Almost very good.

Probably worth checking out some of the others.

BOSTON - Several illuminated electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a publicity campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. Most if not all of the devices depict a character giving the finger.

Full Story on Msnbc Yep its happened, America has shat itself by looking at a cartoon character giving them the finger.

RTE.ie has had a full redesign. About time they got rid of the clunky piece of shit, but I need to click around a bit before I decide what I think about the new one. What do you think?

The most important drum-break thus far.

This six-second sample from 1969 alone is responsible for the entire musical genre - ‘jungle’, and arguably stakes a place as about as important to hip-hop as James Brown’s ‘Funky Drummer’ break.

Visually stark (boring), this informative video traces the use of the break and its incredible importance in terms of recent musical history (from NWA through jungle, to Squarepusher and investigating copyright implications - even sighting a company providing commercially available sample CDs aimed at advertisement industry, and hence, claiming the sample as its own property) and implications of its recontextualisation in cultural and commercial terms.

Six-seconds of one b-side, responsible for an entire cultural movement, The Amen Break:

The New York Times had another piece on Ireland yesterday. The Irish, Young in ‘Old Europe,’ Strain Schools and Housing
.

While many countries in Europe grapple with the difficulties associated with aging populations, Ireland and a few others face the opposite problems — and advantages — from an excess of youth.

Crowded schools, a labor crisis in child care and strained infrastructure in new commuter areas like Laytown are among the burdens faced by Ireland and other European countries at the young end of the age range.

Previously. (via.)

Site with one click launch to pretty much every radio station in the country: www.eire.fm.

Right Ted. There’s subediting and there’s subediting and there’s mistaken identity, but this is ridiculous. In reporting on the inter-Aran war today, the Indo says:

the unseemly row is even more bizarre as neither of the islands actually featured as the fictitious Craggy Island, the home of long-suffering Fr Ted, Fr Dougal McGuire and Fr Ted Hackett.

“Fr Ted Hackett”, eh?

Due to the ongoing OMFG-big-brother-racism controversy, Jade Goody has been crucified by the Internet, as reported by The Register. There are some quite amusing bits and bobs there.

We’d like to say at this point that we at Vulture Central in no way condone this kind of behaviour, and urge netizens to show tolerance and constraint until a proper show trial and Iranian-style execution (Celebrity Come Dance the Tyburn Jig - live on Channel 4, Saturday, 9pm) can be arranged. ®

Previously on TCAL

Via Sky News

The whole racist bullying campaign in the Big Brother house has prompted the show’s sponsor to pull out of it’s sponsorship of the show.

OFCOM has so far received 27,000 complaints.

Previously on TCAL

A mother of three died from water intoxication after a radio station drinking competition, a California coroner said on Saturday. Jennifer Strange, 28, competed in Sacramento station KDND 107.9’s “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contest to try to win Nintendo’s console for her children.

Contestants were handed half-pint bottles of water to drink every 15 minutes for the first hour, and then larger bottles to up the ante.

No need to point out the tragic irony.

Another great idea from America… more at The Register

Rumours abound that guys behind the Strawberry Alarm clock are jumping ship to 2fm.

Just got word that the Colm Hayes and Jim Jim Nugent are off to 2fm with the award winning Strawberry Alarm Clock…

Boards.ie thread. The strawberry alarm clock blog seems to be gone kaput, and Damien Mulley points out on his blog that all reference to the guys seems to be gone from FM104.ie.

Fun letter to the Irish Times from a 7 year old reprinted over at Blogorrah.

Not sure how new it is, but the Irish Times breaking news section now has a technology section. Just as long as they don’t ever get an ‘entertainment’ section:

Movie star gets out of left side of bed in morning

That along with the Irish Times magazine, which is constant week in week out poo, would be the nails in the coffin of a once respected Irish institution.

The New York Times published an article yesterday frequently citing Dublin’s traffic problems. You can’t get to it without registration, so here’s a boards.ie link instead.

El Commandant P takes his biscuit addiction (see the right menu of in Fact Ah) to Sean Moncrieff on Newstalk 106. MP3 link on this in fact ah post here.

RTE have a photo journal of their chief news reporter Charlie Bird in the amazon online, to coincide with a tv show on tonight at 9.30 on RTE 1 where he travels the length of the river.

Time has a 25 Top 10 Lists section up. The video games one is interesting, 3 out of 5 of the top 5 games are all Nintendo - and Wii Sports takes the top spot.

Urban Ninja takes their top spot for web videos (9.8 million views, wow):

There’s loads of stuff in all the lists worth looking at. Go forth and do nowt but interdiddle for the entire day.

One of the funniest things out of the FM104 Strawberry Alarm Clock in a while.

Strawberry Alarm Clock blog.

Here’s the top 10 of the Phantom FM top 100 songs of 2006:

1. Steady As She Goes - The Raconteurs
2. Let’s Make Love And Listen To Death From Above - CSS
3. A Ghost In This House - The Immediate
4. Knights Of Cydonia - Muse
5. Over And Over - Hot Chip
6. Standing In The Way Of Control - The Gossip
7. Freewheel - Duke Special
8. Monster - The Automatic
9. Starlight - Muse
10. Insistor - Tapes N Tapes

Here’s the complete list. Let’s youtube the top 3.

The Raconteurs: Steady as she goes (official site.)

CSS: Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above (official site)

The Immediate: A Ghost In This House (official site.) We can’t youtube it, because I can’t find it on youtube. You can listen to a sixty second preview of it here. Or the whole thing plays on their myspace profile.

The boards.ie phantom fm message board post for the list.

This years Edge Foundation question is “What are you optimistic about?”

What is the Edge Foundation?

The mandate of Edge Foundation is to promote inquiry into and discussion of intellectual, philosophical, artistic, and literary issues, as well as to work for the intellectual and social achievement of society. Edge Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit private operating foundation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

160 really smart people answer. Contributors include TCAL favourites Richard Dawkins and Ray Kurzweil.

Dawkins’ answer:

The Final Scientific Enlightenment

I am optimistic that the physicists of our species will complete Einstein’s dream and discover the final theory of everything before superior creatures, evolved on another world, make contact and tell us the answer. I am optimistic that, although the theory of everything will bring fundamental physics to a convincing closure, the enterprise of physics itself will continue to flourish, just as biology went on growing after Darwin solved its deep problem. I am optimistic that the two theories together will furnish a totally satisfying naturalistic explanation for the existence of the universe and everything that’s in it including ourselves. And I am optimistic that this final scientific enlightenment will deal an overdue deathblow to religion and other juvenile superstitions.

I disagree. I believe the deathblow to “religion and other juvenile superstitions” will not be a grand unified theory in physics. Rather, it will be driven by socio-politcal forces, and facilitated technologically. At some point this century, sectarianism will become redundant as technology facilitates true global collaboration. Human religion, in its sectarian form, will down tools and set aside its isolationist and oppressive components and we’ll realise that we operate much more productively as a collective. A final theory of everything in physics will go a long way in supplanting human tendencies to spiritualism and a desire for meaning but it won’t be the final nail in the coffin. If time is on our side, perhaps we’ll be the ones spoiling the prize for other intelligent species elsewhere in the universe.

Previously - the 2005 question.