rebelcounty

Annual Michael Collins commemoration takes place at Beal na mBlath

2011-08-20T16:34:00.029+01:00

The annual commemoration of Irish hero and cultural legend Michael Collins takes place every year outside of the town of Clonakilty at a place called Beal na mBlath.
It is a celebration of the achievements of this military master mind and political genius during very turbulent times in Irish history.
It is at a commemoration where he was assassinated by opposition forces. This character of Irish history is often referred to as the Che Guevara of Ireland.

There is a Hollywood movie about Michael Collins1996 the movie with Liam Nealson, directed by Neil Jordan, Michael Collins plays a crucial role in the establishment of the Irish Free State in the 1920s, but becomes vilified by those hoping to create a completely independent Irish republic.

Global downturn is Ireland's economic collapse

2011-02-04T04:58:00.007Z

Global downturn is Ireland's economic collapse:

The recent global slowdown has resulted in a reversion to the Ireland of the 1980's or even the 1950's

Whilst the problems are serious and severe one website has offered an aluminum shawl marketed along the lines of an old Irish tradition of shawl wearing offering protection.

It protects against the rain and the cold and is perfect for late night spreadsheet calculating and is moderately sustainable in the fact that it does not burn fossil fuels, unlike the coal fires of the 1950s in drafty post war housing estates in urban Ireland.
Not only does it protect from the elements it also might protect you from the current global downturn.
You can purchase your shawl by clicking the link above or you can check out www.rebelcounty.com

Happy Shopping!

Irish, Eu, IMF and calm discussion taking place regarding banking crisis!

2010-11-19T22:25:00.004Z

Vision of Irish discussion with IMF
This is a quick preview of some of the possible discussions and leveraging regarding the recent banking crisis in Ireland a result of its downfall post the recent voluptuous Celtic tiger! It outlines some of the high price to paid for playing at the table with the big boys amongst other items of contention.

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So do you know how to Irish Dance

2010-10-09T00:55:00.003+01:00

It's a little difficult to explain, but I'll try!

The first thing to remember is that at all times during the dance your arms must
be straight and held down by your sides (Like a soldier at Attention)

Basic Position

Start with your feet together with the heel of your right foot by the toes of your left foot. Feet at 90° to each other. This will mean your right knee has the left tucked behind.
This position is the normal position after each step, changing to ending with the left foot in front instead, and vice versa.

The Basic Steps

There are three basic steps to Light shoe dances, around which all dancers are built.
Teachers weave these into their choreography in different ways and vary them slightly, but if you can't master them in their basic form you will never really make the grade as a step dancer.

The basic steps are the Jump Threes, the Hop Threes and the Sevens or Side Step.

Jump Threes (basic step)

Start in Basic Position

1) Now lift the front leg (in this case the right) keeping it dead straight with the toes curled forwards, so don't try to lift too high. (The worst thing you can do is point your toes up so that people see the soles of your shoes)
Jump off the foot still on the floor onto the raised foot, landing just in front of where it started.
As you jump bring the back foot up to kick your behind.
This is all done at the same time so takes practice!
2) As you land, step forward onto the original back foot, placing it just in front of the other foot.
3) Tuck the original front foot "behind" to end up in "basic position" but with the other foot now in front

Jump threes are always started from whichever foot is in front.
Do threes very slowly to start with and build up speed. One Three per bar of music.
Once you have the hang of them try the lead round

Hops threes (basic step)

Start in Basic Position

1) Hop on the back foot as high as possible, landing back on the same foot.
At the same time the front foot is brought up across the knee of the other leg, as high as possible
(try to touch your hip with your toes)
2) step very slightly forward on front foot
3) tuck back foot behind

Hop threes are always started by hopping off whichever foot is behind. One three per bar of music.

Sevens or side step (basic step)

1) is a hop or jump
2) The leading foot is moved to the side
(for example, the leading foot is the right one so move right, left foot move left)
3) back foot moves the same direction but crosses behind
4) front foot again
5) back foot behind again
6) front foot again
7) back foot behind again

All Irish Step dances follow the same basic pattern.

There are usually several components :

The Lead Round

The First Step

The Second Step (or Lead Back)

As the dances become more advanced these become a little harder to distinguish. However in the early stages they are very easily defined. Below is a basic beginners reel.

A Beginners Reel

this is a Beginners Reel, so choose Reel music. Try not to make it too fast, as this is hard work!
A Reel is a soft shoe dance so either get some proper Irish shoes, or use ballet shoes or the like (preferably black)
For a costume you need something with a shorter skirt (above the knee) with plenty of material so that you can lift your legs freely. A Sports skirt would be fine, although something a little more colourful would be better.
A simple white blouse with loose sleeves would also suffice. If you really want to look traditional then take a simple scarf and pin it onto the left shoulder. Then drape it across the back and pin it at the waist on the right side.

Count the bars in your mind, stood in basic position.(the bars are usually easy to count in Irish music)
At the first note of the sixth bar point your front foot and toes forward moving the leg ahead of the back foot so that only the toes touch the ground.
Keep your feet in the same turned out position as in basic position.
You do not start dancing until the first note of the ninth bar

LEAD ROUND

The lead round is simply Eight continuous Jump threes in a circle, alternating leading legs.
You must end up back where you started, facing the front again.
As each persons jumps are different don't try to follow someone elses circle.

FIRST STEP

A
Hop three twice
Hop Seven side step to right
Jump three twice
Jump seven side step back to left

B
repeat A but to opposite side

C
Repeat A again but this time move forward more with each hop three (on step 2 of the three)

D
repeat C but opposite (your sevens should be along the very front of the stage)

LEAD BACK

Repeat Lead round (eight jump threes), but instead of creating a circle just curve back to end your last three facing the front again in your original starting place in basic position

FINISH

To finish any Irish Step dance do the following :

Point your front foot as if starting, and bow from the waist, head and face up, arms still by your side.
Then turn towards the musician (or person running the music machine) and bow in the same way to them.
This is a recognised show of respect that all Irish dancers uphold, and it looks very smart.
Stand up straight, turn left and walk off stage with arms still by sides, and still straight legs and pointed toes.

Irish Christmas greetings

2009-12-26T20:49:00.001Z

Here is a selection of Christmas greetings, drink it up safely.

1. May your giving hand never fail you.

2. May we all be alive at this same time next year.

3. May the Lord keep you in the palm of His hand, and never close his fist too tight!

4. May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live!

5. May the best day of your past be the worst day of your future.

6. Here's to a long life and a merry one. A quick death and an easy one. A pretty girl and an honest one. A cold beer-and another one!

7. May your troubles be less, And your blessings be more. And nothing but happiness come through your door.

8. May your neighbors respect you, trouble neglect you, the angels protect you, and heaven accept you.

9. Merry met, and merry part, I drink to thee with all my heart.

10. Dung hills rise and castles fall, we are all equal one and all.

Welcome to Cork Time

2008-08-10T07:43:00.004+01:00

Living abroad wonder if its too late to ring the Mammy?Use Cork time! had a few pints in Timbucktoo need to call the Girlfriend back in Mayfield? Don't be a langer, give her a call but not at 4am local time.Rebel county endorses responsible behavior at every level right down to the baby sitter. Check this interative map to make sure you get your story right as well as you're time!

2008-05-27T03:28:00.015+01:00

Architect Discusses His Projects and Creative Process During Lecture ‘The Architecture of Hope’

World renowned architect Daniel Libeskind explores his ideas about architecture and hope

When we build things - especially beautiful things - we do so with the expectation and the wish that they will last, and through them, that we will last। Daniel Libeskind, celebrated architect of the Contemporary Jewish Museum, as well as master planner of the World Trade Center site in New York, the Jewish Museum in Berlin, and many other buildings, will speak about "architecture-as-hope" at the Commonwealth Club. He will also elaborate on his creative process and the opening of his most recent project, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco's newest cultural landmark.

It was a delight and pleasure to met Daniel Libeskind and as always there is an Irish connection as one of his project is the Grand Canal Square Theatre and Commercial expected completion 2009.

2008-05-04T04:27:00.026+01:00

Unforgettable Golden Gate Bridge Bike Trip

Indeed, Thursday 17th of April was very unforgettable in the fact that it resulted in me spending five days in hospital!

How did this all occur well you may ask! It started as it often does on a beautiful sunny April San Francisco day. I set out as Training for my Charity bike ride for San Francisco Aids foundation. I started pedaling along Crissy fields which runs parallel to the water as one heads towards the golden gate bridge. I looked with amazement as I saw the bridge covered in wool otherwise known as fog! As I thought to myself it would make a great photo! I regretted taking my camera with me; little did I know what was in store for me.
I rode my bike over the bridge and up to the very top of the vista point and I looked out at the great view.

I relished the view on this fine day and spent 15 minutes enjoying the scenery, and sped down the hill gracefully.
Upon my descent, I go through a small car park, to get onto the golden gate bridge.

Click here to see the google map of my crash site!

As, I was gliding into a small car park on the pacific side of the golden gate bridge, I squeezed my brakes to slow down, as I hit the brakes, I felt and noticed the front wheel and bike upon which I was on move off to the right of my screen.

Mean while I was held suspended in mid air as the bike went from under me, I was destined towards the pavement. In falling it was a rugby fall that was taught to me in Cork Constitution rugby club, Cork, Ireland when I was 10 years of age. When you fall you protect you head. The fall had a hint of scoring a try in rugby similar to a touch down in American football, but this was minus the celebration.

As the Bike was sliding from under me the left handle bar was coming up to meet me.
I hit the pavement with my shoulder, which was the initial impact. It followed for 8 to 10 feet of sliding along the ground. The helmet hit the pavement with my head in it, it was a surprisingly relaxing slow experience, I remember hearing the grinding of the pavement against my helmet, it was a slow framed movie, I was looking up at the golden gate bridge thinking to myself that it would make a great photograph. Meanwhile my shoulder and forearm were my human road tires. The handlebar came up to impact me into my left side.

Everything stopped! I had come to a halt. I tried to take in a deep breath, but could only take in shallow breaths, which made thing worse. There was a gentleman there sitting next to the barrier saw the whole incident, whose name I later learned was Daniel. He helped me so much, I am so grateful to him for incredible random act of kindness.

He spoke to me told me not to move, take your time, take deep breaths; his relaxing tone was very reassuring as I came to terms with my situation. Twenty minutes rolled by, he asked me if I needed to call for help as a bridge patrol ranger car rolled by not seeming to be interested in the scene they left, I was very disappointed on later review of this support.

After 20 minutes, I got up on my hind legs. Still hyper ventilating like I am about to deliver triplets.

