Video: The tragic tale of Coco the unemployed clown…

This is a great short film recently shown as part of the Belfast Film Festival. With cheap cameras and online distribution film making has never been more accessible. It is great to see so much creativity out there. Any other short films we should know about? Let us know in the comments or email: [email protected] Brian O'NeillI help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing …

Read more…

Progress 59: “The spacecraft is 160 miles high and travelling at more than 16,000mph…”

…and out of control…  The BBC reports on the Russian unmanned cargo ship delivering supplies to the International Space Station that mission control has lost contact with and is now in a uncontrolled spin. Or, as RTÉ says, it’s ‘plunging back to Earth’. Here’s the view from a camera on-board the spacecraft. From the BBC report The Russian news agency Tass reports that Progress M-27M is now orbiting in an uncontrolled spin. Scientists may try again to control it, but it …

Read more…

Raise a glass to Hubble! – Redux

The Hubble Space Telescope celebrates its 25th Anniversary in space today, 24th April, with the release of this wondrous image of the giant star-cluster, Westerlund 2, in the stellar nursery, Gum 29, located 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina.  [Image credit: Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI), and the Westerlund 2 Science Team] From the accompanying text to the image. To capture this image, Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 pierced through the dusty veil shrouding …

Read more…

Kit Harington on Belfast: “It’s wonderful for two or three days…”

As I said of similar comments by HBO’s Michael Lombardo last year, With so much of some Northern Ireland Executive ministers‘ time and effort [and other people’s money! – Ed] focused on exploiting the international success of HBO’s Game of Thrones to promote Northern Ireland overseas, it’s perhaps unfortunate, but refreshing, that HBO’s director of programming, Michael Lombardo, has given an honest answer to a straight question… This time, it’s one of the leading actors from HBO’s Game of Thrones, Kit Harington, telling …

Read more…

In case you missed the eclipse…

Or, like me, cloud cover obscured the solar eclipse of 20 March 2015.  Here’s probably the best view of this morning’s event, from ESA’s Sun-watching Proba-2 mini-satellite.  [Image credit: ESA/ROB] And via ESA on YouTube. As Europe enjoyed a partial solar eclipse on the morning of Friday 20 March 2015, ESA’s Sun-watching Proba-2 minisatellite had a ringside seat from space. Orbiting Earth once approximately every 100 minutes, Proba-2 caught two eclipses over the course of the morning. Proba-2 used its SWAP imager …

Read more…

ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: Ireland v Pakistan

With just two games left in the group stages of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, and two places still available in the next phase, Ireland’s cricketers have their fate in their own hands.  They play Pakistan at the Adelaide Oval early tomorrow morning [3.30am (GMT)] with the winner guaranteed a place in the knock-out stage.  As I may have mentioned… Cricket Ireland reports on captain, William Porterfield, at the press conference Talking about his teams approach to the game and the biggest challenges …

Read more…

Dawn over Ceres

On Friday afternoon [GMT], ahead of Ireland cricketers’ epic encounter with Zimbabwe, Nasa’s Dawn spacecraft became the first man-made object to go into orbit around a dwarf planet – Ceres, at 950km across, the largest object in the main asteroid belt. [Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA] From the associated text The slim crescent of Ceres smiles back as the dwarf planet awaits the arrival of an emissary from Earth. This image was taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on March 1, 2015, just a few …

Read more…

ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: Ireland v South Africa

Ireland, and Surrey, wicketkeeper Gary Wilson sounds positive ahead of tonight’s/tomorrow’s match against South Africa in Canberra in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. Given the Proteas’ comprehensive tonking of the West Indies, courtesy of captain AB de Villiers’ supreme batting prowess, that optimism may be misplaced… Meanwhile, CricketIreland talked to Ireland captain William Porterfield, John Mooney, and coach Phil Simmons ahead of the game. When asked about the prospect of facing a player in such great form, John Mooney was keen …

Read more…

#UCIHourRecord Live

Join celebrity cycling fan Stephen Fry [loving the on screen metrics! – Ed], and others, watching paralympian Sarah Storey attempt the UCI Hour Record live on the UCI YouTube channel.   The current record stands at 46.065km, set by Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel of the Netherlands in October 2003 in Mexico City.  Storey is in London’s Olympic velodrome, at sea-level. Update Sadly not a UCI Hour Record for Sarah Storey.  Distance covered in the hour – 45.502km.  A consolation prize of a new British …

Read more…

A Belfast Christmas Carol Video

I know what your thinking. A video shot in Belfast featuring child actors, how bad can it be? It is actually pretty good and well worth a watch. Well done to Colin Williams and CFC. Brian O'NeillI help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a …

Read more…

Rosetta: “We’ll need some luck not to land on a boulder or a steep slope.”

