are you high ?

independent.ie:

DRIVERS will next month face stringent US-style roadside tests for drugs, the Irish Independent has learned.

Gardai will be able to check drivers’ eyes for dilated pupils and carry out other physical co-ordination tests.

The tests, commonplace in America, will also include ordering a driver to stand on one leg and walk in a straight line.

Motorists who pass the drink-driving breath test and appear intoxicated cannot currently be checked for drugs at the roadside.

But the scourge of drug driving has become a serious threat to lawful road users and the crackdown is designed to make the roads safer. Other checks on steadiness will include having drivers open and shut their eyes to detect possible drug use.

Sounds like an open and shut case. I wonder what they would think of Dale Denton:

facebooks evil plans

An intern at facebook.com:

I defined weights for each pair of cities as a function of the Euclidean distance between them and the number of friends between them. Then I plotted lines between the pairs by weight, so that pairs of cities with the most friendships between them were drawn on top of the others.

It is interesting to see where facebook users live – note the almost total blackout of russia/china/middle east. I am a bit concerned about this from a privacy perspective, most likely because I watched Tron Legacy last night. What if someone steals the database and puts it on the internet like what happened with gawker? (worth a read for nerdy details).

Even if this doesn’t happen there is still facebooks evil plan to own your life:

the holy grail of online advertising is to master consumers’ online behavior (the sites they not only visit, but also say: I like this!) and market to their demonstrated interests and activities. By combining Facebook — which already asks users to list their favorite books, movies and activities — with FriendFeed — which shares all your other social media activity throughout the rest of the Internet — you’re getting close to providing a one-stop shop for web user’s complete online identity.

A marketers dream usually involves the end for consumers privacy or worse. I like what one very paranoid commenter on the above article says. He says facebook is useless because people act like goofballs and have monkey avatars. While this is not strictly true in my experience more of this is a solution to facebook privacy concerns. Now how do I delete my browsing history from google …

While researching this post I also remembered some privacy concerns about airport backscanner x-ray machines. Apparently thermal photographs can be stored and have a lot of detail. Either way this is funny:

A Miami International Airport federal security screener has been arrested for allegedly using an expandable police baton to beat up a co-worker.

The source of their conflict, police say: daily ribbing about the size of the screener’s genitalia.

Screener Rolando Negrin’s private body parts were observed by his Transportation Security Administration colleagues conducting training on the airport’s full-body imaging machines.

old mr brennan

brennans skit – amusing ending

dj ray: we are not all off our heads on cocaine

Tonight is Gerry Ryan night on RTE. There is nothing else on according to their website except for tributes to him.

He gets more air time than Jesus!

Christmas eve on Ireland’s Daily Mail:

His words seem to imply that almost all djs are off their heads on cocaine.

rapists would vote for fianna fail

http://theirishobserver.blogspot.com:

In a letter sent to The Irish Observer a group styling themselves, “The National Association of Convicted Sex Offenders”, have stated that they are ensuring that all of their members are registered to vote in prison and will be encouraging their members to vote for Fianna Fail in the forth coming General Election.

The letter signed by former DJ/Journalist, Eamon ‘Captain’ Cooke, who is presently serving life in Wheatfield Prison for raping children, states that:

“We the members of NACSO pledge our support to Fianna Fail who have consistently opposed calls from those in the ‘victims industry’ to introduce Mandatory reporting of Child Rape, it is essential that people such as Cardinal Sean Brady, Gerry Adams and other leaders in our country are able to help and assist sex offenders when the opportunity is presented”.

“We salute in particular former Minister for Justice, John O Donoghue TD, for ensuring that those members of the religious orders who were accused of sexual crime were given One Billion Euro in order that they could be protected from financial ruin”.

Updated:

A VICTIM of jailed paedophile priest Tony Walsh yesterday spoke for the first time of how the depraved ex-cleric sang a song while sexually abusing him.
…
“I didn’t go to work. I stayed in bed for most of the day remembering the song he used to sing as he was having his way with me. Everyone else loves that song except me, and nobody knows why.”

That song was ‘Too Shy’ by 1980s band Kajagoogoo.

Walsh, an Elvis impersonator in a priests’ singing group, sang this to encourage victims not to resist his advances.

independent.ie

heroin at RTE

I cant wait until a song of that name comes out. It was so funny that RTE had to defend themselves. It was as if their building was a crack den. I wanted to see this video but it seems to stuck on this still. They seem to be laughing.

mr plow

heaven freezes, hell closes

There is a video on boards.ie that shows what happened on the roads during the recent severe weather. People are also ranting on there about BMW drivers who have problems in the snow. I for one was glad of mine and my ‘doors locked near any form of tenement’ policy on monday night in a less that desirable part of town. While stuck in traffic near Pearse St a ten year old skanger tried to open the door of my car to throw a snowball at me. I gave him the finger and the Larry stare and he walked off.

