Where is the little green man ?

Reading the newspaper

Have you seen, the little green men, musing along the wall of the Limerick Art Gallery ?

Sitting on a wall

Anyway, there is this october, a very funny interactive video exhibition in the Limerick Art Gallery (look in Arts Events in the website of the Limerick City County Council).
It's near People's park i Limerick, and the exhibition is based on camera recording the spectator and projecting it with some delays and others effects... very fun.
It's called "Here There Now Then" by Dennis Connolly and Anne Cleary.

One particulary interesting installation, display the recording of your move in front of the screen delayed and incrustated with past recordings...

Readings: I've just finished "Time out of joint" a novel by Ph.K.Dick, disturbingly very similar to the plot of "The Truman Show" movie. Seem I found the little green men in Limerick (a reader of the book should understand). It's been a long time since last time, I've read any Dick novels, my taste has been revigorated by the viewing of a "Scanner Darkly" brillant adaptation of Dick universe. I was a bit anxious and curious about the permanent photoshop effct on the movie, but it works admirably well.

Quotations

• "My major preoccupation is the question, 'What is reality?'" - Philip Kindred Dick


• Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. - Philip Kindred Dick


• The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words. - Philip Kindred Dick


• Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane. - Philip Kindred Dick

Last Action Hero ?

Scharzie ... saving the world again... Are the USA finally starting to wake up, and realizing the desastrous effect of their energy politics ?

• Al Gore is travelling the world with his presentation about Global Warming, and a movie "An inconvenient truth" relates it. Former Vice President Al Gore called the 19th Septmber 2006, for a popular movement in the United States to seek an “immediate freeze” inheat-trapping smokestack and tailpipe gases linked by most scientists to global warming.
  See official website of the film.
  Basically the message, is we need to do (stop) something now and massively, because it's just in term of month/week you can count, until we reach a non return point in the quantity of CO2 emmitted in the atmosphere.
  
• As written by Daniel AKST in the New York Times (17th September 2006), any drop in the oil prices are not a good news, it's definitely a bad news as it does not force people to change the way they use their car.
  I quote: "[...] You figure cheaper oil would boost economic growth while slashing the income of such lovable oil exporters as Iran? Don’t kid yourself. Anything that reinforces the role of fossil fuels — particularly oil — as the industrial world’s primary energy source is bad, not good. Anything that prolongs the life of the internal combustion engine is a negative, not a positive. Anything that makes it cheaper to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is cause for mourning rather than celebration.
  What we need is not lower oil prices but higher ones — significantly higher, enough to deter consumption and make us look seriously at alternatives."
• California is suing 5 major automakers, for their contribution to the Global Warming (announced this 21st September 2006). It's a very capitalistic and american view, suing a company to inforce measures that will benefit the society, I hope it will turn better than the case against the tobacco (It has been revealed that cigarettes makers have increased in the USA, the level of nicotine in their products).
• And still in the NY Times, THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, realized that as "dumb as it can be", USA would rather power anti-Americans with its energy purchases than promote antipoverty.
  
• California which already the state which the most active in term of energy economy [see NYT article], will be the first state to inforce a law which follow Kyoto. Already 42% of the electricity produced by California (via Nuclear and Hydro plants) does not produce greenhouse gases, compared to the 71% of the USA. Unless the rest of the USA, which has seen a more than 50% increase in the annual electricity use by person since the 70s, California, has pretty much the same consumption per inhabitant.
  So Mr Universe/Terminator has signed which imposed a control on carbon dioxide emission... basically the Kyoto protocol, DoubleU has refused to sign...
  

Sounds good news, I must admit the capitalism has a very flexible approach to problem, by simplifying them, in term of cost (aka money)...
On the other hand, people still drive big SUV and the Top Gear presenter R.Hammond crashed a car at more than 300mph during the recording of the show. And here in Limerick, the city did not take part in the car free day like many european cities.
More worrying these doomsday seeker, holy bible fervent lovers, who judges that polluting is good because it make closer the divine doomsday. I've seen this very frightening documentary by Tony Robinson, (yes Baldrick in Black Adder, but also he presented an interesting documentary about the DaVinci Code). So in the documentary called "Doomsday code", Tony followed the american fundamentalist catholics, and the way they are influencing (Bush administration) politics in the goal to bring nearer the end of the world. For example, they are financing the israel occupation of some Palestinian lands, so all jews can be re-installed in Israel, and this will allow the christ to ressurect.

