The Top Five Regrets of the Dying

By brendan Posted in Uncategorized Leave a reply

Bronnie Ware, Top five regrets of the dyingBronnie Ware, is an Australian palliative care nurse providing medical care for people during the last weeks of their lives. Recording the dying thoughts of her patients she wrote a book “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying”.

This is her Top five regrets of the dying

  1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of    me.
  2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
  3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
  4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
  5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

We have all heard these expressed in different ways. How many of these ring a bell with you?

What are you going to do about it?

16 Irish and 148 Britons Dead

By brendan Posted in Uncategorized Leave a reply

Shock horror if this headline was in relation to a terrorist attack but it’s not, it is the number of people that will be killed on our roads this month, mostly by cars and predominantly by driver error combined with inappropriate speed.

We have a maximum speed limit of 120kph in Ireland and 70mph and yet it is still legal to sell,
buy and drive cars that can travel at speeds of up to 260kph/160mph.

Cars are regularly advertised on their power and 0-100kph time.

We know that speed and cars kill, we do nothing…..

If we are really serious about our shock horror when people die, this is something that we can actually control.

The question is this, why does nobody seem to care? Are the car manufacturers and the countries that benefit most from their manufacture so powerful that our politicians won’t even recognise this as an issue, never mind doing something about it.

With modern chip technology it is very easy to limit a car’s top speed, we do it with trucks.The same technology could be used in combination with imbedded RFID readers to prevent cars from braking a speed limit in a controlled zone.

All that’s required is the will to do it. Or have we actually decided that killing 200 Irish and 1775 Britons by car every year is in fact an acceptable level of death?

Tales from the Raj

By brendan Posted in Jokes Leave a reply

British officersIn the great days of the British Empire, a new commanding officer was sent to an African jungle outpost to relieve the retiring colonel.

After welcoming his replacement and showing the usual courtesies (gin and tonic, cucumber sandwiches etc) that protocol decrees, the retiring colonel said, “You must meet my Adjutant, Captain Smithers. He’s my right-hand man, he’s really the strength of this office. His talent is simply boundless.”

Smithers , was summoned and introduced to the new CO, who was surprised to meet a humpbacked, one eyed, toothless, hairless, scabbed and pockmarked specimen of humanity, a particularly unattractive man less than three feet tall. “Smithers, old man, tell your new CO about yourself.”

African Witch Doctor“Well, sir, I graduated with honours from Sandhurst, joined the regiment and won the Military Cross and Bar after three expeditions behind enemy lines. I’ve represented Great Britain in equestrian events, and won a Silver Medal in the middleweight division of the Olympics. I have researched the history of…..”

Here the colonel interrupted, “Yes, yes, never mind that Smithers, he can find all that in your file.

Tell him about the day you told the witch doctor to f**k off.”

In Defence of Drinking Alcohol

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Sometimes when I reflect back on all the wine I drink I feel shame. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the vineyards and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this wine, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, “It is better that I drink this wine and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver.”
~ Jack Handy

WARNING: Drinking alcohol may leave you wondering what the hell happened to your bra and panties.

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“I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they Wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.”
~Frank Sinatra

WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may create the illusion that you are tougher, smarter, faster and better looking than most people.

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“When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.”
~ Henny Youngman

WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to think people are laughing WITH you.

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“24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case . Coincidence? I think not.”
~ Stephen Wright

WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to think you can sing. As a certain irish CEO found out recently (listen here)

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“When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. So, let’s all get drunk and go to heaven!”
~ Brian O’Rourke

WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause pregnancy.

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“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
~ Benjamin Franklin

WARNING: The consumption of alcohol is a major factor in dancing like a retard.

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“Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.”
~ Dave Barry

WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to tell your friends over and over again that you love them!

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To some it’s a six-pack, to me it’s a Support Group. Salvation in a can!
~Dave Howell

WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you can logically converse with members of the opposite sex without spitting.

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And saving the best for last, as explained by Cliff Clavin, of Cheers. One afternoon at Cheers, Cliff Clavin was explaining the Buffalo Theory to his buddy Norm.
Here’s how it went:

“Well ya see, Norm, it’s like this. A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest! ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That’s why you always feel smarter after a few beers.”

WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think are whispering when you are not.

