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Mint flavouring ranks highly among most people. In fact, it is the 7th favourite ice-cream flavour (said he, without knowing what the higher favourites are, but I figure chocolate is there or thereabouts).If I offer you mint tea or chocolate mint ice cream in the weather we have been having, you are unlikely to decline. You are sitting in the stifling heat of a train station, the smells of diesel and doughnuts wafting around you and, by God, something cool would be nice.“Hey, sorry to interrupt your thoughts, but the guy in the ice-cream van just gave me two cups of mint ice cream instead of one. Would you take it, please? I can’t eat two.” A soft voice, neither cold nor confident. A nervous smile, showing hope, not expectation, and a need for you to take the ice cream before it melts into a puddle.”You consider.“Hey, they say mint is the world’s favourite flavour.”“Thank you,” you say, taking it. “You are very kind. Chocolate is the world’s favourite,” you offer with a smile.“It isn’t, is it?”“I’d know; I work for Super Icey Ice Cream.”&nbsp;“Really? You know, and it is a small world. I read in Ice Cream Times recently that you guys have the third-best delivery system for ice cream in the world.”“We did, but our new delivery system being released next month is going to push us to the number one spot.”&nbsp;“Number one spot?” “Yes indeed, we are going to wipe the floor with Squidgy Ice Cream and Lickety-Split Ice Cream.”“Well, good for you guys. Best of luck with that, and maybe, if we meet again, you can buy me one!”“That’s a deal. Take care.”And off goes the commercial intelligence in exchange for a free ice cream.That is the mint that really matters in this conversation. That is HUMINT, human intelligence.Yes, HUMINT is one of the sexier intelligence-gathering techniques because it is what people do best, i.e face-to-face. It does not rely on high-tech, and it is not impeded by cloud cover or electronic jamming. And while the latest thingamajig for the whatyamacallit (or the specs for the engine capabilities for the new F-47 fighter jet as a fine example) are the pinnacle of intelligence gathering, start-ups and SMEs are not too small to be targets.As above, HUMINT gathering against a company is often cheap and opportunistic. In the ice cream scenario, an investment analyst sees a hot and bothered employee of a company they are tracking and uses elicitation to get a quick kill. The touchpoints are barely noticeable: a conference conversation, a LinkedIn message, and a “friendly” recurring vendor contact are all innocuous until they are not. Smaller organisations tend to have the least formal security simply because they are formed around security cultures based on approachability. The company is moving fast, pivoting every few months and focused on success, while staff remain under-briefed. The same tradecraft used to recruit informants and elicit information from suspects and sources works just as well against a founder at a networking event. It is rapport-building, motivation exploitation and non-coercive elicitation that gets the inside track on what you are doing, when you are doing it and with whom you are doing it to/with/for.So, apart from declining every ice cream and every offer that seems friendly, what can small businesses do to protect themselves from evil ice cream? There is, would you believe, a checklist!The core insight from HUMINT tradecraft is that people, not systems, are the path of least resistance. A commercially viable target is recruited through elicitation, building a realistic relationship through rapport-based interactions and asking for very little.1. Map your human attack surface. It sounds horrible, doesn’t it, but it is the reality of what you are dealing with. Identify those who have sensitive knowledge and treat them as a prioritised group – these are your founders, engineers with source code/IP access, finance staff with banking access, executive assistants who have C-suite access and similar employees.2. Everyone by now knows phishing; how about elicitation? It is such a wonderfully simple concept: it works by building rapport and inviting a person to confirm, correct, or elaborate on something rather than asking a direct question they’d think twice about answering.3. Watch for the recruitment pattern in new relationships. In other words, flattery. Look for a personal investment of time and warmth that seems unusual in the context.4. Know your own people’s pressure points. Like in banking’s KYC, employers ought to know their employees, at least those who will be targeted. Do they feel financial strain, marital issues, substance dependencies or something simple like recognition needs? Remember, rapport is used to build relationships, not to threaten or coerce. There will be no black-and-white pictures in a brown envelope. Instead, it is “Ah man, the same thing happened to me last year.”5. Access by need, not by seniority. If it is company-critical data, control access to those who need it, not those who have seniority.6. Treat offboarding as a security event. Assume the worst. The possibility of hostility, not carelessness, ought to be uppermost in the mind of the security team. Access revocation, device/data return, and a clear, forceful confidentiality reminder, especially in high-knowledge-access roles, are important.7. Vet before you trust. If a new relationship comes with access implications, then a proportionate level of due diligence is required. It sounds terrible, doesn’t it (again), but the word is “proportionate”, and it is not intrusive. You are, in fact, auditing yourself and not the pleasant person sitting opposite you on the train who is trying to strike up a conversation.8. Signpost the safe place clearly. Fear of looking stupid or paranoid often prevents people from reporting concerns. Reporting that “someone is asking me odd questions” is not something we are wired to do, but it is necessary, and there has to be a person, unit or system for this kind of activity to be reported to.9. Small is not a defence. Vigilance should be proportionate to the risk, but the assumption that “we are too small to be worth it” is itself a vulnerability that can be exploited by those who seek to gain.HUMINT is only one flavour in the ice cream parlour of intelligence. It just happens to be my favourite flavour.Here is a quick experiment before you go. You are senior enough that people already treat what you say as more than idle chat – a founder, maybe, or close enough to the top that your name is on the website. You have thought about insider risk, but it is the abstract kind that is “on the list” rather than actually built. There is always something more urgent between the roadmap and the board deck. When you consider it coldly, the thing that actually worries you at 2 am isn’t a stranger cold-messaging you on LinkedIn; it is someone already inside the tent, someone trusted, who has been around long enough to know more than they probably should.Close? Notice what just happened. Not a single question. I told you what you think, confidently enough that you either nodded along or started mentally correcting me. Either way, you just told me something I didn’t know thirty seconds ago. That is elicitation. It does not feel like interrogation. It feels like being understood.Enjoy the ice cream.