Here 10 things you can do to improve your impact on global warming [PDF] :
- Replace your light with fluorescent carbon bulb (reduce by 60% the electricity consumed)
- Drive less (walk, use a bicycle instead)
- Recycle more
- Check your tyres (if your tyres are not at the correct pressure, you increase your gasoline consumption).
- Use less hot water
- Avoid products withe lots of packaging (reduce garbage). And consume more bio products.
- Adjust your thermostat in winter and summer.
- Plant a Tree
- Turn off electrical/electronic devices when not in used.

------

In the meantime, the list of movies I won't able to see in Limerick is becoming bigger and bigger:
- Volver (Pedro Almodovar)
- Inland Empire (D.Lynch)
- Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola)
- Avida (B.Delepine/Gustave DeKervern)
- Nausicae (H.Miyazaki, Ghibli studios) [Fan Website: nausica.net]
- An unconenient truth

But Good surprise, "Scanner Darkly" [French critic] will be displayed at the Omniplex thursday 28th September 2006. And I've just seen "Clerks 2" [official website ] almost 10 years after I've seen the brilliant first movie by Kevin Smith, in the amphitheater of the University of Lettres of Clermont-Ferrand. Nice movie, loads of laugh, with less discussion about Star Wars ( the only trilogy) and a bit more about the sexuality of the hobbits...

Souvenir

I've just uploaded some old photos to Flickr, it's been a long time since I've done some serious hill walking like when these photos has been taken (2004, Vercors, France)

And even in France you can be lost in fog:

I remember also, the grenoble nights....

What about a Rhum, in the Barberousse (3 rue Bayard) ? A pint of guiness in the O'Callaghan ? Or a bit of latin dance in the Loco Mosquito. ? Or just a simple picon in some traditional atmosphere like de St Christophe.

And finally, congratulations to Laure for her big news.

Back to...

Parents gone, I am back to my old routine...including pub ... does not really mean I've stopped going during their stay, as it's a bit of a nonsense to visit Ireland without spending some time to the pub... (should I've said in the pub ?... only French can understand that question if they think haircut ...).

And it's also back to school, not that I am concerned, except for the heavy traffic in Limerick.

Few notes, after reading a dutch story in the New York Times [In the Netherlands, Life Runs on 2 Wheels (Sometimes 3)], I've been more and more interested in the past week into: Recumbent bicycle (horizontal bicycle), and Velomobile.
And very interesting story, about how in 1934, the UCI ruled that these kind of vehicule were not bicycle and therefore forbidden in any cycle competition.
The amazing fact is the world speed record is: 130.36 km/h , set by Sam Whittingham of Canada on a recumbent bicycle (in 2006, officialised by International Human Powered Vehicle Association ) , and the hour record (same guy) with this bike is: 85.4 km.
In order to compare, the records recognized by UCI (upright bicycle) are: speed = 82.53 km/h (1986), and hour record = 49.700 km.
It's more likely, that without this decision of the UCI, the recumbent bicycle would have been widespread... and you can even seen them on water.

I especially like the trikes by Greenspeed. And I should really start using my bike again for my journeys to work.

___

Others news, Limerick has a new low has shown in the RTE program PRIME TIME [you can watch the program on the web].
I've read what happen in a article called Petrol Bomb Outrage, the Limerick Post : 2 children (4 and 6) have been severly burned during the arson attack of youngs against Garda police car in the Moyross area... Very sad and frigthening story.
An horrific recent petrol bombing of a car with two young children inside, violence flared on the 8th & 9th of September when Gardai were ambushed by a group of at least 30 youths in the Delmege Park/Pineview gardens area. Petrol bombs had been prepared in advance of the Gardai arriving and 2 squad cars were damaged.

___

If after watching Prime Time, you still want to come live in Ireland, here two very useful sites:

• Maison des Francais a l'Etranger (mfe), the forums are full of informations.
• http://assistanatenirlande.hautetfort.com/[French]

And fortunatley there is also nice pubs in Limerick.

