Foundation of the State

I popped into Tower Records on my lunchbreak today to pick up a copy of State. I've been a big reader of music mags for many years, not to mention a constant sneerer at Hot Press, so I figured a new contender on the scene was worth a fiver of my money, at least for the first issue. The first thing to say about it is that it looks fantastic.

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The Other Eegit on the Radio

I'll be on this morning's Tubridy Show on RTE Radio one with Richard Delevan, late of the Sunday Tribune. The topic we've been set, like the leaving cert essay, to discuss is 'Political Hactivism'. UPDATE: The discussion can be heard here (Realplayer link) from 49 minutes in.

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The Curious Case of the Missing Paper Round

Last week I noticed something peculiar- The Paper Round's raw coverage (which was presented in the form of a wiki to allow for interested parties to add their views) had vanished. If I go to the Paper Round front page now I getMyWiki has a problemSorry. This site is experiencing technical difficulties.

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Work On That Bedside Manner

One of my favourite things about Irish myths and epics is the vastness of scale, the often surreal degree of exaggeration, particularly when it comes to feats of strength and of warfare. Thus, Fionn is described as having calves the size of a calf, widening to thighs the size of a cow, culminating in freakishly disproportionate shoulders the width of a mountain pass.

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Tom Kitt, Info society minister, rejects ‘obsessive’ bloggers

Speaking the morning at the Irish Management Institute the government's Minister for Information Society in the Department of the Taoiseach, Tom Kitt TD said that government cannot be swayed by obsessive bloggers but must give equal voice to people who don't have time to have narrowly focussed opinions. Info supplied by a pair of incredulous blogger ears in the room by SMS, so direct quote not guaranteed.

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Don’t Taze Me Menupages!

Some time ago I wrote on the double standard whereby communist iconography is still acceptable in pop culture, while fascist regalia is strictly beyond the pale. One of the examples I used was the Cork City of Culture promotional campaign which drew on the imagery of Maoist China. Up piped Kevin in the comments, to remind me of the restaurant Café Mao.

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Heart of Glass + Bottle of Champagne

Special Recognition AwardOriginally uploaded by _Embarr_The Irish Blog Awards on Saturday night were the highlight of the nerd calendar they always are. However, there was a particular unexpected excitement this year, as Fergal has said. I was literally speechless as I walked up to pick up my award- a Special Recognition one.

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Gongs! Bubbly! Manky Toys!

It being poor form to expect him to blow his own trumpet, it falls to me to congratulate fellow tuppenceworthy Simon McGarr on his Special Recognition Award at last night's Irish Blog Awards. The gong was a well-deserved recognition of his many efforts in and on behalf of the 'sphere. His wife, I have no doubt, will be grateful of the champagne.

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Irish Independent reveal Tuppenceworth writer secret identity

From the News and Gossip section of the Indo:The blogging culture has come under attack in recent weeks from the likes of Irish Times columnist John Waters, who branded the medium nonsense and asked on national radio if there was a blogger "who could string three sentences together". (Waters was subsequently challenged on radio by blogger and journalist Sarah Carey. )The game's up Fergal.

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Print your own Newspaper

I've written before about Feedjournal, which takes RSS feeds and automatically generates a newspaper-like pdf from them. Well, it's now emerged from Beta testing. It even collects and prints the images accompanying the stories.

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