This man is called Guy Chave-Cox. He is behaving like both a chav and a cock, thereby fulfilling the demands of his preposterous surnames.He is also a vicar, and hence allegedly a religious gentleman of the Christian faith. But this has not prevented him from seeking to claim the homes of people in Sligo as his own.The back story is available from the Irish Indo here, but to keep it short, his people, the Middletons, left Ireland some 90 years ago, never to return. They held land that was likely originally stolen by the British crown from Irish people and given illegally to their antecedents anyway.In the Seventies, with the intention of sorting out land ownership, the people affected worked to trace the Middleton heirs and offered them hundreds of quid for the ground ownership. Having...
Hey everyoneApologies for the lack of blogging. Things have been a bit mental as I moved closer to my work.While I now live close to a beach and harbor my internet is connection is as much use as two yogurts cartons and a piece of string. So whats been happening !Mens Health have launched their new site. Check it out!menshealth.co.uk---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I passed another nutrition course this time under Dr John Berardi Phd.Berardi is awesome and I must say its great to see courses coming through that are more than just nodding the head. You actually learn and use information that is applicable to real life and real clients. I have done courses in the past that basically involve you sitting there...
This photograph depicts something extremely ugly indeed.Not the humiliation and torture of Palestinians in their own country, horrific though that is.Not even the pig-brutal munter in the Israeli Army uniform posing with a smirk in front of them.Nope, the real ugliness is in her attitude that it was perfectly fine to act this way, to incarcerate Palestinians in their own land, then pose for a picture in front of them like a tourist snapping themselves at the Eiffel Tower or the Taj Mahal.This sub-intelligent bitch posted these atrocities on, inevitably, her Facebook page. Then took them down when the civilised world was outraged. But today, safe with the assurance that the Israeli occupying forces have no intention of reprimanding her, she has come out batting with the following...
No, it's not the travellers, who still bank fortunes every time a bar decides not to serve them because the last one that did ended up like this.And it's certainly not the asylum seekers refusing to leave their holiday camp accommodation.Needless to say, it is Irish people returning to Ireland from abroad.While the quasi-bankrupt state continues funding Pamela Izevbhekhai's millions of euro in legal fees and hands six figure cheques or luxury houses out to squatting travellers, it refuses welfare to Irish people returning home.What a sick inversion of priorities this morally vacant government has, that they would plough tax money into zombie banks and gombeen developers, and throw money, education and accommodation at any liar off the plane from Nigeria, yet they deny basic welfare to...
It seems that the French authorities are going to prosecute the members of their national soccer team who were shagging underage prostitutes after all.Three of their top players admitted to paying tens of thousands of euro to bang teen hookers, which is a child abuse offence in France.Yet somehow, they were not only not prosecuted on the spot, but two of them even made it onto the plane to South Africa and ended up shaming their nation all over again with dismal performances and that hilarious Gallic strop where they refused to train.We're well used, via exposure to the England wags, to the ignominious sight of an overly made-up professional shopper standing by her man after he's been caught knocking off pay-to-play pussy.But it's a bit of a new experience for the French. I wonder whether...
We're told that the 12th of July celebrations by the Loyal Orange Order is a simple celebration of Protestant Ulster religious tradition and in no way intended as an antagonism or triumphalist sneering at the Catholic community of Northern Ireland.Sadly this picture says otherwise:For the uninitiated in Ulster hatreds, KAT stands for 'Kill all Taigs (Catholics)' while FAP is an acronym for 'Fuck all Papists'.This image, and a superb photostory and accompanying report, can be found at Slugger O'Toole.The author must be commended for braving the drunken louts that attend the 12th of July 'celebrations' in order to report on the reality of the hatred they represent.What religious organisation can endorse such genocidal desires among its supporters? Is it any wonder that the people of...
It's hard to comprehend the ingratitude expressed by asylum seekers who threaten hunger strike when asked to leave their holiday camp accommodation and move elsewhere while their claims are considered.After all, these people have fled life-threatening environments, and have arrived on the shores of Ireland pleading for a safe haven. That's the claim, anyway.Of course, it's a claim that makes no sense whatsoever. Justice figures show that in excess of 90% of such claims are bogus, and the claimants utilise all routes at their disposal, from destroying their ID documents on arrival, to repeated expensive appeals (paid for by the Irish taxpayer) to delay their lies being exposed.The aim is to delay the process sufficiently so that it results in their nationalisation, either by the former...
