbot, urging a wary public not to fear AI
Washington’s concerns are at a peak after rogue AI agents probed government websites, but the White House has focused on the technology’s promise.
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
My visitor just now while mucking out.
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Chester Beatty @chesterbeatty.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Ever wondered what it would be like to rediscover a lost artefact? Join us on Friday 2 October and satisfy your curiosity! Tickets €6.50, find out more here 👉 ow.ly/vRgl50ZSA7m
A poster for the talk 'On Finding a New Copy of the Oldest English' poem. In the top half you can see a vellum folio, with lines of text in neat brown-black ink. Superimposed on this in a small circle is a picture of two people standing proudly over a medieval book in a library. In the lower half, white text on a red background gives information such as 'Friends Talk', 'Friday 2 October, 1pm', the venue (Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again, D02 VR66) and the Friends of the Chester Beatty logo.
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If you love Bach -- or maybe are new to classical music and want to dip a toe -- this is one of the most breathtaking pieces of music ever composed, Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, by one of the finest Bach orchestras in the world. NCH, Oct 10 8pm, likely to sell out www.nch.ie/all-events-l...
nch.ie
Bach Collegium Japan plays Bach's Brandenburg Concertos | National Concert Hall
The National Concert Hall is a national cultural institution and the designated home of music in Ireland.
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Tom Larkin @tomlarkin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
We’ve spent many, many hours over the past few months searching the rock pools of Cornwall for a rainbow sea slug. Today, we finally found one! Absolutely worth all the time we’ve spent - it was truly breathtaking.
Rainbow sea slug on a rockRainbow sea slug on a rockRainbow sea slug on a rock from aboveRainbow sea slug on a rock
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Edward Wong @ewong.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Extraordinary for any American president: Trump offered to sell weapons to Xi Jinping of China. That was revealed by David Perdue, US ambassador. Trump is withholding a $14 billion arms package to Taiwan approved by Congress. China aids Iran and Russia. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/27/u...
nytimes.com
Trump Offered to Sell Arms to China, U.S. Ambassador Says (Gift Article)
President Trump made the offer to Xi Jinping, China’s leader, said David Perdue, the U.S. ambassador to China. Trump is withholding a $14 billion arms package to Taiwan.
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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Wait, was rolling out the red carpet for Xi a Chinese psyop too? I'm really confused about the GOP stance on China.
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Ami Fields-Meyer @fieldsmeyer.com · 28/09/2026
If I were in government right now, this is what I would be spending all my time on: Fines, hearings, shame – none of it's changed the behavior of Big Tech. But data centers give you more leverage than you have *ever had* to force Big Tech to renegotiate its social compact with the American public.
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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026
January 2025: I’m a trad wife who thinks women who work should be burned at the stake, please ignore the $50,000 I make on insta posting butter I had my servant churn Today: did you know women are people? I promise never to sell you gals out again unless its convenient
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The whole Fetterman thing has been a pretty wild ride
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Absolutely nuts, with the platform telling the owner there was no fraudulent listing of her own property. www.irishtimes.com/your-money/2...
irishtimes.com
Visitors arrive ‘almost daily’ at my house expecting to stay in tourist accommodation
My house in Dublin was used as bait in an accommodation scam on booking.com
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Irish Council for Civil Liberties 🏳️‍🌈 @iccl.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
We need your help. As we mark 50 years of ICCL, we're launching an urgent campaign to protect our rights, liberty and democracy. We're looking for 100 people who share our belief in rights and liberties, and our determination to defend them, to donate €500 each. www.iccl.ie/the-fight-of...
iccl.ie
The fight of our lives.
The rights and liberties that we have worked so hard to gain and protect are under threat. This is the fight of our lives.
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 28/09/2026
Brilliant @amyremeikis.bsky.social piece here - absolutely gut-wrenching that Nepal PM's speech got buried under the nonsense of AI doom-hype. thepoint.com.au/opinions/260...
