Sorcha O’Brien
@sorchao.bsky.social
design history, technology & other hybrids. also crochet, SFF, gardening badly and occasional dye experiments. she/her. pronounced like ‘portia’.
Pinned
Sorcha O’Brien
@sorchao.bsky.social
· Jan 14
& if your interest is piqued about #womensgrassrootsactivism you can watch & hear the great @sorchao.bsky.social give her fantastic public lecture on the ICA's craftivism & activism via this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggrN...
@womensinstitute.bsky.social
@womensinstitute.bsky.social
This was a really fantastic audience for a lecture, so happy to see it out and available to the public!
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
Have been sent the clip of Bernese Mountain Dog owners sending off Michael D twice by heart-melted people outside of Ireland.
What a country.
What a country.
President Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina are preparing to leave Áras an Uachtaráin for the final time this evening as his term comes to an end.
Catherine Connolly will be inaugurated tomorrow as Ireland’s next president.
#VMNews
Catherine Connolly will be inaugurated tomorrow as Ireland’s next president.
#VMNews
November 10, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Have been sent the clip of Bernese Mountain Dog owners sending off Michael D twice by heart-melted people outside of Ireland.
What a country.
What a country.
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
⏳Still time to register!⏳
Sign up to OHNI's 'Archiving and Oral History' ONLINE workshop with the Digital Repository of Ireland, focusing on archiving #oralhistories
💻Friday 21st November 3-5:30pm
🎟️Member €35/Non-Member €50
#OralHistory #OHNI #DRI
oralhistorynetworkireland.ie/event/archiv...
Sign up to OHNI's 'Archiving and Oral History' ONLINE workshop with the Digital Repository of Ireland, focusing on archiving #oralhistories
💻Friday 21st November 3-5:30pm
🎟️Member €35/Non-Member €50
#OralHistory #OHNI #DRI
oralhistorynetworkireland.ie/event/archiv...
November 10, 2025 at 11:10 AM
⏳Still time to register!⏳
Sign up to OHNI's 'Archiving and Oral History' ONLINE workshop with the Digital Repository of Ireland, focusing on archiving #oralhistories
💻Friday 21st November 3-5:30pm
🎟️Member €35/Non-Member €50
#OralHistory #OHNI #DRI
oralhistorynetworkireland.ie/event/archiv...
Sign up to OHNI's 'Archiving and Oral History' ONLINE workshop with the Digital Repository of Ireland, focusing on archiving #oralhistories
💻Friday 21st November 3-5:30pm
🎟️Member €35/Non-Member €50
#OralHistory #OHNI #DRI
oralhistorynetworkireland.ie/event/archiv...
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
Good to see someone involved in the field describing the techbro fantasies as “bullshit”. But note the link between this nonsense and eugenicist ideas from Altman. These people are rich, stupid and influential, which = dangerous.
Investors’ ‘dumb transhumanist ideas’ setting back neurotech progress, say experts
Investors’ ‘dumb transhumanist ideas’ setting back neurotech progress, say experts
Fascination of investors such as Elon Musk with uploading their brains to computers is hindering progress in curing disease, say scientists
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Good to see someone involved in the field describing the techbro fantasies as “bullshit”. But note the link between this nonsense and eugenicist ideas from Altman. These people are rich, stupid and influential, which = dangerous.
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
A milestone in India: in the electricity sector, non-fossil capacity (renewables, hydro, nuclear) is now larger than fossil capacity.
www.pib.gov.in
November 9, 2025 at 8:13 PM
A milestone in India: in the electricity sector, non-fossil capacity (renewables, hydro, nuclear) is now larger than fossil capacity.
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
Once again for the hard of hearing at the back:
“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”
Dune, Frank Herbert
“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”
Dune, Frank Herbert
I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide.
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
“authors & publishers who filed a lawsuit against the Sam Altman-led firm have secured access to internal Slack messages… discussing the mass deletion of a pirated books dataset… A NY district court ordered OpenAI to hand over the communications regarding data deletion”
futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com/artificial-i...
