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Weird Wide Web: Life on Mars, World Cup withdrawal and sexting extortion

All of your essential tech and social media news for the week in one byte-sized portion.

WELCOME TO THE Weird Wide Web – where we take a look at the week’s best offerings in tech and social media news.

Ambitious space plan of the week

NASA is aiming to produce oxygen on Mars with its 2020 rover experiment. Researchers will look at whether the air on the planet can be converted, bringing us one step closer to having life on Mars…

Doctor, doctor app of the week

We’re all guilty of Googling symptoms we’re having and trying to diagnose ourselves but are consequently well aware of how terrifying the results can be. This app gives you some of the immediacy of searching it on the internet but, in this instance, you get a response from a real doctor. If you fall down the stairs and break your leg though, we’d still advise you to go straight to the hospital…

iTunes iTunes

Smart carpark of the week

For many people, parking is the worst part of driving. This system would see your car park itself and then come and pick you up at the door of the hotel or office you’ve parked at. Very Bond-esque.

BoschAutomotive / YouTube

World Cup withdrawal cure of the week

Buzzfeed found this great (and very addictive) little browser game that’s basically like playing foosball on your computer. Enjoy…

Soccer Physics Soccer Physics

Sexting scandal of the week

Scammers are now using sexts to extort thousands of dollar from users of an online dating site in the US, Business Insider reports. They first pose as daters, coax users into sending sexually explicit pictures of themselves and then identify themselves as a sheriff’s deputy looking for child predators. To avoid prosecution, they are told they can can pay a fine.

Read previous Weird Wide Webs>

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3 Comments
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    Mute Eddienowy Byrne
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    Oct 9th 2023, 10:58 AM

    More room in the phone box for their annual conference

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    Mute Paul Maguire
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    Oct 9th 2023, 11:22 AM

    They are stepping down because they know that they won’t get re-elected

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    Mute Pee Onputin
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    Oct 9th 2023, 12:38 PM

    @Paul Maguire: Stepping down better than getting kicked out

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    Mute Sean O'Dhubhghaill
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    Oct 9th 2023, 1:21 PM

    @Paul Maguire: That’s what he said?

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    Mute Davy
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    Oct 9th 2023, 10:52 AM

    Obliteration ….

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    Oct 9th 2023, 1:32 PM

    @Davy: The only Irish political party to ever be held accountable.

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    Mute DBdTl1WB
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    Oct 9th 2023, 2:42 PM

    @Thesaltyurchin: spare us the history lesson . Progressive Democrats folded in comical fashion by 2007 and were dead by 2009 . They might have not lasted too long but had a huge influence on politics from the late 1980s onwards . Labour historically have always been the super junior in government and barely got over 30 seats despite the huge trade union backing and funding

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    Mute The boot
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    Oct 9th 2023, 11:13 PM

    @Christy Dolan: toolhead w..a..n..kr

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    Oct 10th 2023, 7:45 AM

    @Christy Dolan: 100 years of FF slipping fivers in pockets and they are still out here. Says a lot about who we are ultimately

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    Mute Jane Waters
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    Oct 10th 2023, 10:32 AM

    @The boot:
    There’s no for that kind of attack.

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    Mute The boot
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    Oct 10th 2023, 5:09 PM

    @Jane Waters: why don’t you sit on one too. Blueshirt

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    Mute Eileen Kelly
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    Oct 9th 2023, 11:16 AM

    Liebour, going going gone.

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    Mute
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    Oct 9th 2023, 11:11 AM

    Who are they again ????

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    Mute John O'sullivan
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    Oct 9th 2023, 11:18 AM

    ff/fg/labour/greens they are like rats leaving a sinking ship,they know the tide has turned and they are jumping before the humiliation of sf kicking them out

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    Mute uUleRhCu
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    Oct 9th 2023, 12:45 PM

    @John O’sullivan: Wait till you see the rats leaving the sf ship when they do get in and realise that they can’t be all things to all people all the time like they said…..and when Mary Lou tells all the backbenchers that they can’t have everything they promised!…..AND when they realise they have to do all that for 35k lol lol.

