Yesterday the onion had brilliant stories as ever, but one gem in particular caught my eye. It's a comparison of the Wii and the PS3.

In fairness though, I have to admit, I do want one.







tags: Wii

Published by Paul.  

Did you ever eat jam sandwiches when you were younger? I used to eat rhubarb jam sandwiches. They were shit. Just as Jammie Dodgers are shit. You simply can't put jam alone in the middle of a sandwich and try to pass it off as something delicious. Now, you can liven it up by adding cream. Conversely, you can add peanut butter, a phenomenon found solely in the US, and make your nation look even stupider.

Quite simply, Burton's biscuits have managed to take two of the most nefarious faux pas of biscuit baking; shoddy pastry; and gooey, artificial, coloured sugary crap, and fuse them. The result: a biscuit that appeals only to the kind of people that listen to Keane while flicking through an Ikea catalogue.

A Jammie Dodger won't fit into an espresso cup and dunking one ruins a good cup of tea. The pastry, due to it heavy reliance on sugar, doesn't melt well at all. As for the jam, the pastry inhibits any hot liquid access to it which is a shame because that fusion could prove interesting. In terms of value for money, Jammie Dodgers fare quite well. There are many special offers available and you will often see a double-pack on offer, similar to the Toffypop double-pack offers. However, seeing as how I've already proven beyond doubt that Dodgers are crap biscuits, why on earth would you want to buy a double-pack? (One reason I can think of is you could bring them to a Keane concert and throw them at the stage).

Again, Dodgers do fairly well in the consistency department. Then again, in saying this I'm saying that Burtons consistently churn out a shit biscuit. There's nothing to be proud of there. In fact, Burtons have nothing to be proud of with this creation. The nail in the coffin is the little heart in the middle of it. What the hell is that about?

Value for Money: 6.5

Dunkability: 0.5

Consistency: 9 (minus 8 for being consistently crap)

If it were a car it would be: Daewoo Matiz

Overall Verdict: 2
A biscuit for all of those who crave the artificiality and uniformity of the dismal Fordist era.

tags:[Jammie Dodgers]

Published by El Commandant P.  

- Shock jock O'Reilly declares the iPod to be a threat to American national security

- Cyber Monday sets new record

- Not to be outdone by rivals, Ryanair to offer duty-free Polonium 210 on flights to Moscow. Okay, so I made that up.

Shameless ...



tags:virtual earth

Published by Colm.  

Written by Francie and Colm

Andy Robinson's "resignation" today will have caused many England fans to exhale. But he didn't leave before making his excuses. In a statement he said: "The current structure and system for developing elite rugby players and performance in the international arena is not working".

Robinson may have a point. The physical demands being asked of England players in the Guinness League are causing more injuries and more tiredness. England supporters often look lustfully over the Irish Sea at a system that puts players and their game schedules first.

His obituary will read as thus - he has filled the post of England Head Coach for 22 test matches. His record stands at won 9 – lost 13, seven of them in a row, equally a losing streak record. The last straw came with Saturday's defeat to the Springboks, a game England lead 14-3 at one stage.

With talk of replacements such as Warren Gatland and former playing legend Martin Johnson been touted, Twickenham's big shouts need to sort this saga out as soon as possible. With the commencement of England's RBS 6 Nations campaign little more than 9 weeks away, the RFU need to get their new man in quick time to try and salvage some sort of decent campaign.

We all know Ireland are going to bang home the Grand Slam anyway.

tags:england rugy, andy robinson

Published by Colm.  

tags: music

Published by Paul.  

EDIT: Please do not vote for this post in the Irish Blog Awards. As much as we'd like to claim credit for this, it was actually only a reprint from The Morning News.

Dear Diary: Calisthenics, shower, and breakfast. Then I water the garden because it is dry. After the water I put fertilizer into the soil. I feel the flowers growing stronger the more I talk to them. Accidentally with my trowel I kill a flower. The world is chaos. I am unsuccessful at crying.


Dear Diary: Today my car is stolen from the driveway. I am not surprised.


Dear Diary: Work all day, a short break, and then dinner. Routines please me because they put order into the day; without order, there is chaos and violence. But for dinner I make a cheese sandwich and I hate it. I want to spit on it and see what it does. But I eat it anyway. Everyone dies, but for now I must live.


