The Hurler On The Ditch

Gervais podcast

Ricky Gervais, the comedian behind The Office and Extras, is returning to radio with a weekly show that will only be available as a podcast through the Guardian Unlimited website...The first of their 12 weekly shows will be available on the GU website next Monday.

Guardian

posted by Hurler @ 4:30 pm 1 Comments

Firefox 1.5 came out today

Boing Boing reports...

Firefox 1.5 came out earlier today. I've been using it for an hour now, and boy is it nice. If you're still using Microsoft's Explorer or Safari, now's a great time to switch -- better ad-blocking, better usability, better security, and better standards-compliance. And it's free of charge and free to hack! Firefox 1.5 came out earlier today. I've been using it for an hour now, and boy is it nice. If you're still using Microsoft's Explorer or Safari, now's a great time to switch -- better ad-blocking, better usability, better security, and better standards-compliance. And it's free of charge and free to hack!

Firefox

posted by Hurler @ 3:59 pm 0 Comments

Tech group defends low tax regime

An implication that the tech sector pays the PAYE and not the workers

A group representing high-tech companies has said a recent debate about whether or not Ireland is a 'tax haven' is missing the point.

ICT Ireland chairman Michael Daly, who is also IBM's general manager in Ireland, said the tech sector was contributing €629m a year in Corporation Tax and €1.7 billion a year in PAYE and PRSI contributions to the Exchequer.

...they can if it makes them feel good and I can't see how the argument is missing the point. The point from the US revenue's view is 'Tax Haven'.

posted by Hurler @ 8:05 pm 0 Comments

Disfiguring the Countryside

Graffiti is a blight on our whole environment and a rapidly spreading epidemic. I have watched as the city (Dublin) has become disfigured over the past few months.

Recently I travelled on the motorway to the Midlands and found that elaborate 'tags' as this graffiti is known sprayed on the concrete pillars supporting the flyovers. Many of these 'tags' are very elaborate and took several hours to spray. As they are on concrete they will be difficult and expensive to remove. Street furniture has also been widely attacked and it is distressing to see lovely redbrick walls disfigured.

Passing motorists must have see the vandals at their work. A quick call to the Guards (Police) would have been the civic thing to do. I know that the Guards have lots of things on hand but Malcolm Gladwell's analysis strongly suggests that tackling this level of vandalism is one of the ways that more serious crime is prevented.

This was a major problem in New York and the 'zero tolerance' approach which they took is well reported in Malcolm Gladwell best-seller 'The Tipping Point'. We are going to have to take the same no nonsense approach here in Dublin.

posted by Hurler @ 5:20 pm 0 Comments

Courage

It takes real courage to stand up to your boss even when he asks you to do something that you know is wrong...

A GOVERNMENT minister's private secretary has sensationally resigned after refusing to attend a 'political function'.

Una McDermott, a civil servant private secretary to Transport Minister of State Ivor Callely, walked out after he ordered her to accompany him to a policy breakfast attended by political parties in Dublin.

The development is bound to cause huge embarrassment in Government circles.

Ms McDermott claimed that Ivor Callely requested she attend a 'political event', according to sources. Mr Callely was not available for comment. ..

...this gives me hope that there are people who will do what is right even at cost to themselves. We need to applaud and support these people.

Irish Independent

posted by Hurler @ 9:57 pm 0 Comments

New Norms?

Recently I was startled and felt intimidated as I approached the cash desk in a large shop. The person in front of me was dressed from head to toe in black long flowing robes.

What intimidated me was that the face was completely covered in the same black material with just a narrow quarter inch slit for the eyes. I don't know whether it was a man or woman though the assumption was that it was a woman of middle east origin. If I wanted a good disguise for a robbery this was it! The face hidden from prying cameras and who would expect what they thought was a demure woman to have any evil intent?

The norm in our society is that we allow our faces to be seen. Those who live here should apply the norms of our society. If I go to a country with a different norm from us e.g. removing shoes before entering a house, I am expected to observe that norm. The situation recently became a serious issue in a Belgian town.

The phones at city hall began ringing nonstop one morning last year when several masked figures were spotted walking through the cobbled streets of this pastoral town. A small panic erupted when one of the figures, covered head to ankle in black fabric, appeared at a school and scared children to tears.

