Darragh O’Brien is a Senator?

Published December 2nd, 2011 in low profile, seanad and upper house. 0 Comments

No not the Comedian (spelled Dara) but another chap.

They say that “Publicity is the oxygen of politics” yet there are so many Seantors in the Irish Seanad who we have never heard of.

Martin Conway     Administrative Panel           Fine Gael
Michael W. D’Arcy     Administrative Panel           Fine Gael
John Kelly     Administrative Panel           Labour Party
Denis Landy     Administrative Panel           Labour Party
Tom Sheahan     Administrative Panel           Fine Gael
Diarmuid Wilson     Administrative Panel           Fianna Fáil
Paddy Burke     Agricultural Panel           Fine Gael     Cathaoirleach
Michael Comiskey     Agricultural Panel           Fine Gael
James Heffernan     Agricultural Panel           Labour Party
Paschal Mooney     Agricultural Panel           Fianna Fáil
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh     Agricultural Panel           Sinn Féin
Brian Ó Domhnaill     Agricultural Panel           Fianna Fáil
Susan O’Keeffe     Agricultural Panel           Labour Party
Pat O’Neill     Agricultural Panel           Fine Gael
Jim Walsh     Agricultural Panel           Fianna Fáil
Thomas Byrne     Cultural and Educational Panel           Fianna Fáil
Deirdre Clune     Cultural and Educational Panel           Fine Gael
John Gilroy     Cultural and Educational Panel           Labour Party
Michael Mullins     Cultural and Educational Panel           Fine Gael
Paul Coghlan     Industrial and Commercial Panel           Fine Gael
Jimmy Harte     Industrial and Commercial Panel           Labour Party
Imelda Henry     Industrial and Commercial Panel           Fine Gael
Marc MacSharry     Industrial and Commercial Panel           Fianna Fáil
Catherine Noone     Industrial and Commercial Panel           Fine Gael
Mary White     Industrial and Commercial Panel           Fianna Fáil
Terry Brennan     Labour Panel           Fine Gael
Fidelma Healy Eames     Labour Panel           Fine Gael
Cáit Keane     Labour Panel           Fine Gael
Terry Leyden     Labour Panel           Fianna Fáil
Marie Moloney     Labour Panel           Labour Party
Tony Mulcahy     Labour Panel           Fine Gael
Darragh O’Brien     Labour Panel           Fianna Fáil
Ned O’Sullivan     Labour Panel           Fianna Fáil
John Whelan     Labour Panel           Labour Party
Sean Barrett     University of Dublin           Independent
Eamonn Coghlan     Nominated by the Taoiseach           Independent
Jim D’Arcy     Nominated by the Taoiseach           Fine Gael
Aideen Hayden     Nominated by the Taoiseach           Labour Party
Mary Moran     Nominated by the Taoiseach           Labour Party
Mary Ann O’Brien     Nominated by the Taoiseach           Independent
Marie-Louise O’Donnell     Nominated by the Taoiseach           Independent

Welcome to our website, now please phone us

Published July 23rd, 2011 in doh, advertizing, SIMI, advertising and marketing. 0 Comments

If you operate in a marketplace where you offer essentially the same service as your competitors,
then price becomes king.

The customer says “I can buy a widget from Company A, B, C, D, E or F, they are all the same”
so he chooses based on price.

So, to have a website which doesn’t display a price is insane.

There are a wide range of Car Histroy Check companies operating in Ireland today,
and the Department of the Environment has been delighted to sell it’s database to them.

An aspiring buyer of a used car can check its history before parting with his wad.

At Ambrand.com we favour www.cartell.ie because it’s name has a deep meaning for us!,
and it was one of the first but while viewing the SIMI website we discovered this one…

http://www.carhistorycheck.ie

The domain name does as it say one the tin, em well no it doesn’t really.

Welcome to our website, now please phone us

So, we are ready to research our potential purchase on Saturday, with our credit card in hand,
this website delivers a PFO message, so we head over to another one and receive instant gratification.

It reminds us of the early days of the web, when companies first began boasting email addresses.
So many had an auto reply saying “Thanks for your ‘email’ please phone us”

Software4Students.ie problems

Published March 8th, 2011 in consumer rights. 0 Comments

We all know that Microsoft and other large corporations charge hefty fees for their software, and we can understand why, while others may disagree it must be said Microsoft Office is an excllent piece of software.

Fortunately for students, and indeed parents and teachers, Software4Students.ie offers discounted products. Student discounts have existed for years but were almost impossible to access. I remember trying in vain to buy Microsoft Frontpage 97 or 2000 from a bricks and mortar vendor back ‘in the day’. They hadn’t a clue how to process a student discount.

Software4Students.ie is a mirror of its UK counterpart Software4Students.co.uk

When I bought Windows Vista from them a couple of years ago they posted a DVD. I now see they have gone ‘download only’ it seems, and the purchases burns and ISO onto a disc.

So what is the function of the company? a needless middleman between Software companies and Purchasers.

I now know of three people who have accidentally bought a wrong version of software (eg. 2010 instead of 2011, or Anti-Virus instead of Internet Security) alas Software4Students.ie has a mandatory tick box waive of refund rights.

Have you had problems?

