000bdb15

The 2016 Oscar winning live action short film by Irish writer/director Benjamin Cleary – now available to view online in its entirety courtesy of the New Yorker.

Thirteen minutes well spent (if, God forbid, you’re using a regional masking browser plugin), to wit:

…a young London typographer named Greenwood (Matthew Needham) stutters to the extent that verbal conversation is difficult. When he tries to resolve an issue with a service representative over the phone, he can’t get the words out; the operator, gruff and impatient, hangs up. (For surliness, she rivals the operator in the old Yaz song.) When a woman approaches Greenwood on the street, he uses sign language to avoid talking. But in his thoughts, which we hear, he does not stutter.

kottke

starwars
dublin-bus

From top: Star Wars poster featuring Felicity Jones (top) and Inferno Dublin Bus ad.

Alan O Regan writes:

I saw a poster for Inferno on a Dublin Bus this morning. I thought the actress looked like Felicity Jones so I was scanning the poster for her name. No sign of her name on the poster despite sharing prominence (space-wise) with Tom Hanks.

Now I know Tom Hanks is a huge star and everything but to not have his co-star’s name on the poster at all?

It’s a pity too because I was just thinking how great it was that she’s featured so prominently on the new Star Wars poster (with the men much less so) and in a non-sexualised way and that this was a good step forward.

Anyway, if it was obvious enough to slap me out of my usual apathy I thought it can’t be right.

Anyone?

Top pic: Lucasfilm

ci_nx_announcement_image912w

Coming up at 3pm:

Nintendo announce their next videogame console, off the back of the commercial disappointments of the tablet-based Wii U.

Codenamed NX, it launches in March, and is rumoured to be a hybrid of home and portable consoles.

Expect: a new name, early looks at games and explanation of the tech. All will be revealed in an episode of Nintendo Direct, the company’s online video magazine, going up shortly.

More as we have it.

UPDATE:

Nintendo Switch is coming March 2017! Catch the Preview Trailer and visit https://t.co/j4Unm459lg for more details. pic.twitter.com/EV7zPiVf35

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) October 20, 2016

Just announced this minute on Nintendo of America’s online presence, but not Europe’s for some odd reason, despite being heavily advertised across the company’s UK social media.

Say hello to the Nintendo Switch – a game console playable across several form-factors, from home console, to handheld device, to novel self-contained mini-machine.

screen-shot-2016-10-20-at-12-56-07

Kurdish Peshmerga display antique weapons used against well-equipped Isis fighters on the Bashiq frontline, approximately 18km from Mosul

screen-shot-2016-10-20-at-12-56-21

Kurdish Peshmerga Forces on the Bashiq frontline

screen-shot-2016-10-20-at-12-56-43

A Kurdish Peshmerga soldier holds what he claims is a German Luger from World War 2

screen-shot-2016-10-20-at-12-56-58

A Kurdish Peshmerga soldier standing on the Bashiq frontline against Isis, with Mosul on the horizon

screen-shot-2016-10-20-at-12-57-14

A 63-year-old Peshmerga figher Mamuri Purida at a Kurdish frontline post near Makhmur, 3km from Isis-held territory

screen-shot-2016-10-20-at-12-57-28

Mamuri Purida points to a picture of President Masoud Barzani beside a map of greater Kurdistan at a frontline post near Makhmur

screen-shot-2016-10-20-at-12-57-44

Kurdish Peshmerga driving between outposts on Bashiq frontline

screen-shot-2016-10-20-at-12-58-05

The Isis-held town of Bashiq, northern Iraq, seen from the Kurdish Peshmerga frontline with Mosul on the far horizon

screen-shot-2016-10-20-at-12-58-19

A ruined bus stop on the road to Qayyarah with burning oil wells in the distance

screen-shot-2016-10-20-at-12-58-30

Qayyarah, a town of 15,000 people engulfed in smoke from burning oil wells lit by retreating Isis fighters in August

Photographs from Dublin journalist Ruaidhrí Giblin, who has recently returned from Iraq.

Ruaidhrí spent six weeks reporting on the build-up to the military offensive by Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi special forces towards Mosul which is seen as the de-facto capital of Isis.

He toured several frontlines with the Kurds and Iraqi forces.

On Sunday, he will broadcast a report on the Kurdish Peshmerga on RTÉ’s World Report.

Ahead of this, Ruaidhrí writes:

Iraqi Kurds don’t have a country, they have a Regional Government. They don’t have a regular army, they have an irregular militia, whose name the ‘Peshmerga’ literally means those that face death.

They don’t have modern weapons, advanced technology or heavy artillery and often appear in button down shirts and traditional Kurdish trousers.

They’ve gone months without being paid because Iraqi Kurdistan is overwhelmed with two million refugees from Syria and other parts of Iraq.

Yet, they, along with their Syrian counterparts, are the most effective fighting force against Isis since the terror group emerged on their doorstep in 2014.

All they want, they say, is recognition from the world – to be able to put their flag on the international map. The story of the Kurds deserves attention.

World Report is on Sunday at 8am on RTÉ Radio One.

Meanwhile…

Kurdish peshmerga and Iraqi special forces have advanced to within around six miles of the city of Mosul, after launching a major three-pronged attack early on Thursday against dug-in Islamic State militants.

Hundreds of armoured vehicles including tanks and humvees began a large-scale offensive at around 6am local time, the Kurdish peshmerga general command said in a statement. Their target was a series of villages to the north and north-east of Mosul held by Isis fighters.

Iraqi and Kurdish forces close in on Mosul after making quick gains (The Guardian)

Photographs: Ruaidhrí Giblin

dan-roches-13-1-620x413

 Dr. John Buckley, Bishop of Cork and Rosswith schoolgirls from the Secred Heart Secondary School, Clonakilty at the careers fair

Tuesday.

With ordinations and trainee uptake on the floor Bishop John Buckley and other representatives of the Diocese of Cork and Ross showed up at a careers’ fair in Cork’s Rochestown Hotel, run by the Institute of Guidance Councillors.

From the Cork Evening Echo:

Teenagers at the fair expressed their concerns about the priesthood, like the lack of women and the celibacy vow, but Bishop Buckley said that he was not sure what impact changes to Church policy would have.

“Celibacy is a regulation of the Church,” Bishop Buckley said. “Certainly, in the years ahead, people might look at that, and I wouldn’t see any difficulty, if they see that it’s absolutely necessary. But whether it would help increase the number of vocations, I’m not sure.

“Other denominations, which allow ministers to marry, are seeing a shortage of vocations,” Bishop Buckley said.

Speaking at the fair, one girl said that the Church should consider allowing women priests, if it really wants to connect with people.

“If a woman became a priest, I would have no problem in confiding in her, or anything like that.I think a lot of girls, maybe, would be more comfortable in confiding in a woman than a male priest,” she said.

Bishop Buckley says celibacy is not the problem (David Linnane, Cork Evening Echo)

Pic via Cork Evening Echo

1

“For Ben, the secret to success has always been a good tie…”

This just in..

The fourth episode of the weekly web comedy series created by Dublin writer/performers Kelly Shatter, Luke Benson and Kevin Handy,

Long Dark Twenties

Previously:

Long Dark Twenties: Episode 3

Long Dark Twenties: Episode 2

Long Dark Twenties: Episode 1

Broadsheet.ie