1)  Red pandas aren't "bears". It's not their name, and they're not part of the bear taxon. (They're more closely related to raccoons.)
2) There's no such thing as an "Irish race". Even if "race" were a sensible term in general as applied to humans, which it isn't. Especially not in an item about gene sequencing, in such a way as to encourage belief ( Read more... )

Interesting -- and infuriating -- piece on the Six-One News about the demographics of education in this jurisdiction, and the "patron" system. This wasn't new to me as such, having heard Paul Rowe of Educate Together on the topic (Engagements ibid), but I didn't know (though was not in the least surprised by) the extent of the government's ( Read more... )

I was somewhat tempted to post a "what's been boggling and exasperating me in the news" rant (a semi-regular feature here, I suppose, but in large part, Vincent Browne has saved me most of the trouble.  ( Remaining trouble. )

... though if anything, yet colder.  If this keeps up, by the end of the month, the skies will be such as to have made van Gogh and Monet weep, but we'll all have frozen into solid blocks.  Popped out to meet sammywol at the park, with her two kids each on two wheels, and thence back to theirs for some tea, Wii, and conversational digression.  The world ( Read more... )

Brian Cowen was just on RTE News( ... and other 6-1 digressions )

It's a bad day Tom McSweeney's on the RTE News: he has the most dreary voice, he's a rubbish reporter, and he's not above throwing in his own "this is what they're saying down the yacht club bar" opinions into what's supposed to be journalism.  Tonight, we got two such "reports" in the one broadcast.  What really got me was his pronunciation of the ( Read more... )