Friday fast Fix

September 2nd, 2005

Bits and pieces for Friday:

Firefox SEO extensions. Wel they say they’re for SEO stuff but I think theres some good general FF extensions here.

Using Thunderbird for Getting Things Done. GTS is such a fad but a good few of the tips work a treat. Now I just need to install Thunderbird. đŸ™‚

How to tell how Gay your Gay son is. It’s humour people. Deal. With. It. Trouble is some right-wing biblebashing nut will use it as real advice.

Using VLC to download music videos from Yahoo. Quite handy this.

Like science? Then get thee to Dublin says Karlin.

Civilisation is ending – Gay people adopting in Ireland

September 2nd, 2005

United Irelander gives his views on Gay Adoption.

He states a few things that I felt I needed to comment about:

I am of the opinion that a child needs both a mother and a father. A maternal figure, and a paternal figure.

How can one morally justify denying a child the right to a mother or a father and placing it in a same-sex environment?

It has been the way of life for human beings for thousands of years for a child to grow up with a mother and a father.

same-sex parents are contrary to the laws of human nature.

Here’s what I posted on the comments.

This concept of the traditional family model is bullshit. The way of human beings for thousands of years has in fact been for a mother to raise the kids and the father to have sfa involvement. It is only recently and in Western cultures where we have seen fathers get more involved in the raising of their kids. If you want to talk about the way it has always been then a child should be raised by the mother and all the father should do is pay for the child’s upkeep.

The tradition too except for the blip in the 19th and 20th centuries is for children to be seen as commodities for the strenghtening of the “family” and its power within a community. Again only recently are kids seen as equals in a family and not an asset to keep the farm going and an extra hand for planting potatoes.

You say two men cannot offer a mothers love. Bullshit. Are you now saying that a man is inferior to a mother when it comes to raising a child? That’s what the constitution says right now and that is why an unmarried man has fuck all rights to his child unless he marries the mother. A woman may have a better ability to raise kids because she has a mother who can pass down advice to her. Oh wait, a man can do that? Is it all about natural instincts then? Seriously, is it?

As for samesex couples raising a child going against nature, that is – it is unnatural, well that’s bullshit too. Firstly, homosexuality is natural. People are born homosexual without any outside influence and in nature itself there are lots of animals who display homosexual traits and pair with animals of the same sex.

Secondly, in nature the male is rarely there post conception. It is generally the mother and other mothers in the community of animals who tend to the needs of the young and raise the offspring. Yup, two or more females (they’d be samesex groups then) raising the young.

The fact that a gay man or woman wants to have a child at all means that the child being born into this world is deliberate. There are no accidents, there is a very well thought out plan to bring a life into the world. If someone goes into that much detail to have an offspring then I would think they are going to make good parents. There have been studies running for the past 30 years to evaluate whether kids are damaged by having same-sex parents and all the results so far show that kids do not go without, that there is no loss for not having opposite sex parents and the kids are raised just as well as if they had opp sex parents or sometimes raised even better.

As for adoption, the checks here before someone gets a kid are very rigorous and the process goes on for about 18 months before you are allowed to adopt. I’d trust the authorities on this one. They won’t let some idiot have a kid as a fashion accessory.

Traditional Family Values: Bullshit
Women better than men at raising kids: Bullshit.
Against Nature: Bullshit

BTW that press flutter yesterday was nothing new. Individuals can adopt. Unmarried couples either heterosexual or homosexual cannot. Only married couples can adopt in Ireland. The Irish Catholic said they know of 3 gay couples adopting from overseas, the adoption board were on the Last Word on TodayFM last night and said it was bullshit. A gay rights group were on and also said the same.

Adam Beecher asked me to blog this

September 2nd, 2005

This gave Adam Beecher wood.

Irish guy spams 160,00 phones – 5 people complain – €1500 fine.

September 1st, 2005

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Closed

Upcoming IM War / Tag songs on the Radio

August 30th, 2005

Predictions of the upcoming IM war. Everyone else Vs GoogleTalk. Looks like GoogleTalk will become multi-protocol and try and have people use their service to access AOL and Yahoo and MSN. GoogleTalk will take on Trillian?

Talking about GoogleTalk. It’d be great if this Userfriendly cartoon on GoogleTalk were true or had something which made people type and spell correctly.

BBC Radio allows listeners to bookmark and tag songs. People power. Another great project from the BBC. Aunty doesn’t seem so conservative now. Saving TV and Radio. Good use of public funds in my opinion.

WinFS beta 1 released

August 29th, 2005

So says Robert Scoble. I’m just posting this to beat Tiernan.

WikiFiction / BlogPulse

August 29th, 2005

Google Blogoscoped comes the idea from Biz Stone about Wikifiction in Print. Says Biz:

A real book made out of paper and all the rest of it; but it’s coated with e-ink and has a wireless receiver in the spine that activates when the book is closed.

The story inside the book is collectively edited online just like Wikipedia. The on-board receiver picks up the signal and the e-ink makes the necessary edits. The result is a kind of living book.

That’s a pretty nifty idea. You could also do the same for authors who write a series of books like Wheel of Time and so forth. When a new book comes out it is pegged on to that book. Or one could have a serialised book where every two weeks a new chapter is written and added to the book. I’d love to see a kids book that writes itself as the child reads through it. You can’t skip to the end of the book then!

Just found The BlogPulse tools today. Very handy things.

Blogday – August 31st. Do more than required.

