Meet Thierry Henry.

La main de Thierry (via @bruno_tran)

It doesn’t matter what the tv commentators are saying, that “such a thing unfortunately happens” or all the other consolation gobbledygook about the match. We were robbed. In a way, yes, it is unfortunate, but such a thing shouldn’t have happened! Could the referee not take a moment to consider the situation, perhaps confer with the linesman, when there were so many other players protesting over it?

2 offsides and 2 handballs.

How can that be justified? How?

Now, a selection of some of the comments published on Twitter so far:

• Thierry Henry, I’m really happy for you and imma let you finish, but Diego Maradona had the best handball of ALL TIME! (via @darraghdoyle @Shiminay)
• New French flag http://flic.kr/p/7gEiY8 – Jesus people work fast! – Imagine what 2mo is going to be like! (via @lexia @JulieDil @davanac)
• If I even SEE a croissant tomorrow… (via @shanehegarty)
• wow, just the two handballs from thierry henry in that goal. maradona only needed one. (via @heg @curlydena)
• Thierry “The Thief of St Denis” Henry. Copyright George Hamilton. (via @tigercooke)
• FFS!!! Thierry the thief. Beyond angry and disappointed. And seriously, referee – go to Specsavers and get new glasses!!! (via @DUBMetblogs)

I’m a bit too cross to rant right now. If I continue, I may also say something that I’ll deeply regret tomorrow morning. And I can’t watch the replays anymore either. It’s too painful and the wound is too fresh. The boys have done well and we’re proud of them.

Besides, I need to get off here now and lodge a complaint to FIFA. You can do that too, by following this linky to FIFA comment page.

• Gosh, what happened with the WC Qualifier last Saturday? Why do we always have to do it the hard way? Never mind, on to Paris we go and the match had better be at least 2-0 to Ireland when the final whistle blows. Good news is, RTE will be airing it for us mortals who have to work and/or too broke to fly to Paris. Kick off 8pm Irish time.
• Dublin Bus has teamed up with 21 vendors around the city in Ticket Thursday initiative to give our pocket a little breather. On Thursdays November 12, 19, 26 and December 3, present any pre-paid Dublin Bus ticket at participating shops and enjoy some retail discounts (e.g. Cleary’s between 10 to 20% off, Muji 15% off), restaurant discounts (e.g. Wagamama buy 1 main course get 1 free), pamper discounts (e.g. €10 off hair cut) and cultural discounts (e.g. 2 for 1 ticket to Dublin Zoo). Click on linky above for more details.
• Yay, a new season of Opera Ireland is currently underway. The choices – between Macbeth by Verdi and Das Rheingold by Wagner.
• The Irish Film Institute is hosting its annual French Film Festival and this year it runs from 19 November to 29 November. If you are a fan of Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, Amélie) then don’t miss out on the opening film MICMACS.
• Last week, a series of Christmas lighting was up at Henry Street and its environs. Today, the lights on Grafton Street put everyone just that notch closer to the festive season. Last but not least, this weekend, the lighting ceremony of O’Connell Street will be taking place. A bevy of events are organised to start at 4.30pm on Sunday 22 November, with the lighting at 6.00pm.

That’s it for today. And come on boys in green – we want to have a real good reason to miss some work days next summer. Or better, to travel to South Africa! ;)

• This week, running from Monday 9th November to Saturday 14th November, Take Your Seat is bringing arts and theatres back into your life. Book for tickets to shows of your preference, and you’ll be offered some promotional tickets (if not free!) to other shows at a later date, therefore doubling up your fun evening out. They also run daily competitions so sign up for it today and who knows, you could win them and be heading out to a play or a musical next.
• Fancy a little bit of a geeky event? Look no further, head out the door tonight to the Mercantile for The Alchemist Café event at 7.30pm, where a discussion of “memory traces” and the role they play in shaping our sense of self and form the instint for survival. My former lecturer, Prof Ciaran Regan, will be taking on the hot seat for this discussion.
• There’s a relatively new gourmet food market every Thursday, from 11.00am to 2.30pm, at the banks of the Grand Canal next to Mespil Road (just off Upper Baggot Street). Pretty good timing and location really, considering there are quite a number of offices around the area, and the workers sure could do with a bit of a change for their lunch goodies from the usual sandwich and coffee from the shops nearby.
• Given the grip of recession, it is never pleasant to read about the bleak economic outlook faced by Irish youths of today, where unemployment for those under 25’s is about 1 in 4. If Ireland is as perceived – no country for young men – how long will it be, before they leave the country in search for a better future? A drain of human resources is not desirable for a country that is trying to pull itself out of this financial hardship.
• It has been claimed, that the internet brings people closer and forges intimacy. But how close can become too close? So much so that it’s not only a ground for stalking, it’s bringing cyberbullying to a whole new level. Scary.
• Love cooking and interested in cooking demonstrations? Arnott’s is organising a few demo sessions, while promoting the cookware/kitchenware from Siemens Home (Saturday 14th November) and Judge and Stellar (Wednesday 18th November and Thursday 19th November). And there will be reductions in some of these gears too.
• Since when does Christmas come round so quickly? I’ve barely dragged my winter clothes out, and already I’m seeing light fittings being put up all over the city, and this Sunday (15th November) the festive lightings at Henry Street and its environs will officially be switched on at 4.00pm. There are also other family fun events organised throughout the day, and check this link for further details.

