Apple_SJobs_Dec30-1980_smApple’s arrival to Cork, Irish Times, 1981 (click to enlarge)

When tax was a weapon.

“Back in the 1970s and ‘80s, when Ireland was a poor state desperately trying to attract investment, tax was a weapon that others weren’t using,” said Richard Murphy, founder of the Tax Justice Network, a group in London that campaigns against tax havens. “So Ireland developed a twofold strategy: low rates and not too many questions. It became the conduit state of choice.”

Even Before Apple Tax Breaks, Ireland’s Policy Had Its Critics (New York Times)

Previously: They’re On To Us

Cutting via Irish Central

desktop

The ongoing Desktop Diaries series by Science Friday features informal interviews with noted boffins at their desks.

Above, theoretical physicist and futurist Michio Kaku talks Flash Gordon while psychologist and Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman, who doesn’t actually have a desk, relates the time he lost his Nobel medal. As you do.

View the entire collection here.

gizmodo

gibney

TV3 is showing Alex Gibney’s award winning documentary ‘Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God’ tonight at 9pm.

It tells the story of four deaf boys who were abused by a priest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and a subsequent cover-up which lead to the Vatican.

It summarises the Vatican’s response in three words: deny, minimise and blame.

cruel-crimes-imageThe HBO documentary also explores the church’s role in protecting and hiding known abusers around the world, including Fr Tony Walsh (above centre, playing Elvis in Fr Michael Cleary’s All-Priests Show).

Previously: “An Old, Old Problem

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