The Story Of Stuff

Go watch The Story Of Stuff.

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

from Seeing the Forest

The American Civil War in 4 minutes

Via Pharyngula this very nice animation of the U.S. civil war.

http://www.idkwtf.com/videos/latest-videos/the-civil-war-in-four-minutes

Quote Of The Day

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

Charles Darwin

Shamelessly lifted from Scientia Natura.

Hellboy 2

Via themovieblog this here is the trailer for Hellboy 2, I really liked the first Hellboy and judging from the trailer this one will be even better

Sam Harris

I met a friend last night and he had never heard of Sam Harris - Shocking! So without further ado, Sam Harris



(the rest 0f the talk can be found here)

Virtual barbar shop

Do yourself a favour an listen to this, it's excellent


Fantastic 3D Sound Experience - Virtual Haircut - The best bloopers are here

Lakota break away from U.S.

Interesting news this. I don't know very much about native Americans generally but I know the got a very raw deal in the past and I gather things aren't much better now.

Descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse break away from US

More Maddness from the Religion of Peace

A Turkish lawyer is asking Uefa to cancel the three points Inter earned in their win against Fenerbahce in the recent Champions League match. The reason? Inter wore a shirt with a cross on it and thats offensive to (some) Muslims.

The shirt's scheme saw a big red cross on a white background, a symbol of the city of Milan, and reminded many of an emblem of the order of the Templars, which is considered offensive in Islamic culture.

I am so sick and tired of Muslim's feelings, what's the bet next they will try to ban croissants.

UK party leader 'does not believe in God'

I wonder what Fox news are making of this? I don't know anything about this guy but this first impression is really good.

From the BBC

New Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has answered "no" when asked on BBC radio if he believed in God.

The Warriors Apprentice

I enjoyed Cordellia's Honor so much I had to go out and get the next one entitled "The Warriors Apprentice". This book follows the adventures of Cordellia's son Miles, who was born at the end of Cordellia's Honor. This is the first book in a series known as The Vorkosigan Saga and are based around teh advertures of Miles Vorkosigan. This book begins when Miles is 17 and trying to enter the Barrayan Military academy, he fails, is sent off-world and in a series of escalating bluffs winds up in the middle of a war.

As with the previous book the writing is crisp and clear and the plot zips along with the clever and likable Miles. If anything this book is even more humorous than Cordellia's Honor with several laugh-out-loud moment's. Thats not to say its a comedy in the vein of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy but I've read a lot of 'hard' scifi and so this is quite a breath of fresh air. Surprisingly this book is considered one of the weakest in the saga, that being the case I look forward to reading the stronger ones. Its been a real treat discovering these book's I can't wait to find out what happens next.

Wall-E

Via TheMovieBlog here's the trailer for the upcoming Pixar movie Wall-E. The only Pixar film I didn't really like was "a Bugs Life" which isn't that bad a film, so I'm really looking forward to this.

Two Hobbit Movies to be Made

Some excellent and slightly worrying news today - the excellent news is that there is going to be a Hobbit movie made by Peter Jackson. The worrying news is they are also going to do a Hobbit sequel.

First off I'm delighted Jackson is going to be involved, I was one of those who felt he was the only man for the job (not that that would have stopped me from seeing the movie). Its a huge sigh of relief as I think he will respect and maintain the spirit of Tolkien for The Hobbit as well as he did for The Lord of the Rings.

The worrying bit is the "sequel" business. I'm not aware of any hobbit stories set between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings so I'm concerned as to what story they'll come up with. Time will tell I suppose.

from sfcrowsnest.com

The two Hobbit films – The Hobbit and its sequel – are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, with pre-production beginning as soon as possible. Principal photography is tentatively set for a 2009 start, with the intention of The Hobbit release slated for 2010 and its sequel the following year, in 2011. Jackson and Fran Walsh will serve as Executive Producers of two films based on The Hobbit. New Line will manage the production of the films, which will be shot simultaneously.

Wanna buy some faith?

The bare faced gall of the churches in this country always maddens and amuses me. The Catholic Church in particular had a lock on this place for over 60 years and it was a shit hole. In the past 15 years people have begun to move away from organised superstition and the place has improved no end. This doesn't stop the religious corporations from crying wolf and pretending we have 'lost' something and that something being 'faith'. It's a happy coincidence then that that's exactly what the Churches sell and (much like Blackadders wine) they have an unlimited supply.

From BreakingNews.ie

Catholic and Church of Ireland bishops in Co Monaghan have joined forces to criticise increasing secularism in Irish society.

The Catholic bishop of Clogher, Dr Joseph Duffy, and his Church of Ireland counterpart, Bishop Michael Jackson, say Irish people need to reassess their values and Christmas provides an opportunity to do so.

They claim society has suffered due to a slide towards secularism and there is currently great anxiety about a loss of the sacred.

Appealing for greater care on the roads and a more responsible attitude to alcohol, they are also calling for more neighbourliness and greater value to be placed on voluntary effort.

No Surprises there then

The Genesis report on the Irish Rugby World Cup fiasco has concluded that 'everyone' was to blame. Phew, what a relief ... thats ok then, everyone back to work. So what if the so-called 'Golden Generate' achieved nothing? The important thing is we had a report and everyone got their knuckles wrapped and now the IRFU and Eddie can go back to pissing on the fans like nothing ever happened. Good times.

Saudi Rape Victim

That poor unfortunate Saudi rape victim was pardoned yesterday. I was going to post about it but couldn't think of anything to say that didn't involve a lot of swear words, happily Scientia Natura puts it perfectly

I never knew that a victim of a rape was worthy of punishment and had to be pardoned to avoid a barbaric sentence of 200 lashes. I also never knew that such a pardon would be hailed by the international community in the post-Enlightenment 21st century as a great achievement.

Welcome to the Dark Ages.

Occam's Razor

Saw this on Phatyngula, just had to post it here

24: The Unaired 1994 Pilot

Very funny this, and very well put together.

Cordelia's Honor

Did you know that Lois Mcmaster Bujold has one 4 Hugo Award's more than every other author except Heinlein? I didn't, but when I first heard about this I decided I'd better find out what all the fuss was about and so I picked up Cordellia's Honor.