I could not use my left hand so; I left it rest on the handle bar as I cycled very slowly over the golden gate bridge. I felt cold but the chilling pacific breeze was refreshing to me. The time was between 5.00-6.00pm.

When I got to the city side of the bridge this English tourist came up to me to ask me for directions, she looked at my shoulder and said shit are you okay, I said yes gave her directions and moved on.
The return trip from the fall off my bike was about 5 miles. It took an eternity to get home.

I eventually got home had to get my room mate to carry my bike up the stairs.

Strangely, I thought that it was a graze and a badly sprained shoulder, well after 4 days of decreasing progress and increasing pain and reducing mobility. It took me over 30 minutes to get out of bed and it was so painful that I felt like I deserved a gold medal. I decided to go to the emergency room on Monday at 5.30am.

The taxi driver made me feel every hill in San Francisco; he was on his cell phone for the entire 15 minute cab ride.

I went to the San Francisco general hospital. They informed me that I had 4 broken ribs a collapsed lung and a broken clavicle. In short they operated on the clavicle throwing in some titanium hardware 9 screws and put in two hoses to re-inflate the lung.I spent 5 day in hospital, not fun! The ribs nothing done for those, no laughing, sneezing is the worst, it like being hit by a car.

Overall, thank you very much to my friends for the good wishes, the hospital staff for superb treatment, Daniel for helping me, Trina for changing dressing and making dinner, and everybody else.
Thank god I was wearing a helmet otherwise I may not have been able to write this.

Coming to terms with Childhood fears!

2008-03-25T16:10:00.010Z

I am very pleased to announce that I am no longer afraid of the hulk nor am I jumping behind the sofa when i see the incredible hulk morph into the green hulk of anger.
I grew up along with millions of kids watching with a tranquillized glare as Dr. David Banner ( Bill Bixby) warns the aggressor to not make him angry, but no they would ever never listen, they learn t the hard way!

It was a great pleasure to have the opportunity to meet with Lou Ferrigno, the incredible hulk. I went straight over to him and asked him for a photo. Its surprised me as i normally would leave people alone and not bother them. I am tall but he was bigger so I asked him who had bigger hands, conscious not to get him angry though! Who do you think has bigger hands, let me know

2008-03-04T20:54:00.012Z

The Golden Gate Bridge Bicycle Trip:

The First of March proved to be an excellent day for Mick's inaugural trip over the golden gate bridge.
The bay was flooding with sailboats skimming in every direction, and being a huge sailing fan it was a pleasure to be ferried amongst the flotilla.

A Meet up of Two Corkonians:

Cycling over the golden gate bridge was in order on sat 1st of March, a perfect way to remove a hangover. It did not fell that way at the time. A cycle down along Crissy fields provided a great platform for the approach to the famous bridge.

Having Drunk lots of Irish stout in a local pub the evening before celebrating the last day of the leap year which was the 29th of February 2008.
The Weather was fantastic in typical Californian fashion. A Well deserved lunch in Sausalito followed by a ferry back across the bay to San francisco, leaving Alcatraz to our starboard side and landing at the main terminal at San Francisco's historic ferry building. What a great day! Well done Mick! Well done Tom!

San Francisco - In A Minute

2007-01-22T08:05:00.001Z

I like this it sums up the city nicely

cycle over the golden gate bridge

2007-01-22T08:00:00.002Z

2006-10-22T19:11:00.000+01:00

Fleet Week San Francisco 1st Week of October

Every year fleet week occurs in San francisco bay.
Fleet Week is a United States Navy, United States Marine Corps and United States Coast Guard tradition in which active military ships recently deployed in overseas operations dock in a variety of major cities for one week. Once the ships dock, the crew can enter the city and visit its tourist attractions. At certain hours, the public can take a guided tour of the ships. Often, Fleet Week is accompanied by military demonstrations and airshows such as the Blue AngelsThere are Navy ships and a huge airshow with the blue angels. These f18s fly in formation doing unbelievable accrobatics and screaming flying passes. The excitement is incredible.

2006-09-23T04:27:00.000+01:00

Don Figures out how to sail by himself!
well done!!!!

2006-09-23T04:14:00.000+01:00

Sailing in San Francisco not as easy as it looks !

Last Wednesday Don and I headed over the golden gate bridge for my first sailing lesson and dons first time on a sailboat.

A fairly determined look stayed on my face the whole time as the captain steve johnston was not happy with my jibbing skills. This was my second sailing lesson?

The tides in the bay can run up to six knots which means in a light wind you can end up going in a wrong direction!

One month latter

There was not any wind the charter company advised that the weather may be too cold to go, i said naww, it was freezing, one week later the coldest in San Francisco in ten years.

2006-08-08T17:29:00.000+01:00

In a surprising result the internet is responsible for some amazing discoveries!

Distance from Dublin to San Francisco

Distance is 8194 kilometers or 5091 miles or 4424 nautical miles

The distance is the theoretical air distance (great circle distance). Flying between the two locations can be longer or shorter, depending on airport location and actual route chosen.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/distanceresult.html?p1=78&p2=224

Distance from Dublin to Johannesburg

Distance is 9412 kilometers or 5848 miles or 5082 nautical miles

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/distanceresult.html?p1=78&p2=111

The Earth: Shape, Size, and State of Rotation

The Shape of the Earth

It is common mythology that until the time of Columbus "everyone thought that the world was flat." The falsity of this is shown by a figure I presented in class, a representation of a real globe which represented the state of European knowledge before Columbus sailed. Although Columbus -- and everyone else! -- was right about the shape, however, he was quite lucky in a different respect. He thought that he would have to cross a western ocean of only moderate size before reaching China. Of course, if the Americas had not been in the way, he would have faced an impossibly long journey of more than 15,000 miles! So he was wrong about the size, but not about the shape. (By the way, I have read speculations to the effect that Columbus purposely underestimated the likely length of the crossing in order to persuade Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain to fund his daring expedition.)

You may be surprised to learn that a correct understanding of the Earth's shape was current even two millennia before Columbus. Moreover, as we will see, even the size had been pretty well estimated, although that bit of information did not get reliably handed down. But how did such things come to be known?

As usual, we begin by asking how you yourself would demonstrate that the surface of the Earth is curved. If the world were much smaller, of course, it would be easy. Suppose for instance you were standing on top of a gigantic beach ball, looking at the surface on which you stand. You would certainly see a conspicuous "dropoff" on all sides. Unfortunately, the Earth is much too big to show that effect.

Still, there are alternatives. Indeed, by combining arguments of the following sort, Aristotle was able to conclude quite persuasively that the Earth is indeed spherical. You could:

Travel long distances north-south and watch the stars. Suppose you see a star low on the southern horizon, and then walk or sail many hundred miles south. The star will now appear to be higher in the sky, well above the horizon, as Aristotle knew from the accounts of sailors. If the Earth were flat, this would not happen; a star which was low on the horizon would remain so as you travelled.

(You have to observe the star at the same time of night, of course, rather than at some earlier hour when the star has not yet risen into the sky. The diurnal effects of rotation have to be correctly compensated for.)
To take an extreme example, a person on the equator sees the North Star low on the northern horizon. As she travels north, the Pole Star is seen at higher altitude until, when she is right at the North Pole, it is overhead. For the same reasons, people living in Australia see constellations invisible from here in Canada (and vice versa: they cannot see the Big Dipper).
Watch a boat sail away from shore. Of course, it gets smaller in appearance by virtue of its increasing distance, but it also seems to disappear over the horizon as though it is going down the far side of a hill. The hull disappears first, and soon only the tops of the masts and flags are visible.

This would not happen on a flat Earth; the ancients recognized and correctly explained the phenomenon as due to the curvature of the Earth.

Rely on analogy. There is a semi-philosophical argument based on the fact that the sun and moon are seen to be round. It might seem plausible, therefore, to suggest that the Earth must be spherical as well, on the grounds that this seems to be a favoured shape in the heavens. (This is actually a weak argument, of course: the sun and moon are `up there' in the heavens, while the Earth is `down here' and may be something quite different.)

Watch eclipses: One can notice, as did Aristotle, that whenever there is a lunar eclipse, the edge of the Earth's shadow (which we see projected onto the lunar surface) always looks like the arc of a perfect circle. (By the way, the Earth's shadow is not responsible for the changing phases of the moon, as we will learn in the next section. Only during eclipses, which are very rare, do we notice the effects of the Earth's shadow at all - or at least that part of it which is projected onto the Moon's surface.)

Aristotle concluded, rightly, that the inevitable circularity of the shadow is because the Earth itself is a sphere, reasoning that a sphere is the only shape that always casts a circular shadow. It is certainly true that a flat object (like a coin) can cast a circular shadow, if correctly oriented, but you would expect at least sometimes to see a shadow which looks flattened or ellipsoidal.

For all four of these reasons, Aristotle (probably quoting other thinkers as well) concluded, rightly, that the Earth is a large nearly-spherical ball. This knowledge was not lost in the succeeding millennia, despite the mythology surrounding the expeditions of Christopher Columbus. You should not necessarily believe everything you read!-- except for what I am writing here, of course.

The Size of the Earth

How would you measure the size of the Earth? The obvious way is to travel all the way around it, keeping track of how many miles you have covered. But why go that far? Why not travel, say, a quarter of the way around it, and multiply your answer by four? (If you need to put a fence around a square field, you need to pace out only one side of the field to find out what length of fencing you need in total.)

The problem is to work out when you have covered exactly a quarter of the Earth's circumference, but there is in fact a very simple way! All you have to do is start at the Earth's equator (the place from which the sun shines from directly overhead on March 21), and then travel North until the Pole Star is directly overhead, proving that you are right 'on top of the world.' When you first set off on your journey, the Pole Star is right down on your northern horizon; your journey of 10,000 kilometers changes that and proves to you that the Earth is about 40,000 km in circumference.

In other words, you can tell from the different altitude of various stars how far North or South you are on the globe. Although the principle is quite clear-cut, the notion of travelling thousands of kilometers is a bit daunting, but there are a couple of practical simplifications one can imagine adopting:

don't travel quite so far; and
use a particularly conspicuous star as a reference object to make the observations easy.

Indeed, to make the measurements really straightforward, let's observe the sun itself! - it's by far the brightest star in the sky. In a modern analogy, we are relying on the obvious fact that if we travel south (say, by flying down to Miami in December) we will see the sun at higher elevation (and lie out on the beach to sun-bathe). By quantifying that effect, we will determine the size of the Earth.

