Irish Forum

A nice Irish forum, full of useful information: boards.ie.
I particularly enjoy the threads about Scuba Diving.


Today Medium Windows Media Player (previous one)

1. What do you think of me, random music player?
    Cocoon - Bjork
2. Will I have a long and happy life?
    Pinocchio - Radio Bemba osund System - Manu Chao
3. What do my friends really think of me?
    Venus as a boy - Bjork
4. What does my S/O think of me?
    Hey Joe - Poppa Chubby
5. Do people secretly lust after me?
    Heartbeats - Joze Gonzales
6. How can I make myself happy?
    Skin - Maria Doyle Kennedy
7. What should I do with my life?
    Go to Mexico - Cassandra Wilson
8. Why must life be so full of pain?
    Almost Done - Morcheeba
9. How can I maximize my pleasure during sex?
    Sweet Goddess love and beer - Poppa Chubby
10. Will I ever have children?
  Get a kick out of you - Lisa Ekhdal
11. Will I die happy?
   Sweey Scented Figure - Scott Matthews
12. Can you give me some advice?
    Elusive - Scott Matthews
13. What do you think happiness is?
    I am waiting for the day - Beach Boys
14. Do you have any advice to give over the next few hours/days?
    Seeing things - Zero 7

I love answer 13,14,9, 7 ... but for the rest it's a bit cryptic.... may be i better should look at my horoscope:

Today the world will seem like a mirror, because you will see a bit of yourself in every person you interact with. Your empathy is turned up to the max, and you may suddenly have the urge to become someone's teacher or mentor. It makes sense, because there is someone in your life who could use a pointer or two -- and you know that you are the perfect person to provide them. Make time for a few lessons early today, and by the afternoon you'll see progress.

Sounds good .... except what it seems i am going to mentor some guy.... poor guy ... LOL

God only knows

I discover a fantastic stand up comedian: Sarah Silverman, you can see the introduction she made to the MTV awards here on dailymotion and some more on youtube.


Songs of the week

• God only Knows - Beach Boys
  
• Who'll stop the rain - CCR
  
• FXXX & Call Me - Maria Doyle Kennedy
  
• Keep the car running - Arcade Fire
  

Statistics of the week : Brain Age best = 23 worst = 27 ; Unit of alcohol 4 ; Pub = 3 ; Weight = 95kg ; Cycle = 0km ; ScubaDive = 0 ; X-Ray = 1

Go Clermont

Clermont auvergne is in final of the TOP 14 (the french championship), after a fantastic victiry over Toulouse in semi-final. So it's all heads to the 9th of june, for the great final in Paris against the Stade Francais. It will be the 8th time Clermont (ASM) is in Final of the championship.

Allez les bougnats !!!

40 years of Sgt Pepper

Today 1st june, we are celebrating the 40 years anniversary of the mythic album: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles. And on this occasion Tom Dunne on the radio Today FM, play during 3 hours the full album with some pieces it was influenced from (Pet Sounds) and it has influenced. Elected by the Rolling stone magazine, as the best album of all times, here the list of the 5 first (out of 500, the full list you can find on Rolling Stone website):
1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles
2. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
3. Revolver, The Beatles
4. Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan
5. Rubber Soul, The Beatles

Which bring us to my personal list of favourites album:

1. Tostaky - Noir Désir
   
2. Amnesiac - Radiohead
   
3. Néon Bible - Arcade Fire
   
4. If I could only remember my name - David Crosby
   
5. No Quartr - Page and Plant
   
6. CCR Live in Europe - Creedence Clearwater Revival
   
7. Whaterver the weather - Dionysos
   
8. Strange Days - The Doors
   
9. Hells freeze over - Eagles
   
10. Baduizm - Erykha Badhu
    
11. Fuzzy - Grant Lee Buffalo
    
12. Pearl - Janis Joplin
    
13. Burtsing Out - Jethro Tull
    
14. Live from Mars - Ben Harper
    
15. Grace - Jeff Buckley
    
16. Daemon Days - Gorillaz
    
17. Début -Björk
    
18. The cover records - Cat Power
    
19. Wish you were here - Pink Floyd
    
20. Rory Gallagher - Rory Gallagher
    
21. Stoosh - Skunk Anansie
    
22. Since I left you - Avalanches
    
23. Rhum, sodomy, & the lash - The Pogues
    
24. Who's next - The Who
    
25. Express Way - Troublemakers
    
26. The best band... - Franck Zappa
    

Limerick some place of interest:

Maria Doyle Kennedy

Just seen Maria Doyle Kennedy in Dolans. Excellent... I am probably gonna buy the album, you can listen to some of her song on her space on mySpace.

