Lisbon Treaty Gaining Support

Posted in political with tags , , , on May 17, 2009 by Stewart McCarthy

A new opinion poll shows support for the Lisbon Treaty has consolidated since the last comparable poll in February.

Lisbon treaty is gaining suppost in IrelandThe TNS/mrbi poll in tomorrow’s Irish Times asked 2,000 people at 200 locations how they would vote in a new referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in light of the commitment to allow Ireland retain its EU Commissioner and with legal guarantees on concerns such as neutrality, abortion and taxation.

Of those surveyed, 52% said they would vote yes, 29% said they would vote no and 19% said they did not know.

When the don’t knows are excluded, support for the treaty stands at 64.5% with 35.5% opposed to it.

Source: MSN

This appears to be an overall positive sign for the Irish government in a time when they desperately need opinion polls to go in their favour. This should however, also come as a shock to many people who feel that it is unnecessary have a referendum on the same treaty that was rejected last year.

This revised treaty, which originally started out as the failed European Constitution, is forecasted to be to presented to the Irish people in October, when the results of the local and European elections have been forgotten, regardless of the consequences they have on the government.

Corí (“,)

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Jordan & Peter Andre: Who Cares?

Posted in Entertainment, opinion with tags , , on May 17, 2009 by Stewart McCarthy

After 3 and a half years together, Peter Andre and Katie Price have ended their marriage and decided to go their separate ways. The showbiz couple who met on reality TV show ‘I’m a celbrity…get me out of here‘, and who jordan and andre splithave 2 children together, released a statement through their publicity agents Can Associates Limited, who said “They have both requested the media respect their families’ privacy at this difficult time.”

Katie Price, who also goes by the name of Jordan, married singer Peter Andre in the September of 2005. The now separated couple have been together since then and have 2 children together, Junior and Princess.

Since the couple tied the knot, they have rarely left the lime light, giving various interviews as to how their marriage is going, what married life is like, and anything else that the tabloids think will sell.

In light of this earth shattering news, we have to ask; who really cares what these people do? Lets examine their illustrious careers to date.

Firstly, Peter Andre was a very famous singer in 1995 when his single ‘Mysterious Girl’ went to number 2 in the United Kingdom’s singles chart. He then had a number one hit with ‘Flava’.  After these short lived hits, the man has had little success in what he has done, musically anyway (lets not mention Insania).

Katie Price has had a successful career as a glamour model and business woman. She has a personal fortune worth around £30 million. This isn’t too bad considering all she really does is look good.

When combined, they are essentially a couple where one looks good, and the other can’t sing (you decided which is which). Now that the marriage is over, they have again shot to headlines, giving interview in OK! magazine, telling all about their loveless and apparently sexless marriage. Whats more, Jordan has said she is in love with another man, which is bound to be in all the headlines for weeks to come.

In a world where there are thousands of people dying everyday, people being killed for nothing, numerous wars, countless conflicts; what do stories like these actually achieve? Revealing details of every aspect of their lives should be dealt with in private, or by divorce lawyers, not by the tabloid media.

And lets not forget that these people have 2 children and another with special needs from a different relationship. What good is all this publicity doing forjordan and peter andre split them? Days after the anouncment, Katie was seen on remote island somewhere sunning herself, with the children apparently nowhere to be seen.

In a world where people like Paris Hilton have more power than those in charge says a lot. What they also fail to understand is that these people are looked upon by younger generations of people as role models, and this public behaviour is very bad for those who look up to them. This latest saga with Jordan and Andre will surely do no harm to those who are actually effected by this whole thing, their bank managers!

Of course they have asked for their privacy to be respected, but given their past record of porn videos and insightful televisions shows, they have both earned a good living by having no privacy at all, and allowing every aspect of their lives be publicised. So why would they want privacy now?

Corí (“,)

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Hackers Target Facebook Users

Posted in Technology with tags , , on May 15, 2009 by Stewart McCarthy

Hackers launched an attack on Facebook’s 200 million users yesterday, facebook-logosuccessfully gathering passwords from some of them in the latest campaign to prey on members of the popular social networking site.

Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said on Thursday that the site was in the process of cleaning up damage from the attack.

He said that Facebook was blocking compromised accounts. Mr Schnitt declined to say how many accounts had been compromised.

The hackers got passwords through what is known as a phishing attack, breaking into accounts of some Facebook members, then sending e-mails to friends and urging them to click on links to fake websites.

Those sites were designed to look like the Facebook home page. The victims were directed to log back in to the site, but actually logged into the one controlled by the hackers, unwittingly giving away their passwords.

The purpose of such attacks is generally identify theft and to spread spam.

The fake domains include www.151.im, www.121.im and www.123.im. Facebook has deleted all references to those domains.

Mr Schnitt said that Facebook’s security team believes the hackers intended to collect a large number of credentials, then use those accounts at a later time to send spam hawking fake pharmaceuticals and other goods to Facebook members.

The site fought off a similar attack two weeks ago, he said.

Privately held Facebook and rival social network MySpace, which is owned by News Corp, require senders of messages within the network to be members and hide user data from people who do not have accounts. Because of that, users tend to be far less suspicious of messages they receive.

Hackers used a phishing attack last year to spread a malicious virus known as Koobface (a reference to Facebook). It was downloaded onto Facebook members’ PCs when they clicked on a link sent to them in an email that looked like it had been sent by a friend on Facebook.

Source: Reuters

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Latest Polls Show Boost For Opposition Party

Posted in political with tags , , , on May 15, 2009 by Stewart McCarthy

The latest Irish Times /TNS mrb poll has show a significant increase in thenda kennye support of the opposition political party Fine Gael, who currently stands in opposition to the government lead by Fianna Fáil.  Approval rating of the government have hit an all time low as the impact of the recession is finally hitting home where it hurts for the government, in the polls.

