Slugger O'Toole

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Latest posts from Pete Baker (see all)

Pete Baker has posted 5,664 times (33 in the last month).

Euro crisis: You have six days to comply…

Fri 10 February 2012, 4:12pm

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That’s the message to Greece from Germany the EU finance ministers.  Despite initial reports, prompted by the Greeks themselves, what was agreed yesterday between the party leaders there fell short of what was required – by some €300-odd million.  From the Irish Times report The ministers imposed a six-day deadline on Greek authorities to comply [...] more »

Lake Vostok: “Admit it, it sounds just like a thousand horror-movie setups.”

Wed 8 February 2012, 5:35pm

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That was the Professor’s not entirely inaccurate comment this time last year, when a Russian team came up just short in their attempt to reach Lake Vostok - the largest sub-glacial freshwater lake on Earth. The project to drill down to the lake, which covers 16 square kilometres and has been sealed under approximately 3,750m of ice in the Antarctic [...] more »

Euro crisis: “We are not fully in control of the sequence of events…”

Tue 7 February 2012, 5:29pm

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Having watched as yesterday’s ‘deadline’ went whooshing past their heads, Greek party leaders are due to meet later tonight to consider another draft bail-out deal – once it’s been translated into Greek…  You can follow events as they unfold at the Guardian’s live-blog. Meanwhile, as promised, Frau Bundeskanzlerin has joined Nicolas Sarkozy on the campaign trail [...] more »

Odyssey Marine to recover Victory, but lose ‘Black Swan’ treasure

Thu 2 February 2012, 5:08pm

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Last seen somewhere off the Irish coast, US company Odyssey Marine Exploration have announced that they have “executed an agreement with the Maritime Heritage Foundation for the financing, archaeological survey and excavation, conservation and exhibit of HMS Victory (1744) and artifacts from the shipwreck site.”   That’s Admiral Balchin’s HMS Victory - a 100-gun first-rate ship of [...] more »

Latest comments from Pete Baker (see all)

Pete Baker has commented 7,509 times (48 in the last month).

1. Comment on Euro crisis: You have six days to comply…
   on 11 February 2012 at 12:42 am

   Focus, gentlemen.

   Go to comment

2. Comment on Euro crisis: You have six days to comply…
   on 10 February 2012 at 9:19 pm

   Adds From a new Irish Times report

   Greek prime minister Lucas Papademos told his turbulent coalition government tonight to accept a harsh international bailout deal or condemn the nation to catastrophe.

   “We cannot allow Greece to go bankrupt,” he told a cabinet meeting. “Our priority is to do whatever it takes to approve the new economic programme and proceed with the new loan agreement.”

   Mr Papademos, the sole technocrat in a coalition of feuding politicians, tried to assert his authority after six cabinet members resigned over EU and IMF demands for yet more pay, pension and job cuts in return for the financial rescue.

   “It goes without saying that whoever disagrees and does not vote for the new programme cannot remain in the government,” he said in televised remarks.

   Greece faces bankruptcy unless it gets the funds from the IMF and European Union by March 20th when it has to repay €14.5 billion in maturing bonds.

   A former central banker, Mr Papademos tried to raise Greeks’ spirits as the nation enters its fifth year of recession, saying economic growth would return in 2013 despite accusations that the austerity is merely driving Greece into a downward spiral.

   Any alternative to the rescue would be much worse, he said in opening remarks using the word “catastrophe” four times.

   Well, it is serious…

   Go to comment

3. Comment on raising an old issue like employment
   on 10 February 2012 at 11:17 am

   “At the moment, Bill Clinton is doing some heavy lifting in the US for job creation on behalf of the Republic of Ireland’s government.”

   That would be the “Invest in Ireland” event I flagged up a couple of days ago…

   Go to comment

4. Comment on Dead tree columnist prejudices public’s perception of bloggers?
   on 8 February 2012 at 11:19 pm

   Lift your gaze, gentlemen.

   As andnowwhat points out, the real conversation on this topic is taking place on another territory.

   And, as Fintan O’Toole suggested in the Irish Times

   Nevertheless, it remains sadly undeniable that the web shows us that decency is enhanced by rules and boundaries. And, conversely, that the absence of formal and informal sanctions (the law on the one side, and shame on the other) allows people to indulge their worst selves.

