Blurred Keys

"The only thing that was surprising about Google’s decision to
self-censor its China-based service was that people were surprised by
it…"

"By joining the Gadarene rush into the Chinese market, Google may have
gained short-term advantage. But it has also forfeited its right to our
trust."

…from an Observer column, vie the author’s blog, Memex 1.1, and on another blog the results can be seen on this entry about an image search for "tienanmen" on google.com and google.cn, the first image on one looks like a government PR picture of China, the other is China’s darkest hour in the past few decades.

Nearly sure I’m paying for 1Mbps broadband
from Eircom, this test says the line is getting 1.75Mbps (image, below, click on it!) - I
guess it’s because the connection is so close to the exchange. Also highlighted is
the stupidly low upload speed of 216kps!!! The bit telling how long it will actually
take to download something is subject to the server that stores the files.

Above, the main path in Belleek woods. Below, the concrete ship the ‘SS Creteboom‘ in the river Moy, at the Quay, Ballina.

The ship was built at the time of time of WW1 when there was a lack of steel, and was later sold to the Ballina Harbour Commission for use as a sand-stop.

And just for good measure, my Christmas
tree…

The Perry Bible Fellowship is a strip by
Nicholas Gurewitch. Its content is random, apparently with no concurring stories,
although characters may pop up more then once every so often. You can find it in
the G2 section of the Guardian every Friday. [Click on the image to view the full strip]

One of the new Iarnród Éireann Intercity trains, well a photo of a photo from the current ad been run by IE in Irish newspapers, the first photo was taken while it was on test somewhere on the network…

Vincent Browne on a dark
year for the print media - notable what are seen as respectable papers the Observer
and the Irish Times. From
Myers’s "bastards", to the how…

"the media played dead on the big
stories of the year: the continued gaping inequalities in Irish society, in the
midst of such abundant wealth; the cascading evidence of gross abuse of powers
by An Garda Siochána; the continued use of Shannon for purposes that the state
itself deemed illegal, and now for the illegal kidnapping, and torture of terror
suspects"

…"it’s pretty high-tech stuff". [From Fox News (Your source for comedy TM) vie the Washington Post]

While reading the IT yesterday evening within the first few pages Blurred Keys found a bit of disgusting news, maybe more disturbing, then disgusting. When one thinks the Irish Times couldn’t get worse under Madam Editor’s rein, the Irish Times has to prove one wrong.   

The news in question was that a former political editor the Sunday Tribune is joining the Times as political editor. This shouldn’t evoke such a reaction, but while Mr Stephen Collins is a highly capable journalist, some of his passionate rants at Tribune have shown has active and obsessive anti-republican streak. 

An anti-republican streak would be justified if it stopped at a fully justified disgust for the Provos past use of violence, or even their use of a threat of violence. It’s possible I’m wrong, it is fully possible that Mr Collins’ obsessive ends there, but his past writings have convinced me otherwise. His writings have lead me to believe that he is of a mindset, or close to a mindset, or a mindset underlined by the idea that there is no place for the Provos in politics.

With the Indo now at the helm of the Tribune, one would have thought Collins would have been even more at home there, but with respect, maybe even he saw that paper’s move from the serious to there trivial. But then again, will he be even more at home at the PD Times of Geraldine Kennedy?

Of course, the Irish Times has always been known for its anti-republican leanings. But with a somewhat shift to a more neutral stance, or at least a perception of such, which may have ended with Brady’s role as editor, this is a step backwards.

It’s very much so open to Collins to prove me wrong, and for the sake of the Irish Times I hope he does.

The Irish Times states that the ‘common purpose’ of all who work for the paper is to “to publish an independent newspaper primarily concerned with serious issues for the benefit of the community throughout the whole of Ireland free from any form of personal or of party political, commercial, religious or other sectional control”. The Board, and more so the Trust of the paper, allowing PD-minded people take such a grip hold of the paper, looks to be failing in this matter.