I’ve always been a huge fan of TV Go Home and Charlie Brooker in general and it seemed like Irish TV and culture was a good target for the kind of barbed surrealism that he does. (I’m not claiming I’m in his league or anything but he’s the main influence). I was really surprised that there hadn’t been a parody RTÉ Guide already. TV listings are 140-ish characters already and the RTÉ Guide has a kind of weird place in Irish culture where everybody knows it but nobody our age really has any idea of what’s in it anymore. We associate it with a small-c conservatism, or I did at least and I play that up occasionally with the account.

The success of [Mayo's] Great Western Greenway [trail] has overtaken that of others, such as the Great Southern Trail group, which has been working hard to install a walking and cycling route on sections of the former Limerick-Tralee railway line.
On February 2nd, to mark the 50th anniversary of its closure, about 150 members and supporters of the Great Southern Trail set out from the old railway station at Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick, along the most recently developed section to cross the Kerry county boundary. The trailers were greeted by a barricade on the border, manned by more than 30 farmers, including the Listowel Fine Gael town councillor Denis Stack. A stand-off continued for three hours, with the Garda mediating in vain. The farmers were trying to lay claim to the land occupied by the disused railway line, even though Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar had made it clear that CIÉ “is the owner of the property [and] will object to any application by others to register these lands”.

"The evidence does establish that there is a practice in the airline and online travel agency sectors of contractually binding web users by click wrapping or browse wrapping, which practice is generally and regularly followed by the operators in those sectors. In reality, it is difficult to see how online trade could be carried on in the absence of those devices. As regards the third question which arises from the MSG decision, in this case it is whether the defendant was aware or is presumed to have been aware of the practice. The evidence before the Court, in my view, clearly demonstrates that the defendant was aware of the practice, it being a practice which is generally and regularly followed when making bookings with online travel agents and with airlines and which, in the words of the Court in the MSG case, may be regarded as being a consolidated practice. Accordingly, in my view, by application of Article 23(1)(c), the defendant is bound by the jurisdiction clause in the Terms of Use on the plaintiff’s website by its use, either through the medium of an automaton or a manual operator or a third party data provider, of the website.”

“The overall argument is that the Irish media are part and parcel of the political and corporate establishment, and as such the news they convey tend to reflect those sectors’ interests and views. In particular, the Celtic Tiger years involved the financialisation of the economy and a large property bubble, all of it wrapped in an implicit neoliberal ideology. The media, embedded within this particular political economy and itself a constitutive element of it, thus mostly presented stories sustaining it. In particular, news organisations acquired direct stakes in an inflated real estate market by purchasing property websites and receiving vital advertising revenue from the real estate sector. Moreover, a number of their board members were current or former high officials in the finance industry and government, including banks deeply involved in the bubble’s expansion."

'Our maternity services are amongst the best in the world’. This phrase has been much hackneyed since the heartbreaking death of Savita Halappanavar was revealed in mid October. James Reilly and other senior politicians are particularly guilty of citing this inaccurate position. So what is the state of Irish maternity services and how do our figures compare with other comparable countries? Let’s start with the statistics.

Eight deaths per 100,000 is not bad, but it ranks our maternity services far from the best in world and below countries such as Slovakia and Poland.

It seems that RTE has become a disaster zone, with libels and incompetence overseen by incapable management, and this is reflected in that organisation’s financial results. RTE still employs nearly 2,000 people and supports jobs and industry across independent producers and suppliers; it is a major business. But the time has come to call a halt to delusional management that is sinking the organization deeper into a quagmire which will ultimately need to be bailed out by the State. And Noel Curran is fobbing us off with flying a kite about a reduction in 65-year old Pat Kenny’s salary from €630,000 to €570,000?!

The matter is something which should be of concern to every gig-going music fan, regardless of whether they go to Stradbally or not. For years, many have asked about TicketMaster's quasi-monopoly position in the marketplace and why this is so. We’ve always been told that promoters preferred to deal with one company rather than several and that TM’s systems and nationwide reach yadda yadda yadda was the bees’ knees etc. Other companies have tried to compete but no-one has been able to beat TM at this game.

But why would promoters go elsewhere when they’re getting a slice of the TM fees back as rebates? Those past off-the-record attempts by and briefings from promoters blaming TM for those fees can now be seen as hypocritical. They’re sticking with TM because they’re receiving a take of the fees paid by punters who have no other choice in service provider if they want to get their hands on tickets. You wonder what the acts make of this cash-grab – perhaps some whip-smart agent is already making a claim for a percentage of the rebates because there would be no rebates in the first place without the act.

Surely this is an issue for the Competition Authority and National Consumers Association too, given the manner in which the rebates are made and TM’s deals with the promoters? While promoters under TM deals are free to sell a certain proportion of their tickets with another provider, it’s usually only a very small percentage of the total and unlikely to trouble TM’s bottom line. Also, given that the rebates are volume-driven, it’s better for the promoters to keep the largest possible chunk of their business with TM. It seems that we have a new suspect in the blame game about why ticket prices are so high.

