Sea kayaking

Saturday: Glencariff sea kayaking with http://www.seakayakingwestcork.com/
Excellent, damn my camera fail me ....

See some shy seals, unfortunately the rain was back.

Forest Walk

Just walking in the forest near Lough Key...

Saturday: No Wicked Chicken, replace by a very nice concert from Fionn Regan in Dolans.
See Fionn Regan in the RTE program Other Voices.

Irish spring ... hot hot

It has been the warmest April recorded in Ireland, according to Met Eireann. And the driest at Shannon airport... I would not more agree... No rain for 2 weeks, then 2 days of rain, and now great sun.
For example, maximum temperature yesterday at Shannon airport: 16.7.

In the house the garden has seen its first roses....


A follow up, to the previous post, the good thing about food in ireland, is that you rediscover French food with an incredible pleasure, you might also rediscover the most simple pleasure ( french green beans just fired to be crunchy, with a nut of butter ).

Food in ireland

Seafood

Some thinking about food in Ireland. Even if Ireland is an island, surprisingly Irish people don't eat fish. I admit you can find the traditional fish and chip which consists of deep-fried fish (cod most of the time) in batter or breadcrumbs with deep-fried potatoes.

Sea Food is rare, even if there is an oyster festival near Galway ( to be consumed with Guinness), i've never seen people here eating blue mussel or other "fruits de mer".

The deep-fried approach seems the based of any cooking here, the specialty of one of my first Irish roommate was fried sausages at 3am when coming back from the pub ... lovely smell in the house.

There is a socking contrast between the brilliant TV program you can see here( mainly British: The F word, R Kitchen's Nightmare, ...etc... ) about food and the quality of the food you can find here. If I compare with France, we certainly don't have that many hours dedicated to food on television ( except Maiite and some lunch hours short programs ), but the education about food is done at school and home with much more variety and choice in your daily food.

Breakfast
Very symbolic the traditional Irish breakfast is composed of:
toasts, fried sausages, fried tomatoes, black pudding, baked beans, bacon eggs and coffee or tea.
And as you can see it's brilliantly fat ( and perhaps unhealthy ? ) !

Food is a common source of criticism for French expatriate here in Ireland as developed in an interesting point of view of French people ( in French ) about Food in Ireland (mfe.org).

Cheese
In one word, I am sorry, but cheddar is not real cheese ! Viva unpasteurized cheese !
The situation is slowly progressing, as you can now find some French cheese in supermarkets ( at prohibitive price )

On other milk product, I've never seen people eat so much butter with just a slice of wheaten bread ( at breakfast, during their tea break ), every restaurant will provide you with a couple of slices of bread and some butter.

The traditional cooking is simple (Irish stew, baked potatoes ), and only recently starting, with the country becoming economically healthier, to be a bit more varied and elaborated.
See History of Food in Ireland.

Nice restaurants in Limerick area:
- The Green Onion (Rutland St, Limerick) +++
- Copper & Spice (CornMarket St, Limerick) +++
- Brulées (corner of Henry Street and Mallow Street) ++++ (but expensive)


Some links:
- Italian Foodies (limerick)
- Marmiton (there is an english version but mainly in french)
- BBC Food (Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Bill Granger )
- Traditional simple Irish recipes

Cinema de quartier

Jean Pierre Dionnet dans ses oeuvres....

By the way, "El Topo" and "Holy Mountain" has been re-released in DVD.

Work, create, be interested....

A gardener has decided to retire... at the respectable age of 104... putting his longevity down to having "plenty to do and being interested in it". That's quite a fantastic example to follow.
Full story at BBC News.

It seems according to a recent study (BBC News again) Danish people, are the happiest people in Europe because of lower expectation or more realistic expectations. Danes (according to the study ) just take a more realistic view of life, and year after year are just simply happy that things didn't go as badly as they feared.

Is the secret of an happy life a simpler life (and avoid too high expectations) ?

That remind me of the truth told by buddhism, life is suffering because of desire (desire of renewed life)...

Also in the news the administrative court in Nice, has pronounced the expulsion of the homeless which were staying of the beach of the "Promenade".... just a question of prestige, it did not look good for the image of the city.... It's very hypocrite decision when you know that the promenade is full of working girls... but these ones are probably good for tourism.....


