Morning Briefing, 31st December

Well its the last day of 2006 and my final Morning briefing of the year :( not that I've been doing them for very long, but I'd like to take this moment to wish all the readers of this blog the Best for 2007! Have a great night and be careful!!!!

An nuacht ar an maidin seo!

CNN reports on Kofi Annan's Legacy saying he left a 'mixed legacy'

BreakingNews.ie reports on the destruction of prisoner files in the North before the Freedom of Information Act came in. I'm surprised that didn't happen down here. Reminds me of an episode of Yes, Minister, the one where Sir Humphrey's mistake is hushed up by saying the files were destroyed in a flood!

McDowell is spouting off again, saying the PD's will be successful in the next election according to breakingnews.ie. Who do you think will win the next election? Vote on Cllr Seamus Ryan's Blog

Now its time for year 2006 round ups!

France 24: Retrospective 2006

BBC: Stories of 2006

Thats all i can find for the moment! so enjoy what is left of 2006!
Athbhliain faoi mhaise duit.

Morning Briefing, December 18

Morning,

Its one week to Christmas, hope you all have your Christmas shopping done, unlike me.

RTÉ have a story on how Circuses are to get grants from the Arts Council.

BreakingNews.ie are reminding people of when to post their letters and parcels as today is the last day for post to the UK

BreakingNews.ie also report that detectives have arrested a man in connection with the murder of 5 prostitutes in the UK

France 24 main story is the resuption of 6 party talks on North Korea.

Al Jazeera is running a report on how Muslims in Europe are being discriminated against.

Finally CNN leads with a story that reformists are leading in the polls in recent elections in Iran.

I hope to post up a picture of my house tomorrow as my Dad (hes like a 5-year old at Christmas, and the rest of us arent much better) has done a fantastic job at decorating the house!

Have a good day!

Google has yet another search engine!

Via France 24

Google launches search engine for US patents

Google was live with a service enabling Internet users to search through the more than seven million patents granted in the United States.

The beta, or test, version of Google Patent Search lets people sift through patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office as long ago as 1790 by using inventors' names, filing dates, patent numbers or key words.

Searches return information about the inventor and provide patent details online page-by-page.

"We've all heard about the Wright brothers, Thomas Edison, and Alexander Graham Bell -- famous inventors whose creative minds changed the course of history," Google software engineer Doug Banks wrote in a company weblog.

"But there are many more like them and millions of inventions...from useful everyday items such as adhesive tape and contact lenses to, er, things useful in specific situations, like this shark protector suit or this amusement device incorporating simulated cheese and mice."

Google Patent Search uses much of the same technology that powers the Mountain View, California-based company's online book search service, so users can scroll pages and zoom in on text and illustrations.

The Search engine is at www.google.com/patents

Belgians Fooled!

Via France 24

Belgians fall for media spoof on Flemish independence

Belgians were still recovering after a television channel announced in a spoof programme overnight that the Flemish part of the country had declared independence and that Belgium was no more.

Some six months before the probable renegotiation of powers between Belgium's French- and Dutch-speaking communities, the RTBF programme raised inter-communal tensions with its "breaking news" style programme on Wednesday evening.

To back up the prime time report, RTBF aired "live" footage of trams blocked at the new "border" and interviewed real-life politicians welcoming or denouncing the Flemish parliament's unilateral declaration of independence.

The exercise was only intended as a thought-provoking introduction to a debate on a question which has long divided the two halves of Belgium.

But an overwhelming number of viewers were fooled and the station's switchboard was jammed by panicked callers.

"I'm 39 years old, and I'm not really what you would call the sensitive type, but I cried," said one viewer, Caroline Case, in a letter to Thursday's Libre Belgique newspaper.

"The Fiction that Shook Belgium," screamed the paper's front page, while Le Soir daily headlined with: "Belgium Died Last Night".

Political leaders had only one word for the stunt: irresponsible.

