Damien Farrell

Thanks to @NASAPersevere for acknowledging code contributors role in the #MarsHelicopter Ingenuity program. github is giving helicopter badges to the contributors. @github

The cheap green lie You are told that solar and wind are cheap But you need near-100% backup when no sun or wind, paying for two systems Data for 2024 shows that cramming in more solar and wind makes electricity overall more and more costly iea.org/data-and-stati… Threads&refs: x.com/BjornLomborg/s…

Chris Hedges: "True despair comes from surrendering, either through fantasy or apathy, to malignant power. True despair is powerlessness. And resistance, meaningful resistance, even if it is almost certainly doomed, is empowerment. It confers self-worth. It confers dignity. It confers agency. It is the only action that allows us to use the word hope." Most westerners are in a state of despair. Those who refuse to succumb are the people our leaders label "haters" and "terrorists". chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-world-ac…

U.S. military aircraft land and refuel regularly at Shannon Airport, carrying troops to warzones under a veil of secrecy. Following the 1945 Air Services Agreement, Shannon became a Cold War staple. It was also once the largest Soviet transit hub outside Moscow until 1983, when U.S. pressure restricted Aeroflot’s access after the downing of KAL 007. By 1991, during the First Gulf War, U.S. troops transited quietly under Irish guard. Post-9/11, the "War on Terror" transformed Shannon into a cornerstone of U.S. logistics. In 2005 alone, 341,000 troops passed through. Between 2002 and 2024, nearly 2,000 applications were filed for munitions exemptions. Notably, from 2022 to 2024, not a single U.S. military landing request was refused. This cooperation brought significant revenue, but also "extraordinary rendition" flights. Amnesty International recorded 50 CIA-linked flights through Shannon, including those involving the transport of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and the kidnapping of Khaled El-Masri. Despite European Parliament findings of CIA collusion, the Irish state utilized loopholes in the 1944 Chicago Convention to avoid inspecting these "civilian" aircraft. Since 2008, Shannonwatch has documented thousands of these flights. Figures like the late Margaretta D’Arcy and whistleblower Edward Horgan have long challenged the state. Though the High Court ruled in 2003 that using Shannon for the Iraq invasion breached neutrality, and polls show majority public opposition, the policy remains unchanged. In 2025, silence met calls from a former CIA director to inspect these planes. Activists now argue Shannon enables war crimes in Gaza via munitions shipments to Middle Eastern bases. In January 2026, flights carrying Palestinians being deported by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement had refuelled at Shannon. The first flight passed through on the night of January 20th, carrying 8 Palestinian men, reportedly shackled at the wrists and ankles, travelling from Arizona to Tel Aviv via New Jersey, Shannon, and Bulgaria.

@MarxEngelsLnin It appears to be available on archive.org archive.org/search?query=c…

Does anyone have any idea what happened to the 'Programmed To Chill' podcast? I'm aware that Jimmy Falun Gong retired but the archive was available for a while. Now it seems to vanished, which is a shame because I found it to be a hugely valuable resource. I must use this opportunity to pay tribute to Jimmy whose approach has influenced the way I look at things on my own show.

France is ditching Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Will they be able to succeed? 🤔 itsfoss.com/news/france-di…

🧵 Thread of Michael Parenti quotes – RIP

Michael Parenti, the path-breaking Marxist scholar, historian and political scientist, passed today at age 92 He went peacefully this morning, surrounded by his family “Now he is in what he used to refer to as ‘the great lecture hall in the sky,’” his son, Christian, reflected

SNiPgenie: a tool for microbial SNP site detection from whole-genome sequencing data. Recently published in Access Microbiology. microbiologyresearch.org/content/journa… @MicrobioSoc #bioinformatics

Linux Now Has 3% Desktop Linux Market [November 2025 Report] itsfoss.com/linux-market-s…

@KitKlarenberg @Class_C_Project Very interesting article. @PatMillsComics

On November 11th, Europe celebrated Armistice Day, when World War I ended in 1918. Except it didn't end when Germany surrendered. Before, London invaded Russia to “strangle Bolshevism in its cradle”. This forgotten history has enormous relevance today: kitklarenberg.com/p/the-franco-b…

🎂 Unix was born on November 3, 1971. Massive respect to legends Ken Thompson & Dennis Ritchie; the world runs on their vision. 💻✨

🇪🇺 My fellow Europeans You have to fight ChatControl 💪 Don't let @vonderleyen read your chats! metalhearf.fr/posts/chatcont…

From Rome to Milan, Bologna to Genoa, Livorno to Naples, Turin to Florence, Bari to Palermo, and over 60 more cities across Italy — workers are massively rising in solidarity with Palestine, demanding an immediate end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. This is historic 🇮🇹🇵🇸

I'm extremely pleased that we managed to get @tcddublin to lead by example and be the first on the island of Ireland to do this. Other Irish universities must follow suit - shamefully two forged new Israeli academic ties via Horizon2020 this year! theguardian.com/world/2025/sep…

German national airline Lufthansa has been illegally transporting missile components through Dublin Airport to the Thales arms factory in Belfast for the past year. ontheditch.com/missile-parts-…

Why would we permit the most recent €3 billion data centre in Naas, County Kildare. The planning, financing, development and construction resources that would be needed to build it are equivalent to c6,000+ homes and we are re-directing these resources away from housing.

Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?

Find out what Hugging Face is and how it's transforming AI. itsfoss.com/hugging-face/

🛶 NEW: The Global Sumud Flotilla has announced the largest civilian sailing to Gaza since the siege began in 2007, aiming to break Israel’s blockade and challenge global complicity. Dozens of boats will depart from Spain on August 31, with additional launches from Tunisia and others on September 4. Delegations from 44+ countries—including the U.S., Malaysia, Brazil, Italy, and Sri Lanka—will take part. The flotilla will carry doctors, lawyers, journalists, and activists. Organizers say any Israeli interception would constitute piracy under international law. Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will flag off the Southeast Asian convoy on August 23. Mass rallies in support are planned globally for August 9.