Fiona McCann
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Yikes!
 I dunno about you, but I think 12 degrees is a bit chilly to be wearing the outfit that my 'Weather Pixie' has on at this time. I think she is just showing off! |
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Information, please!
I don't know why, but I was looking at some old entries, and I found the one about LJ Abuse which I made on 19 April 2006. It has a little 'thingie' by the title. I didn't put it there, nor is it in the HTML of the entry.  What is it??? |
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NOTHING FROM CHINA - EVER AGAIN!
heathermillsmccartney.com I happened upon this horrifying article on dog and cat fur trade from China by accident. I was looking for some information on Paul McCartney's wife Heather. I started reading this from her website and looking at the photographs, which I would not have done had I known what I was in for. It tells and shows how they, despite repeated denials to the authorities, skin animals alive for their fur. I have read some disgusting things about China, but after looking at this, I can honestly say that from now on, I will NEVER ever buy anything made in China again. I will boycott everything to come out of that hell hole. I will also spend some time wishing in my heart for the people who do those things to have the same done to them some day. Bastards. |
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The publishing revolution: from Caxton to cyberspace
Telegraph.co.uk **This post is dedicated to the discouraged writers in my life 07/05/2006) Not since the first book was printed on a movable-type press has the publishing world undergone such seismic change - from the profound impact of the internet and self-publishing to digital libraries, poseurs having their reading done for them and literary ATMs. Elizabeth Day reports...  John Howard received 38 rejection slips! >>Read article |
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God Save Ireland
Digital Library A GAELIC SONG  A murmurous tangle of voices,Laughter to left and right, We waited the curtain's rising, In a dazing glare of light; When down through the din came, slowly, Softly, then clear and strong, The mournful minor cadence Of a sweet old Gaelic song. Like the trill of a lark new-risen, It trembled upon the air, And wondering eyes were lifted To seek for the singer there; Some dreamed of the thrush at noontide, Some fancied a linnet's wail, While the notes went sobbing, sighing, O'er the heartstrings of the Gael. The lights grew blurred, and a vision Fell upon all who heard– The purple of moorland heather By a wonderful wind was stirred; Green rings of rushes went swaying, Gaunt boughs of Winter made moan; One saw the glory of Life go by, And one saw Death alone. A river twined through its shallows, Cool waves crept up on a strand, Or fierce, like a mighty army, Swept wide on a conquered land; The Dead left cairn and barrow, And passed in noble train, With sheltering shield, and slender spear, Ere the curtain rose again. The four great seas of Éire Heaved under fierce ships of war, The God of Battles befriended, We saw the Star! the Star! We nerved us for deeds of daring, For Right we stood against Wrong; We heard the prayer of our mothers, In that sweet old Gaelic song. It was the soul of Éire Awaking in speech she knew When the clans held the glens and the mountains, And the hearts of her chiefs were true: She hath stirred at last in her sleeping, She is folding her dreams away, The hour of her destiny neareth– And it may be to-day–to-day! ~ Ethna Carbery ~ **Today marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Bobby Sands. Ethna Carbery was one of Bobby's favourite poets. Bobby was, himself, a poet and writer. CAIN WEEPING WINDS Oh! cold March winds your cruel laments Are hard on prisoners’ hearts, For you bring my mother’s pleading cries From whom I have to part. I hear her weeping lonely sobs Her sorrows sweep me by, And in the dark of prison cell A tear has warmed my eye. Oh! whistling winds why do you weep When roaming free you are, Oh! is it that your poor heart’s broke And scattered off afar? Or is it that you bear the cries Of people born unfree, Who like your way have no control Or sovereign destiny? Oh! lonely winds that walk the night To haunt the sinner’s soul, Pray pity me a wretched lad Who never will grow old. Pray pity those who lie in pain The bondsman and the slave, And whisper sweet the breath of God Upon my humble grave. Oh! cold March winds that pierce the dark You cry in aged tones For souls of folk you’ve brought to God But still you bear the moans. Oh! weeping wind this lonely night My mother’s heart is sore Oh! Lord of all breathe freedom’s breath That she may weep no more. ~ Bobby Sands ~ 1954 - 1981 |
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Cracking Rosslyn's musical code
Scotsman GEORGE MAIR 2 May 2006  AN ORCHESTRA is being recreated to play in its original form a musical code hidden in the ceiling of Rosslyn Chapel.Photo from >>here The 500-year-old code was discovered last year, hidden in 213 cubes in the medieval chapel in Midlothian. Scottish composer Stuart Mitchell was hailed a genius after unravelling the complex sequence, which had mystified historians for generations. But the piece, named The Rosslyn Canon of Proportions by Mr Mitchell, has never been heard as it was intended. Of the 13 medieval instruments depicted on pillars by the chapel's architect, William Sinclair, two no longer exist. Now a team is building all 13 instruments - including bagpipes, whistles, a trumpet, a medieval mouth piano and a guitar - so that the piece can be played as it was in the 15th century. Mr Mitchell, who has already arranged the notes in an authentic 15th-century manner, says in a BBC Radio Scotland interview to be broadcast today: "Ultimately, I just want a musical result as authentic as William Sinclair intended. "The challenge was to arrange the harmonies to the instruments and orchestration that William Sinclair has pointed out on the ceiling." • The Rosslyn Code was broadcast today on BBC Radio Scotland at 11:30am. |
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Alritey!! Alan has DONE it!!