November 9, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Once again for the hard of hearing at the back:
“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”
Dune, Frank Herbert
“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”
Dune, Frank Herbert
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
If you can't move a couch in a truck it should be categorized as a SUV and taxed off the road.
The bumper says 'rugged working man'.
But the cargo bed says ‘cosplay builder with soft hands’.
Time to ban these fragile-man-mobiles from our cities.
But the cargo bed says ‘cosplay builder with soft hands’.
Time to ban these fragile-man-mobiles from our cities.
November 9, 2025 at 9:11 PM
If you can't move a couch in a truck it should be categorized as a SUV and taxed off the road.
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
This email was so realistic. If I hadn’t just renewed my tv licence, I would almost certainly have clicked.
November 9, 2025 at 4:29 PM
This email was so realistic. If I hadn’t just renewed my tv licence, I would almost certainly have clicked.
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
I thought of these
So now you have to
So now you have to
November 8, 2025 at 6:42 PM
I thought of these
So now you have to
So now you have to
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
If there was just one thing I wish every healthy person could understand, it is this: ANYONE can get a chronic illness.
Illnesses like #MECFS & #LongCovid can happen to absolutely anyone, it doesn’t matter how healthy you are.
Chronic illness can happen to good people. It could happen to you.
Illnesses like #MECFS & #LongCovid can happen to absolutely anyone, it doesn’t matter how healthy you are.
Chronic illness can happen to good people. It could happen to you.
November 8, 2025 at 6:06 PM
If there was just one thing I wish every healthy person could understand, it is this: ANYONE can get a chronic illness.
Illnesses like #MECFS & #LongCovid can happen to absolutely anyone, it doesn’t matter how healthy you are.
Chronic illness can happen to good people. It could happen to you.
Illnesses like #MECFS & #LongCovid can happen to absolutely anyone, it doesn’t matter how healthy you are.
Chronic illness can happen to good people. It could happen to you.
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
The disconnected Apple Pencil? The expression sheet with all the same expression? The art with the footsteps in the snow in front of the characters running? The file with one (1) background layer? Erasing the “hand drawn” background by hand on said one (1) layer file? Where do I starttttttt
November 8, 2025 at 6:18 PM
The disconnected Apple Pencil? The expression sheet with all the same expression? The art with the footsteps in the snow in front of the characters running? The file with one (1) background layer? Erasing the “hand drawn” background by hand on said one (1) layer file? Where do I starttttttt
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
The studio that made the shitty coca-cola AI ad getting their teeth kicked in on socials bc of how icky bad it is, then the studio CEO coming out insulting and dismissing folks kicking their teeth in, and THEN releasing the worst ever cover up “hey we actually made this by hand” scam vid
🧍♀️
🧍♀️
November 8, 2025 at 6:11 PM
The studio that made the shitty coca-cola AI ad getting their teeth kicked in on socials bc of how icky bad it is, then the studio CEO coming out insulting and dismissing folks kicking their teeth in, and THEN releasing the worst ever cover up “hey we actually made this by hand” scam vid
🧍♀️
🧍♀️
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
Don’t forget to watch this much needed and long overdue series on the British Empire. Remarkably, it’s not based on the opinions of a travelling ‘personality’, but on what historians who’ve actually researched it say!
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Two - Empire with David Olusoga, Series 1, Episode 1
David Olusoga tells the story of the beginnings of the British Empire under Elizabeth I.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Don’t forget to watch this much needed and long overdue series on the British Empire. Remarkably, it’s not based on the opinions of a travelling ‘personality’, but on what historians who’ve actually researched it say!
