Disqus - Latest Comments for alaninbelfast

Re: Wireless Mic Storage Innovation

alaninbelfast — Sat, 13 Aug 2022 10:16:37 -0000

Did you ever get the Raspberry Pi up and running?

Re: Alliance Party Conference #APNI2022

alaninbelfast — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 13:13:53 -0000

Update - I've reworded Patricia O'Lynn's comments in the post having had a chance to properly read her script, rather than my impression of what I thought I heard her say on Saturday morning. To be clear, the "pale, stale, privileged men" was aimed at some elected reps in the area, but wasn't addressed directly at the five sitting MLAs.

Re: Givan Resigns: What Next?

alaninbelfast — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 09:51:57 -0000

Stephen - you may want to reconsider the sentence about the fuel poverty payments being affected ... https://twitter.com/endamcc...

Re: Belfast Rapid Transit (Glider) Phase 2 announced

alaninbelfast — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 11:48:21 -0000

The sheer distance between Glider and trains/buses at Weavers Court seems to make a mockery of a connected public transport system, and really discriminates against and will discourage anyone with poor mobility or a pram or heavy suitcases using the Glider to transfer onto longer distance or airport bus services.

Re: Robbie Butler rules himself out of UUP leadership ‘at this stage’

alaninbelfast — Wed, 12 May 2021 18:54:49 -0000

I once sat beside Jim Molyneaux on a British Midland flight over to Heathrow. He was heading over the Lords. He chatted away, and as we can into land brought out a paper notebook from his pocket and insisted on writing my name down on a fresh page ... probably to make sure the airline never sat him beside me again :)

Re: Sinn Fein continue their Derry shake up

alaninbelfast — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 15:41:16 -0000

neice

Re: Edwin Poots (currently) bookies favourite to be next DUP leader

alaninbelfast — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 14:45:37 -0000

> It’s never just about probability. It’s also about attracting bets,
managing potential liabilities by compensating for large bets.
Bookmakers are interested in profit over the actual result!

Re: Scottish hustings … via NUS Scotland

alaninbelfast — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 15:37:38 -0000

It wasn't an issue raised by the students ... and it was specifically a hustings focussed on student issues.

Re: Scottish hustings … via NUS Scotland

alaninbelfast — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 15:35:03 -0000

lol!

Re: Bill Wolsey on his idea to turn Belfast city centre into a living museum for Belfast? And the role of awkward individuals in making change happen! #imaginebelfast

alaninbelfast — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 14:13:28 -0000

Let's keep the conversation on topic - a Living Museum for Belfast rather than deconstructing one firm's financial approach to the pandemic (a valid topic, but one for a different post)

Re: Slow TV across the Atlantic on the flight from Dublin to Philadelphia…

alaninbelfast — Sun, 17 Jan 2021 11:34:32 -0000

I'd want one heading the other direction to Istanbul airport - made that journey too many times in 2018!

Re: 10 Useful Rode Wireless GO Hacks

alaninbelfast — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 15:50:29 -0000

Hmmm ... "Turn Any Headphone into Wireless Monitoring Headphones" really doesn't work. The level coming out of the receiver is far to low to hear through headphones, even at the loudest of the three settings.

Re: The time has come to unmask Korhomme…

alaninbelfast — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 17:20:26 -0000

Welcome!

Re: Did you hear the one about The Pope, the Lambeg and the ukulele?

alaninbelfast — Sun, 12 Jul 2020 06:06:14 -0000

"Edenderry will be empty ..." partly because the Belfast County parades stopped marching there and have been gathering for more than a decade in Barnett Demesne!

Re: How much of the extra £33m dividend from UK Culture Secretary will be spent on NI arts?

alaninbelfast — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 18:43:44 -0000

I would argue that spending money on arts and culture was investing in social issues, health, education and supporting jobs in the face of economic crisis. It's a 'both/and' rather than 'either/or' situation.

Re: No news is… no problem for Radio Ulster

alaninbelfast — Wed, 13 May 2020 11:31:41 -0000

It's been cancelled ... along with the marches and the bonfires!!

