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PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins flies out today to begin an eight-day State visit to China.
The President will be accompanied by his wife Sabina and the Ministers for Finance and Foreign Affairs Michael Noonan and Charlie Flanagan.
Prior to his departure from Áras an Uachtaráin, the President received full military honours; to include a Captain’s Guard of Honour drawn from the 28 Infantry Battalion, based at Finner Camp; with ceremonial music by the Army Number 1 Band from Cathal Brugha Barracks.
On arrival in Beijing tomorrow, Sunday, the President and Sabina will visit the Forbidden City.
On Tuesday afternoon, the President will be greeted by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People. After a ceremonial greeting in the North Hall, President Higgins will engage in official talks with President Xi Jinping.
Both Presidents will then witness the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between NUI Galway and Tsinghua University. Later in the evening the President and Sabina will attend a state dinner in his honour, hosted by the President Xi Jinping and his wife Madame Peng.
After moving on to Shanghai, the President will visit the former residence of Sun Yat Sen, the first President and founding father of the Republic of China, which was also visited by George Bernard Shaw in 1933.
The President’s officials have remained tight-lipped on the nature of the talks with Jinping and would not say if any human rights concerns would be raised with the Chinese.
This has been a busy year for the President.
This will be the fourth major visit this year. He made a state visit to the UK in April, an official visit to the United States in May and completed a three-country visit to Africa in November. He made official visits to France and Belgium in August, where he attended two major WWI commemorative events. In May he attended the Peter O Toole Memorial event in London and attended the Dylan Thomas 100 celebrations in Wales in October.
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Hang on a second !
Hold on there now…time lord is a legit occupation?
This is great news. I’m really going to use this extra time to catch up on all those little jobs I’ve meaning to get around to, or perhaps a lie in would be better.
I had an anti climax once. She met a fella on a cruise after a few vodkas.
I don’t understand most of that.
Good. I work in IT and the more people who do not understand it, the more we can charge (rubs hands with glee, pets white cat on lap…. muohahahah !)
As the earth’s rotation slows, days are getting longer
Y2K was a damp squib, nothing happened, but lots of it companies made a lot of money out of it.
but maybe if all that money and effort was not spent it would have been a very wet squib?
I mean a very dry squib of course.
what is a squib and why is a damp one such an anticlimax?
a squib is type of explosive , a damp one won’t explode.
……you sir, are a fountain of knowledge…. now I need to look this up, where did I leave my google?
Actually issues did happen:
http://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/~eroberts/cs91/projects/y2k/Y2K_Errors.html
Also, most bank software programmers [and this was mostly in COBOL at the time] spent a long time working crazy hours getting sh*t together and correct so that stuff like applying 99 years of credit to accounts wouldnt happen.
There is another one feasibly going to come in 2038 when the unix epoch time rolls over to zero again. Thankfully it only affects 32-bit-integer related systems, but still gonna be hilarious….
B
A squib was a very little stick of dynamite that you could buy in the boys store before all this health and safety nonsense took hold. When a kid was allowed matches you could light them to blow up little bunkers of sand where the enemy toy soldiers were, classic.
God says: To me a thousand years is but a second. However I will grant you your greatest wish.
Pope Francis: Okay God I wish to win the Euro Lotto €180,000,000.
God says: Your wish is granted!! Wait a second!!!!!
Is it April the 1st?
If it was that would be nearly 4 months less.
This is very confusing
It isn’t really confusing.
I’m delighted for you. But I find it is.
A day lasts 24hrs because that’s how long it takes to spin around once. Except that its always gradually slowing down so the eggheads add an extra second to one particular day every few years to compensate. This angers god hugely, who retaliates by setting off volcanoes and smiting old people, etc.
have your say