@bthalpin@mastodon.social

Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · 5d ago

Replying to @WTL@mastodon.social

@WTL@mastodon.social @taraprice@mastodon.social Can't see if you're already following @paulduanefilm@mastodon.ie

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Jul 10, 2026

Replying to @feorag@wandering.shop

@feorag@wandering.shop @pndc@social.treehouse.systems What odds Michael Howard?

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · May 04, 2026

The Irish government is making noises about thinking about thinking about nuclear power.

Given their track record with big projects, I reckon we will have a plant online by about 2100 and it will cost 2-3 times annual GDP to construct.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/05/04/why-are-we-talking-about-building-nuclear-reactors/

#mastodaoine

The Irish Times

Why are we talking about building nuclear reactors?

Reactor construction was outlawed in 1999, but changing technology, and circumstances, have reopened the debate

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Apr 08, 2026

Replying to @domi@donotsta.re

@domi @videolan That's a tiny bit more niche product placement than the Nutella jar. But excellent.

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Apr 06, 2026

Replying to @hanno@mastodon.social

@hanno The binomial distribution (& normal approximation) are indeed what to look at, but there is a wrinkle: how to define length. E.g., is it 101 => 2/3 or 0101 => 2/4? My intuition wd be to round up the length to an even number. Obvs matters very little for larger numbers.

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Apr 03, 2026

Replying to @bthalpin@mastodon.social

@ColmDonoghue A clear overview: https://o.blanthorn.com/population-around-a-tile/map/#x=-6.235892047069001&y=53.34602564558327&z=12.48580945300675 (From Oliver Blanthorn @bovine3dom )

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Apr 03, 2026

Replying to @bovine3dom@masto.ai

@bovine3dom Go for it! This is based on (very) small area statistics (avg popn 260ish); yesterday I was looking for similar data for France and found your IRIS map: very neat, I'll be spending lots more time with it!

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Apr 03, 2026

Replying to @ColmDonoghue@mastodon.ie

@ColmDonoghue I picked it myself, Ormond Quay, roughly centre of the central district. https://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=53.346211%2C+-6.266037&button=#map=15/53.34621/-6.26604

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Apr 02, 2026

Replying to @ColmDonoghue@mastodon.ie

@ColmDonoghue It's just a reflection, as in the original graph, to put the centre at the centre, I suppose. Also note that distance doesn't have a direction.

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Apr 02, 2026

Replying to @bthalpin@mastodon.social

The real source: https://www.tomforth.co.uk/circlepopulations/

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Apr 02, 2026

Replying to @helvick@mastodon.ie

@helvick A 2km radius is pretty small in a very big city, and a lot matters where the precise centre is. I imagine London's one looks a bit like this, i.e., capturing the City of London and other business-heavy areas

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Apr 02, 2026

I saw this on Reddit, and having the data to hand, I thought I'd replicate it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1s61cou/how_european_cities_stack_up_in_density/#lightbox

#mastodaoine

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Mar 23, 2026

Replying to @helvick@mastodon.ie

@helvick @MartinJBreen The point about Derry is interesting, and likely true. Ditto the Wicklow/Wexford difference. And note how the Galway Sprawl (I think it has a name, now) doesn't extend either west of the city (not much, anyway) or into North Clare.

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Mar 22, 2026

Replying to @helvick@mastodon.ie

@helvick I'm very impressed by the Wexford/Gorey block, and I suspected the M11 explained a good deal of that. Because the Small Areas are very small, they should pick up coastal-strip effect. However, the age of the housing stock is a bit of a blunt tool (I use it because it gives an insight into change, in a single data set, and merging SAPS over time is hard). And Galway seems to think it's Los Angeles!

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Mar 22, 2026

I've been wondering if "one-off rural housing" can be described as ultra-low density suburbanisation. I've been looking at data: Census Small Area statistics, in fact.

Result, this map:

Rural Census Small Areas with >40% of housing stock build in the period 2000-2022 (bulk in 2000-2008, 2nd phase of Celtic Tiger). Huge patterns of ultra-low density suburbanisation in some areas (Galway city environs) but not others. What's going on east of the M11, SE coast?

#mastodaoine

mastodon.social

Mastodon

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Mar 21, 2026

Replying to @dgar@aus.social

@dgar@aus.social Add these to your LLM prompt to make your AI cheating undetectable!

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Feb 19, 2026

Replying to @bthalpin@mastodon.social

@conradhackett I'll point them at the Nones next week!

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Feb 19, 2026

Replying to @bthalpin@mastodon.social

@conradhackett I misread the toot: I pointed them at the Christian Revival debunking

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Feb 19, 2026

Replying to @conradhackett@sciences.social

@conradhackett I just used this example in a lecture. I pointed my students at your article: I hope some will read it!

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Feb 01, 2026

Replying to @petergleick@fediscience.org

It's partly because the hard right realised some time ago that if democracy continued, they'd be losing elections forever, so when an opportunity to sideline democracy comes up, they seize it

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Jan 31, 2026

Replying to @PalmAndNeedle@norden.social

@PalmAndNeedle@norden.social @deborahh@cosocial.ca @sundogplanets@mastodon.social I was a big fan but 7 Eves turned me off: dopey biological determinism leading to sexism & racism...

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Jan 18, 2026

Replying to @flargh@mastodon.social

@flargh@mastodon.social https://xkcd.com/1838/

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Nov 06, 2025

Replying to @marnanel@anticapitalist.party

@marnanel@anticapitalist.party How much did it weigh?

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Oct 09, 2025

Open letter to Irish minister who's pushing ChatControl from @mariafarrell@mastodon.social

https://crookedtimber.org/2025/10/07/chat-control-in-europe-an-open-letter-to-the-irish-minister-who-wants-to-scan-all-our-messages/

mastodon.social

mariafarrell (@mariafarrell@mastodon.social) - Mastodon

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Brendan Halpin @bthalpin@mastodon.social · Nov 04, 2022

Replying to @Limerick1914@mastodon.ie

@Limerick1914@mastodon.ie Sacking huge proportions of staff and scaring the best of them away will also destroy it. If he's doing it on purpose, he's burning a lot of money.

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Brendan Halpin

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Why are we talking about building nuclear reactors?

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