New rules for the unmanned strike drone,
When deployed in a foreign war zone,
If they want to get rid,
Of some guy and his kid,
That’s fine even if they’re homegrown.
John Moynes
Illustration via space4peace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWou9cd2GhA
What you may need to know.
1. Video games have better trailers than movies these days.
2. It’s the new game from the people who brought you Halo.
3. The trailer’s directed by Jon Favreau, who directed Iron Man (2008) & Iron Man 2 (2010). Long way from Swingers (1998), baby!
4. Yes. that’s Giancarlo Esposito, AKA Gus Fring from Breaking Bad. We’re not worthy.
5. Destiny is one of the games coming to the forthcoming XBox One.
6. If you’re a gamer, GEEKGASM. If not, what the what now?
Release Date: TBC
The Cause
at
A report for the United Nations cultural body, Unesco, has called for a halt to a proposed £100m golf resort close to the Giant’s Causeway. It said the planned Runkerry development would have an adverse impact on the world heritage site.
Unesco has published extracts of the report compiled after a visit to the Antrim site in February.
The report, carried out for Unesco by one of its advisory bodies, states that the planned resort – 550 metres outside the boundary of the Causeway site in north Antrim – would “create an irreversible change of landscape character” in a protected area of outstanding natural beauty.
Giant’s Causeway resort row: Unesco report calls for halt (Julian O’Neill, BBC News NI)
Pic: Dave Mitchell
Container yourself.
Sure it’s an ad but…
The Red Bull Cúl 5 arena at the Eastpoint Business Park, Alexandra Road Extension in Dublin Port for a five-a-side GAA event tomorrow.
Organisers moved 30,000 tons of rubble, added 150 tons of earth and some 1,800m2 of grass to create the pitch, above.
More here
Previously: GAAsp
Thanks Susie Dardis
(L-R) Ray Ellard, Consumer Director of FSAI, Prof Alan Reilly FSAI Chief Executive.
Can we do NOTHING right?
Many people were annoyed that “the Paddies” uncovered the horse meat scandal that turned out to be a case of massive international food fraud, Ray Ellard, consumer production director of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland said yesterday. He said it was felt, particularly in Britain, that the authority was acting on information, but it was just doing its job.
“There was a massive international food fraud going on and Ireland found it and that’s annoyed a lot of people, that the Paddies found it,” he said. “I’m sorry to say that, but that’s the truth of it.” Mr Ellard and the Food Safety Authority’s chief executive, Prof Alan Reilly, recently encountered hostile questioning from MPs when they met the Westminster committee on the environment, food and rural affairs. MPs repeatedly insisted that the Food Safety Authority was acting on a tip-off when it tested for horse meat and were critical of the fact that no one has yet been prosecuted for their role in the horse meat scandal. Prof Reilly said he was shocked and dismayed at the aggressive nature of the questioning and the political point-scoring.
He said it was a case of “blame the Irish” for uncovering the fraud.
(Mark Stedman / Photocall Ireland)
A cut away shot from last night’s Question Time (broadcast from Belfast) showing a camera operator’s seating plan, featuring Ian Paisley Jnr of the DUP and John O’Dowd from Sinn Fein. LGBT activist Peter Tatchell was also on the panel and he had this tussle with Ian Paisley Jnr.
Paddy Hoey writes:
DUP are the “Goodies” and “SF IRA” according to camera men in Belfast…
SF Lodge BBC Complaint Over IRA Label For Education Minister (Newstalk)
Thanks The Stoat
UPDATE: BBC apologises over Question Time seating plan (RTÉ)
Outside the Bank of Ireland, College Green, Dublin, this morning.
Anyone?
Thanks Deirdre O’ Shaugnessy
Apple’s Cork HQ during a visit by French Apple staff in 1980.
A former company executive and Irish officials told Reuters the almost tax-free status dates all the way back to Apple’s arrival in County Cork 32 years ago.
“There were tax concessions for us to go there,” said Del Yocam, who was Vice President of manufacturing at Apple in the early 1980s. “It was a big concession.”
In fact, the deal was about as good as a company can get.
“We had a tax holiday for the first 10 years in Ireland. We paid no taxes to the Irish government,” one former finance executive, who asked not to be named, said.
Apple wasn’t an exception, although it was among the last to enjoy such favorable treatment. From 1956 to 1980, Ireland attracted foreign companies by offering a zero rate of tax, according to the Irish government’s website. Eligible companies arriving in 1980 were given holidays until 1990.
“Any multinational attracted into Ireland that was focusing on the export market paid zero percent corporation tax,” said Barry O’Leary, CEO of IDA Ireland, which is charged with attracting investment into Ireland.
Apple said it pays all the tax due in every country where it operates. It declined to comment on the tax treatment it received in the 1980s.
As part of Ireland’s accession to the European Economic Community, precursor to the European Union, in 1973, it was forced to stop offering tax holidays to exporters.
From 1981, companies arriving in Ireland had to pay tax, albeit at a low 10 percent rate, providing they qualified for manufacturing status.
Apple’s investment was a major coup for Ireland. At the time, the country was struggling with high and rising unemployment, double-digit inflation and a brain drain of the young and educated through emigration.
“We were the first technology company to establish a manufacturing operation in Ireland,” recalled John Sculley, Apple’s CEO from 1983 to 1993. He said government subsidies had also played a role in deciding to set up a base in Ireland.
Apple told the subcommittee it could not answer questions about why it chose Ireland as a base since it had lost the paperwork from the period.
The operation in Cork built the company’s Apple II computer and would later build disc drives, ‘Mac’ computers and others.
Apple enjoyed Irish tax holiday from the start (Reuters)
Previously: A Long Way From £2 Apple
PIc; Apple
Last Sunday, a railroad bridge across the Colorado River between San Saba and Lometa in Texas caught fire. All the firecrews could do was watch (and film it). Firefighter captain Jack Blossman said:
Within 25 seconds, it was just gone, and then it just turned into a giant fireball, because of all of the creosote in the cross-ties.
Wait for it…
A highly questionable lesson in punctuation from Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone.