March of the Penguins

Went to see the film “March of the Penguins” yesterday. I was sort of avoiding it because of the way it has been appropriated by the religious right in America for their own purposes. I thought it was an amazing piece of work, the film itself and also its subject. I knew nothing about the life of the Emperor Penguin and its harsh strange life. The creatures themselves are so strange to look at, so alien and so lifelike at the same time. Their existence and reproductive cycle seems so harsh and impractical and yet at the end of it all I would have to agree with the filmmaker and say that the emotion that comes through is something akin to what we call love. I know they are birds and that it can be dangerous and foolish to attribute human feelings to other species, but I suppose that’s the only way our own species can begin to make sense of the universe. I looked in awe at the whole thing, couldn’t even begin to find reasons. What Bertrand Russell once wrote comes to mind: “The universe may have a purpose, but nothing we know suggests that, if so, this purpose has any similarity to ours.”

my new ipod

I bought a new ipod recenty. Although my 3g one is still working perfectly, I couldn’t hold out any longer when I saw the new video 5g ipods. So I bought a 60GB black one. It’s absolutely beautiful and I don’t feel as guilty as I was expecting to - €450 for an ipod I didn’t! I’ve used the other one every day since the day I bought it nearly 3 years ago. I always tell myself I could have worse, and more expensive, habits and addictions?Here’s a photo I took of the ipod in my bag, with my M&S food . The sun was shining through the red Dixons bag, the photo reminds me of a rose in bloom when I look it from a distance!

Pavee Lackeen

Went to see the movie “Pavee Lackeen” this evening. Didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. It thought it would be too much in the “be nice to travellers” school of drama. Instead, it was more like looking at series of living photographs (it was made by the photographer Perry Ogden) tender in a realistic sort of way that ended up making me feel more human and humane in some way that I can’t put my finger on. I honestly think it was “art” in the best sense of that word.

excepting the dog

We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet: and, amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us.
- Maurice Maeterlinck

animals and middle age

Nuala O Faolain said this in an interview in the Irish Independent today:
"I hope I don't sound like some kind of crazed old English spinster but the fact is that animals are the great discovery of middle age. They have taught me about my parents' limitations. They had no spare heart for animals and for along time neither had I. I've felt more tender about that dog than I have about anything ever, and I know that sounds completely mad because she's only a dog. But it's true."

supervised burning

They had a parade and a “burning” in Smithfield Square this evening.It was a bit of street theatre with supervised burning of made up “baddie” effigies to try and appease the local kids who are not allowed by law to light their own private bonfires anymore. They could have made a bit more of it all, included some music maybe. There was a short deflated sense about it all. Still, let’s hope it full fills its objective.The use of colour filters on three of the Smithfield brazier lights was interesting, I think maybe they should leave them like that, take a bit of the clinical look off the place?

Happt Birthday LUAS!

The LUAS (Tallagh Red Line) is one year old today. Took this phone photo at Smithfield.

changes

and here's a picture of the new Guardian, taken from the blog site they are running. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/editors/
Can't wait to get my hands on the morning edition. I'm a net junkie but still a newsprint junkie too, especially when a change like this happens. After all, I'm a middle aged middle class European!

The Guardian

“The Guardian” newspaper published its final broadsheet edition today. It’s being published in a new format they call “the Berliner” from next Monday. I’ve been a fan of the paper for many years but recently find myself buying the “Independent” more often since it became a tabloid. Looking forward to seeing what the new format will look and feel like.

Skirmish

This photo is on thefront page of the Irish Times this morning. What they describe as a "skirmish" between Cork's Brendan O'Sullivan and with Kerry's Séamus Moynihan just before the end of the first half of the All-Ireland senior football semi final at Croke Park yesterday.

Stumbleupon

I installed an extension toolbar called “Stumbleupon” into Firefox this morning. It’s really good, gets you random pages on subjects you are interested in – it can be as wide or as narrow as you like. I’ve always liked the idea of randomness as there is always something in the back of my mind questioning the whole notion of randomness. And yet, for all its perfection, sometimes it seems that the whole of the cosmos is random. But then it can’t be, can it? Anyway, I just clicked on “stumbleupon” and up came this page : http://www.nokama.com/tao/index.cfm?fuseaction=chapter&ch=73

the home page came up and I randomly chose chapter 73 which was this :

Chapter 73

A brave and passionate man will kill or be killed.
A brave and calm man will always preserve life.
Of these two, which is good and which is harmful?
Some things are not favored by heaven.
Who knows why?
Even the sage is unsure of this.
The Tao of heaven does not strive, and yet it overcomes.
It does not speak, and yet is answered.
It does not ask, yet is supplied with all its needs.
It seems at ease, and yet it follows a plan.
Heaven's net casts wide.
Though its meshes are coarse, nothing slips through.

