Réalta Rac-cheoil na Seascaidí ar Shlí na Fírinne!

60's Rock Star Dead!

by | 2023/02/01 | Obituary

60's Rock Star Dead!

You would think that reading the obituary column is not pleasant, and I must confess that I was once of the same opinion. But after reading a few, I saw a special value in them, and then I was hooked. It is a summary of a person's life, and although not all of them are special, they are worth reading because the odd gem is to be found. It is very exciting to read such a special obituary, because you get an insight not only into the life of the deceased, but also into your own life. That is a very beneficial experience, no doubt. The singer and writer David Crosby died recently, a man who was very famous in the sixties in America and around the world. I read a lot of obituaries about him, and mostly they were just a long list of facts. But then I read the report written by Steve Chawkins in the 'Los Angeles Times' and it really hit home for me. I was laughing, I was crying, nodding my head and shaking my head, while reading the obituary. At times I almost felt like I was in the presence of the 'Croz' itself. And most powerful of all, I saw that 'Croz' lived life to the fullest, under obligation to no one on earth! But without a doubt there was a price to pay, and 'Croz' paid dearly for it! You see the strengths and weaknesses of 'Croz' clearly laid out on the table, and through that, you get a small glimpse of the human condition itself. I encourage you to read that column if you can! But in the meantime, here are just a few highlights.

Cúpla Buaicphointe

Crosby and his bandmates sold 35 million records. He was twice inducted into the 'Rock & Roll Hall of Fame' — once as a member of the group 'The Byrds' and once as a member of the group 'Crosby, Stills & Nash'.

Crosby sailed around the world in a schooner called the Mayan. He was the pilot of his own plane. He had a huge ranch near Santa Barbara in California. As he got older, he was struck by a burst of creativity and released four albums and did a series of successful concerts with his son in the band CPR.

More amazing than that, he was still alive at the time! He suffered from diabetes and arterial disease, and had eight cardiac stents. When hepatitis C destroyed his liver in 1994, doctors saved his life with a transplant. He was addicted to alcohol, heroin and cocaine. He stopped after spending 11 months behind bars in Texas for drug and weapons offenses.

When asked in the 2019 documentary "David Crosby: Remember My Name" how he managed to keep going, he succinctly replied: "I have no idea, man!"

His first band 'The Byrds' fired Crosby after he insulted them badly! It was a great band, and their songs were chart toppers. 'Mr. Tambourine Man' went to the top of the charts, and the song sold a million copies at the time.

Matters quickly soured between Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY), and they fought together for more than fifty years. He wrote in his autobiography: “I know I have an ego! Not everyone agrees on its health, size and value!”

“There was a clear dynamic between the four of us, and we've all done terrible things,” Crosby said of CSNY to Vanity Fair magazine in 2019. “But I've let them down worse than anything they've ever done to me. I was a junkie! There is no lower stage in human development than being a junkie, which I did right in front of them.”

His life came to a head in 1982 when he was accused of possessing drugs and guns. He spent nine months in prison, and then gave up drugs.

He wrote in his book 'Long Time Gone' about prison: "It was serious business: barbed wire, machine gun towers, and a huge buck with no neck wearing a cowboy hat and saying to me: Hey, rock star, get over here,boy!”

Crosby met her son James Raymond for the first time in 1994. They became great friends, they had a band together (CPR), and I think that was when Crosby finally found forgiveness and closure in his complicated life.

 

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An tarcaisne a chur i gceann na héagóra!

Adding insult to injury!

by | 2023/01/25 | Current Affairs, Language Affairs, International News, Opinion

Adding insult to injury!

I have an incredible story for you today, a story that awakens memories of our own history in Ireland, in relation to our language.

In September 2022, bad storms blew across northwest Alaska. They were caused by typhoon Merbok, and they caused a lot of damage in places where Native American people live. The United States government (Federal Emergency Management Agency – it's called FEMA) provided money to repair the damage. Many Indigenous people had to apply to get money. Because they have their own languages, FEMA had to provide them with instructions in Yup'ik and Inupiaq.

FEMA awarded the translation contract to a small company in California, called "Accent on Languages." It was an utter disaster!

Frásaí Aisteacha!

When candidates started working on their applications, they expected instructions to help them fill out the paperwork. But instead, all they had to read were gibberish and strange phrases. For example, here is one sentence: "Tomorrow, we will go hunting, and we will not take anything with us." Here's another: "Your husband is a polar bear, skinny!"

