iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

The best way for the Irish government to react to this frankly remarkable poll would be to hold a high profile summit this week with all the companies 98% of people do not trust. Really get stuck into tying themselves in the public imagination to these companies nobody trusts.

A screenshot from an RSS reader which shows a headline and subhead from the Sindo. The headline reads "Vast majority of Irish people do not trust AI giants and want governments to regulate them, poll finds". The subhead reads "Sunday Independent / Ireland thinks survey finds only 2pc trust firms behind new technology.

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

He has no idea what people do, or why they might choose to do what they do. I'm starting to wonder if the Minister for Justice has even developed a theory of mind. Perhaps he thinks he's wandering around, Musk-like, in a world of NPCs.

A screenshot of text from the linked article with a quote from Jim O'Callaghan. The text reads “It’s a great job and a lot of people now realise they want to do a job that doesn’t involve sending and receiving emails all day. And if you become a garda, you’re not doing that,” he said.

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Substack economics dictate that everyone's gotta know about mathematics research now and join in yelling about it with the people who entirely missed the point of The Hitchhiker's Guide. Even if it isn't your own specialist area of bigotry.

A screenshot of a Techmeme entry with the X discussion unfolded. The text reads "Richard Hanania / @richardhanania: “Mathematicians did not ask for this work to be done.” lol who do these people think they are?

Aran Nayebi / @aran_nayebi: Anybody who is a true scientist at heart, would *want* to know more *truths*, not less. Ergo, these are not true scientists.👇

Brett Hall / @tokteacher: Imagine replacing “mathematicians” with “oncologists”, below. Imagine such experts, or experts in cardiology, etc, saying they didn't ask for medical research to be done by AI corporations because it “indicated a total disregard for the norms of scientific research”.

@inductionheads: We're making the right people angry

@platoonpod: In the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the creation of Deep Thought - the impossibly powerful sentient computer - outrages the Amalgamated Union of Philosophers, Sages, Luminaries and Other Thinking Persons. They stage protests and try to shut it down, not because it is wrong, but because it is...

@mostlymonkey: Pathetic.

Jesse Singal / @jessesingal: “We reject OpenAI's assertion that this release advances our subject, and we urge mathematicians and the public to view the value of this publication model with due skepticism.” I meaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This lad was long gone from Welfare by the time department officials told an Oireachtas committee this very expensive multi-channel campaign had no noticeable effect on the negligible rate of welfare fraud. But it helped make him party leader and that's all that matters.

Screenshot of Leo Varadkar holding a placard with the slogan "Welfare cheats cheat us all"

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Bonjour, l'Amerique. Are many US government websites available in English, Spanish and *French*? america.gov/?lang=fr

A screenshot of the america.gov website. All the text is in French and there is a background photograph of a child lying face down on ice.

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

One to add to the pile alongside the Minister for Foreign Affairs treating a Meta lobbyist as if he's an ambassador or visiting head of state.

A screenshot of a post by Helen McEntee, Minister for Foreign Affairs, posing for a photo with Dualta O Broin of Meta. The text in the post reads "Great to meet with Meta yesterday to discuss priorities for Ireland's upcoming EU Presidency. Our discussion focused on the importance of strengthening European competitiveness, reducing unnecessary regulatory complexity, and creating the conditions for innovation to thrive. As Europe faces increasing global competition, it is vital that we support businesses to scale, attract investment and drive digital transformation across the Union."

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

There's a strong smell of *history* around at the moment.

A screenshot of a headline from the Irish Examiner which reads "Ireland's biggest landlord Ires Reit set for €726m takeover by UK investor Barings"

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

If you're a totally normal academic / columnist then it's totally normal for you to appear on a totally normal conspiracy theory podcast to promote your latest book.

A screenshot from an RSS reader of a podcast called The Irish Channel hosted by Paul Treyvaud, Elaine Mullally and Nick Delehanty. The episode is titled "Is Irish Media Biased? Guest Host Eoin O'Malley"

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Noted Oracle reseller realises he really needs to close a few big deals quickly if he's to be in with a shot of getting the top salesperson gong for Q3.

