On the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA spare a thought for Rosalind Franklin the chemist who produced the x ray cystallography data (most famously her Photo 51 showing the x-ray diffraction of wet DNA) that supported the double helix structure and which was shown to Watson and Crick without her knowledge by her collaborator Wilkins . Franklin, who died before the Nobel prize was awarded, never received credit for her contribution and was on the receiving end of Watson’s sexism in his book The Double Helix Sexism which despite being fundamentally unscientific is unfortunately all too common in the history of science. But with a new book lets hope in this 50th anniversary year that Rosalind Franklin gets her contribution to this great discovery recognised.

Check out the PONR exhibition opening tonight 6pm in Pallas Heights. Pallas heights is a new venture organised by Pallas Studios based in semi-derilict flats on Buckingham St in Dublin’s city centre and it’s one of the most interesting curatorial ventures in Dublin today. Get along if you can.

Spare a thought for the Government in trouble once more with their plans to buy a third jet to replace the ‘old’ Gulf Stream 400 While they’re keeping quiet on what model chances are they’ll go for the Gulf Stream 500 Of course they’re going to hold onto the old one and there is still the Beechcraft.

Hilariously biased and OTP local radio football commentary from the BBC. My favourite is “I’m never seen anything like it… ha, ha, ha, ha!” and Gazza the spoilt fat brat.

You don’t need to like football to enjoy these.
No more dirty dancing in North Down where the DUP Mayor has banned the charity civic ball because he believes that all dancing is sinful (yes even line dancing)

In the wake of desperate attempts to discredit peace protesters, a timely quote
Naturally, the common people don’t want war … but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.
- Hermann Goering

background to the quote

So the EU has done a deal with US authorities which will allow European airlines to pass passenger information to US authorities in return the United States gave assurances about the “appropriate handling” of the records, which include not only names but also the passenger’s itinerary, contact phone number and other details, such as credit card numbers.
And you were worried about hackers getting your credit card number, travel to the US and uncle sam will have it.
Imagine it could add a whole new dimension to EU vs USA economic war, the RIAA could bill Europe for all those metallica mp3s they downloaded and that’s only the beginning.

An interesting Horizon program last night which traces the first evidence of art back to 70,000 years ago effectively debunking the Human Revolution theory of human evolution which put the advent of human thought to around 50,000 years ago. It also offered evidence of Neanderthal art which would indicate that Neanderthals had more in common with us then previously thought but deepens the mystery of what happened them.
Art, of course, is the turning point in human evolution which separates us from other animals.

I think I should get that on a t-shirt.

Cat Power’s You are Free is released today haven’t gone looking for it yet but Cat Power albums are notoriously difficult to find in Dublin.
She makes it onto the front page of Liberation today and gives a really interesting interview about the album and it’s recording. Oh yeah, the downside, it’s in French.
The new album is being streamed at the new Cat Power site though it has to be said I haven’t got it working, also the Peel session – which was sublime -is available on his site.

One of my favourite banners from Dublin’s antiwar march

Millions marched to stop the war in 600 cities around the world yesterday. I was proud to be part of the Dublin march where over 100,000 from all walks of life and from all shades of political opinion demonstrated for peace in one of the biggest demos in the history of the state. For many this was the first time they had ever protested but had come out because they had to make their voice heard both to our government who are consistantly ignoring the views of the public and to add their voice to a global call for peace. Yesterday, it was time to stand up and be counted.

This was a clear, unambigious message to politicians to step back from the brink and pursue a peaceful path. We can only wait to see if they respect the wishes of the people.

Reports including photographs and video from RTE and Indymedia