Archive for July, 2009
Remember this pyramid?
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Take a quick look at this and you’ll be reminded of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
This one is called ‘The Hierarcy of Disagreement’. I’m printing it out and sticking it close to my computer monitor.
What level do you reckon our politicians operate at? Would the country be in a better position if they moved up the hierarchy and started listening and then doing rather than talking all the time?
[Via Garry Tan]
This week’s header image on le craic
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Was at the U2 concert in Croke Park last night. Took a few photographs, all of them pretty much shite due to the inability to stop jumping up and down for very long.
There’s a couple of vaguely panoramic stylee ones at Mosaica if you want to have a look.
Great gig. Felt like running a marathon after it. Stumbled on this YouTube of one guy giving it socks to Beautiful Day 
Anyone going tomorrow night – savour every minute – truly was a night to remember.
Countmeout.ie resort to “black hat” tactics for the leave the Catholic Church Campaign
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Came to my attention this morning that the Count Me Out campaign are now using the domain catholic.ie to point to their website.
I don’t think that’s playing a fair game at all. Have the campaign, zero problem with that, but I think this use of the domain name is wrong.
I’ve sent a letter to the Irish Domain Registrar (the IEDR) about this. Copy below. Will update with response from IEDR as and when. I don’t even know if they entertain such emails from the public.
Dear Sir/Madam
I wish to formally make an objection to the IEDR granting the domain name Catholic.ie to what appears to be someone representing Atheist Ireland.
I note from the domain records that it was registered as an Unincorporated Association name. The IEDR rules state that the domain granted under this application should “reflect the organisation’s name”.
Even by a dictionary definition standard, I cannot see how catholic.ie can reflect this organisations name.
Further, the domain is now being used in a disingenuous way and is pointing to another website http://www.countmeout.ie – which is, in my view, a clear misuse of the domain name.
I would like to know the circumstances in the granting of the name, and what action will be taken to remedy the situation.
Yours sincerely,
AJ O’Flaherty
‘Free’ by Chris Anderson for Free – Save €25
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The new book by Chris Anderson, "Free: The Future of a Radical Price", is now available to download for Free in the Sony eBook store for a limited time.
I’m about 1/3 through the book myself and it’s a really interesting read. Anderson argues that the digital age is pushing the price of all things "made of ideas" downwards.
The costs associated with the growing online economy are trending toward zero at an incredible rate. Never in the course of human history have the primary inputs to an industrial economy fallen in price so fast and for so long. Just think that in 1961, a single transistor cost $10; now Intel’s latest chip has two billion transistors and sells for $300 (or 0.000015 cents per transistor–effectively too cheap to price). The traditional economics of scarcity just don’t apply to bandwidth, processing power, and hard-drive storage.
To download the book you will need to sign up for an account at the Sony eBook Store (free), and download the eBook software (free). The book can be read on screen with the software or you can download it to your eBook reader.
Don’t delay though – it is only free for a limited time. If you bought the dead tree version in Eason it would cost you €25.
This week’s header image on le craic
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I’ve been following the updates all week from We Choose The Moon. The website was set up by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum and allows visitors to step back in time 40 years and follow the mission to the moon.
If I was alive 40 years ago and writing at this exact time, the mission was in Stage 7 – Apollo 11 performs 12 moon orbits before Lunar Module separation. The ship was 220,090.5 Nautical Miles from earth. In exactly 24 hours time, the Eagle would land on the moon while the world watched in awe.
I’m excited to think about it. It was a truly amazing accomplishment and one which still inspires today. The men who walked on the moon and the team behind them drove scientific achievement to new heights. If there were no human mark on the moon today, a lot of what we take for granted today would be impossible.
So, tomorrow evening when it gets dark why not go outside, look up at the night sky and lose yourself in the wonder and possibility of the moon and stars. Just leave earth behind and take a giant leap into the possibility the future holds.
