“We’re able to take advantage of the close proximity of the Moon”

Stunning images of the lunar surface from Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. You can almost taste the water… Video Credit: NASA/GSFC/Moscow Institute for Space Research/UCLA/MIT.

Pete Baker @ 10:02 AM | Comments (4)

“I will only resign if asked by the Holy Father.”

Cardinal Séan Brady is resisting calls for his resignation over his involvement in a 1975 canonical inquiry into allegations of sex abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth, during which the complainants, aged 10 and 14, “signed undertakings, on oath, to respect the confidentiality of the information-gathering process.”  Brendan Smyth was convicted of 17 counts of sexual abuse 20 years later - and brought down an Irish government in the process.  From an iol report

Asked why he did not see it as a moral obligation to ensure the police were alerted, the Catholic primate said today: “Yes, I knew that these were crimes, but I did not feel that it was my responsibility to denounce the actions of Brendan Smyth to the police.”

And from an Irish Times report

Cardinal Brady insisted that responsibility for Smyth was with the head of Smyth’s religious order at the Co Cavan abbey where he was sent after he was stripped of pastoral duties as a priest. “The responsibility for his behaviour rested with his religious superior at Kilnacrott,” he said. The cardinal said he did all that was asked of him by Dr McKiernan in relation to Smyth. “I did act, and act effectively, in that inquiry to produce the grounds for removing Fr Smyth from ministry and specifically it was underlined that he was not to hear confessions and that was very important.”

Meanwhile, as a separate Irish Times report notes - Monsignor Maurice Dooley, former Professor of Canon Law, said Cardinal Daly had “no obligation whatsoever” to report anything to the gardaí. “There is no law in Ireland or statute that requires that clergy report crimes to the police,” he added. Monsignor Dooley pointed to paragraph 1.16 of the Murphy report, saying: “it says quite clearly that the clergy, the bishops and so on, had no obligation to report anything to the police”. “Is it a sin against the law of God not to report matters to the police …no I don’t think so…because there are certain people exempt from this moral obligation to report to the police,” he said. [added fuller quote]

Pete Baker @ 09:23 PM | Comments (69)

“this failure to communicate the seriousness of the situation…”

At the time of the recall of Irish pork over a dioxin contamination Sinn Féin’s Pat Doherty sought to blame the UK’s Food Standards Agency for the delay in a Ministerial response in Northern Ireland.  And, as RTÉ reported in January, the Irish government’s Inter-Agency Review Group [pdf file] concluded that “Communications between agencies, industry and consumers were both timely and informative.”  But the NI Assembly’s Agriculture Committee has just published their own Dioxin Inquiry report.  And they have concluded that

28. The Committee has concluded that the key weakness and sole contributory factor to the near collapse of the Northern Ireland pig industry was the absence of appropriate communication to the Northern Ireland authorities by those in the Republic of Ireland, particularly on 6 December 2008. The Committee believes that the remissness of the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in contacting the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland on or before 6 December 2009 was a critical failure and proof that the cooperation heralded by the Department for Agriculture and Rural Development in the All Island Animal Health Strategy does not exist and that the evidence received during the inquiry proves that this strategy is not working.

Pete Baker @ 03:56 PM | Comments (2)

“Venture capitalists like Crescent [are essential in] helping startups and fledgling companies”

The much vaunted Emerald Fund may have failed to deliver any actual investment here, but as The Guardian’s Henry McDonald reports, Belfast-based venture capital fund managers, Crescent Capital, are planning “another tranche of investment, worth £30m”, “by the end of this year”.  And they have form in this area.  From the Guardian report

One of Northern Ireland’s leading economists said that while venture capital support for indigenous companies should be “top of the wish list”, the handful of companies receiving such support in Northern Ireland compared poorly with up to 70 similar enterprises in the Irish Republic. Mike Smyth, a senior economics lecturer at the University of Ulster, called the number of venture capitalists backing local business “pathetic” compared with the Republic or Britain.

“Venture capitalists like Crescent [are essential in] helping startups and fledgling companies,” Smyth said. “But while there is so much free money from government departments like Invest Northern Ireland, demand for VC support is going to be slow. That is the main reason why there are few venture capitalist enterprises in Northern Ireland.”

Pete Baker @ 08:33 PM | Comments (4)

“the first time that the judge could direct that such hearings be heard ‘otherwise than in public”’”

Although the seven people arrested in Ireland in connection with an alleged plot to kill Swedish cartoonist, Lars Vilks, had their detention in custody extended earlier this week, RTÉ reports that two of them have now been released from custody.  Meanwhile, an American woman, Colleen R. LaRose, whose possible movements in Ireland in September last year are being investigated, has been “indicted in plot to recruit violent jihadist fighters and to commit murder overseas”.  The Irish Times notes that the case has seen the first use of “section 29 21 of the 2009 Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act”.

