The DOBlog

Category: Politics & Culture

  • Public Transport

    Iarnrod Eireann/CIE have announced a massive overhaul of the DART network in Dublin to integrate public transport around the capital. Details of their proposal can be found in the Irish Times today.

    What struck me was the similarity between the diagram of what they are proposing and the plan put forward previously by transport lobby group ‘Platform 11’. Platform 11’s proposal can be found here.

    The only difference I can see is that the Platform 11 plan makes use of the well documented tunnel that runs under the Phoenix park between Heuston Station and Docklands to complete the ‘orbital’ transport route.

    Of course I could be wrong – the diagrams presented are both artistic representations of (what I hope) are more detailed technical plans. But surely the consultation process that is now commencing should consider the options of converting the tunnel – which given that CIE are proposing to put some of the DART network underground as part of their plan surely makes sense? – it’s the one part where they wouldn’t need to dig the tunnel first.

  • Name checked on the Irish Times…

    …specifically I found myself namechecked on the Irish Times blog page of Shane Hegarty in his blogroll. Not sure what I’ve done to warrant such a mention other than rant interminably about things that most people have far to little time to care about, but it is an honourable mention.

    From the look of his blogroll I’m in good company, surrounded by some familiar sites as tuppenceworth, but due to the miracles of the alphabet I appear just below Damien Mulley.

    The very least I can do is to add a link to the PresentTense blog on the Irish Times website (and to Mulley.net as well).

  • Leaving voicemail for ET…

    The Irish Independent carried an interesting article on its website today which poses the question if it is such a good idea to be announcing our existence to the Universe by sending targetted messages to far off galaxies (as opposed to the random waffle and piffle that bounces out as a by-product of our TV, radio and radio-based communications technologies).

    The gist of the author’s thesis is that “Life is not like Star Trek” – the aliens that may or may not be out there may not be of the hippy planet-hugger peace and love variety but may be… well a bit like us really but with bigger or better guns.

    The writer, astronomer David Whitehouse (thanks to Copernicus for correcting me as to the byline), name drops the various scientists who he has worked with in the course of his career, all of whom he co-incidentally asked questions of that are relevant to this present article. However he misses perhaps the simplest analogy of all…

    Throughout our history there have been civilisations that were advanced in terms of their technology and how they used it. Throughout our history these civilisations have explored the shores of distant lands. And throughout history indigenous peoples have wandered down onto the beach to greet and trade with these visitors from afar only to be massacred and enslaved for generations or to have previously unknown disease ravage their populations (e.g. smallpox and the Native Americans).

    Often the ‘first contact’ has been friendly and warm but the relationship has evolved to murder and imprisonment when the ‘powers that be’ in explorer-central see wealth and riches to be had from the forceful exploitation of the native resources of the new ‘colony’ – both its people and the wealth of its land.

    Who is to say that our radio messages to the great beyond won’t bring a Galactic Captain Cook to the shores of our world, or a Cosmic Columbus? Will our descendants find themselves fighting the battles of this planet’s indigenous peoples (such as the Indigenous Australians or Native Americans) against an alien authority?

    Maybe life will be more like “Stargate SG-1” and its spin-offs with two broad groupings of aliens – those who will befriend us and develop a nuturing relationship and those who would rather enslave or destroy. This is a likely outcome – but raises the question of who will answer the messages first.

    Or perhaps we’ll just be left leaving a galactic voicemail for an alien civilisation that died millenia ago?

  • IQ Trainwrecks.com

    The IAIDQ, an organisation I’m involved in for Information & Data Quality, has launched IQTrainwrecks.com as a resource to collate and comment on media stories highlighting the cost and impacts of non-quality information.

    Here’s an example of one of their posts. Our Electoral Register features there as do a few other stories. The IAIDQ team hope that this site will evolve into a focal point for informed comment on the real costs and impacts of poor information quality.

  • Electoral Register issues

    Astute followers of the recent General Election in which there were a number of reports of problems with our national electoral register will doubtless be wondering where my comments on that issue might be.

    Rest assured that I haven’t forgotten about it and am working on collating the media reports of issues and tracking down other substantiated cases of problems with the electoral register. I will be producing an updated analysis of the likely root causes which I will publish here and over at the IQ Network website (www.iqnetwork.org). I may even get around to doing a presentation on it to the IQ Network in the coming months.

