Dé Luain (Mon), Bealtaine (May) 31st
No more Bravehearts
Seems we can kiss goodbye to doing another Braveheart or Saving Private Ryan, for the time being at least. Because of our high production costs film producers are staying away from Ireland as a location for films. No foreign films have been produced here this year and none will be, Disney have even put all future Irish projects on hold.
Blame the builders... more..
maca @ 08:27.
Dé hAoine (Fri), Bealtaine (May) 28th
The Day After Tomorrow, Sunday?
I'm looking forward to the new flick The Day After Tormorrow, i'm into those cool special effect disaster leave-your-brain-outside flicks. Should be good.
Speaking of flicks, just saw Kill Bill Vol 1, very cool film. If you are a Tarantino fan it is a must see, if you are not go see it anyway. Lucy Liu is very good in it, actually the acting overall is excellent. It's a bloody one, you've been warned. more..
maca @ 04:05.
Dé Luain (Mon), Bealtaine (May) 24th
The death of Sean Kearney
I just heard of the death of a man by the name of Sean Kearney. I don't know much about him or his politics other than he was an Irish speaker and enthusiast, which prompted this posting.
He has an interesting article about Irish books in Fortnight magazine [Jan '04], worth checking out. more..
maca @ 03:28.
Apple plug not enough?
Apple users have been updating their systems to plug a hole in the Safari browser which "could allow malicious code to be run on a machine without a user's permission", but it's not enough according Secunia director and CEO Niels Henrik Rasmussen (via Macworld). more..
maca @ 01:47.
Dé hAoine (Fri), Bealtaine (May) 21st
Tim against TLD's
Tim Berners Lee has spoken out against the proposed TLD's. Tim reckons "the creation of STLDs to promote specific industries is tantamount to carving up the Web into pieces of commercial real estate". What difference does it make really? more..
maca @ 09:40.
Dé Máirt (Tue), Bealtaine (May) 18th
Irish caught napping?
There's much more to Aljazeera than just reporting on Iraq or getting inside info on the Al Queda. Their culture section features an article on a Jobline poll which claims that us Irish are the Europeans most likely to fall asleep at work! more..
maca @ 12:55.
Foras na Gaeilge New Site
Continuing on the Irish language theme, Foras na Gaeilge have a new website currently under construction. Looks good so far (although it's never professional to have a site showing "under construction").
Gaeilge na Seachtaine is a site I haven't seen before, simple site offering some basic phrases and a good grammar section.
Here's an interesting one, Irish Script on Screen is a project to "create digital images of Irish manuscripts, and to make these images - together with relevant commentary - accessible on a WWW site". Not much use for learning the language but interesting and worth a peek. more..
maca @ 11:58.
Gaeilge ar fud an domhain
It pleases me to see so much interest in the Irish language around the world.
In particular Irish is doing well in the US, the San Francisco Bay Area have just announced their latest Irish Language Immersion Weekend for 2004.
Another site I was looking at earlier today is the website of Conradh na Gaeilge Shasana Nua [Gaelic League of New England] who offer Irish lessons in a number of locations.
Of course Daltaí na Gaeilge have for a long time maintained a short list of Irish classes in the US and Europe, and even further afield in Australia and Japan.
Then there's the Gaeilge ar an Ghréasán, a wonderful collection of Irish resources on the web.
The web has given a great boost to the Irish language...worth writing an article on... more..
maca @ 11:41.
'Not Too Invasive' G-Mail
Harry McCracken has some good things to say about Google's GMail service. Google's latest innovation has been much criticised since it's release, as I pointed out in previous posts, but Harry comments that the service is "well-designed" and the ads seem "pretty innocuous", "easy to ignore".
The service is currently in Beta but if you know any users you can get an invite. more..
maca @ 10:27.
Dé Luain (Mon), Bealtaine (May) 17th
No stranger to controversy
The BBC takes a brief look at the career of Michael Moore, documentary/film maker and author. If you haven't seen "Bowling For Columbine" then rent it ASAP, it's an excellent film!
Looking forward to seeing Fahrenheit 9/11 [Michael's site], Michael's latest film which the White House tried to block, and a film which has just debuted in Cannes. more..
maca @ 04:22.
My name is Tarantino, Quentin Tarantino
It seems Mr.Kill Bill himself, Quentin Tarantino, is interested in directing a James Bond flick. Quentin reckons he'd like to do "Casino Royale", he's even spoken to our own Pierce brosnan about it who seemingly liked the idea.
