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 ??