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…

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 for all those green, carbon repressing sorts out there. Read more…

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 you!” 

People get paid for this?

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!

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

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 county here> buries his wife and places the obituary in the paper to be told that he can have three more words for the same price and he adds “hay for sale” to the obituary. Very poor taste indeed.

The new Toshiba advert – very cool indeed!

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 practices; I have continued to contact ministers, motor industry figures and others about this matter. In all of this I have discovered one thing: The young will never get recognition in this country!

The first landmark case with respect to age discrimination and car insurance came about in the Ross vs Royal and Sun Alliance case in 2003. In this case a 77-year-old man took a case for discrimination against the insurer for their blanket policy of refusing quotations to the over 70s. He took the case successfully and created a landmark ruling in the state. This weekend I learned of another case, of a Christian Brother in his mid-70s who took a case for discrimination against an Irish car rental firm for charging him a supplement of Eur 25 per day because he was over 70 and informed him that once he reached 75 he would not be entitled to rent a car at all. Again this case was taken successfully and a ruling in the favour of the elderly gentleman was made.

Now, within the Equality Tribunal, in 2004, there was also another case involving a young driver and First Call Direct which was only ruled in favour of the young driver because the company decided to change their policy of refusing quotations to under-25s on the day of the hearing, thereby admitting guilt and showing that the practice was unfair. No scrutiny of an insurer’s figures has ever been allowed to take place in the case of a young person.

In the case that I personally took against one of the country’s big insurance companies whom I cannot name for legal reasons, I tackled them through a mediation process whereby I laid my cards on the table from day one and stated unequivocally that I did not want compensation, all I wanted was to view their figures. After over 2 years of back and forth letters and mediation sessions I eventually got to the stage whereby I was given a summary of the figures that were used to blanket refuse all under 25 males. I was shocked to discover that the sample frames in use to compare risk against under 25 females showed a ratio of approximately 9:1 (i.e. 9 times the number of females to males). How any statistician could allow such sample frames to be compared as mitigating factors in a blanket refusal policy for under-25 males, I really do not know. What’s more shocking when you think about it, is how a company with a blanket refusal policy on under-25 males can even have under-25 males on its books. I know the reasons, some are legitimate (Declined Cases Committee of the Irish Insurance Federation) and others are purely business which means that those on the books are immediately within the high risk category. This means that a condensed, high risk sample frame was being contrasted to a “normal”, organic sample frame of females – incomparable! Sadly the data collected was collected prior to the Equal Status Act and therefore admissible as a discriminating factor in their defence.

So, it saddens me greatly when I still see no cases that have demanded that the insurers of this country cough up their figures with respect to the young driver market. We see all the ads on TV and we hear all the propaganda and since we were knee high to a grasshopper, we have always been told that the young are reckless, without ever being provided with proof. However, when the elderly challenge a case the ruling is always favourable and whether it’s insurance cover or repealing a decision on medical cards, the elder citizen always seems to claim victory. The young suffer in muffled rage and nobody sees fit to help them, after all what are they going to do? Their lives are too busy to run around on crusades, chasing justice. They cannot afford to be without a car to get to work, their livelihood depends on their ability to pay up and get on with it – challenging the system is not an option?

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 and crazy misadventures within the health service instead of this; my post is not about that matter.

The “interview” as I will refer to this morning’s airing of Mary Harney trying to get a word in was one of the most ridiculous, amateurish, wastes of air time that I have ever heard. Why oh why would anybody bring a minister onto a radio show to do nothing but constantly talk over them and hurl abuse at them, making cutting and insincere comments such as “I really admire the way you can detach yourself from the emotion” (not exact quote) in the context of talking about people dying from cancer. Ray, you should be ashamed of yourself as a respected, national media figure. While the on-going crisis in the health service is a cause for concern and people are probably dying on a daily basis without just cause, the way to conduct an interview with the Minister on this matter is not what you did this morning.