----

Finally a bit of media:
Happy Birthday Tracks, and its ten years on the German/French TV Channel.

And don't forget from April 23 to April 29, it's Turn Off TV week... so TV couch potatoes, switch it off, go out !


I know it's a bit paradoxical, to celebrate in one hand the 10 years of a TV show ( a brilliant one) and on the other hand to incite people to switch off their TV.

NRA update

Finally an article in the NYT ask the question of gun controls.

Deomcrats mainly, and particulary J.Edwards, but for J.McCain (quoted yesterday): This brutal attack was not caused by nor should it lead to restrictions on the Second Amendment, which guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms.”

Seems the debate about gun control in usa is a real taboo.

N R A .......aaaaaaaaa

Quotation of the day ( taken on the nra website a day after Virginia Tech Events )
"The National Rifle Association joins the entire country in expressing our deepest condolences to the families of Virginia Tech University and everyone else affected by this horrible tragedy.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families.
We will not have further comment until all the facts are known.

Andrew Arulanandam Director of Public Affairs National Rifle Association"

Got a couple of questions: What facts do they need to know to do any further comment
? Is it the same statement they use for every school massacre ?

I think i am going to be sick..

As pointed out by Corine Lesnes in her blog (in French), the American media does not talk at all about gun control, even hours after the continuous coverage of the shooting. Nothing about gun control in the article from the NY-Times (yet), i have not heard any candidate talking about gun control after the event (yet ? )..... But the readers comment are full of angry message against NRA...

Update:
Apologizes i found a politician comment about Gun Control
"We have to look at what happened here, but... I do believe in the constitutional right that everyone has, in the Second Amendment to the Constitution, to carry a weapon. Obviously we have to keep guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens." John Mc Cain...

So the solutions, if I understand correctly is: more gun... maybe all students should have one to be able to protect themselves... for me its a nonsense.

Groland ...

For translation: "gréve" = strike

[EDIT] Video removed from Youtube, here's the link of the show on canal plus website.

Air France La Grève C'est Notre Metier
Uploaded by franktox

What do you miss from France ?

What i miss from France:

1. Food... in all his form, the market on Sunday morning full of vegetables, spices, mushroom, and fruits.... real cooked food, cheese ( real not chedar) , charcuterie, andouillettes, fish ( which is not deep fried cooked ), real mustard ( not the fluorescent English one ), real bread freshly bake ( a baker please).
2. Real market ( though there is an ersatz in limerick every Saturday morning ). The smell of it. Antiquities market too.
3. Cinema: movie theater who provide a large and varied choice of films ( not necessary French), i just want variety and not only the American blockbusters of the moment. "Art & Essais" movie theaters.
4. Comic Book: Library where i can find and discover vast choice of comic book ( French-Belgian school or not ).
5. Arte... funny one TV channel, i enjoy rediscovering every time i go back to France.
6. Vigne, the collect of grapes in autumn to make wine...
7. Cheek kiss when meet friends
8. Apero time...not quite the same as an evening in the pub.
9. "les terrasses", have a drink, on a table outside the bar... just after work... ireland not really the country for that.

10. my favourite cavist back in Grenoble: L'Echanson ( rue Lakanal, Grenoble, France )... and this lovely white vine: "Tariquet - Premieres Grives"
11. The nice bars of grenoble (..... ) and the outdoor concerts (Cabaret Frappe) in summer in the parc in the middle of the city...

France - Scuba Diving

Activities: Airplane, Scuba-diving, Restaurant (4), Pub (1), Apero (evryday), sea, sun and friends......


Back to France ( Nice - Marseille ) for easter week-end, to enjoy some sea, some scuba-diving, some food and some friends.

Taking Off from Dublin


Landing in Nice, and straight heading direction Marseille (Massillia)


Diving in La Vesse (Again)




Apero....

And sunday, again diving, small "pelerinage" in "Le vieux Port" in Marseille.



Listening a lovely percussion band in the sun:




Apero....

Monday, back to Nice, diving, and walk in Nice Harbour....