Dear Diary: Because my new film is coming into theaters, I am with a studio executive this evening for dinner. Outside the restaurant are trees with lights in the branches. This is popular in Los Angeles. Most people, I think, find them pretty. But all I can do is stare, all I can think of is the night I watched a Sri Lankan family who lived in a tree-house burn to death. It is a moment for crying, but not for me. I remember watching the babies on fire and not crying. I proceed to coat-check.

The dinner specials include scallops. “I will have the scallops,” I tell the waiter, and they are fine, they do not hurt me.

The executive asks if the new film is like Desperate Housewives, a TV program about women who enjoy sex. I have been raped by life many times. I think the waiter is shocked to hear this.


Dear Diary: When Klaus Kinski and I made Fitzcarraldo, I had trouble maintaining my composure. At one point I told Kinski I would shoot him if he did not cooperate. This comes to mind this evening because I buy a pound of spinach leaves for dinner, but when I cook the spinach, it reduces, and there is only enough for one serving. I have four guests. I should not be surprised, but I am.


Dear Diary: In the mornings I like to dress quickly. Today in my underpants I find a hundred dollar bill. I put it in the garbage.


Dear Diary: To pass time, I look through my old diaries. This entry is from my eighth year:

The classroom upsets me. None of the boys are nice to me, and one hits me in the face. I tell him, “You are hitting me, I must go,” and I walk home, but I do not pity myself. They will die, too.

Dear Diary: I have a cellular phone plan that includes “whenever minutes.” This is a chuckle to me, because no minutes are “whenever”—they are precisely now, and in fact they are already gone.


Dear Diary: My girlfriend calls and asks me to a coffee. Her first name is Thea. I do not know her last name. She does not arrive. The gentleman in the shop puts cream in the coffee even when I say, I do not want the cream. I order a sandwich and they give me a chocolate. This is beautiful to me, this chaos in the Starbucks. All is well.


Dear Diary: My sister Hedda is a kindergarten teacher near my house. She calls me because she is sick with the flu—but not so bad that she will die, yet—and asks me to be the teacher in her place.

I consent. I enjoy being around children. Children are not dishonest and we have a very happy day together. During our snack time is when we have our conversations. Hopefully I do not fail them.

CHILD: What is paper made of?
HERZOG (ME): I do not know.

CHILD: I have a dog and a cat named Sabrina, my sister’s name is Sabrina too but she’s not a cat.
HERZOG: Is the cat named after the sister?
CHILD: No.
HERZOG: Is the sister named after the cat?
CHILD: No.
HERZOG: How old is the sister?
CHILD: I’m five.
HERZOG: You can die at any age.
CHILD: Pickles is my dog.
HERZOG: Who is Pickles named after?
CHILD: Cheese goes on the cracker!
HERZOG: I am named after nothing.
CHILD: Cheese goes on the cracker!

CHILD: How many cars fit on a plane?
HERZOG: None.
CHILD: Why?
HERZOG: It is a trick question. You are trying to deceive me.

CHILD: Why do I have to give Michael back his hat?
HERZOG: Because it is his. Give it to him.
CHILD: But it’s mine.
HERZOG: Then do not give it to him. Keep it. No one cares.
CHILD: Where’s teacher?
HERZOG: If there is a God, even he does not care, but there is not a God.

CHILD: Why do I have to eat the cracker?
HERZOG: You do not have to eat the cracker.
CHILD: Teacher makes us eat the crackers.
HERZOG: I am not Teacher, I am Herzog.
CHILD: I hate crackers.
HERZOG: Herzog hates crackers too.


Dear Diary: This is another old diary entry, from university years:

My new girlfriend’s name is Elvsted. That is her family name. I do not know her first name. I ask her to the toffee shop this afternoon and she does not meet me. I order a chocolate. Instead they serve me a sandwich. All is well.

Dear Diary: In the mall I pass a clothing store. A colorful T-shirt is on a mannequin in the window. The message on the T-shirt says “No Fear.” I break through the window with my hands and shred the T-shirt into pieces. I am not being made fun of by this clothing.

tags:[Werner Herzog]

Published by El Commandant P.  

Hands up cricket fans of the blogosphere?

