Month: April 2004

Blather
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A slight shift in perspective... from Blather.net, inverting the news since 1997... Canadian seals have called a halt to the main thrust of one of the country's largest human culls for more than 50 years. Seal officials counting the number of humans killed in Newfoundland over the past two days have decided that hunters have reached 80% of their 350,000 quota. "The main hunt is closed, seals in small packs can continue to hunt" until the quota is met, a spokesseal said. Human rights groups have criticised the hunt as needlessly cruel. They have accused seals of "attempting to scapegoat humans" for their own fisheries mismanagement. But the seal community has argued that time and time again, traces of cod, tuna and salmon have been found in the stomachs of dead humans. The seal community says the cull is necessary to protect the region's commercial fish stocks and the livelihood...

Blather
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Surprising what you find in some peoples meta tags ... META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="air, sickness, bag, bags, Barf, poster, gift, sickbag, sickbags, Emesis Bags, Motion Sickness, Puke, Airline Sickbags, Sea Sickness, Seasick, Vomit Bags, Pop Culture, unusual, weird, odd, strange, bizarre, fun, stupid, regurgitation, regurgitate, throw up, aviation, flight, airsick, airsickness, airsicknessbag, airsicknessbags, buy, around, world, idea, museum, exhibit, sick, bored, christmas"> Okay, we'll forget about the christmas reference and move on. The main man and Sickbag Museum Curator, Steven J. Silberberg suggests that sickbags are art, and then goes on to say tell us that "Ironically, 1. I've never been outside of North America and 2. I'm single". Shocker there Stevo! Never one to be deterred though, our Stevo has instead devoted his life to helping other people discover his romance secrets, in his Tiny Book of Romance. Book description from Amazon or Amazon UK Have you ever had any...

Blather
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By our satirist-at-large, Elimare... Welcome to Blather's Express Tours, the quickest way to see the sights! BET is sponsored by the Dublin Fortean Society and provides exclusive tours of dead things. All excursions begin early morning and last throughout the day, and are so packed full of fun that you will wonder how they fit it all in. Our guides are professionally trained and you will marvel at their driving skills as you barrel through the countryside Italian Job style. Take a trip with Blather's Express Tours today and see what you've been missing out on! Sample Itinerary: Morning: Over 5000 years old, built by God knows whom and for an unknown purpose, Newgrange is Co. Meath's finest achievement. The lights only come on once (maybe twice) a year, and you won't be lucky enough to be there on the day, so will have to make do with standing in...

Blather
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Some clever sod has erected a rural cottage atop a building directly opposite that Bastion of Capitalism in Dublin, the Irish Financial Services Centre. Have to say it makes me smile I every time I cross the Liffey. Article and pics here Hyperbole here. ?Fabricating the cottage with only three sides is significant. It pushes the work away from being read as architecture and moves it closer to being sculpture and clearly artifice dealing with notions of land use, building style and lifestyle.? Show Home is a work that will cause animated debate on the subject of art in the landscape of our towns and cities ? and cause us to seriously examine whether the rural idyll is ultimately an urban illusion.

Blather
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"Many experts in the area of conflict studies expect the economy to collapse, the land to be laid waste and for the entire population to descend into cannibalism with 48 hours..." Grudge Today, Sunderland FC failed to qualify for the F.A. Cup Final delaying the much anticipated meeting of Roy Keane and his former international manager, Mick McCarthy. It was widely expected that Mick and Roy would avail of this opportunity to see each other at the final and beat each other to death with football boots in the stadium tunnel. Now, it appears, this just won't happen. Chianti and Liver all-round The two men have not faced each other since both men went foaming-at-the-mouth mad during the World Cup and threatened to plunge Ireland into a vicious Civil War, resulting in brother turning on brother, sister on sister and Dog on Cat. If such an event were to re-occur,...

Blather
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It starts off in 1746 with some chap in Paris electrocuting 200 monks to prove a point and goes on to tell how the internet is really just the telegraph all over again. Yep, complete with dodgy business deals involving broadband links across the Atlantic, flirting across the telegraph lines like modern day chatrooms, and huge business failures like our good old big dot bombs as everybody put their money on this new fangled technology. The book is The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's Online Pioneers There's a good little synopsis of it here From amazon.com &raquo From amazon.com &raquo

Blather
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Dave Walsh decides its time to move on... Well folks, this is it, the final curtain. After 7 years at the helm of blather.net, it's time to call it a day. Earlier this week, I was approached by a Dublin-based marketing firm. After lengthy negotiations, I decided that it was high time that I made some money out of this carry-on, and buy the farm I've always dreamed about. Note: Any claims that the takeover was hostile are spurious and without foundation. I'm sure the new owners will provide as much entertainment as I have tried to... Be seein' ya! (April 2nd: And yes... this was an April Fools joke...)