You gotta go see Alan's impressionistic shot of the Empire State Building! It's gorgeous!!
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More awesome ESB pics
Here are some more interesting photos about the Empire State Building which I got from >>here. But here is the scariest one:  |
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Happy birthday to the Empire State Building
BN.ie 01/05/2006 - 14:49:05  The Empire State Building celebrates its 75th birthday today. Click on the pic to take a virtual tour of the Empire State Building The iconic skyscraper is New York’s tallest building, soaring more than a quarter of a mile above the heart of Manhattan. Since opening in 1931 during America’s Great Depression after being constructed in just 13 months, it has seen almost 110 million visitors. In all, it has 102 floors, but tourists stop at the 86th floor observation deck, at 1,050 feet, to marvel at the panoramic views across the city and beyond. The tower, which was in the headlines last week after a stuntman attempted to parachute from it, has a total of 1,860 steps and is struck by lightning 100 times a year. It has been immortalised on the big screen numerous times, famously being captured on celluloid in the 1933 King Kong film. The observation deck was also the location where Cary Grant waited in vain for Deborah Kerr in An Affair To Remember, and where Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan had their fateful meeting in Sleepless In Seattle. It was the world’s tallest building for 40 years, until the World Trade Centre was built. Since the destruction of the twin towers in the September 11 attacks, it is New York City’s highest structure again. The Empire State Building’s construction provided jobs for more than 3,000 workers during a time of great unemployment, although 14 immigrant workers were killed during the operation. Its spire was originally planned as a mooring point for airships, an idea which was swiftly branded dangerous and abandoned. Different multicoloured lighting schemes are often used on the upper tier of the building to celebrate events such as Valentine’s Day and July 4. Today the floodlights will be plain white in a recreation of the tower’s appearance on the day it first opened for business. |
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Love is all around
The Animal Story Page I got this feature in an email, but the story and photos are on the net, so I am going to give you the link. It will warm your heart if you are an animal lover (and if you're NOT an animal lover, then you have no heart!). It's the story of Finnegan the Squirrel, so I hope Locotes sees this. In a nutshell, so to speak, it's the story of a baby orphan squirrel who bonds with a pregnant Papillion chihuahua-type dog named Giselle. You gotta see the pics of Finnegan nestled in with the puppies. They are really sweet!  Click on the photo to be taken to Finnegan's webpage |
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Just a ways down the road
For as long as I have been on the net, which is only about 4 years, I have liked to try out different sites and systems. Each usually has advantages that make you like it, but there are also often liabilities that keep you looking for a better, more convenient way to blog. I have tried out Blogger, WordPress, Movable Type, 20six, and Livejournal as well as many other smaller less well known sites, some of which I can't even remember until I stumble over them again. I like 20six because of the sense of community on it. Someone will usually always come along and post a comment. 20six is very good at notifying you of new posts and comments. We used to have great stats, but those are gone. Google liked this blog because of the Google ads on it. Truth to tell, I kinda like Google text ads myself because some of them point the way to interesting sites, but they are simple and not obtrusive with slow-loading graphics. Too bad advertisers don't understand that the more annoying you make your ad, the less people will pay attention to it. One of the drawbacks of 20six, however, is the editing box. Many times I wanted to re-do a post and when I clicked on edit, the box would only bring up half my post. Fortunately I always use Semagic, so I had my whole post to look at. The use of Semagic compliments Livejournal posts. I know I have said this many times to the point where I sound like a broken 'record', but you cannot beat Semagic for blogging. I also do not think you can beat Livejournal for the organisation of your posts. So what I am saying is that I am writing over at Livejournal for anyone who would like to come over and take a look. I do not want to give up this blog here because I'm very attached to it, and I intend to keep putting some things on it. It also has a lot of posts about my wee Oui that I want to keep. I still miss Oui very much. I deleted this journal once and was very sorry and had to work very hard to put it back up. Oh, I hear you say, 'Writing? Fiona doesn't write. She's the Queen of Copy and Paste.' Well, I plead guilty to that. But I do have opinions and feelings and like that, and I can string a few words together. I seem to do that more over at Livejournal, not that it's profound or anything you haven't heard before, but I would love to see you come to visit, and I would also love for you to stop and make a comment, even if it's just to say, 'Still fulla shite, I see.' You don't have to have a Livejournal to comment, and you can put a link back to yourself in the box. I do not have the IP identifier turned on because I do not believe in tracking commenters like that as many people do not want other people to know where they are. (Livejournal tells you when the journal has it on.) I do have a simple hit counter like here. It doesn't do anything but count hits. I'm still working on the links and such. So anyway, enough of this. Come and >>see me some time, and yes, it's still green! |