Tuesday Back to Ireland, nice reading...

Are people truly good at heart?

Interesting answer from Philip G. Zimbardo:
"That’s not true. Some people can be made into monsters. And the people who abused, and killed her , were."

Zimbardo conducted in 1971, an interesting experience: The Stanford Prison Experiment, were for 2 weeks he puts together 23 volunteers some as prisoners some as guards. After 2-3 days, the guard started to have sadistic behavior towards the prisonners.

Like the Milgram experiment (Yale, 1961, where people where asked to torture other on the pretext of science ), it seems good people can make bad things.

See the article in the New York Times:
A Conversation With Philip G. Zimbardo
Finding Hope in Knowing the Universal Capacity for Evil
By CLAUDIA DREIFUS
Published: April 3, 2007
Philip G. Zimbardo has made his reputation studying how people disguise the good and bad in themselves and under what conditions either is expressed.

Remind me, the Heist show from Derren Brown, where he suggested people to rob.

--
Finally the question of the day:
Couple what for : is it to light up or to make children ? Why do we break up ? Why do we stay together ?
Maybe an answer on the tv channel Arte.

L'homme.... [FR]

Derniere citation du candidat Sarkozy:
"l'homme n'est pas une marchandise comme les autres..."

Et bin, je crois que tout est dis, l'ideal liberal en action, l'homme considere comme une marchandise, pas tout a fais comme les autres ....

Vous pouvez ecouter l'extrait ici: Un mode de Sons, A droite toute

Saturday Costello Fever

Pub: 4 (Friday: Wicked Chicken; Saturday: Collins, Flannerys, Costello)
Alcohol units: 4


Incredible news, they changed the floor in the costello upstairs, a new hardwood floor for the dance floor and new carpets (dark green, same colour as the hold one, i wonder if it was the same

Part of the legend of the place is changing, but don't worry it should not take too long before you can smell guinness on that new floor.





I definitely need to take more pictures of the place (and with a camera, not my phone).

Note: a small precision, as unbelievable it can be for people knowing the Costello, this is not an april fool joke

Irish statistics

Today, the result of the Irish census are published (by the Central Statistics Office ), interesting figures:
- 8.2% increase of the population over the last 4 years ( 2002-2006 ), There has 33 000 babies during that period and 46 000 immigrants.
- Population average age : 35.6 years
- 100.1 males for 100 females (all ages)
- 103.4 males for 100 females (all ages)
- Over 43% of singles 46% married. There is also an increase of marital breakdown.
- 10.4% of the population is born outside of the ROI ( 7.5% from the EU )
- The census reveal 63000 people from Poland and 24808 from Lithuania. And 9307 from France (4700 registered in the Ambassade ).
- 4 out of ten of new build houses (Irish Independant), are empty.... it smells like speculation.. and the building bubble might soon explode... 25% of the houses build since 2002 are empty ... and they keep building.
Worst the houses are badly insulated, and build very (too) fast.

You can summarize it by: the population is 10% of non-irish national, getting older. Divorce are on the increase, women have less child and family are smaller. Islam is now the third religion...

Full results can be found there.

The Blogger "petite anglaise" (http://www.petiteanglaise.com/) won the first round of her trial against her ex-employer, who fired her because of her blog.

An interesting website propose to listen the soundtrack of movies: http://power.listentoamovie.com/
You can hear: Casablanca, American Psycho, Blade Runner....

Eurovision 2007

A fun band is going to represent France this year at the Eurovision Song Contest....



And here there "hommage" to Sardou ...

Rainy St Patrick Day

St Patrick Parade in the streets of Galway













A very rainy day....
And a good performance by the irish team in the 6 nations championship has not been enough to prevent France from winning....

Evidence

So and what about you ? Are you watching it too much ?

A fun game on the internet : Line Rider.

Animation....

I love animated films, here's one of the first. 1908 created by Emile Cohl.

Too many data produced ???