The procedure is quite straightforward (and some of you may even wish to try this experiment if you travel south during the Winter Break):

at one location on the globe, perhaps here in Kingston, work out how high the sun gets in the sky at the middle of the day, using the shadow of a vertical stick in the ground to measure the angles; and
from some other location due South of the first, make the equivalent determination on the same day (or as soon thereafter as can possibly be managed). Note that you must make the two observations as close together in time as possible because the sun's altitude changes significantly as the seasons progress, even at a fixed location, thanks to our orbit around the sun. (For this reason, using a prominent bright star is better, since its altitude will not vary with the seasons and it won't matter if you get held up a few days or weeks until you make the second set of observations. The trouble is that no star is bright enough to cast shadows. Still, there are other ways of measuring angles.) Then:
later, at your leisure, measure the distance between the two locations. Comparing the angles measured at the two sites tells you how far around the globe they are from one another, as a fraction of the full circle, and combining this with the distance between them in kilometers gives you the size of the Earth itself.

This is the logic which went into the important calculations made by Eratosthenes, as described on page 88 of your text. He knew that on June 22 the light of the Sun shone straight down a well at mid-day in the city of Syene, implying that the Sun was directly overhead then. Meanwhile, in Alexandria, which is about 500 miles north of Syene, a vertical stick cast a shadow at mid-day, which he accounted for by realising that the Earth was curved. (The stick is made vertical by comparing it to a plumb bob or hanging weight, so that it points straight down to the centre of the Earth.)

Eratosthenes hired people to pace out the distance, and in this way he was able to get a very good value for the size of the Earth -- long before Columbus! As it happens, he made a few small mistakes which more or less cancelled out. For instance, the distance which was paced out was not very precise, and Syene is not due south of Alexandria. But the cleverness of the idea is undeniable.

Degrees of Correctness

At this stage, I would like to emphasise a thought which will recur in other contexts later. Eratosthenes was roughly correct about the size of the Earth -- at least, that's what modern historians of science have concluded, although there is apparently some lingering doubt about the exact size of the units of measurement which he was using. But to me it would not matter a great deal if he had gotten an answer which was only half as large as the true circumference, or three times as big. The critical point is that Eratosthenes recognised the nature of the problem, found a method, and was able to derive an answer which was correct in spirit in the sense that he correctly deduced that the Earth was an immense body which was very much larger in extent than the then-known lands of the Mediterranean basin, the home of Greek civilisation at the time. The sense of the discovery is the wonderful thing, not the mere accident that the numerical value was also correct.

The Rotation of the Earth

The ancients assumed, naturally enough, that the Earth is at rest, with the whole cosmos rotating about us once a day, just as it appears. Part of the motivation was no doubt religious. They must have felt that we are in a divinely ordained place, at the centre of the universe, with everything else dancing around us in attendance. But there is also the practical consideration that you might expect to feel the motion if it is true that this large solid body is spinning like a top. Shouldn't it rumble and bounce like a fast-moving chariot, for example? And would we not feel a wind blowing in our faces if we were truly being carried towards the East in some unceasing diurnal motion? (Of course, we now recognize that the atmosphere is simply being carried along with the rotational motion.)

You may be surprised to learn that there are direct ways of proving that the Earth rotates - that it is we who are spinning, rather than the cosmos around us - and that it would still be possible for you to measure the Earth's rotation even if we were completely shrouded in clouds so that you could never see out to the stars and sun! (These are the objects which indicate to us that something is moving.) Even the ancients could, in principle, have reached the correct conclusion, although it requires a fairly deep physics understanding and, in one case, the ability to make some fairly difficult measurements.

How is this possible? There are three methods:

Study the "figure" of the Earth:

The Earth is not a perfect sphere: it is about 25 miles (40 km) thicker across the middle than it is from North pole to South pole. This arises from the rotation of the Earth (just as a thrown piece of spinning pizza dough flattens out). Despite its obvious rigidity, at least here at the surface, the Earth's materials are elastic enough [remember our discussion in earlier lectures] to deform under the influence of the spin. If you somehow stopped the spin, the Earth would relax into a perfectly spherical shape under its own enormous self-gravity. The material would not have enough structural rigidity to maintain the body of the Earth in its present flattened shape.
By the way, Jupiter is gaseous rather than rocky, and consequently much less rigid in the outer parts. It also rotates very fast, once every 10 hours. As a consequence, it is noticeably flattened, even to the eye when seen through a telescope. By contrast, the Earth looks perfectly spherical, whether seen from space or as a scale model under casual inspection. The flattening is simply not very pronounced, but careful surveying of the Earth does show it.
This would have been a hard test for the ancients to employ. They would have needed to carry out elaborate and precise surveying over very large distances - not easy. Moreover, they would have needed a deep understanding of the strengths of materials and so on, so as to interpret the discovery of the Earth's flattened figure. Little wonder that they did not make the discovery!
Study a Foucault Pendulum:
Imagine constructing a pendulum at the North Pole, hanging from a free-turning "universal joint". With a good push, set the pendulum swinging in a particular direction - say, towards the star Sirius. As the day progresses after that initial push, the Earth turns "underneath" the pendulum, which continues to swing back and forth in the same direction in space since there is no sideways force to make it turn. In effect, the "platform" on which you are standing (the Earth itself) turns beneath the pendulum. From your point of view, however, the pendulum's swing appears to be shifting in direction, one full rotation in every twenty-four hours.
The behaviour of a Foucault pendulum is slightly more complex at lower latitudes, such as here at Kingston, but the principle is the same. Indeed we have one in the middle of Stirling Hall! As an experiment, take a look at it before a lecture one day, taking note of the direction in which the pendulum is swinging; then look again before the next lecture a couple of days later. You will see that the direction has indeed changed from our point of view.
Note that the pendulum has to be suspended on a special universal joint so that it is free to turn (or rather not to turn: the hypothetical pendulum at the North Pole keeps the same orientation in space). If I put my child into a swing and give her a big push to start, so that she is swinging (say) in the direction of Lake Ontario, I will not find her swinging parallel to the shoreline a few hours later! Her swing is mounted at a couple of points on a rigid framework which turns with the Earth, which therefore carries the swing with it.
Study `Coriolis Forces.'
Visualise yourself standing on a moving "slidewalk," such as you find in an airport terminal. Now imagine tossing something (a set of keys, say) to a friend standing beside the slidewalk. The sideways motion imparted to you by the slidewalk, coupled with your outward toss, carries the keys at an angle so that you will miss your friend unless you `lead' him with the toss.
In like fashion, objects on the Earth close to the equator are being carried to the East at about 1000 miles per hour (the Earth is about 25,000 miles in circumference, and spins once around every 24 hours: see the figure on page 48). Things farther north are moving less rapidly, and something at the North Pole doesn't move through any distance at all - it merely turns around, on the spot, once a day.
Now, suppose someone fires a rocket from the equator towards a target due north of them (say, the people of Ecuador decide to attack Ottawa). The rocket would seem to veer off to the East, just as the keys missed our friend. This is a real effect which has to be considered by rocketry experts and even by naval gunners shooting at targets tens of miles away. This effect is a manifestation of the so-called `Coriolis force.' (See pages 286-289 of your text.)
These considerations explain the familiar spiral of hurricanes. If a big low-pressure region forms in the Earth's atmosphere somewhere just north of the equator, you might expect the air around it simply to move directly into the low-pressure center. But the air moving up from the equator has an excess component of sideways motion compared to the air which was originally located on the north side of the new-formed hurricane. This makes the air spiral or swirl in, in a counter-clockwise direction. In the southern hemisphere, hurricanes spiral the other way!
By the way, this effect is much too feeble to affect day-to-day small-scale phenomena like water flowing out of sinks and tubs, despite the fact that it is commonly believed that "sinks drain the opposite direction in the Southern hemisphere." In fact, the way sinks drain out (or bathtubs empty, or toilets flush) depends on their shape, how you pull the plug, etc. It is true that in the Northern hemisphere the water on the south side of the tub is moving eastward faster than the water on the north side, but the difference is extremely small. Very carefully controlled experiments, with specially designed basins, can show the effect, but in real life the 'Coriolis forces' arising from the Earth's rotation are not important - unless you live in hurricane country, or expect a naval bombardment!

2006-08-08T09:39:00.000+01:00

International Monetary Fund warns of Property Bubble Tension in Ireland

Background

Ireland's economic performance remains strong. In recent years, real GNP growth was one of the highest among industrial countries; the unemployment rate was among the lowest; and HICP inflation declined to close to the euro area average. Employment growth was rapid, reflecting strong immigration and rising labor force participation. This remarkable performance reflected both good policies and fortunate circumstances. Prudent government spending led to declining government debt; low taxes on labor and business income encouraged labor supply and investment; and flexible labor and product markets helped growth. At the same time, favorable demographics boosted the working-age population, and participation in EMU lowered interest rates.

However, economic activity has become reliant on building investment and competitiveness has eroded. The share of the construction sector in economic activity has increased and is now one of the highest in Europe. Bank credit to property-related sectors has grown rapidly and now accounts for more than half of total bank lending. Household debt as a share of household disposable income rose to about 130 percent in 2005, among the highest in Europe. Reflecting the expansion of the labor-intensive construction and services sectors, labor productivity growth has declined. The combination of the slowdown in productivity growth, faster wage growth in Ireland compared to its trading partners, and the appreciation of the euro, has led to an appreciation of the ULC-based real effective exchange rate. Partly as a result, the contribution of net exports to growth has fallen steadily since 2001. After being in balance for several years, the external current account registered a deficit of about 2½ percent of GDP in 2005.

Executive Board Assessment

The Executive Directors commended Ireland's continued impressive economic performance, which has been supported by sound policies, including prudent fiscal policy, low taxes on labor and business income, and labor market flexibility. Economic growth is strong, unemployment is low and labor participation rising, and government debt has been reduced dramatically over the past two decades. Nevertheless, Directors observed that growth has become increasingly unbalanced in recent years, with heavy reliance on building investment, sharp increases in house prices, and rapid credit growth, especially to property-related sectors. At the same time, competitiveness has eroded, reflecting the combination of faster wage growth in Ireland compared to its trading partners, declining productivity growth, and the appreciation of the euro against the U.S. dollar. Directors observed that Ireland's small, highly open economy is also vulnerable to external shocks.

Directors expected economic growth in 2006-07 to remain strong, driven by domestic demand and accompanied by a widening current account deficit and continued rapid credit growth. While the contraction of the construction sector to a more sustainable size over the medium term is likely to be smooth, Directors noted that an abrupt correction cannot be ruled out.