The exclusion of the media from the hearings was the first time a new law allowing for the hearing to be in private was invoked in a high-profile case. An application that the hearing into the prolonging of the detention be heard in private was made by An Garda Síochána and the judge granted this application. It was made under section [29 21] of the 2009 Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act, which provides for the extension of the length of time of detention to allow for further investigation.

This section of the Act, passed amidst controversy last year, provided for the first time that the judge could direct that such hearings be heard “otherwise than in public”. It also provides for the exclusion of all except “officers of the court, persons directly concerned in the proceedings, bona fide representatives of the press and such other persons as the court may permit to remain”. The judge can also direct that particular evidence be given in the absence of “every person, including the person to whom the application relates and any legal representative”, if the judge considers the nature of the evidence could prejudice the investigation.

Pete Baker @ 09:19 PM | Comments (1)

“That’s politics. It’s about time we saw more of it.”

Brian may be correct to identify the NI Assembly vote to devolve some policing and justice matters, whilst continuing to reserve others, as a missed “golden opportunity” for the UUP and the SDLP.  But it is not perverse to argue, as Malachi O’Doherty does

There are two ways of looking at politics. Many see the peace process as a greater good which must be served at the expense of all other political considerations. That argument had greater weight when the danger remained high that the IRA leadership would end its ceasefire and start killing and wrecking again to get its way.

But the principle appears to survive in the minds of many, perhaps most, that talking and agreeing must continue because these are good and bring us closer to reconciliation between estranged communities. Many who endorse this way of thinking fail to see the lazy, unpolitical nature of this perspective.

Pete Baker @ 12:46 PM | Comments (6)

“Is Everything We Know About The Universe Wrong?”

As I said at the end of last year - It’s still the experiment most likely to find more than a pair of WIMPy socks.  If they’re really there…  But it might take a little longer than expected.  Belfast-born director of accelerators at Cern, Steve Myers, has told the BBC that the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s highest energy particle accelerator, will only be run at half-maximum power for 18 to 24 months before being switched off for a year to carry out improvements to the 27km tunnel - at which point maximum power collisions will be attempted for the first time.  Although the CERN bulletin doesn’t appear to have heard the news, whilst the Director General portrays it as standard procedure.  And if you missed it last night, you can catch another wondrous Horizon on the iPlayer - “Is Everything We Know About The Universe Wrong?” - on the ‘fixes’ to the standard cosmological model required to match the observable universe.  Including the inflationary hypothesus, ‘dark’ matter, ‘dark’ energy, and, possibly, ‘dark’ flow.

Pete Baker @ 02:27 PM | Comments (10)

“The Friendly Sons can go outside if they want to smoke”

The Irish Times notes a selective approach to anti-smoking legislation by the Friendly Sons of St Patrick on Washington DC City Council.

Washington DC city councillor Jack Evans, a member of the all-male Society of the Friendly Sons of St Patrick, pushed emergency legislation through the council last week to exempt the Sons’ annual dinner from the smoking ban which the council passed in 2006.

Pete Baker @ 11:08 AM | Comments (17)

Seven arrested in Ireland in investigation into a conspiracy to murder cartoonist Lars Viks

The BBC pick up on an RTÉ report that “Gardaí have arrested five people in Waterford and two others in Cork in connection with an investigation into a conspiracy to murder a Swedish cartoonist”, Lars Vilks.  According to the BBC report all seven arrested are Muslims, while RTÉ adds - “Those in custody are originally from Morocco and Yemen, but it is understood they all have refugee status and are legally in the country.”  From the RTÉ report

A garda spokesman said the operation was part of an investigation into a conspiracy to murder an individual in another jurisdiction. Members of the Garda National Support Services and the Special Detective Unit were also involved in this morning’s operation. Gardaí say they are working closely with police forces in a number of other European countries and in the US. The seven people arrested this morning range in age from their mid-20s to their late-40s.

Update from today’s Irish Times

Detectives in Ireland have been working on the case since late last year with their counterparts in the US and Europe, including Sweden. Those arrested yesterday are from Algeria, Croatia, Palestine, Libya and the US. They are aged in their mid-20s to late-40s. The Irish Times understands the suspects were taken into custody on the basis of information supplied to the Garda by the FBI that came to light after surveillance of the suspects’ communications, including e-mails.

