Channel 6 Launches tonight

The new Irish TV station Channel 6 launches tonight at 8pm. Should be worth watching the start just to see what happens. The good thing about the station is that they seem to be starting alot of shows from their pilot episodes so if you are a fan of one of the following it might be worth your while watching.

US Office
House
Dawson's Creek
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Charmed
Everybody Loves Raymond
Frasier
Law & Order
Star Trek - The Next Generation
7th Heaven
Dharma & Greg
That 70's Show
The Closer
Everwood
Northern ExposureJ.A.G. (Season 3)
Law & Order (Season 5)

I'm not, so other than a couple of movies and maybe House there's not much there to catch my attention.

However if you are a fan of The 70's Show follow this link [via Johnny K] to see what, or should I say who, Wilmar Valderrama (better known as Fez from That 70Â’s Show) rated in bed while talking to Howard Stern. Lucky Bas***d.

Update: I did watch the "opening" of the Channel 6. It was just a continuity announcer standing in front of a picture of a city skyline (not Dublin). She explained that the station would have no news and that "the forecast for the weather" wasn’t good either. Then it was straight into normal programming. Yawn, you would think they could have done something like introduce all Irish presenters and give a longer explanation of the station. I guess a reported budget of 14 million doesn’t get you much in the way of sets. Anyway I watched the pilot of House and that did seem mildly interesting, though I won’t rush home to watch it.

Hotel Thief Jailed

You know some shops just bloody deserve to get ripped off. Ok, I take that back, some shop staff are really dumb and attract con-artists. Case in point is Juan Carlos Guzman Beatencoft a 29 year old Columbian/Spanish man who robbed credit cards from a hotel and then used them to go shopping, for a €16,000 Rolex.

The defendant, known to Interpol as Juan Carlos Guzman Beatencoft (aged 29) from Columbia but claiming to be Alejandro Cuenca (aged 25) from Spain, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to entering a suite in the Merrion Hotel as a trespasser, and stealing a ruby ring, a passport, a wallet containing credit cards, US$3,500 cash and €250 cash on June 16, 2005.

He also pleaded guilty to using a stolen credit card in the name of Ms Robin Westbrook, to buy a Rolex watch, a nine-carat gold chain and 18-carat wedding ring at jewellers on Grafton Street and O'Connell Street on the same date.

The photograph on the American passport had been "professionally altered" but come on. "Ms Robin Westbrook" doesn't exactly sound like the typical name of a Spanish man. You would think someone would have been a little suspicious, or were they just blinded by the value of the sale?

However this guy was no Raffles. When he was arrested on immigration offences the following week he was wearing the Rolex and had many of the stolen items with him. He was jailed for 2 years today and could face extradition to the UK where he is wanted after escaping from jail 10 days before committing the crimes in Dublin.

[Via BreakingNews.ie]

Gaybo at the Road Safety Authority

Martin Cullen has once again managed to amaze me with his disconnect from reality. As Minister for Transportation he has presided over an increasing death toll on our roads, currently around 400 a year, and has been widely condemned for his lack of action.

His record on road safety to date has been condemned by opposition politicians, the Irish Insurance Federation and the National Safety Council.

The former head of the NSC, Eddie Shaw, in his letter of resignation accused the Minister of lacking the political will to address road safety.

Now Martin has responded by appointing a man with years of experience, a wealth of knowledge, the respect of the whole nation and a proven track record of success. Unfortunately none of his previous experience is actually in the field of safety. Gay Byrne, the nations most successful and talented broadcaster, has at 72 come out of retirement from the worlds longest running chat show, The Late Late Show to now chair the Road Safety Authority.

I'm sure he'll do his best, but the only qualification I can see he has is that by reaching the age of 72 the government hasn't managed to kill Gay on the roads, on a trolley in A&E, with any number of possible hospital infections, or by just allowing him to be gunned down on the street. Gay is obviously a talented man at staying safe and so he may have a thing or two to teach the general population.

At worse Martin will get to hang out with a celebrity, which may distract him from his Ministerial duties and save us all.

The Irish Times and Easter 1916

Todays Irish Times has a nice supplement on Easter 1916. Written in association with the Department of Education it is something that most Irish people could find useful not just school kids.

It discusses the background of the Rising, information about each of the men who signed the Proclamation of Independence, a day by day guide to the events, the aftermath, and a section on how the current political parties claim the 1916 legacy. There is also a glossy map of the battle sites. It's well worth purchasing, especially as the media will be full of discussion about 1916 and its impact over the next few weeks.

Australia

By the way, as you can tell from my earlier post I like Sydney and Australia. I was there in 2001 for a short 2 week holiday and got to see just a little bit of New South Wales. I swore I'd go back and see the rest of the country but I kept putting it off.