Directors welcomed the Financial System Stability Assessment Update, which finds that Ireland's financial sector soundness indicators are generally strong and that the major lenders have adequate buffers to cover a range of shocks. The recent increase in the risk-weighting on high loan-to-value residential mortgages is an important signal of the need for banks to differentiate between higher- and lower-risk lending within an asset class. Directors suggested that the Financial Regulator continue to monitor banks' risk management practices, including for commercial property lending. Going forward, they called for continued updating of the stress-testing framework, and further strengthening of the regulatory and supervisory framework, especially for insurance.

While recognizing that Ireland's fiscal position is sound, most Directors considered that a modest fiscal tightening would be desirable in 2007, given the strength of domestic demand, potential risks of a hard landing, and the need to prepare for population aging. Slowing the growth of current spending to slightly below nominal GDP growth would also help prevent inefficiencies that could otherwise emerge given the rapid increases in spending in recent years. A number of Directors, however, saw less merit in fiscal tightening at the current juncture, pointing to the need for further increases in spending to achieve social goals, as well as to the recent tightening of euro area monetary policy. Directors agreed that improvements in public services remain a key priority, and, in this context, encouraged the authorities to focus on value for money, including by monitoring government outputs and extending multi-year envelopes to current spending. They welcomed the authorities' plans to further deepen the public debate on fiscal priorities.

Directors considered that continued wage moderation and labor market flexibility are essential to support competitiveness. The implementation of the new social partnership agreement should continue to allow flexibility in wage increases at the firm level and minimize the increase in the restrictiveness of employment protection legislation.

Ireland: Selected Economic Indicators


		2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	1/

Real Economy (change in percent)
	Real GDP Real GNP Domestic demand Exports of goods and services Imports of goods and services HICP Unemployment rate (in percent)	6.0 2.8 4.3 4.5 2.4 4.7 4.4	4.3 5.5 4.5 0.5 -1.2 4.0 4.7	4.3 3.9 3.6 7.3 8.6 2.3 4.5	5.5 5.4 8.0 3.9 6.5 2.2 4.3	5.8 6.2 6.7 6.4 7.5 2.8 4.3
Public Finances (percent of GDP)
	General government balance Structural balance 2/ General government debt	-0.4 -1.3 32.2	0.2 0.4 31.1	1.5 1.9 29.6	1.0 1.0 27.4	0.7 0.5 25.9
Money and Credit (end-period, percent change)
	M3 3/ Private sector credit 4/	9.3 15.0	... 17.9	22.5 26.6	19.8 28.8	20.8 29.8	5/ 5/
Interest Rates (end-period)
	Three-month 10-year government bond yield	2.9 4.3	2.1 4.6	2.2 3.7	2.5 3.3	2.9 4.1	5/ 6/
Balance of Payments (percent of GDP)
	Trade balance (goods and services) Current account Reserves (gold valued at SDR 35 per ounce end of period, in billions of SDRs)	17.1 -1.0 4.0	16.0 0.0 2.8	14.9 -0.6 1.9	12.7 -2.6 0.6	11.5 -3.0 ...
Exchange Rate
	Exchange rate regime Present rate (July 17, 2006)	Member of euro area US$ per euro 1.2541
	Nominal effective rate (1995=100) Real effective rate (1995=100, CPI based)	89.7 98.0	97.4 107.9	102.6 113.7	98.3 109.2	99.8 112.0	7/ 7/

Sources: Central Statistics Office; Department of Finance, Datastream and IMF International Financial Statistics. 1/ Staff projections, except where noted. 2/ In percent of potential GDP. 3/ The methodology used to compile M3 has been amended in line with Eurosystem requirements. Therefore, there is a break in the series. 4/ Adjusted change, which includes the effects of transactions between credit institutions and non- bank international financial companies and valuation effects arising from exchange rate movements. 5/ As of May 2006. 6/ As of June 2006. 7/ As of April 2006.

¹ Under Article IV of the IMF's Articles of Agreement, the IMF holds bilateral discussions with members, usually every year. A staff team visits the country, collects economic and financial information, and discusses with officials the country's economic developments and policies. On return to headquarters, the staff prepares a report, which forms the basis for discussion by the Executive Board. At the conclusion of the discussion, the Managing Director, as Chairman of the Board, summarizes the views of Executive Directors, and this summary is transmitted to the country's authorities.

2006-07-28T20:28:00.000+01:00

Super Golf Rebel opens Cork Golf course

Golf superstar John Daly today opened the new €50m Blarney Golf Resort — the first course he has designed in Europe.

The golfer, nicknamed ‘Wild Thing’, said he was delighted with the progress made by the golf course.

“I have no doubt that we will tweak it as we get to know it better,” he said. “All significant golf courses tend to be work in progress. We have laid solid foundations for what I believe, will become a must-play Irish course.”

The US golfer arrived in Cork on Saturday night after failing to make the cut at the British Open.

The two-time Major winner also had the clubs out yesterday when playing 18 holes at Blarney.

Blarney Golf Resort is the brainchild of local developer John Kelly and his partner Frank McCarthy. It consists of the 62-bedroom Ramada Hotel, 56 luxury golf lodges and the Sentosa Spa.

About the Ryder Cup:
The Ryder Cup takes place at The k club, Straffan, Co. Kildare, Ireland, Sept 22 -24 206.

The Ryder Cup is a golf trophy contested biennially in an event officially called the Ryder Cup Matches by teams from Europe and the United States. The Ryder Cup was born in 1926, with the US competing against Great Britain on the East Course, Wentworth Club, Virginia Water, Surrey, Great Britain. After more than 45 years of US dominance (Britain won only once between 1935 and 1973) it was extended to Britain and Ireland in 1973 and then Europe in 1979, which made the Cup considerably more competitive. Currently, the Ryder Cup Matches are jointly administered by the PGA of America and the PGA European Tour.

2006-07-06T10:03:00.000+01:00

Ma calls from Ireland (Boondock Saints Deleted Scene)

this is brilliant

2006-07-06T09:52:00.000+01:00

Baywatch 2006

if your from cork this is funny, if not forget it langer.

2006-07-01T09:02:00.000+01:00

President & Taoiseach to attend Somme ceremony

President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern are to attend ceremonies in Dublin at noon to mark the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.

More than 3,500 Irish men were among the half a million soldiers who died in the battle in north eastern France which began on 1 July, 1916.

The Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, will represent the Government at the ceremonies taking place in Thiepval and Guillemont.

There are several controversial schools of thought on this cermony.

On Easter 1916 those who took part in the 1916 rising unfurled a banner
saying, “We serve neither King nor Kaiser”. This was a statement that their
revolt was part of the resistance to the 1st World War, a war between the
imperial powers of the day, as well as a blow for Ireland’s independence and
for an end of the oppression and occupation of Ireland by the British
Empire.

The 1916 rising was the first in a series of revolts that swept across
Europe against war and the empires. Kings were deposed and the carnage of
the war was brought to an end by mutinies in the armies and rebellions
against governments.

From the Sovereign Nation (with permission)

Quote: Commemorating With Deceit

In commemorating the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising we are actually reminding ourselves of our collective failure to use those ninety years to realise the rebellions objectives. One of the more salient reasons for this failure, and an explanation for the ninety years, rests with the fact that a political entity on the island, parented by a British Act of Parliament eighty four years ago, argues that it is representative of what the insurgents strove to create. In making this claim, and more so in defending it, that entity has proven to be the greatest political obstacle to realising the establishment of a thirty two county sovereign republic as envisaged by the Proclamation. This is why the British created it. When the hypocrisy of a State commemorating an historical event, whose very existence is an anathema to that event, is lost on the general body politic concerned one wonders have the revisionists prevailed. When the State commemorates the event for party political gain one wonders have the British finally succeeded in convincing the Irish body politic that our history is only relevant to our political and democratic development so long as it does not question the present constitutional status quo. Indeed given the motives behind the commemoration one wonders have the British appointed themselves to the stewardship of that development. Although it is depressing in both witnessing and analysing these events a grain of comfort, and a basis for forward movement, can be found in the undeniable fact that 1916 cannot be ignored. This makes the event uncomfortably relevant for the present status quo.

In relegating the events of 1916 to the role of Opinion Poll influencer, good to support one day, bad for another, clear indicators emerge as to just how uncomfortable 1916 is for constitutional nationalism. In its long and continued occupation of Ireland the British have always insisted that the constitutional status of the island must be fabricated on a British template and it was within this framework that constitutional nationalism practised its politics. A British presence and or influence were seen as intrinsic for the governance of Ireland. 1916 rejected this approach. When Pearse read aloud the Proclamation from the steps of the GPO he expressed, to both the British Empire and Irish constitutional nationalism, the totality of our sovereignty and the rights which that sovereignty afforded us. The Rising was initiated to defend that sovereignty and not, as the State would erroneously contend, to give to the Irish people sovereignty which they did not already possess. The conflict arose from the British violation of Irish sovereignty. As Commander in Chief of the Irish armed forces, raised to defend Irish sovereignty, Pearse was legitimately in the field during Easter Week. Constitutional nationalism, during the same week, condemned fifty thousand Irishmen to a foreign field fighting for the very same power which violated their sovereignty and conspired to undo the political arrangement, Home Rule, which motivated them to that conflict.

What demonstrates the contention that Constitutional Nationalism views a British dimension to its practice as intrinsic are the calls being made from several of its quarters for the commemoration of 1916 to be organically linked with a commemoration of those who fought in the Somme and by extension the First World War itself. These calls are not new nor indeed are efforts to have it realised. We can remember PSF personnel laying wreaths at cenotaphs in the occupied area honouring the army which effects that occupation. We can equally remember other PSF personnel sitting bewildered at Islandbridge War Memorial Gardens in Dublin only to see the same person waltzing through the white crosses in France hand in hand with a member of a Loyalist political grouping. Bewildering indeed. We are told that these acts and others are to honour the Irish who died in that conflagration and are not per se an honouring of the war itself. This is untrue. When you don the uniform of a given army you become de facto a representative of that army’s government. Nationality is set aside as you become an armed instrument of that government’s policy. That policy in relation to Ireland was to deny us that which the ‘Great War’ was supposedly fought to achieve, namely ‘the freedom of small nations’. Citing and exploiting the undoubted bravery and sincerity of those Irishmen cannot mask the fact that they were instruments of British Imperial Conquest. The true honour that can be afforded these men is to expose their actions to historical truth and demonstrate that those actions were as a result of deceit, betrayal and manipulation by the political forces which sent them to that slaughter, the British Government and Irish Constitutional Nationalism.