Pete Baker @ 03:27 PM | Comments (9)

“When I say I aspire for Timor-Leste to be like Singapore or Dubai…”

The President of East Timor Timor-Leste, José Ramos-Horta, has been forthright in his views of his own country’s justice truth and reconciliation process - and revelatory about past attempts at international collaboration between paramilitary groups.  In Dublin on an official state visit to Ireland, he’s been offering some lessons for those keen to export The Process™ abroad.  From the Irish Times report

“It is not like academics or some western donors or the UN who think that if you finance a few workshops and write a report you have contributed to peace,” the Nobel peace laureate told The Irish Times . “I have seen so much money wasted by donors on peace workshop after peace workshop. It is much more than that. It is meeting with families and with the victims day in, day out; it is finding jobs for them; providing them with training, with funding to create jobs; creating hopes and a future for them. “Peace-building is not based on workshops or UN evaluation missions who descend on our country every three months to do an evaluation. These are wasteful exercises.”

Pete Baker @ 01:14 PM | Comments (5)

“the current Executive must be capable of exercising its existing powers…”

In Scotland and in Wales the people are to be asked directly before any more power is gifted to local politicians.  Here, the two main parties in the mandatory four party coalition go into a huddle behind closed doors and produce a less than transparent “agreement”.  Then those same two parties engage in a campaign against anyone expressing doubts based on the actual performance of the dysfunctional Northern Ireland Executive to date.  Then there’s the reported interest of unnamed US congressmen [Adds now named as the usual suspects congressmen Peter King, Richard Neal, Joseph Crowley and Tim Murphy].  Not that the other parties in the NI Executive can actually vote down any proposal supported by those two parties - and in a cross community vote the Alliance Party’s votes still don’t count.  And, after thanking the US Secretary of State for her kind phone call, the UUP leader Reg Empey issued a statement.  As reported here

Empey said he appreciated the call from Mrs Clinton, but stressed that his party still intended to vote ’no’ on the proposal to transfer law and order responsibilities from London to Belfast in April. “She (Mrs Clinton) has always taken a very keen interest in Northern Ireland and I thanked her for the call,” he said. “She’s obviously very anxious to see a successful resolution but I explained the situation we faced. She was very pleasant and helpful and I think she understands our view that we should have been more involved (in the Hillsborough talks).” Empey said “nothing substantive” had developed over the weekend to address any of his party’s concerns over the wide-ranging agreement on justice devolution and parades that was hammered out after 10 days of round-the-clock talks between Sinn Féin and the DUP at Hillsborough Castle, Co Down last month.

Perhaps this situation is also considered to be “good enough”... Adds We know why it’s “good enough” for one of those party. [*Cuckoo* *Cuckoo* - Ed] Now, we’ve put that US ‘imperialism’ behind us…

Pete Baker @ 10:37 PM | Comments (1)

The Caves of Titan?

After landing the Huygens probe on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, in 2005, the Cassini orbiter has been hanging around the neighbourhood taking some stunning images of a strangely familar world.  The latest images come via the orbiter’s radar instrument and there’s a JPLnews video to accompany the press release.

Pete Baker @ 08:44 PM | Comments (9)

“only a complete recall of the affected models will restore market confidence…”

Irish University presidents have defended the standard of education in their colleges as the Dáil awaits details from the Irish Minister of Education, Batt O’Keeffe, of his department’s report on ‘grade inflation’ - as mentioned here.  Interestingly the review was announced following a meeting between the Minister and representatives of a number of US multinational companies, including Google and Intel.  Until the report is unveiled I’ll leave you with Frank McNally’s Irishman’s Diary

It is understood the problem involves both second- and third-level graduates, produced on a range of assembly lines between 1992 and 2004. All makes are potentially affected. But among those causing particular concern is the best-selling Maynooth first-class honours model, one of Ireland Inc’s recent success stories: production of which increased by 700 per cent during the boom years. The sporty, fast-talking UCC model, premium versions of which rose by 174 per cent during the same period, is also being investigated.

But safety fears are not confined to the company’s luxury products. The hybrid Institute-of-Technology diploma holder, a mainstay of the family and budget sectors of the market, is thought to be at risk too. And even the humble Leaving Cert graduate, still popular as an urban runabout, may now be suspect.

Update RTÉ reports that “The Minister for Education has said he is satisfied that grade inflation is not a problem at Leaving Certificate level and that proper controls are in place.”  But the iol report notes that “A new university grades watchdog is being set up after US multinationals complained about the standard of Irish graduates”.

Mr O’Keeffe said there were a number of conflicting arguments as to why top university and third-level grades had increased over the past 10 years in Ireland, and internationally. These included a deliberate decision to align Irish standards with the UK and elsewhere, that students were better prepared and motivated or simply that grade increases were a result of a drop in standards. The minister refused to say what reasons he believed were behind the trend and would only insist it was a complex issue.

