With Tony Griffin and his magnificent fundraising effort so much on my mind these days I have begun thinking that I should do something rather than just applaud other people’s efforts. The Dublin Marathon is coming up in about four months and maybe this is the thing to do. Having come back from […]
Science, society, stuff…
A blog about, well, science, society and stuff…
Archive for June, 2007
Tony Griffin
Posted in June 28th, 2007
Not realising fully what was happening with Tony Griffin, the Clare hurler, I was a little surprised yesterday evening to go to the conference dinner here in Halifax, Nova Scotia to see a poster about the Tony Griffin Foundation on the wall in the Student’s Union. Tony is a student here and his father […]
Genetic Origins of Domestic Cats
Posted in June 28th, 2007
by James in Science and Society
Don’t we just love our cats? You can trace ancestral human population migrations simply by studying cats. When humans travelled, they brought their cats with them. Therefore, if humans moved from country A to country B, we would expect that today the cat populations in countries A and B to be similar, […]
Tony Blair Leaves Downing Street
Posted in June 28th, 2007
In my absence from the other side of the pond (I am in Halifax Nova Scotia at the SMBE conference 2007), Tony Blair took his last steps outside the door of number 10 Downing Street and stepped down as Britich PM. I’m not sure how history will view Blair. In Ireland […]
New DART Route proposed
Posted in June 28th, 2007
The DART is to be extended to christchurch and on to the docklands under the river. What I have always felt is that Dublin needs to move closer to the kinds of models that are used in other major cities around the world. This is a kind of integrated plan involving all public […]
Embryonic Stem Cell Veto by George Bush
Posted in June 24th, 2007
Last week, once again, George Bush vetoed a bill from the Senate in the United States that would expand funding for Embryonic Stem Cell research. He used his mantra that “Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical, and it is not the only option before us”.
He focusses […]
NUI Galway alumni at Henley
Posted in June 24th, 2007
Was invited to attend a day of rowing and fun and BBQ in Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire on saturday the 5th of July. I would love to go, but right now I am in canada and to go back to Ireland and then get organised to go to Henley is probably a little too much. […]
New Leader of the Progressive Democrats
Posted in June 24th, 2007
Senator Tom Morrissey and Fiona O’Malley have both put their names into the hat to become the future leader of the Progressive Democrat party. This is indeed the poison chalice in Irish politics right now. Without wishing to state the blindingly obvious, a party with two elected TDs will need a major re-write […]
Hilliary and Negative campaigning
Posted in June 24th, 2007
Saw this video on youtube. Pretty sophisticated stuff, it required thought and unfortunately it is emblematic of the attitude towards politicians in the United States. There is no need for this kind of thing and it makes me wonder if you get elected after this kind of campaigning is put into the public […]
Co-location in Tallaght
Posted in June 23rd, 2007
I see from the news today that there has been a vote taken by the board of Tallaght hospital to allow the positioning of a private hospital on the grounds of the public hospital. The argument against this kind of development is that it will ultimately ruin the publicly funded health service. […]