At long last, the imaginary language has produced something of genuine worth.No, not the 'translation' fees that helped fund turncoat Ian Parsley's ill-fated tilt at political superstardom. I mean a genuine piece of art even more hilarious than Lord Laird's excuses for his stratospheric taxi expenses.Welcome to 1690 and all thon, a satirical examination of Northern Ireland's politics and culture, with a special focus on the nonsense that is Ulster-Scots.You have to admire 'Professor' Wullie and his associates Billy and WJ for their mastery of this spoof language. I really hope they're receiving some sort of grant from the millions of wasted taxpayers' money that's being pissed away on this linguistic scam.After all, if the Department of Arts and Culture can fund the paedophiles, bigots...
I never was mad on Moliere when I studied French. It all seemed too archaic, his plots (an underrated element of any fiction-writing) far too contrived.The French loved him of course, and consider him their Shakespeare. It's one of the few aspect of French cultural life, along with Raymond Domenech and their penchant for air traffic strikes, that leave me baffled.But by God is he on the money when he defined journalism: Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for the love of it. Than you do it it for a few friends. And then you do it for money.He's also spot on with a number of other observations too. On drinking:Let us drink while we can. We cannot drink forever. (from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.)And: Of all the noises known to man, Opera is the most expensive.Mind you, he probably...
First off a big shout out to Jeff M. who after 2 PT sessions has dropped 2 stone 4 and is well on the way to hitting the 3 stone mark. Excellent work thus far man. Also Ann M. who seems to shrink on a daily basis! good work.A few other guys I have to give a shout out to - forum regulars and all round top blokes Chris, Ollie and the other Chris :-). They will be flying over hopefully this sat to spend a day with me training in Bangor, having a bit of craic and all that! Looking forward to it guys!----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Other things going down -1 - MH finalists have been picked and should be on the site soon- Keep an eye out for that.2 - Having a black eye = funny looks. My own fault for not being quick enough in...
When is a satellite image from NASA not a satellite image from NASA?When it's been doctored by the Torygraph, of course. See anything bogey in this pic?Apart from the fact that is ISN'T one of the images released by NASA to celebrate the World Cup and is instead one of the Telegraph's 'favourites', there appears to be a strange meandering river crossing the island of Ireland.Bizarrely, this river appears to follow exactly the political border between the Republic and the North. This is a river unknown to anyone who has ever been to Ireland. In fact, it doesn't actually exist. So how did it end up in a NASA satellite image?I had a look at the other images, and of course no borders exist in any of them, because NASA are not a bunch of tools who photoshop borders onto satellite images.But it...
At the Euro 2004 Championships, the sports journalists used to take the piss out of Sven-Goran Eriksson's accent.Before each press conference, they would disseminate 'bingo cards'. Each had a well-used phrase from the Swede's hackneyed and accented vocabulary on it.Some would get 'My bee, my bee not', Sven's favourite answer when asked if a particular player would be in the first eleven for the next game.The winning bingo card was invariably the 'Whine Rooney' card, which wasn't surprising given Rooney's central role for England in that tournament.Tonight, Rooney finally lived up to Sven's mispronunciation. The despicable underperformer had the shocking audacity to berate the England fans who booed his misfiring team on camera. Here's the footage if you missed it:This pulchritudinally...
First Saville, now this.A great week for delayed justice finally delivered.Hopefully that's au revoir to that money-driven fool Domenech and his merry band of cheats and child abusers.Congratulations to Mexico. What a splendid performance of football in the face of diving, cheating, hacking and whining from their opposition....
Certainly shaping up that way so far.Why is this World Cup crap? Let us count the ways:1. The vuvuzela drone. Apart from being profoundly annoying, it also drowns out fan singing, players can't communicate with each other, and it's so loud people are suffering from temporary deafness, and likely long-term hearing loss.Furthermore, the argument that it is somehow integral to South African sport is pure horseshit. The vuvuzela was invented only a few years ago, and is already banned at cricket and rugby games in South Africa.2. No goals. Or rather, far fewer than one might have expected. You could attribute this to the 'concede nothing' defensive mentality rife in the modern game. But I'm more inclined to blame...3. The Jabulani ball. Seemingly lighter than a beach ball, this balloon has...
BJJ 101 - better being the guy on top here Ah it smells sweet. For the first time I caught out my BJJ coach Colin. While a night at BJJ often involves a lot of mat time and submission attempts I caught him out for the first time. In many eyes this will seem of little note but it lifts me for two reasons.1) A sign of a great coach is someone who can train a student to catch even them out. I love his coaching and since moving to Bangor have only missed one class just with work. I'm sure he is proud of the fact that I have came on a bit these last few months in the same way I love to see guys and girls in the gym surpass goals etc etc.2) In BJJ, submissions are in fact just a tiny piece of the puzzle. Getting the successful submission means everything else has to be right from start to...
