In the bin

"In the bin" is a debating term for when a team performs really badly in a debating competition and is therefore seeded really lowly. As the rounds progress, a poorly performing team will be seeded against teams of equally abysmal poor speakers and social misfits. This was what happened to the team that I was subbing on, Hist L, yesterday. By round five, we were, really and truly, were in the bin.

Absolutely brilliant video! Hopefully I'll be in a position to avoid the bin come the Manchester IV in February!

Something we made earlier

This is the promotional video for the TCD Debating IV, to be held in January 2011.

We shot it last week in the Chamber, as as you can see it turned out rather well!

It's a corrupt oul' world

I'm just after finding this on the Guardian's website, and it's rather interesting as it reduces the whole world to a series of dots. The colour and the size of the dots relate to how corrupt the country in question is. I've always been fascinated by such alternative ways of displaying "the world". I find them very hand for challenging our prejudices.

What's really amazing about it is that it's as if North America and Western Europe vanish, and the shape that remains is fairly recognizable as the rest of the world. The entire African continent is basically unchanged; what does that say about its levels of corruption?

As a matter of interest, Ireland doesn't fare too badly at all, clocking it with 8 out of 10. (10 being good.) That's marginally better than Great Britain (7.6), slightly worse than Iceland (8.5) and bit still far short of class-topping New Zealand (9.3).

And the bad news... Well it's not looking good for Somalia (1.1), or Iraq (1.5), or Afghanistan (1.4) or the Sudan (1.6); so that would lead us to believe that where there is war, corruption follows close behind. In terms of countries that have more industrial clout, yet have brown envelopes and back handers a-plenty, we've Italy (3.9), China (3.5) , Russia (2.1) and Brazil (3.7). I'm not really sure what that tells us about those countries, but rather I suppose it confirms anecdotal evidence.

Still, as a cartographic exercise, it's very interesting.

Lovely London

The Guardian have put this little slideshow together of newly built, buildings under construction, and proposed buildings in one of my favourite cities, lovely London.

They even come with handy nicknames; The Walkie Talkie, The Cheesegrater, Some shite that Zaha Hadid threw together... Enjoy!

Stereotyping

It's funny how we stereotype. For example, I was explaining to Stephen earlier about who the cox is in a boat. I described the cox as "generally a small D4 girl who sits in the stern and gives instructions." To which he replied: "Oh roysh, they wear Uggs and say "loike oh moy Gawd, row foster".

Well at least he got the Uggs bit right.

Links fahren!

This was spotted on Google Streetview. It's funny, 'cause there used to be a similar sign on the tiny bóithrín that my sister lived on during her first year in college. Her road, An Sruthán, was located about a kilometre short of An Cheathrú Rua itself. Galway County Council had, in their eternal wisdom, put a 60kmph speed limit on the road betweeen Casla and An Cheathrú Rua, despite it being a good quality, paved, national secondary route. To turn onto An Sruthán, a driver must come around a bend, stop, and then turn right at a 110 degree angle (backing on to oneself) over a small humpback bridge, onto a boithrín with grass growing in the middle. As this meant that the driver had left the main road, which had a 60kmph speed limit, they were greeted by two shiny signs on either sign of the grassy lane which proudly proclaimed 80kmph!

If you only watch one video today, watch this

This is an amazing little presentation on how good family planning can transform the fortunes of a country. Here we see how a proactive policy of prophylathic provision imrpoved the lives of millions of people in Thailand. The speaker is funny and erudite, and this video will leave you informed, with a big smile on your face. After all, isn't Thailand known as The Land of Smiles...

Whilst we're blowing people up...

Grant has just introduced me to Harry and Paul, a new BBC comedy; good stuff by the looks of it. You just got to love the BBC. RTE, stop, looking and take heed!

This little sketch appealed to me. It's like a mix between Mr Bean and the 10:10 campaign video, only without the public outcry. Enjoy.

Parody Season

As per my previous post, the No Pressure video has sparked some parodies.

Like this one, about Muslims:

Bare Arsed Ballinteer

Google Street View went live for Dublin during the week and I'm just after seeing this little article in the Irish Times. Apparently two young fellas, with little else to do with their time, exposed their bare arses to the Streetview camera car as it drove past. The result is a full moon on a fine sunny day in Ballinteer.

Apparently people have being going wild about it on Twitter, with directions being given how exactly to find the house. Google have stepped into the furore, and blurred out the offending buttocks.

I have never used Streetview before, but I must have a wee gander at it now and see if my house comes up on it. I wonder what the weather was like and who was out walking on the day that they did my road. A lot of my friends tend to get lost in Drimnagh, saying that "it all looks the same". Maybe street view will be a remedy for that, at least they can practice getting here before they even leave home.

UPDATE: I've just looked at my house on Streetview and I deduced this much:

1. It was summer. My car is parked in the driveway. I only have the car during the summer.
2. It was last year. The dead stumps of the trees are still on the street, the Council hadn't replanted them yet.
3. It was Friday. My neighbours have their recycling bins out.
4. The weather was overcast and generally miserable; sounds like last summer alright.

Finally, a bit of sense.

Here's a copy of a Tweet from Fine Gael TD, Nora Owen. I've never met Nora, but she does seem to have a nice practicality about her, like a long standing member of the ICA.

“Will no one tell Enda (a good and decent man) to go quietly and gracefully? A new energetic team needed. (keep Ml Noonan)”

At least she seems to have some amount of cop on, thank God. Poor Inda, he really seems determined to be Taoiseach, like a petulant five-year-old who is throwing tantrums until he has his turn. It kind of has echoings of Gordon Brown's insistance that he must become Prime Minster, simply because he had waited and waited and now it was his turn. And we all know how that worked out...

It's kind of pathetic really, poor Inda doesn't seem to get that his chance came and went. Imagine that it was an American teen movie. The Irish electorate (Ireland) are the hot girl that everyone wants to get into bed with; Inda was the slightly odd character who just wasn't cool enough for her, and when he asked her out on a date, Ireland said "no".

Not that Inda isn't a great guy, and sure Ireland would have been very lucky to have him, had she have realized it at the time, but sure she was getting loads of attention from the class jock, Fianna Fáil. Now Fianna Fáil was an exploitative dickhead, and Ireland knew that, but sure she got into bed with him anyway. Now, Ireland has discovered that she's in major trouble due to her involvement with Fianna Fáil, but it's too late; they were the choices that she made.

Now Inda has come to prominence as leader of the Sci-Fi Soc or some similar obscure society within campus, which gives him an inflated sense of his own importance, yet most outsiders continue to view him with utter disdain. And he's still desperately trying to get in with Ireland, despite plenty of hints that she simply isn't interested. Meanwhile Inda continues unabated, simultaneously being both mocked and pitied by all who witness the spectacle. Sound familiar?

So maybe Nora Owen should invite Inda around for a nice cup of tea, and gently break the news that he's not going to be the next Taoiseach. He'll probably be devastated, as most five-year-olds are when there are told that they are not going to the zoo, but he'll eventually realize that it was never to be. He won't get a trip to the Áras; but eventually, he'll probably see that it's for the best.