Drive Safe This Christmas

By brendan Posted in Motorbike, Philosophy, Sustainability Leave a reply

Drive safe this Christmas. There were 26,400 people killed on the roads in the EU in 2013. Think about that number!! Think about it again…… and then take five minutes to watch this video compiled by Transport Accident Commission, Victoria

The population of Wexford is 20,000, if Wexford was wiped out in the morning by some disaster either natural or manmade, would you sit up and take notice?

190 people died on the roads in Ireland in 2013.  See RSA Stats

Check out the Transport Accident Commission, Victoria YouTube site, it  has some good safe driving tips

The Annual Road Flooding in Rathfarnham

By brendan Posted in Dublin, Politics Leave a reply

Flooding on Nutgrove AvenueFavourite number 2 daughter very impressed. Four weeks ago as we had the usual first big leaf fall around Rathfarnham, I predicted that the when all the leaves had fallen and blocked the drains, there would be a big rain event in early November (this has happened every year since I started noticing it in 1992) The drains will be blocked with leaves and everyone will express surprise and blame the annual road flooding in Rathfarnham on Global warming.


South Dublin County Council outsourced drain cleaning to Oxigen so now the blame game can start……

Note to SDCC and Oxygen. Put a big notice in your diaries for the 5th November 2015, reminding you that all drains in the county, and especially Rathfarnham please, should be cleared in anticipation of the annual large rainfall event that will happen around this time in November 2015.
To be revisited in November 2015…..

We need Water Charges but not Double Taxation.

By brendan Posted in Politics Leave a reply

Irish WaterDespite the increasing volume and intensity of the water charges protests I think it is fair to say that everybody knows that we have to pay for a domestic water supply, whether as part of general taxation or by direct water charges.

The biggest incentive for introducing direct metered water charges is that it will prevent waste, which of course will bring down the cost of providing the service. In fact direct water charges based solely on consumption would have a self perpetuating “reduction in costs” spiral.

The biggest problem we currently face is the deplorable state of the existing water infrastructure, years of under investment, haphazard management and a lack of joined up thinking with thirty four local authorities competing for central tax resources. We need some serious investment in the infrastructure and the best way to do this is by being able to access private funding in the immediate future, with the ongoing water charges being used to pay back the loans.

The only long term solution to managing our water is by metering and pay per use.Irish Water Meter

One of the biggest objections put forward by the opponents of water charges is that we already pay for water through general taxation and water charges are in fact just double taxation. With tax revenues growing as the economy recovers, we don’t need extra taxes so we need to look at a mechanism that moves us to a pay per use for water model with a very visible corresponding reduction in general taxes. This could be achieved by using refundable tax credits

Definition:
A refundable tax credit is a tax credit that is treated as a payment and thus can be refunded to the taxpayer by Revenue. Refundable credits can be used strategically to help offset certain types of taxes that normally cannot be reduced, and they can also produce a tax refund that is larger than the amount of money a person actually paid in during the year.

We should define an acceptable usage policy. If we assume that our demographics are similar to the UK and they have had metering in place for twenty years, we can use their numbers as a starting point. In the UK, average usage is 150 litres per person per day. This is equivalent to 54,750 litres per person per year. Looking at the Irish Water website this would be the equivalent of 54.75 M³ of water (a M³ is 1000 litres of water) @ €2.44 per M³, which would be €133.59 per person per year.

I believe that we should declare this number, whatever it will be, and then implement a Refundable Tax Credit regime immediately to neutralise the effect on Irish Water customers. People will pay for water but they will see a real reduction in their general taxes to compensate. People who do not pay income tax, for whatever reason, do still pay taxes in the form of VAT on anything they purchase so these people will simply be getting a refund on the VAT they pay as they go about their daily lives. This will prevent the refund being regarded as an extra social welfare payment.

On the basis that the transition from 34 councils looking after water to a single water authority should have been regarded a five year program, I suggest that this system be implemented for five years or until water leakage rates are below 26% (The worst leakage rate in the UK) and all households have been metered.

After five years or once the system is completely in place, with leakage rates below 25% and all households being metered, households would be charged for the actual amount of water they use and the rebate would be capped at the Refundable tax Credit rate which would be the same as the current estimated average cost per household, which is €270. This rebate would then become part of the normal yearly Government Budget deliberations.

