Archive for October, 2006
Friday, October 27th, 2006
It can be difficult to keep your cool when it's your first sit-down TV interview, and particularly when it's being conducted by a talking, foul-mouthed turkey, but somehow I think my sister acquits herself rather well....
Posted in Rowing | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 17th, 2006
So in my most recent post I talked up the performative potential of rally speeches, as opposed to academic performances. Were it not for the fact that he published his comments a day previous to myself, one might see Patrick's comments at Prisonship as a response to mine:i want to ...
Posted in Political activism | Comments Off on Panels as polemical performance
Sunday, October 15th, 2006
It has been some time since I've made a political speech, and somehow I'd missed the challenge. Academic presentations are such a different environment, where even as you are working to persuade your audience of your argument, you must feign objectivity, neutrality. It's possible to work towards a climax, to ...
Posted in Labour issues | Comments Off on Talking at the GEO rally
Wednesday, October 11th, 2006
It's still October, but already 2006 is looking to set an unhappy record, with the World Association of Newspapers reporting more journalists killed worldwide so far this year (78) than in any full year in the past decade (2004's total was 72). Iraq, unsurprisingly perhaps, has by far the most ...
Posted in Freedom of the press | Comments Off on Record number of journalists killed
Tuesday, October 10th, 2006
The BCI have just announced a conference on Irish Broadcasting - themed around identity and relationships - for 7 and 8 November, in the Conrad Hotel in Dublin. There are some interesting speakers promised, but I'm somewhat disappointed by the fact that it seems completely composed of plenary sessions and ...
Posted in Media regulation | Comments Off on BCI conference on broadcasting coming up
Sunday, October 8th, 2006
On A Critical Ear (my show on WRFU) last Thursday, Bob Naiman pointed listeners to the the comments of Senate majority leader Frist who, after a visit to Afghanistan, said that the Afghan war against Taliban guerrillas can never be won militarily, and advocated bringing some of those who see ...
Posted in International Affairs | Comments Off on Western campaign in Afghanistan close to collapse?
Saturday, October 7th, 2006
I came by chance across a report published earlier this year by researchers at Yale and Columbia, assessing the environmental standing of countries around the world. The Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index is based, according to the authors, on two objectives:reducing environmental stresses on human health andprotecting ecosystem vitality.I was ...
Posted in Society and culture | Comments Off on Ireland gets mixed score on environmental performance
Friday, October 6th, 2006
A new Broadcasting Bill is currently being considered in Ireland, and a number of issues bear comment: The Oireachtas committee dealing with the Bill mandated an internet-based consulatation. Unfortunately, I was travelling when I became aware of the process, and though I registered, I wasn't able to set aside time to ...
Posted in Corporate media, Media regulation, Public Service Media, Radio | Comments Off on Broadcasting Bill response
Wednesday, October 4th, 2006
Another case of anti-Roma discrimination in Europe, this time involving a politician from soon-to-be-EU-member-state Bulgaria, making disparaging comments about a Roma MEP and Roma women in general, including the following choice quote:"In my country there are tens of thousands of Gypsy girls who are much more beautiful than this honourable ...
Posted in Society and culture | Comments Off on Anti-Roma sentiment in the European Parliament