Facebook trebles work permits to import staff via @independent_ie
Author: Katleen
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Swim , step , Swim,Step Galway Science & Technology Festival Exhibition
Dear Readers,
We visited the Galway Science and Engineering Science & Technology Festival ExhibitionIt was very well organized and a lot more manageable than two years,when it was nearly impossibly to navigate the main hall, due to crowds!There was a great mix of stands, university departments showing off their departments with scientific experiments, all the main Galway multinationals ( Cisco, Avaya, SAP, Medtronic, Boston Scientific) anda variety of schools , displaying their scientific experiments.Aside from the stands, there were a variety of free activities you could partake in, however those required prebooking via Eventbrite ( they also have a handy app for your phone) and unless you booked the events ahead, there were long queues, and you were unlikely to get in , unless you had a ticket:)The kids loved it, particularly the stand of the engineering stand , where they could play with …. Lego!Below you see a picture of the boys and another boy at the Engineering stand.
Alex, Two other boys, and RuebenHaving walked around the various stands of university departments, multinationals and local schools, I came to realize that there are a number of projects between a few of the multinationals and the local primary/secondary schools, but those projects are very much concentrated to schools where parents that work in the multinationals are working, so the further away the schools are from the city, the more likely the school would not be aware of the opportunities to expose primary school children to the world of science and engineering. ( I am a bit biased as my kids are in primary)Below are just a few of the projects I observed:
The Lego League
Organized by Robotics Ireland, and is for 3 age groups:
Junior First Lego League : 6 to 9 year olds
First Lego League : 9-16 year olds
Robotics Ireland Intervarsity Challenge (currently third level students)I had never really heard about this , but I think it’s a great initiative and if your kids/schools are interested in taking part in this challenge, you can contact them via this email Once an adult or teacher can get 6-12 interested children together, a team can be made.They are no longer taking applications for 2012, but maybe it’s something you can get involved with in 2013. As someone said to me yesterday if your child at a young age likes playing with Lego, fast forward 20 years, they might become an engineer.I am enclosing a small clip of a moving robot/spacerobot that the pupils programmed to make those moves.Another really exciting initiative is Scratch, which was showcased by Avaya.It’s an interactive software programme aimed at primary and post primary pupils which will allow students to create interactive stories, animations,games, music and art and share their creations on the web.It’s not restricted to schools, as the software can be downloaded free of charge here and the following link contains Scratch resources/lessonplansThe inititiave is very closely linked to Coderdojo, which I covered in another blogpost a while ago.The Steps website offers free visits of an engineer to primary and post primary schools and more info how schools can get involved in engineering, during Engineering week next year (25th of February till 3rd of March) for Schools to get involved in Engineering week 2013Rueben was quite intrigued by putting a stent into a display of a heart at the Boston Scientific stand, loved watching through a miscroscope at the content of a teabag( I can see rocks he said) and controlling a submerged robot at the Marine research stand, was the icing on the cake!We managed to get into the Blackrock Castle Observatory’s StarDome activity, which was a dome which looked a bit like a bouncy castle, as it was walls were filled with air, with a very narrow entrance, and required a swimming motion to open the doors then step into the middle and another swimming motion to get in the dome(hence the title of this blog article). Once we sat down on the floor, a very interesting display of the various star formations at night was shown, planets and their history, and a futuristic glimpse into 2075, where a grandad ( who origanlly came from earth) lives with his grandchildren on the moon.Anything is possible:) who knows!A thoroughly enjoyable day was had by all, and we are already looking forward to next years Galway Science & Technology Festival Exhibition! And hey, I even caught a fish!
Katleen
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Shopping for the best insurance deal in Ireland?
Hi all,It’s been a while since my last post, between holidays, work and family time , I just haven’t had a moment!I’ll keep posting bits and pieces that are good to know!A few weeks ago, I received my renewal documents from my broker http://www.insure.ie for my car insurance, being 335 Euros. When I didn’t renew, I received a phone call, and in that phonecall, when I asked if that was the best they could do, they knocked off a few Euros, so I was down to 315 Euros.I have been using this broker for many years now, as they do the shopping and comparing for me, and saves me ringing around the various insurers.And then I thought, let’s shop around with other brokers, and see if I can bring it down even more.I contacted following companies by going to their websitses and obtain quotes.All their quotes were higher, with the exception of http://www.123.ie, who offered, after adding my husband as a named driver, a rate of 292.5 Euros. I then called http://www.insure.ie and they nearly matched it, being 295 Euros.
I’ll have to do the same exercise for our house insurance, stay tuned!
Katleen
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The West is Alive! Check out all Job announcements!
Hi all,
There is this expression, Feast or famine, meaning things are really good, or things are really bad..
This post is about the Feast part of the expression, as I can hardly keep up with all the job announcements in the last two weeks!
Below is just a overview of each announcement at Cisco, SAP, Merit Medical and HP!