Cordelia's Honor is a compilation of two of novels: SHARDS OF HONOR and BARRAYAR (Barrayer won a Hugo). The main character in both is Cordelia Naismith a captain on an interstellar exploratory mission and it follows her adventures as she is captured by the militaristic Barrayans, escapes, is captured again, falls in love, gets married and then learns to survive and thrive in the hostile Barrayan society.

To non-scifi readers that summary might sound kinda corney and the cover of the book certainly doesn't help but trust me when I say these where two terrific books. Full of likable and loathable characters, well written and unusual for scifi, humorous. The closest thing I can compare them to in style are the Flashman books (only without the cad).

Holy Crap

Amazon have brought that J.K. Rowling book for £1,950,000. WTF! madness.

Here's an improvement on democracy

Via onegoodmove comes this excellent article from The Times, basically the West should concentrate more on spreading secularism rather than democracy. I agree so long as we don't try bomb secularism into them.

Here's an improvement on democracy

Democracy, we tell ourselves, is a hallmark of “the West”, the treasure that the rest of the World envies and that accounts for the pre-eminence of Europe and North America in economic progress, intellectual dominance and moral freedoms.

But it's not the case when you examine the chronology. The rise of the West had much less to do with democracy than with the rise of secularism. The West's advance was chiefly related to the decline in the influence of religion that sought the truth by “looking in” to see what God had to say, and its replacement by looking out, deriving authority from observation, experimentation and exploration.

Star Wars Collectables You Never Saw

If you are a Star Wars fan, click here.

Thieves chop off man's 'magical' leg

I'm sure the owner isn't laughing but I thought this was hilarious. Pity something like this doesn't happen to all the psychics and charlatans here, it might discourage them peddling such nonsense.

link

A self-proclaimed Indian holy man who claimed his right leg had magical powers was seriously ill in hospital today after two men chopped it off.

Yanadi Kondaiah, 80, said that those who touched the leg would be cured of illness or have wishes granted.

"This seems to be a case of superstition. The two people might have taken away the leg hoping to benefit from its magical powers," said a police spokesman.

"We are looking for the miscreants as well as the leg," he added.

Superstitions, belief in magic and the occult remain widespread in much of rural India.

Kondaiah, from the Chittoor district, a remote area more than 300 miles south of Hyderabad, told police the two men plied him with drink as thanks for previously helping them with his magical touch.

After he passed out drunk the men chopped off the leg below the knee with a scythe and left him to die. Passing villagers found him and took him to hospital.

Ted Talk: A Surprising idea for "solving" climate change

Death of a Model

Well the media (only) hysteria over the death on model Katy French seems to be dying down (no pun intended) at last. I'm pretty sure the whole thing will come to be seen as a watershed in Irish reporting where news was finally ditched and infotainment became the norm. Any bets as to long we will have to wait before the 'Runaway Bride' story makes for a weeks worth of copy? Luckily there do seem to be a few journalists left, Kevin Meyers sums up a lot of my feelings on story in todays article,I think he really hit the nail on the head. Too bad the rag he works for is leading the charge to the bottom.

Krakow

I'm just back from a very pleasant few days Krakow where we went to celebrate my father in laws birthday.

We stayed in an apartment just off the main market square in the central tourist district so it was very central and had all the amenities required. This was our first time renting an apartment like this and it worked out very well, my one complaint is we where given a single set of keys which makes things very awkward for 6 people. In any case we managed but next time I'll check in advance the number of keys made available should we go down that route again.

Because Poland is an Eastern European country it goes without saying the local beer was excellent and my father-in-law and myself had a grand ole time sampling the different brews on offer. Though neither of us are vodka drinkers we did try some of Polish varieties (just to be social) and there was one in particular that was very nice but I can't remember its name (to be fair, it was in Polish) which is a pity because it was quite tasty. The next day I had to make do with a guess as I purchased a small bottle of what I _think_ was the nice one.

The food in Krakow was universally good. On the second night we went to a "fancy" restaurant that had been recommended to us by some Poles living in Ireland who obviously thought we are just the kind of people who eat Snail's & Foie Gras. After a quick look at the menu we beat a hasty and disorderly retreat to the nearest streak house where they serve the meat of the animal and not the offal.

There's some interesting sights in Krakow but here's what I liked. The city itself, which is lovely and very pleasant to walk around and admire. The church of St Mary which can rival most churches in Rome, the castle even though the ticketing system is ridiculous, the salt mines and Kazimierz. I didn't go to the concentration camps for various reasons so I can't comment on them. Finally, the Christmas markets where open so we could browse the stalls, enjoy some excellent street food and keep warm with some mulled wine.

It's a nice place Krakow, I'd definitely recommend it.

Pat Condell on Sudan

Voyager 2 probe reaches solar system boundary

Apparently Voyager 1 reached the boundary a few years ago but nobody was listening - Doh!
Anyway, very cool story this. Voyager 2 probe reaches solar system boundary

Ayaan Hirsi on the Recent News

Islam's Silent Moderates. I don't need to add anything.

Power of the Planet: Atmosphere

I wanted to post about this last week but couldn't find a clip, but I have one now so here goes.

BBC has a new program at the moment called Power of the Planet where the very likable Dr Iain Stewart looks at how the Earth works. Last weeks program was about the Atmosphere and the looming dangers of climate change, this clip is of him in Siberia lighting methane being released from the permafrost and, seeing as methane is many times more effective than carbon dioxide as a green house gas, it scared the shit out of me.

Merry Mithras

from onegoodmove, the Mithras cult

Quote Of The Day

... witches must exist because, after all, everyone believes in them. Anything that a large number of people believe must be true.

Of Credulity and Incredulity, (1668) Meric Causabon

"The raising of storms by witches is attested by so many, that I think it needless to recite them."
..... "why that 'tis impudence to deny it." *

Certainty of the World of Spirits, (1691) Richard Baxter




* I may have taken the second part of this quote out of context (I can't find the full text) but I think the point is the same

Sex in the Final Frontier

Here's an interesting bit of research you mightn't have heard about

US and Russian astronauts have had sex in space for separate research programmes on how human beings might survive years in orbit, according to a book published yesterday.

