Slashdot Mirror

Erm..

Well, a rural town with only 3,950 people in it? Yeah a datacentre is going to destroy that overnight.

Sure, someone may decide that's necessary, but it's by no means a "Oh, my god, why are they saying no!?" reaction, surely? I'd object if I lived in a town of only 4000 people and Apple wanted to install a huge feck-off datacenter with presumably hundreds or thousands of people there on my doorstep.

What was the appeal on the grounds of?

https://www.rte.ie/news/2018/0...

Converting plans for a single-data-centre to a multi-data-centre without considering the environmental impact.

"A Junior Counsel for the pair said they argue that An Bord PleanÃla was required by law to carry out an EIA of the entire plan, but did not and no reason was given as to why not."

"A legal representative for An Bord PleanÃla argues that her client had not done a full EIA of the entire masterplan as it was not proposed, nor was Apple seeking planning permission for it."

"was required under law to consider the impact of an expansion of the project to include up to eight data halls, rather than the one hall for which permission was granted."

So... in actuality Apple had already given up on the datacentre long ago (because of a double-one in Denmark) and wasn't even applying for permission (supposedly) which they thought meant they didn't have to an impact assessment (which is legally required and just been upheld by a court as being so).

Maybe Apple should hire better lawyers and not just hope that throwing political weight around will get them everything they want without even jumping through the right hoops. Oh, and not change their plans eight-fold mid-way through all this stuff.

Basically, Apple, you tried to bully your way in and just split this in a tiny town while Ireland were friendly to you and giving you backhanders, and when the EU took those away and you couldn't just buy you way through the process any more, you got the hump and stormed off.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

"The case is clear: an economically challenged government, perniciously influenced by the interests of the housing lobby, blew it. The entire Irish episode will be studied internationally in years to come as an example of how not to do things."

https://www.irishtimes.com/new...

https://www.rte.ie/eile/brains...

They missed a deadline to have the money in an escrow account. With the ongoing legal challenges, the money would stay in the escrow account until such time as it is decided whether they have to pay the taxes, or they can take the money back. This wasn't a deadline to pay the tax itself.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2017/0...

Leftists are getting tossed for anyone who will stand up to the leftist multiculturalism that leads to things like One dead as man shouting 'Allahu Akbar' attacks four at train station in Grafing, Germany

Because in the face of someone shouting "Allahu Akbar" as he murders someone with a knife, leftists spout whacked shit like No evidence of Islamist motive in Munich attack:

Witnesses said the assailant, a 27-year-old man, shouted "Allahu Akbar" ('God is Greatest' in Arabic), according to police in initial reports.

However, the regional ministry said there was no evidence yet of an Islamist motive in the attack.

Dolts like that NEED to be tossed.

Greece is a warning to France or even spain, italy and other of the eurozone with ramping up debt : get your table cleaned or it might get burn down as a sanitisation process by others.

Spain must be doing something well as they advanced payments of their debt twice already (which the country is supposed to start paying back in 2022...) . Check here and here

Even though the Spanish public debt is still increasing ( 1-2% this year) all the indicators point to a recovery in Spanish economy and we can expect a start of reduction on the public debt by 2017

"The debt ratio will climb to 100.3% of GDP in 2015 and 101.5% a year after, before dropping to 98.5% in 2017. " extracted from here

If you don't see the data, it's because you're actively avoiding looking for it.

Meanwhile, in Ireland, it was revealed today that IBM were paid 44.8m euro in consultancy fees for setting up a billing system for Irish Water, a service that will bill, at most, 3 million customers.

Computer aided automation is not universally more cost efficient, or efficient in general. In fact, a lot of the time, computer automation is little more than an excuse to overpay the corporate class bonuses and consultation fees. See also: SAP installations.

RTE has Aertel which was on the analogue services until they closed this morning, and is still available as a DVB insert on satellite (and possibly digital terrestrial - it was, but they suggested they'd turn it off too).