The country shut down and anyone thinking they could leave got a slap in the face. People from mayo were on the radio accusing the roads authority of pretending to spread sand and salt and grit on the roads after nature dropped a layer of snow that is as thick as volcano ash. People walked miles, others slept in their cars in the dundrum shopping centre, ohmygodhowfockingawful like. A temperature of 8 degrees was forecast for Christmas Day by the met office and then they backtracked and continued to defend their predictions. I joked about the heroin the Sun say they found in rte and I seriously wondered if they were taking acid in Glasnevin.

In the office park where I work the guy driving the digger simply drove over the snow a few times. The bucket at the front was full and he was collecting absolutely nothing. He persisted with this charade for a while and then they spread a few millionths of a bag of sand on it. It is not unlike the national strategy:

nra.ie:

The NRA in conjunction with the local authorities is responsible for over 5000 km of National Primary and Secondary Roads. A key aim is to keep these roads safe and free as possible from wintry hazards.

To that end, the local authorities spread salt before ice or snow is expected. The timing of the salting is carefully judged to be completed before freezing occurs (called Precautionary Salting). If snow settles, then snow blades are required to help keep the roads clear.

The NRA is constantly striving to improve the winter maintenance service. However the NRA and local authorities have no statutory obligation to salt roads.

The gall of the people who are called the roads authority. I am imagining a Joe Duffy voice saying “and a very big two fingers to yeuuuuuuuuu!”.

on another page they claim throwing a bit of salt on the road means their job is done:

Salt does not act immediately when it is spread on existing ice or snow. Hence the need for precautionary salting. The ice or snow surrounding each salt granule has to be turned into a saline solution. The action of traffic is essential by moving the salt granules around and eventually melting all the ice or snow. On more lightly trafficked roads the surface will remain icy for some time after salting.

Here is yank Sean O’Neill from the NRA saying that everything that can be done is being done and you have to get out there and plow.

a promise to bono

It has been a while since I had anything bono related but here is something:

spinner.com:

Those pesky Wikileaks cables are continuing to reveal how rock impinges on the crazy world we call politics.

After missives from South Korea showed how Eric Clapton became a pawn in relations with its fractious northern neighbour, the latest round of leaks published by The Guardian suggests U2’s frontman weighed on the mind of Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi.

In a memo, the US embassy in Rome’s economic advisor, William Meara, reports Berlusconi considered increasing Italy’s foreign aid budget during its 2009 G8 presidency to avoid an “embarrassing tongue-lashing” from Bono.

Their relationship had been strained since 2006 when the rocker accused Berlusconi of exploiting his image during an election campaign. He appeared in a brochure sent to Italian homes saying he was grateful for the state’s help to the world’s poor.

Straight talking Aussie John Howard was not convinced:

BONO, the global activist and singer with U2, has received a salutary lesson from John Howard: the Prime Minister does not respond to ultimatums. In Australia on tour, Bono, who hangs out with politicians in Europe and the US, let it be known he would like to meet the PM. On Tuesday, Howard said he was open to the idea if a formal request was made.

Then, says the PM’s office, Bono listed conditions – primarily that Australia increase the proportion of gross domestic product it gives in foreign aid from 0.3 per cent to 0.7 per cent. No dice, said the PM yesterday. “I don’t accept preconditions from anybody. I don’t commit in advance to businessmen in this country and I certainly don’t do it to – much in all as he’s high-grade – Irish entertainers.”

let it snow

I don’t really have anything interesting to write about at the moment. I have a lot less time than before due to being busy with new job, coupled with what felt like jetlag every evenings after work. I do however find it incredibly amusing that the national broadcaster have to defend themselves in this manner:

irishtimes.com

Suggestions that RTÉ is a tolerant place in respect of illegal drugs are not only unwarranted and unfounded, they are deeply unfair to RTÉ’s staff. RTÉ is one of the largest and busiest workplaces in the country, with 2,000 decent and committed staff, who have been understandably offended by the manner in which they and this organisation have been portrayed in recent days.

Because of the corrupt garda conspiracy the the price of cocaine has fallen:

According to informed sources in the Dublin drug scene the price of cocaine on the streets has fallen more than 30% on rumours that RTE will apply the €250k public sector salary cap to their top stars. RTE has a number of their top stars on salaries of up to €900k but new contracts will be limited to a maximum of €250k.

One leading dealer ‘Damo’ said that ‘the a*se has fallen out of the cocaine market on these rumours, I mean who else in this country can afford to spend €2k/week on coke?’ Damo went to say that this news is the last straw for cocaine dealers after the ending of the property boom and curtailment of banking bonuses RTE was the last bastion of big demand for Coke. Damo wanted to know how ‘a good honest drug dealer was supposed to make a living with a 30% cut in the price he was getting for his product’. Damo said he hoped the government might bring in an incentive scheme for the Coke dealing industry……..

poor pol 2

poor pol got a red card at the weekend, at least he still has milk: