[ Minor spoiler alert ]
I was in to see the last Star Wars film this evening. To be frank the cartoon that I would prefer to see is Sin City, but I can wait another week for that.

So what did I think? Well it’s a George Lucas Star Wars film, so the dialogue is as bad as ever (one review I read correctly said Hallmark write better romance), there are massive plot holes, the land battle scenes all employ first world war tactics (let’s all march across open ground into enemy fire), the laws of physics are nowhere to be seen (standing near a huge field of molten lava will get you incinerated in seconds) and Lucas, in love with his CGI technology, makes excessive use of digital “characters” where a real person would do.

But it was entertaining in a escapist way, and it did tie up the whole series nicely. There were a few too many convenient scenes dropped in in the last quarter that make no sense to on their own but are directly linked to the first three films (Yoda telling Obi Wan that he must learn how to live forever, or the casual order for C3PO to have his memory scrubbed). However in terms of bang for you buck and sheer visual spectacle it was pretty impressive.

It certainly was the best of the three recent films. There was something about it, that when I came out I didn’t necessarily feel I wanted to rush back in to see it again right away. Rather, I thought I would like to see the first three again now.

As a result I think I will give Star Wars – Revenge of the Sith one a +1 Worth Seeing.

Which is better than it’s predecessors:
Star Wars – The Phantom Menace -1 Avoid
Star Wars – Attack of the Clones 0 All right

Mmmm, that was a good weekend. One of the ones great memories are made of.

It started a little shakily on Friday night. I rushed into town with L to see Esbjorn Svensson Trio in Vicar Street. Except when we got there it turned out I had had a blonde moment. The concert was on Saturday night. We returned home, with me feeling rather foolish.

After some low key pottering on Saturday we did get a great gig that night. Ordinarily I am a bit apathetic about live music, but these guys are brilliant. That said, I am torn between introducing more people to something I love, and the alternative of keeping then to myself. The concert was a little late coz of a power cut. But the audience took it all very well.

On Sunday, the afternoon was spent wandering around town before a trip to the cinema. And that was probably one of the best things about the weekend. As her exams have finished, and 4 years of college is drawing to a close, we got to spend a load of time together. And I am looking forward to a lot more time with her in future (even before we get hitched later this year). So I just want to say – thanks for making it so good L!

Following the tragic accident earlier in the week where 5 school girls were killed in a bus accident it has been mentioned elsewhere that €58m would buy a new fleet of school buses. And people think this would be a good idea.

I think it is a pretty dumb one. There are a whole load of reasons for this:

• We don’t know yet what was the cause of the accident. It may have been the fault to the two other car drivers. The age of the bus (13 years) may have had nothing to do with it. Rushing ahead with a knee jerk “buy new buses” approach would be very short sighted.
• Replacing the whole fleet now would not solve all the problems. There would be a need to continuously update the buses. And how old is too old for a bus? 10 years, 5 years? As it stands the busses have to pass a road worthiness test each year. While they may not look the best they are relatively safe. There may be a need to tighten standards and mandate seat belts but that will not require spending tens of millions replacing the entire fleet
• With all the hysteria surrounding this incident (“Someone think of the children!”) people are forgetting that the number of children being killed around school buses is still pretty small. The 5 deaths this week were a statistical jump, not the norm. In any given year there are probably a couple of fatalities involving school buses. The sort of ones I can remember seing in the media include a girl getting her coat caught in a bus door and being dragged by the bus, or the all too common one of being struck by motorists after getting off the bus. These are not the sort of things that a more modern fleet will change. I would bet a lot of money that there are far more children killed each year in car accidents on their way to or from school.

And even if 5 children a year were being killed by old school busses, and €58m would buy total safety (both big if’s), would it be the right thing to do?Probably not. Here’s why. Replacing the busses every 10 years means you are spending €5.8m a year on the fleet replacement alone. That will potentially save 5 lives. The cost per life saved then is about €1.2m per person.

It may seem callous to reduce it to such terms, but think of how many more lives could be saved for the same amount of money? Putting the money into better cycle lanes, school diet and exercise programs or other road safety measures like double penalty points and reduced speed limits in the vicinity of schools would save considerably more lives.

I am not saying nothing should be done. But it is important that in our shock at what has happened we don’t just run off looking for some quick fix to make ourselves feel better. We run the risk of ending up with something which will deliver little benefit, or none at all.