While spending a late summer in Perth in Western Australia I was indoctrinated by some of my good Aussie mates. I was a reluctant victim, but I have to say, I got hooked to the extent I maintain a passing interest in the sport ever since. I got a good grounding in the game from my Australian associates and I can say with my head held high, it's a game I admire for its highly developed tactical elements and large amount of skill.

Tom has a great post on The Ashes which started yesterday. He covers the English social phenomonon that was the last Ashes series with some very useful analysis. For non-plussed readers there's even an Irishman on the fringes this time around if an excuse is required to pass comment down at the pub this weekend.

Unfortunately unless as in my case you're sat down on the couch before lunchtime with a carton (as they call it) of 24 beers and a gang of mates and forced to watch, you'll likely pass cricket and The Ashes tour by like a train in the night. That's a shame for any sports fan.

Oh, I almost forgot, the most important part of the sport as I had it explained to me is something called 'Pommy Bashing'. Now, I'm aware the numbers on teletext might not mean much to you, but lets just say things are going rather badly in the extreme for the unforunate English tourists in the first test.





Any tears in cornflakes over there this morning Colm?

tags: cricket

Published by Paul.  

tags: music

Published by Paul.  

Due to popular demand...

Jacob's are a household name in Ireland. We all know about Fig Rolls, Kimberley Mikados and those useless Cream Crackers which only viewers of The Afternoon Show eat. Many of us were brought up on Jacob's biscuits which is probably a result of the "Buy Irish" campaigns of the 1980s and early 90s. Now, however, we don't really give a fuck where our biscuits come from as long as they are lavishly packaged and instill in us a feeling of regal splendour. So, in response to this Jacob's have come up with Oat Crumbles.

According to checkout.ie Oat Crumbles "are being received extremely well by consumers" and they can confirm that "they are indeed yummy". Yummy? Forgive me if I don't take the word of a bunch of marketing yuppies as gospel, I had to find out for myself. Oat Crumbles (OCs) come in two varieties; chocolate & raspberry and chocolate & pecan. Jacob's have to be commended for including raspberries and pecans, two ingredients sadly lacking in the biscuit market. Raspberries have always played second fiddle to the hegemonic strawberry and pecans have never featured due to the prevalence of inexpensive nuts like hazelnuts and peanuts. Aside from the ingredients, OCs are going to turn the biscuit world upside-down, both literally and figuratively. For you see, the chocolate is on the bottom, not the top. This truly is a biscuit revolution.

This paradigm shift in construction had me stumped for a while. I asked myself if I should dunk it. If I should set it down on the table on the chocolate side or the biscuit side. If I was even worthy to be eating this thing. I got over that though when I realised that if I just turned it over the chocolate would be in the traditional position. There are only 9 biscuits in a pack, which is a bit stingy. But they're big biscuits and you get that full, satisfied feeling after about 3. Costing just above €2 then makes them relatively good value for money. As with millionaire's caramel shortcakes, I simply haven't had enough packets of these yet to give you a realistic reading of their consistency.

For dunkability, they perform well. The tight oat construction holds everything together well and the chocolate mixes well with the biscuit. I haven't lost one to the bottom of a cup yet. And, believe me, there is nothing more scintillatingly titillating than chewing on a raspberry chunk drowned in tea and swimming around your mouth in a veritable orgy of chocolate and oat for the first time. Aside from all the positives, a biscuit review would not be a biscuit review without some criticism. Again, it's the marketing bullshit that lets the OCs down. According to Jacob Fruitfield's chief executive "The need for healthy products, convenient products, and highly indulgent products is growing rapidly". He goes on to claim that OCs embody a combination of indulgent and healthy. Let's be frank here, there's no such thing. If something looks like it'll make you fat, you better fuckin' believe it'll make you fat. If something looks healthy, you better believe it'll taste like wet cardboard. However, you'd expect such oxymoronic statements from people trying to sell you stuff.


Value for Money: 7.5

Dunkabaility: 8

Consistency: ?

Overall Verdict: 7.5

If it were a car it would be an: Alfa Romeo 159. Looks great and drives great but has marketing slogans like "Mediocrity is a Sin".

A novel biscuit incorporating uncommon biscuit ingredients but, for fuck's sake, cut out the bullshit and let the taste do the talking.


tags:[Oat Crumbles]

Published by El Commandant P.  

