In Dublin, the petrol stations rob you – 128.9 for regular unleaded petrol. I got fleeced by a crafty beggar who caught me off guard by asking for “€4.50 to get home to Westmeath”. With all these thoughts of robbers going through my head I should have known better than to walk back from the interview. I do this all the time – in London, Dublin, America – whenever I’m in a strange city I just randomly choose a street which looks important enough that it might eventually lead to the train station, and ten minutes later I find myself alone in a suit outside a block of boarded up flats with a big ‘rob me’ sign over my head. After about 30mins wandering through some dodgy looking parts of Dublin today, I ended up in a place called ‘Cork Street’ and then I knew everything would be OK.

I’m very glad to see that there is going to be tougher legislation introduced regarding attacks on emergency services, following this attack on a fireman who was responding to a call. Attacks on the emergency services by young scumbags with stones/bottles/roadblocks are common all over the country, Cork included, and its one thing that makes me very angry. This is something that should not be tolerated even once, never mind allowed to continue for years. Just load the back of a firetruck full of Gardaí with tranquilizer guns, drive around The Glen/Ballybeg/Fairview/Moyross and set them loose as soon as the first stone hits the windscreen.

I hear stories about parts of Cork being ‘no-go’ areas to Gardaí… perhaps I’m being naive, but how bad can it be? Isn’t it just a load of kids who are chucking the stones and bottles at emergency services? If you are wondering – no, I have never been to any of these areas at night, and yes, I would be scared to bejesus (I was wary enough as it is in broad daylight today), but I’m not a policeman.

Speaking of Gardaí, I had to laugh at this Bebo movie of two of them being pushed into a river, via TCAL. Reminds me of when I was in Killarney last year before the Snow Patrol / Paddy Casey concert, I was there very early so the streets were totally empty but the Gardaí were patrolling anyway. One of them was walking down an empty closed-off street by himself trying to look dignified and authoritative, when a small dog ran out of one of the houses and attacked him – bit onto his uniform at the hip and wouldn’t let go… the guard was terrified, trying to shake him off and run away at the same time. Wish I had caught that on camera.

But lads – did ye see the footage? THE KIDS DIDN’T EVEN HAVE SHAVED HEADS. They had tidy summer haircuts – you finish school and you’re hit by an all-mighty heatwave, what do you do? You go and get your hair cut.

I was expecting some some neo-Nazi skinheads, but when I saw the boys on the news, at first assumed these were “before” pictures. Their hair was a bit short on the sides. Watch out for it on the 9 O’Clock news tonight – and listen to the principal spout some feeble bullshit about “uhhh uhh if this were an interview”. Principal Edward McEvoy should not be allowed work in a school.

Taylor Hicks, 29, emerged as the winner in the finale of the TV show on Wednesday night in which 63m votes were cast. It is the biggest single voting night in the five-season history of the show. In the 1984 US presidential election, 54.5 million voters backed Ronald Reagan – the most votes obtained by a president.

Dvorak got the story this morning, where julieb pointed out that the source which was the basis of the terrible article, supposedly a Battlefield 2 mod made by al Qaeda to train young terrorists, was actually a video made by one of the lads over on the Planet Battlefield forums, using Trey Parker’s Team America: World Police voiceover. Here’s what julieb says:

The video the retarded writer is referring to is not made by terrorists. It was made by a member of the Planetbattlefield forums. The voice of in the video is not a terrorist – it is Trey Parker from the movie Team America World Police. The article also claims it is a mod created by terrorist. It is not a mod. It is the Special Forces Expansion pack that anyone can buy.

I knew there was something very familiar about the quote which was cited in the news article – “I was just a boy when the infidels came to my village in Blackhawk helicopters”. Here is the full quote from Team America:

Gary Johnston: I was just a boy when the infidels came to my village in their Blackhawk helicopters. The infidels fired at the oil fields and they lit up like the eyes of Allah. Burning oil rained down from the sky and cooked everything it touched. I could only hide myself and cry as my goats were consumed by the fiery black liquid death. In the midst of the chaos, I could swear that I heard my goats screaming for help. As quickly as they had come, the infidels were gone. It was on that day I put a jihad on them. And if you don’t believe it, then you’d better kill me now, because I’ll put a jihad on you, too.

Terrorist: I like you. You have balls. I like balls.

It is good to see such a well-researched story making it onto the pages of Yahoo, Washington Post, zdnet, and of course, the one and only Fox News. I have to agree with julieb that David Morgan is a horrible writer and should not be working for Reuters. In the wise words of Kim Jong Il: “Why is everyone so fucking stupid?”

But time and again the media reports say that Osmanagic has spent 15 years studying the pyramids of Latin America. What is not included in the reports is how Osmanagic interprets those structures and the cultures that built them. Had anyone bothered to investigate, they would have found rather bizarre notions in Osmanagic’s book The World of the Maya (Gorgias Press, Euphrates imprint, 2005; $29.95). I had a look at the online edition of it (accessible on Osmanagic’s “Alternative History” website at www.alternativnahistorija.com).

