Snippets from the papers
Incandescent light bulbs are to be phased out over the next 2 years as part of an EU initiative to reduce CO2 emissions. This is abosultely brilliant and should result in cheaper prices and availability for CFL light bulbs. We replaced all the bulbs in our house last year at a cost of about €90 - that's not cheap and will drop considerably with competition.
Kevin Barry has an interesting article in today's Irish Examiner. He recently visited the northwest and comments about how the current economic situation in ireland is having an effect on areas outside the Pale. he writes "the shimmering prosperity of the capital verges fades very quickly" and "once you get to longford and beyond, it can seem like you're back in 1987". This is a worrying sign if you take into account that house prices are falling in certain areas of dublin, a number of multi-nationals have reduced their footstep in ireland and that interest rates and inflation are set to increase in the coming months.
Evening Echo (07 March 2007): Cork nightclub "Liquid Lounge" are hoping to pilot a scheme which will see them contribute €5 towards the cost of a taxi home. The initiative will provide a safer environment for the club's clientèle. This is a great idea (I wonder if it was inspired by the Carlsberg ad) and should be rolled out on a wider basis.
Evening Echo (07 March 2007): The city council in Cork are exploring a car sharing scheme which could be allow members to use cars on a pay-as-you-go basis. I'm not convinced that this will happen as a previous attempt in Dublin failed when the insurers backing the project pulled out. It's also likely to be targeted by criminals if the design is not well though out.
Evening Echo (07 March 2007): Cillian Murphy stars in a new seven-minute internet film which tells the story of 3 soldiers trying to avoid capture by enemy troops in a war-torn city. Despite the Evening Echo calling it the "The Silent Cry" it's actually called "The Silent City". You can watch it over at YouTube.com.
Evening Echo (07 March 2007): Freakscene celebrated it's 13th anniversary on wednesday and is the longest-running branded club night in Ireland. If you have checked it out yet, you really should. An institution for indie kids in Cork!
Evening Echo (07 March 2007): Tributes to Siobhán Holland pour into bebo page. This is a tragic story but what drew my interest to the story is that it raises the question as to what happens to your website accounts when you die. I use passwordsafe to keep track of all my accounts (over 125 right now). My current thoughts are that my next-of-kin should have access to the file should I die but I'm sure others would prefer that the service provider delete their account.
Evening Echo (07 March 2007): 60% of calls to Childline get no reply. The ISPCC's annual report was released this week and has statistics for the Childline service. According to the article they only received 11,000 hits in a year!! That has to be wrong... unique visitors maybe... even so - that's extemely low!
Evening Echo (07 March 2007): Dave Hannigan's article "Please, spare me Shannon" sums up my experiences of flying since 9/11. Airports seem to make up additional rules as it suits them and don't actually do thorough checks in most cases. I personally have no problem with the additional security restrictions as long as they are actually effective. But when you have security staff being completely anal for no reason it becomes a joke. My recent experience of a LHR official denying folk from queueing for the transfer area because they had more than one bag despite current rules allowing you to have a suitcase and a laptop bag is not unique. What annoys me even more is seeing unmanned x-ray machines and metal detectors when the security queue is a mile long.
that's it for now...
Kevin Barry has an interesting article in today's Irish Examiner. He recently visited the northwest and comments about how the current economic situation in ireland is having an effect on areas outside the Pale. he writes "the shimmering prosperity of the capital verges fades very quickly" and "once you get to longford and beyond, it can seem like you're back in 1987". This is a worrying sign if you take into account that house prices are falling in certain areas of dublin, a number of multi-nationals have reduced their footstep in ireland and that interest rates and inflation are set to increase in the coming months.
Evening Echo (07 March 2007): Cork nightclub "Liquid Lounge" are hoping to pilot a scheme which will see them contribute €5 towards the cost of a taxi home. The initiative will provide a safer environment for the club's clientèle. This is a great idea (I wonder if it was inspired by the Carlsberg ad) and should be rolled out on a wider basis.
Evening Echo (07 March 2007): The city council in Cork are exploring a car sharing scheme which could be allow members to use cars on a pay-as-you-go basis. I'm not convinced that this will happen as a previous attempt in Dublin failed when the insurers backing the project pulled out. It's also likely to be targeted by criminals if the design is not well though out.
Evening Echo (07 March 2007): Cillian Murphy stars in a new seven-minute internet film which tells the story of 3 soldiers trying to avoid capture by enemy troops in a war-torn city. Despite the Evening Echo calling it the "The Silent Cry" it's actually called "The Silent City". You can watch it over at YouTube.com.
Evening Echo (07 March 2007): Freakscene celebrated it's 13th anniversary on wednesday and is the longest-running branded club night in Ireland. If you have checked it out yet, you really should. An institution for indie kids in Cork!
Evening Echo (07 March 2007): Tributes to Siobhán Holland pour into bebo page. This is a tragic story but what drew my interest to the story is that it raises the question as to what happens to your website accounts when you die. I use passwordsafe to keep track of all my accounts (over 125 right now). My current thoughts are that my next-of-kin should have access to the file should I die but I'm sure others would prefer that the service provider delete their account.
Evening Echo (07 March 2007): 60% of calls to Childline get no reply. The ISPCC's annual report was released this week and has statistics for the Childline service. According to the article they only received 11,000 hits in a year!! That has to be wrong... unique visitors maybe... even so - that's extemely low!
Evening Echo (07 March 2007): Dave Hannigan's article "Please, spare me Shannon" sums up my experiences of flying since 9/11. Airports seem to make up additional rules as it suits them and don't actually do thorough checks in most cases. I personally have no problem with the additional security restrictions as long as they are actually effective. But when you have security staff being completely anal for no reason it becomes a joke. My recent experience of a LHR official denying folk from queueing for the transfer area because they had more than one bag despite current rules allowing you to have a suitcase and a laptop bag is not unique. What annoys me even more is seeing unmanned x-ray machines and metal detectors when the security queue is a mile long.
that's it for now...
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