According to a recent study from IDC, we created 161 billion gigabytes -- 161 exabytes -- of digital information last year (2006).
That's a lot ( 12 time the distance Sun-Earth by stacking books ). In 2003, another study from Berkeley found we produced 5 exabytes ( How Much Information 2003 ? ), so we are producing more and more digital contents ( photos, emails, surveillance cams .... ), and duplicating it, so much what we can wonder if we will be able to store everything.... But do we need to store everything ? And storage are increasing.. probably not as fast as the data production.

And if you add on the top of that the format problem and support problem. Will we be able to read document in word'97 in 100 years, will we be able to read a CDR in 100 years ?

Here's few number to get an idea:
2 Megabytes: A high-resolution photograph.
5 Megabytes: The complete works of Shakespeare.
1 Gigabyte: a pickup truck filled with books.
20 Gigabytes: A good collection of the works of Beethoven.
10 Terabytes: The print collections of the U.S. Library of Congress.
2 Petabytes: All U.S. academic research libraries.
20 Petabytes: Production of hard-disk drives in 1995.
5 Exabytes: All words ever spoken by human beings. ( how did they measure that ??? )


New York Times Article: Tech Researchers Calculate Digital Info
IDC
Berkeley study

---

Sad news, Yvan Delporte is dead this 5th of March 2007 ( aged 78 ), he has been a great inspiration for numerous comic writer, through his collaboration to magazine like Spirou or "Le Trombone Illustre"....

Web page on Franquin website [French]

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TROCAIRE is launching a new campaign about gender inequality, judged "too political" by the Broadcast Commission of Ireland (as a result the campaign is forbidden on radio and TV).

There are pirates fighting on my bookshelves...

Wonder where there come from, as there are no Stevenson's book here.



Link:
http://www.gutenberg.org/

Shannon, Fastnet wind

Gale-force southwesterly winds at times overnight on all sea areas - with strong gales at firston coasts from Loop Head to Erris Head to Fair Head.Strong-gale- or storm-force southerly winds developing Monday afternoon and eveningon all sea areas.

Thanks to met eireann.

So it was windy on the burren coast, today...

A useful website: http://www.videojug.com/

A quite useful website: http://www.videojug.com/.

Here's some example:



VideoJug: How To Surf A Wave In One Day

Or ...

VideoJug: How To Be The Perfect Boyfriend


Okay i've got some practice to improve myself :-P.....

A moving country

Activities: TV-Rugby, Pubs: 2, Unit of Alcohols: 2

So that's it "God Save the Queen" has been played in Croke Park, and the world is still turning... After all the talks, sport win, people gather together around a simple game, as J.Reilly said in the Sunday Independant: "This was a great occasion and those bigots who tried to drive a political wedge between Irish and English rugby fans got the answer they deserved - complete and utter indifference.".
Actually I would probably be more worried with a soccer game than a rugby game. But all the previous week, all medias have been all over the place, talking about protest, booing, arguing about an Ireland who never forget her history, and an England who never learned, and finally ... and nothing. The only things which remains is a splendid victory by the Irish squad, on a fantastic week-end of Rugby.

So splendid, that Ireland is now dreaming of a rugby world cup. Like France, which is ramping up steadily for the end of year event.

Ireland is changing, and even more change are to come, last week the Dáil discussed about gay marriage in front of a very shocked polish president:
"During a debate at the Forum on Europe in Dublin, Mr Kaczynski said 'homosexual culture' should not be promoted as an alternative.
Meanwhile, the Dáil has been debating a private members' bill which would give full legal recognition to same sex unions.
" (source RTE). The emblematic Gay Byrne called for a legalization on drugs, or at least be looked at. In a country were it's estimated that less than 10% of the drugs coming in are seized.
On the property side, more and more house are seized by banks due to people unable to pay their mortgage, and at the same time, farmer who became wealthy by selling land to property developers, are now investing in farms in Cornwal.


Yes Ireland is changing, let's hope it's for the best.

Songs:
-Satisfaction cover by Cat Power (album: The Covers Record )
-Ruby by Cerys Matthews (album: Never Said Goodbye)
-A forest by 08001 (album: VORÁGINE published April 2007)

Cerys Matthews

A discovery, thanks to RTE and their show Other Voices, here some website: http://www.cerysmatthews.co.uk/ Official Website http://www.myspace.com/cerysmatthewsofficial Page MySpace

Nothing new ... really ...