Re: No news is… no problem for Radio Ulster

alaninbelfast — Wed, 13 May 2020 09:58:44 -0000

> How is that possibly sustainable in a place with a population the size of ours where pretty much nothing actually happens?

"Pretty much nothing actually happens" rather underestimates what's happening on a daily basis in Northern Ireland.

And perhaps a society coming out of conflict has a lot of work to do to hear and consider opinions - including other people's ideas that we might think are ill-thought-out or even plain wrong - than other parts of the UK?

In a previous life I used to drive from Stansted Airport to Ipswich at breakfast time every week or two, bemoaning that the hire car radio was spewing out a BBC local breakfast shows from Essex and Suffolk that had barely any news (local, national or international) and was more concerned about whether milk should go in your cup before or after the tea was added.

>There is virtually nothing happening now due to Covid-19, and there hasn’t been for a couple of months. Yet Radio Ulster devotes three hours daily to the same people phoning in to discuss it with the same people – not one of them experts

“Not one of them experts” is an enormous exaggeration that insults the experts who do spend time on those shows. Not everyone is an expert, but your argument feels weak.

Re: The Question of Taste, or lack thereof…

alaninbelfast — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 09:01:09 -0000

Felicity - I'm a fellow anosmic - lost sometime in my early 20s (possibly around the time I had chicken pox) - great for not smelling nappies, bad for detecting smoke or oil leaks. And I definitely eat bland food as a result - with spicy stuff a no no. Questions like "what does that smell like?" are usually answered with "hot" or "cold" ... though my eyes can detect bleach sitting in a toilet that hadn'hasn't been flushed away. Of all the senses to lose, I reckon it's the least disruptive.

Re: Drawing conclusions on provisional #Covid19 figures does no favours to public understanding.

alaninbelfast — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 08:11:31 -0000

For years we've had policy debates in NI based on hunch, fear and sometimes even prejudice. We called out for evidence-based decision making. And now as lockdown fever takes hold, we put graphs that chart timelines of various measures at the heart of everything we do ... except the evidence is often not substantiating the arguments and policy positions being espoused.

I haven't counted, but my impression is that I've seen more newspaper front pages screaming out for care home deaths and COVID-19 cases in care homes to be counted than I have seen front pages asking for the lives of vulnerable people living in care homes to be saved.

Re: “…most prevalent media bias is the bias in favour of news”

alaninbelfast — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 15:57:01 -0000

> here’s the government’s ‘fisking’ response to the accusations in the Sunday Times’ article

@mickfealty - it was a poor attempt at Fisking. Many of the rebuttals traded blows using undated, vague actions, blowing fog over the original claims rather excising them from readers' minds. While it provided some (needed) balance and response, it was diluted with a bit too much bluster and not enough detail and footnotes!

Re: Assembly Speaker taking medical advice to work from home for 12 weeks

alaninbelfast — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 15:30:24 -0000

Speaker Maskey told Newry Times, “This Ad hoc Committee is an
important way for Assembly scrutiny of Ministers to continue, in a
different but no less rigorous way, in these challenging times.

“It will provide a flexible way for all MLAs to be updated by
Ministers and to raise with them issues affecting their constituents in
what is a very fast-moving situation.

Re: Twelfth of July demonstrations cancelled

alaninbelfast — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 11:38:31 -0000

I took the photo last year at the end of the Belfast parade. The colour party had reached Carlisle Circus and paused to sing the National Anthem before dispersing - hence Union Flag up and Orange colours down.

Re: New Virtual Festival Launched in Northern Ireland as a Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic

alaninbelfast — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 18:01:58 -0000

No - it'll be streamed on YouTube and I'll post something on Slugger in the morning!

Re: How poor handwashing is increasing the spread of Coronavirus…

alaninbelfast — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 09:03:09 -0000

Great to see this research - Aaron. I was captured by one of your cameras on Saturday ... hope my infrared frame was seen to mumble happy birthday while I scrubbed and rinsed!

Re: Alliance conference in party mood despite leader’s absence #APNI2020

alaninbelfast — Sat, 07 Mar 2020 16:34:56 -0000

There's no clear answer - not even speculation. He left, citing irreconcilable differences and anyone I talked to today at conference had a look of genuine bemusement and bewilderment.