Well a couple of weeks ago I decided it was time to stop just thinking about it and do something about it. I asked my employer for an extended holiday later in the year and they gave it to me, thank you John. I've been a little distracted over the last couple of weeks planning this so I wasn't blogging as much as I should. Finally on Saturday I booked my trip. I'm off to Australia for 3 months - October, November and December. I'll also visit Singapore and New Zealand. I decided to keep it simple and just booked the main flights to Australia here and will book any other flights and trips when I'm there.

So Dec's Rambling will change a little bit starting in October. I will literally be rambling. I'll post here about my travels, where I went, who I met and what I did. You know, all the normal stuff people back hope hate to hear about. Normal service will then resume at the beginning of January.

Dirty Old Town

Breaking news: Dublin is Dirty. Ok maybe I'm being a little harsh here but DUH, everyone knows Dublin is a dirty old town. An Taisce should stop paying for stupid surveys, get off their arses and try to clean up the city.

Dublin is reported as being 12% less clean than the rest of the country. Personally I think a rating of 67% cleanliness for Dublin and 79% for the rest of the country is complete bollocks. Ireland is a dirty country. Walking around Dublin it seems most Irish people have never learned to pick up after themselves. People move around leaving a trail of paper, food, plastic, cigarette butts and chewing gum behind them like a leaking oil tanker sailing into an Alaskan harbor. 67% is a very generous rating to give this city.

I was in Sydney a few years ago on a short holiday and all the Australians were telling me that Sydney was a dirty city and not to judge the rest of the country by Sydney. I thought you could eat off the streets of Sydney and I was too embarrassed to tell people about Dublin. Sydney gleams in the sunlight, yet I would only say it was 70-80% clean. Dublin in comparison is at best 30% clean, probably less if you took out areas like Howth.

By the way, it is a popular belief that the song Dirty Old Town is about Dublin, but apparently it was actually written for Salford in England. Still I think it's adopted home is more than apt.

The State is the taxpayer

A woman, Louise O'Keeffe, who was abused by her teacher in the 1970s has lost a landmark case against the State and now faces costs of €500,000. She attempted to sue the state for damages but the High Court found against her.

The High Court found the State was not to blame for the indecent assaults inflicted on Ms O'Keeffe by a primary school principal when she was eight years old.

Now it is very easy to feel that Ms O'Keeffe has been treated harshly and that the State should pay her costs. Unfortunately it's not that clear cut. Remember, the money spent by the State comes from the taxpayers. If the State pays her costs then they send a message to other less deserving cases, sue the State it's free and you have nothing to loose. I really hate the way the media reports that people sue the State, but then report that cost over runs hit the taxpayer.

But lets not forget who the real villain is here, a legal system that generates half a million euros in fees for one case!

NTL Digital and Channel 6

The new Irish channel Channel 6 now has a place holder on NTL Digital. Tonight when I turned on the TV I noticed some of the channels had been rearranged, Sky One used to be 111 and now that is Channel 4.

The reason for this change was 3 channels that have been inserted at the top of the channel list. 105 is now Setanta Sports, 106 is Channel 6 and 107 is City Channel. I guess we now know why Channel 6 is Channel 6, Setanta was channel 5.

Setanta seems good but I don't watch it a lot, maybe its new position will help. City Channel however is a Dublin TV channel and to be honest its shite. ITV 3 is now gone off NTL Digital, but I don't know if I ever watched it.

Remote control guns just like video games?

The US Army is reported to be using a new remote control gun on their Humvees in Iraq. Now anyone who has seen the movie Black Hawk Down will know that you REALLY don't want to be the man in the turret of one of those things. Called the XM101 Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS) the new remote control gun packs an impressive amount of firepower and is operated via a 15 inch color monitor in the safety of the humvee. They want 9000 of the weapons but they can only get 15 a month, cause building a remote control gun that actually works isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world.

Some commentators are pointing out that one of the reasons for the success of this weapon is the fact that it's operators grew up playing computer games. Valid point. However I would actually think the risks in getting experienced gamers to operate real remote control guns would be obvious. In games you can just shoot everything that moves. Think there might be an enemy soldier in that building? Fire a rocket. Think someone on your right shot at you? Just fire back and kill everything. Run out of ammo? Just run down your enemies with your Humvee. Killed too many civilians or been killed yourself? Just reload and start again. Unfortunately you cant reload real life, even if it is displayed on a 15 inch color monitor.

[Via Engadget]

Brendan Gleeson on the Late Late, clip available

As I mentioned yesterday the Brendan Gleeson was on the Late Late Show and attacked the Governments performance on the health system. As hoped, RTE have posted the clip on their website for streaming download. You can download it here. Click on the "BRENDAN GLEESON, PAUL MERCIER, EMER O'KELLY, PHILIP KING" clip. It is well worth watching but it may be replaced next week so download it now.

Update: Not often I get to update a post 5 years after I wrote it. Thanks to an Anonymous commenter below you can find the video at http://www.rte.ie/tv/footer_latelate/20060317.html