Ann O’Dea
@annodea.bsky.social
Lifelong journo, media founder and CEO Silicon Republic; personal interests: four+ legged critters, birds, history and old stuff, biodiversity, geopolitics, art and culture and great gigs
https://www.siliconrepublic.com/
https://www.siliconrepublic.com/
Best news story this week has to be UEFA making their feelings crystal clear about FIFA’s complicity and cowardice. Delighted for this man!
Somali referee Omar Artan grateful for Super Cup chance after World Cup exclusion
The Somali referee Omar Artan, who was refused entry to the US to officiate at the World Cup, has spoken publicly for the first time about the decision
www.theguardian.com
August 14, 2026 at 4:38 PM
Best news story this week has to be UEFA making their feelings crystal clear about FIFA’s complicity and cowardice. Delighted for this man!
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
It is seriously alarming how many of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people are just screamingly mentally unwell in deeply toxic, dangerous ways.
"The Pope is the puppet of the Chinese authoritatian government" is a take you would make if you made billions by drinking paint.
Peter Thiel: The pope is ‘working for the Chinese Communists’ by criticizing AI | CNN
Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, the billionaire tech investor said the Vatican’s concerns could discourage America in the AI arms race, warned of a democratic-socialist takeover and explained wh...
www.cnn.com
July 3, 2026 at 7:49 AM
It is seriously alarming how many of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people are just screamingly mentally unwell in deeply toxic, dangerous ways.
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
Something lovely for the weekend! 🤩❤️
Ancient Egyptian gold headband decorated with heads of gazelles and a stag between stars or flowers. Second Intermediate (Hyksos) period, Dynasty 15, c. 1648–1540 BC. 📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...
#Archaeology
Ancient Egyptian gold headband decorated with heads of gazelles and a stag between stars or flowers. Second Intermediate (Hyksos) period, Dynasty 15, c. 1648–1540 BC. 📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...
#Archaeology
June 27, 2026 at 5:06 PM
Something lovely for the weekend! 🤩❤️
Ancient Egyptian gold headband decorated with heads of gazelles and a stag between stars or flowers. Second Intermediate (Hyksos) period, Dynasty 15, c. 1648–1540 BC. 📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...
#Archaeology
Ancient Egyptian gold headband decorated with heads of gazelles and a stag between stars or flowers. Second Intermediate (Hyksos) period, Dynasty 15, c. 1648–1540 BC. 📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...
#Archaeology
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
Faults and all a free and independent press is important. www.cnn.com/2026/06/27/c...
A small plane slammed into the tallest skyscraper in China’s capital. Hours later, it was like nothing had happened. | CNN
On Friday afternoon a small plane appeared to evade some of the world’s strictest aviation controls and slam into the tallest skyscraper in Beijing, the 109-story CITIC Tower that dominates the city’s...
www.cnn.com
June 27, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Faults and all a free and independent press is important. www.cnn.com/2026/06/27/c...
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
Irish street artist Joe Caslin unveils new 50ft mural ahead of Pride weekend in Dublin jrnl.ie/7081575
Irish street artist Joe Caslin unveils new 50ft mural ahead of Pride weekend in Dublin
The collaborative project took over one year to complete.
jrnl.ie
June 26, 2026 at 8:49 PM
Irish street artist Joe Caslin unveils new 50ft mural ahead of Pride weekend in Dublin jrnl.ie/7081575
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
Let me be explicit. The massive heat waves we're seeing around the world more extreme and frequent due to human-caused #climatechange. And these heat waves are going to continue to worsen because of our failure to reduce carbon pollution. Just one of the many costs of #climate change.
June 24, 2026 at 3:49 PM
Let me be explicit. The massive heat waves we're seeing around the world more extreme and frequent due to human-caused #climatechange. And these heat waves are going to continue to worsen because of our failure to reduce carbon pollution. Just one of the many costs of #climate change.
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
The auto industry is worse off
Care homes and the NHS are worse off
British travellers are worse off
Fisherman are worse off
What's not to like?
Brexit - So much winning...
Care homes and the NHS are worse off
British travellers are worse off
Fisherman are worse off
What's not to like?
Brexit - So much winning...
Boats, bankers and borders: five symbols that sum up Brexit a decade on
What do the touchstones of the referendum debate tell us about the complex legacy of Britain leaving the EU?
www.theguardian.com
June 20, 2026 at 8:04 AM
The auto industry is worse off
Care homes and the NHS are worse off
British travellers are worse off
Fisherman are worse off
What's not to like?
Brexit - So much winning...
Care homes and the NHS are worse off
British travellers are worse off
Fisherman are worse off
What's not to like?
Brexit - So much winning...
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
A bill to enforce the EU’s AI Act in Ireland has been approved. Once enacted, the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill 2026 will establish the AI Office of Ireland – an independent statutory body which will act as Ireland’s central coordinating authority to implement the landmark EU law on AI.
New Irish bill to supervise EU AI Act gets green lit
The new bill is only a technical regulation needed for the supervision of the EU AI Act and does not add to its existing obligations.
www.siliconrepublic.com
June 18, 2026 at 8:04 AM
A bill to enforce the EU’s AI Act in Ireland has been approved. Once enacted, the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill 2026 will establish the AI Office of Ireland – an independent statutory body which will act as Ireland’s central coordinating authority to implement the landmark EU law on AI.
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
Your reminder that fairy tales are full of stepmothers because women once routinely died in childbirth, from postpartum sepsis, or from other infectious diseases and left behind housefuls of motherless children.
Stable nuclear families are made possible by vaccines, antibiotics, and safe abortions.
Stable nuclear families are made possible by vaccines, antibiotics, and safe abortions.