They also have the exact same data and page numbers in an MHEG5 app and a web interface to it also:

http://www.rte.ie/aertel/desktopxhtml/100-1.html

Don't think its that popular anymore, but it was common to see pubs leave 150 (lotto results) or the rotating football results page (222? I think?) up on a TV in the corner to save staff being asked the same questions over and over or being asked to change channel.

The full-year data place Germany as the world's number two exporter behind China which posted exports worth a total €1.43 billion and a trade surplus of €117 billion in 2011.

The Irish system is actually Single Transferable Vote for all National (Parliament and Senate, no less than every 5 years), Local and European elections (both every 5 years), meaning you number the candidates in order of preference from 1, 2, 3... and so on until however many you wish to vote for, with a number of candidates elected in each voting constituency (that number depending on the size of the electorate in that constituency.

For Presidential Elections (every 7 years), Single Transferable Vote - Instant Run-off is used (number candidates in order of preference, but only one candidate will be elected), and Referenda are simple yes/no questions.

Counts can take quite a while as the candidates with the lowest votes per count are eliminated and their votes distributed to their second preferences. Here's an from my constituency in the 2011 National elections which demonstrates how it works, and the tally lasted about 14 hours. http://www.rte.ie/news/election2011/results/dublin-north-central.html

But like frat boys they all sit on each others' boards and give each other multimillion dollar raises, bonuses, and parachutes, all at the investors' expense.

In Ireland, there were only around 40 or so company directors amongst all the major bank, company and state boards. Most of these were also businessmen, CEOs, or managers. As you can imagine, nest padding was a primary activity. When the state property agency NAMA was created, one of the first acts of the board was to increase the chairman's salary by 70%. I imagine similar outrages occur in the US.

The proper here isn't "doofus factors" or anything to do with individual boards. The problem is that the entire business and governance culture of the western world is no longer functioning properly. It has become mired in corruption, greed, fraud, and mismanagement. Yet still we tolerate crooks and doofuses because seemingly everyone agrees that this is the best way to run things. Our prevalent financial worldviews are unable to explain or understand why things aren't working anymore.

Personally, I feel that a "financial reformation" is needed in our society. Something literally of the magnitude of the Protestant reformation in the 1500s. We need to turn away from the corrupt established church of business and economics and find new business philosophies. We need to find a system which prevents doofuses, grubbers, and psychopaths from running our companies. We need a system in which shareholders are investors instead of gamblers.

We need a new way of doing business, and even of thinking about and understanding business. Otherwise we'll end up with companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, NASA, and Bank of America being run into the ground by directors, managers,and shareholders who at best have no idea what they're doing, and who at worst will actively destroy the company for personal gain.

Japan Tsunami = massive natural disaster - GUN TOTING POPULATION -> no looting & roving gangs -> no murder, assault -> no need for way to "protect" self and family

Thai Tsunami = massive natural disaster - GUN TOTING POPULATION -> no looting & roving gangs -> no murder, assault -> no need for way to "protect" self and family

See a pattern here?

Yes, I do see a pattern - you either don't know what you are talking about or are making things up.

There was looting in Thailand after the 2004 Tsunami (and after their recent unrest), and in Japan now.

Thailand 2004: Thai looters cash in on tsunami destruction
Thailand 2010: Thai forces to fire on looters and arsonists
Japan 2011: Japan earthquake: Looting reported by desperate survivors

Now, is it firearms that causes people to form mobs with ill intent? Apparently not as they will form with makeshift weapons:

Recently in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, dozens of men, armed with machetes and make-shift weapons, broke into and looted stores along the capital's main commercial street. Natural Disasters in Chile and Haiti the Psychology of Looting

And what of Sweden, who lost a number of citizens in the 2004 disaster in Thailand?

Even famously law-abiding Sweden and Norway have been hit by scammers who have robbed and looted the homes of tourists who vanished in the chaos.