An expected ruling from the European Court of Justice this week will allow Internet users to avoid paying duty on cigarettes and alcohol. The decision to allow the sale of these goods online means that users will only be required to pay the duty owed to the country of sale. This may result in the Irish government losing millions in income from excise duty.

Ireland is the most expensive country in the EU when it comes to paying excise duty on wine and second costliest for buying cigarettes. In some Eastern European member states, 20 cigarettes can cost 75c.

In Fact, Ah is surprised that this story is not being given any coverage in the Irish MSM. Let's all get pissed.

tags:duty

Published by Colm.  

tags: music

Published by Paul.  

Oslo's Serena Maneesh play Dublin tomorrow night (Thur 22nd Nov) at Crawdaddy. The Northern Europeans' recent self-titled debut album has made waves across the indie world, in particular they are one of Pitchfork's 2006 darlings.

Having toured America and Europe extensively already this year it's heartening to see them make the Dublin pitstop. In their 2006 travels so far they've been supported by such up and coming things as Asobi Seksu and Film School.

Luckily they've kept up the strong openings with their support for the Dublin gig which comes from our own Butterfly Explosion. Certainly a night not to let slip under the overloaded gig radar that is November.

tags: music, butterfly explosion

Published by Paul.  

tags:music

Published by Paul.  

Love it. I really miss the heady days in the Irish blogosphere when all it took was a post about "Sex and the City" to get people worked up. And if I learned anything back then, it was that posts about gender get people worked up.

Cue James Corbett. After Damien Mulley suggested that a list of expert list of Irish bloggers be kept, Eirepreneur drew up a list of bloggers he considered "experts" in their field. What's the beef? Well, there were no women included!

Cue Annette Clancy. The blogging award-winner suggested that men were the gatekeepers of the Irish blogosphere. Mulley didn't agree. Goldbach podcasts and blogs about it. Another Irish blog award-winner Gleeson sides with Clancy.

Bottom line? Ditch these lists of "experts". If journos really want to find experts from the Irish blogosphere, let them do the groundwork and decide for themselves who they want to interview. Lists are elitist and not like blogrolls as James Corbett maintains. I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours. My Panini sticker collection has Blogorrah, your's has Twenty Major - let's swap. Rubbish.

tags:blogs

Published by Colm.  

tags: music

Published by Paul.  

It took four years to make and has managed to even convince this ambivalent naturalist. Damn it, I don't even like cats or dogs. But it's the drama, the score, the tension, the comedy and the narrator's dulcet tones that have me hooked.

Attenborough, as ever, is in top form. It's no easy task to be able to narrate in symmetry with what's happening on screen.

Tonight, episode nine of 11 airs at 9pm on BBC One. The show is part of the BBC's trialling of the HD format. I can only imagine what it looks like in HD on a large screen.

The score too is something to enjoy. George Fenton, its creator, has previously composed scores for Ghandi, The Wind that Shakes the Barley and Dangerous Liaisons to name but a few.

You can buy the series on DVD from Monday November 27th at Play.com.

Watch a clip from last week's episode that featured a battle between elephants and lions. Stupid elephants can't see very well, something which gets them into a spot of bother.


tags:planet earth

Published by Colm.  

Francie has a tear in his eye ...

Tonight sees the last soccer international to be played at Lansdowne Road before the bulldozers come in to make way for a new 50,000 seater stadium. Hopefully our Boys in Green will ensure they go out on a high with a resounding victory over European minnows San Marino.

While Lansdowne is being re-developed, both the Irish soccer and rugby teams will play their games at GAA headquarters. And in preparation for this, Croke Park has begun installing state-of-the-art floodlights. The €5million system will be twice as powerful as those being used tonight at Lansdowne Road. With a lux measurement of over 2,500 per square metre, the floodlights will be up there with the best in the world. Basing their research on cricket grounds, Croke Park officials wanted to ensure the lighting system would be suited to hurling. Hopefully our Boys in Green, in both codes, will shine as brightly in their new home.


tags:lansdowne

Published by Colm.  

Francie says you can't beat a bit of Westlife. I blame the low cloud density in the North West myself for his crazy taste in music.

Now many of us say we hate their music, and for valid reasons. It’s not deemed awe-inspiring stuff by many, but you have to admit that they’re good at what they do. And notching up their 14th UK number 1 yesterday with a cover (yet again) of Beth Midler’s ballad, ‘The Rose’ proves that point.