___

And in the rest of the world:

• Sarko has a new friend W (NYTimes, Blog Big Picture [Fr])
• Jospin reviens (Arte Radio [Fr])
• the number of muslims immigrating in the USA is rising (NY Times), after 9/11, I quote the article: "In 2005, more people from Muslim countries became legal permanent United States residents — nearly 96,000 — than in any year in the previous two decades."
• the website FaceBook touch the limit of the personal data sharing and blogging (NYTimes article, BBC article). The latest functionality of this personal webpage website, (you can read the apologizes of FaceBook on his blog), was feeding and redistributing to your contact community any change on webpage/blog/list of friend ... etc ... resulting in user complaint about respect of privacy.
• Some sympathetic feminist blogs: Bad Feminist, Pseudo-Adrienne, F-Words....
• And in the Irish news, a survey found that 1 in 8 women mistakenly believe it's not possible to get pregnant the first time they have sex. The TNS MRBI survey also found that 6%of women wrongly assume the pill offers some protection against sexually transmitted diseases.

___

Politic...

• The US commission on the reason of the IRAQ war has published the phase 2 of it's report.

From page 52:

Conclusion1: Postwar finding do not support the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) judgement that Iraq was reconstituing its nuclear weapons program.

Idem for the Bilogical Weapons, and chemical weapons (no evidence). And I let you read about the relationship between Iraq and terrorist...
Remind some movie by Mikael Moore.... Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

• China (from NY-Times), decided to restrict a "bit" more the diffusion of foreign news in the country. [article in NY Times]

• In France, people start racing for the next presidential election. Same in Ireland and GB.
  Everything in order.
  

Aran Island [2]

Friday.

Sunset on Lahinch Beach (Co Clare)

Finish the day in a pub... (Lahinch Co Clare)

Saturday Aran Island biking all day

Finding some treasure...

And finally seeing some Galway's Hooker ... racing

I think my parents have been happy with this trip to Inis Mor...

France 3 - Italy 1

Good start fro France in their qualification for the Euro 2008, not only they won, but with style !

Random surfing, causing random babbling....

• [FR] Anyway, interesting post yesterday in Transnets, about the fact that comanies uctually use the creativity, the brain of internet users to create contents, to sort data (yourtube, tags on flickr). There is a real work done, manual indexation, real creation (lego movie) by all internet user.
  And all this work, is it an intellectul property ? How is it protected, used ?
  
  The writer has an interesting blog: humains-associes.org , promoting some Netiquette on the web.
• [FR] Arte Radio, at a time where everybody's going back to school, offers a great insight on all the hesitation, question a teenager faces when it comes to orientation, choose a path in school.
• Gordon Ramsay [TV: Hell's Kitchen, Ramsay's kitchen Nightmare, the F World], in the New York Times, [article] talks about his experience in France and it's dream of coming back there to install a restaurant. I had to say I quite agree about the french arrogance, I would love to see that restaurant. Here's the quote:
  

  “I’d love to go back to Paris, to be honest,” he said. “You know how arrogant the French are — extraordinary. They make us all look so normal. I got such abuse there, I was like a tortured child. So the idea is to go back to Paris, staff the restaurant all with English and call it Roast Beef!”

• As published in Nature, the plancton in the seas does not seem to absorb as much CO2 as initially thought [article ; pdf ]... bad for our future, you can also learn what some scientist wants to fertilize the plancton, increase its growth so it can absorb all the CO2 created by human activities. Unfortunately at the same time, it seems that the global warning, is favorising the natural release of the CO2 trapped in european grounds [peat].
• According to an european study, Ireland is the country were adult are drunk more often (drinking more than 5 pint in one night more than once a month), and the young are not better 32% of the teenager get drunk more than three times a month (33% for the boys and 31% for the girls). Ireland is the third in Europe, by Alcohol consumption (15 pure alcohol consumed per adult each year in average). No wonder, why unlike the rest of Europe were alcohol consumption decline, here it has progressed by 25% between 1995 and 2005.
  

• Last monday, my parents, came for the first time in Ireland, landing in Dublin, they arrived in Bunratty tuesday.

Then we headed to their accomodation in Lahinch (Co Clare), with its wonderful beach.

There is nothing like finishing, the day in the Lahinch beach under the falling sun, (may be adding a guinness).