I like that line about the brave calm man. It’s a hard thing to do and to be, calm and brave.

Saved

Great photo in the papers today of two firemen saving a baby from a fire in a Dublin apartment building. The flip side of Edward Bond's old play, "Saved" is what came into my head for some reason.

Statue

A statue is to be erected in Dublin today in the memory of Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott

busy woman

I love this ad from the ESB in Dublin in the 1950s.

reminder 2 me

http://www.neatimage.com/

the demise of the dinosaurs

From today’s London Independent……..
Did double whammy of volcano and asteroid wipe out dinosaurs?
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 16 August 2005
Volcanic eruptions may have triggered the demise of the dinosaurs.
Many scientists believed that an asteroid caused the mass extinction 65 million years ago. However, a new study points to a more complex event that began with a series of eruptions which took place in what is now north-western India. The Deccan Traps in Maharashtra state are flows of lava resulting from huge outpourings of molten rock and ash. A mile deep, they cover about 200,000 square miles. Vulcanologists have long thought the eruption, dated to about 65 million years ago, could have caused the extinction.
However, the Deccan Traps resulted from a series of eruptions that occurred over perhaps a million years. This would have given the global climate plenty of time to adjust. But the study shows a major part of the eruption occurred over a short period.
Scientists from the Institut de Physique du Globe de Pariscalculated that at least 2,000ft of lava was deposited in 30,000 years, which could have greatly altered global climate. They have also shown that the Traps were erupting when the asteroid crashed into what is now Mexico. This was a spectacular and almost unprecedented double whammy for Earth.
Mike Widdowson, a vulcanologist, said it seems the end of the dinosaurs may have begun with climate change brought about by the eruptions and ended with the asteroid. "The eruptions pre-conditioned the global environment toward a catastrophic tipping point before the impact occurred. The asteroid was the coup de grâce," he said.

JAWS

JAWS

Steven Spielberg's groundbreaking film was released 30 years ago this summer.

There are times when I wish that my camera phone had a better lens and more pixels. It was very hot yesterday afternoon in Dublin. I went for something to eat and sat watching people coming and going on the bench a level down. I couldn�t have taken this photo with my Nikon D70, didn�t have it with me and even if I had I probably wouldn�t have used it in such a public place. I love the way this group of people sit there, together for a short time never to sit together on the same bench again. The four young guys, the young woman with her child, the old woman with the Dunnes Stores bag. I hope none of them mind being having this moment immortalised.

took this in Grafton Street today with my Nokia phone. Warm and sunny all day.

Apple goes Intel

So it’s true. Apple have just announced that they are switching to Intel chips in their machines. I think its an interesting move for all sorts of reasons. They obviously learned many lessons from the popularity of the ipod which exploded when it became possible to run itunes on a PC. I’m in a strange position here, my soul has always been Apple , I love the design of the OS system and the look of the machines but at the time I began buying computers I couldn’t even think of affording to buy a mac. That was back in the mid 1980s when the only computer I could afford was an Amstrad 8512.

Design wise, and every other wise I guess, it’s a machine that was a long way from the Apple Mac. I thought about it a lot while watching Alan Sugar in “The Apprentice” on BBC television recently. On the one hand, it was a machine that delayed my introduction to what might be considered “real” computers, but on the other hand it allowed me and thousands of others to ditch the typewriter. It was a cheap(ish) beige bridge to the world of computers for many writers. The next computer I could afford was Dell 486. From there on in, my files became too “Intelised”to consider making the move to Apple, even when I got to the position where I could afford it. And also, perhaps I never felt entirely comfortable with Apple’s claims to exclusivity and all that “think different” stuff. I think I appreciate the finer things in life as much as the next man, and by nature, sex , native language i am in a minority. I don’t have to think different, I am different. Ah but maybe this is all about having a bit of a go at Apple because I couldn’t afford their machines all those years ago? And I have to admit that I’m one of those sad people who, from time to time. use Windows Blinds to make my windows XP look like the Mac OS. But then, maybe that’s not so sad anymore, maybe us intel users with our XP transformed screens were just a bit ahead of the pack all along. Anyway, I think a lot of interesting stuff will arise out of this move by Apple today. My favourite piece of computing equipment today is an ipod. I am fascinated by machines and the way we interact with them, the interfaces and the icons we create to talk in binary. If Apple released a version of Tiger that I could install on my machine would I do it? Yes, definitely. But I think I’m too long with Windows now to completely abandon it, I’d at least look for a dual boot function and see where that took me. I still have that old Amstrad in an attic, and last time I looked it still worked. All in all, what a great journey we’re on in this human/machine mating game!