The theatrical manner in which magicians perform their tricks has a twofold benefit. Firstly, it entertains the audience and entices them into a world where cynicism can be suspended for a time. Secondly, it keeps them distracted long enough for the magician to engage in the necessary sleight-of-hand for the trick to work. In Cold Souls, writer-director Sophie Barthes looks to employ a similar technique. Here, she draws the audience into a world where a company that claims to be able to extract a customer’s soul, store it, and replace it any time provokes only mild incredulity in its potential clients. On the other hand, when the cape is finally pulled away from around the bird cage, the latter frustratingly remains empty. Put another way, there is no time given over here to providing... Similar posts

Glencoe is my favourite car journey on earth.Last week I was able to make the journey for the first time in several years, on a crisp November day that blended blinding winter sunshine with thick blankets of fog.It was an unusual route for me, not starting from Edinburgh or Glasgow. Instead it was north from Fife, cutting west at Perth on the Loch Earn road. Socked in fog all the way down the valley with nothing but the babbling stream for company, we finally emerged after St Fillans down the side of Loch Earn itself into the blazing sunshine.Looking south across Loch Earn, with the late morning sun lighting up trailing wisps of fog.Turning back the way we came, this is east down Loch Earn with St Fillans eclipsed, and a think finger of fog floating west over the loch.Back in the car,... Similar posts

As I have now, as near as dammit, passed day sixteen in by month of abstinance and am therefore over half way and on the down slope, I thought who better to illustrate the new pristine state of my... Similar posts

ONE REASON FOR SKYPE'S continual growth is its strong position as a utility. And nothing makes something a dead-simple utility than a resemblance to a standard household item (like a phone). That's what Skype is for me. It fits in my pocket (see left) and it rings on my home DECT phone. During the last quarter, Skype’s registered users grew 41 percent to 521 million people. That means 10 times the population of Ireland became registered users of Skype during the summer. Revenues grew 29 percent to $185 million. Free Skype-to-Skype minutes grew 74 percent to 27.7 billion minutes. I was one of the consumers who paid for SkypeOut minutes, a section of Skype revenue that grew 44 percent to 3.1 billion minutes and paid the company $185m in revenues, up 29 percent from a year ago. If the... Similar posts

Days as a curate in the late-80s were not easy.  The paramilitary ceasefires were still years away; there were still plenty of atrocities to come. The extremists fed off the polarisation of the two communities and the middle ground was narrow and precarious.  There were moments when the hatred was visceral, and when just about anywhere else on Earth would have seemed attractive. A ridge of hills rose steeply to the west and north of the town.  Driving one particular road brought you to open ground where you could stand and see for miles.  The green hills and the dark waters of the lough were the dominant features of the landscape, the town shrank to manageable proportions.  Standing looking down on the streets, a sense of proportion returned.  Those who caused so much upset were... Similar posts

Trust Stephen Collins to come up with an analysis entirely at odds with the editorial of his own paper. For on the Kenny bid to dismember one aspect of our democracy you will read under the heading “Courageous move to slay sacred cow close to the hearts of his supporters” the following… ENDA KENNY has clearly attempted to capture the mood of an electorate deeply disillusioned with politics and politicians. But he has also demonstrated considerable courage by his willingness to alienate a significant segment of his own parliamentary party. That’s a viewpoint, no dispute. Of course one might wonder whether an electorate deeply disillusioned with politics and politicians should be treated as if it were sharks circling a boat to be thrown the rich red meat of... Similar posts

Spuds are down in price by 45% - yipppeeeee! My week is made:-)) 20.5 kg for 100 zl.Mash them, boil them with skins on or off, roast them, grill them, fry them, eat them raw, make vodka out of them.... who cares, just get them into ya before the winter hits and the prices sky rocket.Vice president of the USA Joe Biden is coming to Warsaw Tuesday evening and is due to spread the tentacles of US military bases by signing an agreement with Polish political ass-lickers Tusk and Kaczynski that will allow 100 US troops to be based on Polish soil alongside SM3 missiles. I'll be standing somewhere on the streets making a symbolic protest with friends.It's the 25th anniversary since the murder of Fr. Jerzy Popieluszki, chaplain to the Solidarity trade union at the height of the struggle against... Similar posts

Having not played the K Club for a few years, it was a bit of a luxury playing there twice in three weeks. This time I was a guest of the Washington Ireland Program (wiprogram.org), an organisation celebrating its 15th anniversary and choosing the Ryder Cup course to attract as many of its supporters (from Ireland and USA) as possible. [Photo: Reflections over the lake from the 13th green up the 15th fairway]The WIP is a charitable organisation that brings together Irish businesses and universities, to send the brightest students from north and south of the border to Washington DC. Students become interns in US government, media, business and non-profit organisations for eight weeks. Over a six-month period they also gain valuable leadership training to encourage them to continue and... Similar posts

