October 2005 – Page 4 – Gavinsblog.com

Carole Coleman: I wanted to slap him

Following the publication of an article by Carole Coleman in the Sunday Times, there has been a recent upsurge in searches fo the video of the interview she did with George Bush last year. She has written a book about her time as Washington correspondent ala Mark Little. It is an interesting take on the interview, as there was widepsread praise and criticism of the interview last year. I think Richard even featured on Liveline, criticising her interview tactics.

Interestingly she did notice the response on the web, which can be found by simply Googling her name. I have logged about 1200 visits specifically searching for information about the interview.

Anyways here’s the navel gazing blog juicy reference bit, and her conclusion. It is a good piece until she starts citing Michael Moore.

When I returned to my little world on the street called M in Washington, I felt a tad more conspicuous than when Iâd left for Ireland. Google was returning more than 100,000 results on the subject of the 12-minute interview. The vast majority of bloggers felt it was time a reporter had challenged Bush.

At the White House, the fact that I had been asked to submit questions prior to the interview generated enquiries from the American press corps. âAny time a reporter sits down with the president they are welcome to ask him whatever questions they want to ask,â? Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, told the CBS correspondent Bill Plante.

âYes, but thatâs beside the point,â? replied Plante.

Under repeated questioning, McClellan conceded that other staff members might have asked for questions. âCertainly there will be staff-level discussion, talking about what issues reporters may want to bring up in some of these interviews. I mean that happens all the time.â?

I had not been prevented from asking any of my questions. The only topics I had been warned away from were the Bush daughters Jenna and Barbara, regular fodder for the tabloids, and Michael Moore â neither of which was on my list.

Moore did notice RTEâs interview with the president and in the weeks that followed urged American journalists to follow the example of âthat Irish womanâ?.

âIn the end, doesnât it always take the Irish to speak up?â? he said. âSheâs my hero. Where are the Carole Colemans in the US press?â?

I think that’s fair, at the time I seen far more blogs praising her than condemning her, and I read more right wing blogs than lefty ones.

EBay Acquiring VeriSign for $370 Million

Hot on the heels of VeriSign’s acquistion of Dave Winer’s weblogs.com, Ebay have announced they are acquiring VeriSign’s payment processing business for $370 million. This will mean an expansion for PayPal.

Banville's Sea takes 2005 Booker

John Banville has won the UK’s most prestigious literary award, the Man Booker Prize, for his novel ‘The Sea’. Banville’s book was chosen from a shortlist of six, he picks up a £50,000 prize.

Feeds

My feeds appear to be back working after an upgrade to the latest wordpress release.

Yahoo launches Podcast directory

[Via Tom] Yahoo have launched a directory of podcasts, and it looks much nicer than iTunes. Indeed I still can’t understand why Irish podcasts figure so highly in the top 10 podcasts, or is that just because I am browsing from Ireland. Does Strawberry Alarm Clock really have that many listeners?

Darfur rebels release AU hostages

Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Srebrenica is a black mark on UN history, and the taking hostage of AU peacekeepers does not bode well for the future of that organisation.

Union agrees end to CBC dispute

It’s over, at least for now. And it seems it’s all because of ice hockey.

The media coverage was largely sympathetic to the locked-out employees, and towards the end of the dispute, worried Liberal government MPs, inundated by complaints from the public, applied very public political pressure on the management to end the dispute. In the end, the management backed down from its strongest demands. In the new deal, it appears to have won few concessions from the union.

But it was more commercial than political pressure that led to the sudden end of the dispute.

It is the start of the new National Hockey League season and the TV broadcasts are a huge source of commercial revenue for the broadcaster.

This has at least led to a debate as to whether CBC television, which unlike its radio counterpart carries advertising, should be so commercially driven.

EU to ban all Turkish bird products

Another development on the avian flu front. I have not heard of any flu outbreaks in Turkey so I imagine this is a precautionary measure. The BBC notes:

The decision came after Turkish authorities slaughtered up to 2,000 birds in the north-west of the country in an effort to control the disease.

As many as 1,500 turkeys are said to have died on a farm in the region.

It has not yet been confirmed if it’s HN51.

Romania isolates bird flu village

It gets ever closer, and what has Ireland done to prepare? I’d hazard pretty much nothing.

Romanian officials quarantined a Danube delta village of about 30 people Friday after three dead ducks there tested positive for bird flu — the first such cases reported in the region.

Agriculture Minister Gheorghe Flutur said the virus found in the farm-raised ducks came from migrating birds from Russia.

And while it is difficult for the virus to spread from birds to humans, authorities were taking no chances. They sealed off the village of Ciamurlia and banned hunting and fishing in eight counties in the region.

Romania also suspended imports of chickens and other poultry from 15 countries, most of them in Asia.

How long do we have before a mututation occurs?

Life is a cup of tea

I have been vaguely following the Intelligent Design court case in the US. It should be noted that in 1987 the Supreme Court ruled that teaching creationism in public-school science classes was an unconstitutional blurring of church and state. But the current issue centers on this:

Last year, the school board in Dover, a small rural school district near Harrisburg, mandated a brief disclaimer before pupils are taught about evolution. They are to be told that âThe theory [of evolution] is not a fact. Gaps in the theory exist for which there is no evidence.â? And that if they wish to investigate the alternative theory of âintelligent designâ?, they should consult a book called âOf Pandas and Peopleâ? in the school library.

Eleven parents, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, two lobby groups, are suing to have the disclaimer dropped. Intelligent design, they say, is merely a clever repackaging of creationism, and as such belongs in a sermon, not a science class.

In my view that is exactly what intelligent design is – cleverly repackaged creationism.

Kenneth Miller, the author of a popular biology textbook and the plaintiffs’ first witness, said that, to his knowledge, every major American scientific organisation with a view on the subject supported the theory of evolution and dismissed the notion of intelligent design. As for âOf Pandas and Peopleâ?, he pronounced that the book was âinaccurate and downright false in every sectionâ?.

And on the subject of tea:

To illustrate the difference between scientific and religious âlevels of understandingâ?, Mr Haught asked a simple question. What causes a kettle to boil? One could answer, he said, that it is the rapid vibration of water molecules. Or that it is because one has asked one’s spouse to switch on the stove. Or that it is âbecause I want a cup of tea.â? None of these explanations conflicts with the others. In the same way, belief in evolution is compatible with religious faith: an omnipotent God could have created a universe in which life subsequently evolved.

It makes no sense, argued the professor, to confuse the study of molecular movements by bringing in the âI want teaâ? explanation. That, he argued, is what the proponents of intelligent design are trying to do when they seek to air their theoryâwhich he called âappalling theologyâ?âin science classes.