Blurred Keys

Ireland.com, the Irish Times’ website, is now offering access to their premium content vie 24 hour subscriptions for 2 euro (and the cost of a text message) a pop. It’s worth noting that most articles from the paper can be viewed daily online for free at eircom’s website.

From my article on Games Toaster…

"After lengthy questioning by Games Toaster,
Microsoft has maintained VAT is the reason for the extra charge on
Irish consumers [for the Xbox 360]… However, for some unknown reason, consumers in Belgium [with the same VAT rate] will only be charged the general euro price…"

First thoughts in Blurred Keys’ head after the news of loyalist rioting in Belfast – ‘so this most likely means more recruits/votes for the (republican) hardliners’.

And it’s not too hard to imagine why this could be, as while the apparent defenders of such probable new recruits are giving up their weapons, their perceived enemy is running wild around Belfast, shooting at the police and hijacking cars and at least one bus full of people who were first robbed and then told to get off.

"We are very lucky we do not have dead officers" - PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde

"One PSNI vehicle was struck over 30 times by bullets fired by loyalist paramilitaries" - RTE News Online

"Orangemen were livid at
the decision by the ruling Parades Commission, but the Chief Constable
blamed the loyal order for provoking the disorder by appealing for
supporters to take to the streets in protest" - BreakingNews.ie

The
Orange Order said it noted the Chief Constable’s ‘intemperate,
inflammatory and inaccurate remarks’ and accused the police of being
heavy handed and engaged in policing at its worst.

Mr
Orde produced police film footage at his press conference showing
Orange Order members confronting police with ceremonial swords - RTE News Online

These are from a short trip to the east
coast of the

US in August. Blurred Keys was literally was in New York for 24 hours,
from getting a taxi in from JFK to the hotel, to crossing the road from the
hotel to Amtrak’s underground Pen station for the Acela express to DC.

An underground inter-city station is somewhat strange.

New York’s skyline
pales in comparison to Shanghai - with the Chinese city’s endless stream of high-rises.

From the Empire State Building

The reason for this visit was my cousin’s
wedding in Rockville, a city just outside DC, in Maryland (which
some-how isn’t pronounced ‘Mary-land’). Although my camera stayed in the Courtyard
hotel in Rockville.

The photographs of the Whitehouse (front and back), the Washington monument etc were all taken on the way to the airport, all taken in the company of a large backpack. The Whitehouse’s snipers probably had me in their sites, but anyone who has received this story stated that ‘redheads don’t fit the profile’.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Guardian has changed its size and design. Image nicked from their Editors’ blog, more on the changes here.

Screen shots image lifted from Salon.com

One (black) person is
marked as looting, while a (white) woman is just "looking" at her shopping
bag after leaving a store of which a hole in a large window looks to be the
exit. BOTH captions by the Associated Pres, under AP photos. Forget about the AFP photo.  >>