Ciaran Parker
I'm an eternal student. There are so many things we must find out about our world and FutureLearn has enabled me to partially quench my thirst for knowledge, though I'll never stop learning.
Location Cavan, Irish Republic
Achievements
Activity
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
The single word which sums up this course is inspiring.
It has revolutionised my understanding of the term landscape from a fuzzy, quasi-romantic idea into a much more robust concept which has far reaching implications for us all. -
Ciaran Parker made a comment
In the west of IReland and in upland areas throughout the island Dry stone walls are common. In one location on CLare ISland there is a length of unbroken Dry stone walling which runs for many miles which was erected in the early years of the twentieth century by the COngested DIstricts BOard to delineate common land.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Hi everyone! I have a PhD in medieval Irish history, but this was only based on written records. I have always been anxious to explore how we can gain insights into the past through exploration of other sources, of which landscape is so important. I have a particular interest in placenames and how this can point to differences in land use.
-
I feel uneasy that so much is being left up to "the young" those people behind the magic age of 30 (or even, god help us) 40 can still play a part and be excited by the possibilities that are opened up each day. I am 57 and I believe that there are many of my age group who can contribute, albeit from tablets resting on Zimmer frames in their rest homes!
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
For people in the west or using a language which originally developed there, we qçept that writing systems are based on alphabets, where individual character representations represent individual phonological sounds. Elsewhere, writing systems are more complex, as with Chinese. We must buy alive to the fact that there are still some vernaculars which do not yet...
-
This is very informative.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
It's statement 1. Statement 2 seems innocuous enough. But the devil is lurking in the verbal undergrowth. How are we to measure prosperity if not by falling back on crutches such as Gross Domestic Product or other self-defeating fallacies of the linear economy?
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
I would love to walk more if I physically could.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
I used to ride quite a lot but a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis has put pathe to my cycling alas. I used to face all the problems you've outlined, but I obstinately refused to eschew my bike unless the weather was really atrocious.
-
Surely more frequent services should reflect times of greater demand, but seldom do.
-
Public transport in towns and cities involving s assembling at stops. Security at bus stops is provided by other passengers. If a stop is not popular a user is at the mercy of any anti-social behaviour that exists and is often thankful if it stops at vandalism of the bus stop.
-
It al ays seems to be crowded. It can be hard to get on a bus and it is difficult to move around on one. When the driver announced that there is only room "on top" he (and it is sadly usually a he in Ireland} might as well deny any access.
-
The vehicles do not give much confidence as far as safety is concerned.
-
At present public transport is free at non-peak times for the blind and visually impaired. But for those with mobility issues such as myself. It is difficult to get to a transport stop, and once there near impossible to get on or off the vehicle.
-
Ciaran Parker replied to Cathy Kelly
The impact of railways on IReland was fascinating. At one level they were seen as destroying Irish manufacture, unable to cope with products we managing from England. They were also the means by which so many people left Ireland as migrants, and the stations were considered places of sadness. Their I,pact on popular culture was immense. the Gaelic Athletic...
-
Ciaran Parker replied to Jill Hind
@KathleenKerryDexter Thanks! Anything about the Trans-Siberian Railway is sure to attract my interest.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
My answer is the same. Before I was an optimist but of the hopeless hue. I am now a hopeful optimist.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
It really depends on the characters of either office holder. I believe that the US 'Founding Fathers' would been horrified at the thought of someone like Trump holding executive office, though they were mostly slave-holders.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
The holder of the office may have had great difficulty in arriving there. The next most difficult manoeuvre is staying at the top. There are any number of issues that can ignite revolt. As a leader of a political party the prime minister knows that there is a rump of residual opposition. All likely assassin's have daggers, but the luckiest will have concealed...
-
Like you. I was ignorant of this change, even though I live in the Irish republic where our codified constitution may only be amended after a referendum. Was v. V. Putin' responsible for creating such a distraction? Are we not entitled to ask what else was changed?
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
I would have preferred a forth choice. Not eas though not impossible. By convention a prime minister need not inform his cabinet of his intention.
-
Ciaran Parker replied to Technical Support
Can even the king stop him? I know the monarch can refuse an election if the chance of forming a stable government may exist.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Respect for the principle of The Rule of Law should have seen him and colleague Rishi Sunak resign, or at least sincerely offer to resign. I admit that don't like Johnson. I don't feel any hostility towards Rishi Sunak.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Constitutional Conventions are exceedingly interesting. They have greater clout than ordinary laws though they lack legal enforceability. They do allow politics to work. The rime Minister (whose title may go back to a constitutional convention) probably has too much power, especially in the exercise of prerogative powers, but cannot rule like a dictator, at...
