Yearly Archives: 2014

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A small, colourful fleet of eclectically designed accommodation for the otherwise homeless by American artist Gregory Kloehn – founder of the Homeless Homes Project community initiative.

The idea is to create and maintain shelters whose roofs, walls, frames, flooring, windows and rolling platforms are upcycled from illegally dumped materials found by Kloehn on the streets.

designboom

marx‘Sup?

Via the Iona Institute

“….the past 50 years? Our schools have certainly been dumbed down and teachers are losing their authority (Minister Ruairi Quinn wants Junior Leaving Cert history to be optional and he wants to relegate religion as a subject…
“…The legal system is soft on crime and indifferent to its victims. Pornography on the internet is widespread. (The HSE-run youth website SpunOut gives advice on how to have an enjoyable ‘threesome’). Opposing abortion or non-traditional sexual morality is seen as bigotry and narrow-mindedness.
Our drinking and drug ‘culture’ are legendary. Ireland is one of the biggest alcohol consumers in Europe, and according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Ireland remains among the biggest users of cocaine in the EU.
There is a growing denial that the role of the mother and father are complementary and different (even, oddly, as there is growing demand for gender quotas in politics and the corporate world).
There is a left-leaning, anti-conservative consensus in the mainstream media; and even within the Catholic Church there are strong relativising tendencies.
It now seems the Communism of old Russia has transformed into a cultural Marxism in the West, influenced by the ideas of a group of Marxist ‘intellectuals’ from the German Frankfurt School in the 1920s. The Communist Willi Munzenberg summed up the Frankfurt School’s long-term operation: “We will make the West so corrupt that it stinks.”. Doesn’t this look like a perfect recipe for a demoralised people?”

Anyone?

The slide towards soft totalitarianism (Iona Institute)

(Getty)

library

Yesterday we asked YOU to confess to not returning a library book and have the chance to walk away with a copy of Libraries, the book about beautiful libraries by Dublin-based luxury brand Roads at a coffee-spilling €45.

You gave up your auld sins in your dozens.

Runners up:

“I would like to now confess that in my younger years I failed to return a book on the Bermuda Triangle to Longford Public Library. I heard no more about it, so I assume they looked upon its disappearance as an inevitability.” (Mick Flavin)

“I would like to now confess that in my younger years I failed to return Richard Scarry’s Busy Workers. Although I was neither busy nor a worker.” (brw)

“I would like to now confess that in my younger years I failed to return the Children of Lir. I don’t know where I left them, I was on the way to Bob’s house, lovely kids, about 900 years ago, actually have you seen them?” (Don Conroy)

“I would like to now confess that in my younger years I failed to return The Bible and I am very sorry. Yes, I stole a Bible. I see the irony of the situation because I also stole The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms.” (Marvel Gumshoe)
,
“I would like to now confess that in my younger years I failed to return to Earth, thus never getting to bring “Rocket Science for Dummies” back to the library and I am very sorry.”
(Nialfall “in space”)

“I would like to now confess that in my younger years I failed to return ‘The Selfish Gene’ because I want stuff for myself and that’s just the way I evolved.” (Spaghetti Hoop)

Winner:

“I would like to now confess that in my younger years I failed to return…. absolutely nothing cos I was a total nerd! And I am now a librarian (I’m at the reference desk right now!) so I’d really like the book. And it would make up for still being a total nerd, a little bit.” (mo_musing)

Thanks all.

Libraries (Roads)

Previously: Win A Library Book

heatbike1bike2walk1walk2runbike

STRAVA‘s real time Google-driven Global Heatmap data visualisation thingie – apparently showing the relative popularity of cycling (pix 1, 2, 3 and bottom right) and running/walking routes (pix 4, 5 and bottom left) around the world.

Explore it in scrollable depth here.

(H/T: Mark Geary)

crumb

Delicious desserts created and stop-motion animated by Deirdre Whelan andAlan Travers (he of the stop motion biscuit cake) for ao.com’s Cooking Wednesdays feature.

No less charming for being big ol’ Neff promos.

Full how-to and recipe for Rhubarb Pear and Ginger Oat Crumble here and Lemon Meringue Pie here.

(Thanks Becky)

reportcoverRedacted like a boss.

Grab yourself a large mug.

Read here

‘Searchable’ version here

(thanks Gavin Sheridan)

More as we read it.

Meanwhile….

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Acting Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan (left) and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald at the Department of Justice within the past hour.

(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)