I must admit I do like to listen to the odd bit of Westlife now and again. Maybe it’s the Sligo link that makes me do it. But sales of 35 million records worldwide, and now standing only behind The Beatles and Elvis for most UK number one singles, are feats you have to admire.

tags:westlife

Published by Colm.  

Web2.0, social networks and online media. They're becoming more and more a part of the content of everyday life than some would like to even admit. A work event I attended only served to reinforce this notion. So let's embrace, utilise and discuss. This post and future posts on In Fact, Ah will attempt to analyse the best of breed.



Guide to streaming free music online

1. MySpace - www.myspace.com



Strictly considered a social networking site, MySpace has evolved to become one of the leading sources for listening to music online. It's a fantastic way for emerging musicians and bands to publish music when doors at record companies seem firmly shut. If you believe it, this medium unleashed the likes of the Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen who would otherwise still be singing to herself in her London flat.

Somebody at a party recently mentioned to you that they liked Scott Matthews? Never heard of him? Go check out four songs from his stupendous album "Passing Stranger" on his MySpace page.

Some criticism can be levelled at MySpace for being too many things. It's a blog, it's a place to hang out with strangers for friends, it's a place to leave comments. Will face strong competition from Bebo if the Internet's smoking shed behind the school gets it together to allow music to be streamed. It should be interesting too to see what Murdoch will make of it.
___________________________________________________________________

2. Yahoo! Music - http://uk.launch.yahoo.com



It really does deserve more hype. My old employer really knew what they were doing when they bought Launch Media for a mere $12m. As a music recommender system, it's hard to find fault with it and using Launch couldn't be simpler. Feed it with a sample of what bands, albums and songs you like and it plays you what it thinks you'll like.
You say you like Otis Redding and it intersperses your customised radio station with some of his Motown classics. Keep rating the music it plays on a scale from 0-100 and you soon have a source of music that gets smarter and smarter.

You will need to use Windows Media Player and is not compatible with Firefox. A nice feature is that Launch runs nicely from the Yahoo! IM tool with the option to show your IM buddies what song you're currently listening to.
Too bad that Yahoo! doesn't shout more about it.
___________________________________________________________________

3. Pandora - www.pandora.com



Pandora is the offspring of the Genome Music Project, a group of music mavens comprised of techies and musicians. They claim to have analysed thousands of songs and to have captured "the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony."

Like Pandora, it's a recommender system, but doesn't use as granular a rating system. You like a song? Give it the thumbs up. You dislike the song? Give it the thumbs down. All a bit rudimentary really considering how analytical the Genome people are when it comes to their creating taxonomies of music. But it works. I frequently hear gasps of astonishment from users of Pandora, all worked up because it "read their mind".

It's flash based and requires you to be from the US in order to use it. Bollocks, I say. Just fill in that zip code you had as J1 student and off you go, opening a wonderful box in the process. On the downside, you're limited to six skips per hour.
___________________________________________________________________

4. Last FM - www.last.fm



If you don't mind Big Brother knowing what you listen to on your music players, then Last FM has it all. 'Scrobble' the music you listen to and a log is created where you can review your listening habits, have music recommended in a streamable station based on that history and get connected with people of similar taste.

The facility is available to publish a list of what you've been listening to on a blog as Paul from In Fact, Ah does on the side panel. Last FM is rammed with features which may act as a turn-off for the older technology user, but for those of us comfortable with adapting to post dot com technologies, this one's a keeper.

(And yes, .fm domains are used by Internet radio stations)
___________________________________________________________________

5. Windows Media Player



If you prefer the old-fashioned format for a radio station, then you could do worse than browsing the thousands of radio stations that are featured in Windows Media Player (Media Guide on the new WMP 11). Every genre of music conceivable is catered for. Personally, I like to make a cup of green tea and put on the Chillout Vibes station when I'm not coming up with a new knitting pattern to submit to Ireland's Own.

All jokes aside, it's a great lucky bag-type service.
___________________________________________________________________

6. Google
Google, it appears, doesn't do music.

Published by Colm.  

RTE News is this morning claiming that the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) have voted unanimously to co-operate with the new Garda reserve force who entered stations for the first time this weekend. This represents quite a u-turn for the AGSI and the Garda Representative Association (GRA) are set to ballot their considerably larger membership on the same deal offered to the AGSI soon.

