It’s coming up on just a week before the relaunch of The Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield on May 9th. The official permanent web site launches tomorrow, but you can still find goodies on www.lighthousecinema.ie.

Michael Dwyer had a great piece on it in last weeks ticket.

Turbulence ahead says:

Just a pity the Government hadn’t seen the new SLAN Report on Irish people’s health before introducing yet more draconian laws in relation to alcohol consumption. Because it seems the problem they set out to cure - binge drinking - is already curing itself. Something fairly evident to anyone looking at the consumption data or even passing by empty pubs during the week.

This is a must read. The whole post is worth it, and the conclusion is very interesting:

As I’ve said before, and will say again, we have a young’ish population by comparison to other EU countries, but our indigenous youth population is now in decline - and with it so are alcohol sales. The binge drinking horse has bolted, so shutting the stable door by punishing the overwhelming majority of us who don’t binge drink is disproportionate and an infringement of our freedom. Simple as that.

Turbulence Ahead: Binge Blaming.

In 2006 Couy Griffin began an incredible journey across the globe. The vision he has is to ride horseback from Gate to Gate: from the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, California, to the East Gate in Jerusalem.

His message is to bring the love of God and the peace of Jesus Christ to those he meets in every city and nation along the way. Follow his journey of faith and discover the God who cares for mankind, from Gate to Gate and beyond.

He’s in Ireland at the moment.

The Rickster was as ever on the ball and already made contact with him.

More videos on his youtube page.

He’s doing it because of a calling from the Lord. So in classic God fashion, God is talking to this guy and telling him to do crazy cool shit like this. Peculiar indeed then, that kids keep getting raped and people are still starving. Proof then, (if more was needed) that God is a dick.

More: www.ridingforisrael.com

Photo owned by preciouskhyatt (cc)

I’m amazed by this:

Smoking rates have increased since 2002 despite the introduction of the smoking ban in public places, according to a study published today.

The number of people who said they were smokers fell from 33 per cent in 1998 to 27 per cent in 2002 but increased to 29 per cent last year, according to the Survey of Lifestyle, Attitudes and Nutrition (SLÁN) in Ireland, published by the Department of Health.

Younger people were more likely to smoke (35 per cent of those aged 18-29 years), as were those in lower social class groups and almost one in 10 smokers were actively trying to quit. Some 41 per cent were not planning to quit, according to the survey.

Full story on Ireland.com. I try to come up with valid reasons why smoking is terrible and people who smoke are cunts, but then you compare those arguements with our 1000 times worse alchohol addiction and it all becomes rather pointless.

3 minutes 48 seconds on BBC Newsline on a possible UFO sighting. Spectacular.

We mentioned this briefly. But it deserves a closer look. AND to go to number one*

Let’s fly, let’s fly, fly, fly Ryanair, We’re gonna take you there, fly, fly Ryanair,

Let’s fly, let’s fly, fly fly Ryanair, We’re gonna take you there, fly, fly Ryanair,

Sit down, relax, time to step in, Buy a juice for Little Johnny and get yourself a Gin,

We got sweets, treats, lots of goodies on the trolley for you,

Whatever it is that you need, ask the friendly cabin crew,

Let’s fly, let’s fly, fly, fly Ryanair, We’re gonna take you there, fly, fly Ryanair,

Let’s fly, let’s fly, fly, fly Ryan-air,

We’re gonna take you there, fly, fly Ryanair…

The Daily mail had an article on it last week.

The company said: “We’ve had a great response from our passengers and have even heard news of conga lines forming in the aisles.”

Note to terrorists: Just form a congo line when this song plays, everyone will just think you’re ryanair crazy in a good way.

I love the way Ryanair push the boundaries between marketing and sales into actual mind fuck psychosis. It’s pure genius. Imagine hearing this on the red eye into Stansted? Any time I fly red eyes I’m basically in a semi-conscious state, barely able to cope with reality. (And quite happy to pay airport prices for breakfast.) Then this little jangle, spawned by the most psychotic (genius?) marketing department (click this link for a rundown of their recent exploits) in the world, plays, implanting itself into my brain. The little bastard jangle stays with you all day and then just as you are shaking it you make the return flight. And thus the brain injection is complete. And so we all become slaves to the O’Leary.

Oh, if all you are interested in is the “Girls of Ryanair” 2008 Calendar featured in the youtube, (which was done in aid of the Angels Quest Irish childrens charity last year) the daily mail has you covered for that too.

And just to round off the post, don’t forget that O’Leary is threatening to launch a long-haul airline under different branding next year. Strap in and bring on RyanAtlantic !

*Number one thing to play on repeat in hell that is.

Taken from Mollie & Andy’s flickr photostream. They’re travelling around Ireland, taking impossibly good photos as they go.

The war continue’s.

• Are you one of the border people? Sounds like something the village folk might alude to in hushed tones. “We don’t talk about the border people.” Anyway, www.borderpeople.info is your one stop shop if you go up north / come down south regularly.
• Wankers!
• The new Bus Éireann site has teething issues? Looks nice.
• Permanent armed response unit for Limerick starting in July.
• More on the Dublin Rap Community:
  
• If the internets seems quiet today, here’s why.

Evening Herald M50 campaign - your emails and texts

I’m confused. Would obliterating the M50 toll altogether solve the M50 traffic problem? Would it suddenly become a free flowing experience? I thought the problem with the M50 was one of capacity - it simply cannot handle the amount of vehicles on it. In which case the only solution is car pooling and/or effective public transport.

Carpool.ie is just a place holder graphic unfortunately, there is no actual functionality there yet. DublinTraffic.ie has a more available service. You go onto a bulletin board for your area and post your details or contact someone who already has.

Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (IFB) is delighted to announce it’s proposal for a new Irish TV Channel which will be dedicated to broadcasting the best of Irish, European and World Cinema.

A proposal for the channel has been put forward to the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources for inclusion in the new Broadcasting Bill which will be launched by Minister Eamon Ryan next month.

Good idea or a waste of time? Full press release is here. I hope they show short films. It upsets me greatly that fantastic short films are shown once (if we’re lucky) on RTE 1 at 5 past seven on a Saturday. Then they’re confined to the archives never to be seen again. Ideally, I’d like the BBC iPlayer ported to RTE so I can just fire up and watch all this stuff whenever I want online. The press release says:

Irish films screening on the channel are likely to have completed their own commercial cycle through theatrical, DVD and mainstream TV outlets before appearing on the film channel.

…So if it’s that kind of content, then it should be provided online as well.