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John Prescott, hanging out front and centre
 Just finished reading the >Guardian article about John 'Two Shags' Prescott (click photo to view if you are masochistic) wherein his 'tearful' ex-mistress says, "I truthfully don't know why I did it."Yes, well, Tracey, it is difficult to see why you did it, just from the outward looks of things. I mean, I fully understand why you sold yourself again to the Sunday Mail for £250,000. THAT at least is understandable, and we certainly can't have the public running around thinking you're nothing but a common slapper. (See article >here.) And as for the unfortunate John (term used loosely), who has yet another affair from some 20 years ago leaking out around the edges as well, I would advise you to keep it tucked in from now on. That, however, may not be an issue anymore, according to >this article in the Sunday Mail with the headline: WHY 15 OUT OF 15 WOMEN WOULDN'T TOUCH MR PRESCOTT WITH A BARGEPOLE Hmmm...bargepole. How apt. |
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Trackback shite
Interesting that even though I have the trackback option turned off that I ended up with 13 vile trackback entries on the LJ post. What's the point of having an option to not allow trackbacks if we are going to get them anyway? I deleted each one and made the post private rather than delete it and all the good comments. Is anyone else having the same problem? I still have to wonder why we are getting the blurb about the security certificate after all this time. This doesn't happen anywhere else I go or use. |
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20th anniversary of Chernobyl nuclear disaster
RTÉ 26 April 2006 11:38  The people of Ukraine are marking the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.Click photo to view In the capital, Kiev, President Victor Yushchenko placed a bouquet of roses at a memorial by the 'Chernobyl church', where survivors gather every year. Hundreds of people, each bearing a candle and some with red carnations, filed slowly through the streets of Slavutych, the town built to house the Chernobyl plant's workers after the accident. At 1.23am local time (9.23pm Irish time), about the time of the explosion, a minute of silence was declared. A bell tolled and alarm sirens blared. The explosion claimed thousands of lives and contaminated large swathes of territory in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia with nuclear fall-out also measured across much of western Europe. It happened when a test involving Chernobyl's cooling system went wrong. A power surge resulted in water from the cooling system turning to steam, blowing off the roof of the reactor. A second explosion released 3% of the reactor's radiation. A soaring cloud spilled radioactive debris into the surrounding area and a radiation cloud drifted across half of Europe. 28 workers died in the immediate explosion; a further 19 died fighting the resultant fire. Controversy continues over the ultimate death toll. The UN estimates the figure is 4,000, mainly through cancers, while Greenpeace claims the true death toll could be up to 100,000. |
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HEATHER from Greyhound Rescue West of England, formerly from Kerry
GRWE  Our own Timothy Pukowski had a hand in rescuing a very famous greyhound named Heather, whose story and picture can be found on the GRWE website among other places--and now here. Tim is in Ireland and takes the greyhounds in as a foster 'parent' for awhile so that they can be re-homed. Heather's story from last year is a heartbreaker, but the truth is that she is one of hundreds of dogs who are mistreated, mutilated, dumped and murdered every year when they don't prove economically beneficial to their racing owners. Here is part of Heather's story from the website: (cached) Jan Lake, Trustee for the Charity says, "We were first contacted by a small rescue in Kerry, Southern Ireland, as they had picked up a greyhound called Heather, in a very poor condition. Heather had been given a heavy dose of anaesthetic, which presumably had been meant to kill her. Her owner had then cut off her ears, and left her to die. She had obviously come round from the effects of the anaesthetic and was found wandering, bleeding heavily, trying to make her way 'home' to her owner. It is very difficult for the small shelters to find homes for greyhounds in Ireland, so we were only too pleased to be able to help them by taking Heather." There are many rescue stories on the GRWE site which have happy endings. As you might imagine, the groups which do this kind of work can always use help from volunteers as well as those willing and able to send financial aid to cover expenses. The GRWE website has several links for those interested, and I'm sure Tim might be able to direct you to his rescue group as well. |
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Ever faithful in life and in death...Ulster's own Greyfriars Bobby