Up until recently I had switched my upper / lower split to a bodybuilding type split to create a 'back day' to address some small issues. On my Poliquin course a few years back I failed a structural balance test showing my pushing was better than my pulling. Lower traps were not strong enough to anchor the scapula and support the cuff while my chest was too tight and pulling things slightly off. I have managed to correct everything and have no imbalances at all - yippee :-)What did I do?First up correct exercise works off this standard protocol -Inhibit / lengthen / activate / integrate1 -When a muscle is tight it can be stretched but first its best to inhibit the muscle by performing some self myofascial release. This tackles any knots you may have and allows for a better stretch when...
According to the spoofers, vested interests and eejits in the ESRI, the rich are suffering in what they euphemistically call 'the downturn' (a diminution akin to calling the civil war in Northern Ireland 'troubles'.)Has anyone told Sean FitzPatrick yet? Or David Drumm? Or any of the other millionaire banksters who cut and run with their swagbags to their sunny hideyholes, laughing all the way?The ESRI should really be wound down at this stage. It's nothing more than a national gag generator, and I mean gag in both senses, creating comedy and vomit in equal measure.Remember, these are the same loons who were still predicting boom even after the bust had arrived, still wittering about 'soft landings' when the economy was in freefall....
Pretty much everything any British politician is saying today relates to things being done in the national interest.It's the catchphrase used to justify all sorts of self-serving politicking. But playing with the phrase makes for a fun game, actually.Simply add 'in the national interest' to whatever self-centred nonsense you happen to be spouting and voila! No dissent.It could prove useful in all sorts of situations. Unruly child?'Go to your bed, in the national interest!'Need a loan from your bank manager? Simply demand it in the national interest, of course. They're getting their money from the state using exactly the same excuse after all.Not getting laid? Invite a lady back to yours for coffee 'in the national interest.'I suspect we're going to hear an awful lot more about the...
I've not yet heard anyone make the following simple point, least of all those who are seeking to create the 'progressive coalition' in Britain.Sure, the Tories got the most seats. That's their argument.And sure, the Liberals and Labour collectively got many more votes. That's the only argument they've offered in terms of legitimacy so far.But my argument would be this: surely a coalition made up of Labour, the Lib Dems, the SDLP, Lady Sylvia (former UUP), NI Alliance Party, the Greens (and possibly Scots and Welsh nationalists too) represents a much broader and wider sweep of the UK than a simple coalition of Tories and Liberals, propped up perhaps by the DUP.The Tory spin that such a coalition would be fragile is undone by this argument. Because the very thing that makes it fragile is...
Lord Mandelson appears to have pulled off at least the half-chance of continuing the nu-Labour regime that little bit longer.Perhaps this is not the wisest move for Labour. Whoever comes in must make cuts, deep and severe cuts.And they'd have to do so propped up by at least one other party in the Lib Dems, who could walk at any time. And in Labour's case, a few assorted other fellow travellers too.Such an arrangement would give the Liberals the PR they want (like our presidential electoral system) but would be exceedingly fragile. This appears to be the main reason why the Liberals have permitted Westminster posh boy Clegg his flirtation with the Tories.While Brown remained in charge of Labour, he remained a block on such a Lib-Lab pact. Mandelson now appears to have unblocked that in...
With my recent birthday I have now become an old fart having reached the 30 year old mark. In training terms I am still a virgin when you consider that many of the top coaches etc are aged 45+.One day I will be old and grey and still sharing my love for the iron game with the young grasshoppers!Anyways to celebrate my birthday we headed off to London for a bit of a break. First stop was the centre of London to call in with the guys at Men's Health. Great day spent there with the staff chewing the fat and talking shop - I somehow got roped into a pressup challenge which involves trying to perform 100 non stop pressups in a variety of locations - You can try this and upload your results to the MH facebook page. I had one attempt at it after a chest / shoulders workout and managed 40 before...
She's got a day off and she's excited about it."I'm going to be so lazy," she promises. "I'm having the longest lie-in. You know what I don't have to do? I don't have to work."She gets drunk on the freedom."I could have scotch at noon," she promises rashly."You want scotch at noon?" I ask, concerned as I am the only possessor of scotch in the building."Don't be silly," she says to my relief. "I'm going to sleep in way past noon!"...