Turkeys vote for Christmas

Published July 7th, 2010 in report and quango watch. 0 Comments

The board of the Office of Tobacco Control (OTC) says it “welcoms the Government’s decision to merge the OTC into the HSE in 2011 as part of the Government’s ongoing rationalisation programme.”

The OTC’s Chairperson, Norma Cronin, said that this move will “ensure that Ireland’s ongoing work to create a tobacco-free society – in which Ireland is a world leader – will stay at the heart of public health.”

Well if that is the case why was the OTC established as a seperate entity in the first place?

Usually QUANGOs are established to take hot topics away from Government Departments, and thus shield ministers. For example the Road Safety Authority (RSA) is a QUANGO that performs tasks that were mostly previously performed by the Deparment of Transport.

Well who wanted to keep Tobacco at arms lenght when the OTC was established? Well everyone I suppose, its a substance that while being legal is most unfashionable.

Well the OTC now falls under the umbrella of the HSE, but its still ok for the Minister for Health, as the HSE - itself a QUANGO of sorts - it at arms lenght from the Department of Health.

But on a more serious note, in fairness to the powers that be…

“In March 2004, Ireland became the first country in the world to successfully introduce smoke-free workplaces legislation which has already conferred huge health and environmental benefits on the population as a whole. Many countries across the world have looked to Ireland as an example and have since followed suit.”

and that single decision, often forgotten, is a credit to the Government.

The Jennings Gallery at UCC

Published July 6th, 2010 in fort knox and ucc. 0 Comments

Just as we have gotten to grips with the marvellous Glucksman Gallery at UCC (University College Cork, Ireland) another one appears on the radar; The

The Jennings Gallery Logo

College of Medicine & Health
Brookfield Health & Sciences Complex
College Road
University College Cork

We must investigate this (not so) new development. The last time we went into the Brookfield complex we ended up at a magstrip reader for the plush library, and left in disguist, well one of our party did.

Poetry to our ears

Published July 6th, 2010 in crooners and music. 0 Comments

Alfred Joyce Kilmer (1886 – 1918) was an American journalist, poet, literary critic, lecturer, and editor. Though a prolific poet whose works celebrated the common beauty of the natural world as well as his religious faith, Kilmer is remembered most for a short poem entitled “Trees” (1913), which was published in in 1914. At the time of his deployment to Europe during the first World War (1914–1918), Kilmer was considered the leading American Catholic poet and lecturer of his generation, A sergeant in a U.S. Infantry Regiment, Kilmer was killed at the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 at the age of 31.

The text stated below is the original written by Kilmer.

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

There have been several variations on the text, including many parody texts substituted to mimic Kilmer’s seemingly simple rhyme and meter, and questioning the poem’s choice of metaphors.[37] Of the often repeated parodies, one of the most known is “Song of the Open Road” by Ogden Nash (1902–1971):

I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Indeed, unless the billboards fall,
I’ll never see a tree at all.[38]

The death of the PFO letter

Published June 3rd, 2010 in ambrand. 0 Comments

or, perhaps the death of the paper letter entirely.

It is ironic that in an age when almost everyone has a printer, and Microsoft Word, the paper letter is in decline.

Private sector fills a public lacuna

Published June 3rd, 2010 in ambrand. 0 Comments

Before buying a second hand car the wise man should investigate it’s history…

www.mywheels.ie

www.cartell.ie

I Dream of Jeannie (but not in 1965)

Published June 3rd, 2010 in john mccormack and tenors. 0 Comments

I dream instead of Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair

It has been belted out by Robert Wilson, who sounds like the kind of chap who doesn’t need accompaniment, a fine voice. Was he Scotland’s answer to Irelands Count John McCormack?

He had excellent diction, his version of So Deep is the Night is definitive, 1m 20s onwards is fascinating for the controlled emotion.

Joseph Schmidt

Published June 3rd, 2010 in amazing voices and tenors. 0 Comments

Joseph Schmidt - Una furtiva lagrima

Josef Schmidt (1904 – 1942) was a Jewish tenor and actor. He was born in Austria-Hungary, later Romania, and now part of Ukraine (The borders of Europe certainly changed alot in the past century)

As a child of musical parents, young Josef was influenced by many cultures. In addition to his native Yiddish, he learned Hebrew and became fluent in Romanian, German, French and English.

Ironically, Josef Schmidt enjoyed his greatest successes during the rise of the Nazis, who subsequently prohibited Jewish artists and writers from working. In 1937, he toured the United States and performed in the Carnegie Hall. The Nazis banned him from performing in Germany and Austria, but he was still very much welcome in The Netherlands and Belgium.

In 1939, he visited his mother for the last time. When the war broke out that year he was caught in France by the German invasion. He attempted to escape to the United States but, unfortunately failed. Making a dash for the Swiss border, he was interned in a Swiss refugee camp near Zurich in October 1942. He had been already in frail health. Harsh camp life and lack of medical care brought about a fatal heart attack on November 16, 1942. He was only 38 years old.

He had a sweet lyric tenor voice with an easy high register, sailing up even to a high D. His warm timbre was perfectly suited for the melodies of Schubert and Lehár. His popular song recordings were the best-sellers of that age.

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