"It is, unfortunately, a reality that people who are known to be missing . . . have had their homes gone through and partly emptied," Swedish State Secretary Lars Danielsson said.......

Fearing an outbreak of looting akin to what occurred after the 1994 sinking of the ferryboat Estonia that killed 551 Swedes, police refused to release the names of the dead and missing. Somehow, though, the names got out, and now police are standing watch over hundreds of homes scattered across the country. Gangs pillage tsunami villages, stealing corpses & selling orphans

And more of the same: Robbery, rape and kidnap

Sri Lanka Churches Worried about Looting in Tsunami-hit Areas

Referring to the looters, the Sri Lanka church council said: "We appeal to them to kindly desist from such dastardly conduct and join with the several who are helping those in need," as it urged more church volunteers and others to join in the relief work.

The criticism came after reports that thugs were looting homes of some tsunami victims and rapists were preying on homeless survivors.

"We have received reports of incidents of rape, gang rape, molestation and physical abuse of women and girls in the course of unsupervised rescue operations," the Women and Media Collective group in Sri Lanka was quoted saying by the Reuters news agency.

But don't only bad people have guns? No. For example, Dr. Martin Luther King owned guns for protection.

I also suggest that you become clear on this point: Justices Rule Police Do Not Have a Constitutional Duty to Protect Someone . This has been the law for quite some time.

You can't necessarily count on the police:

Or someone, somewhere pushing an agenda of some kind.
Particularly when you read the more detailed article, which comes off as a bit contradictory to itself.
There's overcrowding, but there are actually three unused wards. There's a lack of staff, but it is actually a 3-hospital complex with a staff of 17.000.

http://www.thelocal.se/31842/20110204/

Pots and pans sound hospital patient alarms
Published: 4 Feb 11 12:07 CET

An overcrowded hospital in Gothenburg has resorted to giving patients in a children's ward saucepans and spoons to summon assistance in emergency situations, according to a union report.

At Östra Hospital in Gothenburg, ordinary bedside alarms are not available to every patient due to overcrowding. The saucepans and spoons were issued in the children's ward to lift their spirits.
At another department, the staff shopped at hardware chain Clas Ohlsson to buy bells for their patients, the Swedish Association of Health Professionals (Vårdförbundet) reported on Friday.

The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) found that hospital overcrowding is common at all nine of western Sweden's hospitals with emergency departments.
"We have long ago passed the limit of what is acceptable. This is a huge problem," a shocked Maria Tenggren of the union, who also works at Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska University Hospital, said in a statement.

At Sahlgrenska/SU Östra, Alingsås and Mölndal, the supply of hospital beds is so scarce that it creates a risk for patient safety, the board wrote in its report.
"We have for years nagged about the problem of overcrowding, but nothing happens," said Tenggren.

She noted that there are currently three empty wards that are ready to open if the overcrowding becomes too much to handle and that the hospital has an action plan in place.
"However, with all the restrictions and reservations that exist, the opening of these extra spaces is rare. It looks great on paper, but it means nothing in practice," said Tenggren.

In addition, the board's inspection showed that at Östra Hospital, patients were relocated to wards where staff did not have the necessary skills to care for them. In addition, they often lacked oxygen and suction equipment, as well as bells.
The staff at the hospital in Mölndal could not adjust to the addition demand for care needed and had personnel who lacked the skills to care for relocated patients.

Mats Tullberg, the chief physician at SU, told newspaper Göteborgs-Posten (GP) on Friday that overcrowding is a major concern and that the relocation of patients to other departments was not a good sign.
"At most, we had about 80 patients waiting," he told GP.

And those patient numbers sound a lot like the numbers in Ireland or Canada.

Are you kidding? No shots yet, but how about an attempted stabbing with an axe and another plot to assassinate let alone bounties and death threats?

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/57865,news-comment,news-politics,muslim-extremists-attack-on-danish-cartoonist-is-great-pr-for-panic-rooms
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0309/waterford.html

Special ferries? They're regular ferries you tit, it's the easiest way to get to England from certain places. And "all kinds of hell"? No one cares if they get an abortion, it's there own business.

