Snarky Irish Cafe 1, Humorless Vegans 0

*gigglesnort*

Public Service Announcement: When In The UK, Don't Order An "Irish Car Bomb."

Seriously, you might not want to, no matter how much you might like the drink here.

Ireland By Facts and Figures

Since we're all Irish today, here's a nice look at the Emerald Isle.  Oh, one more factoid.  Did you hear about the Swedish geographer who claimed Ireland is really Atlantis?  

Boil 'Em, Mash 'Em, Stick 'Em In A Stew

Everybody remembers the Irish potato famine of the 1840s, but has anybody wondered lately just what kind of potato was behind it all?  Here's the fascinating tale of a curious Irish farmer who decided to try growing this bit of history. (Kudos, sir!)

Your Snarky Headline for St. Patrick's Day

"Patrick Wasn’t Irish: He Was British. Deal with It."

Perhaps you might find this write-up of St. Patrick to be useful.

Headline of the Day: I'm Not Even Going To Ask

Seen in the Dublin Metro Herald newspaper: "China Ferrari sex orgy death crash."

Ireland Signs Controversial "Irish SOPA" Into Law

Ugh.

Awesome: A Murmuration of Starlings

Did you know that a flock of starlings is technically called a "murmuration"?  I had no idea.  Nevertheless, check out this amazing footage of one murmuration of starlings in Ireland.

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

Monday Therapy: Awesome Nerd Prank with Professor Conan the Barbarian

This is awesomely awesome: Some pranksters at Trinity College Dublin put up a new faculty profile webpage in the Department of English for one "Dr. Conan T. Barbarian."

Check it out: Professor Barbarian's dissertation was entitled "To Hear The Lamentation of Their Women: Constructions of Masculinity in Contemporary Zamoran Literature."


UPDATE: Here is a cached version of the webpage that has now been taken offline.  After the fold I copied and pasted the glorious, glorious text.

Nerd Holiday Smackdown: Is Today Bloomsday or Captain Picard Day?

Would you rather that your humble blog-hostess celebrate Bloomsday or Captain Picard Day?  By the way, no fair, Boston Globe, tarting up your coverage of Bloomsday with a photo of Marilyn Monroe.  Talk about journalistic bias!  (Of course, Jean-Luc Picard doesn't need to be tarted up, does he, ladies?)

The European Bailouts: A View From Finland

How often do we get a perspective from the Finns?  Interesting.

MM in the Kitchen: Irish Soda Bread

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, when everybody is a little bit Irish!  Here is a recipe for the occasion.

Erin Go Blah: Moscow and Shanghai Cancel St. Patrick's Day Parades

Why?  Moscow's afraid of traffic jams.  Shanghai's afraid of popular uprisings.  Hmmmm.

Rule, Britannia: the United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, and the British Empire

Via Neatorama comes this intriguing (and humorous) explanation of terms and places.  Here's a link to the text too.

Public Service Announcement: Stand Up Straight!

Well, it looks like our moms were right when they kept nagging us to stand up straight and have better posture and not to slouch.  See this recent article from Scientific American!  I think we all kind of already knew this, though, right?  (Remember how I told you that I wear towering high heels to Nerdmoots?)  Besides, let's be practical here: it's hard to kick butt if you're slouching.

Now, a new track for the Nerdworld Soundtrack -- a bit of Irishman Val Doonican:

Walk tall, walk straight, and look the world right in the eye.

What Fresh Hell Is This? European Nations Going After Private Pensions

The horror, the horror!  I'm not surprised, though.  

A Little Euro-Economic Humor: the €100 Note

From Samizdata comes this little jest:

It is a slow day in a damp little Irish town. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the town, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night. The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel. The guy at the Farmers' Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the pub. The publican slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him "services" on credit. The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note. The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town. No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism. And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how the bailout package works.

The Irish Collapse: Erin Go Broke

Is the euro to blame?  Or the EU?  Well, both, I think.  What a mess.

Quote of the Day: Ireland and Its Bailout

Here is the observation:

But it’s the utopians of European integration who should learn the hardest lessons from the Irish story. The continent-wide ripples from Ireland’s banking crisis have vindicated the Euroskeptics who argued that the E.U. was expanded too hastily, and that a single currency couldn’t accommodate such a wide diversity of nations. And the Irish government’s hat-in-hand pilgrimages to Brussels have vindicated every nationalist who feared that economic union would eventually mean political subjugation. The yoke of the European Union is lighter than the yoke of the British Empire, but Ireland has returned to a kind of vassal status all the same.

Quote of the Day: What Politicians Fear

Here's a snarky comment that's a bit too true:

Politicians fear lots of things — honest labor, easily understood and headline-friendly scandals, constituents who read Hayek — but above all they fear having their credit cards taken away.

Ha!  Read the whole article.  It's about the Irish bailout.