   The lovely, blossoming, self-regulating anarchistic commune that many of its pioneers dreamed the web would become is a Garden of Eden from which we have long been banished.

   That myth persists, though, and is now actually a big problem for online freedom. In resisting rules and boundaries, the online anarchists actually invite others – governments and corporations – to impose them.

   They will impose them stupidly and hypocritically. Governments will try to crush dissent or, at best, do more harm than good. Corporations will play both sides of the idea of private property – your information is ours, but our content is not yours.

   So who can make legitimate rules for the online world? Surely the vast but connected online community itself.

   This is, after all, the basic principle of democracy: we obey the laws because we make them.

   The time is right for a new social contract for the online republic that exists somewhere between naive anarchism on the one side and cynical control on the other.

   If online citizens don’t want to be subject to bad laws, they must collectively make good ones.

   Now, on Slugger, we’d prefer that to be a voluntary code of conduct…

   Go to comment

5. Comment on Euro crisis: “We are not fully in control of the sequence of events…”
   on 7 February 2012 at 7:16 pm

   Update The Greek party leaders’ meeting has been postponed until tomorrow morning.

   Go to comment

6. Comment on So what’s the formula for a referendum, Owen?
   on 7 February 2012 at 1:07 am

   “That is true, but reading it fully, it only requires the majority of the people in NI to vote on it.”

   That is true, but “freely and concurrently given, North and South”.

   You may have missed the earlier attempt to finesse that requirement…

   Go to comment

7. Comment on So what’s the formula for a referendum, Owen?
   on 7 February 2012 at 12:24 am

   Lionel

   The post I pointed to notes that the 1998 Agreement states

   (ii) recognise that it is for the people of the island of Ireland alone, by agreement between the two parts respectively and without external impediment, to exercise their right of self-determination on the basis of consent, freely and concurrently given, North and South, to bring about a united Ireland, if that is their wish, accepting that this right must be achieved and exercised with and subject to the agreement and consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland; [added emphasis]

   That’s concurrently given.

   Go to comment

8. Comment on So what’s the formula for a referendum, Owen?
   on 7 February 2012 at 12:15 am

   “Slugger blogged about David Ervine being rushed to hospital.”

   Did I, DC?

   Focus on the actual topic.

   Go to comment

9. Comment on So what’s the formula for a referendum, Owen?
   on 6 February 2012 at 10:48 pm

   A somewhat related post from April last year – Sinn Féin: “An all-island referendum would have precedence.”

   Like BBC NI political editor Mark Devenport I was somewhat puzzled by the Sinn Féin’s Northern Ireland Assembly election manifesto call for a ‘referendum on Irish unity‘. As Mark Devenport points out

   “The Sinn Fein manifesto’s mention of a referendum on Irish unity encouraged me to revisit the Good Friday Agreement to check what it said on the matter. The Agreement says the Secretary of State can call a border poll “if at any time it appears likely to him that a majority of those voting would express a wish that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the United Kingdom and form part of a united Ireland.” Once a poll is held, another cannot be organised for at least seven years. So once they’ve finished criticising him for – in their view – not keeping to pledges on capital spending, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness will have to do their best to persuade Owen Paterson of the need for a referendum.”

   Could Sinn Féin actually believe that it is “likely” that “a majority of those voting would express a wish that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the United Kingdom and form part of a united Ireland” at this point? Is this more politics of delusion?

   Apparently not. [Just another symptom of political psychosis then? - Ed]. Or constitutional illiteracy…

   Go to comment

10. Comment on Some secondary schools get better results than selective grammar schools
    on 5 February 2012 at 10:40 pm

    Alan

    I think “St Patrick’s Co-Ed Comprehensive College, Magherafelt”, would be more accurately described as St Patrick’s Bilateral, Co-Ed College, Maghera.

    Which may answer your question…

    And since, as you’ve previously pointed out,

    “analysis of the 2011 intake suggests that while a minority of grammar schools accept in only the highest performing of pupils sitting the AQE and GL examinations, the majority are educating a wide range of abilities, and a minority of grammar schools are clearly anything but elite”

    It does suggest that they might just be better schools.

    Go to comment