Dr. Knowles’ testimony confirms for me that the law played a role, because her statements indicate the standard of care for treatment of chorioamnionitis is less aggressive in Ireland. This can only be because of the law as there is no medical evidence to support delaying delivery when chorioamnionitis is diagnosed. Standard of care is not to wait until a woman is sick enough to need a termination, the idea is to treat her, you know, before she gets sick enough. An elevated white count and ruptured membranes at 17 weeks is typically enough to make the diagnosis, so Dr. Knowles needs to testify as to what in Savita’s medical record made it safe to not recommend a delivery.

By the way, I also disagree with Dr. Knowles about her interpretation of Savita’s medical record, the chart doesn’t have “subtle indicators” of infection, it screams chorioamnionitis long before Wednesday morning. In North America the standard of care with chorioamnionitis is to recommend delivery as soon as the diagnosis is made, not wait until women enter the antechamber of death in the hopes that we can somehow snatch them back from the brink. If Irish law, or the interpretation thereof, had nothing to do with Savita’s death no expert would be mentioning sick enough at all.

Speaking today, spokesman Charles Stanley-Smith said; "This idea is insane. This area has suffered from dumping due to a lack of enforcement - yet the council now propose to effectively withdraw services altogether.  As numerous studies such as 'the broken window hypothesis' indicate, where a small problem is left un-tackled it is likely to become far worse rather than better. In other words, rather than increase enforcement to solve the problem, Dublin City Council is going to remove enforcement.  How will this deal with the problem?  Imagine if that logic were applied to crime; would the removal of police services in an area help resolve criminal behaviour - or increase it? The answer is obvious."

Fetal survival with ruptured membranes at 17 weeks is 0%, this is from prospective study. [...but] “real and substantial risk” to the woman’s life is what is required by the Irish constitution to terminate a pregnancy, *whether or not the foetus is viable*.

Former IMF chief of mission to Ireland, Ashoka Mody, above left with Ajai Chopra in 2010. Melancholy of eye and large of loafer, Ashoka was involved in negotiating Ireland’s EU/IMF bailout. [...] This morning Ashok gave an interview to Gavin Jennings on Morning Ireland, in which he admitted Ireland’s bailout was riddled with mistakes, namely the non-burning of the senior bondholders and the program of austerity.

Jennings: “So, if imposing austerity on Ireland was wrong, or a mistake; if not allowing any burning of bondholders, whether official, sovereign or private was a mistake; you were centrally involved in that program. I know Ajai Chopra was very much the public face of the IMF mission to Ireland. But you were centrally involved in constructing this bailout. How much responsibility do you take for those errors.”

Mody: “Yes, so, obviously, I have to take the responsibility in…but I’m in very good company in taking responsibility in this. There were many parties involved. And my role really was to bring such matters to the attention of people who finally made these decisions.”

“Ineluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things *that* I am here to read.”

Rick Falkvinge, founder of the Swedish Pirate Party, will examine the case for reform of copyright and patent law in the EU. Legalised file sharing, free sampling and shortened copyright protection times are the main elements of a proposal co-authored by Mr. Falkvinge which was submitted to the European Parliament in 2012. He will question whether, in the context of ever-increasing online activity, existing legal frameworks pose a threat to users’ civil liberties.

The Royal Irish Academy, the National Museum of Ireland, and The Irish Times are collaborating with the EU Presidency, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Adobe to bring you a gift of A History of Ireland in 100 objects ‘from the people of Ireland to the people of the world’ for St Patrick’s Day. It is available as an interactive app for Apple iPhone and iPad, for most Android tablets and on the Kindle Fire, from our website, as well as associated app stores. You can also experience the book on your computer, smartphone or eReader by clicking on the 'eBook' button below. The gift is free to download until the end of March. 

"It is a cyber attack ... pursued by an entity that has the characteristics of a state actor," [Romanian secret service] SRI spokesman Sorin Sava told Reuters [...]. "Our estimations show the attack is certainly relevant to Romania's national security taking into account the profile of the compromised entities." [...]

In this case, computer experts say an attacker from the former Soviet Union could be more likely. "MiniDuke" in some ways resembles a banking fraud Trojan dubbed "TinBa" believed to have been created by Russian criminal hackers.

By analysing the logs from the command servers, we have observed 59 unique victims in 23 countries: Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Montenegro, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United States.

Cyber criminals have targeted government officials in more than 20 countries, including Ireland and Romania, in a complex online assault seen rarely since the turn of the millennium. The attack, dubbed "MiniDuke" by researchers, has infected government computers as recently as this week in an attempt to steal geopolitical intelligence, according to security experts.