• Quotation of the day:

"Reality is what remains, when you stop believing in it."
Philip. Kindred. Dick

Crocodile Hunter

Crocodile Hunter (Steve Irwin) is dead as announced by the BBC, killed by one of the least dangerous creature he used to deal with...badly tasted fun. As a result, the article about Stingray in wikipedia, has received numerous edits upon the death, leading the edition of page to be disabled (due to vandalism).

If you look the discussion pages, you'll see the bad (subjectivity, ego... ) and the good (reactivity) of the wiki concept.

He'll be sadly and badly missed, as he was great to present and teach worldwide how to respect and protect wildlife.

Is it possible for a community, to create a content, meaningful and objective as a whole group, it's also the question asked by Pisani on his blog [French], he talks about a tentative of journalistic collective writting.

In the meantime, you can always try to build a Potato Gun as described in this article in the Whasington Post.
Here the principle of the gun on the How Stuff Work website: Spud gun Technology.
Interesting, I've seen that used in MythBusters (brilliant tv show on discovery channel), and also for some battle in ScrapHeap Challenge.

And so simple, you just need a PVC tube, some fuel ( any exploding gas ).... and a potato...
Science can be so fun :-P

And while american rednecks play with their potato gun, French policeman are being equiped with Taser, according to the french newspaper Le Monde, in an article called "the gun which electrify the police" ( i love tthe wordplay on the title), the taser gun has been successfully used on an old French legionnary threatening to use a gun, one mad man on the rooth of a railway station and a 13 year girl trying to kill herself with a kitchen knife ( all in France, near Lyon). For your information, in the USA, the taser gun is suspected to have already killed more than 150 people (152 to this date since 2001, according to Amnesty International).

For the news in Ireland... Cork did not manage to conquer their third All hurling Crown in a row, has they have been stopped by a fantastic Kilkenny. And I am still wondering after seeing the movie "Les Poupees Russes", how many dolls I'll have to open ......

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Cinematografic desert

Activites:Pub, Whitewater kayak

Back to work, after this nice break in Dublin, hopefully tuesday , we went on the river Shannon to do some whitewater kayaking.



A nice evening on the river Shannon



Movies
Two interesting movies are now in display in Ireland:

• Volver by Pedro Almodovar


• Scanner Darkly adapted from a Philip K.Dick novel

Unfortunately for me, this is only actually shown in Dublin... and not here in Limerick... I live in cinematografic desert... (if you except all american marketing super-production)... I want Kitano, S.Coppolla......

Radiohead Live
You can find some mp3 of Radiohead Live performance (and others) on this site:
http://finefinemusic.com/

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The Rocky Road to Dublin (2)

I've just finished uploading the pics from my mobile phone, of the Marley Park gig, so it's time to post a bit more about this fantastic Radiohead concert.
Ok first, I am useless, I did not bring my camera for some stupid reason.

Absolutely gorgeous day in Dublin, look at this blue sky. Perfect day to lay on a grass in a park... but soon enough a massive crowd is going to invade the ground.


I arrive with 2 french lads (Guyguy et manu) at Marlay Park with the first bus around 5pm... so we could enjoy the 3 group. The first group was BeerHoof ( I am not sure of teh syntx ) interestting and strange, something i would call in french: "déjanté"

Then Beck came, with a great scenery, all what happened on the scene was duplicated with Marionette... the puppetmasters were fantasctic reproducing the perfomance of the band on stage... and so fun...



It took them a long time to install the set for Radiohead but then they come... and the magic begun...




I am so sorry, I had'nt my camera. The concert was fantastic !!!...
Thought I spent some time, wondering, about my morning vision... In fact in the morning, I was in Temple Bar Square, and I cross somebody who looked exactly like Thom Yorke, even though I thought at the moment he was really small... so I spend a long moment trying to estimate the height of TY, and if I had seen him earlier dring the day.

Radiohead fan website: http://www.ateaseweb.com/.And I encourage to take a look at the links page on the radiohead website.

Edit to add the set of the concert:
airbag
2+2=5
the national anthem
my iron lung
morning bell
videotape
nude
there there
the gloaming
paranoid android
all i need
pyramid song
climbing up the walls
how to dissapear completely
just
lucky
idioteque

like spinning plates
bangers n' mash
karma police
everything in it's right place (no intro)

creep

Other website of interests
http://www.cafebabel.com/fr/

The Rocky Road to Dublin

Activities: Radiohead concert, Pub, Dublin, Temple Bar....

