Archive for November, 2008
Things get steamy in drink driving case
I just followed this article via Damien Mulley's Fluffy Links and could not believe what I was reading. Talk about an open-minded judge. Apparently, two drink driving cases recently heard in Kerry, were thrown out of court because the judge felt that in the legally required 20 minutes before taking the "final" breath test, the men at the centre of the cases used the lavatory and could have inhaled the steam off their own urine causing the breath test to show a false positive. Romantic Ireland may be dead and gone but Irish quirkiness will live on forever. Read more...
Knightrider fever as Mercedes team up with KIT
Well that's not entirely true and it doesn't have anything to do with Germans and "The Hoff". The KIT in this instance is the Karlshrue Institute of Technology and Mercedes has teamed up with the IT to establish a centre for research into the area of electric car development. This is a great move by Daimler (Mercedes parent company) who are already pushing the bar in electric car development by launching a model for the hi-end executive market, in the S-class range, next year. To be known as the S-400 it will be the world's first lithium-ion battery powered hybrid car. Exciting times ahead [...]
Super, clever, genius!
Three words that certainly do not describe the text message that I just got from O2. Hi, here's a great way you can get your hands on a prepay iPhone. Why not ask family and friends for prepay iPhone vouchers this Christmas. From O2 Wow! Simply wow! In these times of recession and supposedly all retailers are trying so hard to get people to part with their ever-reducing wads of cash, here we have a message that doesn't even entice people into a must have mindset. I should sell the idea to Mercedes, "Here's a great way to get a E220 CDI this Christmas, ask somebody else to buy it for [...]
I’m Dreaming of a Tight Christmas…
I'm dreaming of a tight Christmas, Just like the one in '84. When the minister's gone fishin' and people start wishin' To the sound of an economy gone below. I'm dreaming of a tight Christmas, With every pathetic government slight. You may take a ferry, or flight, And leave Ireland long out of sight. I'm dreaming of a tight Christmas, A Christmas when the future's shyte. They get a raise and you get plight, And may all your votes next year be spite. Merry Recession everybody!
E really does equal mc^2
Finally after about 100 years scientists have confirmed Albert Einstein's famous equation of E = mc^2. Leading experts in the field of theoretical physics have utilised some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world to set down the calculations for estimating the mass of protons and neutrons allowing them to finally prove that energy and mass are equivalent as Einstein proposed. Looks like we won't have to rewrite the textbooks. :) source: theage.com.au
Above all else, the company is ok!
Just picked this up from Pat Phelan's update on Twitter. A press release issued by a company in which there were horrific and tragic shootings recently, in America. The focus of the press release seems more concerned with stating that the company is ok and no layoffs were ever the case in the company's history than it is with addressing the incredibly sad and unfortunate events resulting in the death of its employees. Personally I don't imagine that many really care how the company is doing in this context. Read more... It smacks of the old line whereby farmer from <insert disliked [...]
Very cool ad
The new Toshiba advert - very cool indeed!
Balance. What Balance?
Those who know me will know that I've always been a passionate campaigner for the equal rights of the young, both in my youth and even now that I slip beyond technically being "young". No more so has my anger against age discrimination been shown than against the ridiculous car insurance market in Ireland. I have shouted at the locked doors of the oppressive forces that uphold this unfair market; I have taken a case before the equality tribunal against a major insurer in Ireland only to find that they were retrospectively protected by a clause in the Equal Status Act despite their unfair [...]
2-4-6-8 Who do we not vaccinate?
Sadly the answer to that in recent times has been all those, of a young age, who could avail of the new wonder vaccine for cervical cancer in Ireland. This post was prompted by listening to the Ray D'Arcy show on Today FM this morning when Health Minister, Mary Harney, took her life into her hands and put herself at the mercy of the headline crusader himself. While it is a crying shame that the health service in Ireland cannot be realigned to find the Eur 10 million necessary to commence this vaccination program for young females, and that money is still being spent on ridiculous overheads [...]
The Past and the President
Dawn's early light illuminated my living room while I lay asleep. A new light for a new day; little did I realise in my semi-conscious state that this was the dawn of a new age. Abraham Lincoln had ratified, in 1865, a bill that would become known as the emancipation of the slaves in America. While ratified by congress it would be another 100 years or so until the rights of African Americans were gaining acceptance amidst a horribly racist and bigoted nation. The civil rights marches of the late 50's and 60's, followed by the Black Power Movement of the late 60's and early 70's, opened [...]