Ooooooooh, minty!

Government Insists New Jet Can Land in Bad Weather. It just isn’t defining what exactly it means by "land". What goes up must come down, and amongst the mathematical thinking of all pilots, one law of safety must balance:The number of take-offs must equal the number of landings.Considering this mantra, the Irish government jet, according to the government, will be able to land. That is good news. Specifically in heavy fog? Then the political language becomes as vague as the contents of a brown envelope.Why is this so? Why is there a story, and why are the fundamentals of the story so…excuse me…foggy?This is about when foreign policy, ethics, engineering, and operational capabilities all meet inside the same purchasing decision, and each one demands priority. Every procurement decision is a hostage negotiation where the hostages have guns too. So, in the case of the procurement process for the new Irish government jet, we have seen a Mexican standoff crossed with political tap-dancing.&nbsp;How did we get here? Quite simply, when you look at it through the lens of consistency, the available evidence suggests political considerations were given greater weight than acquiring this optional capability. The Irish government's position concerning Israel has become increasingly critical since the expansion of the Israel-Hamas war, and within that backdrop, the Irish government has stated that it will not purchase equipment containing Israeli-manufactured products. It would be deemed politically damaging to reverse that decision, even when considering safety equipment.Maybe the government thought this issue would sneak under the radar (not that we bought any stealth tech while we were at it), but that’s hard when you pitch symbolism against capability. Symbolism and capability can be separated, but consistency in this respect is much more difficult. Why so? The consistency argument becomes more difficult when reports indicate that other recently procured Irish military aircraft contain integrated Israeli-origin systems. According to reporting by The Journal, such consistency does not apply to the purchase of Airbus helicopters with Helionix avionics or the new CASA 295 patrol aircraft with Israeli-made radar. Those systems are integrated, not add-ons. Politically, it seems to make a difference, but in reality, modern politics is increasingly asking engineers to solve political problems and politicians to defend engineering compromises.&nbsp;Ask a politician if pigs can fly, and they will check the political temperature before answering. It really all depends on whether they need radar or not.

Foggy Thoughts – when procurement meets politics.