No one cares? Sure... Just one case from top of my head: http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/mhausnojmhey/ http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0501/abortion.html 1940s? Hell yeah - more often than you think. Unfortunately.. :( Regards

Based on the fuss there was in Ireland when the wrong type of oil was used when milling animal feed http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1207/pork.html, I can't imagine this is a good idea. Combustion is exactly the process that generates dioxins, and they build up in animals that cosume them, so if these crops end up used for plant feed, or the process becomes more widespread, eventully even traces of dioxins in the fumes would cause problems.

Rather than letting the bloody CANADIANS take 'em over.

Wikipedia says the US has one of the highest corporate tax rates. Ireland is only 12.5%, making it a corporate tax haven.

Too bad that's not stopping IBM from laying off Irish workers, too.

Ok, sorry, Apple didn't ever tell people NOT to install antivirus software. However, they do tell people it isn't necessary, which is just as dangerous.

And I quote: "'The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box,' the spokesman told the BBC."

http://www.rte.ie/business/2008/1205/apple.html

http://www.itpro.co.uk/608967/week-in-review-apple-confuses-on-security

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/practicalmac/2008475243_ptmacc06.html?syndication=rss

Here in Ireland the man has just announced to pick 3's 3G(HSDPA)to meet their requirements for universal broadband by 2009!

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1125/broadband.html

WTF! How can you say 3G is broadband! Just check out the problems people in Ireland have been having with 3's service http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055115306

I'm lucky to have fixed wireless here in North Cork, but have friends who have no broadband access at all.

look the ioc restrictive copyright means RTE in Ireland can't broadcast its programs outside of Ireland on the net etc, as usual lest their precious copyright is broken, so a person in the uk can't listen to the irish morning news

http://www.rte.ie/sport/olympics2008/audiovideo_faq.html

The irish have something like the british shipping forecast, the Sea Area Forecast, Coastal Reports, and sea crossing forecast.

Usually they're presented together in a manner highly similar to the british shipping forecast on the radio http://www.rte.ie/weather/marine.html

So you've identified the problem.... now what's the solution?

I think you mean it the other way around, Jeri Ryan being a solution in search of a problem...
...which makes her right at home in a software company ;-)
BTW Irish Slashdotters are very unlikely to harden at the sound of the words "Gerry Ryan".

Calling "IBM 1401, A User's Manual" "simple computer music" is doing it a bit of a disservice - it's fully orchestrated, while evoking the "written by someone literate" quality that computer manuals had in the 70s and before. Bits of it regularly turn up on John Kelly's programme on RTE - if you haven't heard it, check http://www.rte.ie/lyricfm/jk/ for weekly playlists.

Around about the time that the 1401 tapes that Johann Johannsson used were being recorded, Curved Air were using a PDP8 for side 2 of "Phantasmagoria". It's interesting but, er, "less musical".

What about a 17 year old male and a 15 year old female? Where they meet in the pub, where she's drinking with her father, says she's 16 and they later have consensual sex? Is the 17 year old male a rapist, to be sent to prison for years and branded a sex offender for life?

That's no hypothethical. That's actually what happened under Ireland's statutory rape laws (age<16 == rape). So, sorry, but I have nothing but contempt for your mindless "you must not be a parent" drivel that results in politicians placating you and your ilk with "statutory X" and "minimum sentence" laws. You make this world a *worse* place for your children and mine.

Thankfully, the Irish law was eventually ruled unconstitutional, but not before the young man concerned had, wrongfully, spent 6 years in jail.

Second, who you vote for is a CHOICE. Think about how that's different from everything else on your list, and you'll realize why your suggestion fails.

That may be so, but other links could have been used. Here's RTE news, for example, or tothecenter, or any of a hundred other links you could get from Googlenews or your search engine of choice.

daveschroeder continued: "The fact of the matter is that Habeas Corpus was not suspended in any way, shape, or form."