Nothing new really, finally finished the project at work and send all that to the fab... just wait and see from now on, how the product will come back from the fabrication step. Or more realistically until the next project really start ... uh next week.

Last week-end, i did not spend at work since i step back in Ireland. I even did not go to the wicked chicken not Costello or Nancy.... I have watched tv ( probably a bit too much ) too, seen the new episode of the Lost series ( quite catchy ) and few Star-Trek/Stargate SG1.... It seems that you could summarize sky one by Star-Trek and Stargate with some Friends ....
Unfortunately i miss OCC and Myth-Busters ( Jesus ... it's been ages since I watch it ....). And off course I've been thrilled by the French victory other Ireland in Croke Park !!!


Summary ( last 10 days ):
Pub: 1 ( in Ennis), Salsa dance: 0, Alcohol Units: 0, Activities: Cleaning the house, tiding it up.
Books read: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Last week, i discovered a lovely pub in Ennis ( on Thursday )with traditional musicians, there was 5 young violoncellists ( two beautiful blonds ), one fantastic drummer ( actually a Bodhrán player ), one concertina player ( sort of accordion ), one flutist and one mandolin ( or maybe it was irish bouzouki, i am not sure how to tell the difference). No pictures .....
I was in Ennnis, for a paint exposition in the Irish Music Center: Glor... interesting.

In Glor ( http://www.glor.ie/ ), there is loads of animations, all year round. I really need to learn how to play tis fecking guitar this year.....


Just to think about it:

It is a small world. You do not have to live in it particularly long to learn that for yourself. There is a theory that, in the whole world, there are only 500 real people (the cast, as it were; all the rest of the people in the world, the theory suggests, are extras) and what is more, they all know each other. And it’s true, or true as far as it goes. In reality the world is made of thousands upon thousands of groups of about 500 people, all of whom will spend their lives bumping into each other, and discovering each other in the same unlikely teashops in Vancouver. There is an unvoidability to this process. It’s not even coincidence. It’s just the way the world works, with no regard for individuals or for propriety.

From Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

I love that idea, that each of us is only evolving in a small sphere containing 500 people.... And what if you leave the sphere, by changing country for example... Is it easy to integrate, create a new world-sphere of 500 people ?

This saturday, there will be a French Party in limerick ( more a gathering ) in the well-known Nancy Blake around 9pm.... good occasion to test the 500 theory.


Music:
- Heartbeat cover by Joze Gonzales [Youtube Link]
- Heartbeats by the Knife [Youtube Link]
- Herculean / Kingdom of Doom by The Good, the Bad and the Queen.
- Weekend without Makeup by The Long Blonde [YouTube link]

What is Web 2.0

Switching2 Mac

That's it after years of indecision, i've finally switched to mac...... works perfectly, thought i am a bit lost in some of the function ( where is the cut function ? where is the right button on the mouse ? ), I still got to transfer all my files, install a couple of software ( openoffice ) and i'll be ready.

On other matters:
Belltable, friday seen this fantastic movie by Alejandro Jodorowsy : "Santa Sangre", incredibly rich and symbolic. The first time, i saw this movie ( almost ten years ago ) I've been very impressed, and till today still got some pictures of the movie in my head ... and even thought, i realized i've forgotten so many things ( the death of the elephant and its funeral, the end ...).

This saturday: The Rocky Horror Picture Show will be displayed in the Belltable.

Economics.... how strange

Interesting number in the new york times about the cost of the war in Iraq ( What $1.2 Trillion Can Buy - New York Times ). The numbers are staggering or exasperating...
The war in Iraq cost roughly 200$ billion annually to USA. On the other hand, half of it would be the cost for an Universal Health Care for all Americans without Health care . The 9/11 commissions recommendations would only cost $10 billion a year.

It's such a wonderful world....

Sattelite of love

Back in Ireland and Limerick.... Get back to the lovely place (Wicked Chicken, Costello's Tavern), work again..... starting a new year... After almost 15 days back in France...



It's been a long time, since I've spend so much time in the lovely forest of Auvergne.

More later