Peter and I have slightly differing levels of comfort when it comes to the topic of disciplining our dog. If this was actual child parenting we were talking about, he'd be more of a spanker and I'd be more of a time-out giver. In terms of dealing with dogs, this means Peter's more like to go with physical corrections while I'm more likely to put the dog out of the room. It's just a different style, but that style combined with innate personality led to a little problem in pack order with Toby. Without a doubt, Toby saw Peter as The Boss. But Toby definitely saw himself as the Assistant Regional Manager. No matter how hard I tried to explain to him that he was an assistant to the regional manager, he didn't quite get it.With some dogs, this might not have been a problem. With Toby's...
A mixtape of 17 artists playing Electric Picnic this weekend. ZIP file available also. YAY! All these songs will be deleted on Tuesday.
nialler 9 Electric Picnic Mixtape (85MB, Rapidshare)
Johnny Flynn - The Box
Sunday, Little Big Tent,12.30pm
R.S.A.G - Stick to Your Line
Saturday, Body and Soul, 11.00am
Diplo/Santogold - LES Artistes (XXXChange remix)
Saturday, Cosby Stage, 11.00pm
Thom Yorke - Skip Divided (Modeselektor remix)
Sunday, Bodytonic Main, 10.30pm
Jamie Woon - Wayfaring Stranger (Burial Mix)
Sunday , Pod stage, 8pm
Midnight Juggernauts - Ending Of An Era
Saturday, Electric Arena, 3.15pm
Pivot - Fool in Rain
Sunday, Little Big Tent, 2.30pm
Ra Ra Riot - Ghost Under Rocks
Saturday, Little Big Tent, 4pm
Florence And The Machine - Kiss With A Fist...
I went to see that film about Joy Division – the documentary, not the Anton Corbijn one. Having read Deborah Curtis' Touching From A Distance and been exposed to the mass media I am broadly familiar with the story of Joy Division. Essentially, four lads from Manchester form a punk band, and develop their own brooding and hypnotic sound that meshes well with the intensity of their lead singer; just when the band seem like they are on the brink of mega success, their singer kills himself, torn apart by the stresses of incipient stardom, his emerging epilepsy, and his own tangled domestic situation. The film treads this well-worn path, but a couple of things make it worth seeing even if you know where the road ends. For one thing, sitting in a cinema while Joy Division tunes pump out of...
What the hell is this all about, I hear you ask, well I love Twitter, so much so that I reckon Twinkle (a twitter application for the iPhone) is my most used app on the phone. I use it constantly, on the bus, in work, at home and if you have not got into twitter you should, its a great way to meet like minded people and have a chat or laugh or even gain useful information.
One thing I tried on Tuesday while on the bus into work, was to ask a question and see what sort of replies I got, I was amazed at the amount of people that replied and so decided to have a question each Tuesday and Thursday morning between 8am and 8-15am.
Todays question was in relation to the iPhone and its location capabilities. On twinkle for instance, your position in the world is found and sent to other twinkle...
Having spent most of the morning running up and down to the loo I'm staying at home for the day.Yes I'm drinking water as well as the necessary...
How would I survive in a french-speaking country?Your result for The Let's Parler French Test...100% LikelyToSurvive!You scored 100% Likely To Survive in a French-speaking country.Obviously, you get some negative points if you say 'shit' instead of thank you, or 'fuck off' instead of sorry! Take The Let's Parler French Test at HelloQuizzyMy spoken french is nowhere near as good as my french comprehension. But that's true of a lot of my...
The Sunday Times had a feature on myYearbook the other weekend. The website is the latest in a long lineup of social networking phenomenons. The reason why the website is important to flag is that there are a host of social networking sites that some people probably haven’t even heard of that the next generation of web users are flocking to. From a marketing perspective, I think brands are putting all their eggs in one basket and not planning ahead for the future. In Ireland, most organisations that take out profiles on social networking websites are concentrating on Bebo and Facebook. People tend to think of these websites as destinations when in fact they should be thought of as television channels.