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
Australia has so much electricity from solar power that it is going to start offering free electricity to everyone for at least three hours during the day as the wholesale price of power goes negative
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
Australia has so much solar that it's offering everyone free electricity
Australia's extensive solar power penetration makes so much energy that the government wants to offer free electricity at peak hours.
electrek.co
November 6, 2025 at 4:58 AM
Australia has so much electricity from solar power that it is going to start offering free electricity to everyone for at least three hours during the day as the wholesale price of power goes negative
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
NEW: The End of the Line: the centrepiece of Saudi Arabia’s Neom gigaproject - a 500m tall, 170km long wall-like building intended ultimately to house 9 million people - can’t get out of the ground, say more than 20 former Neom architects, engineers and senior executives.
ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled
Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance
ig.ft.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:56 AM
NEW: The End of the Line: the centrepiece of Saudi Arabia’s Neom gigaproject - a 500m tall, 170km long wall-like building intended ultimately to house 9 million people - can’t get out of the ground, say more than 20 former Neom architects, engineers and senior executives.
ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
[P] Found a higher-quality photo; IT *IS* TAPED UP SHEETS OF PAPER!
November 5, 2025 at 7:22 PM
[P] Found a higher-quality photo; IT *IS* TAPED UP SHEETS OF PAPER!
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
We’re delighted to see photos from our collection featured in this fascinating initiative by our friends at #NationalArchivesofIreland. They’re seeking stories from Irish people aged 100 and over - a wonderful opportunity to preserve and celebrate living history: www.irishstar.com/news/ireland...
National Archive launches search for Irish people who are 100 years or over
The very first census carried out after Ireland gained its independence from Britain will be digitized and published online to celebrate its 100 year anniversary
www.irishstar.com
November 5, 2025 at 11:06 AM
We’re delighted to see photos from our collection featured in this fascinating initiative by our friends at #NationalArchivesofIreland. They’re seeking stories from Irish people aged 100 and over - a wonderful opportunity to preserve and celebrate living history: www.irishstar.com/news/ireland...
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
Got an object with a story? We believe every object holds a piece of history - and yours could be part of it.
From heirlooms to gig tickets- bring yours to the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks & chat with curators
📍 Thursday, 6th Nov 6-7 PM
🎟️ Book now: www.eventbrite.ie/e/late-night...
From heirlooms to gig tickets- bring yours to the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks & chat with curators
📍 Thursday, 6th Nov 6-7 PM
🎟️ Book now: www.eventbrite.ie/e/late-night...
November 5, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Got an object with a story? We believe every object holds a piece of history - and yours could be part of it.
From heirlooms to gig tickets- bring yours to the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks & chat with curators
📍 Thursday, 6th Nov 6-7 PM
🎟️ Book now: www.eventbrite.ie/e/late-night...
From heirlooms to gig tickets- bring yours to the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks & chat with curators
📍 Thursday, 6th Nov 6-7 PM
🎟️ Book now: www.eventbrite.ie/e/late-night...
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
Absolutely amazing: they've got so much solar in Australia that they need more people to use more of it, so the gov't has instructed energy retailers to offer *at least three hours of free power* during the middle of the day.
Meanwhile fossil-addled US struggles with an energy-price crisis ...
Meanwhile fossil-addled US struggles with an energy-price crisis ...
Energy retailers to be directed to offer free power three hours a day
Saying there is enough solar power for everyone in the daytime, Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen will direct retailers to provide three hours of free power every day to consumers.
www.abc.net.au
November 3, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Absolutely amazing: they've got so much solar in Australia that they need more people to use more of it, so the gov't has instructed energy retailers to offer *at least three hours of free power* during the middle of the day.
Meanwhile fossil-addled US struggles with an energy-price crisis ...
Meanwhile fossil-addled US struggles with an energy-price crisis ...