Shut up! I agree with you. Why do we see the world the way we see it? Why do some of us look at a problem and feel the immediate urge to react, while others look at the same problem, take a breath, and walk away? What are the drivers that make some react as though the issue is the ending of the world as we know it, while others turn on their heels and walk to the library to seek some knowledge before voicing an opinion?From a behavioural analysis perspective, the answer lies in the fact that none of us experiences reality directly. We experience our interpretation of reality.Every person views the world through a lens constructed over decades: genetics, upbringing, education, culture, personal experiences, successes, failures, traumas, relationships, beliefs, and values. By the time two people encounter the same problem, they are not really seeing the same problem at all. They are seeing different versions of it through different filters, and both images can be blurred.Some individuals perceive uncertainty as a threat. Their brains are wired, through experience and/or temperament, to prioritise action. Ambiguity, for them, is not control, and therefore, they are compelled to respond immediately to regain the sense of control. Such action is a coping mechanism when delay can feel like weakness, indecision, or even danger.The flip side of that is perceiving uncertainty as a puzzle rather than a threat. Such individuals are comfortable in their own silence, sitting with incomplete information while striving to derive confidence from understanding rather than acting. Before forming an opinion, they instinctively seek context, evidence, and alternative explanations. To them, immediate reactions can appear reckless while thoughtful restraint is a sign of strength.This is where intelligence analysis offers such an interesting lesson. No matter the event, bumping into someone you have not seen in a while, the first encounter at a business meeting, or a street fight! No matter what the event, sense what your first interpretation of the event reveals by asking a different question from the one you would expect. Ask not, “What am I seeing?” but instead, “Why am I seeing it this way?”The person who reacts with outrage may be responding to perceived threats to deeply held values. The person who walks to the library may be responding to an equally powerful belief that truth should precede judgement. Both are behaviours driven by something beneath the surface. This, therefore, begs the question: why are we surprised when people disagree?When we understand that every opinion is built upon a unique combination of experiences, incentives, fears, values, and knowledge, disagreement becomes less mysterious. It becomes expected. When something is expected, the real skill is learning to recognise the lens through which we are looking and having the humility (or common sense) to accept that others may be looking through a very different lens.Then again, if this sounds like a load of codswallop, there is always the Dunning-Kruger effect to consider!<figure id="figure-n0tznsdb8fmpy65ewy"><img id="n0tznsdb8fmpy65ewy" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/89CFjK4HXe0C1hicrXEuCduCevFqWxdwrXpoRbPVFlOE2PZZX50Hq6h4ka0JCP43.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/89CFjK4HXe0C1hicrXEuCduCevFqWxdwrXpoRbPVFlOE2PZZX50Hq6h4ka0JCP43.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure>

What Are We Really Looking At?

<h3>On small batch roasting, the craft of listening, and why every great coffee starts with a conversation nobody sees.</h3>There is a quiet assumption in the world of specialty coffee that authenticity belongs to the farmer. That, unless you have soil under your fingernails and altitude in your lungs, you are merely a passenger in someone else's story. We'd like to challenge that.We roast coffee in small batches. We didn't plant the trees. We didn't pick the cherries. We have never stood on a hillside in Ethiopia or a farm in Colombia at harvest time. And yet, we know those places. We know them through the beans that arrive on our doorstep, through the notes left by the producers, through the importers and green buyers who act as translators between a landscape and a roaster like us.<h3>The conversation before the roast</h3>Before a single bean hits a drum, a long chain of human decisions has already shaped what's in front of us. The farmer chose the variety, perhaps a natural-process Heirloom from the Yirgacheffe region, or a washed Caturra from Huila. A cooperative decided how the cherries would be sorted and dried. An importer cupped dozens of samples and staked their reputation on a shipment. A green buyer wrote tasting notes so that a roaster, Feighcullen Coffee, could begin to understand what they were working with.That is the conversation before the roast. It is long, it is layered, and it crosses continents. Our job is to listen to it.Small batch roasters aren't hiding from complexity. They're chasing it.<h3>Terroir without borders</h3>Wine lovers are comfortable with the idea that a sommelier doesn't need to own a vineyard to understand one deeply. The same logic applies here. Terroir, the influence of soil, altitude, rainfall, and microclimate on flavour, is baked into the green bean before it ever reaches us. Our role is to translate what is already there, not to overwrite it.A Kenyan AA from the Kirinyaga region carries bright malic acidity, the same sharpness as a Granny Smith apple, because of the high altitude and volcanic red soil. A Brazilian natural from Minas Gerais tastes of dark chocolate and dried fruit because the cherry was dried whole on raised beds in the sun. These flavours aren't invented by roasters. They are revealed by us.<h3>The chat over the cup</h3>Here is what I find most compelling about this craft: every coffee handed across a counter carries a conversation that the drinker never had but can taste. The farmer's choice of processing method. The importer's relationship with a washing station. The roaster's decision to pull the batch twenty seconds earlier than the previous week. The barista's grind setting that morning.When two people sit down with a good coffee, they are, without knowing it, sharing in a chain of decisions made by a dozen people across several countries over several months. That is not a small thing.You don't need to grow the bean to love all of that. You just need to pay attention.If you're curious about small-batch roasting, specialty-origin sourcing, or the supply chain behind your morning cup, we're always happy to talk. That conversation is, after all, where this all begins.#SpecialtyCoffee &nbsp;#SmallBatch &nbsp;#CoffeeRoasting &nbsp;#CraftCoffee &nbsp;#Origin #Feighcullen #Opedium Advisory

You don't need to grow the bean to love the cup.

