Posted by maca on April 4, 2005
Irish language blogs are pretty thin on the ground but they do exist. Via the excellent An t-Imeall (Blag ón Imeall) I discovered An Caomhach le Séamas Poncán, Gaeilgeoir na Fionlainne by a very talented Finn, Muddle-Headed Memes and Musings by the Muddle Headed Wombat (blog titles/authors don’t come much cooler than that), Domhan April le April McCabe-Snelling, Blog Shomhairle, blag ón Tuaisceart na hÉireann le Somhairle Marr, Hilary NY le Hilary Mhic Suibhne, and of course we won’t forget Mick Fealty who posts occassionally in Irish on Slugger O’Toole. Lots of sites to keep you going if you’re a Gaeilgeoir.
Posted by maca on April 3, 2005
I’ve been a fan of U2 for many years, since around 1984 although I didn’t actually buy any albums until 1987 when I got The Joshua Tree. I started building my collection then and collected all the albums (mostly on tape, I still use tapes believe it or not) until they released The Best of 1990-2000 which I didn’t bother buying. Until now that is, just I just bought the 3cd Limited Edition. I’ve decided to renew my collection (with help from a small bonus I got at work), time to start replacing all the tapes with CD’s. Next on the shopping list is their latest work How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.
Posted by maca on April 3, 2005
Robert Friedman, Perspective editor for the St. Petersburg Times prepares “a more detailed advance directive dealing with end-of-life issues” following the death of Terri Shiavo. Well worth a read. Hat tip to ‘Davros’ who posted the link on Slugger.
Posted by maca on April 3, 2005
Pope John Paul II has died in Rome aged 84. According to a statement issued by the Vatican he died at 8.37pm GMT April 2nd. Whatever you think of the man or the Catholic church it cannot be denied that during his 26 years as leader of the Roman Catholic church he was a force for good. He will always have a special place in the hearts of Irelands catholics following his visit, the first visit of a reigning Pope, in September 1979 and his sermon in Phoenix Park to more than 1.25 million people.
RTÉ biography; BBC obituary, world reaction & challenges facing the church; Guardian obituary & special report; Reuters reaction; Times last messages.
Posted by maca on April 2, 2005
Prince Charles appears to have stuck his foot in it yesterday. When giving time for the media while skiing in Switzerland, an annual event, Charles was heard to mutter to his sons “I hate these people,” and “Bloody people. I can’t bear that man anyway. He’s so awful, he really is.” Matters not, when he’s King he can have them all executed in the Tower of London.
Posted by maca on April 1, 2005
Just noticed on my gmail accont my storage capacity is now up to 1550 Mb! A quick check of the New Features page and I see that Googles plan is to extend their service to over the 2Gb mark!!
“To celebrate our one-year birthday, we’re giving everyone one more gigabyte. But why stop the party there? Our plan is to continue growing your storage beyond 2GBs by giving you more space as we are able.”
Outstanding. And actually as I write this I see that my capacity is slowly creeping up – 1555 Mb at this moment! I have 50 Gmail invites, anyone want one??
Update 1: Just watching BBC World, being the only English language news station I can get here, and they covered this very subject.
Update 2: Gas, just reading my gmail when I notices the advertisment in the bottom “Yahoo elevates e-mail storage“. Yahoo has bumped their service up to 1Gb. It seems like Googles move is in response to this. (1672 Mb)
Posted by maca on April 1, 2005
Just got a new external hard drive yesterday. Cash is tight and since I didn’t need that much storage space anyway I just went for a simple option, the Lacie P2 80Gb [link shows the firewire version]. It does the job … for now.
I’m still dreaming of winning a few pound and buying the most kick-ass of kick-ass machines ever….someday….
Posted by maca on April 1, 2005
Pope John Paul II has suffered another blow to his health, yesterday afternoon he experienced septic shock and heart failure after developing a urinary tract infection. His condition is being described as “very serious” and last night he was read the last rites. Looks like it’s the end for our 84 yr old Pontiff.
Update: It’s big in the news now World prays for Pope, Pope “fading serenely”, Guardian special report.
Posted by maca on March 30, 2005
We had a discussion last week on Slugger, actually an old discussion (Nov ’04) on rights for gay couples in Ireland which was re-opened leading to a somewhat heated discussion on homosexuality and how “unnatural” it is (according to some). Anyway today I chanced upon this relevant article in the Guardian about necrophilia among ducks. Dutch researcher Kees Moeliker actually got a Nobel prize for biology for his research in his area. Now, ducks being homosexual is nothing new (about 10% of them are) but Moelikers research shows that they engage in “attempted rape flights”. The article describes Moelikers first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard anas platyrhynchos, it makes for interesting reading.
I wonder what his qualification is “Masters in Raping Ducks”, how does he try to explain that one? “No I don’t rape ducks, the ducks rape, I just watch”. Hmm, should have done Accountancy.
Posted by maca on March 30, 2005
The worlds largest seal hunt got under way 1 day, 7 hours and 03 minutes ago (at time of writing), an estimated 25,200 seals have been killed so far. The hunt will bring in approx. €13m for the local communities (compare than to the $3 billion in seafood which the Canadians export annually to the US) which is badly needed, still ya can’t help but feel sorry for the poor creatures being bludgeoned to death.