The beardy archaeology nerds are up in arms, collectively sneering with disdain for the crackpot Osmanagic. As I said in my last post on the topic, its very easy to be cynical here. Anyone could scoff at the seemingly absurd notions, but you would expect a more professional stance from a major archaeological publication. These are the guys who are supposed to sift the fact from the fiction and perhaps even come up with a theory as to what exactly it is this guy is digging up.

Instead, they pat each other on the back, as Sarejevo’s Enver Imamovic, a former director of the National Museum in Sarjevo says “this is the equivalent of letting me, an archaeologist, perform surgery in hospitals.”
No, Enver Imamovic (if that is your real name), it is not. It is the equivalent of a surgeon with 15 years experience of surgery performing surgery in hospitals. He might be an insane surgeon, but please, lets be truthful.

I will thank this petition for clearing up a few issues, and stating that “Visoèica is a Roman-fortified and somewhat paved hill”. Am I the only one who thinks that a 700 foot Roman-fortified hill with a temple on top would be really cool too? Why not excavate that anyway? Sounds like theres a lot of politics behind this, and I’m sure its not the last we’ll hear on the matter.

The three hills, named the pyramids of the Sun, Moon and Dragon, come complete with ancient pre-Illyrian temple and labyrinth of tunnels.

Osmanagic believes the structure will prove to be 722 feet high, or a third taller than Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza. The huge stone blocks discovered Wednesday appeared to be cut in cubes and polished.

The discovery, which could turn out to be the first pyramid found in Europe, was initially raised last October. It was met with some skepticism at the time on blogs such as Unjournaled, and Orbis Quintus. Turns out there is even a website dedicated to the enigma. Looking at some of the pictures on that site of the large pyramid-sized hill which is shaped exactly like a pyramid, I would ask questions about the locals as to why it took them so long to make the “discovery”

BBC’s article says that work will continue for around six months, with the first results expected in the next three weeks. They give a small bit of archaeological background on the area:

According to anthropologists there is evidence of 7,000-year-old human settlements in the valley. German archaeologists also recently found 24,000 Neolithic artefacts one metre below ground.

Mr Osmanagic says the hill is a classic example of cultures building on the top of other cultures. The town was Bosnia’s capital during the Middle Ages, and a medieval fortress used by Bosnian kings sits atop Visocica. The fortress was built over an old Roman Empire observation post, which in turn was constructed over the ruins of an ancient settlement.

Bosnia was at the heart of much of European history and even if this pyramid turns out to be nothing more than a few slabs on the side of a pointy hill, all the discussion on pre-Illyrians and 27,000 year old temples has already kindled my interest in the archaeology of the area. I was thinking of touring Eastern Europe this summer, I will definitely be keeping an eye on this story.

I noticed this article today, about a guy who was arrested on Friday after setting fire to the wrong car.

The report states Clark said he started the blaze ‘‘to pay him back for hitting me,’’ referring to an apparent earlier altercation between Clark and Sager, who was using Ingram’s car.

Sounds like a real-life Walter Sobchak

Perhaps it was a very slow news day that prompted extensive coverage on an unusually large rabbit that is terrorising the countryside in Northumberland, England. Allegedly, sharpshooters have been hired to combat the threat to lettuces in the area.

In a cruel blow to the memory of General Woundwort, Yahoo’s imaginative writers opted to christen the monster “Bigs Bunny“. The picture they included (shown here) is completely unrelated to this case, and comes from a German breeder, but it is cool nonetheless.

At least they out-do the BBC’s shocking revelations:

“It’s been taking huge bites out of cabbages, carrots and turnips… it’s a hungry fella”

In a bizarre twist, one of the sharpshooters may or may not have been found lying in a pool of his own blood, his severed throat lacerated with vicious clawmarks that could only be described as “leporine”. Forensics suggest that the severe bruising to the head and body may have been inflicted by a blunt object, possibly some form of vegetable.

The Church attracted some interest when it opened a couple of years ago, by the well known owner of Currans on Adelaide Street in Cork. Currans is a restaurant with a twist, as it is made up of radiators, staircase, tables, etc., which all came from well known Cork landmarks (cinemas, hospitals, schools) that were closed down. The Church has a gimmick of its own – as the name would imply, the restaurant is (was) inside a church.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

The Portage County Hazardous Materials Unit and Bomb Detection Unit were called in to downtown Ravenna on Friday morning after seventeen suspicious packages — boxes wrapped in gold wrapping paper with question marks spray painted on them — had alarmed residents.

I must sympathise with the residents of Ravenna, who were understandably panicked by the sinister packages, since there has been such an increase lately in bright yellow cardboard bombs with question marks on them.