The co-sponsor of the bill, Senator Leahy, explicitly stated that the bill was about habeas corpus: "The truth is, casting aside the time-honored protection of habeas corpus makes us more vulnerable as a nation because it leads us away from our core American values and calls into question our historic role as a defender of human rights around the world."

The fact it's unveiled in the form of a 10-day exhibition at a 'museum' tells us something about the nature of this 'product'. Have a look at the Kinetica Museum (avoiding unnecessary Flash intro)

Right across the top is their angle on events:

Between Shows > Our Next Show : starts July 5th, world's first free-energy demonstration

However, despite it being a piece of entertainment, the company are serious. See this story from Ireland, where they are based: "The company stumbled upon the technology while working with wind turbines to power remote surveillance CCTV cameras for ATM."

They discovered it by accident! That's how all the best inventions are conceived.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0620/videogame.html

RTÉ story also covering this

"Further, jokers who attack people generally find their way to prison regardless. That's just how it works."

It does ?

I thought the way it worked was rich kids kick someone to death.
Daddies lawyers work the system.
Rich kids get a not guilty verdict.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0114/murphyb.html

What do you reckon the outcome would have been if the Jury had seen them on tape?

D

Actually people will watch. http://www.rte.ie/news/nationwide/
Just it'll be very middle of the road and won't win you any awards for edginess.

the real question would be how a dark-skinned, bearded religious fundamentalist from the Middle East got into the country

I love it when rich hypocrits criticise the very source of their wealth. The minute he gets a movie deal he'll spout about how wonderful it is and he'll take the money happily. Hollywood will market it as Hollywood does, and he'll justify his work as art.

http://www.rte.ie/arts/2006/0731/kidmann.html

http://www.steorn.net/images/sean5_small.jpg
http://www.steorn.net/images/sean4_small.jpg

As an Irish person, I'd surely love for something scientifically significant to be invented here, if only so I don't have to endure racist comments for the rest of my life.
Sadly I think this is an elaborate marketing stunt or a bunch of marketing people who don't know their causality laws from warp-engine field theory.

Read the Irish state media coverage here.

http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/0818/steorn.html

More pictures

http://pesn.com/2006/08/21/9500298_Steorn_free_ene rgy_gauntlet/

Patent application

http://www.peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Steorn_ Free_Energy?coral-no-serve

How predictable.. MSNBC? i think illl keep watching http://www.rte.ie/

whoops, messed up the html their

Not exactly cutting edge,
RTE News (http://www.rte.ie/news/) in Ireland have been streaming and archiving their news broadcasts and political programs for years now, surely shouldn't the US be ahead of countries like Ireland? ;)

The quality of RTE's streams are not great but their watchable.

Not exactly cutting edge,
in Ireland have been streaming and archiving their news broadcasts and political programs for years now, surely shouldn't the US be ahead of countries like Ireland? ;)

The quality of RTE's streams are not great but their watchable.

_________

Judge a Man by His Wallet

[source]

Considering it had a profit of €32 million Q1 this year, but lets be generous considering that was down from other quarters and put it at an even €100 mil for a quarter. That means that they'd make about $500 mill a year.

They would only last 50 days before their entire profit for the year would be used up. 10 mil is a *lot* of money to *anyone*.

[Yet. People are rather creative, and we often don't give them enough credit. Look at how transmitting numbers across phone lines has become a trillion dollar industry.]