[Image credit: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA] The ESA Rosetta probe has been on a long journey – spotted en route briefly on Slugger in 2008, and more leisurely in 2010 as it took time out from its mission to the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to take a look at the asteroid Lutetia.  Ten years after launch, it’s now orbiting its designated target, and the lander, Philae, is descending.  However, there has been a hiccup… During checks on the lander’s health, it was discovered that the active …

Read more…

Labour Party: “Making no progress on welfare has financial implications. It is not a cost-free choice…”

As Mick mentioned, the repeated attempts to blame the fallout from the Northern Ireland Executive’s deadlock on Welfare Reform on “the right wing Tory/DUP austerity agenda“, or “the British Tory Government“, or, more frequently, “a cabinet of Tory millionaires“,  have been dealt a blow by clarification of the Labour Party’s position by the Shadow NI Secretary of State at the party’s conference. From the Irish Times report (23 Sept) The disagreement, said [Labour’s shadow Northern Ireland secretary Ivan Lewis], is “a denial” …

Read more…

Ireland v Scotland – 3rd ODI Live

With Ireland’s cricketers having already won the first two games in the three match ODI series against Scotland, the Scots are only playing for pride today at Malahide.  They’re chasing a total of 242 to win after John Mooney made 96 runs from 77 balls to put Ireland on 241-9 from their 50 overs in the first innings.  Live coverage via CricketIrelandTV on YouTube. Pete Baker

Ireland v Scotland – 2nd ODI Live

After a convincing victory in the first game of the three match ODI series against Scotland, Ireland’s cricketers are chasing a total of 222 in the second game for a series win at Malahide.  Scotland were put in to bat and made 221 all out from 49.5 overs.  Live coverage via CricketIrelandTV on YouTube. Update Ireland win by 3 wickets.  225 for 7 from 44.2 overs. Pete Baker

Can #IndyRef’s new Civic practices help renew Scotland’s representative democracy?

Scotland Yet: a film about independence (FULL MOVIE) from Scotland Yet on Vimeo. So this is about two weeks old. It’s an hour and a half long argument for Yes, crowd funded amongst people who are campaigning for yes in Scotland. This is what’s possible when the campaign is long enough for ordinary people to brigade their own resources. In part it’s a documentary, with stories explaining where a disparate group of individuals are coming from on the matter. A …

Read more…

“À la Bastille!” – Redux

Once again, with apologies to Pierre Ranger… [It’s a tradition, we know… – Ed]  Indeed!  Play La Marseillaise! Pete Baker

“Glory be the day, Mr Yeats!”

As the man said…  It’s tradition! Those of a sensitive disposition are duly warned, again, that James Joyce enjoys the language in all its fecund nuttiness. Enjoy! Pete Baker

Eurovision 2014: “I felt like tonight Europe showed that we are a community of respect and tolerance…”

Well, perhaps…  A bearded Austrian man in a dress, Conchita Wurst, won the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen on Saturday night with “Rise Like a Phoenix” – the title quote was his line from the winner’s press conference.  The 25-year-old singer also told reporters in Vienna On the theme of tolerance, Wurst told reporters in the Austrian capital: “This will remain an issue for a long time and I fear I won’t see the end of it in my lifetime. It …

Read more…

Sinn Fein’s last minute pull out from cross party ‘St Pats For All’ video

Controversy in the Republic last night over an old problem for Sinn Fein, the St Patricks Day celebrations in the US, where they do things a little lot differently than they do at home. It concerns this cross parliamentary video supporting the St Pat’s For All parade in NYC… In the US, New York and Boston have continued to ban the participation of LGBT groups. In the case of Boston there’s been substantial progress towards change, but in NYC the …

Read more…

Solar Dynamics Observatory: Year 4

Four years after its work began, and following last year’s three years in three minutes, Nasa have released another wondrous short video of a year of selected solar activity as viewed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Video via Nasa Goddard.  Full-screen viewing recommended.  Stunning. [Credit: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory. Music: Stella Maris courtesy of Moby Gratis] The sun is always changing and NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is always watching. Launched on Feb. 11, 2010, SDO keeps a 24-hour eye on the entire disk …

Read more…