"It's very bad Orson Welles, in very poor taste," Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's spokesman told the Belga news agency, recalling the 1938 radio adaptation by Welles of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" which caused widespread chaos, with thousands of Americans actually believing the Martians had invaded.

"In the current context, it's irresponsible for a public television channel to announce the end of Belgium as a reality presented by genuine journalists," he said.

Francophone socialist party leader Elio Di Rupo told Le Soir: "At a time when our country is rocked by separatist leanings, it is irresponsible and anti-social to make people believe that the Flemish have voted for independence."

The fact that the programme was on state-funded television also rankled.

"This programme is irresponsible. It totally discredits an institution that the French community has put a lot of investment into," said Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders.

At the beginning of the broadcast, RTBF displayed a message at the bottom of the screen "this is perhaps not a fiction".

That, too, was an echo from the past, recalling "Ceci n'est pas une pipe", or this is not a pipe, the title of the painting by Belgian Surrealist master Rene Magritte.

But half an hour in, at the demand of the minister for audiovisual affairs for the French-speaking community, Fadila Laanan, the message "this is fiction" appeared.

"I find it questionable to use such a tactic, which frightened people unbelievably," Laanan declared. She said that she herself had received a number of panicky calls and text messages.

The channel invited viewers to text messages to say whether they had been fooled, and according to early results, 89 percent said they had believed the programme at first.

A diehard six percent continued to believe it even after they were told it was a hoax.

A special number given out at the beginning of the programme was flooded with over 2,600 calls during the nearly two-hour spoof and the television's website crashed.

Even some ambassadors in Brussels admitted to being taken in and sending back messages to their respective capitals, according to the president of the Belgian Senate.

Around six million of Belgium's 10.5 million people live in the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders, 3.5 million in French-speaking Wallonia, and one million in Brussels.

Today the country's richest region, Flanders remains troubled by painful memories from the 19th century when the aristocracy and bourgeoisie, who spoke French whether they were from Wallonia or Flanders, held sway.

God, im still hungover after last night hence no morning briefing this morning as i had exam yesterday and then proceeded to get very drunk!

Morning Briefing, 14th December

Morning all,

Political Parties will outline their stratigies to combat homelessness tonight in TCD according to BreakingNews.ie

Brazil is bidding to host the World Cup in 2014 according to France 24

Turkey is upset with EU sanctions on negiating talks according to the International Herald Tribunal

Mary Harness was a contest in Podge and Rodge's Ballydung Idol last night on RTÉ 2. Thank god she only last 43 seconds!!!!

CNN reports that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, said "trend for the existence of the Zionist regime is downwards" and the 'Zionist regime will soon be wiped out'

Thats it for this morning have a good day!

Morning Breifing, December 12th

Morning all,

Decided to to this every morning im awake for with a bit of a round up of International News and News from the Bloggersphere, after yesterdays 'Interesting Stuff post'

RTÉ.ie and BreakingNews.ie have reports from the American Geophysical Union that the Artic will be ice free by 2040.

A lot of news agencies are reporting on Ehud Olmert blab on Israeli Nuclear Weapons which I covered last night

A follow on from yesterday's post on France 24, it is availible on Sky Digital on Channel 515

The Examiner is reporting on how Pat Rabitte is flip-flopping again, saying that he "vows to remove FF and PDs from power"

UCC will name its new President today also with four people in the running according to the Examiner

Accoding the CNN that the Vatican have confirmed that the sarcophagus found under St. Paul's Outside the Walls Basilica, is indeed the remains of the apostle St. Paul.

On a sad note, Post Offices across the country will close between 12-1 today, the An Post Website says

The An Post Board, Management, Staff and Postmasters extend their deepest sympathy to the family of the late Postmaster Alan Cunniffe following his tragic death on Friday last, 8th December 2006.

May he rest in peace.

As a mark of respect, all Post Offices will close on Tuesday December 12th from 12 – 1.00pm

Thats all for now have a good day.