The results:

Only four positions were found possible without "mechanical assistance". The other six needed a special elastic belt and inflatable tunnel, like an open-ended sleeping bag.

And of course how the puritanical Americans handle this:

The results were videotaped but are considered so sensitive that even Nasa was only given a censored version.

Whomever has that tape could make a million!

lion Vs Buffalo Vs Crocodile

A friend sent me this video, its pretty amazing

Wanna Headache?

Richard Dawkin's website has published links to a debate between Daniel Dennett and Dinesh D'Souza that is well worth watching but with a warning, D'Souza is full if shit and it's an ordeal listening to him. He starts talking in parts 6 and 7 and it's a real challenge to keep up with the logical fallacies he delivers in machine gun fashion, its a fun but exhausting game to try and name them. His favourite mode of debate however seems to be a blending of Ad Hominem and Equivocation so keep an eye out for how he presents Dennett's ideas and how he reckons Augustine preempted modern cosmology. One of the best bits is when (in Part 9) he castigates Dawkin's, Dennett etc for "wandering far outside their field's (of expertise)" for talking about religion. Apparently he finds this "intellectually embarrassing" but of course it wasn't in the least bit embarrassing for him when he talked about history, science and cosmology earlier in the debate, for people like D'Souza these hypocrisies don't seem to register but unfortunately they don't appear to register with his target audience either.

Dennett does very well, much better than either Michael Shermer or Christoper Hitchens did in their encounters and he seems to have gotten under the skin of D'Souza as D'Souza is far louder and angrier than he appeared in the two aforementioned debates. This makes him look far more like the lunatic he is and I for one approve.

D'Souza spends a lot of time explaining how he believes there must be something "greater", i.e. God and how logical and brilliant it is to believe in this god so I wish someone would put the point to him 'So what?'. If there is a god that can exist outside of space/time and is capable of creating the universe and everything in it then there is no reason to believe it's his god (I believe Dawkins came up with this argument). It could be any god ever thought of, or none, but the point is, it seems very unlikely such a being would bother feeding strange and contradictory stories to a bunch of bronze age goats herders to convey "truths" of any description. After all it's such an inept way to convey anything, but the good news is we have radio and TV now so god can contact us with the true "truth" whenever he's free.

Part 1


Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7MGyayvAa8

Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgK6M3WRFcc

Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzUUnjcTkQg

Part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnGGOKDGLYw

Part 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcunc_hQ8U8

Part 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SryFVhNfvow

Part 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8puuM-C9XIY

Part 9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Ts_kPn5Tg

Part 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMEu_pGCCU0

Part 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqpumHZGx7c

Part 12:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rae3EUR-W4s

Part 13:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADLjLcS2kJs

Part 14:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KgVtKKgoks

Part 15:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM5mv-g2kUU

Screenwipe: The Apprentice

One of the best shows on TV is Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe and over the weekend it 'wiped' reality competition programs like The Apprentice. One of the strengths of Screenwipe is that it tries to illustrate, by way of examples and humour, just what its complaining about so its not just another talking head gripe fest. To see what I mean watch the last 4 minutes of part two as Charlie learns how to be the a boss on TV.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

Worlds Fastest Clapper

10 Unique Visitors

Woo-Hoo! for the first time ever I've had 10 unique visitors in one day, I feel an overwhelming sense of power and validation. I will now conquer the world.

Just How Crazy Are They?

Well the answer is VERY! Yes, members of that well known religion of peace demonstrated in Khartoum today calling for the Execution(WTF!?) of Mrs Gibbons for calling a teddy bear Mohammad. Just how angry, twisted & repressed do you have to be to take part in (much less justify) this sort of crazy behaviour? And yet it happens at the drop of a hat in the muslim world - I once saw two scumbags go ape shit at a bus driver because he hold them they must fold up their buggey before boarding, at the time I marveled at their rage over something so insignificant and wondered just how crap their life must be? Is that the problem here? A deep seated anger and resentment? To be fair the doublethink required to be a muslim must be enormous, the infidel West & East are doing just fine thank you, while they have to pray 5 times a day (christ!) and be superior. Surely in the dead of night they must wonder have they got it wrong? To quote Ayaan Hirsi Ari

"In the Netherlands, I saw people we called infidels living an amazing life – men and women mixing, gay people being free, you could say whatever you wanted," she says. "Then I went back to the asylum-seekers' centre and almost everyone was from a Muslim country begging for the charity of these infidels. And I thought, 'If we're so superior, why are we begging from them?'"

Schizoid Nation

No More Mr. Nice Guy has a disturbing post about mental health care entitled Schizoid Nation (NMMNG kindly sent me the direct link) which is about how people can be just declared 'mentally ill' and literally locked away. I've read about this kind of thing recently but can't, for the life of me, remember where so I can't link to it or reference it correctly. In any case NNMNG post is well worth reading so here's a snipet to wet the appetite;

Early on, he (Al Siebert) witnesses a disturbing incident where a resident brow-beats a newly admitted patient: "You must accept that you're mentally ill before we can help you." The patient refuses to do so, and the resident gets increasingly angry and overbearing. Siebert is shocked to learn that this is a routine ritual with new patients; there's been no mention of it in his training. Some residents are unhappy with this practice but are threatened with being dropped from the program if they don't go along. So much for fostering curiosity and re-examination of conventional wisdom!

Good One

http://cectic.com/index.shtml#News

Harney Survives

You really have to wonder what the point of voting is!? You can vote for one of the smaller parties whom you think have principles and as soon as they get a whiff of power they give a big "Fuck You!" to the voter's and stick their noses in the trough. The sight of John Gormley defending Mary Harney yesterday gave me palpitations - I don't even know what he said - the fact he stood there and defended that incompetent, overblown corporate shill whose one big idea is to privatise everything really made me loose faith in politics. I've certainly lost faith in the greens. Fuck'em!

Why debate Dogma?

