Michael McMahon

@ATB666666 @kelvmackenzie This is true. They managed to keep Mary Whitehouse at bay for decades. But, when the complainant is perceived as socially progressive they roll over without a second thought.

@kelvmackenzie It's not the identity of the complainer that matters. There has always been and there will always be such people. It's the identity of the managers that acquiesced to the complaint and axed the segment. I'd focus your efforts on them.

“I’m not saying my wife’s a bad cook but she uses a smoke alarm as a timer.” Unbelievably it was that kind of gag by Bob Monkhouse that led to an episode of BBC’s The Repair Shop being pulled after a TV production employee took offence to an alleged “ sexist” joke. The hardback archives of Monkhouse’s handwritten joke books, dating back to 1960s, were bought in for repair by the comic’s adopted daughter and his old writing partner. In a tribute to the comic, who died in 2003, footage of the restoration was due to be aired this year. But the BBC axed the segment after a member of the production company Ricochet complained about one of the gags. I would like to know the identity of that employee. He or she has robbed many of us of a decent bit of television. Rare enough on the BBC I couldn’t give a toss if they were upset about the gag. Monkhouse will have bought a damned sight more pleasures to the world than this employee ever will.

@fingalpimpernel That information came from Meta's own annual environmental report.

@MickMacMathuna Tell me you've never set foot in a DC without telling me you've never set foot in a DC

Agreed, as someone who has worked in DCs, its an absolute hoax. There's a DKIT study on this for Ireland, and it estimated that the 82 DCs here were using just 0.13% of available water - even that I'd say is an overestimate, DCs are designed to recycle cool air & considerable innovations in tunnelling air in the last 15 years or so reduces need for water cooling towers - indeed if these are even used here at all. I've not seen them anyway. Mostly this technology is used in countries with much higher average temperatures and there it may well be an issue, although again technology for cooling has changed rapidly in recent years.

@LissaKEvans That's very sad. "We run the gas off the electricity and the electricity off the gas and we save £200 a year" was one of my favourite lines from that monologue

I'm so very sorry to hear of the death of the actor Ben Keaton. I worked with him on Father Ted, where he was not only brilliant, but improvised a whole 'boring' monologue while shut in a cupboard, and greeted an antimacassar of The Sacred Heart with 'Ah, it's yourself...' 1/2

@patriciamcgirr1 @DavQuinn Muller did not try to jail Trump. He recommended against charging him. Muller also did not celebrate the murder of Charlie Kirk.

Muller tried to jail him and his family, how is it pagan to be glad his enemy is dead? You know there were people who celebrated the murder of Charlie Kirk I don’t remember anyone asking are they pagan. The very worst case scenario would be that maybe he shouldn’t have said it publicly but at the end of the day anyone who knows Trump is not shocked at this. He says what he thinks.

Is Trump the most pagan president America has ever had?

Statement by President George W. Bush on Robert Mueller: "Laura and I are deeply saddened by the loss of Robert Mueller. Bob dedicated his life to public service. As a Marine in Vietnam, he proved he was ready for tough assignments. He earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart before returning home to pursue law. In 2001, only one week into the job as the 6th Director of the F.B.I., Bob transitioned the agency mission to protecting the homeland after September 11. He led the agency effectively, helping prevent another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Laura and I send our heartfelt sympathy to his wife of nearly 60 years, Ann, and the Mueller family."

@Theleftorwright "women do not have sex based rights" means women do not have rights ...

Again, women do not have "sex based rights", when it comes to sport. Playing sports is a privilege.

@nwl88444048 How did Kerry Foods get 200K from CnM? What are the sources for this data?

Surely this Tweet from Gript Fatima Gunning is not the only report across Irish media of this conviction today? Taxpayer has just shelled out €15m to private media companies (not Gript), with a large dollop of that for court reporting.

@trashingdays @FondOfBeetles So, the whole cafe has to shut down, if some temporary situation arises where one toilet needs to be closed for a while?

@FondOfBeetles I thought cafes weren't allowed to open if they didn't have suitable toilet provision.

A brief toilet story: Last night at M&S cafe: both female and accessible loos broken. I arrived for the loo at the same time as a Dad and his two young girls. We both realised we all had to use the men’s loo. But the scheme was obvious to both of us, without handwringing: He went in and confirmed it was empty. He returned and sent me and one of his girls in, saying he would guard the outside door. I returned just after said child and looked at Easter eggs with her while he went in with the other. Adults are perfectly capable of sensible public loo use in an emergency 🤣

@wareport_ @benryanwriter Fair enough, but the fact that they declare their pronouns "somewhere" is significant. What those pronouns are is a lot less interesting imo.