“We have built a world with flawless logistics for war, and broken logistics for food, and this is not Nepal’s private misfortune. Ask Bangladesh, ask Bhutan, ask India, ask the Maldives, ask Pakistan, ask Sri Lanka, ask any other country in our region, and you’ll hear the same account.

“Hit by the climate, we did not warm, and again hit by the wars, we did not start.”

Shah is right. Nepal contributes less than 0.1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. It does not have the institutional or global power to force change, even as its people are swamped by the consequences of inaction.

“Our glaciers are retreating, our mountain slopes are becoming unstable, our rivers are becoming less predictable and every major disaster threatens to erase years of development,” he told the UN.
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Colette Delawalla, PhD @cdelawalla.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The humanities have been calling out genAI theft since the jump, while STEM has rallied around “discovery potential”. I am *ONCE AGAIN* reminding EVERYONE that science is not the sacred cow, STEM isn’t the exception. They are going to steal our IP, too. We aren’t special.
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
www.rte.ie/news/ireland...
rte.ie
Public library visits increased by two million nationwide
Visits to public libraries around Ireland have increased by two million in the last two years, new figures show as National Public Libraries Open Day takes place nationwide.
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
While listening to council meetings in Montreal, local mayor Sue Montgomery decided to knit in red when men spoke and in green when women spoke, when similar numbers of both attended. Day 1 results.... #WomensArt
Photo of uneven knitting with much larger amounts of red yarn than green
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
'Meta is constructing a data center campus called Hyperion on a tract of land in rural Louisiana that will dwarf Colossus 2 — and Manhattan’s Central Park.' wapo.st/4rxkZLY
wapo.st
See how data centers are changing the American landscape
Satellite imagery shows what was once farmland and desert taken over by warehouselike structures.
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This dog, the one who thinks the coffee table is a bed, goes to a major champion dog show in Belfast Sunday. He's 4, never been in a show, but a friend wanted to show him. He took 1st in his class, got reserve champion too, & therefore is now qualified for Crufts for life. We can't stop laughing 😂 😂
A large white Pyrenean Mountain Dog is relaxing on top of a brown wooden coffee table
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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 27/09/2026
Four days ago, a scientist was surprised by the news that Anthropic discovered new virus genes for making DNA. He says he’s been studying them for years—and feeding his data to Anthropic’s AI as part of his own research. Coincidence? Here’s my story. nyti.ms/3VSWayc
nyti.ms
Did Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own? (Gift Article)
An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work.
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Fox visitation
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Morning with the farrier and some being in a better mood than others for their pedicures. Eight equines happier now. Trimmed v untrimmed
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Luke LeBrun @lukelebrun.ca · 26/09/2026
Tech companies suddenly decide they can, in fact, moderate content on their platforms after all
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Sara Gibbs @sararoseg.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
He imposed Shania Law
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Tony Kavanagh @tonykavanagh.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Superb thread. Well worth your time. #Russia
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Spotted woodpecker feather on the drive
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Call me crazy but, seven months in, that we're still not reporting, "HOLY SHIT why won't Trump appoint real experts to negotiate with Iran instead of his family and his crypto business partner" is part of why we're here.
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The Journal @thejournal.ie · 24/09/2026
The study also suggests that nearly 50,000 homes could have been built, or tens of thousands of jobs created across education, health or social sectors, if the resources used to expand data centres were directed elsewhere. jrnl.ie/7165266t
jrnl.ie
Government report on data centres was 'flawed' and 'exaggerated', new research claims
The study also suggests that nearly 50,000 homes could have been built if the resources in the data centre build-out were directed elsewhere.
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Richard Chambers @newschambers.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Exclusive: New report says Ireland could have built 50,000 new homes over the five years of the data centre boom - and cannot “afford” to continue building. Authors called for a moratorium on new data centres - and have hit out at government comparisons painting them as “our German car industry.”
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Michael Hiller @hillermich.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Happy to share results of the @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social phase 1, providing reference genomes covering 21 bat families. New insights into bat phylogeny, ancestral genome reconstruction, European origin & ancestral echolocation. Great work by a team of 100+ colleagues www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Reference genomes and fossils revise bat family phylogeny and biogeography - Nature
An updated phylogeny of bats is presented, based on new genome assemblies and many ancient fossils and including all known bat families.