....When you watch an episode of Star Trek Voyager on Virgin plus one (insert your own joke here) and think...mmmm this is good I should buy the box set, maybe of just the last series. It's a slippery slope. No offense to the more hardened Trek fan, but when Firefly, Serenity, and Battlestar Galatica have passed through the 'verse, watching Star Trek is like seeing a quaint Edwardian play about morals or something. I remember living alone in Rathmines and Star Trek was there like emotional crack for the sci-fi fan. I spotted and bought in a Virgin Megastore sale the Data Head box set and the one that was like a transporter with all the episode that had crossovers, especially Relics, that always brings a tear to the eye, and got hooked on Sky One reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation... Similar posts

Hand-delivered to my door, issue one of the Cambridge Literary Review. Yes, hand-delivered, which I’d wager is more than anyone reading this in Cambridge can boast, but it seems one of that new journal’s editor’s parents live around the corner from me here in Hull. (How unsatisfactory the collective possessive is in English, is it not, may I add parenthetically. I’d like to thank you on all our behalves. The behalves of all of us? Fie on’t!). ‘In one corner of Oxford, I have not been forgiven for coming to Cambridge’, begins Jeremy Noel-Tod’s ‘A History of Difficulty: On Cambridge Poetry’, an essay that has already inspired excited reveries in the TLS and much cyber-debate. Substitute ‘Grimsby’ and ‘Scunthorpe’ for the place-names in that sentence and you will... Similar posts

The Weston Irish Fest 2009 starts tonight, Friday, October 09 and continues through Saturday October 10 to Sunday October 11. The 10th Annual Irish Festival at Weston, Missouri features national and regional Irish acts, and also the strongest lineup of local Irish performers I’ve seen listed for any Irish festival in the vicinity of Kansas City. O’Malley’s Pub If you have never been to O’Malley’s Irish pub in Weston, you should really consider it as it is a most special pub, a unique and wonderful pub, constructed in America by, well I don’t know who built it - maybe they were Irish, German, English, Scandinavian? Festival Setting And if you have been to O’Malley’s but not to its Irish festival, then you’re in for a treat as you... Similar posts

Folk doesn’t get much folksier then when it’s floating, homespun, from the eco-friendly home of two lovers (an acoustic guitar and an accordion) and their friend (on percussion) in North Carolina. As with its predecessor, Hymns for a Dark Horse, Upper Air is minimal in a hemp weave sort of way, songs here talk about love and nature in the most unprocessed language possible. With a reference to leaves, ocean, mountains, waterfalls, trees, hills or sky featuring on almost every track, the album has a soft evening glow hanging around it, the mood of the end of a long day lingering like the sad earnestness of its predominantly minor chords. In the manner of Bon Iver and Adem, there’s plenty of great quality lo-fi modern folk on offer here. The airy coda to ‘Silver Clouds’ alone... Similar posts

Níl tú ag uasdhátú chomh minic sin le déanaí, a Choncubhair!! “Slippery slope” contuirteach atá ansin, a chuir deireadh le mo chuid blagála féin de réir a chéile!! An amhlaidh nach dtuigeann tú nach mbíonn cead ag blagálaí saoire a ghlacadh riamh! “Bás iGaeilge Sular Shroich sé 100,000 Amharc”- nil tu ag iarraidh a leithéid de cheannteideal, táim... Similar posts

You don't need to take drugs to hallucinate; improper language can fill your world with phantoms and spooks of many kinds. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------When arguing with someone in an attempt to get at an answer or an explanation, you may come across a person who makes logical fallacies. Such discussions may prove futile. You might try asking for evidence and independent confirmation or provide other hypothesis that give a better or simpler explanation. If this fails, try to pinpoint the problem of your arguer's position. You might spot the problem of logic that prevents further exploration and attempt to inform your arguer about his fallacy. The following briefly describes some of the most common fallacies:ad hominem: Latin for "to the... Similar posts

In recent years Ireland became a trendy venue for groups of young English people to visit for the weekend. Flights had become dirt-cheap, the natives were friendly and Dublin had wall-to-wall pubs. Stag partiers could slope through the streets and throw up without a care in the world and not worry about a Bobbie sneaking up behind them yelling “you’re nicked me son”. Soon a weekend in Temple Bar was not the same if you didn’t trip over a comatose limey in the gutter or see one tied naked to a lamppost with his genitals lathered in industrial soap.The trend then began to spread, and just recently I read about a court case in Cork from a few years back, when two yobs were arrested for public nudity. “He was walking down the middle of Washington Street. He was totally naked... Similar posts

For a couple of reasons. First, because of a recommendation by a colleague of Julie. Best way to go apparently. Second, because they were not too far off about €90 cheaper than the Aer Lingus fare. KLM, who I’d always flown trans-Atlantic with in the past didn’t even get a look in. Their fare was crazy out of this world high. We booked online, confirmed flights, selected seats and paid on the spot. All good so far. About five or so days before our outbound journey from Dublin to New York, I logged onto the Delta website to make sure everything was in order. Little did I know the fun was about to start from right here. Everything was great outbound, but our seats had changed for the return journey. Not something so simple as sitting in a different pair of seats than the... Similar posts