Educasting from Ireland

Netrospective

YAHOO -- On its 10th birthday, Yahoo offers a Netrospective that includes the top 100 things associated with the decade from 1995-2005.

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Irish Nationalism

IRISH-NATIONALISM -- It would be worthwhile to determine the ethos of the Irish Nationalism discussion forum.

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Irish-Nationalism offers counterpoints to several themes explored in the Mass Communications and Culture course in Tipperary Institute.
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iWorld

SUNDAY TIMES -- Andrew Sullivan visited New York and noticed many pedestrians with little white wires hanging down from their ears, or tucked into pockets, purses or jackets. These were iPod people. Sullivan is one of them.

iPod Usage

PEW INTERNET -- Researchers documents that 11% of American adults have iPods or MP3 players. That means more than 22 million of those who are age 18 and older have portable music players. "It’s safe to say that there are several million more MP3 players owned in the teen world" as well, concluded the researchers. Here are some of the details:

World Power

Just had a thought today about the idea of who really is the leader of the epicentre of world affairs. Their are so many high powered people that its hard to distinguish who has control of the highest order. A number of people would seem to conclude that Bush and his troopers are at loggerheads with terrorists for control but then what are the other high powered positions for. Take example Koffi Annan, Secretary General of the U.N. What's his say in things, does he have a greater voice than presidents of the world. What about Nato, are they not a collarborative army with the final sya in confrontational issues, if not then what is their power.

In countries also their is confusion. Take for example Ireland,we have a President and then we have a Taoiseach. Who is the domineering figure. Why do other countries have a monarchy but still have a prime minister who does all the talking. Its contradictory in internal affairs. Some titles seem to be a smokescreen perhaps  or used to honour tradition. It really is hard to distinguish a voice of power in world affairs.

The world as we know it is just a pawn in a large episodiac scape of mystery and intrigue. The average person such as ourselves venture through life unbeknownst to the fact that beneath the skin of governmental societies lies a web of deciet and a true indication of what really is going on in the universe. Its a known fact that governments are hiding an array of information from the public with the thought that we are not ready to know or that we can't understand. We have a right to know what lies beneath the surface.

American children traumatised

THE ONION -- One year after the tragic wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl, thousands of young American children remain traumatised after being exposed to the sight of Janet Jackson's breast.

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The Onion -- "U.S. Children Still Traumatized"
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Who is the Overseer?

This is more of a question than a comment but if God created us then who created god. Who is the Overseer in lifes creation or are we just a creation of gases and chemicals colliding in the cosmos. If this is so then who created these gases and chemicals and created that person so on so forth?

Free Culture Reviews

POLITECHBOT -- David Post offers a generally positive review of Free Culture in Reason Online.

For instance, Lessig's proposal for an Internet-wide compulsory licensing scheme -- a fixed, government-set royalty rate covering all music downloads -- strikes me as unwise. There are, to begin with, serious practical and theoretical problems with any scheme that sets a single (per-byte?) price to cover all musical works. More importantly, under a compulsory licensing scheme, the government is suddenly the arbiter of all transactions; every music download becomes, literally, a federal case. The potential for government snooping, not to mention the administrative nightmare, gives me pause. And I have some other nagging doubts that Lessig never quite dispels.

It's undeniable that the scope of copyright has expanded vastly during the last few decades. But there is a respectable slice of opinion that views this expansion much more positively than Lessig does -- one that welcomes these developments.

Viral iPod Ads

WIRED -- George Masters' 60-second animated ad of flying iPods, pulsing hearts and swirling '70s psychedelia is perhaps the first viral iPod event. The ad is set to the beat of "Tiny Machine" by '80s pop band the Darling Buds. Several A-List blogs picked up the ad last week and Wired featured a story on it this week. In a matter of days, the ad has been watched more than 40,000 times. I listened to it push a viewer over the edge and into the Apple sales queue.