Pat Condell is back with another pod cast, watchable as always. And I have to agree with him on how annoying and dispiriting it is when dealing with Atheist's defending religion or advocating a softly-softly approach. I believe Dawkins refers to them as the "I'm an atheist but ..." brigade.

If Star Wars had been cast differently

Via the excellent Movie Blog a site called Worth1000 has loads of pic's of stars as they might have looked had they been cast in Star Wars. Its good fun and many of them are very good. Below is Darth Bean.

The End Of The Dollar As We Know It

As if theres not enough to worry about, via Seeing the Forest, the collapse of the dollar.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

From Richard Dawkins website comes this interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali and its well worth reading. This lady deserves the Noble Prize or something.

Bertie says "No" to Seperate 'faith' schools

Wow! I didn't know he had it in him, but our beloved Bertie actually said "No" to the dimwits! It doesn't mention which "foreign"politicians made "requests" but I bet I could guess where they are from ...

Its from Breaking News, but I include it here in case its gone tomorrow

It emerged today that the Government has turned down requests for separate schools and curricula for children of certain faiths.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the Dáil that representatives of some religions, as well as politicians in other countries had asked him personally to accede to the requests.

The Taoiseach said it would be inappropriate to segregate children depending on their faith, and that it would not be in the spirit of integration.

Tabula Peutingeriana

This is really cool. The Austrians are going to put on display the Tabula Peutingeriana for a limited time to celebrate it being include in UNESCO's "Memory of the World" list. The Tabula Peutingeriana is a medieval copy of an original Roman map of the known world covering Spain in the west as far as India to the east. Wikipedia have a nice article about it with an image of the entire map. Heres the west portion which shows Ireland, Britain, Spain and North Africa.


And this site here has the map in contrast to a modern Map.

That Well Known Religion of Peace

Well those crazy Muslims are at it again, this time in Sudan, seems they are going to lash a teacher for calling a teddy bear "Mohammad". It really is about time people woke up to the fact that they really believe this shit! They are not a-la-carte in their approach to religion, they are medieval in outlook and there is zero chance for a muslim reformation. So lets stop "respecting" their beliefs!

My Bloody Valentine are back

Fcuking excellent news in todays indo - I haven't been to a gig in years but if they come to Dublin I'll go to this. I wonder if the G-man would be interested?

My Bloody Valentine: Soon

Quote Of The Day

"If we go back to the beginning we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned or disfigured them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them, and that custom, respect and tyranny support them in order to make the blindness of men serve their own interests."

Baron D'Holbach

Once

I'm not a big fan of Irish film (I find that generally it relies on accents and cursing to get laughs) so it was with bated breath that I rented Once over the weekend and I have to say I really enjoyed it. The film is about two lonely people in Dublin who come together through a shared love of music but it manages to avoid the thousands of cliches that normally surround romantic films. I think thats why I liked it so much, had this been a Hollywood or British film it would have been formulaic and dull. Likewise, unlike other Irish films, the scumbag druggey makes and early and singular appearance (I thought "here we go") before disappearing permanently and allowing the story to develop. In fact I can't understand the need for the scene at all, there must be some contractual commitment whereby all Irish films must have at least one scumbag and use the word "fuck" ten times in order to get funding from the Irish Film Bord.

Surprisingly the film is also a musical but the music is so neatly and realistically intertwined into the story it almost passes you by. But, at the risk of contradicting myself, it's also a third character and if I was a better writer and a big more creative I could probably wax on about how it symbolises something or other but I'm not, so I won't. And the music is very good, I'm fairly ambivalent about The Frames but this movie may have won me over, I'm not ambivalent about Irish film, but this one is worth seeing.

Angry or Calm

Have a look at the two faces below, the one on the left looks angry right? Now move a back a few feet, which one looks angry now?


The image is taken from this website which provides an explanation.

VISIONS OF THE FUTURE

The third and final episode entitled 'THE QUANTUM REVOLUTION' aired the other night on BBC4 and was the most optimistic of the 3 episodes, or at least the the least doomsday like. I found it really enjoyable as it discussed very SciFi sounding ideas as real possibilities such as Arthur C. Clarke's Space Elevator due to advances in Carbon Nanotube's.

This clip about superconductivity wasn't in the show but they demonstrated the effect, I include it here because its so cool.

The Hillary Nutcracker

interesting new product on Amazon ... made me laugh anyway.

Quote Of The Day

'Cause it made me laugh

"Civilization will not attain perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest."

— Émile Zola

Latro in the Mist

I've just finished Latro in the Mist by Gene Wolfe and like his other books its a challenging read. This edition is the compilation of two books Soldier of the Mist and Soldier of Arete which contain the writings of the protagonist 'Latro', an ancient Italian mercenary, who has suffered a head wound during the battle of Platea and as a result cannot remember anything from day to day but has left him with the ability to see and converse with the many gods and spirits inhabiting ancient Greece. Because cannot remember he records everything in a scroll and it is these daily writings that make up the book during which Latro tries to find a way to cure himself of his 'curse'.

The challenge when reading these books however is that Latro is an unreliable witness leading to sometimes ambiguous chapters. In addition he records conversations with mortals and gods but, because he lacks memory, fails to make important connections between people, motives and events, instead this is left for the reader to do. Several times I found myself wondering just what was going on as the narrative seemed to jump track or even contradict itself but usually the answer lay a few chapters further on (but not always).

Of the two books I preferred the first (Soldier of the Mist) more, I even liked its rather inconclusive ending. The second book (Soldier of Arete) was tougher going with another inconclusive ending which this time, to me at least, seemed a little rushed. Overall though both books are a great read and certainly recommended. Soldier of Sidon (a long awaited sequel apparently) is out now. I'll have to pick it up and see what happens next.

Don't Support the Red Cross

Theres loads of reasons why - heres another one, Red Cross ASSISTED Bush Law Violations!

Romulus & Remus

Some cool news on the archeology front today, the sacred cave of Romulus & Remus has been found. It seems you can't dig a post hole in Rome without hitting something amazing.