Just over 6 months ago the AGSI's annual conference was informed that the new reserve force were nothing more than "PlayStation Cops", that the reserve force represented a "morale shattering measure", and most surreally comical of all: that the reserve force "has the potential to be the most divisive thing to hit communities since the Civil War". The best comedy writers in the world couldn't come up with gold like that.

In essence, the main beef the Gardai had with the reserve force was the fact that they would receive far lees training than regular Gardai and that this lack of training and experience may jeopardise the safety of both parties. In Addition, there were also concerns about what powers the new reserves would have. So, obviously the Minister for Justice has come up with a solution which has placated the Gardai and enabled them to unanimously endorse this proposal. Right? Wrong? He's just thrown a load of cash their way. It appears that Gardai were threatened with non-payment of the National Pay Agreement increases promised them. Exact details of the pay deal are unclear at present. What is clear, however, is that McDowell has managed to force his reserve force through without much difficulty.


tags:[Garda Reserve Force]

Published by El Commandant P.  

We all shed a tear when Donald Rumsfeld rode off in to the sunset. But only after watching some of his finest moments on the CBS's Late Late Show.


tags:rumsfeld

Published by Colm.  

The internationally accredited Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza does truly vital work in the most difficult of circumstances. In the face of such impunity impartial documentation of Human Rights violations is a small victory. Their press release from midday today:

In a Form of Systematic Massive Killing, IOF Kill 18 Palestinian Civilian, Including 8 Children and 6 Women, and Wound 55 Others in Beit Hanoun

1. Fatema Ahmed al-‘Athamna, Aged 70;

2. Sanaa’ Ahmed al-‘Athamna, Aged 30;

3. Ne’ma Ahmed al-‘Athamna, Aged 55;

4. Mas’oud ‘Abdullah al-‘Athamna, Aged 55;

5. Sabah Mohammed al-‘Athamna, Aged 45;

6. Sameer Mas’oud al-‘Athamna, Aged 23;

7. Fatema Mas’oud al-‘Athamna, Aged 16;

8. ‘Arafat Sa’ad al-‘Athamna, Aged 17;

9. Mahdi Sa’ad al-‘Athamna, Aged 13;

10. Mohammed Sa’ad al-‘Athamna, Aged 14;

11. Sa’ad Majdi al-‘Athamna, Aged 8;

12. Mahmoud Amjad al-‘Athamna, Aged 12;

13. Malak Sameer al-‘Athamna, Aged 4;

14. Maisaa’ Ramzi al-‘Athamna, Aged 4;

15. Nihad Mohammed al-‘Athamna, Aged 33;

16. Mohammed Ramadan al-‘Athamna, Aged 28;

17. Manal Mohammed al-‘Athamna, Aged 35;

18. Saqer Mohammed ‘Edwan, Aged 45.

There aren't many Palestinians living and blogging in Gaza as one can imagine. The few who are, you can find through your normal avenues of search. I can't think of a much more powerful use of the medium than to read their posts today, and comment in solidarity.

tags: Beit Hanoun

Published by Paul.  

Quite a day in American politics, I think it's been a larger turn around than most anticipated, particularly after the latest pre-election polls signalled a strenghtening of the GOP's support. The building expectation and optimism of the Democrats over the past number of weeks seemed like it may have been founded in quick sand as was the case in the previous Presedential race.

But not this time. Virginia is left to call at the time of writing, with the Democrat Jim Webb 7,000 odd votes in front in a ballot of 2.3 million plus. I'm not going to be waiting up tonight to see the result of that one. If things fall in Webb's favour, that would really dot the Is and cross the Ts on the Whitewash headlines.

I did watch until about 1a.m. this morning as the polls were closing across the Eastern states. Across Sky News, CNN, MSNBC, FOX and Bloomberg there was one common thread that really struck me. The amount of time spent discussing blogs on all broadcasts (both the actual news coming through the blogs and the more abstract discussion of the increasing role of blogs in politics) was stupendous.

CNN were covering blog parties and talking to people at them as they were blogging. It was just blog mania at literally every turn on every channel. Pundits were claiming that blogs were responsible for increasing voter turnout over the past number of national elections, all sorts of interesting stuff. They spoke about hermetically sealing pollsters away in a room because they didn't want uber-early and incorrect calls going out on the blogs.