The common tale—the one bandied around for more than a hundred years—goes something like this: Warm water flowing to the northeast out of the Gulf of Mexico—the Gulf Stream—cuts across the North Atlantic ocean, bringing extra energy to the Isles and driving up temperatures relative to the comparatively-frigid North Americas. The only problem with this simple explanation, say Stephen Riser and Susan Lozier in Scientific American, is that it doesn’t actually account for the difference.

Section 141 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 provides: A person who, for financial gain, makes a claim to enjoy a right under this Part [ie. copyright] which is, and which he or she knows or has reason to believe is, false, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding £100,000, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years, or both.

"When you try to use HTTP Vodafone route a request to their authentication server to see if your account is allow to connect to the site. By default they block a list of adult/premium web sites (this is service you have switched on or off with your account). The problem is at busy times this validation service is overloaded and so their systems get no response as to whether the site is allowed, so assume the site you asked for is restricted and gives the 403 error. Once this happens you seem to have to make new 3G data connection (reset the phone, move cell or let the connection time out) to get it to try again."

Where in Dublin can you see a Victorian diving bell? What about the skeleton of Tommy, the prince’s elephant? The site of the world’s first earthquake experiment? Or the world’s sports pirate radio broadcast? Our new e-book Ingenious Dublin has all these fascinating stories and more. It is packed with information, places to visit, and lots of illustrations, and covers the city and county, from Skerries windmills to Ballybetagh’s fossil deer.'

'Feck is a popular minced oath in Ireland, occupying ground between the ultra-mild expletive flip and the often taboo (but also popular) fuck. It’s strongly associated with Irish speech, and serves a broad range of linguistic purposes that I’ll address briefly in this post.'

So where does the curse, the not-quite-rude word, come from? It’s commonly assumed to stem from its coarser cousin fuck, the simple vowel change undercutting its power and making it more suitable for public expression. But Julian Walker, an educator at the British Library, offers a more roundabout route: “In faith” becomes the improbable “in faith’s kin” shortened to “i’fackins”, which gradually shrinks to “fac” and “feck”.

He discovered that each tweet had originated from the Twitter web interface, meaning it had been posted from a web browser on a computer, rather than sent from a mobile phone or other portable device.

Based on the times that tweets were posted by @brianformerff, he deduced that the Tweets were being posted while the user was on a work break, using a company computer or an internet cafe.

The next stage in the hunt was uncovering the IP address of the computer where the tweets originated.

"I created my own web redirection service which would allow me to take links to articles of interest, for example in the Irish Times, and then transform them into short links that would pass through a redirection server I controlled. In this way, if someone read the tweets and clicked on the link, I would be able to establish the IP address of the computer that was being used at the time."

The author created a new twitter account, @john_cant _type, based on the persona of a politics student based in Kildare. He started sending several messages and tweets to "brian" and other users to establish himself as a genuine twitter user.

Eventually @brianformerff responded to a post from @john_cant_type to a link to an article at Silicon Republic. The bait was taken and the IP address was tracked to an internet cafe, Amazon cyber/net Rathmines which offers web access "at the very reasonable rate of €1/hour".

What happened next descended almost into the realms of farce. The author waited for tweets from @brianformerff and then rushed to the internet cafe to try and catch Chris Andrews. Eventually the plan worked and the author used photography and video surveillance, even taking covert photographs of tweets as they were being posted in the internet cafe by Chris Andrews and analysing if the word count and structure matched the tweets appearing in cyberspace under the tag @brianformerff.

As in statistical physics, the concept of universality plays an important, albeit qualitative, role in the field of comparative mythology. Here we apply statistical mechanical tools to analyse the networks underlying three iconic mythological narratives with a view to identifying common and distinguishing quantitative features. Of the three narratives, an Anglo-Saxon and a Greek text are mostly believed by antiquarians to be partly historically based while the third, an Irish epic [jm: "An Táin Bó Cúailnge", The Tain, to be specific], is often considered to be fictional. Here we use network analysis in an attempt to discriminate real from imaginary social networks and place mythological narratives on the spectrum between them. This suggests that the perceived artificiality of the Irish narrative can be traced back to anomalous features associated with six characters. Speculating that these are amalgams of several entities or proxies, renders the plausibility of the Irish text comparable to the others from a network-theoretic point of view.

The society in the 1st century story of the Táin Bó Cúailnge looked artificial at first analysis of the networks between 404 characters in the story. However, the researchers found the society reflected real rather than fictional networks when the weakest links to six of the characters are removed.

These six characters included Medb, Queen of Connacht; Conchobor, King of Ulster and Cúchulainn. They were "similar to superheroes of the Marvel universe" and are "too superhuman" or too well-connected to be real, researchers said. The researchers suggest that each of these superhuman characters may be an amalgam of many which became fused and exaggerated as the story was passed down orally through generations.