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Karlin Lillington

@klillington.bsky.social

950 followers 240 following 760 posts

Former Irish Times tech columnist (mostly retired!). Chair, New Music Dublin. Privacy/infosec/human rights. Lots of 4-legged talls/smalls. Likes bats. Talkative. 🦣 http://mastodon.ie/@klillington

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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · Dec 5

The lifetime work I'm most proud of. A decade went into those stories/columns, involving FOIs, tip-offs & concerned, informed individuals/groups helping me better understand the issues. The day the ECJ overturned the EU Data Retention Directive in the DRI judgement was the greatest of my career

Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · Dec 5

Half a billion people— the whole of the EU’s citizenry— owe their right not to be casually surveilled en masse by their governments to Karlin’s reporting on Data Retention.

We literally cited it to the court in the DRI data retention case.

Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · Dec 5

The end of an era and certainly, surely, the single most insightful run on a rapidly changing field.

Karlin Lillington’s last column in today’s Irish Times.

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paris martineau @paris.nyc · 1h

my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements

we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)

www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports

CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.

www.consumerreports.org

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 4h

WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court rejects Alex Jones' appeal of $1.4 billion judgment for calling Sandy Hook school shooting a hoax.

@apnews.com

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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 1h

😂💀

Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 3h

Sour! Skeletons! (Of COURSE I bought them!)

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Royal Irish Academy @ria.ie · 9h

@claireoconnell.bsky.social from @irishtimes.com has published a wonderful interview with 2025 Hamilton Speaker Kip Thorne, ahead of the Hamilton Lecture this Thursday. The lecture is sold out but a recording will be available soon on the RIA website

Read it here: www.irishtimes.com/science/spac...

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 10h

On the 6th of October Israel had about 5,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Today, *after the exchange* Israel holds at least 9,000 prisoners, most of them have not been charged.
Conditions in prisons became intolerable after Oct 7. Torture and starvation are standard.

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Philip Boucher-Hayes @philipb-h.bsky.social · 3d

Q: Why was the person responsible for the Blackwater fish kill never found?

A: it wasn’t anybody’s job.

I talked to the heads of all the agencies involved in the investigation, about why the biggest pollution event in Irish history fell between the cracks.

Listen: 👉 www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

CountryWide - RTÉ Radio 1

The CountryWide team feature the events, people and happenings that bring colour and life to communities, towns and villages across the country.

www.rte.ie

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Emma Jacobs @emmavj.bsky.social · 10h

If Tommy robinson was a journalist he wouldn’t have thousands in cash and a flash car

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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 1d

Fecking autocorrect could get you arrested! Just wrote a group email to architects and builder beginning with ‘The mezzanine storage space…’ and GMail changed it to ‘The mescaline storage space…’ which thankfully I noticed just as I was about to hit ‘send’ and do 5-10 years

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bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 23h

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
2? Questions
I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?

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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 11h

This is the inevitable outcome of relentless anti-immigration political rhetoric and a media environment which disproportionately amplifies the voices of racists, giving the indication that they are the "voice of the public" rather than the minority they are.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

‘Frightened to get out of their cars’: Britain’s toxic race debates threaten overseas care workers

Staff are being advised to travel in mixed groups and carry panic alarms as incidents of intimidation spread

www.theguardian.com

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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 10h

ICYMI:

Stephen Miller's spouse doesn't know Joe Biden exists.

A screencap of a tweet from Katie Miller.

Why are there no living female hostages?
12:30 PM · Oct 13, 2025
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3M
Views

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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 21h

So depressing

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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 21h

😳

John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 21h

The legend of the baker of Eekloo, Cornelis Van Dalem.

Cosmetic surgery 16thC style.

When unhappy with their looks people would go to Eekloo bakery. There they'd be beheaded & have cabbages to stop bleeding. The improved heads would then be baked in the oven.

(Rijksmuseum)

Reposted by Karlin Lillington

Il Pomodoro @dabenner.bsky.social · 1d

This seems like confirmation

Then Mr. Trump won the presidency back, and the Biden administration was determined to get a cease-fire in place by January, before it left office. It drafted a peace plan, much of which was quite similar to the “20 point plan” Mr. Trump recently issued. There was slow progress: More than 130 hostages had been released by the time the January cease-fire took place.

“We handed over a cease-fire that silenced the guns, had hostages coming out and aid going in, along with a day-after plan to make it permanent,” Mr. Blinken said. But when the new administration took over, “the moment was squandered,” he added. “Israel and Hamas went back to war for eight months.”

Israeli officials tell a different story. Mr. Biden was a lame duck, they noted, and disengaged. Mr. Trump was a known entity, less likely to lecture Mr. Netanyahu in private or public. They put their money on a new president, and a new negotiating team

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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 21h

You constantly doubt me

Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 21h

Soft-soled trail shoes and synthetic clothing “appear to be significant contributors to microplastics finding their way into these remote, otherwise pristine waters”

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Microplastics are brought into the wilderness on hiking shoes and gear, study shows

Research comparing Adirondack mountain lakes in New York suggests foot traffic is significant source of pollution

www.theguardian.com

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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 1d

A conservative Christian group helped end the constitutional right to an abortion in the U.S. Now, it has taken its playbook to Britain. Here's how the Alliance Defending Freedom became an unlikely conduit between MAGA Republicans and the Reform U.K. party. nyti.ms/3KLqGol

They Helped Topple Roe v. Wade. Now Their Sights Are Set on Britain.

An organization that fought abortion rights in the United States is now an unlikely conduit between MAGA Republicans and Britain’s ascendant Reform U.K. party.

nyti.ms

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Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 1d

This is bad. Share stuff from the original journalists who are putting themselves on the line, not the aggregators. ❤️

amanda moore 🐢 @noturtlesoup17.bsky.social · 1d

This really fucking sucks!!! I’m not even paid to be here by an outlet, so doing this is just fucking me personally!

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Rónán Hession @ronanhession.bsky.social · 1d

The latest @irishtimes.com fiction in translation column by Catherine Taylor is now online for subscribers 👇

Fiction in translation: The Midnight Timetable; The Woman Dies; The Ferryman & His Wife; My Name Is Stramer; Wolf Moon’ and The Loft

Books by Bora Chung (Korea), Japan (Aoko Matsuda), Frode Grytten (Norway), Mikołaj Łoziński (Poland), Julio Llamazares (Spain) and Marlen Haushofer (Austria)

www.irishtimes.com

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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 1d

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Michael Stipe @michaelstipe.bsky.social · 2d

and I feel fine

jamma10.bsky.social @jamma10.bsky.social · 3d

Toilet, Bristol UK circa 2015

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 2d

“A viral and ridiculous image, such as a cute cartoonish frog standing off against a row of heavily-equipped militarised police, or even national reserve members, tells the story far more quickly than official statements ever could. It also spreads further and faster.” inews.co.uk/opinion/trum...

Trump’s movement was fuelled by Pepe the Frog — now another amphibian is pushing back

A new figure has emerged at anti-ICE protests in Portland - a man wearing an inflatable frog costume

inews.co.uk

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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 1d

The Portland frog has to be Time magazine’s person of the year

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Karlin Lillington @klillington.bsky.social · 2d

See: Elon Musk and Zuckerberg