irish

Man builds house from 1.4 billion shredded euros

It takes real money to build a decent house these days, and it's even more helpful if that money is already in the form of bricks.

Dublin artist Frank Buckley built a house from 1.4 billion euros ($1.8 billion) worth of decommissioned and shredded notes of the currency. The three-room house with a bedroom, bathroom, and living room is Buckley's way of making a statement about the crisis the European economy finds itself in, and Ireland's out-of-control construction boom of the last decade that stands as his country's major contribution to the current continent-wide fiscal emergency.

According to Buckley, the bricks of discarded euro notes he picked up with two trailers from a nearby Mint not only make a decent structural material, they also insulate the home pretty well. He estimates that each brick is made up of around 50,000 former euros. … Read more

Facebook Ireland accused of creating 'shadow profiles' on users, nonusers

Facebook Ireland is under fire for allegedly creating "shadow profiles" on both users and nonusers alike.

The startling charges against the social-networking giant come from the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (IDC), which, Fox News reports today, is launching a "comprehensive" investigation against Facebook Ireland for extracting data from current users--without their consent or knowledge--and building "extensive profiles" on people who haven't even signed on for the service.

Names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, work information, and perhaps even more sensitive information such as sexual orientation, political affiliations, and religious beliefs are being collected and … Read more

GetIrishNow.com ad campaign: These Irish eyes are rolling

Oh, St. Patrick's Day. To a self-respecting Irish-American like myself, it's such a catch-22: On one hand, it's a celebration of the fact that our culture knows how to have a damned good time; on the other hand, all the gross-tasting green beer and sequined leprechaun hats kind of make us cringe sometimes.

We also have to deal with all kinds of ridiculous St. Patrick's Day marketing tie-ins, like this new ad campaign for the Irish Spring soap brand (which I believe was created by the U.S.-based Colgate-Palmolive Company). It features a new Web … Read more

3-inch HDTV camcorder from Germany

We've been concerned about misplacing some media players because of their petite frames, but never video cameras. And certainly not high-definition ones. But at a barely more than 1.5 by 3 inches and "smaller than a bar of soap," the "MicroHDTV" from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute could easily slip out of our pocket and into the lost-and-found category.

Engadget says the camcorder is purportedly small enough to fit in "a racing-car cockpit, helmet or any other tiny space you'd like to broadcast HDTV from." That's a euro in the photo … Read more

Music to shave by, in the shower

This item could be accused of having dubious practicality, but at least it makes more sense than the recently posted shower cam. The fogless mirror from Discovery can pick up tunes from your MP3 device through an FM transmitter and play them on its waterproof speakers. It has a range of 100 feet, so your iPod can stay safe and dry in the next room.

Now if you had a decent pair of regular speakers, you could probably crank up the volume enough to hear them over the running water. Then you could just get a fog-free mirror for less … Read more