taint.org: Justin Mason’s Weblog

Travel: I’m just back from a great road trip around Nevada and Arizona – lots of fun was had, and I even came out $100 up on the blackjack!

In other travels, my mate Eoin recently visited Muff, Co. Donegal, and made sure to get a picture of the event.

Muff is well-reknowned as one of those towns with a silly name; the story goes that they even have a SCUBA diving club, called — guess what – “Muff Diving Club”. Sadly, the reports are apparently greatly exagerrated. Eoin writes:

I have been hearing the story of the ‘muff diving club’ for the last 10 years, and now i can categorically state that its an urban legend. No such thing. There was a ‘top muff’ petrol station though where we picked up a few keyrings. The girl behind the counter was trying to give us all 200 keyrings left in the bag as she was so sick of muppets like us coming in for a laugh.

Tags: blackjack, club, event, fun, mate, muff, picture, road, story, travel, trip

Culture: Five killed in separate road crashes. Donncha notes ‘There were 2 terrible road accidents this morning. One of them was just outside Cahir, in Co. Tipperary. I drove past there dozens of times in the past and I was shocked to hear the news.’

It’s interesting to note this cultural difference. In Ireland, a road crash with multiple fatalities is national news, on the 6 o’clock news; in California, as far as I can see, it’s pretty much an everyday fact of life – unless there was a juicy ‘road rage’ story attached, it won’t get reported.

Are there more deaths in the US than Ireland? It seems not. The US department, NHTSA, notes that California had 3,956 fatalities in 2001, which works out at 11.47 per 100K population. The Irish dept, NRA (heh – that’s National Road Authority) notes a 2001 rate of 10.7 per 100K population. (However, Ireland’s rate has dropped since then, due to an increased emphasis on road safety; the 2003 rate is reported to be the lowest since the 1960’s. Not sure what it is now, though.)

So, interestingly, the death rate is comparable — so where’s the difference? I reckon it must be simply a PR issue; Ireland’s road safety authorities have made it a PR priority, so that public awareness of road safety is heightened. As a result, road crashes are headline news.

Tags: cahir, crash, culture, difference, donncha, morning, news, population, rate, road, safety

Sport: Observer: Football, blood and war: an insane article about the
crossover between Serbian nationalist paramilitaries and football hooliganism:

The crowd watched as a group of Serbian paramilitaries (the self-styled ‘Tigers’), dressed in full uniform, took up positions in the north stand. There were about 20 of them and, one by one, they held aloft road signs: ‘20 miles to Vukovar’; ‘10 miles to Vukovar’; ‘Welcome to Vukovar’. More road signs were brandished, each one bearing the name of a Croatian town that had fallen to the Serbian army. From high up in the stand, Arkan, the notorious commander-in-chief of the Tigers and director of the Red Star supporters’ association, emerged to receive the delighted applause of supporters who were no longer fractious but united in hatred of a common enemy - the Croats.

Mind you, that was 1992. Still, very scary. (Via the ie-rant mailing list)

Tags: article, blood, football, observer, road, serbian, sport, stand, tigers, vukovar, war

A couple of handy links for while I’m on the road:

• SquirrelMail at jmason.org

• MindTerm SSH applet

Saves me typing — consider these recommendations ;)

Tags: applet, couple, jmason, mindterm, org, road, saves, squirrelmail, ssh

Apparently, a replica of Michelangelo’s David has caused a bit of controversy in Lake Alfred, Florida (pop 3,890). A quote: “I work six days a week. And we do live in Lake Alfred… you know? What we look at is raccoons and rattlesnakes. To me it was a naked man on the side of the road.”

Tags: bit, controversy, man, michelangelo, pop, quote, replica, road, side, week