And if you are in Limerick this saturday night, another DJ battle is organised in the Underground (Baker-Place / Wicked Chicken).

Lomography

Lomography or a way to enjoy photography. here's the rule:
1. Take your LOMO everywhere you go and whenever you go.
2. Use it any time - day or night.
3. Lomography is not an interference in your life, but a part of it.
4. Shoot from the hip.
5. Approach the objects of your lomographic desire as close as possible.
6. Don't think.
7. Be fast.
8. You don't have to know beforehand what you've captured on film.
9. You don't have to know afterwards, either.
10. Don't worry about the rules.

But after you can also tried to put some lomo effects ( with Gimp ) on your digital pictures:

Here how to do it (with Gimp):
* Open a picture.
* From the menu choose ‘Image: Colors: Brightness-Contrast’ and increase the contrast by 30.
* From the menu choose ‘Image: Colors: Hue-Saturation’ and increase the saturation by 30.
* Choose the ‘Rectangular Selection’ tool.
* Open the ‘Tool Options’ dialog.
* Select ‘Feather’ and change the feather amount to ⅛th of the width of your picture.
* Select your entire picture. Choosing ‘Select: All’ from the menu will not work.
* From the menu choose ‘Select: Invert’.
* Create a new layer in the ‘Layers, Channels & Paths’ dialog.
* Change your primary color to black. Fill the selection on the new, blank layer.
* Change the mode of this layer to ‘Overlay’.
* Duplicate the layer.
* From the menu choose ‘Select: None’.
* Now select your base layer (the one with the picture on it).
* Create a new layer.
* Select the ‘Blend’ tool.
* Change the gradient type to ‘Radial’.
* Change the blend type to ‘FG to transparant’.
* Change your primary color to white.
* With the blend tool selected, click in the middle of the picture, and drag the line out to the farthest edge of your picture (if it’s a portrait, use top or bottom, if landscape, use left or right).
* Change the mode of this layer to ‘Overlay’.
* Change the Opacity of this layer to 80% (or whatever you see fit, you’ll see what I mean).


Filckr vision combines Google Maps and Flickr, and display teh latest upload on the website

Irish Election

Ireland just got a general election. They voted on thursday, and today saturday there are still counting ( and recounting the votes ) !!?!!!?

A bit of explanation is necessary. Irish voted thrursday for the Dáil Éireann eth lower house of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oireachtas Oireachtas] which is the parlement of the state. There are 166 seats elected for a maximum of 5 years ( but the Prime Minister can dissolve the Dail before that). A politican elected at the Dail is called a TD (Teachta Dála).
Ireland is divided ( which normally follow the counties limit, but subdvision can happen) in constituency, in order that each TD represent the same amount of people.
In each constituency there is 3 to 5 seats to be filled.
Other things, all members of the governement must be an elected TD ( there is less power separation between executive and legislative ), and the government composition is voted at the Dail. That means this election directly decide who is in power for the next five years.
Actually one of the member of the Dail is automatically re-elected (unless he resigned or die ):the Ceann_Comhairle

Now the fun part, how the TD are elected, and why does it 2 to 3 days to count the votes ( in a country where there is only 4 millions habitants ):
the system used is Single Transferable Vote which introduce proportionality in the results of the vote.
So it's not the 3 candidates with most votes in a constituency who necessarly got the seats.
First when you vote, you indicate a list of preferences for the candidates ( number 1 will be say candidate B, then 2 the candidate C... etc )
To be elected a candidate need to exceed a given quota ( calculated on the number of validat vote, basically : 1 + vote / ( setas + 1 ) .
Then one candidate exceed the quota, his vote are reported following the preferences indicated by the voter to the other candidates.

I can't imagine the mess when they are counting, and recounting ( at the moment saturday afternoon, 3 constituencies are recounting following reclamation from candidate )....

Update: That create some interesting TV show, RTE for example spend all friday and most of saturday airing a show going through each constituency, each count as they go along. Some constituency only got all seats filled after 7 to 8 count.
One interesting thing is with that kind of proportional system, one party can hardly get the overall majoroty on its own, it has to compromise and create coalition with smaller party.

For example, the overall majority is 84 seats, Fine Fael got 78, his current partner in the governement the Progressive Democtrats got 2... which means they need at least 4 ( out of 5 ) independants to join them ( or from another party, more likely green ).
The leader of the opposition Enda Kenny, is doing a different count: Fine Gael his party got 51 + 20 from the Labour + 6 from the green = 77, he needs the independant and all 5 independant and probably the 2 PD ( but his election program was vote for a change ) or Sinne Feinn ( but for some reason everybody ruled out to have a coalition with them ... from Ahearn to Kenny )... I don't quite actually understand him.