I’m sure plenty of people are looking forward to the first World Cup qualifier match between Ireland and France this Saturday (14th November). Can we pull it off in this home game? Fingers crossed. Goooo Ireland!

Who are they, you ask? Here’s the information from Science Gallery’s TEDx page:

Kate Coleman, Founder of Right to Sight

Kate Coleman is the founder of Right to Sight – a unique collection of world experts from corporate, eye care and government sectors with the specific goal to eliminate preventable blindness in the world. The next phase of this project is to roll out a training simulator built on Microsoft games software and using two Wiimotes, that will help student surgeons practice the surgical techniques used during cataract operations by performing virtual surgery on a computer-generated eye.

Mark Leslie, Managing Director of Martello Media

You’re probably more familiar with the work of Mark Leslie and his team at Martello Media than you might think. This team of architects, writers, museum experts, exhibition designers, graphic artists, filmmakers and computer programmers, work together to design unique interactive experiences are most recently responsible for the award winning designs at Guinness Storehouse, Cliffs of Moher Centre and the WB Yeats Exhibition at the National Library.

Tom Hadfield, Creator of Soccer.net and heading up the Le Whif Project

Tom Hadfield created Soccernet, a sports Internet company that was sold to ESPN for $40 million when he was 17 years old. Two years later, he and his father were able to raise millions of dollars to launch the education website Schoolsnet.com. Tom is currently working for The Labo Group in Paris where he heads up Le Whif. Le Whif is a revolutionary new way of eating chocolate – by breathing it! Imagine, chocolate without the calories.

Simon Dennehy from Perch.ie, Ergonomic Furniture for Primary Schools

Simon Dennehy’s work on ergonomic furniture for primary schools is aimed at rectifying the fundamental problems associated with the current selection of school furniture being used in primary schools in both Ireland, and globally. Currently, very few credible design solutions exist.

The number of tickets available to the event is very limited and they’re available exclusively to members of Science Gallery. They will go on sale today (5th November) from 12noon (Irish time) at this link – you’ll need to be signed in as member to access the page, and ticket costs €7.50 each (a departure from the previous and inaugural TEDxDublin which was free of charge).

If you’re not already a member of Science Gallery, it’s not too late to sign up for it and it’s free, so why not? Besides, do you know that with this free membership, you can get a discount when you drop by the Flux Cafe for some food and coffee? Not to mention free wifi connection when you’re at the Science Gallery as well. They’re perks you should take advantage of!

If you ever wonder what An Post does with items that were lost in the postal system, due to either incorrect address, or failure to deliver but can’t be returned to sender, or simply an unnotified change of address, think no more of it. The items are auctioned off, twice a year, with the proceeds going back to An Post.

One such auction is taking place this evening and if you’re interested, head to Herman and Wilkinson Auction House in Rathmines. The auction will begin at 6.30pm.

Some of the stuff on the block today include 6 bottles of champagne, 6 bottles of Canadian whisky, a Rolex watch, Gucci and Burberry handbags, a model train set, 4 large Tom Tom drums, a wetsuit, a signed print of The Titanic, an electric floorwasher and a set of fish hooks.

St Paddy or St Nick?

My (French) friends are adamant that this is St Nicholas since Christmas is coming along soon and all, but I still think this is St Patrick. So whose chocolate sculpture do you think this is?

And whoever this sculpture is has got to eat less sweet stuff – the teeth are falling out! :p

Given we’re changing the clock this weekend (yay, an extra hour to sleep!), good thing the transition is between Saturday and Sunday, as the gig is scheduled for Sunday 8.30pm in LA -> therefore Monday 3.30am in Dublin. Since it’s a bank holiday on Monday, it shouldn’t be too difficult for fans to stay up late and watch the live streaming with a few mates.

The official streaming page.

Maybe just make sure it’s not too loud that disgruntled neighbours end up sending the Gardaí over…

The blurb reads:

Shot over the course of one week in Dublin City, 140 Characters captures real people from Dublin City talking about their lives. The film features children, teachers, singers, travellers, nuns, fathers, mothers, dancers, hipsters, grandparents, dreamers, believers, cleaners, creative people & people who are creative with the truth.