By all means point out the problems. By all means debate the point at hand but one should never descend into a shouting battle nor constantly talking over the guest on the programme if any value is to be obtained from it. We never heard you launch into “cuddly Bertie” like this despite all the problems and “issues” associated with him. Mary Harney took a poison chalice when she took the position of Minister for Health. Unlike every other spineless Fianna Fáil TD when her term was up, she didn’t dodge the bullet and head for the hills, she took it on again because she gives a damn. How many ministers in this country can that be said of? The task may be insurmountable, many thanks to the national pay deals and other union bowing maneuvers signed off by Bertie but no, this doesn’t come up in discussion.

I greatly fear that this is the opening of a floodgate for the media to have one last crack at the government without having to slate a Fianna Fáil minister. The window of opportunity is narrow with the dissolution of the PDs and Mary Harney is merely a sitting duck for wrongly directed criticism. The sad reality with the health service, no matter how well it is run, is that there is a finite budget and spending money on one thing means that it cannot be spent on something else, possibly people will die as a result of this but if the money is redirected then other people will die – it’s an awful fact of life. Tackling wage bills in the health service means that workers will strike and more people will suffer. Tackling taxis and buses that currently deliver people to hospital results in union disputes as to who should do the work now and that dedicated couriers should probably be hired, resulting in more wage bills, procurement processes for vehicles, dedicated fleet lying idle and costing maintenance charges when not in use for the majority of patients, training for drivers to deal with the infirm, insurance costs for people who could die in your vehicle from heart conditions when you are in full knowledge of their medical history, and delays for who knows what else! Trying to break up the animal that is the HSE with its massive wage bill is like breaking iron with a feather. There is no easy solution. Trade-offs will always be made. It’s a much bigger problem than a single ministerial position – this needs complete government attention across all aspects of society and management.

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 the eyes of the world to the injustice and suffering of many races at the hands of White oppression. A sequence of events that should never have had to be fought for, was put in place and these events would eventually culminate in a great victory that would send shockwaves around the world. Shockwaves of joy, jubilance, and belief that finally we are on the road to becoming a less oppressive and racist planet.

Those shockwaves crashed on my doorstep this morning before I set off for work and while I was listening to the radio; the morning news. Senator Barack Obama had been officially elected as president of the United States of America – history had been made. The first black president of the United States of America. Even writing the preceding text I feel uncomfortable. Not that America has a black president but because I have always failed to see the difference and why distinction should be made between two races of people. In terms of the suffering and hardship that way too many people have endured, this election victory symbolises a huge shift in the temporal race plane for acceptance, understanding, and equality. Nobody would want to take this from those who fought hard so that one day equality would be shown and people across the land would recognise that there was no reason or just mindset that should stop anybody from achieving what they are capable of.

I openly hoped that Obama would win the election. I admired his poise, his capability, and I believe that his financial outlook will be both good for the U.S. and eventually for the global financial crisis. In fact I believe that our politicians in Ireland should probably take a leaf out of his book in terms of looking at investing and sustaining indigenous business in our country and not being reliant on FDI to bolster our economy. I’m not knowingly a Democrat, in the context of U.S. politics; within the Republican camp, I disliked Bush (both of) but I admired and respected Reagan for the achievements made while he was in office. For me the U.S. Presidentials were about the one who appeared to be the most competent and the one who saw America’s internal problems and wasn’t afraid to address them. America has a huge impact on the rest of the globe and needs to be careful that its foreign policies do not exclude the global economy nor the effect that the combined consuming power of the U.S. can have on that.

Barack Obama appears to have the mindset that will bring great stability to the U.S. and ultimately that makes life better for everyone on the planet. His historic win in terms of race and civil rights history should not overshadow the fact that this man has achieved a great victory; through words of wisdom, articulate speeches delivered, intelligent policies, competent debating, and overall charisma. Obama has won over a very partisan audience with his politics to become America’s next president and when one man can overcome all odds to gain such a victory, we must surely say that we have reached a turning point in the history of this world. Good luck President Obama – we wish you well.

Extra! Extra!

Damien Mulley sums it up nicely