Slugger O'Toole http://www.sluggerotoole.com/index.php Notes on Irish politics and culture en petebkr@hotmail.com Copyright 2010 {gmt_date format="%Y-%m- T;%H:%i:%s%Q"} “Is Everything We Know About The Universe Wrong?” http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/site/is-everything-we-know-about-the-universe-wrong/ Media, Environment, Science, Society, International 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.

]]> {gmt_entry_date format="%Y-%m- T;%H:%i:%s%Q"} “The Friendly Sons can go outside if they want to smoke” http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/site/the-friendly-sons-can-go-outside-if-they-want-to-smoke/ Government, Health, Society, International 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.

]]> {gmt_entry_date format="%Y-%m- T;%H:%i:%s%Q"} FRU the Looking Glass http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/site/fru-the-looking-glass/ The Belfast Telegraph reports that “calls have been made for a specialist police unit to deal with dissident incidents”:

Sinn Fein Policing Board member Daithi McKay warned that people’s lives could be put at risk, and has called for a specialist unit to deal with difficult incidents.
“These are dangerous situations,” he said. “We saw the threat when a device went off in Newry. It could have done a lot of damage and killed people in the area.
“There is obviously public concern about police response times for some incidents, and there is a duty on the Chief Constable and the PSNI to look at these.
“If the PSNI is unable to adequately respond to these incidents, then it is worth considering looking at a specific unit or specially trained officers to deal with such issues. That could lead to better response times and decrease the risk to the public.”

 

]]> {gmt_entry_date format="%Y-%m- T;%H:%i:%s%Q"} Victims still have make their case -  a lesson from Venables http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/site/victims-still-have-make-their-case-a-lesson-from-venables/ In the hue and cry over the Jon Venables case, the assumption goes unquestioned that Denise Fergus the mother of murdered toddler Jamie Bolger has “ a right to know” the details of Venables’ alleged reoffending.  No one lightly crosses the mother of an infant murder victim, but Simon Jenkins is surely right to conclude that justice is a meal best served cold and as free as possible from public comment during the investigative and judicial process. To bow uncritically to Mrs Fergus’s natural fears and demands is to deprive her of her own sense of wider responsibility. We live in a less deferential age when judges are no more treated like Gods than are politicians. Victims have been elevated to a new status and nowhere more so than in Northern Ireland, although their status remains unclear.

]]> {gmt_entry_date format="%Y-%m- T;%H:%i:%s%Q"} Fearghal McKinney to run for Fermanagh South Tyrone… http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/site/fearghal-mckinney-to-run-for-fermanagh-south-tyrone/ What is it about old UTV men, and politics? First Mike Nesbitt in Strangford for the UUP and now Fearghal McKinney in Fermanagh South Tyrone for the SDLP. No doubt about who has the harder task, Michelle Gildernew is a popular figure and clearly feels her time at Agriculture will stand her in good stead over McKinney. Still, he’s the first impact player the SDLP have managed to pull in from outside the political game for a party who’s public representatives generally lack just such qualities. His initial statement is below the fold:

]]> {gmt_entry_date format="%Y-%m- T;%H:%i:%s%Q"} The new threat of the post ceasefire dissident Republicans http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/site/the-new-threat-of-the-post-ceasefire-dissident-republicans1/ Conflict A year on from the killing of Sappers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar shot at Massereene army base in Antrim there is now incontrovertible evidence that dissident republicans have the capacity to do immense damage into the future. Two developments in dissident republican engineering have forced the police to reassess their approach.

The bomb at Newry courthouse was the first time since Omagh on August 15 1998 that a so called improvised explosive device actually detonated. And the second development which is worrying the police is the fact that so called under vehicle bombs are having a deadly impact as was the case in the bomb attack on GAA footballer and PSNI officer Peadar Heffron.

]]> {gmt_entry_date format="%Y-%m- T;%H:%i:%s%Q"} Disappeared car heard in the Cross Examiner first… http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/site/disappeared-car-heard-in-the-cross-examiner-first/ All news is local first, and for the record, that disappeared car, the BBC apparently got it first from the Cross Examiner… That’s a new one for the blog roll…

]]> {gmt_entry_date format="%Y-%m- T;%H:%i:%s%Q"} Bill Drummond remembers Belfast… http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/site/bill-drummond-remembers-belfast/ THE man who burnt a million quid and sprayed a toy machinegun at an unsuspecting Brits audience has been back to Belfast, to re-imagine the city. The wonderful Bill Drummond is no stranger to Northern Ireland, and I kinda wished I’d bumped into him, like Moochin Photoman did a while back. Drummond seems to have a genuine love for Belfast - he makes it sound like it’s really worth visiting. Oh well… maybe sometime. Click to hear the Radio 4 programme instead.

]]> {gmt_entry_date format="%Y-%m- T;%H:%i:%s%Q"} “underpinning the devolution of policing and justice matters” http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/site/underpinning-the-devolution-of-policing-and-justice-matters/ Parties, Government, Policing, Society, Britain Worth noting that among the items the NI Assembly voted to remain reserved today is the “politically motivated” Serious Organised Crime Agency [SOCA].  Meanwhile, the Assembly and Executive Review Committee has published its second report on devolution of policing and justice [volume 1 here, volume 2 here].  Included in Appendix 4 are the “Agreements, Concordats, Protocols and Memoranda of Understanding underpinning the devolution of policing and justice matters”.  Of particular interest, the national security protocols which NI Secretary of State Shaun Woodward had, for some time, resisted providing to the committee.  You need to scroll down from here to find the relevant section - “Handling Arrangements for National Security Related Matters after Devolution of Policing and Justice to the Northern Ireland Executive”.

1. After devolution of policing and justice, the Northern Ireland Minister of Justice (hereafter referred to as the Minister of Justice) will be responsible for policing and criminal justice policy[1].The Secretary of State remains responsible for national security matters. The Transfer of Functions Orders set out in more detail what this means in practice in terms of the full range of functions which will devolve and the small number of functions which will remain with the Secretary of State.

2. It is recognised that national security related issues may touch on the responsibilities of the Minister of Justice. This protocol sets out arrangements for managing this issue so as to ensure that the NI Executive and the UK Government can each carry out their respective responsibilities effectively and that national security issues are properly protected.

]]> {gmt_entry_date format="%Y-%m- T;%H:%i:%s%Q"} This, not that and two bits of the other http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/site/this-not-that-and-two-bits-of-the-other/ The last we heard from this blog, (not this, this blog but that this blog) before heading off to give his Ard Fheis speech was:

‘This Blog is now off to a small room in another building to spend a little time practising for this evening’s live event. I’ll let you know how it went later.’

As yet this hasn’t reported back on how or what it felt later. By the looks of things the feeling was good.

ADDS - this entry is now declared a caption contest Mick: Not it is not!

 

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