Ag Clúdú na hÚcráine don Phainéal Idirnáisiúnta ar Tús Áite / Covering Ukraine for the International Panel on Tús Áite

 Ag Clúdú na hÚcráine inniu don Phainéal Idirnáisiúnta ar Tús Áite / Covering Ukraine today for the International Panel on Tús Áite, RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta

Kudos and Thanks to WPUNJ Model UN Club for Sympathy Gift

 I wouldn't normally post so personally, but I really must say how moved and touched I was yesterday when a representative from the WPUNJ Model United Nations stopped by my office and gave me this lovely flower arrangement as a gesture of sympathy on the recent death of my mother Helen O'Byrne/Helen Bean Uí Bhroin.

Many thanks Chris Mejia, Mu'men Musa, Alanna, Aiden, Ishani, and Rama.

Éire/Ireland at WPUNJ Globefest 2025

President of William Paterson University Richard Helldobler with student Ána Ní Bhroin and Professor Brian Ó Broin at the Ireland stand for the university's Model United Nations international festival "Globefest".

Professor Ó Broin gave a short speech and sang some verses from the Irish sean-nós (traditional style) song Anach Cuain.

"Iniúchadh" ar champas William Paterson University

 

Faoi agallamh ag Kevin Magee (CleanSlate Television) do chlár doiciméadach sa tsraith "Iniúchadh" atá á dhéanamh do TG4.

Being interviewed by Kevin Magee (CleanSlate Television) for a documentary program in the series "Inúchadh" ("Scrutiny") which is being made for the national Irish broadcaster TG4.

Eckhart Tolle - The Power of Now review by Brian Ó Broin

I really did not like this book, despite its positive message. I'd give it one star out of five. It gets that single star for its basic message, which is "Live in the Now, for you can do little or nothing about the past or the future."

I disliked this book for several reasons:

1) The prose is clunky and full of New Age jargon (e.g. "Your main task as a woman now is to transmute the pain-body so that it no longer comes between you and your true self, the essence of who you are.")

2) Tolle's tone is often disdainful. He frequently accuses his imaginary interlocutor (a stand-in for the reader) of not understanding him. How can he know this? And surely the fault of not being understandable lies with the author? He asks rhetorical questions that are often intended to make the reader feel foolish.

3) The message is too short for a book, so the book is dreadfully padded. By the end, it's become a slog, and you have learned little or nothing new that wasn't explained in chapter one or two.

Tolle seems to be repackaging Zen Buddhism (with a side order of superficial Christian quotables) but is doing so with that classic hippie-dippie new age jargon that is so off-putting. He keeps quoting from the bible, but rarely gives chapter and verse, and the reason for that is that most of his quotes are taken out of context or rephrased to suit his message.

One message that resonated, but that Tolle had clearly dug up from elsewhere, is that most human beings act out of fear and other basic emotions, and that their behaviour is therefore foolish, ill-considered, and illogical. Once you can distance yourself from those toxic emotions (and perhaps from those humans) you are free to view the world --the now-- as you want to. 

In the end, I wanted to learn more about how Tolle himself had put his philosophy into practice, but there's precious little about that, making me wonder how much of this book's message is "do as I say, not as I do." I understand his books and lectures and recordings and merchandise have made him a multi-millionaire, yet I see no evidence of his having redistributed that wealth in any meaningful way, and I see no personal anecdotes in this book that would persuade me that he actually practices what he preaches.

I came away from this book actually feeling a little bit anxious. What have I missed? Why haven't I experienced the revelation? Why am I not seeing the tree glow? Am I one of the unconscious human morons he disparages?

But fear not - he'll be speaking (or sitting on a stage) in Calgary next April, and front row seats are only $2000! Makes me wonder what Jesus charged for the Sermon on the Mount.

Dual Boot Ubuntu/Windows on an Acer Aspire ES1-512 RESOLVED

I literally spent years trying to get this to work - without success - until now.

Acer obviously put considerable thought into designing a BIOS that would not support Ubuntu or dual boot.

The secret to doing this is to install Ubuntu the old fashioned way (just use the defaults, and don't let it install over the Windows OS). Jump through the usual hoops to install off a USB drive, or off a CD-Rom, if you have one. It'll go through the usual installation process, but . . .

On reboot, the usual option window won't show up. The machine will simply boot into Windows again, and will completely ignore your Ubuntu installation.

So now you'll go into the BIOS again.

Under "Main" ensure that "F12 Boot Menu" is enabled.

Under "Security" set a supervisor password. This will open up the blanked-out options on this page. Once you have set that password, on the same page go to "Select an UEFI file as trusted for executing."

Choose HDD0, or whatever the option is (there should be only one).

Now choose "EFI"

Now choose "Ubuntu" (it *should* be there!).

Now choose "shimx64.efi"

Give it a good name.

Press F10.

On reboot, repeatedly press F12 until the boot options come up. One should be Windows Boot Manager, and the other should be the good name that you gave shimx64.efi.

Choose that name.

Ubuntu will boot.

I got most of this information from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD3JtoSbfOo

Hope this helps.

Duais sa Scéalaíocht in Oireachtas na Samhna 2024

 Bhuaigh mé an dara duais sa chomórtas scéalaíochta in Oireachtas na Samhna 2024 leis an scéal "Fionn Mac Cumhaill agus an Bhean Ruadh!

 I won second prize in Oireachtas na Samhna 2024 with the story "Fionn Mac Cumhaill and the Redheaded Woman"

 Seo nasc go dtí an scéal: https://sites.google.com/view/sgeal/home