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
Buy books from bookshops! In Ireland some fab options are @kennysbookshop.bsky.social @booksupstairs.bsky.social @omahonysbooks.bsky.social
We are 5! 🎈
THANK YOU for being part of the mission. At a time when Amazon profits are soaring, and small businesses face ever increasing pressure, WHERE you choose to spend your money makes all the difference in keeping these community spaces on the high street. Bookshop.org
THANK YOU for being part of the mission. At a time when Amazon profits are soaring, and small businesses face ever increasing pressure, WHERE you choose to spend your money makes all the difference in keeping these community spaces on the high street. Bookshop.org
November 2, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Buy books from bookshops! In Ireland some fab options are @kennysbookshop.bsky.social @booksupstairs.bsky.social @omahonysbooks.bsky.social
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
Exactly 25 years ago, at 09:21 UTC, the era of continuous human presence on the International @Space_Station began.
Since Crew One took up residence in 2000, 21 @esa.int astronauts have lived and worked on this orbital outpost, conducting essential research to benefit life on Earth.
Since Crew One took up residence in 2000, 21 @esa.int astronauts have lived and worked on this orbital outpost, conducting essential research to benefit life on Earth.
November 2, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Exactly 25 years ago, at 09:21 UTC, the era of continuous human presence on the International @Space_Station began.
Since Crew One took up residence in 2000, 21 @esa.int astronauts have lived and worked on this orbital outpost, conducting essential research to benefit life on Earth.
Since Crew One took up residence in 2000, 21 @esa.int astronauts have lived and worked on this orbital outpost, conducting essential research to benefit life on Earth.
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
If you're in the vicinity of @dculibrary.bsky.social, please pop in to see an exhibition selected from the archive material I've donated. It relates to my first book, The Destruction of Dublin (1985), and the Dublin Crisis Conference I helped to organise in February 1986. A blast from the past!
November 1, 2025 at 6:03 PM
If you're in the vicinity of @dculibrary.bsky.social, please pop in to see an exhibition selected from the archive material I've donated. It relates to my first book, The Destruction of Dublin (1985), and the Dublin Crisis Conference I helped to organise in February 1986. A blast from the past!
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...
‘Opposing the inevitability of AI at universities is possible and necessary’ | Radboud University
Since the widespread release of ChatGPT in December of 2022, AI has taken over much of the world by storm – including academia. Most of this happened with very little pushback, despite a myriad of iss...
www.ru.nl
November 1, 2025 at 10:26 PM
‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
Well, this isn't concerning at all.
The biggest cause of deaths in Ireland between the 1880s and 1950s.
The slow moving droplet disease that thrives in poverty and overcrowding.
In 1949 a policy of universal vaccination was introduced, but ceased in 2015.
#SpéirGhorm
The biggest cause of deaths in Ireland between the 1880s and 1950s.
The slow moving droplet disease that thrives in poverty and overcrowding.
In 1949 a policy of universal vaccination was introduced, but ceased in 2015.
#SpéirGhorm
Ireland's TB care centre says it cannot meet current or future demand as cases soar
HSE data shows there were 289 TB cases in Ireland last year, the highest since 2018
www.irishexaminer.com
November 1, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Well, this isn't concerning at all.
The biggest cause of deaths in Ireland between the 1880s and 1950s.
The slow moving droplet disease that thrives in poverty and overcrowding.
In 1949 a policy of universal vaccination was introduced, but ceased in 2015.
#SpéirGhorm
The biggest cause of deaths in Ireland between the 1880s and 1950s.
The slow moving droplet disease that thrives in poverty and overcrowding.
In 1949 a policy of universal vaccination was introduced, but ceased in 2015.
#SpéirGhorm
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
An Online Trove of Historic Sewing Patterns & Costumes
An Online Trove of Historic Sewing Patterns & Costumes
As Halloween draws nigh, our thoughts turn to costumes.
www.openculture.com
November 1, 2025 at 5:33 PM
An Online Trove of Historic Sewing Patterns & Costumes
Reposted by Sorcha O’Brien
interior design where you're just randomly pressing buttons for yellow gold, white marble, and crystal chandelier to remind everyone you're very rich
October 31, 2025 at 11:35 PM
interior design where you're just randomly pressing buttons for yellow gold, white marble, and crystal chandelier to remind everyone you're very rich