One reason i think everyone should take an archaeology class is to internalise with tangible examples that there is no pure, natural past utopia and that antibiotics and vaccines are what stand between us and a 50% child mortality rate and scores of women dying needlessly during pregn and birth
Leeds is now the subject of a major inquiry into maternity. I previously reported on its decade long pursuit of 'normal birth' ideology that saw it have the lowest number of caesareans while stillbirths and baby deaths soared to the worst nationally www.thetimes.com/article/f3af...
June 14, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Your reminder that fairy tales are full of stepmothers because women once routinely died in childbirth, from postpartum sepsis, or from other infectious diseases and left behind housefuls of motherless children.
Stable nuclear families are made possible by vaccines, antibiotics, and safe abortions.
Stable nuclear families are made possible by vaccines, antibiotics, and safe abortions.
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
Repair Cafes are part of a new brand of anticonsumerism.
Broken speaker? Finicky zipper? Anticonsumerist Repair Cafes urge you to fix it instead of pitch it
Repair Cafes are part of a new brand of anticonsumerism. The cafes and other efforts try to offer an alternative to mass-produced, disposable goods that have dominated the economy for the last half-century.
bit.ly
June 7, 2026 at 11:00 PM
Repair Cafes are part of a new brand of anticonsumerism.
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
And here's the entire Scott Pelley interview via YouTube...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePqd...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePqd...
Scott Pelley on His Firing and the ‘Massacre’ at ‘60 Minutes’ | The Interview
YouTube video by The Interview
www.youtube.com
June 7, 2026 at 10:01 PM
And here's the entire Scott Pelley interview via YouTube...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePqd...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePqd...
I just go a newsletter link with the headline ‘Pete Hegseth’s softer side’. Yeah not opening that, but still hoping it’s ironic 🙄
May 31, 2026 at 4:45 PM
I just go a newsletter link with the headline ‘Pete Hegseth’s softer side’. Yeah not opening that, but still hoping it’s ironic 🙄
100 times this!
Anyway this is your usual reminder to spend at least as much time promoting content you find insightful/informative as you do dunking on content you find bad.
To do otherwise creates perverse incentives.
To do otherwise creates perverse incentives.
May 30, 2026 at 5:00 PM
100 times this!
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
This is the greatest description of humanity I have ever read.
May 25, 2026 at 9:32 PM
This is the greatest description of humanity I have ever read.
Sign the petition to protect the laws that protect us - our health, nature, and water. Give nature a voice! #HandsOffNature
birdwatchireland.ie/our-work/adv...
birdwatchireland.ie/our-work/adv...
birdwatchireland.ie
May 20, 2026 at 10:16 AM
Sign the petition to protect the laws that protect us - our health, nature, and water. Give nature a voice! #HandsOffNature
birdwatchireland.ie/our-work/adv...
birdwatchireland.ie/our-work/adv...
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
🧵 🧵🧵 The constant bitching about Bluesky community and the obsession around it in certain parts - is not really any different than the dynamic around blogosphere/netroots circa 2003-08 (until those spaces became coopted). (1/6)
May 12, 2026 at 8:24 PM
🧵 🧵🧵 The constant bitching about Bluesky community and the obsession around it in certain parts - is not really any different than the dynamic around blogosphere/netroots circa 2003-08 (until those spaces became coopted). (1/6)
Exactly this
"The EU is imperfect, irritating, boring, but we haven’t come up with anything better in our history. A time of peace, prosperity, freedom, democracy, and solidarity among nations that have fought each other for centuries is a miracle. May it last as long as possible."
Donald Tusk on Europe Day
Donald Tusk on Europe Day
May 10, 2026 at 7:09 AM
Exactly this
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
True. That's how Iran is beating him. They aren't physically obstructing the strait. They're creating a situation where insurance companies refuse to provide coverage to ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
May 9, 2026 at 7:50 PM
True. That's how Iran is beating him. They aren't physically obstructing the strait. They're creating a situation where insurance companies refuse to provide coverage to ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
Sums it up, really.
Cybertruck Recalled to Keep Its Wheels From Flying Off While Driving
Tesla is recalling the Cybertruck for the umpteenth time because of an issue that can cause its wheel to fall off.
trib.al
May 9, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Sums it up, really.
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
From the Grauniad's 'Explainer' article:
May 8, 2026 at 6:14 PM
From the Grauniad's 'Explainer' article:
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
happy 9th anniversary to the day we watched Zendaya fall madly in love with Tom Holland in real-time
May 7, 2026 at 1:46 PM
happy 9th anniversary to the day we watched Zendaya fall madly in love with Tom Holland in real-time
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
It’s all falling apart.
US trade court rules against Trump's 10% global tariffs
The U.S. trade court on Thursday ruled against President Donald Trump's latest 10% global tariffs, finding across-the-board tariffs were not justified under a 1970s trade law.
www.reuters.com
May 7, 2026 at 9:33 PM
It’s all falling apart.
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
On this day in 2003, Apple launched the iTunes Music Store.
April 28, 2026 at 12:01 PM
On this day in 2003, Apple launched the iTunes Music Store.
Reposted by Ann O’Dea
New: Manosphere influencer Clavicular is everywhere, and that’s not an accident. A paid marketing campaign is spreading video clips of his controversial antics across social media. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
The Video Clipping Machine Behind Clavicular’s Viral Fame
Videos of the influencer Clavicular are inescapable online. Social media is awash with clips of his sharp-featured face and muscular body — the result of a “looksmaxxing” regimen that can include test...
www.bloomberg.com
April 28, 2026 at 5:23 PM
New: Manosphere influencer Clavicular is everywhere, and that’s not an accident. A paid marketing campaign is spreading video clips of his controversial antics across social media. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...