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    Mute John Kenny
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    Oct 9th 2023, 1:01 PM

    @uUleRhCu: you must have a crystal ball

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    Mute John O'sullivan
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    Oct 9th 2023, 2:09 PM

    @uUleRhCu: well fg/ff labour and the greens have over promised for generations and it didnt do them any harm! in fact in fg last election manifesto one of their many prioritys was to abolish the usc charge,7 years later….well you can figure out the rest yourself or i can give you a link to the manifesto??

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    Mute John O'sullivan
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    Oct 9th 2023, 2:18 PM
    20
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    Mute
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    Oct 9th 2023, 3:21 PM

    Sinn Fein are promising their benighted voters the Sun Moon & Stars in the full knowledge that they cant deliver 50% to70 or 80% of their Manifesto which will blow up in their faces if they ever get into Govt Then people will see through them for what they are. THEY havnt done it for their Electorate In Ulster how can they do it for them here in The Free State.

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    Mute Donal Desmond
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    Oct 9th 2023, 4:18 PM

    @uUleRhCu: You failed to mention the present government certainly can’t cope..Two political parties have governed since the foundation of this state . Even now these two parties in government together have made things worse. Crumbling Health service, Homelessness, Housing crisis , a make it up as you go along refugee crisis, Scandal after scandal. Yet you point the finger at a party that has never been in government in the South. Hypocrisy at it’s best.

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    Mute Sheila McNulty
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    Oct 9th 2023, 6:41 PM

    @John Kenny: just common sense

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    Mute Sheila McNulty
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    Oct 9th 2023, 6:46 PM

    And it will be all rosy in the garden when SF takes over Wise up

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    Mute Tommy Haze
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    Oct 9th 2023, 12:57 PM

    If they hadn’t bought into the mythology of Blair’s New Labour they could have been the largest political grouping in Ireland by now.
    They turned their backs on their working class roots.
    Keir Starmer is cut from the same cloth.

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    Mute Martin Mongan
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    Oct 9th 2023, 1:21 PM

    @Tommy Haze: they were communists last week

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    Mute Tommy Haze
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    Oct 9th 2023, 4:05 PM

    @Martin Mongan:
    A week is a long time in politics Martin.

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    Mute Thomas O'Donnell
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    Oct 9th 2023, 1:14 PM

    He wont really have to traipse down to the dole office straight away.. He will get his full salary for a year and a gratuity. He served as a secretary to Prionsias in Brussels. He’s well educated. Like a lot of ex politicians, from all parties, a job will be found for him in some quango or somewhere in Europe. He will not be on a CE scheme in 18 months and will not be required to upskill or retrain. He will work out alright, like all the other TD’s leaving. Now if the were in Debenhams etc…….

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    Mute Pat Barden
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    Oct 9th 2023, 11:55 AM

    Prediction: labour members councillors and TDs to join Social Democrats in the near future. In another twist Social Democrats & Labour rebrand and call themselves Progressive Democrats

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    Mute Luka Roche
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    Oct 9th 2023, 1:00 PM

    Hopefully them Hungry Greedy Greens will be decimated too

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    Mute Mike smith
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    Oct 9th 2023, 1:08 PM

    Why should the actions of his father have anything to do with him? It is not a monarchy. One of the worst thing in Ireland is people being elected because of their name recognition. A meritocracy is better. Let the smart people be elected, not the children or grandchildren of some one who might have been smart.

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    Mute Thomas O'Donnell
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    Oct 9th 2023, 4:32 PM

    @Mike smith It doesn’t work like that in Ireland. You have to run x amount of female candidates. Their ability or intelligence isn’t even in question, but you must have them. I think it has to do with something called gender balance which can mean anything today. Also you must have x amount in cabinet otherwise all hell will break lose. So forget about the smart people being elected. It that so happens to be a woman so be it.

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    Mute Pee Onputin
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    Oct 9th 2023, 12:37 PM

    I hate the fact that my union dues goes to this joke labour party

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    Mute Shane C
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    Oct 9th 2023, 12:42 PM

    Well any party is going to need a “no party” such as labour or greens to hang them out to dry (they seem to like it)

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    Mute The boot
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    Oct 9th 2023, 9:26 PM

    The party who took medical cards off sick and disabled children.
    Complete nutjobs..

    16
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