Awesomeness.

It’s called ‘visualising data’ and, says Facebook intern Paul Butler, who created the map, above, it’s a bit like photography.

“Instead of starting with a blank canvas, you manipulate the lens used to present the data from a certain angle.

“When the data is the social graph of 500 million people, there are a lot of lenses through which you can view it. One that piqued my curiosity was the locality of friendship. I was interested in seeing how geography and political borders affected where people lived relative to their friends. I wanted a visualization that would show which cities had a lot of friendships between them.

“I began by taking a sample of about ten million pairs of friends from Apache Hive, our data warehouse. I combined that data with each user’s current city and summed the number of friends between each pair of cities. Then I merged the data with the longitude and latitude of each city.”

At which point we literally did not understand another word Paul said.

Visualising Friendship (Facebook)

DECEMBER 21st, 2008 Government announces that it intends to recapitalise AIB and to take partial control of the bank’s board.

JANUARY 29th, 2009 Senior AIB staff are unexpectedly summoned to meetings and told that their bonuses for 2008, due in April, are being brought forward. Staff are told that this information constitutes a verbal contract.

JANUARY 31st, 2009 A report in The Irish Times by John Collins reveals that AIB staff in the bank’s Capital Markets Division have been told of their bonus payments. However, following a query from Collins, AIB then announced that the payments were being deferred.

FEBRUARY 11th, 2009 Government announces that it has agreed terms for its €3.5 billion recapitalisation of AIB

Inflated Bonuses Rushed Through Before Bailout (Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times)

President: “No really, dear. There’s no need to curtsey”

President: “Ah.”

(Photocall Ireland)

Meet Kevin.

Back in 2008 he was the number two at the department of finance and heavily involved in  pushing through the bank bailout.

According to US embassy cables (from WikiLeaks and published in today’s Guardian), Big Kev told diplomats that the bailout was put in place before a “herd mentality” (about whether the banks were running out of cash) led to a run on those fine institutions.

Even though, he averred, the banks were in good shape.

He said his auditors had viewed the loan books of two of the banks and left with a “favourable impression”.

The Americans knew this for the bullshit that it was. But, being diplomats, instead of ‘This is Bullshit’ they wrote:

The rest, of course, is ghastly history and present.

So what Happened The Kevinator?

He wasn’t fired on the spot, this being the public sector, but, after such a crushing, life-altering blunder he decided to take early retirement and spend more time with his food.

KIDDING! This year, he was made Number ONE at the Department of Finance…

…and he recently helped bring us the AIB Bonus debacle.

That’s literally how the dude and Ireland rolls.

Full text of cable here.

Ireland A ‘Bit Optimistic’ On Banks Before Bailout (Guardian)

(Photocall Ireland)

Foy, who was employed in 2005 on a basic salary of €75,190 a year, claimed the failure to pay the 2008 bonus* was causing him and his family “unjustified hardship” as it formed most of his remuneration.

(*A bonus of €161,000)

Irish Mail On Sunday, December 12.

Discussion here.

AIB IN U-Turn Over Bonuses As Lenihan Warns Banks Over Funds (Irish Times)

They just obviously forgot to tell his partner of two years.

Garda sources have told The Irish Times that while much of the media attention since Mr Ryan’s inquest has focused on the apparent lack of a Garda investigation, such an investigation has already taken place.

“People he saw in his last hours were spoken to about his death when the toxicology reports came back showing traces of cocaine,” one source said. “Nothing emerged about anybody seeing him taking drugs just before he died.”

Investigation Into Ryan Drug Use Already Taken Place (Irish Times)

Gerry’s Partner Traumatised By Inquest Verdict (Irish Independent)

(Photocall Ireland)

You know, going forward and all.

Bailout Plan Is Just Another Attempt To Kick The Can Down The Road (Stephen King, Examiner)

INSIDE (pages 2,3,4,5,6, 7 and 9 and 20-23):

Gay Byrne: “I used to have a toot before every show.”

RTE Producer David ‘Smokes-Rocks’ Blake-Knox: ” It was Joe Duffy’s first job in RTE to chop up the whiz on the sound desk.”

Marian Finucane: “Coke was freely available. Derek Davis used to bring it in in his trousers.”

Mary Kennedy: “The camera guys are on opiates, the rest are riding the white pony.”

Sean O’Rourke: “It all centered around Derek (Davis). I’ve seen him injecting coke into his own eyeballs. ”

Evelyn O’Rourke: “It was a blizzard of cocaine that even I couldn’t predict.”

(Photocall Ireland)

Liffey Street, Dublin 1.

(Photocall Ireland)

Broadcaster Gareth O’Callaghan, in today’s Irish Mail On Sunday.

He doesn’t really hold back:

“You can’t go on air and say, ‘These people deserve to be shot, these people deserve to be put behind bars for life’, and then buy the drugs off them.

“I am curious why most of the individuals who are regarded as top broadcasters have their phones switched off this weekend. Why don’t his colleagues come out and say either, ‘Yes, I knew all about this’ or, ‘No, I knew nothing about this. I’m appalled.’

I worked with Gerry for nearly 18 years. The drug-taking was something I abhorred for years and years because I’ve never done cocaine. People say: ‘Ah, sure, maybe he just did it once or twice. Perhaps it was just a once-off that killed him.’

It wasn’t a once-off – this man was very, very fond of his cocaine and that went on for the best part of 16 or 17 years.

I always had great respect for Gerry the broadcaster. I have very little respect for anybody who courts the drugs dealers, who pays them and then goes on a radio show and condemns drug dealers as Gerry did.

Gerry’s dealers were closer to him than his kids. That’s what dealers do. They become your ‘family’ and, eventually, you can’t do without them. You forsake everything that’s precious in return for your new ‘family’ because they sustain your habit

As for RTÉ, Gerry was not employed by RTÉ and RTÉ was not in any way obliged to look after his welfare or health. Gerry sold his services independently to RTÉ.

If Gerry was a van driver bringing loaves of bread to the RTÉ canteen on a daily basis and RTÉ were paying him contractually, they don’t care whether the van driver was snorting cocaine once he delivered the bread.”

Bli-mey.

Gerry Was Very Fond Of His Cocaine For 16 Or 17 Years (Mail)

Previously and previously.