-
John Stuart Mill overcame his natural bonhomie / to write Principles of Pollitical Economy.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
John f. Kennedy once said that people thought he could do anything thing, but he liked to remind them that this was untrue. "I'm only the President."
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Hi! I feel that politics works better in the UK than the us. This ma be down to prejudice. I hope that throughout the course we are never allowed to forget the existence of a parallel political world at the state level.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
President Herbert Hoover once claimed a desire to met a one-armed economist because all economists he knew made an argument beginning: "On the one hand ... But then on the other hand ...' I was always interested in comics and toyed with the idea of studying it. My grea hero was John Kenneth Galbraith. I was dissuaded from my intentions by those mistaken...
-
Ciaran Parker replied to Aye Thu San
Good luck!
-
I believe that the unwillingness to disclose the evidence against them diminishes the concept of legal certainty.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
A school classroom is not the best place for sex education.. it may be a vitally important topic but the location is conducive to much sniggering.
-
I agree.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
In traditional Catholic teaching the search for sexual pleasure even within marriage as outlawed. Sex existed to produce offspring. For a woman not to desire conception while having sex was a mortal sin from which she could on!y be absolved upon confession by a bishop.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
The watershed decade is presented as the 1960s Sex didn't exist before the. Of course sexual intercourse took place but in a desert of ignorance. And then everything changed as if by magic. There is only passing reference to how there were progressive strands within the Dutch Catholic church, though these were effectively silenced during the suzerainty of...
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
May I draw a parallel between 'culture' and 'language'? To reman vital both undergo change. Some may deplore this but it happens. The romance languages developed from Latin which remained the sacred look angusge of the Roman Catholic tradition until the 1960s. It was, however., a dead language.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
I supporte the continuation of REE mining for most of the reasons expressed. It has vast potential for improving people's lives. It must be properly managed. And I feel that much of the present context. As well as the often irresponsible means behind extraction and refining, give me many concerns.
-
Let's not forget some of China's allies, such as orth orea and the military regime in Myànmar. The former cannot feed its own people but threaten South Korea and Japan with nuclear weapons. The latter is content to kill its own people.
-
If only ...
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
The framing of sexual rights as a neo-colonialist attack on 'inherent' rights is disingenuous. I think we also need to unpick the politics of the opposition. It truly was an unholy alliance: many fundamentalist groups view Roman Catholics a man d Catholicism as diabolical, while much Islamic thought views Christians as infidels and impute the ultimate sentence...
-
There is another advantage owned by bicycles over cars. Though not many see it as advantageous when it happens:bicycles are easier to replace. Bicycle thefts is still a problem but the theft and replacement of a car is an expensive and stressful process. It's never pleasant when your bicycle is "nicked", but it can be replaced at far less cost.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Some may know the Flow Country of Caithness, whose suitability for wind turbines has been accepted. The turbines add a verticality to the landscape. I will not speak in terms of improvement or disinprovement, but their contribution is less malign than the expanses of "Wogan woods" planted on the Flows in earlier decades
-
Ciaran Parker replied to Michael White
Well said!
-
Students, or anyone else may be consulted, but they ned not be listened to. Consultation thus becomes a necessary though futile exercise..j
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
This is very good advice. Surely a researcher who is no doubt wedded to their research will no abandon their research interests even on winning big in the !lottery.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Cool!
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Multiculturalism is of vital importance to us all. We gain through diversity.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Hi everyone. I'm Ciaran and I love in ireland. I've been partially-sighted since birth, so ,I've experienced quite a lot of problems with depth, colour and object perception over the years, as well as some interference in the signals. I'm really fascinated to know more about this.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
May I add a 'splash' of cynicism? Some editors may like to be seen as al ost a semi-divine caste who may determine news worthiness, but they may see their responsibility to the public as being at least matched by their responsibility to the newspaper's owner.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
I agree all are important but I personally view ethics s vital.
-
Ciaran Parker replied to Simon Tolson
Neither do I.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Many of the German targets during thesecwaves of xenophobia were Jewish. A german-sounding name was enough. Some of the riots were also tinged with anti-Semitism.
-
I wonder why th Bull was chosen. Was it known to welcome migrants or were there some links between its proprietors and abroad?