Another document was in the wrong language. Instead of being in the Iñupiaq language, it was written in Inuktitut, a language that uses its own alphabet. Inuktitut is spoken 5,000 kilometers away from the area in question, in Labrador and Quebec in Canada.

In one press release, the 'State News Desk' was translated as "When she said that, the dog ran further away from the curtain".

An abrupt response

Tara Sweeney, an Iñupiaq who previously worked for the US Department of Home Affairs, told the AP that there was "symbolism" in the errors that went back to when Alaska Native languages were being erased in residential schools. in the 1900s.

“Like thousands of others in Alaska, my mother was beaten because she spoke her own language at school. When you see the federal government now, distributing documents in our languages, , I can't describe the feeling that that symbolism inspires in me" said Sweeney, talking to 'Associated Press' (AP) .

Jaclyn Rothenberg, a spokeswoman for FEMA, told the AP that the company "Accent on Languages" was fired and FEMA redid the translation. The aid was not postponed as a result of the error, Rothenberg told the AP.

Caroline Lee, CEO of "Accent on Languages", said that in their 30 years of translating, they had never experienced such a catastrophic failure. She fired the translators who were responsible for the mistranslations. Following this disaster, new measures were put in place to ensure that this would not happen again. FEMA will also be reimbursed in full, she said.

Conclusion

This story informs us about the problems faced by minority languages around the world. Wherever various empires have oppressed the native peoples, they have almost wiped out their languages. They added insult to injury in making a terrible mess in their efforts to use the same languages they destroyed in the first place. I have to say that I fully and completely agree with what Tara Sweeney has to say on the subject. After understanding this story, it dawned on me that FEMA did not ask the tribes in question to make the transfers. Don't they know their own languages best? The United States government should have a policy in place to offer a contract like that to those who speak the minority languages.

Bad things happen in Ireland too, unfortunately, when it comes to our own language!

I remember one terrible example where Cork County Council - a county where the Múscráí Gaeltacht is located - used 'Google Translate' to provide original content on the County Council's website in Irish.

Or you may remember the major problems faced by the Central Statistics Office a few years ago, as their system for providing information about the most common names given to children did not include names with fadas on them. The CSO's explanation for their system being faulty was technological difficulties.

It was no surprise then, that both the HSE and "Bank of Ireland" said that technological issues were the cause of all the fadas being missing in their own systems.

The bottom line is that we all have to constantly put pressure on our governments, whether in Ireland or Alaska, to protect our native languages!

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Intleacht Shaorga Ghiniúnach!

Generative Artificial Intelligence

by | 2023/01/18 | Current Affairs, Science and Technology, International News, Opinion

Generative Artificial Intelligence

According to experts on the subject, artificial intelligence (AI) will reach a point, soon enough, where the machines will be more powerful than their creators. Undoubtedly, the power of AI is increasing faster and faster and the technology is just starting out! Like it or not, AI will play a central role in our lives before long.

When we think of IS, it seems that we think of robots and machines. Although we are correct, it is essentially software. When you run AI software on the distributed computing system called the Cloud, that forms a very powerful platform. AI software uses algorithms to process data located on the internet, to make decisions without any human intervention. The AI branch called Generative AI generates images, text - including poetry, music and artwork.

As a new field of AI, Generative AI is developing rapidly. There are now products online that allow users to try Generative AI for themselves, for free. One organization is responsible for that – OpenAI.

OpenAI

OpenAI was started in San Francisco in 2015 as a non-profit organization. In 2019, however, OpenAI partnered with Microsoft. Microsoft invested $1 billion in it at that time, and they are thinking of investing 10 billion soon. Microsoft intends to integrate Generative AI with their search engine, Bing (similar to Google).

In 2020, OpenAI announced GPT-3, a language model trained on trillions of words from the internet. In 2021, OpenAI released DALL-E, a deep learning neural network that can generate digital images from textual descriptions.

Around December 2022, OpenAI received widespread media coverage after they launched a free preview of ChatGPT, their new chat bot. According to OpenAI, over a million people logged in in the first week.

DALL-E and ChatGPT

You can create images with DALL-E and create text with ChatGPT.