During the five year period anyone with a water meter that uses less than the allocated average would still receive the full Refundable Tax Credit as an incentive to conserve water. For example, in my house, using the above figures and not the current figures from the Irish Water website, we would have a water bill for three people of €400.77. As an incentive to conserve water, if we used less that the allowance we would still get the €400.77 rebate

The transition from the current dysfunctional system to a single water utility is a mammoth undertaking and there will obviously be some pain in the transition but the prize is well worth the effort. The initial Irish Water business plan on how they will set about achieving this can be found here,  Irish Water Proposed Capital Investment Plan

As I said at the beginning, we all know we have to pay for water, the only way to do this is by pay per use but we also need to show people that the water charges are transferred from general taxation in a very visible way. The Refundable Tax Credit……

Of course the charges for water also includes the cost of disposing of our waste water because other that which we drink, all water that comes into the house is sent back out again through our waste water systems

 

Deaths from Ebola in 7 Months 4,484 ………………… EU road deaths in 7 months 15,379 ??

By brendan Posted in Sustainability Leave a reply

Ebola Graph 2014How strange we humans are in the way we can live with an epidemic that is killing 3.5 times more people every month in the EU than Ebola and the worst thing is this,  it’s not sick people who are dying, it is perfectly healthy people who are dying in Europe at a rate that is 3.5 times the rate from Ebola.

It would seem that we can ignore this epidemic by using the old human trick of “We are not looking over there” a bit like a two year old child who thinks they are invisible when they cover their eyes, because they can’t see you?

Since the current outbreak of Ebola in February there have been 4,484 deaths from Ebola
See stats here

Car crashSince the outbreak of Ebola there have been 15,379 Road deaths in the 28 countries of the EU  There are 507 Million Citizens in the EU. We had a road death rate of 52 per Million in 2013. (26,364) See full Stats on Europa

Big panic and hysterical bogyman media frenzy for Ebola. No comment on EU road deaths.

Let’s just break that down to months
Ebola Deaths per month 640
EU road deaths per month 2,197

The bogymen tell us that if don’t do something there will be 10,000 cases of Ebola by the end of the year. No mention of the fact that there will already have been 26,364 road deaths this year

The rate of deaths in the USA is more than twice that of the EU with about another 37,000 deaths per annum. See stats

Globally there are 1.3 million people killed in cars every year and between 20 and 50 million people seriously injured. See link in Bloomberg Report

So the world is having a major conniption (Hysterical fit) about Ebola with 4,484 deaths in 7 months while there is no apparent notice taken of the 185,714 people killed on roads during the same period.
Just to say that again 185,714 people killed on the roads.

Almost all road deaths are caused by inappropriate speed. We have the technology to prevent this. The question is, why don’t we use it?

Of course road death is not the only preventable thing humans die, smoking kills 7000 people per year in Ireland. Worldwide there are about 5 million deaths from smoking (WHO stats)

How come the media is not having a conniption (Hysterical fit) about these? Very strange………

I am not suggesting that we should not treat the current Ebola outbreak seriously, we should and perhaps now, because of the size of this outbreak, a vaccine will be developed but perhaps a sense of proportion relative to the other mass killers we contend with would be better than having to listen the latest “flavour of the month” media frenzy

I heard a commentator this morning claiming that there would be 100,000 deaths from Ebola by next March. Let’s park that on this date and revisit in March….

 

Bill Clinton Shakes hands with JFK

By brendan Posted in Uncategorized Leave a reply

What an interesting picture

More about the meeting and it’s influence on Bill Clinton HERE

 

Loud Americans and a Kerryman Joke

By brendan Posted in Uncategorized Leave a reply

Kerryman JokeThe recent notice in a Kerry Restaurant regarding “Loud Americans” shows that the traditional stupidity in that neck of the woods is alive and well.

While I think the attitude of the “Powers that be” is to ignore this idiot, if that sign had of said “No Travellers, or some version of the old English notice “No Blacks, No Irish, No dogs” These gobshites would have their business closed down and find themselves in the courts for racial prejudice.

Hopefully it will result in the boycotting of the establishment and they go out of business

Gobshite
Loud-mouthed person who talks a lot, but nothing with any value – as in shite coming out of their gob (mouth)

In America, there are Polish Jokes, In England there are Irish Jokes, Sweden/Norwegian, Holland/Belgium, Germany/Denmark. In Ireland we have “Kerryman Jokes”, this idiot is one of the biggest jokes around

Brendan Palmer is CEO of
Electronic Recycling and DravTec Ireland in Dublin