August 29th, 2005


3108 This!

BlogDay is on August 31st and it asks bloggers:

  1. Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting
  2. Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending them as part of BlogDay 2005
  3. Write a short description of the Blogs and place a link to the recommended Blogs
  4. Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st) and
  5. Add the BlogDay tag using this link: http://technorati.com/tag/BlogDay2005 and a link to the BlogDay web site at http://www.blogday.org

The blogs I’ll pick are probably ones I wouldn’t have normally picked. Most of those in my blogroll are males so for a fresh view of things I think I’ll go pick a few female blogs. No, gender shouldn’t matter but there is a difference between female bloggers and male bloggers. To open my mind I need to read more opinions of those who have different thoughts to my own and different interests.

However, maybe we should do more than just link to these 5 blogs. Perhaps we should also add them to our blogroll? That’s what I’m going to do anyway. If I don’t like them I can unsubscribe.

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7 things blog meme – Via SinĂ©ad

August 29th, 2005

Sinéad tagged me with the 7 things blog meme.

Seven things I plan to do before I die:

Get Broadband for All
Learn french.
Change Irish laws to make society a better place to live in. (The reason I’ve decided to do a 4 year evening Law degree.)
Visit the Antarctic.
Have kids. Possibly via adoption.
Fall in love and have the same person fall in love with me.
Run a marathon.

Seven things I can do:
Research things well.
Argue my point.
Understand people and their motivations.
Piss people off intensely.
Charm the pants off both sexes.
Network. I’m a pretty good people person.
Enjoy my own company. (Only child.)

Seven things I can not do:
Live without music – nicked from SinĂ©ad but so very true.
Keep my mouth shut for long.
Tolerate bullies.
Art. I’m shit at drawing and painting.
Play music.
Dance.
Cruise through life without trying to make a difference.

Seven things that I find really attractive about the same or opposite sex:
Most but not all of these could be gender neutral.
Has a brain AND uses it. The AND is very important.
The ability to understand other people.
Open mindedness.
Outspoken for the right reasons and not to garner attention.
Modesty.
Does unpredictable things. Spontaneity I guess. (I did not rob this one from Sinéad)
They’d also need to be physically attractive to me if I’m to be honest. Though they need not be Brad Pitt.

Seven things I say the most:
Like – It’s a Cork thing.
Though – Actually I write it more than say it.
Cunt – Sorry ladies, for some reason this is my most used curse word.
Broadband – How very fucking sad of me.
Holy motherfucking fuck.
No problemo.
Not a bother.

Seven books I love:
Kicking and Screaming by Ivana Bacik. It carries a bias but she makes you aware of this. Really good read about what needs to change in Irish Law to bring Ireland into the modern age.

Neuromancer – William Gibson. This was my first introduction to SciFi and what a great way to be introduced. Fantastic book with some very good future predictions when it was written in 1984.

Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks – Sci-fi epic. And so very fantastically dark.

Emergence – Steven Johnson.

Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk. Managed to read the book before the film came out. To me this was very fresh and had themes I hadn’t read about before. What happens when angry young men become adults.

The Dice Man. Fucked up. Funny. Fucked up.

Unsure of another one. Will re-check my bookshelf when I’m home.

Seven people I would like to see take this quiz:
Bernie Goldbach. Be nice to get an insight into the man with the mysterious background.
Tom Raftery. A blog neighbour.
Dick O’Brien. Another blog neighbour.
Karlin Lillington.

Scoble. We get glimpses into his personal life via commentary about his Mrs and his kid. It’d be fun/interesting/unusual to see Robert Scoble put something like this on his blog.
Doc Searls. He’s one of the Uncles of blogging. Only natural to see what his answers are.
Jeff Jarvis. Respect the guys opinions on many but not all things. Perhaps this 7 things meme might give us a clue as to how the man thinks or comes to the conclusions he does.

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Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day lyrics

August 29th, 2005

*Update 22-Oct-2005* This seems to be the most popular page on my site. Hello Sufjan fans!

By Sufjan Stevens comes this wonderful and musically simple song with beautiful lyrics. Buy all of this stuff. Hope to see him in Whelan’s in Dublin on Oct 14th.

Golden rod and the 4-H stone
The things I brought you
When I found out you had cancer of the bone

Your father cried on the telephone
And he drove his car to the Navy yard
Just to prove that he was sorry

In the morning through the window shade
When the light pressed up against your shoulder blade
I could see what you were reading

Oh the glory that the lord has made
And the complications you could do without
When I kissed you on the mouth

Tuesday night at the bible study
We lift our hands and pray over your body
But nothing ever happens

I remember at Michael’s house
In the living room when you kissed my neck
And I almost touched your blouse

In the morning at the top of the stairs
When your father found out what we did that night
And you told me you were scared

Oh the glory when you ran outside
With your shirt tucked in and your shoes untied
And you told me not to follow you

Sunday night when I cleaned the house
I find the card where you wrote it out
With the pictures of your mother

On the floor at the great divide
With my shirt tucked in and my shoes untied
I am crying in the bathroom

In the morning when you finally go
And the nurse runs in with her head hung low
And the cardinal hits the window

In the morning in the winter shade
On the first of March on the holiday
I thought I saw you breathing

Oh the glory that the lord has made
And the complications when I see his face
In the morning in the window

Oh the glory when he took our place
But he took my shoulders and he shook my face
And he takes and he takes and he takes