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Hi everyone! My background is that of a hstorian deal;ing with traditional historical documents. I was often ased to speak to familky and clan societies about family history. I could give the historical background for a family's origins, but the futher back inquiries were pushed the more uncertain wer the results. Gnetic genealogy offers a whole new area for...
-
Ciaran Parker replied to Lisa N
Go for it girl!
-
Thanks Roger!
-
Ciaran Parker replied to Yentl Kroes
The prejudices are often used to rationalise inequalities.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Many of those hard managers who rely solely on dominance, are in fact no more than bullies.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Competence may be attributed, indeed this may occur cynically. An individual may prove to be anything but competent and may leave a plethora of failure in their wake, but because they will never be called to account for their failure and may even earn promotion, they will be seen as profoundly competent.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
I agree.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
I want to grow some aubergines.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
The overwhleming image of Queen Victoria is informed by sculpture. This was augmented by postage stamps. She ws portrayed as a long-suffering widow who bore the heavy burdens of royalty with dignified stoiricism. But Victoria was never a hermit. One of her last official engagements was a visit to Ireland in the eyar before her death.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
For me the adjective "Victorian" means conformity to a narrow and sterile morality. In my own country, Ireland, it was policed by a powerful Roman Catholic Church which was deeply imbued with the principled of tridentism. This also had a ery real manifestation in the landscape: many of the schools and hospitals were built in the reign of Queen Victoria. and...
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
I must say that, at the beginning of this course, I feel like the poet John Keats when first he looked at Chapmans translation of Homer. Sorry if that sounds pretentious, but it is so unusual for a historical period to have been so blessed by surviving primary sources as the one chosen. I'm not the first to say that it must be placed alongisde the years...
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
I know nothing about Design PRincipes. Something tells me it is fascinating, but that there are no doubt many different "schools", each of which is wedded to the importance of a particular set of principles.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
I chose the kitchen because the design was interesting. There were a lot of things going on there, but it was not cluttered. I would, however, critixiaw the negative red space on the right. What;s more, there seems a clash between the red and a black element. To me it looks cheapened. Maybe a slightly toned-down read could have worked as well, especially with...
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
What about Georg Grosz or even Edvard Munch?
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
I chose the living room beause it seemed to be an original use of the many designs elements available. Full use of natural light was made, and its combination with a strong blue meant that the spqce could not be considered drab or monochrome. The items of furniture dhosed a closed form object juxtaposed with an open-form coffee-table. Overall the elements were...
-
Ciaran Parker replied to Amos Ogwal
Great!
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
To reiterate, we all learn differently with personal preferences. Rather than opting for one sttle, we sometimes, maybe often pick and mix. Whatever works for each of us.
-
Ciaran Parker replied to Sera Bitar
These links have been of enormous help!
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
THe notion that "intelligence" is inherited is a self-fulfilling fantasy. It is a way of accepting social inequality. If the concept may be defined by success in examinations, those who have the greatest experience of sitting these exams will have an advantage, but someone can do very well in a set of examinations yet not really know much about the topic, let...
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Forgive me if I am little flippant for a moment, but I'm reminded of the famous sketch in "Little Britain" where the computer says no!
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Good to know hairdressing is fairly future-proof!
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
The advent of factory production sometimes caused immense hardship for those previously employed in domestic industry. Sometimes cottages had been re=designed to allow for the utilisation of domestic weaving machines. Howeer, once factories were able to benefit from the economies of scale in production, domestic production coulldn;t keep pace. The rural...
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Global cooperation is vital, in so many areas, not least in the fight against cyber criminality. Friendship and partnership does not mean that one's own nation state is devalued.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
This may seem like a scenario for a B version of a James Bond movie, but may it not be possible for some of the most well-resourced cyber criminals to mastermind failures which may seem, at first at least, to seen natural?
-
Many of the cyber criminals are national goernments or s[ponsored by them i. e. Russia and China, but they have no respect for other national identites. In this regard, while the UK can be a world leader in the fihgt against cyber crime, it cannot do this alone and strength in the struggle comes from co-operationwith other nations or entitites.
-
The attitude towards £3 D jobs" has been fairly fatalistic; they may have been, dull, dirty and/ or dangerous but someone had to do them, and while companies provided employment there have been a persistent reservoir of workers willing to do them. It's a job, for goodness sake. No one says you have to like it, so log as you get paid.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
The difficulty about adopting greater empowerment is that the world of work and management is still influenced by military stereotypes. "Strategy" is desirable. Military blueprints depend on notions of leadership. There is a 'leader' who sets the agenda, the plan and everyone else is a follower. Empowerment in such an environment is counter-intuitive.