The Landmark Thucydides/Herodotus

I don't propose to write about books I haven't read but in this case I just can't help myself. I've long been looking for a decent edition of "The Histories" but have always been put off either by the archaic translation or the lack of decent maps to help understand the text. Anyway the all seeing eye that is "Amazon Recommendations" popped this new edition entitled "The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories" onto my list. I was instantly hooked (Damn you direct marketing!) and was then doubly hooked when I noticed the authors previous book "The Landmark Thucydides" had received so many excellent reviews. I really had no choice, I brought both books and I'm very happy I did. They arrived last Friday so I had the weekend to browse them and they really are excellent. The translation seems pretty clear (judging by my initial scans) but the best part is the pages are packed with notes, annotations and, most importantly, maps. There are also extensive indexes by scholars discussing various aspects of The Histories in relation to their fields of expertise. I realise I sound pretty nerdy here but that "Nerd Panel" in my head lite-up when I got a hold of these, they really are very cool...

Heinikan Cup : Week Two

Well Leinster returned to form over the weekend as Toulouse trashed them 33 - 6. I only watched the highlights but it was pretty clear Leinster completely collapsed in terms of leadership, skill and tactics, they even managed to give away the fourth try in the dying seconds of the game to hand Toulouse the bonus point. They are playing Ospreys on Friday in the Celtic League, I assume they'll play brilliantly.

The good news from the weekend was Munster's excellent win against Clermont Auverne, I just wish someone would take Donnaha O'Callaghan and Denis Leamy aside and bang their heads together until they finally stopped giving away stupid penalties - they are two of the most maddening players in Irish rugby the way the continue to do that!

A Word to Islamofascists

I watched a few of Pat Condell's videos and they are always interesting and entertaining (I wish we had someone in power with his balls) one quibble however- I hate the word "Islamofascism" - it doesn't make sense. Fascism is the blending of state and corporate power whereas Islamist's seek Theocracy under the Koran. I assume the word was invented as
A. Everyone knows fascism is evil
and
B. It allows the speaker to differentiate easily between between muslims and the "evil" muslims
and
C. It avoids pointing a finger directly at religion because, as we know, that finger could end up pointing anywhere and we wouldn't want that.

That aside watch Pat tear the Islamo-fascist-communist-scariest-craziest a new one...

Hands Off Venezuala

Generally when I read or hear anything about Hugo Chavez it paints him in a bad light, this makes me suspicious because the major media organisations are lying bastards and can't be trusted. Anyway Greg Palast thinks he's great and thats good enough for me. These short videos (by Palast) offer an outline as to why "The West" (a.k.a. the rich and powerful) hates him so much (you already know the answer - he takes money from the rich and gives it to the poor).

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

Robots that are "self-aware"

Another short TED talk entitle "Robots that are self-aware" related to my previous post about the BBC4 program Visions of the Future. Its only 6.30 minutes long but we see rudimentary self awareness and replication in robots. Fascinating stuff!

Is copyright corroding our society?

Yes is the answer, but don't take my word for it, this blog has a short video of a TED talk outlining the issues, Is copyright corroding our society?

Cults & Brain Washing

The Psychology Behind Cults/Religion is well worth a read

The important feature about brainwashing is that it is done over and over again to achieve the desired goal. When people stop thinking independently for themselves, when they stop questioning their own personal sense of right and wrong, and when they refuse to listen to information that conflicts with their own beliefs… then they have been effectively brainwashed.

but if you find it too long they provide this great summary at the end.

1) Find lonely, desperate people

2) Break them down: Make them feel much worse about themselves

3) Build them back up: make them feel good about themselves again

4) Repeat 2-3 until their sense of self-worth is completely dependent on you

5) Reveal the “true” beliefs of the cult and take all their money

This is a "moderate"

Via Richard Dawkin's website I read this article about Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, the leader of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), an alleged moderate. He has some charming opinions, such as;

Sir Salman Rushdie should never have been knighted, he says. "He caused a huge amount of distress and discordance with his book, it should have been pulped."

Because no conversation with a muslim moderate would be complete without at least one call for censorship ... theres also;

"Alcohol is the worst drug long-term," he says, and adds that the Government should consider banning drinking in public places, as it has done with smoking.

I can't help but think that if these guys relaxed and drank a little more they wouldn't be so scrary, on the thorny issue of stoning women he adds;

"It depends what sort of stoning and what circumstances," he replies. "When our prophet talked about stoning for adultery he said there should be four [witnesses] - in realistic terms that's impossible. It's a metaphor for disapproval."

Yes, but involving real rocks. Something tells me I wouldn't like to be on the receiving end of any islamic metaphor, I'll close with this little gem;

In Dr Bari's view, suicide bombers are victims as well as aggressors. "I deal with emotionally damaged children," he explains. "Children come to hate when they don't get enough care and love. They are probably bullied, it makes a young person angry and vulnerable.

This ones so sick it actually made me laugh, meanwhile "polite" society reckons we should respect this medieval horseshit! The correct response should be to burst out laughing at their backwardness and then offer them a cold beer and some physiological help.

Dangerous Minds

Malcolm Gladwell of Tipping point & Blink fame has a great article in the New Yorker about Criminal Profilers. He raises a lot of interesting points about how they reach and phrase their conclusions (hint: he compares them to cold reading "psychics") and is well worth the read.

The Law of Evolution

Heres an interesting article about how to tackle the abuse of language by creationists. In a nutshell the author suggests scientists should stop using the word "theory" as in "Theory of Evolution" as most people mistakenly believe the word means something akin to "Hunch". Of course in every day life it does, but not in the scientific context and it is this gap in understanding which allows creationist to get away with so much bullshit. To overcome this the article suggests scientists should replace the word "Theory" with "Law" in common parlance, after all, who would argue with the "Law of Evolution"...

Americans Are NOT Stupid

A friend of mine (who I may have to start identifying him as "Braniac") sent me this funny video. Its the normal stuff of people on the street knowing absolutely nothing about basic geography, current events and history. No matter how many times I see things like this it always amazes me how people can get themselves into such a state of ignorance.

Heinikan Cup : Week One

I went to see Leinster V Leicester on Saturday and was really happy with the performance. I had serious concerns that the rot from the Rugby World Cup had infected the provinces but instead Leinster put in a sterling performance. Of course they have a habit of blowing hot and cold but I'm actually optimistic...