What we’ve seen in television is that channels that captured the...
Better late than never with Toddle, a super simple way to create email newsletters. From its one line registration process to hyperajaxified interface the whole interface smacks of Alan O’Rourke’s wonderful attention to detail.
Alan’s company SpoiltChild.com is one of the great unsung heroes of the Web 2.0 sector. His company makes beautiful simple website and beautiful simple web applications like Toddle.
Profitable within months of launch Toddle continues to be an example to rest of us pre-revenue wannabes....
Crewger is little different to our usual Tuesday Push application vendors.A vertically focussed site that provides a spam free, rubbish free, vampire bite free place for the Irish film community to meet and organise themselves.
The writing style is slick and conversational and I find myself being drawn into there world. Go for a browse and find out about film making in Ireland....
Evil bunny mmm maybe Anya is...
This is the soundtrack to your weekend. Whether that is driving down to the Picnic or ignoring the crowds and finding fun elsewhere, this is the upbeat podcast to have at your disposal. Aoife presents.
nialler9 Podcast #18 - August 2008 (MP3)
Podcast #18 -Tracklisting
The Human League - Love Action [Dare]
Roots Manuva - Do Nah Bodda Mi [Slime and Reason]
The Prodigy - Voodoo People (Dust Brothers Remix) [More Music For The Jilted Generation]
LadyHawke - Paris is Burning [Ladyhawke]
Herve & A-Trak feat Cadence Weapon - Roll With The Winners [Free CD with Mixmag]
You’re Only Massive - Booty [Dot-Dash]
Little Boots - Stuck on Repeat [Little Boots Music]
TV On The Radio - Golden Age [Dear Science]
Dengue Fever - Seeing Hands [Venus on Earth]
Mercury Rev - Senses on Fire...
One thing is certain, people in Ireland care deeply and passionately about their built environment. The demise in local character of our cities, towns and villages; concerns over energy security and the need to change the way we live and build; the desire to access more information on architecture; and a sense of exclusion from decision making - these were just some of the issues vigorously debated in a series of nationwide public consultations that took place in May and June. Conversations about Architecture were commissioned by the Department of the Environment and organised by the Irish Architecture Foundation to coincide with the current development of a new Policy on Architecture.The Policy is being developed by the Department, overseen by a Steering Committee appointed by Minister...
JP MCMANUS has been given permission to build a lake on the grounds of his new mansion in Martinstown, Co Limerick.Limerick County Council was initially unhappy with the scale of the project. However, the local authority has since approved the development of a scaled-down lake.The size of the lake for which planning permission has been approved is 5,500sq m, which is just under 1.25 acres.Originally, the lake was to cover an area of 31,000sq m – almost 2½ times the size of Croke Park – and its border was to resemble that of the Limerick county boundary.However, when plans for the lake were lodged with the county council earlier this year, planners said the size and shape of the lake would not blend into the local countryside.The local authority requested that the applicant, Noreen...
I hope you are not getting sick of these photographs from my weekend walk, I am nearing an end honestly.
I love this photo though, even in times of recession, the building works continue, but the question is will these properties sell?
Technorati Tags: building, crane, photowalk, scott kelby...
Disney's rights to young Mickey Mouse may be wrong
The iconic end emonomous mouse may actually be in the public domain?
(tags: news copyright disney interesting)
The Mona Leia
Absolutely brilliant Mona Lisa parody featuring everyone's favourite danish-pastry-haired space princess. [/Film]
(tags: starwars art parody)
No mo' soil, mo' problems
Fascinating tale about farmers reclaiming the desert in Burkina Faso. Awesome. [kottke.org]
(tags: environment earth farming)
Stormtrooper Realizes His Failure
What DID happen to that "these aren't...