That's the whole point. "Yet" doesn't cut it for the millions of people put out of work by globalization and who currently are stuck with lower paying service sector jobs (which are the bulk of new jobs being created). See this documentation for proof: http://www.rte.ie/business/2005/0714/economy.html

You can't pay rent and pay for your health care on Mickey D's. To wit: the average price of new homes is far, far and away greater than the average income can finance (by traditional means). See this for documentation regarding California - the entire nation is seeing similar patterns: http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stori es/2005/05/02/daily27.html

Everything else in life is also catching up with or passing, cost-wise, the average wage. See this for documentation: http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snap shots_12172004

Wages are stagnant for the most part, except for the handful of rich who now account for the majority of the growth in US tax income. See this for proof: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3138232.stm

Meanwhile, you want those without jobs and who are competing against six billion others in the greatest game of musical chairs EVER, to believe you, and follow your ideology, based on a "not yet" answer?

Do you do business with your customers by saying "not yet"?

[Wow did I miss the nanotech revolution? Right now I think that industry, as well as genetics, are still in their early stages. Where the internet was probably in the 80's.]

It doesn't matter what stages it gets to. Automation and offshoring will kill any further domestic job growth. Mark my words on that.

Tell me, why would anyone hire very many people in the US when
a) You can hire work overseas cheaper, and with no workplace safety laws, pollution laws and no benefits
b) India has a ton of college graduates?

There is really no reason for a corporation to hire anyone here except sales people to contact customers in the US directly. You'll see what I mean in the near future if offshoring is not legally clamped down on.

[And we replaced human welders who made those cars with robot ones. There is no giant welding robot arm industry for those people who were displaced. Sometimes it's obvious what change will bring, other times it isn't.]

That is your theory. Here's reality. What it is bringing now is underemployment - a lot of formerly high paid white collar workers stuck in service mcjobs.

Soon you will find that this translates into the majority of citizens not being able to afford goods and services. The warp and woof of consumer buying volumes you see today are nothing compared to what's coming if high paying jobs keep disappearing and this musical chairs game keeps escalating.

[The IT industry won't evaporate completely, and in fact has an opportunity to continue growing domesticlly and globally. With globalization communications networks are becoming more complex, and businesses are looking towards custom solutions. Also, consulting businesses will be a growth market in legal, technical, and marketing fields.]

Growing domestically? Ever see how many resumes exist for a single IT job? I'm a project manager, I filter through this shit every day, and I can smell a person who has mad skills and a family to feed. For every one I give an interview I have to pass on ten other qualified people, and then another ninety unqualified people.

Those unqualified people will never be qualified bec

In this case, your point, that the Corporation ought to make and market a line of products tied to shows, would probably be allowable, so there could be advertisements placed on the sites that way, but I think its hands are also tied as regards making profits, i.e. like some (all?) governments the BBC is not allowed to make a profit, but what it reclaims by license fees and other revenue, it must be reinvested and not kept as a future resource. I'm not sure on this second point, so anyone can feel free to correct me on this if it's misleading.

No two ways about it, BBC is throwing something valuable away.

Speaking as someone who admires the Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) model first applied in the UK, and whose national broadcaster Radio Telefis Eireann (RTE) closely copied (we get ads though because of a small population base - the stations would be unsustainable from license fee collection alone), there is a major item of value returned from the system of completely preventing, or setting quotas for, advertising content. Whether that is in the form of the media outlet functioning as a forum without overarching interest excercised by big businesses, or in the expansion of the broadcaster into newer areas (new media etc.) to accommodate the audience, or just in news being gathered and presented by generally unbiased reporters (give or take that whole Andrew Gilligan/Hutton Inquiry/Dr David Kelly matter which isn't worth flaming about at this stage).

Personally I think we should cut all their funding since they run advertisements just like any other station.

If you live in Northern Ireland you can get BBC1, BBC 2, ITV, Ch4, then the southern channels RTE1, RTE2, TV3, and TG4. Because you're in the north, you don't have to pay the license fee for the semi-state broadcaster RTE, but you do have to pay the license fee for the BBC. I also believe that people on the west coast of Wales can pick up the RTE signal.

Here is Aertel (the one for Ireland).

No UK broadcasters have online feeds, but the Teletext Now and Then site does have a couple of snapshots of Ceefax, one from the early 1980's, and a couple of current ones. The Irish broadcaster RTÉ has it's service, Aertel availible online however.