The 1916 Rising and events at the Somme are polar opposites. Indeed they both represent the protagonists opposing positions in the rebellion. And this represents the clear and unambiguous choice which Pearse recognised had to be made if our sovereignty meant as much to us as their own did to the British; Which uniform should we wear? Which government should we be an instrument of? If we agree with Pearse’s answer that it should be our own then honouring any aspect of the Somme with 1916 is injurious to realising the Irish government envisaged by 1916. Perpetuating the fallacy that there exists common political or ideological ground between either event perpetuates partition. This maybe a fitting memorial to the Somme but it is an obituary for 1916 and all that it stood for.

Along with any political event which involved a military aspect to it a military dimension to its commemoration is both fitting and warranted. This is not to be confused with militarism but with the legitimacy upon which an armed force is founded. A country’s army is an expression of the sovereignty of that country’s people and the use of that army for commemorative purposes is an expression of the legitimacy of the event which it commemorates. This truth holds for 1916. Yet, as we have seen the misrepresentation of 1916 to justify constitutional nationalism’s attempts to legitimise a British dimension to it, we again see such misrepresentation on behalf of the Free State government to afford their armed forces a status concerning 1916 which they patently do not hold. This issue has been reduced to electioneering centred on the soccer style mantra ‘there’s only one Oglaigh Na hEireann’. Whilst this is a factual statement blatant revisionism and untruths have sought to disguise the basic implications and onerous responsibilities inherent in claiming to be that army. Practices define what we are, not titles. Having defined an army’s primary function as defender of the peoples sovereignty in whose name it is raised can we say this of the Free State army? Are its practices synonymous with what ONH was founded to achieve?

As with those who fought in the Somme those who served with the Free State army after the Civil War did so for the highest motives and served worldwide with great effect and distinction. Their peacekeeping role as an Irish military force is to be much commended but none of this gives its political leaders the right to claim that it is something which it is not. Indeed those very same leaders have no right to exploit their forces sacrifices to mask with emotionalism an analysis of that forces constitutional function. Ostensibly the primary function of the Free State army is to defend the terms of the 1922 Anglo Irish Treaty which brought it into existence. The proof of this assertion is to be found in the actions of that army. This is the army, using British supplied weaponry, which suppressed Oglaigh Na hEireann’s efforts to defend the republic ratified by the democratic will of the Irish people. It is also the army that since its inception has defended the border which illegally partitions our country. There are those who claim that in defending the border they are safeguarding an Irish democracy south of it. But this deliberately incomplete analysis fails to recognise the simple fact that when you defend what a border maintains you defend what it maintains on both sides of it. It is not the function of Oglaigh Na hErieann to defend British Parliamentary activity in Ireland nor was it the purpose of 1916 to facilitate to any degree the legitimacy of such activity. To do so maybe a fitting memorial to the Somme but it is an obituary for 1916 and all that it stood for.

There are those in the Free State political hierarchy who assert that republicanism is more than mere separatism and in so doing believe that this in someway absolves them from pursuing the separatist agenda. Republicanism is more than the sum of its parts it is the totality of its pursuit. To remove separatism from republicanism is to remove republicanism from 1916. This is the objective of both the British government and Irish constitutional nationalism. Separatist politics was the politics of 1916 and formed the very foundation for the social inclusiveness of the republicanism expressed in the Proclamation. Our right to national self determination is as inviolate as the right to equality for all within that determination. We cannot cherry pick 1916 to sustain inadequate definitions of it or to justify derogations from its fundamental tenets. Partition cannot be reconciled with the Proclamation.

There are also those in the Free State hierarchy, its ideologues, who equally assert that in order to claim to be a republican one must be first and foremost a democrat. The assertion is made not to enrich republicanism with a self evident truth but to ritually condemn those who have asserted in arms, like Pearse and 1916, the self evident truth that a national democracy is denied to the Irish people. Again we see the deep differences between word and practice of those claiming empathy with 1916 and yet usurp the democratic ideal it strove to establish. Hiding behind the emotive shield of peace they have reduced democracy in Ireland to a position which must be compliant to British pre conditions as to how such a democracy should function. Having surrendered to this British demand the Free State sought to sanitise this position, along with the assistance of former republicans, to have it popularly endorsed by a partitioned Irish electorate. The British now claim that their Parliamentary activity in Ireland has the endorsement of the Irish people. Concluding Agreements which state that Partition can be legitimately permanent maybe a fitting memorial to the Somme but it is an obituary for 1916 and all that it stood for. The only fitting memorial for 1916 is the realisation of its objectives and only when that is achieved can we truly mourn for the Somme.

Non the less we salute all those who fought and died for the liberation of europe, and included below are the words from a fine irish song about Galipoli in which a large group of irish people attended, which sums up the sentimatant of todays 90 year aniversary.

The people of rebel county salute all.
Gallipoli.
I remember the day it stands clear in my mind
We stood down at Dunmurey waving goodbye
Your ma was gently weeping there was a tear in my eye
You were sailing to Gallipoli to die

You looked so young as you stood there that glint in your eye
and you sang rebel songs as the streamers flew high
Your ma turned away and I heard her sigh
He's going to Gallipoli to die

You were all that we had you mommy and me
When you marched head erect you looked proud as could be
But it killed your poor ma and it's slowly killing me
You were blown to kingdom come on the shores of Gallipoli

We got only one letter and we knew right away
It said deepest regrets your son was killed and he was brave
You were only nineteen when your mommy and I
Let you go to Gallipoli to die

You fought for the wrong country you fought for the wrong cause
And your ma often said it was Ireland's sad loss
All those fine young men who marched to foreign lands to fight the war
When the greatest war of all was at home

There will be live coverage of the commemorative ceremonies at the War Memorial at Island Bridge in Dublin and at the Somme in France on RTÉ One Television (Irish tv) beginning at 11.30am this morning.

2006-06-28T13:16:00.000+01:00

Keane - A Tribute to ManU

rebel county ledgend

2006-06-28T11:16:00.000+01:00

Italia 90

The good ole days!The leaving cert ouch!

2006-06-28T07:50:00.000+01:00

Crazy night at Ireland

Take it easy on the guinness girls

2006-06-28T05:44:00.000+01:00

DJ Dummy Solo - Ireland

check this out

2006-06-14T10:36:00.000+01:00

Charlie Haughey
A fine
Irish Rebel!
1925-2006

click here to listen to on line radio show on cj haughey

click here to watch an rte show on cjh

Not since the Civil War has an Irish politician been the subject of such adulation and execration as Charlie Haughey. Throughout a political career that spanned five decades, Haughey dismissed most of the criticism as the begrudgery of those who could not accept ‘an upstart from Donnycarney’.

He was actually born in Castlebar, Co Mayo, on 16 September 1925. His father was an officer in the IRA, and later the Irish army. Shortly after his death the family moved to Dublin, where the young Haughey had a modest, unremarkable upbringing. But despite his relatively humble origins, ‘The Boss’, as he became known, was a natural aristocrat, utterly dismissive of his detractors.

For years, the questions about Haughey's wealth were whispered from circle to circle. But it was not until Dunne's admission that he had given money to politicians that the tribunals heard publicly about Haughey's wealth and how he spent it.

Even before he became Taoiseach Haughey had become used to living beyond his means. In 1980 he managed to get AIB to write off £400,000 from an overdraft which had climbed to over £1 million.

The McCracken Tribunal heard that Haughey received £1.3 million from Dunne between 1987 and 1992. This confirmed what some had long suspected, but the public was nevertheless deeply shocked.

2006-05-13T21:57:00.000+01:00

Anniversary of the Sinking of the Lusitania off the South West Coast of Cork

The Lusitania carried a healthy complement of American passengers when she departed New York for Liverpool on May 1, 1915, despite a published warning from the German authorities that appeared in U.S. newspapers the morning of her departure.

By this time a number of British merchant ships had been sunk by German subs, but the famous liner's speed still seemed the best guarantee of safety. Certainly her captain and crew should have been on high alert. As the Lusitania neared the end of her crossing, a German U-boat sank three British ships in the waters south of Ireland through which she was about to sail, and he received repeated warnings that U-boats were active on his intended course. Yet on May 7, as the Lusitania entered the most dangerous part of her passage, Captain William Turner actually slowed down, apparently worried by patchy fog.

In fact, Turner was ignoring or at least bending every one of the Admiralty's directives for evading German submarines. He was steaming too close to shore, where U-boats loved to lurk, instead of in the relative safety of the open channel. He was sailing at less than top speed, and he wasn't zigzagging (later he claimed to believe that zigzagging was a tactic to be adopted only after a U-boat was sighted). In his defense, it must be stated that Turner was steering the Lusitania farther from shore than had the ship's previous commander on several wartime crossings. And his many years as a merchant captain undoubtedly inclined him to trust his own instincts over bureaucratic directives he didn't fully understand. It can also be argued that so important a ship merited a destroyer escort for the most perilous part of its voyage.
Whether or not Turner's behavior can be justified, it doomed his ship.

When U-20 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger found a huge four-stacker in its sights just south of Queenstown, Ireland, it was able to kill her with a single torpedo, penetrating the hull just below the waterline. The initial explosion set off a violent secondary blast. The ship sank in 18 minutes, with a lost of 1,195 of the 1,959 on board, including 123 Americans. Captain Turner was washed clear of the bridge as the ship sank, and survived after spending more than three hours in the water.

The lost of the Lusitania provoked great outrage in the United States and helped create the climate of public opinion that would later allow America to join the war. It also marked the end of any delusions that the "civilized" manners of 19th century warfare could survive into the 20th.
Exploring the Lusitania
by robert ballard

We came to the wreck of the Lusitania in the summer of 1993 hoping to solve its greatest mystery: What caused the violent secondary explosion that undoubtedly led the ship to sink so quickly? Some have

argued that it was contraband munitions. Conspiracy theorists have even claimed that the British sank the ship deliberately to hasten America's entry into the war. But even if we found no "smoking gun" on the seafloor off the southern Irish coast, our technology would allow us to bring back a complete visual record of what remains of this great lost liner, preserving her for posterity.

Unfortunately for our investigation, previous visitors had already tampered with the evidence. The wreck lies in just 295 feet of water, making it relatively easy pickings. Reports of blasting and salvaging operations, some apparently conducted by or for the Royal Navy, dated back to 1946. In the 1980s, salvagers had removed two of the bow anchors and three of the four bronze propellers. But nothing prepared us for the actual scene of devastation. The hull is in two torn and twisted pieces, a sad echo of its former glory. It is probable that the bow section tore free of the rest of the ship when it hit bottom. The wreck is pocked with holes that were probably caused by depth charges. The Lusitania lies on her starboard side, obscuring the area where the torpedo hit, but our careful inspection of the port side of the hull revealed no evidence of the gaping hole reported by scuba diver John Light, who made numerous dives to the wreck in the early 1960s. We also discovered that the hull has collapsed to roughly half its original width.