In an effort to shine a light on the unknown artists and songs that pass through the mailbox of a music blogger, this semi-regular series will pick the artists most deserving of attention from nialler9 readers.
Au - ‘Are Animals’
You may have heard of Au, an experimental pop band from Portland. This song sounds a little like Animal Collective I’ll admit, but do AC have a 20-strong vocal chorus? No? Well Au do, I shit you not. This is from their album Verbs.
Oceansea - ‘The Whimsical River’
Really, really enjoying the From The Bedroom Floor EP from Portugal’s Daniel Catarino aka Oceansea. So can you as it’s a free download under a Creative Commons licence. Nice.
Tobacco - ‘Truck Sweat’
Tobacco is a member of Black Moth Super Rainbow...
Looks like the server issues have been taken care of and the site is back. I pondered what it would be like to give up the ghost altogether while it was down but there was so many things I was itching to post that this really wasn’t an option. Seeing as the site is now a few days behind and myself and presumably, all of you are Picnic-bound, following shortly we will have the next instalment of Unknown Pleasures, our August Podcast and if I can squeeze it in, an Electric Picnic preview type post acts to check out. It’s good to be......
Have you heard that you can now create your own Photosynths? Check out the Photosynth website for more details about how to create your own 3D panoramic experience with your personal photos.
Check out some of the Photosynths already created, including the one by Silicon Republic reporter Marie Boran. Though I would only bother looking at the ones with a good few photos - they give the best...
Another birthday present, this time from "Accent Monkey", and it is a record by someone I had never heard of! Imagine. A first listen revealed this to be an mix of girlie vocals and extremely fiddly sounding music. Research revealed that Marnie Stern is famous as a guitar goddess, which was a bit of a surprise as your correspondent had failed to register that the musical accompaniment was guitar and not some kind of crazy synthesiser thing. Mmmm. Whatever way you look at it, this music is pretty in-your-face, and not really the kind of thing you can have on in the background to while trying to concentrate on something else, and it's not the kind of record you want to listen to with other people, in case they say "So what is this shite?". I had planned to renew my relationship with Ms...
Canon 5D, 17mm, f5, 1/250, ISO 200
I have a thing about windows and old buildings. When we were out walking around over the weekend, I found myself drawn to the old, falling-down parts of Dublin, rather than the shiny new......
THE IRA : the new IRA is younger , more radical and has seen little of life other than violence.......By Ed Moloney. From 'Magill' magazine, September 1980. A vital element in the new structures is recruitment : the old days when virtually anyone could join the IRA are seemingly over . One IRA leader says that vetting of potential recruits is now so thorough that only 2 out of every 13 applicants are accepted and sent on for training and then placed into the 'cell' structure. The IRA also says that the average age of new recruits is 18 or 19 , an assertion that would seem to back IRA claims that the organisation has passed through the generation gap problem that has always spelled defeat for past campaigns . However , it's clear from a number of recent arrests such as that of an M60...
I had two fecking terry chocolate orange pieces Monday and for the last two days I've had stomach cramps. (These were not the only thing that was eaten but were the only things that were different). This seems to have eased.Today I went into my work-local Centra, which appears to be expanding and thence has got rid of an awful lot of variety in their stock, particularly the gluten free stock, dammit. However I did notice a new-to-me spice packet from Patak, a coat and cook one and looked at the back. They appear to have some sort of idea of dealing with regular alergies. All the potential allergenics are in bold on the back of the original packet, so the Mustard Powder, Yogurt Powder and Whey Powder are highlighted. They also list the fact that there's mustard and dairy products...
It appears that silly season has arrived and that the next great challenge to Irish Business is people getting sick. That's a regular cry from these people. Is it a surprise to anyone that call centre workers fare the worst for sick days? That Back Pain, back injury and stress are the biggest sources of sick certs. Yes you can refust to pick up that box because you're not feeling the best, but in a hostile working environment you're made to feel like a pariah or a shirker for trying to make sure your back lives to fight another day.Maybe what a lot of these small firms need to do is rethink their work practices. Invest a little in managing the issue rather than griping about how your wetware is failing to work perfectly. Acknowledge that people get sick and maybe work that into the...