*Oranmore-based technology company Cisco Systems announced
115 new jobs
Check out the Cisco System Galway current vacancies here*100 jobs were announced at software giant SAP in
Ballybrit
Check out the opportunities at SAP Galway here*Merit Medical in Parkmore will be
creating up to 300 new jobs at its new Merit Vision facility here as
part of a €20m investment. I found this page where you can see all their vacancies worldwide*Hewlett Packard (HP)
will be building a new 90,000 square foot premises in Oranmore, which
will cater for at least 200 extra staff, while around 100 jobs will be
created in the construction phase.
Check out their current vacancies here and select location Ireland, GalwaySo if you are thinking to make your big move to Galway and looking for accommodation, I’d recommend you check out Daft . There is also a free local newspaper called The Galway Advertiser, which comes out on a Thurday . You can view their online classifieds here.
Please feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions you may have about living in Galway!
My email : katleenworkinginireland@gmail.comUp Galway!
Katleen -
State reaches deal on cost with cancer drug producer – update Cathy Durkin Cancer Appeal
Hi all,
In my previous post I had asked you to send an email to the HSE for a patient called Cathy Durkin, who needs acces to the cancer drug Ipilimumab.
The drug had been turned down by the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics last year on the basis of cost, but a concerted campaign by oncologists and patients has led to a change of mind. The centre originally claimed that, at €85,000 per patient, it was too expensive given that a study in the New England Journal of Medicine found a median survival rate of 3.7 months extra for patients taking it.
You can read the article :.State reaches deal on cost with cancer drug producer
Thanks for those who sent an email to the HSE!.
Happy Friday!!
Katleen -
Cathy Durkin Cancer Treatment Campaign(Access to Ipilimumab) – please help!
Dear Readers,
I received an email from a friend a few days ago, explaining about the Cathy Durkin Cancer Treatment Campaign(Access to Ipilimumab) .
I was asked to send an email to ceopa@hse.ie and CC infoline1@hse.ie and liam.woods@hse.ie, which untill today, I didn’t do:(. However, I did like their facebook page , and when I read today’s update, well, I decided that I really do need to write that email, and I hope some of you will do too.)
This was her update on the facebook page :
My name is Cathy Durkin and this is my cancer story.
In June
of 2011, I began to see flashing lights in my right eye. I went to the
optician who diagnosed me with a torn retina. I was sent straight to
the Mater Hospital where I was diagnosed with ocular melanoma. From
there, I was sent to the Eye and Ear Hospital where I was told that the
tumour was 11.6mm and the only option was to remove the eye.My eye was removed on the 19th of July 2011 – one of the worst days of my life.
Fast forward a little bit and in early October I began to have problems
with my hip. I had an MRI which came back as atypical. Thankfully, I
happened to have an appointment with my oncologist Professor John Crown
on the 30th November. I gave him the disc of the MRI and the
radiologists in St. Vincent’s reviewed the scan and diagnosed me with a
hip fracture and cancer in the hip joint.Professor Crown very
kindly waited until after Christmas before telling us that the cancer
had spread to my hip, but with that also came the devastating news that I
had cancer in my liver aswell. I began chemotherapy in January2012 but
after 2 sessions we were given the worst news that the treatment wasn’t
working and the tumours had grown slightly.
I am now going through
Immunotherapy which is a treatment where my immune system is heightened
to fight the cancer cells. The next stage is a new treatment called
Ipilimumab (Ipi) which is currently not funded by HSE or the insurance
companies in Ireland at the momentMy friends and family have
come together to raise the money to pay for this treatment. They have
also started a campaign to have the HSE reverse their position on
funding this potentially life saving drug as currently there are a lot
of people in addition to myself who need access to this drug.So how can you help?Simply copy and paste the below draft letter to send to the HSE to reqest
that they change their position on funding for Ipilimumab.Please copy and paste the emails below and send them to ceopa@hse.ie
(that is the email address for Cathal McGee the Head of the HSE) and
copy main HSE enquiry infoline1@hse.ie and also Head of Finance Liam
Woods liam.woods@hse.ie
Below is the text:
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Dear Mr McGeePlease find below a letter we received from Mr Francis McCaffrey, HR Manager for Bristol-Myers Squibb.
We need to raise €85,000 for buy the drug Ipilimumab (Ipi) for our
friend Cathy Durkin who has melanoma cancer. This story has had wide
coverage in the last week on the Joe Duffy Show, in the Evening Herald
and was carried on the front page of the Irish Daily Mail on Saturday
with a follow up on the Irish Mail on Sunday and also in the last few
days.
Cathy has three small kids – her youngest Conor is about to
start school in September, Alyssa is making her First Holy Communion
next May 2013 and her eldest Alex is making his Confirmation next May
also. We have already started to fund raise for this drug – we have
planned choir nights, sponsored walks, football marathons, Disco Diva
nights and cake sales – we have already raised €35k so we have €50k to
go.
Can you please review your decision to fund this to save families like the Durkin Family?
Can you please make a decision on this very quickly – we have only
really 4 weeks so that is what is causing this to be so urgent!
