This town needs an enema

“This town needs an anema”. That was a line from last week’s “A town called Eureka” and I knew I recognised it. It was a line in the original Batman movie! I couldn’t find a clip of this scene, but here’s the first level of Batman the Movie on the Commodore 64!

How We Met

A short movie shot on the human body. Cool idea and nice story. Here’s the “making of” video.

  • A long list of WordPress MU plugins.
  • I’m sure not everyone knows about the recent activity page on Flickr. Check it out and subscribe to the feed to track comments to your stream.
  • So, you’re comfortable with the web, you can find your way around. Take it for granted? Of course you do. George Barr explains the significance of the web for photographers.
  • The Expressive Moment in Street Photography – this is so hard to accomplish. Many of my street shots lack that expressive moment. Must try harder.
  • Funny photography videos. Love that myspace one!
  • Elly and Tom both ask if Blognation is in meltdown. Seems that wages have not been paid in some time. I see Conor’s last post was yesterday. Hope things get sorted out.
  • Oh great! Another story to reinforce the stereotype of the drunken Irishman!
  • The Sociability plugin for WordPress displays a nice message to Digg and Stumbleupon visitors encouraging them to add a vote for your post. I haven’t looked at it yet. I wonder if it’ll work with Super Cache?

PS. Looking for a Budget 2008 calculator? Try the one at tax123.ie. Via Keith.

How long can you hold your breath?

I used to be able to swim well. At a stretch I could do 50*25m lengths of a pool in about an hour. I’d be wrecked after it for days on end, but I did it. And at the time I managed to hold my breath and swim the whole length of the pool underwater. Those pesky kids at the top of the pool were always a frustrating obstacle when the air is running out ..

That all pales in comparison to the achievements of British freediver Sara Campbell who can hold her breath underwater for 4min 30sec. She recently set a world record in the disciple of, “constant weight” freediving when she dived to 90m (295ft) on one breath.

There is a risk of blackout and burst eardrums and the lungs compress to the size of a clenched fist, but deep down at 90 metres – where no other woman swimming with just a monofin for propulsion has gone before – the Red Sea looks golden to Sara Campbell.

Phew.

We can have a good world

it@cork Innovate and Connect conference

Watch Hans Rosling’s great talk at TED 2006 where he, “demonstrates how developing countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. He shows us the next generation of his Trendalyzer software — which analyzes and displays data in amazingly accessible ways, allowing people to see patterns previously hidden behind mountains of stats. (Ten days later, he announced a deal with Google to acquire the software.) He also demos Dollar Street, a program that lets you peer in the windows of typical families worldwide living at different income levels. Be sure to watch straight through to the (literally) jaw-dropping finale.”

It’s amazing to see how quickly Chile and other less developed nations have caught up with the “industrialised world”, and are about to surpass them in terms of health care. He’s speaking at the it@Cork conference on November 28th this year and should be very entertaining and insightful.

The biggest Backstreet Boys fan

All bow before the dance sensation that is Snowball the Cockatoo. Watch him move to the rhythm of “Everybody” by Backstreet Boys. If you like that, you might like As Long As You Love Me too!

There is a serious side to this however. From the original Youtube description:

Not my video but I felt that it had to be posted on youtube to draw attention to an important issue, Bird rescues and sanctuaries.This is a video of a medium sulphur crested Eleanora cockatoo named Snowball living at the Bird Lovers Only Rescue in Schererville, Indiana. Snowball loves the Back Street boys and has taught himself to dance to their song “Everybody.” Bird Lovers Only Rescue needs reliable volunteers to help on Tuesday and/or Friday evenings. They are a donation-based not for profit bird rescue. There is tons of useful information about parrots on their blog. To see their Website, Blog and birds ready for adoption go to:

I hope this draws attention to their cause. Fortunately there are some really great people running these rescues. As we all know, all to often parrots are abused. There is also another wonderful Youtuber OverTheRaynbow who also runs a sanctuary. To view her videos click here: http://www.youtube.com/user/OverTheRaynbow

Letterman destroys Paris Hilton

I’ve been away from my computer for a while so please excuse me if you’ve seen this already. Paris Hilton appeared on the Letterman Show to plug her new perfume, but he’s more interested in her jail time .. Certainly funnier than her last video!

Via the blog that’s ripping stuff from my funny video blog so I’m not going to give them a link. Nar! Nar!

Don't Stop Believing

Thanks to Ray Foley I have Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” going through my head all the time. Just a bit of fun for your auditory organs on a cold Wednesday night.

JD, the main character in the tv series Scrubs is a huge fan of Journey. The same song made an appearance in that show too. Just try to ignore JD’s preachy soppy talk over bits

Posting has been light on this blog because I’m too darned busy but check out the photo of my son Adam I posted on my photoblog today. Yes, I may be biased but I love that picture, an uncropped version is my desktop background!

All wacked off of Scooby Snacks

You either know immediately what this video is or you’re going to be hopelessly lost ..

Yes, Fun Lovin’ Criminals and their first hit, “Scooby Snacks”. Marvellous tune. I saw them when they played in Cork a few years ago and unfortunately they sucked because the sound quality was crap. Brilliant band recorded, not so great live. *sigh*

They do however deserve an award for the most gratuitous use of bikini clad young ladies in a music video for Loco:

Must be the rain in Cork

Rain spattered onto the windscreen in drops and a light drizzle sprinkled the car as we drove through town on our way home. It was warm today and I was looking forward to getting home, putting the baby to bed and relaxing for the evening. The windows were half down to let the air circulate in the car and traffic was going nowhere fast.

As we waited I heard the slowly increasing beat and volume of loud music from behind. A car drew alongside us and the cheering and laughing faces of the guys in it were clearly visible and their music blared into the evening. Their exuberance was catching and we were soon smiling and laughing with them! I think God must have heard their music, because suddenly the heavens opened and the car almost shook with a torrential shower of rain. We all looked at each other and laughed again. Why? Click play and you’ll find out!

Continue reading “Must be the rain in Cork”