This fact helps explain how the superstructure has become such a chaotic disaster area, where almost nothing is recognizable. The decks have slid down to starboard and much of the upperworks of the ship has collapsed into a heap of rubble on the seafloor. To make matters worse, the forecastle was festooned with fishing nets, making this part of the upperworks extremely dangerous for our vehicles to explore. Only the foremost part of the bow seemed somewhat recognizable as belonging to the famous Blue Riband holder. The bow is upturned to an angle of about 45 degrees, and the outline of the ship's name is visible-one of the biggest highlights of our exploration.

Directing exploration operations on the Lusitania wreck was a little like parading a marching band through a minefield at midnight -- literally as well as metaphorically, since we saw a number of unexploded depth charges, presumably a remnant of Irish naval exercises. I constantly had to worry where each of our three vehicles was. And because the wreck lies close to shore, there are strong tidal currents that can play havoc with underwater positioning and cloud the area with sediment. Despite all our care, we had at least one underwater collision and several near misses. And those nets were hellish. At one point our tiny submarine Delta, with three people onboard, sucked a net into its propeller and had to drop its tail to escape. On another occasion, divers had to cut Jason free of nets in which it had become caught.
In the end, we sailed home with many haunting images of the wreck,

including a single ladies' shoe and a bathtub complete with shower apparatus. But we found nothing to suggest the ship was sabotaged. Nor was there any evidence of an explosion in the area of the ship's magazine, which is presumably where contraband munitions, if any, would have been stowed. The other strong possibility, a boiler explosion, seems highly unlikely since none was reported by any of the survivors from the three boiler rooms in operation. We finally concluded that the only real clues to the cause of the secondary explosion were the many lumps of coal that lay scattered across the seafloor near the ship and must have fallen from her as she sank.

The torpedo likely ripped open the ship at one of the starboard coal bunkers, nearly empty at the end of the transatlantic crossing. The violent impact kicked up clouds of coal dust, which when mixed with oxygen and touched by fire becomes an explosive combination. The resulting blast, the reported second explosion, ripped open the starboard side of the hull and doomed the ship.

So ended the life of the Lusitania. She is now a faint ghost of the ocean greyhound she once was, one of the saddest wrecks I've ever seen. But when I visualize her upturned bow, I can imagine the pride of those who once sailed on the swiftest ship in the world.

2006-05-10T07:32:00.000+01:00

Rebelcounty Salutes another great Corkman!

Roy keane signed off from his testimonial in a man united shirt as the red devils beat the current club celtic 1-0 at Old Trafford today.

Fans from both side cheered the corkman as Cristano's Ronaldo's second half goal settled the match.

Sir Alex Ferguson has labelled him the best player he’s ever worked with, while aspiring footballers and United fans worship the ground he walks on.

Whatever your view on Roy Keane, there’s no doubt he is the epitome of the unwavering spirit and desire to succeed that Manchester United stands for.

Few sportsmen lead from the front in the way Keane does, both on and off the pitch.

Images of him rallying his team-mates whilst covering every blade of grass have been, and still are, frequent occurrences on the field. He is also not afraid to speak his mind in front of the media, particularly if he feels his colleagues are not reaching the high standards he expects.

The Cork-born midfielder began his career with Cobh Ramblers after failing to gain an apprenticeship in English football.

Brian Clough later took him to Nottingham Forest before he completed a then record £3.75million switch to Old Trafford in the summer of 1993.

Keane began his United career with two goals on his home debut in a 3-0 win over Sheffield United.

The combative midfielder went on to win the first of his seven Premiership medals in his debut season and has since added a European Cup, an Intercontinental Cup and four FA Cup winners’ medals to his collection.

He took over the United captaincy from Eric Cantona at the start of 97/98 campaign, but his season was cut short by a cruciate knee ligament injury sustained in a tackle with Leeds’ Alf-Inge Haaland at Elland Road in September 1997.

The 1998/99 season saw Keane experience a range of mixed fortunes. On his way to leading United to their historic Treble, a sending-off in the FA Cup semi-final replay victory over Arsenal was followed by a yellow card during arguably his greatest display in a Red shirt in the Champions League semi-final second leg against Juventus, forcing him to miss that unforgettable night in Barcelona when United were crowned European Champions.

Aside from his influential displays for United, Keane - a former winner of both the Footballer of the Year and the Players' Player of the Year awards in 2000 - has also proved an inspiration to his country and he now has over 50 caps for the Republic of Ireland.

A huge bust-up with former Republic boss Mick McCarthy which led to Keane’s premature departure from the 2002 World Cup looked to have put paid to his international career, but he made a shock return to action under Brian Kerr in May 2004. The reunion only lasted until the autumn of 2005, however. Following Ireland's failure to qualify for the 2006 World Cup finals, Keane announced his international retirement.

At the time of his announcement regarding Ireland, Keane was injured, having broken a metatarsal bone in his foot in United's Premiership match against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday 18 September 2005.

He was still out of action on Friday 19 November when a shock announcement to top them all was made. Manchester United issued a statement through ManUtd.com to declare that Keane's Old Trafford career was over. The Reds had reached agreement with Keane to end his contract immediately, enabling him to find a playing contract with a new club.

The news stunned United fans and the football world at large. Keane said in the statement: "Whilst it is a sad day for me to leave such a great Club and Manager I believe that the time has now come for me to move on."

In the same statement, Sir Alex Ferguson described Keane as "the best midfield player in the world of his generation" and "one of the great figures in our Club’s illustrious history."

2006-05-05T07:33:00.000+01:00

Aerial photo of San Francisco before the great 1906 earthquake.
Note: The golden gate bridge was not yet built.
To see the photo click here

2006-04-22T09:55:00.000+01:00

St Patricks day 2006
San francisco

2006-04-15T04:56:00.000+01:00

A month after retiring, 100-year-old transit worker dies! Best keep working says Rebel county!

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Less than a month after retiring on his 100th birthday, longtime Los Angeles County transit employee Arthur Winston died in his sleep, his family said Friday.

The man co-workers celebrated as Mr. Reliable had recently been admitted to a hospital for exhaustion and dehydration, but returned to his home April 6. He died Thursday evening.

To his former colleagues at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Winston was more than a model employee known for his energy, punctuality and longevity. He was a legend. Winston missed one day of work in over 70 years, and that was to attend his wife's funeral in 1988. In 1996, he received an "Employee of the Century" citation from President Bill Clinton.

"He leaves behind a great legacy," said his grandniece, Yvette Chappell-Ingram.

Winston worked at the MTA and its predecessor agencies for 76 years. For decades, Winston reported to work at a bus yard at the crack of dawn to supervise a crew of workers as they cleaned and refueled the region's bus fleet.

"Arthur Winston's life of service will stand as an unparalleled example of dedication to principles, commitment to excellence and pride in the American work ethic," said John Catoe, the MTA's deputy chief executive officer.

Winston was born in Oklahoma and said he began picking cotton at age 10. His family headed west when droughts and storms ruined several crop seasons, and in 1924 he found work with the Pacific Electric Railway Co., a forerunner of the MTA.

He left the company in 1928, returned six years later and stayed until his retirement last month.

In an interview last month, Winston credited his father for teaching him a strong work ethic.

"My dad got us out of bed whether it was raining or snowing. We got up at 6 o'clock, no matter what," he said.

At age 99, Winston was responsible for a crew of 11 employees who cleaned, maintained and refueled Metro buses.

When he retired last month, Winston was offered a new job as an honorary spokesman for the 99 Cents Only stores.

"I'll be on the move. I'm not going to sit and mope in the house," he said at the time

2006-03-05T18:47:00.000Z

2006-02-19T14:00:00.000Z

No More printing in Cork Examiner oops, the
Irish Examiner

From next week, the Irish Examiner will be printed at Mahon, in the Cork suburbs, by Webprint Concepts. Twelve other newspapers within Thomas Crosbie Holdings’ (TCH) newspaper portfolio have already transferred printing to the new presses in the past three weeks.

TCH, which owns 18 titles including the Irish Examiner, Evening Echo and The Sunday Business Post, has outsourced the printing of all its publications, except for the British-based Irish Post, to Webprint Concepts. Up to 47 employees at Academy Street took voluntary redundancy following the decision to outsource.

Last night, Irish Examiner chief executive Tom Murphy paid warm tribute to the printers, despatch and maintenance workers for their commitment and integrity throughout the years that the paper had been printed at Academy Street.

“The guys who were working on the press last night have shown the same true professionalism as did their predecessors over the past 165 years, which has ensured that, no matter how difficult or trying the circumstances, they got the paper onto the streets,” said Mr Murphy.

Since the paper was established in 1841, the only time it missed an edition was when the printing press was attacked in the Civil War. Even then, the paper relocated temporarily and lost only one edition.

“This is the end of an era and an emotional one for everybody at the paper, especially those who have given many years of loyal service to the company,” he said. “I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody concerned for giving so much to the company and contributing to the success of the business.”

TCH managing director Anthony Dinan described yesterday as an “historic day” and also thanked the printers who worked at the Academy Street press.

“It is obviously an historic day for everybody involved in the Irish Examiner as the newspaper’s printing moves to Mahon. I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the printing of the newspaper over the years for their work.

“I would like to thank those who worked here in the past, those leaving and also those who are transferring to the printing press.

“They have all done fantastic work and always embraced change,” he said.

TCH chairman Alan Crosbie said that one era had ended and a bright new one dawned.

“I would like to extend my thanks to everyone, both dead and alive, who has been involved in the printing of the Irish Examiner at Academy Street for the past 165 years,” he said.

2006-01-08T16:02:00.000Z

Iron Age 'bog bodies' unveiled

Archaeologists have unveiled two Iron Age "bog bodies" which were found in the Republic of Ireland.

The bodies, which are both male and have been dated to more than 2,000 years ago, probably belong to the victims of a ritual sacrifice.

In common with other bog bodies, they show signs of having been tortured before their deaths.

Details of the finds are outlined in a BBC Timewatch documentary to be screened on 20 January.
The first body dropped off a peat cutting machine in February 2003 in Clonycavan, near Dublin. The forearms, hands and lower abdomen are missing, believed to have been hacked off by the machine.

The second was found in May the same year in Croghan, just 25 miles (40km) from Clonycavan.

Old Croghan Man, as it has become known, was missing a head and lower limbs. It was discovered by workmen clearing a drainage ditch through a peat bog.
Although the police were initially called in, an inspection by the state pathologist confirmed that this was an archaeological case.
Both bodies were subsequently taken to the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.

