Tourists in Gleann Cholm Cille may be wondering if some unusual pagan cult has spread in the valley in the past month, as they notice some of the unusual haircuts in the area, ranging from simple mohicans to the downright bizarre. The explanation: it’s all in a good cause, the result of a Head Shaving …
Monthly Archive: August 2008
Aug 28
The Washp
Glorious accidents aren’t supposed to happen any more. Alexander Graham Bell probably hoped the first words ever said over his new-fangled telephone would be profound and meaningful, resonating down the ages. Instead, they turned out to be ‘Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you’, uttered after he accidentally spilled some acid. Sir Alexander …
Aug 27
Unsage Fennell
Barack Obama must be a sign of the times. In a recent opinion piece for the Irish Times, writer Desmond Fennell bemoaned the decline of the ‘white race’, a dying breed by all accounts. The at times rambling and rather strange article puts the blame for this decline squarely were it belongs: a ‘flagging will …
Aug 26
From The Horse’s Mouth
Last Friday, Horse Sport Ireland issued a statement on the Olympic banning of rider Denis Lynch and his horse Lantinus after a positive drug test for capsaicin. The statement includes some strange lines, including the observation that capsaicin can be found ‘in some products in regular use’, including Equi-block … a product used in similar …
Aug 25
Replay
And so, it begins. Dick Roche TD, who rejoices in the title of Minister for Europe, said his ‘personal view’ was that Ireland will have to vote again on the Lisbon treaty. Speaking at the Humbert summer school, Roche said he could not see ‘how key elements in the treaty could be given effect simply …
Aug 23
On Your Bike
Yesterday, Gardaí warned anyone thinking of buying a car over the internet to take care, after a member of the public became the victim of a motoring scam. The unfortunate citizen bought and paid for a car, which was never delivered. ‘Buyer beware’ is an adage so old it even existed in a now-dead language, …
Aug 22
One Born Every Minute
What with the Olympics and war in Georgia, I’d thought we’d manage to get through the summer this year without a silly season breakout story. However, two men from the other Georgia (the American one) proved me wrong, holding a press conference last week to announce that they’d found Bigfoot. Bigfoot, AKA Sasquatch, is the …
Aug 20
Data Flow
I bought a ticket for the M50 toll this evening. The leaflet from the NRA misleadingly calls it a free eflow windscreen tag. It costs me €1 per month – plus a charge every time I use a toll road. What disturbed me is that once I entered the registration number of my car, the …
Aug 19
To Infinity And Beyond
Which came first, the thought or the word? Or put another way, can you have a concept of without a word for it? In one of his Discworld novels, Terry Pratchett writes a scene in which a troll, despite a limited counting system (one, two, three, many, lots) is able to carry out sophisticated calculations. …
Aug 18
Data Loss
Data protection seems to have become a running story in Ireland, or maybe it’s just that the silly season has pushed the stories to the front page. Recent incidents include the loss of a laptop containing social welfare details of Irish citizens, a laptop containing confidential information about companies receiving support from the IDA, and …