Would be worth watching anyway, not sure if the producers would go for it though. more..
maca @ 04:03.
Dé Sathairn (Sat), Bealtaine (May) 15th
That time of year again..
Yes, once again it's the time when the Eurovision Song Contest is beamed into homes all over Europe. If ever there was a night to go to the pub tonight is the night. Chris Doran is the man representing Ireland in Istanbul with "If My World Stopped Turning", a song co-written by Bryan McFadden [Westlife *snigger*] and Jonathan Shorten [Culture Club].
"If my world stopped turning in the morning, And if God should take this all away, If it all should stop without a warning, at least there'd be no more bloody Eurovision!"
Update: Utterly embarassing night for Ireland finishing second last, our only votes being the 7 points coming from the UK...so i've heard. more..
maca @ 03:50.
Dé hAoine (Fri), Bealtaine (May) 14th
Language Links
I received [via email] a number of links to good articles by Davyth Hicks on the Eurolang website concerning some issues facing Europes minority tongues.
David calls English "the worst killer language" due to the way it can take over from a persons natural language in areas such as business: "there are already researchers, civil servants, who know certain things much better in English than in their own languages. Sometimes they are unable to discuss them or write about them in their own languages".
more..
maca @ 04:14.
Déardaoin (Thu), Bealtaine (May) 13th
War against the French
The draw for the 2007 World Cup was made in Dublin yesterday and the groups have been announced. Ireland is set to do battle with the French in Pool D. Argentina will likely take the "Americas 1" position making a very difficult group for Ireland.
The French are currently ranked 4th in the world with Ireland 5th but the French are much stronger than Ireland and could be the team to beat in the World Cup. [rankings].
If you haven't already heard, Ireland great Mick Doyle died on Monday following a car crash. A sad loss. more..
maca @ 12:50.
Dé Luain (Mon), Bealtaine (May) 10th
Massive Vote
Voting is coming to an end in India's general election. I was just checking some of the stats about the election out of curiousity; there are 182 constituencies in 12 states with more than 200 million voters in this round voting from 218,000 polling stations. There are over 2,000 candidates vying for places in the 543-seat lower house of parliment.
What a nightmare of a job! more..
maca @ 11:41.
Slithering McDowell
Michael Noonan has hit out at the government and McDowell in particular over the 'McCabe Killers affair'. Rumour has it the IRA killers of Garda Detective Jerry McCabe would be released under the terms of the GFA even though the government had sworn at the time of their conviction that they would serve their full term. Bertie denies that any deal has been made and Justice Minister Michael McDowell has responded by saying they will serve out their full term of imprisonment unless there is an end to IRA activity. more..
maca @ 11:35.
Gardaí prepare for Bush visit
Georgie arrives in Dublin on the 25th June, and protesters from the "Stop Bush campaign" and the "Irish Anti-War Movement" are planning a peaceful protest in Dublin on the 25th then the following morning in Clare. No doubt the water cannons will be out in force again! more..
maca @ 08:23.
Dé hAoine (Fri), Bealtaine (May) 7th
The cost of war
More photos from The Memory Hole showing some of the American casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. more..
maca @ 02:00.
Iraq Torture Pix
The only photos of the Iraqis being abused by US personnel I had seen were on the news. Today I decided to drob by thememoryhole.org to check out the photos. They are pretty disgusting. more..
maca @ 01:43.
Déardaoin (Thu), Bealtaine (May) 6th
Safe home Suomi...
A brutally disappointing night for Finnish ice-hockey. Once again they let it slip through their fingers, this time losing out 5-4 in overtime to the Canadians. Canada advance, Suomi gets a Finnair flight home. more..
maca @ 10:39.
Tara under threat
International archaeologists are coming together to protect Tara, arguably Irelands most important archaeological site which is due to be bissected by the building of a new motorway which would run through the 'protected zone'. Typical isn't it, run a motorway through such a significant and important site as the Hill of Tara. more..
maca @ 01:07.
Puzzling Release
The Israelis have released from prison Mohammed Taha, one of the co-founders of the Palestinian group Hamas...why? Just after killing the Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantissi in Gaza, three weeks before that it was the spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin now they release Taha? The cynical me thinks they can't kill Taha in custody but by releasing him they kill him in strike similar to the two previous leadership killings. Either that or they are "appeasing terrorists", surely not?