A team of experts from the UK and Ireland have been examining the bodies to learn how they lived and died.
Radiocarbon dating, for example, would show that both had died at similar times - around 2,300 years ago.

One of these experts is Don Brothwell, the York University archaeologist who led the scientific investigation of Lindow Man, the bog body found in Cheshire in 1984.

Hundreds of bodies have been recovered from peat wetlands across Northern Europe. The earliest accounts date back to the 18th Century. The unique chemistry of peat bogs essentially mummifies bodies.

Summer death

The peat-building Sphagnum moss embeds remains in cold, acid and oxygen-free conditions that immobilise bacteria.

"The way peat wetlands preserve bodies has been described as a process of 'slow-cooking' which tans them dark brown," Timewatch producer John Hayes-Fisher told the BBC News website.

Clonycavan man was a young male no more than 5ft 2in tall. Beneath his hair, which retains its unusual "raised" style, was a massive wound caused by heavy cutting object that smashed open his skull.

Chemical analysis of the hair showed that Clonycavan man's diet was rich in vegetables in the months leading up to his death, suggesting he died in summer.

It also revealed that he had been using a type of Iron Age hair gel; a vegetable plant oil mixed with a resin that had probably come from south-western France or Spain.

Dismembered body

Old Croghan man was also young - probably in his early to mid 20s - but much taller than his counterpart from 25 miles away. Scientists worked out from the length of his arms that he would have stood around 6ft 6in tall.

He had been horrifically tortured before death. His nipples had been cut and he had been stabbed in the ribs. A cut on his arm suggested he had tried to defend himself during the attack that ended his life.

The young man was later beheaded and dismembered. Hazel ropes were passed through his arms before he was buried in the bog.

Food remains in his stomach show that Old Croghan man had eaten milk and cereals before he died. But chemical analysis of his nails showed that he had more meat in his diet than Clonycavan man.

This suggests that he died in a colder season than Clonycavan man, when vegetables were more scarce. It may also explain why his remains are better preserved.

Hopeful offering

The researchers used digital technology to reconstruct the distorted face of Clonycavan man.

From his studies on these bog bodies and others, Ned Kelly, keeper of Irish antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland, has developed a new theory which explains why so many remains are buried on important political or royal boundaries.

"My belief is that these burials are offerings to the gods of fertility by kings to ensure a successful reign," Mr Kelly told the BBC's Timewatch programme.

"Bodies are placed in the borders immediately surrounding royal land or on tribal boundaries to ensure a good yield of corn and milk throughout the reign of the king."

2005-11-15T18:59:00.000Z

Tayto to be prosecuted over Radon testing?

The crisp maker, Tayto, is to be prosecuted by the Radiological Protection Institute for failing to test its Kerry office for the cancer causing gas Radon.

In a statement to RTÉ News, senior management announced they had commenced 'an internal investigation' into the matter.

Tayto has a depot in Tralee, Co Kerry - an area with high radon levels. Last July the Tayto office received an order from the Radiological Protection Institute to test for the cancer causing gas radon - which kills 200 people each year.

In a statement tonight, the company said it had initiated an internal investigation and would also implement the tests as soon as possible. The company added it was now 'direct contact' with the nuclear watchdog. Radon gas does not harm food products.

Yesterday RTÉ News revealed that Paddy Power's bookmakers in Co Clare was also facing prosecution. The company said the testing was not carried out due to a mix-up in correspondence between its Ennis office and headquarters.

Nine other companies also face prosecution.

2005-07-18T20:51:00.000+01:00

New figures show rise in gangland crime

Gangland crime and murder increased during the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2004.
The latest crime figures released by the Department of Justice show 26 people died violently since January - three more than this time last year.
The Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, said he was concerned about the rate of violent death but added that it is encouraging that the number of deaths involving firearms has fallen significantly in recent times.

Bank and post office robberies, drugs seizures, and possession of firearms were also up but public order offences, cash-in-transit robberies and female rape and sexual assaults were down.
There were 216 incidents involving possession of firearms - six more than last year - but nine less instances where firearms were discharged.
Drug seizures were up 29% to 1,342, while bank and post office robberies were up 22% to 654.
Cash-in-transit robberies were down 39% from 36 to 22, and there were also reductions in sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault and female rape.
Assaults causing harm were also down 8% but there were still 1,805 assaults reported over the past six months.
Mr McDowell pointed out that since the end of May, following the commencement of the gardaí's Operation Anvil, there has not been a gangland murder, while 420 people have been arrested and 83 guns have been seized.

2005-07-06T08:36:00.000+01:00

Irelands white tiger? 20-fold increase in cocaine use

THERE was a 20-fold increase in the use of cocaine in Ireland between 2001 and 2003, according to official statistics for garda seizures of the drug.

As yet unpublished figures from the Health Research Board will show a systematic and substantial increase in the number of cocaine users in Ireland in the past two years, the Irish Examiner has learned.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Siobhan Barry said that, based on internationally accepted data, the amount of cocaine seized by the gardaí represented about 10% of what was being used.

In 2001, gardaí seized just 5kg of cocaine compared to 107kg in 2003 more than a 20-fold increase.

In 2002, 155 people with a primary cocaine problem attended for treatment.

This figure, along with the number of secondary cocaine users, is expected to have increased substantially in the past two years and only represents a fraction of cocaine users, the majority of whom do not seek help.

Dr Barry is one of two medical specialists who carried out research for an Oireachtas report on The Treatment of Cocaine Addiction.

The report of the Joint Committee on Arts, Sport, Tourism, Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, chaired by Fianna Fáil Deputy Cecilia Keaveney, has made a number of recommendations on the treatment of cocaine users.

"Cocaine is no respecter of health, whether in 'recreational' or other use," said Dr Barry.

The fact that many users consider their use recreational and are not coming into treatment services also needs to be taken into account in future planning, she said.

"There is also a need to improve the baseline assessment for cocaine users' physical health."

The report used data gathered from a number of sources including the Health Research Board and the gardaí.

"There has been a concern for some time about service provision as the number of people using cocaine increases," said Dr Barry.

She said public health issues involved in cocaine should be central to an education campaign.

In addition, she said there was a need to dispel some of the myths around cocaine such as the notion that it is relatively safe and relatively clean.

"The reality is far from that," said Dr Barry.

2005-05-06T06:42:00.000+01:00

what a show hurrah

2005-04-26T09:08:00.001+01:00

lets get this over with

2005-04-26T09:08:00.000+01:00

There goes the plane.

2005-04-26T09:07:00.000+01:00

I see a satellite

2005-04-26T09:06:00.002+01:00

I hope this works out

2005-04-26T09:06:00.001+01:00

Do I know you?

2005-04-26T09:06:00.000+01:00

Is it time for champagne yet?

2005-04-26T09:05:00.001+01:00

Do I go left or right?

2005-04-26T09:05:00.000+01:00

Which field do we head for?

2005-04-26T09:04:00.003+01:00

Ahhhhh.

2005-04-26T09:04:00.002+01:00

Arrrgh...

2005-04-26T09:04:00.001+01:00

Its a bird its a plane

2005-04-26T09:04:00.000+01:00

Heading for the beach.

2005-04-26T09:03:00.001+01:00

Easy does it.

2005-04-26T09:03:00.000+01:00

Terra Firma

2005-04-26T09:02:00.001+01:00

Am I still Alive?

2005-04-26T09:02:00.000+01:00

Permission to land

2005-04-26T09:01:00.002+01:00

Who there.

2005-04-26T09:01:00.001+01:00

Almost there.

2005-04-26T09:01:00.000+01:00

nice landing

2005-04-26T08:50:00.001+01:00

All Strapped in, Im sure?

2005-04-26T08:50:00.000+01:00

2005-04-26T08:42:00.000+01:00

Sky Diving California

2005-02-01T06:06:00.000Z

Roches Stores to pull out of food market
31/01/2005 - 12:23:46

Roches Stores is to pull out of supermarket trading to focus solely on the non-food side of its business, the group announced today.

The existing Roches Stores supermarkets at Blackrock, Co Dublin and Eyre Square, Galway locations will now be operated by Marks & Spencer. The supermarkets in Cork at Patrick Street and Wilton will remain as part of the SuperValu franchise and will be operated by the Caulfield McCarthy Group.

"This move is consistent with Roches Stores strategic focus on its fashion and homewares business in recent years," Roches said in a statement today.

“The development of Roches Stores and partnerships with leading international names like Zara, Pull and Bear, Springfield and The Pier has been hugely well received by our customers. Our newly-developed stores are all about exciting fashion brands and stylish homewares."

The closure of the existing supermarkets will take place in Blackrock on Wednesday, March 2 and in Galway on Monday, March 21 with Marks & Spencer expected to be operational by June 2005 in both locations.

The supermarkets in Cork will be operated by the Caulfield McCarthy Group from Wednesday, May 4.

All employees from the existing supermarkets will be transferred to the new Marks & Spencer stores in Blackrock and Galway and to the Caulfield McCarthy Group operated SuperValu supermarkets in both Cork locations.

In a statement Donal Horgan, Managing Director of Musgrave SuperValu Centra stated: “Whilst disappointed to lose the food business in Blackrock and Galway, we are delighted that one of our largest retail partners is committing to operate both Patrick Street and Wilton.”

“We anticipated this move by Roches Stores in Dublin and Galway some time ago and we have already replaced this business through an aggressive new store-opening programme. In 2004, we opened 14 new SuperValu outlets throughout the Republic of Ireland – five in Dublin [in addition to stores in] Ballybunion, Clonmel, Killaloe, Cobh, Glenamaddy, Killorglin, Listowel, Navan and Moycullen."

2005-01-14T01:09:00.000Z

iPods fuel Guinness decline
Irish drink less Black Stuff shock

THE IRISH ARE drinking less Guinness - official. Figures just released by Diageo - the company which owns Ireland's national tipple - show that sales slumped by six per cent.

The reason? Paul Walsh, Diageo's CEO, revealed that the typical 21 to 25 year old is failing to follow his father's footsteps down to the pub. Instead, "They're often putting their money into electronic stuff such as iPODs," Walsh told the FT.

The more cynical amongst us suspect that's only half the truth. The health Nazis have scored a major victory as the ban on smoking in pubs - recently enforced in Eire - is beginning to hit home.

The INQ hears rumours that Ireland might be surpassed as the biggest consumer of Guinness. Anecdotal evidence suggests a Guinness plant in Lagos, Nigeria is going great guns and is already the second largest Guinness brewer. Worse still, African Guinness is sweeter than normal. A sort of New Guinness to Ireland's classic Guinness.