It turned out the people were not hooded criminals, but six female residents of Maaseik who were displaying their Muslim piety by wearing burqas , garments that veiled their faces, including their eyes. After calm was restored, a displeased Mayor Jan Creemers summoned the women to his office.
"I said, 'Ladies, you can be dressed all in Armani black for all I care, but please do not cover your faces,' " Creemers recalled. "I tried to talk to them about it, but it was impossible. They said, 'We are the only true believers of the Koran.'
Washington Post"

This has also been raised in the context of wearing hoodies and Michael Noonan has raised a serious issue.

With the rapid changes taking place in our society this needs to be seriously examined. Should society change to accommodate the new arrivals or should they fit in with existing norms?

posted by Hurler @ 7:49 pm 0 Comments

Say Again

Fisk, who lives on Dicks Street in the Los Angeles suburb of West Hollywood, has gone to city hall to get the road's name changed... Dicks Street is in a neighborhood that fancies first names for its roads, with Keith and Norma among the choices...

What's in a name!

Reuters

posted by Hurler @ 5:29 pm 0 Comments

Pay Attention

Almost a quarter of British motorists admit they have been so distracted by roadside billboards of semi-naked models that they have dangerously veered out of their lane.

In research released Monday, one in five male drivers said their eyes were diverted from the road by posters of scantily clad women -- such as the saucy cleavage shots of model Eva Herzigova in her notorious adverts for Wonderbra.

What do they expect?

Reuters

posted by Hurler @ 6:35 pm 0 Comments

I Know Where I'm Going

A lot of happy people.

A nursing home in Ireland has hit on a cheering way to keep up the spirits of its elderly patients -- by providing its own pub.

St Mary's Hospital in County Monaghan, near the Irish border with Northern Ireland, believes ready access to a good pint may help its patients -- average age 85 -- actually live longer.

The way to go.

Reuters

posted by Hurler @ 12:49 pm 0 Comments

More Patent Nonsense

Slashdot report

Among the three new patents awarded to Amazon.com this week is one that covers collecting reviews by letting visitors to a Web site fill out a form

Techdirt has the same story. They comment

Amazon has been known for getting these types of patents more for defensive, rather than offensive purposes

Would you believe...This is crazy, soon they will want to patent knowledge.

posted by Hurler @ 6:20 pm 0 Comments

There are Bugs and there are BUGS

Last month automaker Toyota announced a recall of 160,000 of its Prius hybrid vehicles following reports of vehicle warning lights illuminating for no reason, and cars' gasoline engines stalling unexpectedly. But unlike the large-scale auto recalls of years past, the root of the Prius issue wasn't a hardware problem -- it was a programming error in the smart car's embedded code. The Prius had a software bug.

With that recall, the Prius joined the ranks of the buggy computer -- a club that began in 1945 when engineers found a moth in Panel F, Relay #70 of the Harvard Mark II system.1The computer was running a test of its multiplier and adder when the engineers noticed something was wrong. The moth was trapped, removed and taped into the computer's logbook with the words: "first actual case of a bug being found."

Wired News
hat tip mcarthurs web

posted by Hurler @ 10:08 pm 0 Comments

Who is Charlie McCreevy's third Socialist?

Who is Charlie McCreevy's third Socialist? This has bothered me since it was asked on Questions and Answers. Do you know?

posted by Hurler @ 8:29 pm 0 Comments

Exploitation

The treatment of immigrant workers gets worse.

THREE investigations are under way into how 13 immigrants were abandoned on an island on a night of wind and driving rain.

What happened in Irish history is being repeated: shame on us, we are no better than the worst of the Landlords.

Irish Independent

posted by Hurler @ 6:10 pm 0 Comments

The Stars at Night

Now for the weather to clear...

Numerous sightings of massive fireballs in the skies over Germany this week have led to an upsurge in reports of UFOs, but scientists believe the cause could be a bizarre annual meteor blitz.
...the NASA Web site quotes meteor expert David Asher from the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland as saying that people "are probably seeing the Taurid meteor shower."

Reuters

posted by Hurler @ 9:20 pm 0 Comments