Belfast Telegraph Alsatian Ben pines by owner's graveside By Fiona McIlwaine Biggins and Eimear O'Hagan newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk 22 April 2006 An Ulster cemetery has had an unusual mourner visiting a grave over recent weeks - Ulster's own version of the famous Greyfriars Bobby. Ben, a 12-year-old Alsatian dog, has been found on a number of occasions "crying" at the grave of his beloved owner, Lily, in Our Lady's Cemetery in Newtownabbey. Peter McAtamney explained that his wife Lily and Ben had been inseparable and since she died in February the dog has literally been "wrecked by grief". He said his wife was devoted to the dog and now Ben was having problems adjusting to life without her. "We've had him since he was a six weeks. When he was born no one would take him because he was such a big, strong puppy, people thought there was something wrong with him. But we took him and I'm so glad, because he's been the best dog you could ever wish for. "Once my wife took a fall in the yard behind the house and he bent his head down and she took hold of his collar, and he helped her up and helped her to the back door. "She loved him - she used to take him to bed with her. When he came into the bedroom, I got thrown out! She'd even get up in the middle of the night to make him wee snacks. I would tell her she was spoiling him and she would tell me to mind my own business!" Three days after Mrs Mc Atamney was buried, Ben went missing. The 70-year-old widower revealed: "Ben got out of his pen and we couldn't find him. I thought he might have gone to the graveyard and I asked my home help, Maureen McNinch, to have a look. She found him on the grave, he was whimpering and was tearful. "I think he knew where Lily was buried because at the funeral he saw people coming and going between the house and the cemetery, and he just put two and two together and worked out that's where she was. He's a very intelligent dog." With Ben continuing to pine for his late owner, Mr McAtamney is keeping a close eye on him. "He'd go to the grave every day if he was allowed to but I've locked the gates now to stop him going because it's not safe for him to be running around the roads. "He's coming round a bit now and he's getting a lot of love and attention from me which I think is what he needs." Sharon Hatt from The Dog's Trust said: "This truly goes to show that dogs really are man's best friend. There is no substitute for the companionship found when you own a dog and this highlights that the bond really is so deep." The legendary tale of Greyfriars Bobby recalls how the Skye terrier visited his dead master's grave in Edinburgh every day for 14 years. |
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ABUSE!
All the comment/conversation over at Steve's post reminds me of a go-round I recently had with Livejournal when I found out that the journal of a convicted baby rapist was still available online. I wrote to LJ Abuse and asked them why they would keep it around. It is my understanding that LJ deleted a journal of a convicted murderer. Their reply was that unless you break the terms of service (TOS), LJ will not delete your journal. They said there were lots of unsavoury people who have journals and many who are convicted of crimes, etc. but if they don't break the TOS, there's nothing that can be done. I pointed out to LJ that upon even a cursory reading of the vaunted TOS, it is quite clear that LJ can do whatever they want to anyone's journal at their discretion--TOS or not. Upon further googling of LJ abuse, it became quite clear as well that LJ has pretty much been all over the board as regards blocking or censoring people's journals. There is even a community devoted to bitching about LJ Abuse and also a very good Blogspot blog concerning it! Googling also revealed that many users use their journals to discuss doing things that are clearly illegal--such as child molestation. LJ allows this I guess. I cannot say for sure because there is NO way I am going to research that topic as I haven't the stomach for it. Therefore, my final comment to them was that since they obviously HAD the power to delete the baby rapist's journal and chose not to, that baby rape must not bother them that much. I also said that I was pretty sure that if it had been one of THEIR babies who was raped and filmed, I am sure the journal would have been deleted a long time ago. LJ closed the complaint. I thought at first that I would quit all my use of Livejournal due to their attitude. However, it also occurred to me that no matter where you go, there are going to be people who do disgusting things and write and put up pictures about it. I don't have the money to purchase my own server. I am fairly conservative in a lot of ways and then liberal in others. On things that mean a lot to me, like child or animal abuse, I am intransigent. My views on other issues would surely offend a lot of people I know. One of the choicest assets of the internet is also its biggest pitfall and that is that nearly ANYONE can access the net and make his or her views known for all to see. Navigating clear of disturbing things on the net is not an easy task. I have also found that sometimes when you complain about things that you don't like on the net, you can make a difference and get people to take positive action. Many times no one cares. It's kinda just like real life. |
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