I felt I had a good grip on the passion that goes into political blogging in the states and the importance of the role it plays over there, but after last night? Well, certainly the passion blew me away.

I also felt strongly the networks all had a bit of a hump because they subscribe to "higher standards" of reporting, thus the blogs would always be ahead on calling things, so there was a definite air of the blogs taking the networks' thunder.

This evening Mr. Rumsfeld is left to saddle up on the scapegoat and ride off into the sunset. Sorry for your troubles Donnie, hope the shock and awe of it all doesn't pinch too much.

This morning the sun still rose on Texas, and maybe the only truly significant practical change delivered by this election will be the first female leader of the lower house. That in itself must be something to be warmly welcomed. If I could ask Ms. Pelosi a question, I'd borrow a line from Hunter S. Thompson:

What's the score here... What's next?

tags: mid-term elections, rumsfeld

Published by Paul.  

Written by Francie, regular commenter and now contributer to the blog.



No rules and no future, this series has to come to an end now. For the GAA, it’s time to stop milking the cow and look at the well-being of our GAA stars.

My comments on this farcical series last week have been justified I feel, after Sunday’s distasteful showings in front of a packed Croke Park. Many came to see a fight and were rewarded even before the ball was thrown in. Talking to a friend before last week’s game in Galway, he commented that all he’d go to see at one of these games is a brawl. And I feel he’s not alone. Lacking in this form of entertainment last week, Sunday’s first quarter provided it in abundance.

We all know it takes two to tango and one can always take the lead, a position I feel the Aussies embraced with pleasure on Sunday. Why wouldn’t they? Physically stronger than their Irish counterparts, they held the all the aces for such a contest. Pride will always cause you never to turn away from such confrontations but our GAA players should not have to be involved in such contests. Before the game Graham Geraghty was told he was a marked man. The same player left the field on a stretcher 13 minutes in after being knocked unconscious. When studied, the tackle appears intentional, one aimed to cause damage. In such circumstances, refereeing has to come to the fore. Protection of players is one of the main responsibilities of a referee. How no red card was shown yesterday beggars belief.

I think Irish captain Kieran McGeeney summed it up in his post-match comments, “If you want to box, say you want to box and we’ll box. If you want to play football, say you want to play football and we’ll play football”. In Ireland we have plenty of men who can fill both roles. Our GAA stars shouldn’t be made do both.

tags:international rules

Published by Colm.  

If Tony Blair does indeed believe that the death penalty is wrong, why then did he put 600,000 on a very short death row waiting list? If Tony Blair wishes not to be remembered in history as a mass murderer, why did he side with a man now being deserted by conservatives, neocons and conmen who struggle to find an exit strategy of their own?

Yesterday, the greatest tyrant to grace the world in which I have lived was condemned to the same fate that befell hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis. The execution of Saddam Hussein will be seen as a victory for George Bush but it's a hollow win in the grand scheme of things. Blair and Bush together have managed to do what Hussein could never have imagined in his wildest dreams. Iraq is being carved into three in the most violent of means by Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. In short, it's imploding.

It's likely that Hussein's body will be buried at an unmarked location in an Iraqi desert. This burying of a head in the sand was seen last week too when the House of Commons voted not to instigate an inquiry into the handling of the war in Iraq. Bush will not be so lucky tomorrow as the Republicans face a dogfight in the mid-terms.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a mop big enough to clean up this mess. What would Obama and David Cameron have done?

Watch blogger Andrew Sullivan and journo/writer Christopher Hitchens talk about Bush and the upcoming election. Via Traveling Tree Frog.



tags:iraq

Published by Colm.  

I may not have had much response from Seetickets regarding my complaint with their atrocious service, but at least someone, or something is listening. Google has been showing my post in the first page of their search results page on the keyword 'seetickets'. Hopefully, potential customers will read about my experience of using their service.

Who knows, some other bloggers may even link to this post too?

UPDATE: Another blogger stumbled across my rant on this and has also documented her order with SeeTickets.

tags:seetickets

Published by Colm.  

Hardly a novel idea as others have done this before, but we shall recap on what has been a week full of enjoyable posts in the Irish blogosphere.

- John has a very absorbing post about his baby daughter connecting with the spiritual world.

