Archive for February, 2004

Why Visas don’t work

Monday, February 16th, 2004

If you needed proof of the hellish bureaucracy administrating migration policy, then the headline from the Chicago Sun-Times should persuade you: Kidney donor denied visa for cousin's transplant. And for those who need more, well, here it is:U.S. Embassy officials in Manila think Monzon's relative may not have enough family ...

Youth Court offers hope

Sunday, February 15th, 2004

Today's ZNet email commentary was a fascinating profile of Washington D.C's Youth Court, which is sponsored by the Time Dollar Institute.Asked for evidence of the program's merit, Hamilton said: "If you sit and listen to these kids deliberate you see the tremendous learning process that goes on. You see the ...

Funding media regulation: back to the future?

Saturday, February 14th, 2004

How funny. A short number of years ago I remember (then minister) de Valera suggesting that commercial radio stations should no longer have to pay licence fees (which were based on revenues). Now the Irish Times reports that a report to the government is suggesting ways to collect revenues from ...

Faith Based e-voting in Georgia

Saturday, February 14th, 2004

Voters in the state of Georgia, USA are in a similar situation to those in Ireland, though a number of years ahead of us. The minister could do worse than take account of one voter's comments thatThen I started to question the results. I kept saying, at first, that there ...

Right Hook interview

Friday, February 13th, 2004

I (Andrew) appeared on New Talk 106's The Right Hook this afternoon. They had Dave Walsh from the department first, and then me. I managed to get a number of points in - such as cost, the secrecy/scrutiny balance - but there wasn't time to skewer some of the other ...

Audio footage

Friday, February 13th, 2004

Paul's appearance on Liveline on 5th February is archived here. Andrew's interview on The Right Hook is archived here. The item begins with an interview with the Department representative - David Walsh - and then moves to Andrew.

Comcast building a (better?) mousetrap

Friday, February 13th, 2004

Alternet has a brief overview of Comcast's bid to buy Disney.

Oxford seminar

Friday, February 13th, 2004

The Oxford Internet Institute has a seminar featuring Dr. Barbara Simons of the ACM on 19th March in which she talks about the (now defunct) SERVE internet voting project, her analysis of it, and the politics of e-voting research. Sounds interesting, for those who can make it.

Opposition parties agree common approach on electronic voting

Friday, February 13th, 2004

The three main opposition parties - Fine Gael, Labour, and the Green party - have agreed a motion opposing electronic voting, according to RTE and politics.ie. In related news Labour leader Pat Rabitte has claimed that electronic voting is 'yet one more proof of [the government's] contempt for democracy." He ...

CorpWatch on Halliburton workers in Iraq

Friday, February 13th, 2004

There's an interesting story on CorpWatch about migrant workers employed by Halliburton in Baghdad. Looking at profiteering by Halliburton, and also drawing in the experiences of the workers - who get wages based on where they come from - the article gives an interesting insight to the many complex issues ...