I hope everyone had a good one!
Month: October 2005
Blog worth
Testing Flock
Hmm Looks interesting.
TV tonight
Timewatch looks good tonight, BBC2, 9pm.
We follow in the footsteps of Julius Caesar’s bloody eight-year campaign that saw a million die, a million held hostage and 800 cities destroyed.
There will also be a preview of ‘Rome’ just after, the highly successful series that has been shown on HBO in the US. I think it starts on BBC on November 1st. I caught a glimpse of the series when I was in New York, with HBO On Demand – and it looked really good.
Globalization drives a wedge into EU
I like this quote from Ann Mettler of the Lisbon Council, concerning France’s economic policies:
“France has not internalized a very important transition that is happening in Europe right now, which is the shift from the industrial economy to the knowledge and services economy,” said Ann Mettler of the Lisbon Council, a market-oriented research group based in Brussels. “Its interest groups, which are very strong, are still trying to preserve the industrial age.”
Sums it up pretty nicely.
The rogue money printers of Pyongyang
By asking for the extradition of Sean Garland, has the US government blown the lid off what looks like the biggest money laundering schemes in history? In the IHT, John Cooley writes that for the first time the US government has acknowledged that North Korea prints ‘superdollars’ to support its economy. The Federal Warrant charges:
…Garland, who denies his guilt and was released on bail pending receipt of U.S. extradition papers, arranged with North Korean agencies “for the purchase of quantities of notes and enlisted other people to disseminate” the bogus money, known as superdollars or supernotes
And this is another story I hadn’t heard:
In the summer of 1998, the U.S. Treasury refused comment when the Japanese Navy seized a North Korean ship stuffed with superdollars. The Japanese police, backed by the Tokyo field office of the U.S. Secret Service, rounded up intended distributors in Japan. Within 48 hours of the ship’s seizure, officials in Tokyo and Washington had muffled the affair.
I wouldn’t mind my own mint in the attic.
Village Magazine
I hadn’t checked in a while, but Village have a redesigned website that actually has content now. The links seem to be permanent ones too. All of the content is free to read, but I imagine only subscribers will get full access to all the archives.
I like the design too, all they need now is a blog to boost the pagerank from 4/10 upwards.
Apple faces iPod Nano litigation
As an owner of an iPod nano I can say that my one at least is incredibly easy to scratch. Even sliding it into your jean pocket, as Jobs demonstrated at the launch, was enough to mark the colour screen. I will be posting detailed photos shortly.
Magdalen Laundries
Anthony has posted a transcript of the interview Vincent Browne did with Kathy O’Beirne. It makes for harrowing disturbing reading, read it, but be prepared.
Britain and Ireland
Just attended a seminar in Croke Park on a new website just launched, britainandireland.org. It is a very interesting idea and I will certainly be keeping an eye on it.
The launch got some coverage on Newstalk 106 this morning and on Ireland.com.
Mick Fealty from Slugger, and co-guest with me on de telly, is helping with the new site.
More on it later.