@MickMacMathuna @benryanwriter They aren’t declared in the article summary which Ryan attached. He says himself that he had to look them up

NEW PAPER: There is No Consensus on Biological Sex The authors include Andy Lee, PhD (he/they) of Perdue; Madeline Eppley (they/them), a PhD candidate at Northeastern; and Ally Swank, MS (they them), a PhD student at Boston U. "There is ongoing scientific and societal discourse on the definition of biological sex. At this critical moment when misinformation about sex is being applied to policy globally, scientific clarification is valuable. Here, we evaluate the primary approaches to defining sex and synthesise the active discourse to conclude that there is no current consensus on a definition of sex that is free of assumptions and limitations. While there is no current consensus, we do not advocate for a single definition and contend that a lack of unanimity is not inherently problematic. No matter what definitional choices are used, we provide actionable recommendations to improve accuracy when describing sex. Most importantly, regardless of scientific debates, no biological definition of sex should be used to dictate human rights. "Lack of unanimity on how to define sex is not inherently problematic and we contend that a universal definition is not necessary to pursue. Scientists should be specific and clear when discussing sex and sex-related traits to advance more accurate science and discussions. Active debate and discourse lead to better understandings of complex biological diversity. Regardless of how sex is defined, research that documents and describes the diversity and variation of sex in nature should and will continue in biology (Aanen et al. 2016). Our ultimate goal is to prompt critical thinking and discussion about how we operationalise sex in research, encourage consideration of the ethical and political implications of defining sex and urge acknowledgment that there is no current consensus on a single definition of sex. Most importantly, we assert that biology should not dictate human rights." Methinks @SwipeWright will have some thoughts...

@wareport_ @benryanwriter Not the choice of pronouns, but the fact of declaration imo.

@benryanwriter Does an author’s choice of pronoun affect the credibility of their work?

@benryanwriter "Our perspective is that no single definition of sex is free of limitations and assumptions, nor can any be universally applied without exception" Is any single definition of *anything* free of limitations and assumptions ... etc. ? This is pure water muddying sophistry.

@helenlewis Very strange. The reference to the "true crime community" could also be easily mistaken for readers of true crime fiction, who are predominantly women. Not sure it was deliberate, but it looked like an effort to muddy the watters on gender.

It is very strange to publish an article on the gender dynamics of mass shooters and not mention that the two "female" shooters used as flagship examples here were biologically male. Males commit more than 90% of violent crimes.

@SwipeWright @cremieuxrecueil Finding it hard to get the image of "a tiny censor on my wrist" out of my mind .. 😁

One of the reasons I've never bought any wrist-based fitness trackers like Fitbit is because I see the list of things they purportedly measure and simply don't believe they can all be accurately tracked by a tiny censor on my wrist. Pulse? Sure. Steps and whether you're walking or running? Yeah. Most other things? No.

Compared to actual polysomnography, it seems even the best sleep trackers aren't that accurate when it comes to measuring sleep stages.

@tomdoorley Thanks for highlighting it Tom. It's nice to see a diversity of opinion being published. Even though I might not agree with it, I'll definitely read it 👍

The Irish Times gives space to an irrelevant Maria Steen to whine about what she considers to be "Christianity" and presumes to know what Patrick thought... Maria Steen: St Patrick’s day has become a celebration of everything other than Christianity irishtimes.com/opinion/2026/0…

@isthisit @mattyglesias @PaulJohnRivzpd What are the two forms of English that are distant enough to be classified as separate languages?

@mattyglesias @PaulJohnRivzpd Americans seem to think of white people in general and British people specifically as a homogenous ethnic group. The British isles is home to three mutually unintelligible languages, each with at least two forms distant enough to be classified as separate languages.

This has to be the most right-wing take on Ireland that any NYC mayor has had since the era of Bill the Butcher.

@WomensSocIre Well, it's only 203 years since the Gaols Act of 1823 was passed which established sex segregated prisons. Ironically passed in reaction to the sexual degradation of women in Wicklow gaol: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaols_Act…

It’s the performative stupidity that gets me Seeing a woman pretend women never had sex-based rights (rights that women fought so hard for in the past) to appease men who don’t want women to have any rights- just to gain virtue signalling kudos is quite sickening tbh For shame

@DavQuinn Lies, damned lies and statistics. It's meaningless drivel.

A while back I wrote about the science of PAREIDOLIA, the "you can't unsee this face in this inanimate thing" bias - & all the examples I found are delightful, ludicrous & worrying! (It's amazing how completely it hijacks our mind.) I dare you to unsee the following... 1/

@Goh491180365546 @paulmurphy_TD The President doesn't have free speech. She can't even leave the country without the approval of the government.

@paulmurphy_TD I don't agree with you on most things but I do on this Catherine is well entitled to express her opinion after all free speech 💬 is important and should be respected we don't always agree with that's life and free speech is very important in Ireland

I've no problem with Sarah Carey disagreeing with Catherine Connolly. She's perfectly entitled to. I have a problem with this nonsense: "The problem is that as president, she’s not entitled to say it." Of course she's entitled to! We elected her to. independent.ie/opinion/commen…