Archive for March, 2004
Monday, March 29th, 2004
From the Irish Times story it appears that opinion on gay rights in Fianna Fáil ranges from (and bear in mind FF are liable to be the most conservative) those who favour civil unions to those who favour equality (with some limitations and exceptions).
Posted in Society and culture | Comments Off on Gay rights in Ireland
Monday, March 29th, 2004
So, one day down, and so many yet to go. Heading around Galway today, in the wake of the new smoking ban was interesting, and invigorating for someone like myself who is a non- (anti-) smoker. From lunchtime, spent in a cafe, Banana Phoblacht, that generally has one degenerate smoker ...
Posted in Tobacco and drugs | 2 Comments »
Monday, March 29th, 2004
Kim Zetter has a story in Wired titled "How e-voting threatens democracy" mainly about Bev Harris and the US situation, but still interesting....
Posted in Electronic Voting | 1 Comment »
Sunday, March 28th, 2004
Yet another member of the funferal family of sites, this time a site for the Flirt FM Alumni group, which I set up earlier this year. At present there's not a lot to see, but the site will feature news of developments within the group and the station, and news ...
Posted in Flirt FM, Meta, Personal | Comments Off on New sub-site – Flirt FM Alumni
Sunday, March 28th, 2004
Earlier this year the Flirt FM Alumni group was launched in a low-key fashion with the introduction of a discussion list for former volunteers with the station. Now, with the website, we hope that more people will hear about the group and get involved.
With the station's 10th birthday rapidly approaching ...
Posted in Flirt FM | Comments Off on Alumni group launched
Sunday, March 28th, 2004
I made a short submission (PDF) to the Commission on electronic voting on behalf of At What Cost?, which I sent in last Friday. Due to the short timescale involved, and my workload with some other projects, it was not feasible to run as open a drafting process as I ...
Posted in Electronic Voting | Comments Off on Submission to the Commission
Sunday, March 28th, 2004
Channel 4 programme Vee-TV, which serves the deaf community in Britain has "decided to alter sign language for the deaf to exclude offensive gestures for homosexuals, ethnic or racial minorities." Among the signs are those indicating a Jewish person (one based on a 'stereotypical Jewish nose' now replaced by one ...
Posted in Freedom of the press, International Affairs | Comments Off on Sign language and stereotypes
Saturday, March 27th, 2004
I've just returned from one of the more enjoyable nights out I've had in some time. GugaĆ, the DJ who runs the Drum bar on Mondays and the Warwick nightclub on Thursdays (I'm back in Galway at the moment) had a 'road trip' (under his 'Strange Brew' moniker) to a ...
Posted in Personal, Trivia | Comments Off on Strange Brew roadtrip
Wednesday, March 24th, 2004
Saturday 20th, as people gathered around the world to confirm that 'the world still says no to war' I was in Chicago. Some of you will remember that last year's demonstration finished with hundreds of protesters corralled on Lake Shore Drive - one of the main thoroughfares in the city ...
Posted in Political activism | Comments Off on The world still says no…
Wednesday, March 24th, 2004
There's a fascinating article in today's Irish Times detailing some of the pressure exerted by O'Reilly and Independent newspapers on the 1994-1997 government. The report is based on testimony by former Taoiseach John Bruton to the Moriarty Tribunal and it does bring the abuse of influence of O'Reilly into perspective. ...
Posted in Corporate media | Comments Off on Why Ireland needs media reform