Author Archive
Thursday, February 7th, 2019
We had the memorial service for my mother today - she died Monday, and the Irish tradition is to have a short few days of funereal rituals prior to the burial. In Mom's case - always the non-conformist - she asked for a non-religious service and a cremation, so the ...
Posted in Education, Electoral politics, Flirt FM, Labour issues, Meta, Personal, Political activism, Radio, Rowing, Society and culture | Comments Off on Eulogy – Dr Anne Boyle
Tuesday, December 4th, 2018
Sorry to hear, courtesy of Radio Survivor, of the end of the Free Music Archive. It's worth listening to the Radio Survivor podcast in full, as it goes into some detail on the development, and the context within which the Archive was developed, and in which this latest development occurs.
The ...
Posted in Alternative Media, Digital Audio, Intellectual property issues, Media regulation, Online communication, Radio | Comments Off on An end to the Free Music Archive
Monday, March 20th, 2017
(While I'd originally intended to publish this on 8th March, for International Women's Day, various events intervened. Still, it's never a bad day to celebrate the work of women, as they bend the arc of history towards justice.)
Several recent news stories have caused me to reflect on women in my ...
Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity, Personal, Political activism, Society and culture | Comments Off on Celebrating women
Wednesday, November 27th, 2013
Drawing on the recent piece by Michael Taft, assessing the proportion of emigration for which the recession/response is responsible, and on some CSO estimates for population, we can see the following:
The Irish population has grown by 108,000 between 2009 and 2013.
Taft estimates a net 136,000 Irish aged 15-29 emigrated due ...
Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity, Income and poverty | Comments Off on How many jobs does Ireland need?
Friday, September 28th, 2012
The scandals around the Irish health minister are a constantly shifting landscape at present, with recent news including the resignation of Labour's junior health minister, Roisin Shortall. Prior to Shortall's resignation, I had submitted a letter to the Irish Times. Since they declined to publish it, I'm sharing it here:
A ...
Posted in Electoral politics | Comments Off on Primary Care Fallout
Sunday, May 27th, 2012
One of the strongest elements of Colbert's coverage of the post-Citizens United era has been the inclusion of Trevor Potter. It's been fun seeing just how much Potter clearly enjoys his role as real lawyer to Colbert's fake-character-having-real-impact. This piece by Potter, originally a speech, shows his deep engagement with ...
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Stephen Colbert’s lawyer, Trevor Potter, analyzes the Citizens United decision
Friday, April 20th, 2012
People think I'm completely evil and what I'm doing is completely immoral, but at the end of the day I feel like I'm just educating people on technology.
That's Hunter Moore, founder of 'revenge porn' site IsAnyOneUp, as quoted by the BBC. Compare that with the rationale provided for an 'art' ...
Posted in Intellectual property issues, Online communication, Society and culture | Comments Off on Compare and contrast
Sunday, April 8th, 2012
This isn’t 1995. This is the good fight. This is about restoration of faith. Until there is a trial for George Zimmerman, the whole justice system is on trial.
via From O.J. to Trayvon - NYTimes.com.
Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity | Comments Off on From O.J. to Trayvon – NYTimes.com
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
Twitter / @markmackinnon: At press conference at her ....
At press conference at her house, Aung San Suu Kyi was asked where Burma was as a democracy, on scale of 1-10. "On the way to 1," she said.
Posted in International Affairs | Comments Off on Twitter / @markmackinnon: At press conference at her …
Saturday, March 31st, 2012
VoIP software, like Skype, is a challenge for traditional telephony operators, who now have income from providing digital bandwidth, but are losing higher-margin operations, such as voice calls. Good to see the European Commission stand up for network neutrality on this one:
According to the European Commission, maintaining "net neutrality" – ...
Posted in Computing Technology, Online communication | Comments Off on Mobile operators seek to block Skype in Sweden – The Local