Gavin criticised Bertie Ahern for saying we should wait until the investigation is complete before deciding what to do. May I be forgiven for saying this, but I am with the Taoiseach on this one.

Two days worth of Rás updates. On Tuesday Kieran was on the stage from Tubbercurry. He was doing okay and had got through most of the stage when he was caught up in a crash at the bottom of Corkscrew Hill 10km from Lisdoonvarna. He was relatively unscathed, but lost some time. He finished the day in 77th and dropped 14 places to 63.

Today was the tough Lisdoonvarna to Templemore stage. This one was 162km, with 4 climbs and started out in brutal weather again. Unfortunately on the road to Tullamore Kieran was involved in another pile up. This time he didn’t come off as well. What I heard was that he has a swollen knee and has hurt his back. So he has decided that pull out of the Rás at the half way stage. It’s a bit dissapointing, but better safe than sorry.

I am hoping to have a few words here from the man himself tomorrow.

Kudos to RTE. I saw their trailer for Rambo 3 later this week and I nearly laughed off the couch.

It goes something like…

“Watch Rambo

and the Taliban

vs the Commies

on RTE”

Priceless!

The word from the cyclist is good and not so good. Today’s stage was from Emyvale to Tubbercurry over 165km. Kieran did well finishing in 32nd place in 4h 17’2″. This brings him up 25 places to 47th from 72nd.

He said it was a tough day. They were fighting the weather for the whole day with rain and strong head winds. Things did improve later but there were no flats, it was rolling roads all day. Despite that, having raced the Rás last year he has a better idea of what he can do so he decided to contest the sprint today. At one point he was up in the top 15-20 but as he said himself these are “serious riders”. He is pretty happy so far though.

Unfortunately one of the team, John Dillon of the Dublin Exel Ravens, was involved in a big crash early on yesterday’s stage. John badly injured his knee, and after only 10 km in the saddle his race was over. Irish cycling caught him just after the fall.

For consolation he did make the RTE 9 O’Clock news last night.

Tomorrow stage three will take them from Tubbercurry to Lisdoonvarna. 156km with two big climbs. Best of luck Kieran

As mentioned before, I was down in West Cork for the weekend for a wedding. Glengarriff to be exact. It’s a different country down there all right. Don’t they shoot their own there to be sure?

It was brought home to me what the place was like when I was in the local Spar on Saturday morning just before the wedding. As I was queueing a man came in looking for a copy of the Irish Times, which was sold out. He asked the shop owner was there any left:

“Do you have any Irish Times at all?”
“No we are all sold out”
“How is that?”
“There is a crowd of Pinkos down from Dublin for the weekend and they got the lot”

Kieran started in the FBD Rás yesterday. I was away for the weekend so I didn’t get a chance to talk to him about his progress. But the official placings for Sunday’s stage from Dublin to Emyvale are up. Kieran came 72nd of the 193 riders. That’s a pretty good showing and better than he did last year at the same stage. He was 2′h56’26″, which puts him 3 minutes and 18 seconds behind the leader.

The first stage was just a bit of a warm up, 135km and they did it at over 45km/h!

Today it’s Emyvale to Tubbercurry, a distance of over 165km.

Best of luck Kieran!

If anyone ever asks I can tell them that I now know what it is like to be out in a 28 foot boat in a force 6 gale. I even got to helm her while we took the sails down and decided to sod back into the harbour when racing was cancelled due to the weather.

Brrrrr, I am still cold and wet.

In other news…

I was chatting to a friend who works for RTE recently. She told me that Harvey Norman has been kicked off the radio station. They don’t/won’t carry their advertising any more. So if you want your fix you have to go over the Today FM or somewhere.

Those bloody ads also won an award for their creators Mindshare (who’s tag line is “Headspace invaders” – seriously!). The citation was:

“Due primarily to a clever use of radio placement by MindShare and Mediaedge:cia, Harvey Norman was now part of the Dublin vernacular and the media had created good understanding of the brand. The judges added that while the radio spots may never win a creative award, they had served the intended communications purpose.”

WHAT!!! “Created a good understanding of the brand” – Like me, most of my friends don’t know what the hell Harvey Norman sells. They only know that they change radio station when the bloody ads come on. And if we ever get the chance, Harvey and the entire staff of Mindshare are all going against the wall when the revolution comes.

Expect RTE’s listernership figures to go up on the basis of this ban alone.