When to the pub afterwards to watch Munster and despite the result felt maybe Irish Rugby is not about to collapse. Roll on next weekend.

VISIONS OF THE FUTURE

Part two, entitled "THE BIOTECH REVOLUTION", of this excellent series aired on BBC4 last night and it was as good as the first. Last nights episode dealt with genetics and biotechnology and, like the first episode, was simultaneously fascinating and terrifying. The potential of this technology is mind bending, from being able to grow replacement body parts to "improving" ourselves physically & mentally to dramatically increasing our lifespans - pretty much, the sky-is-the-limit for what we may be able to do. The program also discussed the dangerous potential of this technology such as the rich and powerful literally genetically enhancing themselves into a permanent ruling class (with near immortality) or how we could evolve ourselves away from humanity into a new species to even how we could remove all the distinguishing foibles of being human and become "perfect". Obviously none of this is possible today but its not too far off and we need to start deciding now, how we are going to use this technology. The overall effect of the program was to give the sense that we really are on the cusp of science-fiction becoming science-fact - a dizzying notion. It reminded me of that Chinese curse, we are living in interesting times.

Sicko

I went to see Michael Moore's new film "Sicko" last night and I really enjoyed it. As with his other films its a roller coaster of emotion as he moves from funny/heartwarming scenes one minute to sad/heartbreaking scenes the next. The film leaves you in no doubt that for profit health care is a very bad idea, for example, when one of these insurance companies has to make a payment its termed a "Medical Loss". In this environment the profit motive sweeps all before it and its the people who suffer. There were a lot of hard cases featured in the movie but my greatest sympathy was reserved for the couple who went bankrupt at age 60+ and had to move in with their daughter who seemed slightly resentful at the prospect: the small room she put them in hadn't even been cleared out (it contained a PC desk, display case and chest of drawers, but no bed) and bunk beds where mentioned for the parents to sleep in - nightmare!

The worrying thing from an Irish perspective is that Harney et al seem intent on bringing the US model here and the way to do that is to throughly undermine and destroy public confidence in the health service while at the same time touting the benefits on competition and private health insurance. I'm sad to say I imagine they will be successful, not only where the current bunch of crooks and liars returned to office but the Greens have totally sold out and the opposition are a bunch spineless centrists who will continue to do the bidding of whomever's got the money. We're screwed!

5%

The current theory is that ordinary matter (the stuff that you, me, the planet, stars and galaxy's are made from) accounts for about 5% of the universe which brings me to this excellent motivational poster. Enjoy.

Bring back the Greek gods

Here's an interesting article from the LA Times arguing that religion isn't the problem; it's monotheism. The author suggests that having one all powerful god leads to notions of "truth" and "certainty" which polytheistic societies lack.

The polytheistic Greeks didn't advocate killing those who worshiped different gods, and they did not pretend that their religion provided the right answers. Their religion made the ancient Greeks aware of their ignorance and weakness, letting them recognize multiple points of view.

She argues that it also allowed them to be more open and tolerant to different ideas and faiths, even merging them into their own religion from time to time.

The Greeks and Romans did not share the narrow view of the ancient Hebrews that a divinity could only be masculine. Like many other ancient peoples in the eastern Mediterranean, the Greeks recognized female divinities, and they attributed to goddesses almost all of the powers held by the male gods.

The world, as the Greek philosopher Thales wrote, is full of gods, and all deserve respect and honor. Such a generous understanding of the nature of divinity allowed the ancient Greeks and Romans to accept and respect other people's gods and to admire (rather than despise) other nations for their own notions of piety. If the Greeks were in close contact with a particular nation, they gave the foreign gods names of their own gods: the Egyptian goddess Isis was Demeter, Horus was Apollo, and so on. Thus they incorporated other people's gods into their pantheon.

Now I think the author is presenting a rather rosy view of the ancients as they could be incredibly cruel and they tended to treat women abysmally even though they worshiped goddesses, but the idea has merits. A whole pantheon of rowdy, randy and petty gods carousing around the place cause all sorts of mayhem would be a welcome change from the stiff, uptight, guilt ridden austere god we have at present. It would also open a whole new dimension to believers Sunday morning, "Shall we go to the temple of Zeus or Athena this week?" or "I need to know whether or not to take that new job, lets go worship Apollo today and ask him for a sign". It all sounds like great stuff to me and would make a welcome change from the dry mumbling I grew up with. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not about to start praying to Zeus or anything but the ancient Greeks did have a God of Wine ........ perhaps I'll offer a libation at some point over the weekend and see if anything happens.

Money As Debt

It seems like every other day the price of oil goes up and the value of the dollar goes down. Have a look at this video, it explains just what money and inflation actually are.

Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 6

I just found out they are making (have made) season 6 of Curb Your Enthusiasm! This is great news, I love this show.

Rome Playing Movie Reviewer

As a follow on from my post yesterday, today's Times of London carry a new story "Rome Condemns Queen Elizabeth Again" in which a Vatican historian hits out at the new Elizabeth movie as being anti-Catholic. This would be funny it it wasn't so tragic. You'd imagine "spiritual" men would be too busy being "spiritual" to bother commenting on the latest movie/book/whatever but they're not! It seems that these guys think "Spiritual" = "Cosmic Censor" in the never ending battle to ensure "Right Think". I'm reminded of that famous definition of fundamentalism by H. L. Mencken

the terrible, pervasive fear that someone, somewhere, is having fun.

Allow me to mock

The Manchester evening News has this article about a new scratch card game which had to be withdrawn from sale. The point of the game was to firstly scratch away a panel to reveal a temperature and then to scratch away the remaining panels in order to try and get a lower temperature and thereby win a prize. This however proved too much for some who couldn't understand the wintry themed negative numbers,

The 23-year-old, who said she had left school without a maths GCSE, said: "On one of my cards it said I had to find temperatures lower than -8. The numbers I uncovered were -6 and -7 so I thought I had won, and so did the woman in the shop. But when she scanned the card the machine said I hadn't.

"I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it.