Pete Baker @ 01:20 PM | Comments (31)

“Venezuelan government’s co-operation in the illicit collaboration” between Eta and Farc”

With a number of convicted, and suspected, former ETA terrorists washing up on these shores there’s a notable report of interest from the Irish Times.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez denied the allegations. Typically, he blamed an “international Yankee plot”, describing it as “a sad remnant of Spain’s colonial past”. It is not the first time Mr Chavez has had strong words for Spain. His repeated interruptions of Mr Zapatero at the Ibero-American summit in Chile two years ago caused King Juan Carlos to shout: “Why don’t you shut up?”

Words of a more conciliatory tone came from Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan foreign minister. In a telephone call with his Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos, he promised he would investigate the allegations and keep Mr Moratinos informed.

Pete Baker @ 10:59 PM | Comments (10)

“There’s not one flavour of water on the Moon; there’s a range of everything”

When Nasa’s LCROSS mission disappeared into the lunar crater Cabeus the initial data collected showed evidence of “a significant amount” of water vapour and water-ice in the impact plume.  Now, as the BBC reports, “A radar experiment aboard India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar spacecraft has identified thick deposits of water-ice near the Moon’s north pole” - estimated as “at least 600 million metric tonnes of water-ice”.  And there’s been further analysis of the LCROSS impact plume.  From the BBC report

Scientists have also reported the presence of hydrocarbons, such as ethylene, in the LCROSS impact plume. Dr Colaprete said any hydrocarbons were likely to have been delivered to the lunar surface by comets and asteroids - another vital source of lunar water. However, he added, some of these chemical species could arise through “cold chemistry” on interstellar dust grains accumulated on the Moon. In addition to water, researchers have seen a range of other “volatiles” (compounds with low boiling points) in the impact plume, including sulphur dioxide (SO2) and carbon dioxide (CO2).

Pete Baker @ 09:40 PM | Comments (6)

“My understanding at the time was that they wanted him out of circulation”

Via Newshound, in the Sunday Times Ed Moloney added more detail to Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams’ less than transparent accounting of his brother Liam’s movements.  This time pre-1987.  From the transcribed article.

In the tangled and disconcerting story of Liam Adams, one feature provides an uncomfortable parallel between his alleged paedophilia and the scandal of Catholic clerical abuse, as highlighted in last November’s Murphy report. That was the practice of moving alleged abusers around Ireland to avoid the demands for action once their activities became known.

Liam Adams made at least six moves within and outside Ireland from the time that he ceased allegedly abusing his daughter Áine until the scandal broke. It is these moves, with Gerry Adams’s perceived reluctance to take decisive action against his brother, that led some to conclude that there had been a cover-up.

The New York episode, which has not come to light until now, shows powerful figures in the Provisional movement wanted Liam out of Ireland after his marriage collapsed. So in 1984 arrangements were made for him to be smuggled to America, given a false identity, and looked after until it was safe for him to return. He stayed in New York for eight months, presumably until the reason for his exile ceased to be a problem.

Pete Baker @ 03:10 PM | Comments (48)

“They can slaughter pigs for fun, but making pretty shapes with the bladder is a bit of a mystery.”

At the Telegraph’s sports blog, Kiwi Eric Janssen has a question about the weekend Six Nations rugby

Will Greenwood wrote on Saturday that he believed Brian O’Driscoll was Ireland’s defensive weak link. Did Paul O’Connell agree and therefore kick his captain in the head? We demand to know!

Heh.

Pete Baker @ 07:45 PM | Comments (2)

Belfast Court orders extradition of de Juana Chaos to Spain

I mentioned recently that convicted ETA killer José Ignacio (Iñaki) de Juana Chaos was still fighting extradition proceedings on charges of glorifying terrorism in Spain.  Today the BBC reports that Belfast Recorder Tom Burgess has ordered that the extradition of de Juana Chaos should proceed.

Judge Burgess said there was no evidence that he would not receive a fair trial, and he could seek bail from the courts in Spain. He recognised the potential impact if he were to be sent back to jail, especially if put in solitary confinement, but added that if he engaged with the Spanish judicial system, arguments could be advanced for why he should be granted bail. He said questions about his mental state should be left to the Spanish authorities.

Pete Baker @ 03:27 PM | Comments (85)

“As the slogan says: Citius, altius, slidius, positive discriminatius.”