You know that feeling when the time comes to have the “chat” with your children? That sensation in your gut that feels like all the butterflies have decided to unite in one frantic kamikaze dive! Well, this topic is a little like that. We know that there is war in Europe, and where there is war, there are those who must respond to it and those who profit from the demand it creates.&nbsp;In civilian industry, traceability has become a compliance norm. The digital Battery Passport, mandated under EU 2023/1542, represents the first fully traceable supply chain for an industrial product class in Europe, and it offers a regulatory blueprint that defence procurement could adapt.&nbsp;Now imagine applying that same logic to defence manufacturing in Europe, where every radar magnet, missile actuator, or alloy component could carry a verified digital record of its material journey.The strategic caseModern defence systems rely on complex, multi-tiered supply chains that extend far beyond Europe's borders. A single F-35 fighter jet may contain over 417 kilograms of critical raw materials, tungsten, dysprosium, cobalt, and rare earth magnets sourced from half a dozen countries. A Virginia-class submarine, over 4170 kilos, and an Aegis-class destroyer, 2358 kilos. While these figures reflect the embedded weight of components rather than pure elemental mass, they illustrate the underlying dependency: thousands of kilograms of strategically sensitive materials embedded in each platform.*The Conundrum: Why Traceability Still Meets Resistance.So why would we need a materials passport in the world of defence manufacturing? I was once told, during a meeting with a defence manufacturer, that “we don't need traceability because all of our kit** explodes over the battlefield.” &nbsp;That mindset might suit legacy logistics, but in a world of sanctions, technology embargoes, and circular-resource mandates, ignorance is not resilience.So the conundrum is clear: should we invest so much time, effort, and money into tracing multi-tiered supply chains that stretch far beyond Europe’s borders when much of the output may be destined for destruction??&nbsp;A materials passport would:&nbsp;· Track provenance: recording where each strategic material was mined, processed, and assembled.· Verified compliance: ensuring alignment with the EU Critical Raw Materials Act and ethical sourcing standards.· Enable circularity: documenting alloys and components that can be recovered, reused, or recycled at end-of-life. Remember, not everything developed by the military-industrial complex explodes on the battlefield; there can be a capable and practicable recovery of valuable materials.· Strengthen security: give procurement officers visibility into potential exposure to non-allied suppliers or sanctioned jurisdictions.&nbsp; From Compliance to Capability.Such a framework could sit under the European Defence Agency’s ‘Materials for Defence’ coordination platform or align with the NATO DIANA initiative on supply-chain integrity.Now, the big question…would it work? What would be needed, and how would it benefit the EU’s defensive stance from a manufacturing position? The passport could become a living compliance document that would be, in effect, part sustainability record and part security audit trail. Each certified supplier would upload verified data (origin, batch IDs, processing methods) into a secure, encrypted register. Sub-assemblies would inherit digital certificates, much like serial numbers or QR codes for batteries, embedded in parts documentation. Progress would occur when systems are serviced or decommissioned, establishing a connected line of data back to the passport and creating an unbroken chain of custody. This concept is not speculative; distributed-ledger traceability systems already underpin EU pilot projects in cobalt and tungsten supply chains, providing a technical foundation for a secure defence ‘materials passport.’&nbsp;Again, just a thought, but it is a consideration about the direction we ought to take. Is it a “birds and the bees” type of discussion, uncomfortable with an urge to finish quickly? Or, maybe it is more of an ‘Ores and Allies’ talk, an honest conversation about where our strategic materials come from, who we depend on, and how transparent we are willing to be when defence readiness meets resource reality. If Europe’s future arsenal is to be both ethical and autonomous, then this uncomfortable conversation isn’t optional. It is overdue. #DefenceIndustry #SupplyChainSecurity #CriticalRawMaterials #EU #Ireland #Traceability #Sustainability #Procurement #Innovation *I checked these figures from a 2013 Strategic Report (Congressional Research Service), but I feel the weights are more aligned with component weight, more so than actual mineral and material weight.&nbsp;**He didn’t say “kit”… it just rhymed with it.