Whilst we're on the subject of sacrilege, the INQ has toured Dublin's Guinness brewery and was told categorically that Guinness isn't made from Liffe water and never was. Worse still, it was first brewed in Park Royal, London.

Whatever next? Guinness served in two litre glasses? µ

2005-01-13T19:53:00.000Z

Oh, the healthy life

2005-01-13T19:46:00.000Z

High Pressure in Hospitals
The management consultant, David Hanly, who was appointed to help implement reform of the acute hospital service, has confirmed that his contract has not been renewed by the Department of Health and Children.

Mr Hanly chaired the Hanly Report, which was published in June 2003 as the Government's blueprint for a new hospital system.

Mr Hanly told RTÉ News he had not formally met the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney, to discuss the matter.

He said he 'assumed' that his contract had been allowed expire due to the impasse with consultants in a row over medical malpractice insurance.

Mr Hanly said the reforms were 'on ice' due to the dispute with consultants, who are not co-operating with the Hanly pilot projects in two health regions.

Mr Hanly's view was backed up by a spokesperson for the Department of Health, who said that the Hanly Two group had not been able to make any progress on a national plan for hospital services due to the dispute with consultants.

There has also been controversy over the Acute Hospital Review Group which is also due to prepare a plan for the country. That review group has never met.

The Hanly Report proposes a smaller number of major hospitals with full A&E units and a different role for other hospitals.

It recommends a new role for consultants and a method for the implementation of the 48-hour working week for junior doctors.

2005-01-13T19:43:00.000Z

Sara Lee to close Killarney factory
ara Lee Corporation has announced that over 92 jobs are to be lost at their Killarney site in Co Kerry.

The company, which manufactures ladies apparel, is to close within the next two months.

In a statement, the company blamed the current over supply of its product in the market for the closure.

It also said it would be providing an employee support programme to assist all factory staff in securing alternative employment.

2005-01-11T12:21:00.000Z

fastnet rock

2005-01-11T12:19:00.000Z

Ireland

2004-11-19T09:10:00.000Z

Mad cow scare 'bad news'

A possible new case in the U.S. may further hinder beef trade.

WASHINGTON -- Attempts to lift the American ban on Canadian cattle could face a major setback with news yesterday U.S. officials may have discovered a second case of mad cow disease. Southwestern Ontario farmers, blindsided by the announcement, will have to wait anxiously for up to a week before U.S. officials can determine with certainty whether the cow has bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

"Any mention of (BSE) is bad news," said Lucan-area farmer Gord Hardy, a board member with the Ontario Cattlemen's Association.

"The (beef) price has been coming up all fall. There was a bit of optimism that the border was going to open . . . and scares like this can take the heart out of you."

If the cow has BSE, the U.S. Agriculture Department will go through a lengthy process of tracing the source of the disease, as it did when a Canadian-born cow in Washington state tested positive last December.

"We determine the source of the infection and take the appropriate regulatory actions," said Ed Curlett, spokesperson for the department's animal and plant health inspection service.

Curlett wouldn't speculate on the potential impact of a second diseased cow on the cattle ban that has devastated Canadian ranchers, and didn't say whether the potential new case had any connection to a Canadian cow.

"I'm not aware that it would have any impact. This cow could (test) negative."

U.S. President George W. Bush's re-election renewed hope among Canada's battered beef industry.

But another mad cow case -- Canadian or not -- would be devastating, said Larry Smith, an Embro-area farmer.

"I got this sort of wrenching in (my) gut, saying, 'Oh God,' " said Smith, an official with the Beef Improvement Organization.

"We don't need this sort of publicity right now -- even if (the final test) is negative."

Stan Eby, president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, said he's been told two initial tests on the cow have come back inconclusive.

Eby said any potential new case shouldn't derail the progress that has been made on reopening the U.S border to live Canadian cattle.

"I see no reason for it to have an effect on present negotiations."

Canadian Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell called U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman yesterday and was told there is no suggestion of a link with Canada.

The United States first closed the border to Canadian beef products and cattle in May 2003 after a lone Alberta cow tested positive for BSE. It later reopened trade on some beef products, but so far hasn't resumed buying live cattle.

Both Canada and the U.S. have implemented similar safety measures to deal with the problem. They include more BSE testing and banning animal tissues considered more prone to the disease from the food supply.

Suspicions about another case of the disease came because of an inconclusive test result, American officials said yesterday.

"The inconclusive result does not mean we have found another case of BSE in this country," said U.S. Agriculture Department spokesperson Andrea Morgan.

"It is important to note that this animal did not enter the food or feed chain," Morgan said. "USDA remains confident in the safety of the U.S. beef supply."

Currently, only boneless cuts from animals under 30 months of age can cross from Canada into the U.S., but American officials have been working on a regulation that would lead to renewed cattle trade.

Prime Minister Paul Martin plans to raise the issue with President George W. Bush when he visits Ottawa at the end of the month.

The mad cow cases have also hurt U.S. export sales, with Japan and more than three dozen other countries refusing the take American beef.

U.S. officials want to establish a national identification system for tracking livestock and poultry from birth through the production chain.

Currently, only boneless cuts from animals under 30 months of age can cross from Canada into the U.S., but American officials have been working on a regulation that would lead to renewed cattle trade.

Prime Minister Paul Martin plans to raise the issue with President George W. Bush when he visits Ottawa at the end of the month.

2004-07-22T01:28:00.000+01:00

2003-11-08T00:15:00.000Z

Rebelcounty man of the month Eliot Splizer

A rebel with a cause from new York chasing the mutual funds scandal by tom Corcoran
There is serious corruption in mutual funds for the past ten years. These occurances resulted in two main offence which concisted of the following
1.Stale pricingThis occurs due to funds being price once a day and sold at that fixed price evewn though some funds are being actively trade in asia or europe, thereby giving massive profit potential to trading prices.
2. Late Trading
Fund managers operate on commisions and gains for investment houses. These fund managers enable large hege funds and investment institutions to trade on their behalf after the market closes.
3. Big dealer trade access
Big institutes accessing accounts ahead of the market gives them an unfair advantage ahead of the smaller investors. Which results in a drain of profit or potential gains for the long term investor as it is draining the long term gain as a result of speculative investments based on privy information time curve.

The problem created by this activities created a shortfall of billions in mutual funds which are the retirement funds for the vast majority of americans. There trust in mutual funds for they're good have been abused for monetary gain.

My chief concern is that not only in america have these funds been abused but through out the world, after all governments investing in mutual funds are invariably transacted through new york, and this could have a major performance impact on global retirement plans unless these activities are restricted and regulated, Hence the light at the end of the
tunnel is roy splizer, as the new york attorney is determined to get all the money back, which could be billions.

Eliot Spitzer became the state’s 63rd Attorney General on January 1, 1999. Since that time, he has advanced initiatives to make New York a national leader in investor protection, environmental stewardship, labor rights, personal privacy, public safety and criminal law enforcement.

Spitzer’s investigations of conflicts of interest on Wall Street have been the catalyst for dramatic reform in the nation’s financial services industry.

His lawsuits against Midwest and Mid-Atlantic power plants will help reduce air pollution responsible for acid rain and smog in the Northeast.

His efforts to curtail abuses in the green grocery industry have been hailed as landmark labor rights cases.

His investigations of internet companies and direct marketers have resulted in new privacy protections for consumers throughout the nation.

His "code of conduct" was the foundation for a settlement that reformed the way the nation’s largest gun manufacturer designs and distributes handguns.

His prosecutions of sophisticated white collar crimes have resulted in some of the nation’s largest fraud recoveries.

Through these and other initiatives, Spitzer is building the reputation of the Attorney General as "the People’s Lawyer."

Spitzer brings considerable experience to the office. He was a clerk to United State District Court Judge Robert W. Sweet and, later, an associate at Paul Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison.

He served as an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan from 1986-1992, rising to become Chief of the Labor Racketeering Unit, where he successfully prosecuted organized crime and political corruption cases. He also worked at the New York law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, and was a partner at Constantine & Partners.

Spitzer has contributed great time and energy to community service, serving on the boards of various not-for-profit organizations.

Spitzer is a 1981 graduate of Princeton University and a 1984 graduate of Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Spitzer and his wife, Silda, also a Harvard Law School graduate, live in Manhattan with their three daughters, and also maintain a home in Columbia County.

2003-11-07T23:53:00.000Z

France vs Ireland
Ireland have made two changes from the team that pushed the Wallabies so close in their final pool match, also in Melbourne.

Coach Eddie O'Sullivan has made one apiece in the backs and forwards.

John Kelly comes in on the left wing in place of the injured Denis Hickie, a victim of a torn Achilles.

O'Sullivan has also recalled Victor Costello in place of Anthony Foley at number eight, describing the change as "horses for courses".

Costello missed the Australia game with a thigh strain.

Ronan O'Gara has won the vote at fly-half, with rival David Humphreys on the bench for the second successive game.

The teams have met 77 times with France leading the head-to-head 44 victories to 28.

That tally of wins includes the only previous World Cup match between the sides in 1995, although the French have lost three of their last four meetings.

France: N Brusque; A Rougerie, T Marsh, Y Jauzion, C Dominici; F Michalak, F Galthie (capt); J-J Crenca, R Ibanez, S Marconnet, F Pelous, J Thion, S Betsen, O Magne, I Harinordoquy.
Replacements: Y Bru, O Millou, O Brouzet, P Tabacco, G Merceron, B Liebenberg, P Elhorga.

Ireland: G Dempsey, S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, K Maggs, J Kelly; R O'Gara, P Stringer; R Corrigan, K Wood (capt), J Hayes; M O'Kelly, P O'Connell; S Easterby, K Gleeson, V Costello.
Replacements: S Byrne, M Horan, D O'Callaghan, E Miller, G Easterby, D Humphreys, A Horgan

2003-11-02T06:47:00.000Z

Australia V's Ireland: 17 16
A lot of tricks in the bag but no magic.

The games main interest was predominately performed within the front five.

Keith wood gave a staunch performance rising to the challenge of the ausies bring the game to an exciting level whereby all spectators both at the stadium or clutching onto they're chilled guinesses, but alas no magic not even in the sponge bag.

But all hope is not lost as we are still in and live to fight another day liberty, fraternity and equality!

2003-10-24T21:19:00.000+01:00

Lucky to be born in Ireland, born in Cork by the grace of god.

2003-10-24T21:17:00.000+01:00

Dying one way to increase record sales

Rock 'n' roll legend Elvis Presley dead for more than 26 years, on Friday led the Forbes.com list of top-earning deceased celebrities for the third year in a row, to the tune of $40 million for the year ending September 2003

2003-10-24T20:47:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the new blog for rebelcounty.com