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Wildlife Conservation Society @wcs.org · 23/09/2026
Where did bats originate? A major new @nature.com study finds they most likely originated in Europe about 65 million years ago. Wildlife Conservation Society scientists contributed samples to the largest combined bat genome & fossil study ever conducted. 🌏 newsroom.wcs.org/News-Release...
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Irish Manuscripts Commission @irishmanuscripts.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
#HistFest2026 lecture: 3 Oct | 45 Merrion Sq | 11:00 The Normandy and Ireland Settlement Connections project by @virtualtreasury.bsky.social & @jmarshallmed.bsky.social traces #Norman conquerors to their ancestral lands, drawing on manuscript sources in IMC editions. irishmanuscripts.ie/normans/
irishmanuscripts.ie
What did the Normans ever do for us? - Irish Manuscripts
What did the Normans ever do for us? And what has the Irish Manuscripts Commission (IMC) done for the Normans? As Ireland and Europe prepare to mark the Norman Millennium in 2027, this event explores ...
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 24/09/2026
Wish I had it in writing but in 2024 I described this emerging technology as 'Bitcoin With Words' and I think I've been somewhat vindicated
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Oh sure, we can see where this is going. Our AI overlords will soon target us from space! It’s all turning into a low budget scifi movie now Google Takes the A.I. Data Center Race to Outer Space www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/t...
nytimes.com
Google Is Sending an A.I. Data Center to Outer Space (Gift Article)
Next Thursday, Google is sending an experimental satellite into orbit that will have enough computing power to answer simple A.I. queries from space.
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Order by today if you want this Saturday's mezzo box, &/or place an order for the Palestinian tea for Oct 10 (all for collection Sat in Kimmage). If you can, do please support these wonderful people & the amazing food they produce, while they struggle to make it through their short term cafe closure
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The Journal @thejournal.ie · 23/09/2026
Climate change has made extreme July conditions eight times more likely, a new study from Maynooth University has found. jrnl.ie/7170451
jrnl.ie
Climate change worsened Ireland's July drought conditions, new research suggests
The study says that farmers must not treat this summer as a “one-off”.
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Patrick Bresnihan @pbresnihan.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Construction capacity directed towards building data centres driven by speculative, debt-driven market demand, rather than socially-necessary housing and infrastructure projects. This is highly irrational allocation of resources can only be reversed by a progressive, green industrial strategy.
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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
"The El Niño is also a “postcard from our future”, the researchers said, pushing up temperatures to the level the climate crisis is projected to deliver in 20 years’ time." 😳😬 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Huge El Niño projected to cause 450,000 deaths in next six months
New report predicts a heavy toll from Nigeria to the US – and comes on top of existing impacts of the climate crisis
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Darach Ó Séaghdha @darach.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Visit the Isle of Man.
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John Gramlich @johngramlich.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
NEW @pewresearch.org survey (n=10,548) shows increasingly negative views about data centers in the US. Just since January, there have been big attitudinal shifts across the demographic and political spectrum. Full analysis: www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...
Bar chart showing that a growing share of Americans think data centers are mostly bad for the environment, home energy costs, local quality of life, local jobs and local tax revenue. The chart is based on two Pew Research Center surveys of U.S. adults, one conducted in January 2026 and the other in August 2026.Chart showing that views of data centers' impact on the environment have become more negative among Americans in a range of demographic and political subgroups. The chart is based on two Pew Research Center surveys of U.S. adults, one conducted in January 2026 and the other in August 2026.
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evacide @evacide.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
German agencies use the linked-device features in WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram to receive messages without breaking encryption. cybernews.com/privacy/poli...
cybernews.com
German police read WhatsApp messages without cracking encryption
45 days of Signal history may be exposed by German police messaging surveillance using linked devices, Netzpolitik says. Read what the documents reveal
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