I have no idea if this was purposely put on the glass, or if its from one of the many new age graffiti artists around, all I know is it really works well.
Technorati Tags: glass, Graffiti, lizard, photowalk, scott kelby...
The Republic of Ireland's population is expected to increase by 53 per cent to 6.7 million by the year 2060, according to figures released today by the European Commission.The projections, compiled by Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, show that the strongest population growth in the EU will occur in Ireland, along with the UK, Cyprus and Luxembourg.The figures estimate that a quarter of Ireland's population will be aged 65 or over by 2060, with one in ten aged 80 or older.The UK will have the largest population in the EU with 77 million, followed by France at 72 million and Germany with 71 million. The overall population in the EU will increase until 2035 when it is estimated it will reach a peak of 521 million.Bulgaria, Romania and Poland are projected to show a net drop in...
A RETURN to one-off housing in rural areas could solve urban flooding, according to Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins.Record torrential rain this month, which caused flooding problems in many parts of the country, should provide for a re-examination of planning policies that limit one-off housing, Mr Higgins said.The Department of the Environment's Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines made it more difficult for potential homeowners to get planning permission to build one-off housing in rural areas, according to Mr Higgins.He said that earlier this year, Minister for the Environment John Gormley published draft planning guidelines which would force developers and local authorities to build homes close to shops and schools.Mr Higgins said it is often impossible for people in rural areas to obtain...
PEOPLE living in one of the worst affected areas of the Newcastle West floods are calling on Limerick County Council to review a decision to grant planning permission for a leading housing development for lands that were flooded.A private developer was given permission to develop on the lands at Dromindeel.A number of objectors unsuccessfully appealed the council’s decision to An Bord Pleanála.Despite a recommendation from their own senior planning inspector that the development should be refused permission, An Bord Pleanála gave it the go-ahead.The inspector, Brendan Wyse, in his report to An Bord Pleanála in June 2007 set out four reasons why it should be refused planning.He stated: “Having regard to the submissions made in connection with the application and the appeal, the...
I like Guillermo Del Toro. He seems to be the sort of guy who does things that are visually dynamic, and like, totally creative. You know. Like if you go to see Hellboy II or Pan’s Labyrinth, you are certainly going to see something you’ve never seen before. Possibly it has more eyes than it [...]...
Toby loves sticks. When we take him the forest park, he will chase a stick just about anywhere. He'll leap into water without much thought about how deep it might be. His focus is entirely on the stick.I like throwing a stick into a pile of other sticks. Toby always comes back with the original stick. He will accept no substitutes. "Close enough for government work" is not part of Toby's vocabulary. When Toby retrieves a stick, he's the King of the World. He prances with joy and pride. He's accomplished his mission and he knows it. Toby especially loves large sticks. I'm talking about tree trunks, fence posts, and two-by-fours. He has a little routine that he goes through to get a handle on a large stick. By lucky coincidence, I found small tree trunks from the landlord's hedge trimming...
I often complain about how there are compilations giving you the best of Chic, but there are no compilations giving you the best of the Chic Organisation (i.e. the peaks of Chic's own music and also the production work they did for other people). But now there is, thanks largely to the miracle of CD-R technology and inernet pal Andrew Sherman. As well as the really big Chic tunes, you also get Sheila B. Devotion*'s 'Spacer', Diana Ross' 'I'm Coming Out', and Sister Sledge's 'We Are Family'. I do kind of miss Diana Ross's 'Upside Down', and feel that the version of 'Lost In Music' included is a slightly ropey dance remix, but getting these songs in digital form has done wonders for my ability to bop down the street grooving to the disco sounds coming from the iPod. Chic pandas*I understand...