Yeaaaahhh just came back from Dublin, where I've attended the Radiohead Concert in Marlay Park...
That was fantastic ! Beck was there just before, and the performance was great too ( specially the puppets ;-P )


So two days in Dublin, most of the time in Temple Bar Square:

Wandering about the statues in the street of Dublin....

Watching the lovely women in Dublin:

Trinity College, (thought I did not manage to see teh Book of Kells yet):

In Dublin Castle, I've found some sculpture done with compressed sand:

I've spend a lot of time wandering about the Spire in O'Connell Street.... build to replace Nelson Pillar ( oh a famous english warrior on O'Connel street shock ) in 1999... but only achieved in 2003 [The Spire]!

Especially questionning the way it had been erected:

Some random pics:
Dublin busy place, full of tourist

And Dubliners... or leprechaun ??

10 mots pour une histoire... [FR]

Exercice de style pris sur le site des Papous dans la tete
:[Site de l'emission]
Je vous donne 10 mots, à vous de les faire vivre dans une histoire à
imaginer : conte de Noël, lettre de voeux ou scène de la vie
quotidienne.

- Idylle - blanche - autographe - couloir - perroquet - toute-puissance - mystère - trottiner - ravissement - ampoule

Ecrivez des textes de 10 ou 15 lignes, pas plus, cela fait aussi partie de la contrainte !


Sous l'aube d'une ampoule, je la vis trottiner a la poursuite d'un perroquet dans un couloir.
Elle voulais son autographe, et etais armee d'une feuille balnche symbole de sa toute-puissance.
La concierge, vint m'expliquer ce mystere, et ainsi j'appris avec ravissement l'histoire de cette idylle maudite.

Pfff dieu que que je suis mauvais :-P... il y a des textes bien meilleurs sur le site l'emission.

Other news: I am going to see Radiohead ... I am going to see Radiohead ... tomorrow Marlay Park, Dublin, under the rain....

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RADIO -- ou enfin un post en francais.... [FR]

First, sorry for my English readers, I am switching back to French for some posts, and I'll probably from now on switch from one language to another to make things more confusing.

Pourquoi un post en français ?
Voila une bonne question, je crois que c'est parce que ces derniers temps, j'ai beaucoup écouté avec ravissement des radios en langue française (Radio-Nova cf post précédents), et lu des blogs en langue française ( j'ai mis les liens des plus intéressants a mon goût dans les divers post). Résultat, l'envie d'écrire en français, cumule au fait que faire référence a des sites/blogs français en anglais est un peu bizarre. Donc voila.

Le masque et la plume
[site de l'emission, ou vous pouvez écouter la dernière diffusion]
Donc ce lundi, j'ai (re)-écouté pour la première fois depuis plus d'un an, cette fantastique émission de France-Inter, je crois que ce genre de débat futiles a la française me manquais, les querelles et les échanges de bons mots.
J'en profites pour recommander une lecture: Tangages et roulis, de David McNeil (Gallimard) ode au plaisir alocooliques... ce qui nous fais revenir a l'éternel Dimey.

" Ivrogne, c'est un mot qui nous vient de province
Et qui ne veut rien dire à Tulle ou Châteauroux,
Mais au coeur de Paris je connais quelques princes
Qui sont selon les heures, archange ou loup-garou
L'ivresse n'est jamais qu'un bonheur de rencontre,
Ça dure une heure ou deux, ça vaut ce que ça vaut,
Qu'il soit minuit passé ou cinq heure à ma montre,
Je ne sais plus monter que sur mes grands chevaux.

Ivrogne, ça veut dire un peu de ma jeunesse,
Un peu de mes trente ans pour une île aux trésors,
Et c'est entre Pigalle et la rue des Abesses
Que je ressuscitais quand j'étais ivre-mort...
J'avais dans le regard des feux inexplicables
Et je disais des mots cent fois plus grands que moi,
Je pouvais bien finir ma soirée sous la table,
Ce naufrage, après tout, ne concernait que moi.