I’d been looking for an excuse to link to Dara O’Briain’s Guardian Sports Blog.  And this is as good an excuse as any.  This week he’s cheering the Irish bobsleigh team’s kicking Antipodean arse at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver after the Australians’ bid for inclusion threatened the Irish duo’s place in the competition.  Over to you, Dara.

This isn’t the big story of these Games – Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn and what may be an incredible men’s hockey final between Canada and the USA tomorrow are – but beneath the hoopla and hype, it was a nice little victory. Gods make their own importance.

Pete Baker @ 11:46 AM | Comments (3)

Some Royal Society Stamps

The BBC hosts a neat, but unembeddable, audio slideshow on a new series of commemorative Royal Mail stamps marking The Royal Society’s 350th anniversary year.  Ten eminent scientists are featured starting with the Honourable Robert Boyle - who was born at Lismore Castle, Co. Waterford, on 25 January 1627.  Missing from the list is the Ingenious Mr Robert Hooke.  Possibly because his only known portrait, held by the Royal Society, was allegedly, destroyed by his long-term rival Sir Isaac Newton when Newton became the Society’s President in November 1703 - 8 months after Hooke’s death.

Pete Baker @ 12:52 PM | Comments (16)

“Should we eschew any cause or proposal…”?

Interesting point raised by former South African Minister Kader Asmal in the Irish Times report on his inaugural lecture at Trinity College’s Centre for Post-Conflict Justice.

“The question that must be answered is whether the most important political consideration is the need to maintain the unity of the power-sharing executive? Should we eschew any cause or proposal, even the proposal for a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland . . . that may lead to inter-communal differences in the executive?”

Is that “the most important political consideration”?  Certainly seems to be… And not just by the political parties/governments.  The other question for the “Centre for Post-Conflict Justice” is, is it already too late?

Pete Baker @ 10:46 AM | Comments (8)

“These Holy Warriors, reportedly operating in the name of Jesus…”

Who says Muslims don’t do irony? A rather pithy post from MPAC on the bomb left by ‘Catholic terrorists’ in Newry... It’s a slightly round peg jammed in a square hole, but the line “...representative of the beliefs of many millions of Catholics around the world” gives a sense of some frustration about the reporting of “Islamist terrorism” as though it and the whole religion was coterminous.

Mick Fealty @ 09:41 AM | Comments (24)

“We’ve got a candy store of images coming down from space”

Launched on 15 December 2009, Nasa’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer [WISE] opened its eyes for first light in January.  And, as the BBC report, Nasa has just published the first survey images from the latest space telescope.  Downloadable images here.  And here’s a neat video compilation from JPL news

Pete Baker @ 02:37 PM | Comments (1)

Hubble Views Saturn’s Stunning Aurorae

Cassini may have captured Saturn’s Northern Lights but the Hubble Space Telescope has gone one better - observing both northern and southern aurora together.  And those observations form the basis of this informative Hubble videocast.

Pete Baker @ 12:50 PM | Comments (2)

“they have waived the rules on what was designed to be an impenetrable fortress”

The BBC report on yesterday’s announcement that EU leaders are ready to take “determined and co-ordinated action, if needed, to safeguard financial stability in the euro area as a whole”, as the Greek government attempts to tackle its debts and budget deficit, is as good a starting point as any - linking as it does a lengthy post by the BBC’s own Stephanie Flanders. In turn Flanders quotes Martin Wolf in the Financial Times

“So long as the European Central Bank tolerates weak demand in the eurozone as a whole and core countries, above all Germany, continue to run vast trade surpluses, it will be nigh on impossible for weaker members to escape from their insolvency traps. Theirs is not a problem that can be resolved by fiscal austerity alone. They need a huge improvement in external demand for their output.”

And, in a neat one-two, the Irish Times’ Arthur Beesley notes the muted market response, and indicates the depth of the dilemma for EU leaders

For the euro system and the institutional architecture that supports it, it is seismic. While the parameters of any bailout remain in some doubt, informed sources say the most likely mechanism would be the extension of bilateral loans from France and Germany or a wider group of stronger EU countries. To discourage other governments from caving in to domestic pressure over efforts to stabilise their finances, it is a given that any EU rescue package would come with stringent policy instructions from Brussels.

Still, the hope at this point is that the Greeks will be able to contain the rot. “This is about generating confidence in the stability of the euro zone,” said a European official. “It’s also about spin: spinning markets, debt-rating agencies and the press.” For all that, however, the door is now open for exceptional European support for any struggling member of the single currency. Although it is easy to conceive of special mechanisms being developed within the letter of EU law, any such aid is not in keeping with the spirit of the old rules.

Pete Baker @ 10:17 AM | Comments (6)