- Another John, this time of Fústar, has a great piece on Halloween.

- Arguing for the merits of semiotics is Michael Larkin at Disillusioned Lefty.

On the downside, Sarah Carey has taken it upon herself to tell everyone else what actually happened in Monaghan when five people lost their lives a few weeks ago. She reaches the conclusion, before any inquest has taken place, that Dermot Thornton was to blame for the accident. In a post that she has since taken down, Sarah says

"What is he? Some kind of hero because his dangerous driving killed him and his friends?".

For a blogger to pass an opinion off as fact is disgraceful. For a Sunday Times columnist to do it is unforgiveable. Only when two relatives of the deceased emailed her to complain about her post did it get taken down.

Sure, it may emerge that Thornton was to blame. But let's wait until we have the facts.

tags:blogs

Published by Colm.  

As usual I'm too late with my gig review and half the blogosphere has already ranted on about the full band that he brought with him, the inflatable Supermen, the wings made out of kites and all that, so no point in boring you with those details.

Apart from the theatricals, I was there to hear some quality music from one of the my favourite musicians of the past few years. Compared to previous solo performances in Dublin, with ten musicians on stage there was ample scope for the Sufjan to deliver his full repertoire of songs live. And he delivered in spades. Firstly, it was great to see a contemporary band reading the music from sheets as if they were part of an orchestra. It was subtle but at least it made you appreciate the effort that goes into writing this music.

I thought they were a little slow to start with but once they got the first few songs out of the way they were really on form. When they opened it out by laying it on with heavy guitars, lung busting wind sections and erratic piano it got pretty intense - some might even say spiritual but I wouldn't go that far myself. The up-tempo highlights were 'Detroit, lift up your weary head', 'The man of metropolis steals our hearts' and 'Chicago'. On the flip side, he was able to drop back to a sweet melody with ease for songs like 'Concerning the UFO sighting' and a sublime version of 'He woke me up again'. The other highlight for me was the new song he played which I can't remember the name of now but which really blew me away. As has been mentioned elsewhere, he puts much effort into his show and there was also plenty of craic and banter with the crowd, although his stories are fanciful to say the least. No doubt about it, he's got a wonderful imagination.

Maybe it was only me but after watching The Devil and Daniel Johnson recently it struck me that there were some similarities between the two. Aside from the obvious musical talents and preoccupation with religion in their music, in dawned on me that it Johnson had grown up in a vegan-eating, yoga-practicing family environment and we could well have been paying 30 euros to see him the following night in the Olympia. Sufjan will do for now though.

tags:sufjan

Published by Padraig.  

Cheesy post title aside, it's fair to say that I'm excited. The anticipation of attending tomorrow night's (Friday 3rd) Sufjan Stevens gig at the Barbican here in London is almost too much to endure. The reviews from Dublin only serve to heighten it.

And it's not the gee-whizz, "he's bringing a full band and wings and giant Santas" that's getting me worked up. It's the army of sweeping songs that he is going to perform for me that's causing this ebullience. He will have to try his hardest to knock Tapes 'n Tapes off the top spot of gigs I've attended this year.

Containing ridiculously long track titles, his albums to date have been numerous and long. There's an argument to be made that the best bits should really be put together in fewer records, but the concept of making albums as opposed to collections of singles is part and parcel of his songwriting philosophy.

Hell, he's even releasing festive 42 songs in time for Christmas on five discs which can be streamed in entirety on the Asthmatic Kitty site. No fireside stocking should be without.

Isn't it strange that blogs are not ashamed to big up a singer-songwriter these days? The fear that your friends will consider you boring because you listen to a guy play banjo on Christian songs is non-existent. Hurrah!

tags:sufjan

Published by Colm.  

Them old trans fats. Getting an awful doing in the press of late. You mean you don't use Extra Virgin? God be with the days of Frytex. My old grand-aunt, bless her soul, used to use the stuff for anything that needed frying.

Thankfully, KFC don't use Frytex nor will they use transfats in their cooking oil come spring 2007. This follows the trend set by some of the other major fat sellers/midriff enhancers who have recently become ab-friendly.

If fatty breasts and thighs are not your thing, you should follow the age-old Irish tradition of cooking the heads of animals. Like my old grand-aunt would have said, "waste not, want not".



tags:fat

Published by Colm.