Category: Uncategorized

By the Gardai…

I really really resent being given my first 2 points for driving 71 km/h on a dual carriageway in Waterford that has been given a 60 km/h “special” speed limit.  To be honest, I have no recollection of exceeding the speed limit on this road but I must have done it at some stage.  In my drive home at 60km/h today, I was actually beeped by 2 cars for driving so slowly. I would say the average speed on the road is closer to 80 km/h yet the bullshit pretense continues. I’d argue this in court but we have a thoroughly anti-democratic system in place, borrowed from our UK neighbors, that increases the number of points you receive if you attempt to defend your rights in court and fail. So if I defend myself I run the risk of doubling the points (or if the judge was really pissed off losing my license) for driving at 71 km/h on a FRIGGIN DUAL CARRIAGEWAY.

I remember looking at Drake’s equation as an undergrad and wondering why, given the 100 Billion galaxies and 100 Billion other solar systems within the universe that nice Mr. Sagan told us about, we hadn’t met any of the other inhabitants. Or at least we weren’t aware of it.

Recently I’ve thought of a simple conjecture that may explain it. The only model of scientific discovery we have is our own, so I can but anthropomorphize, BUT the physics, medicine and chemistry of interstellar travel is arguably much more complicated than genetic engineering. Never mind intergalactic travel. Last I heard, we’re not planning to travel to another solar system but we now have the tools to modify the DNA of us and every other living organism on the planet. Our tools are crude but advancing quickly. Yet the effects of these modifications could be promethean.

I belong to a much maligned group. One who it’s deemed perfectly socially acceptable to label as muppets, scumbags and fair-weather friends. I’m a Manchester United supporter. It doesn’t matter that I’ve been that way for many years now. Even before they won their first title in 26 years in the ’92-’93 season, assisted by a young Ryan Giggs and a captivating Eric Cantona, there was something about the mystique of the club that attracted me. It may have been Whiteside’s FA Cup goal a few years before but it was Mark Robbins who sealed the deal with his dramatic goal against in the Nott’s Forest in the 1990 FA Cup. The drama of the occasion and the redemption of the manager from failure to huge and perhaps unrepeatable success is the stuff small boy’s dreams are made of.  A bit like Liverpool, Utd is more of a religion than a club. It’s impossible for anyone who has ever kicked a ball around with friends to be neutral on the love/hate subject of MUFC.