Every person is different & every person gives a different answer.

In answering the question people reveal something about their lives, their community, their hopes. In listening to these people we can learn something about ourselves, our city and our society. 140 Characters becomes a snapshot that we can all identify with.

How would you answer the question? What was the question? Meet 140 Characters. Look at them and listen to their stories. You just might see yourself in there too.

That’s as much as I know, unless there’s a reader or two here who were tapped to participate in this project? In that case, will you be able to tell us what question you were asked? Pretty please? (Or was there some sort of confidentiality claused that you signed to?)

Otherwise, fret not. On Friday (that’s 16th October) there will be a free screening of 140 Characters in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar at 7.30pm. No tickets required, so just show up. Perhaps wrap up well, since the weather has gone a bit chilly in the last week or so.

Ps: if you watch the video on the official site, what do you think the little girl is talking about? I reckon, to get a role in the last Harry Potter movie. ;-)

Ireland is a small island country, and to get away anywhere at all, we either travel by ferry (to UK and France) or by flight. We don’t have the luxury like our neighbouring European countries to hop around the continent by rail or by car directly. But the competitive air travel market has enabled us to travel in and out of the country very easily, and at a reasonable price. Most of the time anyway.

Last year, approximately 23.5 million passengers used Dublin Airport as their travelling hub. The tourist tax that’s currently in place would have generated €235 million for the government without further ado.

However since the introduction of this tax on 1st April, the number of passengers using Dublin airport have fell by about 3 millions. Assuming a linear model of projection, by the time the tax scheme operates for a full year, approximately 6 millions passenger losses will have taken place. That’s about 1/4 of last year’s number! Such a large scale drop in passenger number must be worrying for the airlines which are already struggling with high operating costs, increasing debt burden (alright, mainly Aer Lingus for now) and diminishing profits. Not to mention, this will actually also affect government’s taxation income when these companies simply aren’t posting that much profits that are taxable.

Hence the dilemma – is there a balancing point between the two? The government needs to generate revenue somehow given the state coffer is in a dire state. Yet at the same time, they cannot afford to alienate travellers at times of economic downturn. This country does not have bountiful natural resources to see through the hard time, but it does have a reasonably buoyant travel industry to keep things going.

Nonetheless, the passenger tax must not be cited as the main reason for the drop in the number of travellers passing through the airport. We are facing a worldwide recession right now, and many people simply are not inclined or cannot afford the international travel right now. Staycation is on the rise, not just in Ireland, but elsewhere too. Not only the Irish are not going away for holidays, tourists from abroad are also not coming to Ireland. Add on the horror stories from the past couple of years that earned the moniker “Rip-Off Ireland”, any wonder if the tourists are cautious about making Irish holiday plans when their dollars/pounds/yen etc could stretch further if they go somewhere else.

On top of it all, the economic downturn also takes it toll on businesses, that many are simply not travelling for work like they used to in order to cut down the business costs. Instead they turn to conference calls, voice calls (like Skype) and networking sites (like Twitter) to conduct their business and to market themselves.

Perhaps if the government deem that they really cannot afford to scrap this tax altogether, how about reducing it? Already examples are being cited for countries that have scrapped similar passenger taxes (Belgium and Netherlands) or reduced the charge (Spain, Greece) in an effort to stimulate tourism. Now, on a parting note, it would be interesting to see if the US is really going to start charging $10 entry fee per person, supposedly to fund tourism promotion costs.

Never mind, I’m asking anyway.

Foggy and a tad confused - St Stephen's Green is at the top of Grafton St?

So there are street names with “Upper” and “Lower” attach to them. “Lower” would means it’s at the stretch closer to the city centre, while “Upper” would be the stretch further away from the city centre. Is this correct?

And talking to people sometimes bring forward something along the line, say, “the top of Grafton Street” or “the bottom of O’Connell Street”. I’m going out on a limb here and deduce “top of” is somewhat equivalent to “Upper”, and therefore is farther away from the city centre. Hence “bottom of” would be similar to “Lower”, and would be closer to city centre?

In terms of parallel streets, e.g. Upper Mount Street and Lower Mount Street, the street closer to the city centre is again indicated as “Lower” and the other as “Upper”.

Am I right? Please someone tell me that I’m right, or else please help educate me in this matter. I would really appreciate it. There’s no place for embarassment in learning. ;)

In case you wonder how I’ve coped so far with people who use these terms, especially the “top of” and “bottom of” designation, I usually double check by means of landmark(s) near it. E.g. top of Grafton St – that’s near St Stephen’s Green, right? Otherwise, if I’m giving a meeting point to people, I usually use landmark(s). Just to keep everything clear and straight forward, you know.

Good day folks.