The Ores And The Allies

Electric Car Charging Against Vibrant Sunset Sky with Reflective Metallic Finish

As Europe races to decarbonise its energy systems, one question hums quietly behind the headlines: who will manage the batteries that power the transition?In Ireland, that answer increasingly points toward a coordinated framework led by ESB Networks; the Distribution System Operator (DSO) responsible for planning, building, and maintaining the national electricity grid, working alongside EirGrid, the Transmission System Operator (TSO) and market facilitator.While neither body can own or commercially operate batteries under EU unbundling rules, both play critical roles in how storage connects, performs, and delivers value to the system.From Trials to TransformationThrough initiatives such as the Dingle Project and various Local Flexibility Demonstrations, ESB Networks has shown how distributed storage, electric vehicles, and smart devices can stabilise local grids and defer costly reinforcements. Building on those lessons, EirGrid’s Demand Flexibility Product (DFP) is now introducing market-based mechanisms for flexibility, targeting over 100 MW of responsive capacity from batteries, aggregators, and community energy groups. These steps signal a structural shift: flexibility is no longer experimental; it is becoming an operational asset class for Ireland’s energy transition.The EU Batteries Regulation ArrivesIn February 2024, the EU Batteries Regulation (EU 2023/1542) replaced the 2006 Directive, establishing the world’s first fully circular, legally binding framework for battery lifecycle management, from sourcing and design to recycling and reuse.For Ireland, the Regulation carries indirect but significant implications for DSOs, TSOs, and flexibility providers:• Procurement with Proof: Manufacturers and importers must demonstrate CE conformity, sustainability, and due diligence compliance. DSOs and TSOs, while not directly regulated entities, must ensure that connected assets come with proper certification and documentation.• Data by Design: Grid operators must be ready to record and exchange essential battery data: chemistry, capacity, manufacturer IDs, and, in the future, Battery Passport identifiers through secure and interoperable systems.• Circular Accountability: Coordination at end-of-life will matter. Safe decommissioning, repurposing, and recycling processes (Articles 47 &amp; 56) will increasingly touch connection policy and asset traceability within network records.Put simply, while the Regulation governs economic operators, it reshapes the compliance environment that DSOs and TSOs must manage.Why It Matters for Ireland…and EuropeIreland’s unbundled grid model makes it an excellent case study for Europe. ESB Networks cannot own large-scale batteries, but it is developing the data, connection, and interoperability standards that enable others to participate transparently.If the emerging flexibility frameworks, such as EirGrid’s DFP and ESB Networks’ local connection standards, are aligned with the traceability and sustainability principles in EU 2023/1542, Ireland could position itself as a regulatory early mover, demonstrating how flexibility and circularity can coexist in practice.The Timeline and the Task AheadBy February 2027, all industrial and EV batteries above 2 kWh placed on the EU market will require a digital Battery Passport, recording technical and sustainability data for regulators, recyclers, and users.That gives DSOs, TSOs, aggregators, and manufacturers roughly two years to prepare, harmonising connection documentation, updating procurement templates, and building interoperability pathways between grid data systems and battery lifecycle registries.Early movers will benefit from operational efficiency, reputational trust, and smoother compliance when traceability becomes non-negotiable.The TakeawayIreland’s grid may be small, but its direction is decisive: flexibility and compliance must evolve together.If ESB Networks continues refining its network codes and data frameworks in alignment with EirGrid’s flexibility markets and the EU Batteries Regulation, it won’t just integrate new storage assets; it will demonstrate how Europe can connect policy, technology, and trust in one interoperable system.#BatteryStorage #GridFlexibility #EUCompliance #CircularEconomy #EnergyTransition #Ireland #SmartGrid #EnergyPolicy

Ireland’s Grid at a Crossroads: How ESB Networks and the EU Batteries Regulation Are Shaping the Future of Storage

Opedium Advisory

At Opedium Advisory, I provide businesses with direct access to experienced, high-impact support, without the overhead of full-time leadership. My name is Alan-James Kelly, and I’ve spent over 25 years working at the sharp end of sales, strategy, and compliance. I understand how businesses really operate, where things get stuck, where value is won, and where it’s lost.

Sometimes, challenges don’t come with neat labels. You may not need a consultant, a lawyer, or a coach — you just need someone you trust to handle it. You don’t need to define the problem to get help. Just bring it to the table.