Good thing I told the cynical me to shut up. more..
maca @ 11:27.
Someone has too much money...
Can you tell me why oh why would someone want to pay $104.168 MILLION on a flippin painting?? Sure it's a Picasso but c'mon, $104.168 million??
Let those words sink in; one hundred and four point one six eight million squid, on a feckin picture that in all honestly is a tad dodgy looking, some bloke in a blue dress with flowers on his head smoking a pipe!
Ni thigim ar chor ar bith! I just don't understand. more..
maca @ 10:28.
Dé Céadaoin (Wed), Bealtaine (May) 5th
Athens Blasts
Certainly not good news leading up to the Olympics [or under any circumstances], Athens has been rocked by 3 bombs in a Southern suburb. "The three blasts occurred within 45 minutes in a parking lot near the police station in the southern Athens suburb of Kallithea".
Thankfully there were no injuries! more..
maca @ 09:01.
Dust Control
I never even knew something like this existed, it's an biodegradable emulsion which is used as a "stabilizer and dust control agent". It's being used by the US in Iraq to keep down the sand on helipads etc.
Damn clever... more..
maca @ 08:56.
Corporate Red Hat
Red Hat have released a new version of Linux, Red Hat Desktop. It's designed for corporate use "and will be a companion product to the company's current desktop offering". They are hoping to take a bite of the corporate market although I don't fancy their chances. I read somewhere recently [i'll try to find the link] that it would actually be more expensive for companies to change to and maintain [the sometimes free depending on company] Linux systems rather than pay the MS licencing costs for Windows.
Windows does it all, they are masters of the desktop, pity about the stability ... and the viruses etc. more..
maca @ 01:48.
Taliban Ambush
Anyone who thinks the Taliban are a spent force are sorely mistaken. About 700 people have been killed since last August, most of the attacks blamed on the Taliban and yesterday another 14 were killed in a Taliban ambush.
Resiliant buggers, aren't they?
Interesting poll on the Al Jazeera website: Do you suspect the abuse of Iraqi prisoners is routine?
Current results from 44222 pollsters: Yes - 62%, No - 31%, Unsure - 7% more..
maca @ 01:41.
POW's
It's looking worse for the US regarding the 'tortured prisoners'. The US has admitted that it knew months ago of the torturing which was going on in the Iraqi prisons. So why is it only now that they choose to reprimand those guilty?
A bit late isn't it?? Whatever credibility the US forces had before is surely shattered now.
To make matter worse it seems that 25 prisoners have died while in US custody, two of them murdered. There are also reports of sexual assualt. more..
maca @ 01:31.
Dé Luain (Mon), Bealtaine (May) 3rd
Beo agus Liz
Tá Beo Bealtaine ar fáil anois! Is suíomh go hiontach é Beo. Bain mé usáid as "Rannóg na bhFoghlaimeoirí", good for beginners.
Tá scéal le Liz Gabay ar an suíomh an mhí seo! Is ball den Gaeilge-B í Liz, tá Gaeilge líofa aici!! more..
maca @ 01:55.
Dé Domhnaigh (Sun), Bealtaine (May) 2nd
Good clean protest
Protestors in Dublin got a good cleaning last night as Gardaí turned water cannons on the anti-globalisation protesters who attempted to break through a security cordon near the Phoenix Park. 29 people were arrested on public order offences.
Overall the Gardaí seemed to do a good job this weekend, they had lots of personnel available and the water cannons, borrowed from their Northern colleagues, are bound to have helped. more..
maca @ 10:05.
Dé Sathairn (Sat), Bealtaine (May) 1st
'End of war' anniversary
Believe it or not it is actually the 1-year anniversary of the George Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech. On May the 1st 2003, aboard the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, Bush declared the end of majour combat in Iraq! Interesting then that 602 of the 741 American casualties in this war have come after Bush's famous speech. One year on we are in the situation where Coalition forces are involved in daily firefights and although the return of sovereignty to Iraqis is set for June 30th, the mission has certainly not been accomplished.
Intesesting to see where we will be on May the 1st 2005. more..
maca @ 09:35.
New era for Europe
Well unless you are blind and deaf you know that today is a new day for Europe and the start of a new era. 10 countries have joined the EU as of midnight last night. Tá fáilte romhaidh, welcome to the fold!
Big parties in Dublin this weekend, not to mention protests. more..
maca @ 09:23.