    Suffice it to say the issues are both simple and complex and the likely scope of root causes ranges from a failure of governance from Government, the lack of a clear strategy for improving the quality of the register, a reliance on scrap and rework to ensure accuracy (doomed from the beginning) and also the actions or inactions of key people in the voter registration and verification processes (including the public).

    Updates to come soon.

  • Oh dear… I’ll have to agree with FF.

    Two Fianna Fail Ministers have suggested that the media are obsessed with the Taoiseach’s finances.
    I’d have to agree with them. There is a whole lot more that they can look at other than that issue.
    Like

    • The likely fate of the newly discovered national monument in the middle of the M3
    • The divisive nature of FF’s proposal on stamp duty (what about people upgrading or relocating due to decentralisation?)
    • The constitutional challenge to the electoral constituency boundaries (trial adjourned on thursday… what else was happening that day?)

    And as for the party being the victims of an “orchestrated campaign”, some may call that paranoia. I think they’re just jealous that someone somewhere has a better orchestra and conductor then they have.

  • E-Voting debacle… but not in ireland (!)

    A few hours ago the Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland Douglas Bain, announced that electronic voting would be considered for future elections in Northern Ireland as a result of what he had seen in Scotland where e-voting was used this week for elections.

    Fast forward to now… the Scottish election is in a state of disarray given the failure of their electronic voting system. Problems were also reported in Northern England.

    Perhaps they should have stuck to pencils and paper and avoided this embarassment?

  • Michael McDowell spins on the spot

    Over at Tuppenceworth Fergal is bemused at the ability of Michael McDowell not only to keep two strands of an argument in his head but to forcibly express them as his position in the same sentence.

    This apparently is part of the PD policy on renewable energy. If elected they will wrap their leader in copper wire and him in close proximity to a magnet. As long as McDowell keeps we could get enough energy to power a small city.

  • Stamp duty dominates FF manifesto launch…

    …just not the way they’d want

    RTE News have THIS. Apparently Bertie got a bit garralous with Vincent Browne at the manifesto press conference. Spin handlers bungled a bit when Browne, apparently, was initially stopped by FF handlers from asking questions, which allowed him the opportunity to refer back to the good old days of The Squire Haughey.

    Bertie then seems to have flipped a bit:

    ‘This has nothing to do with the tribunal’, Mr Ahern responded. ‘I allocated my money for uses and I’m entitled to do that. I earned the money [my emphasis].’

    He added: ‘Are you questioning that I shouldn’t be allowed to use money?’

    Hang on a second… Mr Ahern has just said in front of the media that the money that was paid to his then partner by a business man who he was renting a house from which he has claimed was a “stamp duty” issue and was related to work his partner had done to “facilitate” renovations and refurbishments to the house is now money that he earned.

    What exactly did he earn it for?

    Over on DublinOpinion.com there have been a few good posts about Bertie’s particular version of events. When the phrase “the Chewbacca defence” is used to describe your explanation, you know you’ve got problems…

    Bloody hell Baldrick… I smell a crisis brewing – send for Zapp Brannigan!!

  • Election Constituencies

    Update from McGarr Solicitors

    McGarr Solicitors have just posted an update on the Constitutional challenge to the Electoral boundaries. The case, which was to be heard today, has been adjourned on request of the Defendants. The case is now to belisted for mention again next Tuesday (8th May).

    Perhaps I am overly cynical and maybe I’m jumping at shadows but I do find it an interesting co-incidence that the Defendants sought the adjourning of this case from the day that Fianna Fail were launching their election manifesto.

    Perhaps I am seeing ill motive in otherwise innocent action given that this adjourment coincides with a week in which the Government parties have been on the back foot and have seen headline after headline tumbling out that make important things like winning an election tricky.

    Certainly it would have made life tricky for Government TDs to focus on the manifesto soundbites on the evening news if all the journos wanted to talk about was a court case about whether they had dropped the ball on protecting democracy.

    Those constituencies that are under represented based on the Census figures should consider their own version of ‘Rock the Vote’ to the tune of the classic Dire Straits track “Money for Nothing”…

    I want one more TD

    Now that I think of it, that song is eminently appropriate given the lack of clarity about the Taoiseach’s financial affairs… which may indeed be perfectly legitmate and above board. He’s just not doing a good job of convincing people that that is the case.