Tabloid Nation

I see today that one Ms Kushnir has settled her libel case with three of Ireland's leading tabloid newspapers. Back in October 2005, Ms Kushnir was travelling in the same car as disgraced politician, Liam Lawlor. The car was involved in a collision and Lawlor was killed instantly. Kushnir survived. She was in the car because Lawlor, of course, was not au fait with the Russian language. Clearly he used to skip those classes back in his schooldays. Yes, she was a translator.

However, this was not sensational enough for the mass media, who were determined to further destroy Lawlor's less than sterling reputation. In an effort to sell some newspapers, The Irish Sunday Mirror, the Sunday Tribune and the Irish Independent all claimed that Ms Kushnir was a teenage prostitute. Of course she was. Afterall, Lawlor was a crook. He had refused on several occasions to co-operate with the government's anti-corruption tribunal, so he must be involved in some kind of child sex ring. That's it, he was on a sex holiday in the Ukraine.

"We've got it Willy, yer wan was a prozzie, pity there wasn't a young fella in the car too!"

Whatever about the other two, but the Irish Independent makes me sick. Almost as much as Sky News.

Last Man Standing

The title is not just a reference to my position as only poster to the blog in recent times, but also a reference to excellent "intelligent" music site Last FM, which I have been exploring of late, to the enjoyment of my unemployment.

In case you are unfamiliar with Last FM it is basically a social networking music site. You set up a profile and you get to listen to free music tracks. Easy. But Last FM begins to learn what you're into. The easiest way to get started is by listening to Last FM radio. This is your personalised streaming radio station, so you get none of the pop-muck that you get on regular radio. You start off by telling Last FM the name of a band or artist you enjoy, for instance LCD Soundsystem. Last FM will then consult its database in order to cue up songs from similar artists that you may also like, for example chk-chk-chk. But how does it know what songs you'll like? Again, its so simple you'll want to shit your pants. You give the songs you hear a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Last FM takes note of this, thereby increasing its pool of knowledge, while also finding out that no, you personally are not into Rod Stewart. The more you use it the more effective it becomes in finding you obscure neo-traditional-pointillist-subversive-gothic-nu-rave-ska-jazz-infusion bands. Delightful.

Here is a sample of what has been whetting my appetite of late including some of the fantastic songs that led me to the others.