A screenshot of a headline and picture of Tony Blair from the Telegraph. The headline reads "Tony Blair: Don't slow down on AI"

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Don't ever change, commenters on The Journal Dot IE.

A screenshot of a comment on a Journal article which reads "583 thousand average homes could be financed with that available 275 billion if savers were not scared by things like PRTB entrapment and the drift left in politics."

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Sadly I suspect it's going to turn out to be much more like this.

A still from the last scene of Raiders Of The Lost Ark where the Ark is hidden in a warehouse by the government.

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

It never fails to amuse me that these pieces always have to mention how mortified a large amount of the ~450 million other plain people of the EU are for us. Lest anyone form the impression this is the obsession of a small but extremely noisy subset of the political / media establishment.

A screenshot of text from the linked Irish Examiner article. The text reads "Various security sources the Irish Examiner spoke to this week, all said that Tuesday was deeply embarrassing for Ireland, both politically within the EU and, via the media, with much of the EU populace."

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Buttery flugelhorns sounds like something Captain Haddock would say.

A screenshot of text from the Native Instruments website. It reads "Funk Horns drops punchy trumpets, buttery flugelhorns and tight horns!"

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

'Lads,did somebody say "disproportionate reliance on one sector of the economy"?'

Pictures of Brian Cowen and Bertie Ahern. They are both laughing.

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

This is an *interesting* way to frame a situation entirely of the minister's own making.

A screenshot of a headline from The Irish Times which reads "Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan under siege as solicitors extend criminal legal aid dispute"

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

A quick flick through the videos on the YouTube channel reveals an awful lot of climate change denial and such cutting-edge conservative thinking as the guy from The Babylon Bee complaining about being banned from Twitter four years ago and Katharine Birbalsingh playing her one tune.

A screenshot of two YouTube thumbnails.

The one on the left shows a picture of Seth Dillon, is titled "We got banned" and the text underneath it reads "Every joke is a revolution" - Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon's HILARIOUS speech at ARC 2026.

The one on the right shows a picture of Katharine Birbalsingh, is titled "Save our kids!" and the text underneath it reads "This is a civilisational failure!" - World's Strictest Headmistress Katharine Birbalsingh [ARC 2026]

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Or alternatively Ireland's extreme dependency on US tech giants puts the country in a strong position to be even further taken advantage of by these now massively indebted companies. www.rte.ie/news/busines...

A screenshot of text from the linked RTE news story which reads "Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that Ireland's talent base and strong research ecosystem puts the country in a strong position to take advantage of the AI revolution for the benefit of citizens and businesses alike."

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

There really should have been no coming back from this.

A screenshot of text from a newspaper article which reads "Terry Prone, whose company The Communications Clinic acts for the Bon Secours religious order at the centre of the investigation, wrote to a French TV company when the issue first arose saying they would find "no mass grave" at the Tuam home.

“If you come here you’ll find no mass grave, no evidence that children were ever so buried and a local police force casting their eyes to heaven and saying, ‘Yeah a few bones were found – but this was an area where famine victims were buried. So?’,” Ms Prone wrote to the France 2 documentary producer who had contacted the order looking for information on the subject.

She continued: "Several international TV stations have aborted their plans to make documentaries because essentially all that can be said is Ireland in the first half of the 20th century was a moralistic, inward looking, anti-feminist country of exaggerated religiosity which most of us knew already."

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Ministers and prime ministers will come and go but it's very difficult to shift an infestation of monorail salesmen when they're as well established as the ones in Whitehall and Westminster.

A screenshot of monorail salesman Lyle Lanley from The Simpsons episode 'Marge vs. the Monorail'.

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Happy days for the economy! The 'Temporarily Storing Picks And Shovels' and the 'Re-routing Picks And Shovels For Tax Reasons' sectors are booming.

A screenshot of text from the quoted story which reads "According to the outlook, investment in ICT equipment and software has risen to nearly €6 billion over the past 12 months, a 50% increase on the same period last year and a doubling from two years ago.

"It appears most of the products are being imported to Ireland for further onward export to the UK, continental Europe and elsewhere, which can be seen in significant spikes in inventory stocks in Ireland's national accounts," the report found."

