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Hashgraph – can it give Blockchain a run for its money?
Ken Anderson, admin of the official Hashgraph Telegram Dev Group as well as CTO for Irish ICO Mingo, believes that Hashgraph has the potential to either eliminate or upgrade the many issues facing the Blockchain. ‘It makes sense that the next step is not another public Blockchain, but a new distributed ledger technology,’ he says. ‘Development is all about improving technology, not getting a piggy back just for the sake of it.’ Maybe it is his background as an ex-Military Intelligence Specialist in the US Army that makes Anderson somewhat fearless when it comes to evaluating new technology. ‘I’m committed to vetting Hashgraph,’ he says. Anderson and his developers in Mingo have been given permission to go inside the technology but it will be several months before he will commit to his final verdict on the new distributed ledger. So what is Hashgraph and why might it have the potential to overthrow Blockchain? Firstly, it should be noted that the Hashgraph platform, which is a distributed ledger developed by Swirlds, is currently a private ledger, does not have an ICO planned nor does it have a cryptocurrency. It does however, take some pretty big swipes at the problematic issues facing […]
Continue readingRIP – Simon Fitzmaurice – filmmaker, writer, dad
Yesterday writer and film director Simon Fitzmaurice died. He had motor neuron disease and despite all the odds he went on to father twins, write a a book and direct his original screen play – My Name is Emily. I did not know him, but I had a part in his film. A naked part – where I and 99 other people ran screaming into the Irish sea on a damp Tuesday afternoon at the end of summer in 2014. I went to the premier of the film the following year in Galway and my naked posterior was still there for all to view. He was an amazing man – married to an equally amazing woman, Ruth. RIP Simon and prayers for his young family.
Continue readingWorkplace Bullying – what can you do?
Awareness of workplace bullying is much higher although proving it legally is still a very tough process. According to the Supreme Court the definition of bullying is repeated behaviour that ‘must be outrageous, unacceptable, and exceeding all bounds tolerated by decent society.’ Often employees may endure treatment that is annoying, upsetting and perceived to be personal but according to Justice Peter Charlton the test for bullying must of necessity be set very high. So while the legal route may be fraught with difficulty, research points to the ongoing negative impacts of bullying in the workplace. The ERSI report on ‘Bullying in the Workplace’ from 2007 highlighted some very interesting statistics including that women were more likely to suffer bullying than their male counterparts, in fact the risk was almost double with 10.7% of women more at risk than 5.8% of men. 60% of the 3,500 respondents interviewed considered quitting their jobs as a result, while 15% actually did leave. Not surprisingly 20% said they had taken sick leave directly as a result of the bullying, with a further 48% saying the bullying had a detrimental impact on the lives outside of work. Where bullying does exist […]
Continue readingWilliam Crozier – fantastic new exhibition in IMMA (Ireland)
Last night I attended the opening night of the exhibition of William Crozier in IMMA, Dublin Ireland. There was a lecture first with the curator Sean Kinsella – who gave a fascinating account of Crozier’s life and influences from post war, the cold war, Irish and UK landscapes, existentialism, and finally how he painted with ordinary paints – from his local hardware store. I met a new friend and artist Mary Cooke and we viewed the images together – and I even got a selfie with Crozier’s selfie Well worth a visit – website And here is a short video
Continue readingThinking Men’s Erotica
Men’s Erotica It is a thing you know. I found out by accident. As PRO for a top football club in Ireland I met a lot of new faces and lots of new sporting (male) journalists. A number were intrigued by a woman holding such a position. They checked out my history and discovered amongst other things that I have written a trilogy of erotica — not just any old erotica — but as it turns out, Thinking Men’s Erotica. It is sassy, fast paced modern writing; comic in parts, interesting in parts. It is a modern essay on post Celtic Tiger Ireland but with sex, lots of it. That is the bit that surprises men. They don’t expect to get wood from reading. At least not without any pictures on the side. So there you have it — Men like to read for Pleasure. Watch the video HERE
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