Notices by iona 🐝 (iona@social.coop), page 49

@ghost_bird If you're going into the kind of place where they just put 6 instead of £6 you're cooler than me

@bob @cathal It is an interesting and valid point of view - but perhaps erases the experiences of those of us who grew up in island nations.

The vast majority of us in the UK (those of us in Eng/Sco/Wales) experience a world where the border is very real. You can't leave the country without the hassle and expense of boats and planes, you can't cycle or drive or wander across the border into the next country. Leaving the country is a very deliberate thing.

It is an isolating experience.

@nev Whoever is making Star Citizen has a very flashy office in a very nice town near where I grew up. The kind of place where there's a Maserati dealer on one corner and a Lamborghini dealer opposite.

They have to pay the rent somehow, who can blame them for trying? /s

@Damage I'm in Ireland at present where the local radio does a good line in Death Notices.

"Radio Kerry regrets to announce the passing of the following people..."
"...Radio Kerry death notices! Brought to you by SuperValu where this week it's four beef burgers for just €3.99!"

@Damage You won't get a place on any courses at Bournville College, they're choc a block

@vfrmedia @Damage I live in urban Yorkshire and we have loads of owls

The constant moving of literally everything from the TV schedules for World Cup matches reminds me of all the times Only Connect got bumped last year for things like the FA Cup First Round Qualifier between Dynamo Skegness and AFC Bourton-on-the-Water.

Funny how they can always find the airtime for f*** EastEnders, though.

@Damage Bournville College, what do they teach? Choconomics?

@cathal I like the evenings and nights on Lyric FM, the Mystery Train and the Blue of the Night are a bit like BBC R3's Late Junction but not on at a ridiculous hour of the night! I quite often listen on satellite back home.

I'm quite a way from Cork city so all I'm getting in local stations is the main ones - 96 FM, C103, Red FM and something called Spin.

@cathal I don't know who it was, but there was a bloke on 4FM yesterday who seemed convinced that no women anywhere would be interested in the World Cup football. Sadly it's the best of an awful bunch of stations.

(Incidentally, another basic rule of radio is "know what your station's called". It shows 4FM on the car radio screen but the presenters call it Classic Hits radio.)

Up in Sligo they did the talk shows but the content was more light-hearted. This stuff is just shock-jock crap.

Radio is not rocket science. Play some tunes, give out some news, sports results, information, have a bit of a chat and a laugh. Make sure everyone on air is sober, don't swear and don't blast out threats.

I've always loved listening to radio stations big and small on my travels - this is the first place where I've thought "fuck this, I'll drive in silence instead".

I have travelled to a lot of places over the years and listened to a lot of radio but I can categorically say that I've never heard radio worse than the stations in Cork.

They are all doing shock jock type phone-ins, some of the guests sound drunk, and one station (96 FM?) had an actual fight with swearing and threats on air - "you come over here and say that, you wouldn't last five fucking minutes!"

@samtoland Same in the UK but we do at least have voices questioning the quality of the jobs or the wider impact of corporations on national life. In Ireland it feels like there's an attitude that you should just be grateful to the almighty 'job creators' and not question.

It is very easy to run a country when you can charge corporations next to no tax and entice them with handouts, then go to the EU with the begging bowl for subsidies when the sums don't add up and you've got roads to fix.

Far harder to balance the nation's books when you have to charge in tax what it actually costs to run the country, and make corporations actually pay it.

Irish radio news today sounded like an advertorial for Amazon. No criticism of the company whatsoever allowed - just a glowing report about the benevolent US tech overlords gracing Ireland with a few hundred jobs.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2018/0618/971353-amazon-web-services-jobs/

This is what a country that has sold its soul to Big Tech looks like.

Radio Kerry consists entirely of really boring blokes on incomprehensible mobile phone lines talking about hurling.

One of the other stations has a DJ who seemed incapable of understanding that any women anywhere might be enjoying the football World Cup.

If any actual professionally formatted stations set up here, these complacent timewarp Irish local radio stations would just fall off the air.

This came across my timeline earlier (SFW): https://www.thebooksmugglers.com/2018/06/between-the-coats-a-sensitivity-read-changed-my-life-an-essay-by-sarah-gailey.html

I like it, but sometimes I feel like the "queer people are allowed to have happy stories" narrative comes with an unspoken caveat of "...as long as those stories look like those of ordinary straight people - conventional attractiveness, relationship, sex, marriage, kids, two SUVs in the drive, financial success."

Why can't we widen what it means to be happy for EVERYONE?

@DC7IA That happened to me when I tried to sign up for Twitter. I don't have a physical "landline" at home, just a VoIP number that looks like a local area code number.

When I walk past bars that literally advertise craic on the wall outside, I wonder. Are tourists coming to see Ireland, or coming to see the version of Ireland they've got in their heads?

If you're tailgating and hassling drivers because they've got UK plates, you can stop watching our TV, following our football teams etc. I'm sure RTE telly isn't that bad /s

Alternatively we could all just get along, which would be vastly preferable. Grow up.