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Updated at 4.30pm
INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATORS WILL carry out extensive testing on the balcony that collapsed in Berkeley in June, killing six young people.
The District Attorney’s office began the criminal investigation shortly after the tragedy.
Outside engineering, architecture and water-proofing experts carried out a preliminary examination of the scene in July.
According to RTÉ the experts are due to return there within the next month to carry out major testing of the balcony.
Shortly after the Balcony Collapse, the US contractor that built the apartment complex applied for a restraining order against public officials investigating evidence.
Segue Construction sought the order to prevent district attorney investigators from conducting tests without a company representative being present.
The tragedy has sparked the implementation of new building regulations in California, including inspections of all existing balconies to prevent another similar collapse.
Balconies now need to be constructed with water-resistant wood or corrosion-resistant steel, and will be inspected six months after construction and then again every three years.
Meanwhile, a fundraiser is taking place this Friday for one of the injured students, Clodagh Cogley.
A trampoline dodgeball tournament and an adult open jump session will be held at The Jump Zone in Santry.
Clodagh suffered extensive injuries including two collapsed lungs, a broken shoulder, a broken knee, five broken ribs and a broken spinal cord.
All funds raised will go towards adapting her family home to suit her needs including wheelchair accessibility and numerous other expenses.
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Deleted my fb account around 6 yr ago. Would never go back on it. If you want me simply ring or text. Cant understand people who put their whole lives online on fb.
@shellakybooky: because humans get insecure and seek out companionship and interactions…SM these days has been wired into people brains via silly sounds via alerts flashing lights etc…..to brake this link is not easy but can be done.
@shellakybooky: The old fashioned media hit out at the new form of media as it is hurting their profits. Politicians hit out at facebook because they are not able to have their relationships and control that they had with our newspapers and the newspaper owners that they have currently.
We can expect a lot more attacks of this type on Facebook over the years as facebook allows people to communicate en-mass and destabilizes the status quo of politicians being in close relationships with those in the media company ownership.
I would trust facebook a hell of a lot more then I would trust our national newspapers or any one in RTE.
@brian boru: I understand what you are saying, probably agree with most of it. BUT it needs to be regulated you can’t have Facebook regulating themselves and then moaning when they make an almighty mess of it.
@brian boru: Naive if you trust Facebook. No social media can be trusted & papers never refuse ink
@PaddyOverABarrel:
Classic……use social media to brag that you don’t use social media!…..
@shellakybooky: same here
@Ger Healy: …news alert – this is not a social media site! lmao
@PaddyOverABarrel: there’s no companionship on Facebook though. It’s anti social media.
I also deleted my Facebook account a few months ago and don’t miss it at all.
It always puzzled me when people would add you as a friend on fb and then walk past you In the street.
No way I would ever go back
@Alex smith: I remember some ex workmate friended me on facebook. When I started talking to him I got back 2 – 3 word sentences. I mean it was this numpty that friended me and not the other way round ffs. Facebook friends are NOT friends!
@Alex smith: We need less friends and more friendship.
Facebook is a prime example of a company that grew too fast. Normal companies grow steadily for years and the owners and staff have a good handle on it. Everyone sings from the same hymn sheet, and the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.
Companies as large as FB and Google are simply too big, and don’t have the standards in place to begin with. They have to retrospectively introduce policy and standards that most other companies, which developed slowly but surely, have in their DNA.
Not to take way from their incredible success to date and revolutionary product, but I wont be letting my kids near it.
@niall: like A.I.B or …..
@Paul Powell: AIB has 10.5K employees and is 60 years old at this point. .FB has 25K directly employed and many, many more contractors and is barely a decade old. So yeah, grew too fast.
@niall: Yeap, they even said dozens of times we grew to fast too keep up.
He’s looking more and more like data from Star Trek .
@Murph11: he is certainly the archetypal Nerd looking at the photo.
This may be perceived as toxic (6.6/10) apparently, so I’d steer well clear of him
Yet someone burning or tearing up a fictional book such as the Bible or Quran will be immediately banned. Go figure…
@Good Early: Eh????
@Margate: just this week a Pakistani ex-muslim posted a video of himself burning the Qur’an on an Atheist page. It was taken down within the hour.
Got real friends, why would I need fake FB ones?
Are Retail Excellence a newsworthy organisation or is this just an opportunistic PR stunt?
@alphanautica: especially with Lorraine Higgins (failed politician) as their CEO….
@alphanautica: They do represent some 2,000 businesses across Ireland.
@alphanautica: there would be a very ethical ethos there now under the current management. All credit to them for taking this step, but where are all the other organisations that should be doing the same?
@John Mulligan: true, I expect Retail Excellence should release a blacklist of service providers evaluated using the same criteria they have challenged Facebook with.
Will rogue retailers who continue to use Facebook for marketing purposes be released from their annual subscription to Retail Excellence and have their membership and representation cancelled?
Ethics demand it. Retail Excellence should forego any income from such rogues.
@alphanautica: I doubt any organisation has the resources to do something like that. What they did was essentially a statement disassociating themselves from fb’s bad practices. A good step that should be emulated by other groups.
So we will continue to be able to see Paddy and John Paul beat two shades of poo of each other in bare-Knuckle Fights or this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWTIf-_SnnA
Surely anyone who sees a serious crime like child abuse has a duty to report it, whether they are an employee or contractor of FB or not?
If the report is made to the Corporate Entity the duty continues, it does not diminish, to the persons within FB and upto the top.
The Gardai or other Police force should be hammering on FB’s door with warrants and axes to get the IP addresses and locations.
Any lawyers or Zuckerbergs that obstruct or stand in their way should be thrown in the back of the wagon, and left there until the more important matter is taken care of by the authorities, politicians have a duty to ensure this happens.
The state should recoup the costs from the “Social Network” and slap punative and exemplary fines on them until they stop making ad money from misery.
Good idea. Wish others would use their brain and do the same.
Pity the Journal wouldn’t follow suit.
Fair play Retail Excellence, hopefully more will follow then FB will finally get its act together.
The man looks like ‘Data’ from Star Trek..
I find FB great for keeping in touch with extended family and also for news and special interests science pages etc.
@Mark Fitzmaurice: Likewise FB finds you great for providing them with detailed information about your family, their and your network of associates, political persuasion, special interests, family photos, WiFi passwords, contacts, what you’ve been watching on Netflix, what books you like to read etc. etc. etc.
He is definately one of the lizard people.
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