-
It can be said that affirmative action programmes are like the line of lawyers in front of a firing squad: it's a start! One can say that it is only through thenthe crude use of affirmative action that people from an under=represented group can get inside certain organisations. Some of those who make it to "the promised land" encounter internal prejudice and...
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
The hardest wrongful act to perform is always the first. Subsequently, you are able to defend your actions as being an attempt to "go with the flow" and so the rather bad practice becomes its own sort of good practice.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
A corrolary of the survivorship bias is the denigration of those who didn't make the cut or the life-raft . Theyare damned to an eternal silence, as any disastifaction is only motivated by envy.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Networking can be a very expensive activity.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
THere is a more sinister form of linguistic imperialsim associated with globalisation. It is Amercian imperialism, shown in areas such as orthography. Books and many papers about business must be written in accordance with American English spelling, so one must always talk of globlization with a z - which must be spoken as with a zee!
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Was that questionnaire of "Britishness" a joke or a parody? Pipe-smoking, een among smokers has been in decline for decades. As far as tennis is concerned, it has always beeb ab activity with clear social pretensions, especialy in Southern England. Cricket would have a wider following in many lkocations, while association football, Rugby Union and Rugby League...
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
At the most general level, the exercise of £soft" power must always be preferred to the use of ""hard " power. There is no body-count with the former and very little wanton destruction. Many people may choose ti resust the blandishments of "soft" power, no matter how persistent they may be, but when a shell is targeted on your home or school it is unlikely...
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Walter Ulbricht, the general secretary of the SED in East Germanyt, commented that the country's international athletes were like ambassadors in tracksuits.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
I feel that Taylors' are being a little shy of why they called the product Yorkshire Tea. Certainly, tea brewers once had to blened products to individual water supplies, but by the 1970s such bespoke products were far outside the realm of the average Yorkshire tea imbiber. What's more the water quality was much more uniform. It had to do with the positive...
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Meat analogues have been produced successfully in Europe and North America for some decades now. These are produced from fungal reactions and so lack the authenticity of lab meat. However, some brands have achieved acceptance from many sectors who eschew consumption of traditional meat and dairy products.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
i hope it is "See you soon!" rather than goodbye. The postgraduate course is really enticing.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
It's a definition which relies too heavily on the procuction of finite results to measure success. Even the best-run rpoject in the private sector seldom runs smoothly. There may be a very good plan which will deliver positive results but time has run out or there have not been enough funds to produce the desired outputs - I was nearly going to write...
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
May I just make a comment which may be somewhat driven by emotions. "Parliamentary democracy" in partiular is a great shibboleth. In theory it promises responsible government and equality to all the citizens, regardless of their economic background. But how is this equality to be transferred to represenation of the peop;le's will? This is filetered through the...
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Development can be divided into two forms, depending I suppose on the level of motivation. On the one hand there is the nice desire to help those viewed as being les fortunate. This is very good, but often there is an element of arrogance behind it. The objects of development should be grateful for our interventions, no matter how impractical or unhelpful they...
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
I had never given it much serious thought, although I have long been an advocate of life-long learning.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
The first line is a definite affirmation of monotheism - there is only one God.
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
Hisories, especially popular histories, tend to concentrate on conflicts because they are able to centre on a simplistic dualist system: good versus bad. Yhey have often a modern political objective, to buttress the claims of those currently in power or to legtimse rebellion. What's more it is easier to sow seeds of wrongs that need to be righted. Things have...
-
... but as the County Lines debate has shown, sometimes those who have becone addicts are forced into dealing.
-
I like your comment babout getting the legal profession to take on some of this activity. Of course, you know it will never happen. THe idea of a solicitor or barrister doing such work is absurd, they would say, and they;d argue that they already pay for much of the softly-softly stuff through their taxes.
-
Ciaran Parker replied to John Cope
I speak as an outside observer, as I'm a citizen of another jurisdiction. However, the number of young people who get lost in the NHS system is terrifying. Each person is a human being, but also they are a potential victim or 'mule'. Because of its praiseworthy role during the COVID epoidemic,, the NHS has become almost infallible, yet it has been guilty of...
-
Ciaran Parker made a comment
On the other hand Jonathan seems like a man who'd like to potter about in his garden, have a nice cup of tea and read his Daily Telegraph. What's more he;d like to be able to go to the shops without fear of being run down. He's a potential racist, though he'd probably agree that riding motor=cycles while under-age or smoking cannabis are activities carried out...