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Sometimes it feels as if this could be the motto of successive Irish governments going back decades. Be alarmingly unprepared and then say "I don't accept that" a lot when something extremely predictable happens.

A screenshot of a headline from the Irish Times which reads "'We have entered a new reality': Ireland is alarmingly unprepared for a heatwave future". The words "Ireland is alarmingly unprepared" are highlighted.

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

This is not the sort of thing which will deter the Minister for Shouting About Limerick.

A picture of Patrick O'Donovan in front of some microphones.

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

This must be the sort of innovation Helen McEntee was talking about when she posted a picture of herself meeting one of Zuckerberg's flunkeys a couple of weeks ago.

A screenshot of a post by Helen McEntee which features a picture of her in her role as minister for foreign affairs with Dualta O'Broin in his role as Meta lobbyist. The text above the photo reads "Great to meet with Meta yesterday to discuss priorities for Ireland's upcoming EU Presidency. Our discussion focused on the importance of strngthening European competitiveness, reducing unnecessary regulatory complexity, and creating the conditions for innovation tot thrive. As Europe faces increasing global competition, it is vital that we support businesses to scale, attract investment, and drive digital transformation across the Union.

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

We all know what putting Fianna Fáil in charge of a budget ultimately leads to.

A screenshot of Charlie Haughey's (in)famous TV address in 1980. The subtitle text reads "clearly as a community we are living a way beyond our means".

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

New 'research' commissioned by a company which routinely uses surveys as cheap advertising because RTE reliably publishes the findings as 'business news', is that it?

A screenshot of the results of a search for the phrase "pure telecom survey" on the RTE website. There are many results.

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Get in touch with your TDs. Because Youth Defence are. They're telling people the Repeal vote is "non-existent". The Nic Mhathuna family businesses appear to have forgotten who the losers were in 2018.

Screenshot from an RSS reader showing a headline and subhead from a piece in Gript. The headline reads "Pathetic Govt backing SF to chase a non-existent Repeal vote" and the subhead reads "Strategy of losers."

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

The latest broadcast from the parallel universe Stephen Collins occupies is quite something.

A screenshot of text from today's Stephen Collins column in The Irish Times. The text reads "If it fails to achieve that objective, there will be questions about whether McDonald’s style of high octane opposition to the Government on every issue is the right approach to widening the party’s appeal. This will be particularly the case if it is accompanied by a poor performance in Galway West where Sinn Féin also has a sitting TD."

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Credulousness and incuriousness abound, as ever, in Irish political and media circles. Pat Leahy quotes Malcolm Byrne today using a slightly different paraphrase of a Jensen Huang talking point to one he used last month. Which was also quoted by James Lawless in a piece in the Indo ten days ago.

A screenshot from an Irish Times article. The text reads "And Malcolm Byrne’s Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence has been quietly but effectively going about its work since last year. Fianna Fáil TD Byrne knows more about the subject than nearly anyone else in politics.

He’s not apocalyptic, saying that while AI will displace some jobs, it will also create lots more. “AI won’t replace lawyers,” he says. “But lawyers who use AI will replace lawyers who don’t.” Sounds right. Mind you, a lawyer friend who recently used AI for research on a legal point was duly provided with several completely fictitious cases and precedents."

The phrases "Fianna Fáil TD Byrne knows more about the subject than nearly anyone else in politics." and "“AI won’t replace lawyers,” he says. “But lawyers who use AI will replace lawyers who don’t.”" are highlighted

A screenshot of the headline of an article written by Malcolm Byrne which reads 'Teachers who use AI will replace those who don't', Oireachtas committee chair warns.'

A screenshot of text from an article by James Lawless. The text reads "As Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said, AI will not take your job, but someone trained in AI might. That simple insight captures the moment we are living through. The biggest risk is not the arrival of AI itself, but failing to ensure that people have the skills and confidence to use it."

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

It's above the paygrade of a government minister and the chatbot he used to support him in writing this piece to consider whether Jensen might have some kind of clearly discernible motive for saying this.

A screenshot of text which reads "As Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said, AI will not take your job, but someone trained in AI might.
That simple insight captures the moment we are living through. The biggest risk is not the arrival of AI itself, but failing to ensure that people have the skills and confidence to use it."

