CIBC and AIB

RTE is reporting that Canadian bank CIBC is interested in buying a share in AIB but only if NAMA goes through and the bad debt held by AIB gets transferred to the taxpayer. Personally I think if foreign banks are waiting to jump in and buy Irish banks once NAMA comes into force it indicates that perhaps we the taxpayer are taking on too much bad debt and we are creating private banks that are internationally seen as good deals. After NAMA completes its work we should have Irish banks that can continue to operate in the Irish market and provide funds to people and small businesses but they should still have work to do to undo years of bad management. If the Irish taxpayer takes all the hurt and international banks take all the profit what is the point?

On the up side perhaps if CIBC do buy AIB it will be easier to transfer money between the two banks because right now you seem to have to have studied with Harry Potter in Hogsworth to figure out the magical combination of time, forms and numbers to fill in online in order to get the current system to accept an international transfer.

Your Alibi Sucks

Yesterday CBC Newfoudland had a story about a young moose which was chased to exhaustion by three boys and beaten with sticks. The moose was so exhausted and distressed that wildlife officers had to put it down. The story is pretty disturbing and obviously any kids who would do something like that must have issues.

Strangely today CBC has a follow up story. It seems the kids may not have been guilty of animal abuse after all. One of boys fathers has come forward with an alibi. The boys couldn't have chased the moose, they were busy... "vandalizing a church in Deer Lake". Oh well that's OK then, obviously they are saintly kids. As alibis go thats a pretty awful one. Generally the idea is to explain how the person is innocent by providing an example of them acting legally at the time in question not doing something possibly worse. "Your honour my client couldn't possibly have been shoplifting on Monday afternoon, he was robbing banks on the other side of town".

Pirate Party Ireland

I just heard today that the Pirate Party UK has been officially registered as a political party. Ireland also has a Pirate Party website. I think it would be a good idea to have an official Pirate Party here with a representation in the Dail. Politics needs people with widely disparate views on policies otherwise you end up with what we have in Ireland, a political system where the opposition is the same as the government so no matter what way people vote we still end up with the same vested interests.

Now I don't think it would be a good idea to have copyright laws scrapped or to just allow private people to take whatever copyrighted material they want but I do think we need someone to bring some balance to the current situation. Look at the new three strikes rule from Eircom. The RIAA can tell Eircom who they believe are illegally downloading copyrighted material owned by the companies who make up the RIAA and Eircom have agreed to disconnect the offenders. These would be the same companies who at the same time do everything possible to block and delay legal downloading. It took years for the iTunes Store to come to Ireland and we still cannot purchase movies and TV shows.

We need someone in government to stand up the the RIAA and other companies and tell them you can have your copyright and a crack down on illegal downloaders but you have to provide legal downloads at same prices as other countries. Then give them an ultimatum, bring Ireland up to the same level as the US and other countries within 1 year or a new copyright bill will be put through making the maximum punishment for illegal downloads a fine equal to just the price of a purchase in the shops. I support the right of movie makers and musicians to make money from their work but I'm sick of being forced to buy movies on disc, my shelves are full.

Peoples Photography Slot

The slots for Peoples Photography have been announced and I've moved from 376 last year to 70 this year. Granted my bump up the list was aided by the fact that I've been helping out with the organisation and have been running the new website. Still I'm delighted to be on the North side of the Green where more people will see my photos. If you are around Dublin on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th August you should walk around St Stephens Green and see some great photography on display from all the photographers.

Short Haul Long Haul

We spent the weekend down the country with my family and at some stage we were discussing flights to Newfoundland. My girlfriend is from there and we go over at least once a year, she goes twice. The annoying thing about flying from Ireland to Newfoundland is the fact that you need to fly away from your destination to get to it.

For example in the summer we have to fly from Dublin to Toronto, a flight that takes us pretty much over Newfoundland. Worse comes in the winter when we have flown Dublin to London, London to Montreal and Montreal to St John's. On one occasion when the map was put up, close to the end of the flight from London to Montreal, the track showed the plane flying over Dublin and St John's. Basically a flight that could take at a guess 4 hours takes closer to 20 with all the stop overs and waiting in airports.

This led someone over the weekend to ask, what is Ryanairs longest flight and why couldn't they make Shannon and St John's hubs for a service across the Atlantic? Their longest flight is apparently around 3 hours so extending it to 4 hours shouldn't be impossible. Then they might be able to connect into the North American short haul service from St John's and they can already have flights from Shannon which could be extended to the rest of Europe. I'm sure Ryanair would be able to negotiate good terms from Shannon and St John's and these days people might be willing to have a short stop over in St John's or Shannon if they could get their long haul transatlantic flights at short haul prices.

Ikea prices

Has IKEA jumped on the rip off republic train and jacked up their prices to exploit the poor Irish consumer? Possibly not. This post by Barry Smyth tries to answer that question by looking at all the prices across several countries. We might not be the cheapest but we are not the most expensive and when tax differences are taken into account the rip off seems to fade.

[via Sliabh]

U2 in Croker

I went to see U2 play in Croke Park on Friday night. I'll try to write a proper blog post later if I get a chance but for those who are wondering what the concert was like have a look at this video I found on YouTube.

I imagine it wont stay up too long but it's certainly worth a look for those who missed the concert :-)

The Last Tommy

Harry Patch one of the last Tommies who fought in World War I died today at the age of 111. He follows Henry Allingham who died last week. The last British survivor of the War is now Claude Choules who served in the Royal Navy. Harry on the other hand was the last British survivor of the trenches.

Ruby Card Photo Competition

I've decided that I must start to enter some more photo competitions. As they say if you're not in you cant win. I was contacted about one on pix.ie for the Ruby Card so I thought I'd have a look and give both them and pix.ie a mention. They are looking for a photo from Ireland to put on the next release of their prepaid credit card and the winner will get €2500.

Even if you don't want to enter the competition, pix.ie is well worth looking at. The quality of the photographs already entered is stunning. Some of the top photos might look a little photoshopped for some peoples taste but there is also a nice number of street photos and ordinary landscapes. Photography in Ireland is booming with some wonderful and very talented photographers. I don't know what photo I'll enter but it's certainly an interesting challenge.

Rick Roll

If Kurt was still alive he'd shoot himself again. :-)

via Damien Mulley