The latest poll has show that Fine Gael has an overall approval rating of 38%, up six points. Those polled where asked who would the theoretically vote for in there was a general election in the country tomorrow.

This may come as no surprise given that the government has been in the firing line of all criticisms since the global financial crisis reached our shores in August of last year. Criticisms have been launched at the Government and their coalition partners the Green Party for not doing enough to reduce the impact the crisis had in our country. These criticisms are coupled with rising unemployment, deflation of the market, a recession and huge reduction in public spending.

Fine Gael have openly opposed the majority of the governments decision in relation to the recession, most notably the huge reduction in public spending and the tackling of the over employment in the public sector. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny would be voted in as the new Taoiseach tomorrow is the Irish voters were to vote in a general election.

However, the public is split on this issue, many of whom regard Enda Kenny as not up to the standard of being Taoiseach, but admit that there is not many other options available. Eamon Gilmore, leader of the Labour Party has also lost some credibility seeing his party’s approval rating also fall by one point.

As the local and European election loom, it will be interesting to see if the sentiments felt by the Irish electorate in the latest opinion poll will reflect the outcome of the coming elections. If it does, it spells good news for Fine Gael, but bad news for Brian Cowen and his loyal supporters.

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Why Bebo Sucks

Posted in Technology with tags , on May 14, 2009 by Stewart McCarthy

Bebo, Facebook, MySpace, Nimble, Tagged, Hi5, Badoo… There are so many options available in the social network sphere that it is hard to see what people will choose. But there is one thing that is clear, its not Bebo!

Bebo is a social networking website that was initially set up in the Unites bebo-logoStates so college students could connect with each other. since then, it has grown into new markets, allowing millions of people to register and connect with current and long lost friends. That was 2005. Jump to four years later, and there is a new player in town. Facebook

Facebook is the largest of all the social network sites and now has over 200 million active users. The introduction of Facebook to the social networking market didn’t immediately send shivers down the spin of the Bebo Bigwigs. But it does now. Why?

When Bebo became extremely popular in Ireland, around the year 2005/2006, the main users where teenagers and young adults between the ages of 14-21. It was seen as the most popular outlet for these people, who took pictures specifically for the site, updating their profiles almost daily and left comments on their friends profiles religiously. However, since the year the 2006, these people have grown up, and have seen the actual use of social networking sites.

Bebo failed to notice the change in attitudes of the people who used the site so often. Facebook entered the scene at a time when the teenagers of 2006 had matured, and who didn’t want to customise every aspect of their profiles. Facebook took social networking back to basics, whereas Bebo got caught up in trying to offer its members more and more new things.

Social networking was no longer a popularity contest. It was a useful tool. Bebo has recently introduced a number of new aspects to their site, allowing for even more customization, but who cares? If eveyones page looks the same, will that effect what your real friends think of you? Certainly not! Connecting with friends was always the draw to sites like Bebo, not customization.

Bebos original owners sold the company in 2008 to Internet giant AOL, and since then, interest in the website and users figures are dropping at an alarming rate. The Irish people have realised that Bebo was a fad, Facebook is a way of life.

Nobody could have foreseen the importance social networking would play in our life, but fewer people would have foreseen the impact it would make on our lives. Bebo has failed miserably to keep up with the evolution of peoples opinion, preferring rather to stick to their guns. They have failed to attract the new teenagers of this generation, who have also chosen to join Facebook.

As this trend seems to continue, and regular Bebo users migrating to facebook in their millions, Bebo looks like the new playground for those ex-teenagers who want to maintain there youth status, and stay ahead in the online popularity contest!

social networking users graph

Corí (“,)

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Good Girl Gone (very) Bad

Posted in International, Music with tags , , , on May 11, 2009 by Stewart McCarthy

Since Thursday photos have been flying around the Internet supposedly showing the pop princess Rihanna naked in a hotel bathroom. The pictrihannaures supposedly depict the young starlet without clothes, showing more to her fans than many would have ever believed.

Two of the pictures clearly show the singer’s face, while five others show a female body. One picture depicts a women flaunting a nipple ring and covering her lower region with her hand.

Surprisingly, one photo of the set depicts a young man, allegedly Chris Brown, Rihanna’s on-off boyfriend, sitting on a bed with a pair of panties on his head.

However, Rihanna’s record label, headed by rap phenomenon Jay-Z, have demanded that the pictures be removed from the Internet, claiming that they are fake. Jay-Z says that the photos are violating the personal rights of the artist.

The news of Rihanna’s naked picture scandal comes just a short time after news broke that another beautiful young singer Cassie has also had naked photos of herself onto the Internet. A computer hacker allegedly scanned her computer and uploaded the imaged onto the web.

Regardless of whether the pictures are real or not (although it is hard to deny their credibility), the publicity generated from these pictures will no doubt do the young singer a great deal of good after her spectacular bust-up with then boyfriend Chris Brown at the Grammy Awards.

It appears that the Paris Hilton-effect is creaping into every aspect of life, after witnessing the same thing happen to Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan to name just a few. Our only question is, Who’s next? Where do the levels of morality drop to before it becomes too much? Oprah, Hillary Clinton….Obama?

One thing is for certain however, a new Rihanna single is just around the corner, and what better way to publicise a turbulent career than with a little more flesh!

To see the pictures, click the link below.

Rihanna’s Alleged Naked Pictures

Corí (“,)

****Please note that the following pictures are only suitable for people over the age of 18, and contains scenes of nudity which is unsuitable for younger people****

Disclaimer: The Irish Agenda, its writers or associated parties do not host or show any of the aforementioned pictures, and accepts no responsibility for the actions of third parties.

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