I asked DALL-E to create a picture of 'a clock in the desert in the style of the artist Salvador Dali', and DALL-E drew some amazing computer generated images that were all very interesting. I recommend you try DALL-E. There is an app available for your smartphone, and you will have a lot of fun playing with it.

When I asked the question "do many people speak Irish?" on ChatGPT, part of its response was as follows (with a few corrections):

"Many people speak Irish in this country, where the language was a living language before. Irish is the official language in this country and it is also being used as a language of education in some schools and as a spoken language in some areas of the country, including the Gaeltacht areas."

I suggest you try ChatGPT as well. Go to the site https://chat.openai.com/chat and you will be able to use it for free!

Advantages and Disadvantages

We need to discuss the pros and cons of Generative AI. Undoubtedly, it is a controversial topic. On the one hand, this technology puts powerful new tools in our hands, to help us in new ways that were not available before. Writers, artists, musicians and the like will be able to quickly create comprehensive frameworks using Generative AI, and will be able to spend more time in creative thinking!

On the other hand, there are great challenges to be solved because of important issues. It will be difficult for the law to keep up with the rapid pace of technology. Because Generative AI relies on the data available on the internet – data of all kinds both good and bad, the system is fundamentally biased as a result. Basically, this system is unable to distinguish between high quality and poor quality data. There are also issues of copyright, intellectual property and plagiarism of other people's work. Perhaps even worse, cybercriminals will be able to use technology to commit more sophisticated cybercrime online.

Conclusion

Whether we like it or not, there is no stopping the development of this revolutionary technology. We need to reduce any negative impact as much as possible. We will have to implement new rules and regulations to do that, both nationally and internationally.

In my opinion, when Generative AI is used correctly, new miraculous abilities are placed in our hands, abilities that will improve year after year.

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Tuartha 2023!

Predictions for 2023!

by | 2023/01/11 | Personal, Opinion

Predictions for 2023!

 Ag deireadh na bliana, bíonn go leor daoine agus eagraíochtaí ag déanamh tuartha agus tairngreachtaí don bhliain nua. Táthar ann a chreideann cuid acu, ach ní áirím mé féin ina measc siúd. Ina ainneoin sin, tá na tuartha céanna an-suimiúil agus is ábhar machnaimh iad den chuid is mó. Ar a laghad, feiceann tú cruinneshamhail duine eile, agus uaireanta bainfidh sé sin geit asat, toisc go bhfuil sé go hiomlán éagsúil le do chruinneshamhail féin. Seo dhá shraith de thuartha, ceann amháin foilsithe san almanag dar teideal ‘Old Moore’s Almanac’ (foilsíodh é den chéad uair in 1764), agus an ceann eile fógartha ag iar-Uachtarán na Rúise, Dmitry Medvedev.

 

 

Predictions from Old Moore's Almanac

 

 

Here are some of the predictions in the Almanac for the year 2023.

 

 

• There will be a "big reset" of the financial system in 2023. It's hard for me to go from the general thing to the specific things that could happen as a result.
• An "Atlantic event" will affect the west coast of Ireland next year. It is a big event, according to this prediction. It is not mentioned what kind of incident it is.
• The increases in house prices here will be slower, but still increasing. I don't agree with that, because I think we're going to see a significant drop in house prices.
• Limerick will win in Hurling, and Kerry in Football. What about Kilkenny? What kind of prediction is this?
• There will be a "serious health warning" for Donald Trump. He is not in good health, and there is a good chance that something will happen to him in the coming year, I think.
• The internet will suffer a global outage. I do not agree with that, because it is a distributed system and it would be very difficult to imagine how the whole system can be broken - pieces of it, maybe.
• Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will have "marriage and money problems". I don't care about them!
• We will have a new Pope. There is a decent chance of that, because he's not in good health and he's also getting old!

 

 

Predictions from Dmitry Medvedev

 

 

"On New Year's Eve, everyone is making predictions," Medvedev tweeted. "Many come up with wild predictions, as if they were competing with the craziest and even the most absurd ones," Medvedev said adding to such predictions.