VISIONS OF THE FUTURE

I watched a great new documentary on BBC4 last night called "VISIONS OF THE FUTURE". Last nights first episode was about the steady merging of computers into our lives and the possible effects of the rise of Artificial Intelligence on society and individuals. One of the highlights was the treating of a clinically depressed woman by inserting electrical wires into her brain to help regulate her mood. They showed how her mood could be altered by literally the turning of a dial, fascinating and worrying all at the same time.

Theres two more episodes to come;

2. The Biotech Revolution
3. The Quantum Revolution

Rome Playing Politics

You have to admire the Roman Catholic Church, everything concerns them. From what your doing in your bedroom to international politics to the latest in science and technology they have an opinion on everything. And they're not shy about having the "wrong" opinion either, down on gays, down on women, not understanding abusing children is wrong and then covering it up, everything can be justified because (after all) they are "The Church". If the Pythons had come up with a skit involving a bunch of weird old virgins obsessed with sex, trying to tell everyone what to do it would have been a classic* but unfortunately truth _is_ stranger than fiction and thats exactly what's going on. A.C. Grayling has written about some of the latest goings on, this time in Spain Rome Playing Politics. Its depressingly familiar, why can't they just prerecord this stuff and bugger off into the sunset?

* strike that, its been done.

The Business of Death

Interesting little video about the business of death. Johnny K may be interested in the polution aspects of the video.

A Day with the Homeopaths

I really hate Homeopathy. It neatly wraps up nonsense, stupidity, credulity and then sells it as a valid "medicine" to people who believe water has memory (Man, I wish I thought of it). Anyway a really good rebuttal can be found here, Part 1 and Part 2. Its an account written by one Steve Novella about his participation in a debate about homeopathy. In keeping with the "None so blind as those who will not see" spirit of all things "Woo" I don't think he converted anybody to reason but hopefully a small crack was made in the mental shields one or two of the practitioners present.

beliefs

A friend of mine sent me the link to this comic, thought I'd share.

Quote Of The Day

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart

H. L. Mencken

Think-tank: 'Mark all religious festivals'

This is from todays Independant, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has suggested the UK celebrate all major religious festivals as a way of improving race relations. Good Fcuk! Yes thats the solution to all our problems - more religion. What are these guys thinking? "Yes, we will bring people closer together by high lighting their strongly held, mutually exclusive superstitions". This kind of nonsense really annoys me, I'm still waiting for a think tank to suggest that we ridicule, mock, and patronise religious believe until it slinks back into the world of the personal and private where it belongs along with sexual fetishes and liking "reality" TV.

The End of Mr Y

I picked up this book on a whim because I liked the cover (it reminded me of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) and because Philip Pullman had a blurb on the back cover praising it and also because I compulsively buy books in exactly the same way an alcoholic buys cheap cider the day before Good Friday.

Its a strange book to describe as it starts off as a mystery surrounding a supposedly cursed book (The End of Mr Y) but then quickly delves into the philosophical world of existence, language, thought, creation, religion, time travel, while at the same time not forgetting the ubiquitous bad guys chasing our heroine and trying to kill her. Its a fun read but its major weakness is in its characterisation, the heroine Ariel Manto is a supposedly emotionally damaged young woman due to her tough and impoverished upbringing but only for the fact she keeps telling you this (with the occasional reference to self harm) you'd never guess. In fact she sounds like a regular person, a regular American person even, certainly not a northern English girl with a degree from the 'Life of Hard Knocks University'. The other characters pretty much suffer from this paper thin portrayal as well which is handy as it enables them to leap plot holes in a single bound and provide the necessary impetus to move the plot forward to a neat, if not surprising conclusion. In short its a good fun read but if you want philosophy and physics I'd look elsewhere.

String Theory in TwoMinutes

Carbon Dioxide - We Call It Life

If anyone ever doubted the dishonest, duplicity and (yes I'm going to say it) the evil of corporations, public relations and the oil industry then just watch this and pick your jaw off the floor before you leave.

What To Do When Things Are Going Wrong

Take a look at this amazing article in todays Telegraph which tells of a series of crisis meetings in the English rugby camp aimed at stopping the rot after the 36-0 drubbing at the hands of South Africa. I really admire these guys, many things where going wrong, they where in danger of going out early but they stepped up to the mark and set about putting things right. So much so in fact they ended up reaching the final. I'd love to know if something similar happened in the Irish camp and if so why did nothing change? And if not, why not?

Follow this link and have a look at the animated image, which way to do see it spinning?

Initially it spinned clockwise for me but when I started to read the explanations it reversed direction and spun anti-clockwise.

I love this optical illusions and this is one of the best I've seen,

Staunton's Gone!

Thank god! I can't blame the guy for taking the job but he should have resigned months ago as he clearly wasn't up to the task. I wonder if his reputation has been damaged long term by the whole charade? Certainly the FAI compounded their carefully nurtured image of being complete buffoons both in the delay in ridding us of Staunton and the James Bond'esk cat and mouse games with the press last evening. They've also announced they are outsourcing the appointment of a new manager which seems to have been widely welcomed in the press but I'm not sure this is a good thing as they'll be able to deflect all blame away should it all go wrong. They've clearly been learning at the feet of our government masters (ref HSE).

Now if only the IRFU would get their long knives sharpened I would feel a little bit more optimistic about the future of Irish sport.

Balance

This is the 1990 Oscar Winner for Best Animated Short. I liked it.

The Road to Despotism

This is a great video from 1946 to educate people as to how democratic the society they live in is. Its only 10 minutes long but it encapsulates the indicators that societies are falling towards despotism. Where would Ireland score on the scales I wonder?

Quote Of The Day

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider God-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, wrongly believing that he has the Gods on his side.

–Aristotle, Politica bk v (ca. 340 BCE)

The Woo Handbook

I've mentioned before how much I enjoy Skeptico's blogg. Well he's got another great entry called "The Woo Handbook" which is basically a guide for "Woo's" to help them deal with skeptics. If you've listened or read any defense of "alternative" anything you'll find them very familiar. Heres a small extract.

