Category Archives: Misc

Screen Shot 2016-07-28 at 12.51.03

In a morbidly brilliant stroke of marketing chutzpah, the drug gangs of Rio de Janerio have embraced the spirit of corporate branding and illegal doping that defines the modern Olympic games.

One of 93 baggies of cocaine seized by police in the Lapa district of the city this week. The warning reads ‘keep out of the reach of children’.

curiousbrain

CocqRdkWIAExrLv

Choonage.

The line-up for Body & Soul at Electric Picnic, Stradbally, Co Meath, from September 2 to 4, has arrived.

There may be…

YOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESVYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKESYOKES

…tay.

Body & Soul at Electric Picnic lineup announced (Nialler 9)

Meanwhile…

beatyard

If you can’t wait until the Picnic.

The line up for this weekend’s Beatyard festival at Dun Laoghaire Harbour, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin including Lee Scratch Perry (any excuse).

it’s without peer.

Pier/peer.

Suit yourselves.

Beatyard Fesitval

Thanks Sarah Murphy

Garth_Brooks_sells_out_5_nights_at_Croke_Park_in_Dublin_July_2014_tickets_gigs_headline_shows_irish_tour_comeback_event_music_scene_ireland

FIVE NIGHTS!

Not this again.

Barry Roche, in The Irish Times, reports:

[Lord Mayor of Cork] Cllr Des Cahill told The Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s Red FM sources within the music industry had told him talks were under way to bring Garth Brooks and Adele to Páirc Uí Chaoimh next summer, once a €70 million refurbishment of the stadium is completed.

“Negotiations are underway to sign contracts… June was the date I heard for Garth Brooks and July was the date I heard for Adele,” said Mr Cahill, adding he was “very, very confident” both artists would play the Cork venue next year.

*clicks heel spur*

Mayor ‘confident’ Garth Brooks will play Cork concert in 2017 (Barry Roche, Irish Times)

Previously: “Like Asking To Choose One Child Over Another”

wildatlanticway

Clockwise from top left Horse Riding at Grange, Co. Sligo, Fly Fishing at Glenbeg Lough in Co. Cork, cycling on the Aran Islands in Co. Galway and surfing at Inch, Co. Kerry

Wild Atlantic Way stamps by Red and Grey design launched by An Post today.

But that’s not all.

An Post writes:

In a hi-tech twist each stamp features augmented reality technology and when scanned using a smartphone or tablet with the CEE App installed, allows the user to access additional material on the Wild Atlantic Way….

Irish Stamps (An Post)

 

Luke

There’s only one way of finding out.

Someone please bring the spooked waif home for pity’s sake.

Dublin SPCA writes:

We understand you don’t normally do this but this is Luke a 12 week old kitten waiting for his forever home. Many kittens have come and gone in the weeks that Luke has been in the cattery but no one has picked him. If you think you can offer a suitable and loving home to Luke please call up to our shelter [Mount venus Road, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16] Today, Tomorrow or Saturday 11am to 4.30pm.Thank you.

Anyone?

DSPCA (Facebook)

90418994dan

From top: Protest outside Leinster House, 2016; Dan Boyle

Being unburdened by history and being uncaring about the future are just some of the benefits  of living in the ‘Us’ world.

Dan Boyle writes:

For the past ten years of my life I have been one of Them. I didn’t apply for membership and I don’t particularly want to be a member. It has been determined that this is who I am and this is where I should be.

It is only membership of the Irish branch of the global Them organisation, nevertheless, the sins of the many throughout the World are visited on we few.

Unlike the far more cool group, the Us organisation, we in Them are responsible for all that is bad or has gone wrong. Our foibles are all equivalent, equal to the worst transgressions that have ever been committed.

I long to be part of the Us group. Those whose accusations have greater weight when based on prejudice without needing to be in any way evidentially based. Facts about Them become facts through repetition.

The flaws of an Us member get to be judged differently. These are more sins of omission than commission. Context is all in the Us world. For their selfs at least.

Language is looser. Us people get to harangue Them losers at great length and with deep intensity. No epithet is out of bounds.

Consistency in word, thought or deed is not encouraged in the Us world. To be or become consistent is something of a heresy.

Logic is a pathetic shield that we in Them hide behind. The freedom to change what we say and what we believe is only the prerogative of those who belong with Us.

Being unburdened by history and being uncaring about the future are other hidden benefits of living in the Us world. In their world the counter factual explains everything.

A thesis doesn’t need to be challenged. If it exists it is believed. It becomes endorsed by others among Us who accept the truth it becomes.

As we in Them are responsible for all that is wrong, all that is required for Us to put things right, is to be the polar opposite of those who have brought wrong about.

The leaders of Us tell Us what they want to hear. Among Them there are those experts. Of whom there are too many. Of whose thoughts too much weight has been given. To whom too much attention has been made that has led Us down too many dark alleys.

For Us people there are no complex situations. There are no issues that cannot be resolved without the devising of an appropriate slogan. Solutions, like facts, become solved through the repetition of these mantras. It’s quite Zen like.

There is the option of being neither part of Us or Them. It is the saner option. The only downside is that the Us and Them groups share a mutual antipathy towards the Other. For both groups Other Wise is an oxymoron.

Maybe there is an Other way. A different way. A better way. For those who dream it is to be hoped that it may soon become Thus.

Dan Boyle is a former Green Party TD and Senator. Follow Dan on Twitter: @sendboyle

Rollingnews