 

 

• Part of Ukraine will be held by Poland and Hungary. The "Fourth Reich" will be created, which will include the territory of Germany and its satellites - Poland, the Baltic States, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and a few other places as well. Then, there will be war between France and the "Fourth Reich" and, in the process, Europe will be divided. This prediction makes no sense or reason. Poland and Hungary are part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (ECAT), which is allied with Ukraine. Germany has no ambition to establish an empire either, due to its shameful history.
• Northern Ireland will separate from the United Kingdom and join the Republic of Ireland. As we all know, this is an absurd prediction, as Irish reunification is a complex process, and a majority in the North needs to be in favor of reunification before anything else. The majority isn't there right now, and that won't change for the foreseeable future.
• Civil war breaks out in the United States, and California and Texas become independent states as a result. Texas and Mexico will be allied states. Although there are political problems in the United States, there is no sign that civil war will break out anytime soon. Texas and Mexico don't like each other, and it's hard to imagine them ever being allies!
• Elon Musk will win the presidential election in the states that, after the end of the civil war, side with the Republican Party. This is the most absurd prediction! No doubt Musk thought Medvedev's predictions (and especially this one) were hilarious, as he responded with his own tweet, saying: "Epic Tweet!"

 

 

Conclusion

 

 

The difference between those two sets of predictions is night and day, and while 'Old Moore's Almanac' predictions are kind of believable, Dmitry Medvedev's predictions are laughable. The difference? In my opinion, Medvedev does not know the trade secret. Here's the secret: 'Use vague expressions in your predictions, and then no matter what happens, there's a good chance that your prophecy will come true!

 

 

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Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh – Cuid a Dó!

Happy New Year to You - Part 2!

by | 2023/01/04 | Personal, Opinion

Happy New Year to You - Part 2!

Last week, I was looking back at some of the highlights of 2022. It is now time for us to say goodbye to 2022. Alfred Tennyson said goodbye to the old year like this:

“Ring out wild bells to the wild sky,

The flying cloud, the frosty lights;

The year is dying in the night,

Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

It is time for us too to welcome the new year. In the same poem, Tennyson welcomed the new year like this:

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:

The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true…”

It is a great poem, written by Tennyson in 1850. In almost every verse, we bid farewell to the bad things that happened in the old year and we welcome the opportunities we will have in the new year to do positive things instead. In this way, the new year is seen as an opportunity for us to make improvements in our lives and in society itself. Isn't that a great idea!

New Year's Resolutions Athbhliana

Around this time I tend to make new year's resolutions, trying to improve myself and do things that have been on the long finger. Years ago, I used to break my resolutions before long. But, gradually, I learned how to formulate realistic resolutions, and then how to implement them. If you are interested in learning more about that approach, I recommend you read this book: 'Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything', written by behavioral scientist BJ Fogg.

In that book, the author advises us to make only small changes at first, but to make them regularly. For example, if I'm trying to get fitter, I might start with a short walk (one kilometer) every day. After a while when I was happy with that, I would go for longer walks every day. I would continue like that, until I was satisfied with the amount of exercise I was doing. If you set out to achieve a big goal at first, it's all too easy to lose heart and give up on the goal.

My New Year's Resolutions

Here are my resolutions regarding the Irish language, because I intend to improve my Irish. The following activities will be carried out through the medium of Irish.

• Listening. I will listen every day – at least half an hour. I have apps on my phone, and I have both live television and radio and podcasts available in Irish.
• Reading. I will read every day – at least half an hour. I already have both e-books and regular books. For example, I recently received the book 'Madame Lazare' from the site siopaleabhar.com, and I intend to read it this year. I also love Tuairisc.ie, and I read at least one or two articles every day.
• Speaking. This is a difficult one, because people (or at least one person) need to be available, who speak Irish. Pop-up Gaeltachts both live and virtual (Zoom) are available and many people like them. Unfortunately, they don't suit me well, and because I'm not comfortable in them so I'm reluctant to say anything. Although my wife and I are reluctant to speak Irish, we will reserve half an hour every week, to speak Irish together.
• Writing. I will continue to write these pieces, for the Kilkenny People, as long as the learned Editor of this great newspaper is willing to give me space, and add to that, that I am now determined to speak out more boldly and forcefully than as I did, up till now. A government reshuffle is in place with Leo Varadkar as Taoiseach and the new Minister of State for the Gaeltacht Patrick O'Sullivan in office. Therefore, I have decided to keep a close eye on language matters, and on political matters, together, in the coming year.
• New website. I will be launching my website in Irish and making this article available online for my readers!

Parting Shot

All I have to do now is to wish you all a very happy New Year, and many happy returns.

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