1. Start by telling skeptics you want to “educate them on the facts”. This puts them on the defensive (see next point below) and makes it seem like you’re the knowledgeable one with facts on your side, even though what you’re about to tell them is mostly made up.

We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers

Richard Dawkin's website has the following lecture (in three parts) by one Prof Andy Thomson and it is well worth watching. The talk deals with psychology of "Suicide Terrorism" and covers some amazing ground regarding human behaviour such as, war as our natural state, in group/out group dynamics and deferring to authority. He also deals with the type of person who is more likely to commit the crime as in the case of female suicide bombers who almost always are suffering from depression, are victims of social rejection (commonly due to being raped & therefore unmarriageable) and, of course, are dominated by their menfolk. He doesn't have go too far back for his examples either, one of the attackers on Glasgow this summer set himself alight but was careful to ensure his genitals did not burn, presumably so that he could enjoy his 70 (odd) virgins when he entered paradise. So do yourself a favour and watch it.

part 1


Part 2


Part 3 (Q&A)

The Golden Compass

One of the best books of the past few years has been Philip Pullman's "Northern Lights", part one of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. The book is full of incredible ideas - personal dæmon's, armoured polar bear's, the multiverse and of course, life, the universe and everything. Well its been made into a movie called "The Golden Compass" and heres the first official trailer. Its gone on my "must see list".

Building Stonehenge

Its long been a mystery how the ancient people built Stonehenge. Just how did they move and raise those massive stones? Well this guy in Michigan thinks he's got the answer. I saw this over a year ago but it still impresses me.

I Finish Bioshock

I finished Bioshock last night. It really is a great game although I'm going to have to agree with other reviews that the final Boss and ending where a bit of a let down. I had to go and find my ending (1 of 3) on youtube today and rewatch it as I honestly went "eh?" after seeing it last night. The second viewing was slightly better, but only slightly better, it was like they raced to finish it late on a Friday evening so they could all go to the pub. Theres talk of a sequel. I wonder what they'll do?

What would alternative medicine do?

I like reading blog's on Skeptical Thinking and one of the best is Skeptico. He's got a very good article here about the key difference between Real Medicine and "Complementary/Alternative Medicine (CAM)".

To summarise:
Testing on an experimental AIDS vaccine has been halted as the test results showed it wasn't working. Now, when was the last time a CAM practitioner/advocate stopped providing "therapy" because they know it doesn't work for condition X?

Skeptico provides some suggestions but I'll repost one here, read the article for the rest.

Acupuncturists pulling acupuncture for treatment of (say) arthritis, because they determined it doesn’t work for that.

Wall-E

Two teaser trailers here for Pixars new movie "Wall-E" (due for release next summer).
I love everything Pixar does, I assume this one will be up to the usual high standards.

The French One

The U.S. Teaser

Ireland, where failure is rewarded.

So the IRFU have opted for mediocrity. What a disappointment!

I honestly thought the IRFU where better than this. The best prepared Irish team has returned the worst result but the IRFU (Parton'esk) stands by their man while Eddie O'Sullivan trots out excuse after excuse and denies the extent of his/this failure.

At least the Welsh did something. It might have been harsh but it shows they are serious about winning. Not Ireland however, it seems, we are content to be 'also rans', a small country of cozy clubs and jobs for the boys where failure is rewarded and there are never any consequences.

Denis Leamey's body was the only thing separating Ireland from defeat in the match against Georgia. Even now I can hardly believe it! What exactly does it take to get them to admit its all gone wrong? Are they captains of the Titanic? Or maybe King Canutu's vainly ordering back the tides of reality. But perhaps the most apt is Don Quixote except they expected to fight windmills but instead met with dragons.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

A bit geeky this one, but it sure looks like a cool game. Released next year

Facism in 10 Easy Steps

Following on from my earlier post The End of America, Naomi Wolfe has an article in the Guardian summarising her ideas. She feels the US has already implemented 9 of these steps. Its a long article so I've just listed the steps here.

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law

Ireland out of the Rugby World Cup

Well Ireland lost on Sunday. I wasn't surprised. All the hifalutin talk before the game of restoring pride, playing with passion, "doing it for Simon", rising to the occasion, etc, etc predictably turned out to be yet another blast of hot air. No doubt theres a formula out there to calculate just how much the Eddie O'Sullivan and the boys contributed to global warming over the past three weeks but I'm prepared to guess several polar bears have perished as a direct result of the fumes spewing forth from EOS, BOD et al.

Irish rugby has imploded and the question is "What now?". It could also be "Who Now?". The buck has got to stop with Eddie O'Sullivan. He failed. Spectacularly! He simply must go. But will he? O'Sullivan seemed genuinely surprised to be asked would he be resigning in the wake of Ireland's pitiful performance so we can hardly expect him to fall on his own sword. He'll have to be pushed, but have the IRFU got the stomach for it? Many of the pundits on radio and television seem to think he'll survive (by blaming everyone else) with only George Hook saying he won't. I hope Hookie is right. I would hate to see the IRFU fall to the standards of the FAI where expectations are low and mediocrity accepted.

The Irish Tribune has a article detailing with The Trouble with Eddie, its an interesting read. How on earth did this man get a contract extension before the world cup?

George Carlin

The way things are;

Bertie on the Rugby World Cup

There hasn't been much good news coming from the Ireland camp lately but I stumbled across this and it made me smile.

Going Out With A Whimper, Not A Scream

So Ireland lost to France on Friday night and what a depressing spectacle it was. The hoped for "backs to the wall" (miracle) performance never materialised as a nervous France brushed Ireland aside to reach the quarter finals. Now Ireland must beat Argentina by 4 tries and by more than 7 points to reach the next stage. Finally my heart has caught up with my brain, it will never happen. And to be honest I think it would be a travesty for Ireland to knock Argentina out of the competition. They've played well, we haven't. They deserve it, we don't. At times on Friday night I felt that I was watching an Irish team from the 90's, complete with bad kicking, no passing & no plan, but that would be unfair, at least in the 90's the lads had some pride.

I'm off to Cardiff on October 5th, likely to watch New Zealand vs France. I know its not Frances fault we've done badly, I don't care, I'll be shouting for the All Blacks.