Ivrogne, c'est un mot que ni les dictionnaires
Ni les intellectuels, ni les gens du gratin
Ne comprendront jamais... C'est un mot de misère
Qui ressemble à de l'or à cinq heure du matin.
Ivrogne... et pourquoi pas ? Je connais cent fois pire,
Ceux qui ne boivent pas, qui baisent par hasard,
Qui sont moches en troupeau et qui n'ont rien à dire.
Venez boire avec moi... On s'ennuiera plus tard."
Bernard Dimey

[Un site sur Dimey]
J'ai hate d'ecouter la prochaine emission sur les sorties cinema... et apres me desespere que ces films ne sortent pas en salles ici en Irlande.

A propos de cinema, si vous etes sur Limerick (Eire), il y a une sorte de cinema d'art et essai qui diffuse des films sympas (et different de la diffusion des omniplex) dans une salle un peu pourrie ( mais bon l'ambiance y est tres sympa ): BELLTABLE [website]

-----

Enfin une série de blogs intéressants, (re)-découverts récemment, je mets aussi
les liens rss:

• Carnet d'un inspecteur de travail[RSS] un blog (comme son nom l'indique) d'un inspecteur du travail en France, parfois édifiant sur les conditions de travail de certaines personnes en France, bourre d'informations utiles sur le code du travail, et un contraceptif radical a toute pulsion ultralibéraliste.
• Droit des enfants[RSS] un blog par un juge des enfant. Encore pris sur les blog du site du Monde.L
  La encore, parfais un peu déprimant, de lire toutes ces histoires sur le trafic d'enfants, mais d'un autre cote cela a un cote rassurant de voir que certaines personnes essaient de lutter contre cela.

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Not Glop Statistics

I've read in the latest National Geographic Magazine [August 2006], the following statistics:

Odds of dying by any cause : 1 in 1 ( 100% ) ... this is not "Glop" at all.

But here the funny things. This article is based on  a study from the National Safety Coucil (an US institute)  called What are the odds of dying ?

So if you're an US citizen, you're more likely to die by heart disease ( 1 in 5 , 20% ).
I did not think suicide was so common ( 1 in 119 ), it's even (twice) more common than dying by falling ( 1 in 218 ).
In a previous post, I was talking about road safety, and it happens that dying in a motor vehicle accident is the 4th greatest odds ( after heart disease, cancer and stroke.... with 1 in 84).

So if you're looking some more unconventional death, here some tricks, you're more likely to die by alcohol poisoning ( 1 in 10048 ) than because of hot weather ( 1 in 13729 ), and I wonder if the numbers would be the same in France.

In the USA, you're more likely to die by Death Penalty ( 1 in 62468 ) than strike by lightning ( 1 in 79746 ) or Flood ( 1 in 144156 ) or Earthquake ( 1 in 117127 ).

In 2003, in the USA, 332 persons die by drowning and submersi into bath-tub, in order to compare there has been 17732 deaths by assault the same year.
Odds of dying by firearm assault 1 in 314....

But I did not find anything about death by shark ....

But you can always check with a psychic to know how this is going to end : Death Psychic
In my case th way of my death has been foretold like this:
After haggling over the price of meat, an enraged butcher beats you to death with a frozen beef tongue.

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My Eye

My Eye
Originally uploaded by TOF2006.

Last Week Activities: Work
Last Week Pub: Nancy Blake (Wed) ; Daffy's (Thu) ; Old Quarter (Sat)

I've been quite busy with my work these last few weeks and unfortunately week-end... so not many things to tell, about place visited, funny stuff done... Sad...
Thus I managed to spend sometime in the Nancy Blake, this wednesday, and relax by enjoying some typical irish music. And like every thursday, I went to my salsa lesson (the last one of the summer, the lessons will resume the 31st of August). I am definitely bad at dancing salsa... I've tried the advanced class, after several (too repetitive) sessions of improver. but I can hardly manage to do the full routine... I might go back to improver in september, and I know that I need to practice more (particulary on the dance floor) to be able to improve myself. Anyway it was good fun.
Saturday GR, dragged me out, to the Old Quarter, to see some "talent" ... definitely this pub is not my cup of tea.