I bet Brown doesn't read this blog. And that's going to be something he'll regret, because I know how to save his career and his legacy.He needs to call Nick Clegg and offer him the following improvement on the existing offer - two seats at cabinet for him and Vince Cable, one of them being that of the Prime Minister. And insists that he or Darling, with Cable's assistance, ride out the financial crisis.Brown then makes a public speech acknowledging he has been rebuffed as PM, and offers the public change they can believe in - a Clegg-led administration, heavy on the Labour ministers, but with the addition of Clegg and Cable.And he offers his own expertise as Chancellor to steer Britain out of the crisis with Cable's help. He then steps down to cabinet and does just that, the one thing he...
In this potential hour of Tory darkness, one glimmer of hope emerges.Naomi Long has replaced Peter Robinson as the MP for East Belfast.Well done, East Belfast. I'm totally proud of you....
An Evening Standard hack blogged today that cops had raided the home of a photographer who had placed a 'David Cameron is a wanker' poster in his window.Then the blog mysteriously disappeared, though the Daily Telegraph still links to where it once was.So it may or may not be true.But in case it turns out not to be true, I wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong impression.David Cameron IS a wanker. Worse, he's a self-entitled Tory wanker who'll make Britain the sort of police state where the cops will tear your door down for dissenting.Call-me-Dave wasn't so precious when he and his Bullingdon Club pals were busy trashing restaurants like posh-boy hooligans at Oxford. Why the thin skin now?Please God don't let this PR creature and his hordes of evil assume power in Britain tomorrow....
Remember these images?These are one of the few remaining uncontacted indigenous tribes left on Earth. They were spotted by planes who scour the Amazon to find where such tribes may be living, primarily with the intention of ensuring that they are left alone.On first perusal, given the many horrible precedents that exist, especially in the Americas, for what happens when uncontacted tribes meet the modern world, that seems like a sensible policy.Live and let live and all that.For this tribe, as for similar tribes in the Andaman Islands, New Guinea and a few other pockets, life is an eternal Stone Age, with no inkling or conception of the huge and developed modern civilisations that surround them, threatening to engulf them.I wonder about whether stranding people in pre-history is a good...
I've been reading Dr Gene Wallenstein's book slowly, because I'm not as up on the minutiae of brain receptors and human evolutionary development as perhaps I should.Likely, neither are you. Hey, we have busy lives, right? So let me summarise part of what he says in this biological study of where pleasure comes from.The human brain transits information and processes information by way of a massively complex system of biochemical transmitters and receptors.Different receptors respond to different biochemicals, and hence are known as systems. Some of these biochemicals have cognate chemicals (ie they function the same as the body-built versions) in the real world.Four systems appear to govern pleasure. The mesolimbic dopamine system is primarily in charge of wanting.Then there appears to be...
One of the many problems with the Irish electoral system (whose PR-STV system is pretty excellent) is that too many people vote tribally.Not tribally like in the headcount that passes for political elections in the North, but tribally nonetheless.Even stupider is the fact that there is no overriding sovereignty issue dividing the tribes in the South. It's an antique inheritance from the civil war. Why else do people continually vote FF and FG? Primarily because they consider themselves of the respective tribe.I always find it fascinating when people cut loose from inherited opinion and think for themselves. To this end, the extension of VoteMatch to include Northern Ireland is fascinating.My results didn't surprise me:SDLP 51%Sinn Fein 45%Alliance 37%UUP 35%DUP 28%What did surprise me...
French footballers, that is.As if palming the ball into the net to cheat Ireland out of a World Cup final place was not ignominy enough, the French national soccer team appear to be grasping for ever greater shame.Two of their most prominent players have just been questioned by police over allegations that they may have slept with underage prostitutes.Or, as we call them in the civilised world, children.Anonymous footballer's defence? The all-time classic (well, it worked here in Ireland and we're still waiting for the corrective surgery on the constitution), "I thought she was older."I wonder how old he thought she was. Older than 27 year old married Muslim Franck Ribery? Older than 30 year old Sidney Govou, father to a five year old girl?The age of consent in France is, incidentally,...
First up for those that missed a squat article I did up for Men's Health - check it out -MH Online Fitness Editor Neil McTeggart helps you deploy this fundamental move and reach your training goals Back to basicsThe squat is our most natural movement pattern. It precedes running and even walking, yet this most basic of movements carries with it a huge number of gym-related myths. Go into any commercial gym and you can watch in awe as 17-inch thighs attempt to squat 200-plus kilograms in what can only be described as a 3-inch knee-trembling motion. To avoid ending up in hospital with an ‘S' shaped spine, check out these quick-fire tips on how to perform the perfect squat. Padding tonneThe squat...