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Here's what Ireland's Minister for Further and Higher Education had to say just yesterday in a piece he wrote using AI tools to "support" him. archive.ph/Q9mxk

A screenshot of text which reads "Developed by my department in partnership with industry, including Microsoft Ireland, AIReady.ie represents one of the Government’s largest and most ambitious responses to the emergence of AI to date. My ambition is large. I want to support the upskilling and reskilling of one million people in AI." The words "in partnership with industry, including Microsoft Ireland" are highlighted.

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

I really don't think so lads.

A screenshot of two promotional emails, one from Lenovo and one from Aer Lingus, both proposing trips to the US in the near future.

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

The Alhambra Palace of biscuits. Or possibly something to do with Wuthering Heights.

A screenshot of a customer review of biscuits from the Tesco website. The review reads "Very Moorish".

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Very odd to write this in the past tense as if "the fuel crisis" is over.

A screenshot of the headline from a piece in The Journal which reads "The government's half-hearted mantra during the fuel crisis did not wash with the public"

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

What's this, a secret plan to fight inflation? Cool to see government ministers doing bits from The West Wing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_3k...

A screenshot of text from The Journal's liveblog which reads "Enterprise Minister Peter Burke said the government is expected to announce measures today to reduce inflation.

He told RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh there would be a “response” from the Irish government to rising prices since the outset of the US-Israel war on Iran.

“Hopefully today we will have news on that,” he said.

“I do believe we will have news on that, in terms of an intervention that will reduce inflation, that will try and reduce the price of groceries on the shelves for our consumers, for vulnerable people buying them”.

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

As excuses for inaction go this one is pretty bizarre. Nothing is getting in and out of the only refinery in the country. It is shut down. The only escalation path available to the protesters is, I dunno, burning the refinery?

A screenshot of text from an Irish Times report. The text reads "The atmosphere remains relaxed in Whitegate with around 60-70 protesters gathered in small groups around where they have a couple of lorries and a bus blocking the access road to the Irving Oil refinery with most protesters chatting or checking their phones for any update.

Gardaí are present but are maintaining a discrete presence inside the blockade, and some can be seen chatting to the protesters.

One garda source said their intention is simply to remain engaged with the protesters and avoid any action that might lead to an escalation.

“These are very decent people who have a grievance over fuel prices and we’re not intent on doing anything at this stage that might inflame the situation and hopefully the Government can come up with a solution to resolve the problem sooner rather than later,” said a garda source."

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

It's always fun to place a couple of headlines side by side.

A screenshot of a headline from the Irish Independent which reads "‘Teachers who use AI will replace those who don’t,’ Oireachtas committee chair warns"

Screenshot of a headline from Futurism which reads "Analysis Finds That Google’s AI Overviews Are Providing Misinformation at a Scale Possibly Unprecedented in the History of Human Civilization"

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

You'd think even the dimmest of bulbs in Shinner HQ would be able to ask the questions 'Does protesting over high fuel prices by wasting fuel make sense?' and 'Is Peadar Toibin involved in this?' and act accordingly, but apparently not.

A screenshot of a headline which reads "Sinn Féin and other politicians back fuel protest from makeshift stage outside GPO"

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Only the true Business Genius, in receipt of significant taxpayer funding, takes a good news story about their company as an opportunity to have a go at elected representatives - and by extension their constituents - who've complained about their flying fast food delivery nuisance operations.

A quote from the quoted story which reads "“In the meantime, we have been attacked left, right and centre by some irresponsible local councillors. That creates question marks over our ability to scale around Ireland, and that will, in turn, affect how many jobs involved in manufacturing and operations we create here.”

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

It's one hell of a time to choose to run for election *in Ireland* using a blatantly Trumpy slogan.

A screenshot of a headline from the Irish Examiner which reads "'I believe in a Galway First approach': City mayor enters by-election to replace Catherine Connolly

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Missed opportunity to call this 'Shit KITT'.

A picture of the talking car KITT from Knight Rider.

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Harmonious Bosch @ljon.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

'Wouldn't fancy being the next European Trump claps his eyes on. No, wait a minute ...'

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