Cancer affects everyone – not just the cancer sufferer, but their children, husbands, parents, friends and neighbours.
Cathy has enough to worry about without wondering where the money is
coming from – and that is why we are planning so many events to get as
much money as possible together in a ridiculously short space of time in
a recession – but we will get there if we have to by hook or by crook!Sadly Cathy is not the only person in this position so it’s imperative
that the HSE change their decision on funding for Ipilimumab.Please help!!
With many thanks for a speedy decision
==============================================================I am hoping everybody who reads this blog, takes out 1 minute of their busy schedule to copy and paste this into an email, and hopefully your emails will make a difference to Cathy and her family and everybody else in Ireland who needs access to this medication.
Thanks!
Katleen -
Titanic disaster, 100 years have passed & Opening of Titanic Quarters in Belfast
Dear Readers,
As the Easter break draws to an end ( and the sunshine has returned!) , the media here in Ireland is full of Titanic reports, as it’s 100 years ago that R.M.S. Titanic sunk. A Titanic memorial was unveiled in Belfast today. The names of the dead, from all classes on the doomed liner, are engraved in alphabetical order on five bronze plaques.There was a great documentary yesterday, where the film maker James Cameron sat down with a variety of naval engineers, to analyse how realistic the film was in relation to what supposedly happened 100 years ago.There was some debate about the angle that Titanic rose to before it broke in two, it seems that in the movie the top part of the main part broke at a higher angle than in reality. ( You can read a thorough discussion here ), and some discrepancy on the colour of the of firework( in the movie it was bright white). Some of the unused recovered fireworks all had colours near the top of the canisters, so that was another difference. However, he commented he would not be remaking the movie because of those differences! Another discepancy, like what stars were visible when Kate Winslet is hanging on driftwood has been changed in the newly released 3D version.Titanic was equipped with a Marconi Wireless installation, that enabled Titanic to communicate /send messages to other ships/outside world and ultimately helped to save the survivors.It was only when I was reading about Marconi, I realise that he was born to an Italian father and an Irish mother! He was a real entrepreneur, but when he was unable to get funding for his very new ideas on wireless communication, he moved to England and subsequently to the USA.
You can listen to an interpretation of the morse code here that was created by the BBC.As I wrote in one of my posts last year , Things to do in Belfast, they were busy building the Titanic Quarter in Belfast. This has been completed now, and is a great attraction to visit in Northern Ireland.The newly opened Titanic Belfast® is an unmissable visit in any tour of
Northern Ireland. It is located in the heart of Belfast, on the slipways
where RMS Titanic was built. Inside this iconic building, visitors will re-live the entire Titanic story from her birth in Belfast to the fateful maiden voyage and her eventual discovery on the seabed.I strongly recommend you book your tickets on line, as there has been in influx of visitors and there have been days they were booked out . If you click here, you’ll get a 5% discount( not sure if this will last).Here is just a selection of some other Titanic resources:http://www.titanic1.org/ – the oldest Titanic Historical SocietyHave a nice evening!
Katleen -
Easter Egg Hunt at Kylemore Abbey and Dublin
Dear Readers,Unfortunately the sunny weather left us just before the kids went onto their Easter Break ( 2 weeks) but this did not stop us going on a few Easter Egg Hunts around the country.I recently became a fully fledged member of “Vlamingen in the Wereld” ( Flemish people around the world) and they organized an egg hunt in Dalkey. Thinking about it, the day of the actual actual Egg hunt turned out a very bright day, and the kids had plenty of fun running outside on the grounds of St Patricks . The eggs were hidden around the grounds, all wrapped in a see through bag.
Once all the eggs were found , they were put into various boxes and then equally distributed between all the kids.I took a picture of all the various Belgian/Irish kids, there was more than I had expected!
Most Belgians live around Dublin, and I was the only one who came from Galway, but I am glad I did, it was a great day! ( I am looking forward to the next activities, a BBQ, a visit to a petfarm etc..)
Our second Egg Hunt was at Kylemore Abbey in Co. Galway. Although we live in Galway, we live in East Galway, so to drive from our house to Kylemore Abbey, takes about 2 hours!The weather was damp, went and windy, but it was absolulely worth the trip!
The gardens are beautiful and I would highly recommend a visit to Kylemore Abbey!
You can book your tickets online too, you’ll save 10% ( money you can spend in the tearooms with yummie cakes lol ).
I’d recommend you read the story of Kylemore Abbey, it’s inspiring:)As it happens we weren’t alone, I overheard people speaking French, German, Italian, and I got talking to a couple with their young kids from New Zealand. To make some small talk, I asked if they enjoyed our “damp” weather, and they said they loved it ! Exactly what they were hoping for. Turns out they live in Sierra Leone, and rain isn’t something they ever see, so you see, it all depends, some tourists really don’t mind our damp weather! After getting completely drenched, we treated ourselves to tea and cakes, and the easter eggs, well, they didn’t stand a chance!
A Happy Easter to all!
Katleen
