james mahon journalist

Through Irish Eyes, A Year On.

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After 9 episodes of Through Irish Eyes, the series is now coming home.

The brainchild of  Georgia TV producer William Collins Parker and Videographer Ashley Henderson has led me as the only Irish news reporter in local US television on many an adventure.

From Line-dancing to shooting guns and red-kneck wrestling to College Football, “The South” has shown itself to be a rich and diverse haven of culture and humor.

Next Month the series will focus on Irish Culture rather than that of American.The aim is to showcase Ireland at Christmas to the viewers in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. Albeit 4200 miles apart their are many similarities and differences between both worlds.

Christmas is both a religion and family focused occasion for both societies yet the focus on materialism in the US as recently highlighted by “Black Friday” differ from that of the west coast of Ireland, famous for its “12 pubs of Christmas” and seasonal drinking and music.

For More Information On Our Adventures check out,

http://www.wdef.com/content/primenews/irisheyes/default.aspx

 

So Bebo is Back?

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In an effort to understand why former  social networking mega site Bebo.com has returned like Jesus from the Tomb, I spoke to one of the men behind it all, Shaan Puri a web developer and colleague of the site’s famous married couple creators.

 

1, Why now?

Bebo went up for auction, and we knew if we made a bold move we could get it. It was a calculated move, relatively low risk, high reward. We had an idea that  we were excited about for the new Bebo, so we decided to go for it. 

2, How has social media changed since bebo started?

First, mobile devices. Every year, there’s more and more people that are carrying around little super computers in their pocket.  The “old guard” of social networks were not designed for that, but they are trying to adapt. We’re starting with a concept that’s made for mobile. 

3, what do you hope to achieve?

Make something that millions of people love to use.

4, How soon will we see results?

Within 6 months hopefully.
 
5, how can the public play a role?
Believe that this impossible comeback can happen. By that I mean, give Bebo a try when it’s ready. From there, the product should make you fall in love with it. Email me at Bebo@monkeyinferno.com 

6, any advice for budding web and I.T designers and developers?

Put your product in people’s hands, earlier rather than later. Start learning what excites people and what turns them off, then go back to the drawing board. Also, if you’re a particularly talented developer, join us 🙂

Heaven’s got a plan for You

The Swedish House Mafia’s individual and combined success has struck the world by surprise and they are actually doing what few musical acts never did, they are bowing out on top.

Musical icons have passed from this world at their peak and are immortalized due to this, Kurt Cobain being one of those at their greatest. The Mafia are leaving the music scene as one of the most successful trance groups in history, cementing their status with a song that screams of anthemic melodies and is echoing across clubs and radio playlists from Stockholm to Sydney and Brussels to Beijing.

The song in question is Don’t You Worry Child, which is more than just a sing-a-long fist thumping club anthem but has a very strong message behind it, which is eternal acceptance in the world we live in. We are frenetic, demanding and expecting so much from everything and everyone in our daily lives and the song touches on this chord.

“There was a time, I used to look into my father’s eyes
In a happy home, I was a king I had a gold throne
Those days are gone, now the memories are on the wall
I hear the sounds from the places where I was born”

Very few songs released today, touch upon so much forgetting and realism in our western culture, the song is simple and catchy but also clever and inspiring and as we face into more economic uncertainty, a shaky US election and new chapters in Space exploration, a time should be spent remembering these words

“My father said
Don’t you worry, don’t you worry child
See heaven’s got a plan for you”

With or Without You/Ourselves

Haiti Capital Devastated by Quake

The sun finally reminds us that it does in fact exist and the country goes into melt down, we deserve a good spell now, we deserve many good spells.

A new government, new weather and the President is rocking it up in Madrid, life seems pretty damn good, what is it that a sunny day does that leaves everything else in the back of ones mind.

As human beings we are easily distracted by simple materialistic objects and desires yet Japans recent disaster puts a lot into perspective;

We will wake up tomorrow morning, warm and safe, we will walk to the toilet and have running water and we will go online and have laptops, we will have clothes, we will have food, we will have a life!

Why is it that for the majority of us we have to see true suffering for it to show reality, to show that we are a society that desires too much and longs for control and influence yet mother nature can take it all away in less than 24hours.

We can fight and control so much in this world, but we cannot take on nature and win effectively, over 9000 people dead in a matter of minutes, shows how frail our existence truly is, our phones, our ipods, our existence is so frail yet we obsess about such simple things as the color of our cars and the shape of our hair.

In the years to come our world will have to face up to serious issues we have long tried to forget exist, oil crisis, middle east unrest and the widening divide between what is the western world and the east.

Japan is regarded as one of the strongest economies in not only Asia but also the world and it will bounce back but how does a country like Haiti cope with 4million homeless.  How will our world cope when money will no longer talk when the value of life will have to be seen as something true and real and not just a figure on a report.

With or without each other we will fall and falter, and as a people we have to move forward both in this country as a unit and find a resolution to our internal difficulties and as a race the history and the boundaries will have to crumble as we face into a century that will either make us or break us.