The photo here, is my first try to take a macro photo of my iris/eye.
I've been very impressed few years ago, by the work from Francis Giacobetti (published in GEO in 1996), it tooke photography of the iris of famous people (Cousteau, Dalai Lama...) with a specific material. I've never managed to find the pictures on the web....

Cameo Fernandel

Cameo Fernandel in PS2 game

Cameo Fernandel
Originally uploaded by TOF2006.

I've just finished "Destroy All Humans" on PS2, (between the few hours I spent at work this bank holiday week-end), while playing I've found this... the singer on the sign looks like Fernandel, a famous french actor... [see IMBD about Fernandel]... By the way fun game.


Radio Nova
Actually I listen a lost Radio Nova a french radio station, with loads of good music, few ad. I like their jingles made of sound from french movies.
And here's an audio blog about it Nova AudioBlog

Songs of the WE

• Zero 7 Futures (album: The Garden)
• Sergio Mendes Mas que nada (album: Timeless)
• Ian Campbell Dirty old town
• Aline De Lima Terra (album: Arrebol)
• Cassandra Wilson Go to mexico (album: Thunderbird)
• Thom Yorke Black swan (album: The Eraser)
• Charlotte Gainsbourg The songs that we sing (album: 5:5)
• Nouvelle Vague Heart of Glass (Bossa Nova cover of the Blondie song; album: Bande a Part )
  

Irish Roads

I've just scan some photos, I've taken some time ago with my old argentic camera, so I can post them on Flickr... And just remember this one... It's in the middle of the Connemara (Ireland), on a lost road....
I had to stop to take the picture.

And this one has been taken on the misty scenic road to Achill Island.

Irish roads are very often narrow (except for the very recent dual carriage way ... but it's rare), and unfortunately not very safe... probably first beacuse of the importatnt increase of the number of vehicules (car and trucks) travelling nowadays on irish roads, and then because of a lack of a decent learning (and testing) system for young drivers, and a slow process of law enforcement...
In his edition of the 4th of August 2006, the Irish Examiner announced that Ireland has been ranked fourth in the most dangerous road in Europe (in term of acidents and fatalities per kilometers... 1. Greece, 2. Portugal, 3. Spain ).
This ranking is quite surprising because the rods in Ireland has been gretaly improved in the last fez years.
The study highlight also that irish are the least agressive motorist in Europe, and french are the most (I won't oppose that).
On the other hand The National Road Authority declared irish roads are safest now than in th 70's, which is true if you divide the number of death by the number of cars.
Just some numbers to finish this post.

Year: 1980 Number of cars: 900000 Road Deaths: 564
Year: 2005 Number of cars: 2100000 Road Deaths: 396
In 2006, so far, 219 had died on irish road from the 1st January up to the 15th of July....

Surfing Ireland

Fun, Fun, Fun
Activities:Surf ; Pub: 1 on the beach ; Alcohol Units: 0

Finally, I went surfing in Ireland (first time on a surf ever), this tuesday. The Outdoor pursuit Club of my company, was organising a initiation session in Lahinch.
Simply brilliant, and I really enjoyed it. I even managed to stand on the board 4-5 times but then "ivre de joie", I simply fall...
That was a perfect way to finish a working day.

Song of the day:PJ.Harvey - This Mess we're in.

Wouldn't It Be Nice
Activities:Pub ; Pub: 2 ; Alcohol Units: 4+
Decided to go to the Nancy Blake this wednesday, to enjoy some traditional irish music with the french lads (GP & NM). There I've seen Mel and a friend of her, a lovely irish girl, I've previously met, few months ago, during my salsa lessons in the Daffy's.The night finished, quite drunk, and singing...
Exactly the night out I needed.

For Information, every wednesday night, these traditional irish music takes plce in the Nancy Blake.

Song of the day:Dyonisos - Don Diego 2000

Whale watch
A very interesting site which keeps track of all whale sighting in Ireland:
http://www.iwdg.ie/
The map is particulary good, and it seems we miss some Basking Shark cruising in Kerry, the week end we spent in Mizen Head.

Blogs
I just link here, some interesting blogs, I read from time to time:

• Transnets [Fr]
• Copier decoller [Fr]
• Le Journal de Max [Fr]
• Langue sauce Piquante [Fr)
• petite anglaise
• Confessions of a Nerdess
• Un crayon dans le coeur [Fr]