Your Prayers Have Been Answered.

Stream

Use Real, Real Alternative, Quicktime or VLC. Not sure about WMP.

A real interview with the President. With a real jounalist from Ireland. From late June 2004 with Irish broadcasting.

OMG do he look incompetent. This is the little known but infamous interview where he claims that Pakistan is a democracy!

From the transcript:

Q -- and you will be discussing at the EU summit and the idea of bringing democracy to the broader Middle East.

THE PRESIDENT: Right.

Q Is that something that really should start, though, with the solving of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think, first of all, you've got a democracy in Turkey. And you've got a democracy emerging in Afghanistan. You've got a democracy in Pakistan. In other words --

[My emphasis]

Well as you will understand after viewing that; there is a reason why this is the only lenghty interview with non-preapproved questions he will do with a decent journalist asking real questions not just picthing.

In essence, an Irish reporter, Carole Coleman, was granted a sit-down interview with Bush a few weeks ago. She gave a BBC-style interview (in depth, follow-up questions), following which they White House lodged an official complaint with the Irish embassy.

I just watched the interview, and it made for interesting viewing. There was definitely a clash of styles. Bush basically took each question as a chance to give a speech (which often ran off in different directions, and ended up talking about something else altogether), and was didn't take kindly to the interviewer trying to interject herself into some of his pauses as he ran off track.

It was clear that Coleman wanted to have a conversation and discuss the issues, while Bush merely wanted to make uninterrupted speeches. It began to feel as if many of Bushes answers were somewhat canned - he would launch of a question into a long anecdote or story that ended up with him making a point about somethign completely different. In turn, Coleman seemed very frustrated with this, and said several times somethign to the effect of "But moving on, about Iraq..." which was her attempt to steer things back after Bush had lead a trail away.

Certainly worth watching if you're interested in how such tings would pan out. The video is here. I guess I should go and google for anythign similar with Kerry - I suspect he would be just as uncomfortable with the interview style.

Jedidiah

Wow. Thank you. Worth pointing out that there's even a link to the video. Worth watching really, especially because they don't edit Bush into soundbites - they let him ramble (until he fails to answer the question). Bush really didn't like being interrupted whenever he ran off track - he wanted to use it as a platform to give speeches.

For those who can't see the video, there's the transcript.

Jedidiah.

This was my favorite part of the story: "The Fine Gael Spokesman on the Environment, Bernard Allen, claimed Minister Cullen had tampered with the very essence of democracy and had wasted taxpayers' money.
Mr Cullen rejected the claims but said today had not been a great day for him. "

Regarding the brain damage and shorter attention span, there is evidence to show that a combination of popular media and drugs (vaccinations, etc) will affect your attention span (creating ADHD, etc), and many drugs have been linked to long-term minor brain damage. Unfortunately I'm not making this up.

For popular media, consider cartoons: 22 minutes of mayhem. When I was a kid, some twenty years ago, cartoons had a single story that continued through the entire show, and thanks to the teretial TV station where I lived (RTE) they were shown without advertisement breaks. Compare that today with the two and three ad breaks that are shown during the show, and how the cartoons themselves have been broken up into multiple 4-8 minute segments, and its now wonder.

Damien

On 2nd February just before 8am RTE Radio 1 in Ireland (the semi-state national broadcasters primary radio station) had an interview with a director of a computer training company here in Ireland. The piece was brought to the attention of the Irish Linux Users Group which subsequently picked apart the "computer experts" opinions. You can see a full transcript of the interview here, listen to the piece from rte themselves here or you can look through the threads on the mailing list to find an ogg transcoding of the interview.

The most controversial quote from the interview was:

the people who are behind this virus I would suspect are people who, who, em, are promoting what is called Open Sof... Open, eh, eh, .... Open System Software

we are done discussing this with Mr. Campbell, that we appreciate RTE's clarification and that we consider the matter closed.