dantes85 Forum Posts (363)

RE: Slapping !

Agree, but you're still a pup!

RE: Slapping !

Well put.

Wanted to make the comparison to training puppies also, but reckoned that it would lead to a load of: "You can't treat children like dogs!" posts.

RE: Slapping !

The argument does hold up. I'm not advocating slapping children indiscriminately - that leads to worse behaviour later on. Some kids don't care about the other punishments, and sometimes, neither do the parents.

I know that when I was a lot younger and had the chance to do something wrong, often the fear of what my father would do held me back - stopped me ending up in worse situations. As I got older, I developed my own morals and values, then slapping wasn't necessary.

One things for certain - there are more young scumbags out there now than ever there was before. Alot of them have no respect for anyone or anything.

RE: Slapping !

The namby pamby approach is well intentioned - but it doesn't work. All a person has to do is take a look around.

Ever seen a kid throwing a wobbler in a supermarket, pulling stuff off shelves, shouting. . disinterested mother wheeling a trolley with a blank look? Kids when I grew up were slapped, they didn't do that.

Ever read the court pages and see juvenile offender after juvenile offender? Don't care about the law, mugging old people etc?

Had your house/car/street vandalised by young people drunk or otherwise?

No consequences for negative behaviour = growing up with no respect for people or their property.

RE: Attic Insulation

Bit aggressive an uncalled for?!

I've a trade background, houses mainly, and an engineering degree that covers most energy saving construction/improvement methods.

Cool off.

RE: Attic Insulation

There are a few things to look out for, maybe this will be of some help.

Try to get an energy analysis done on your house, BER or similar. Find out how much heating fuel per annum you will save, and do a Cost Benefit Analysis to see how many years the payback period is. For example, if the insulation costs €5000, and you save €250 per year on heating, it will take 20 years+ for the insulation to pay for itself.

You can get a surveyor with a thermal imaging camera to identify the areas where the most heat is lost, i.e., walls, windows, roof. Sometimes, the window frames can be a big loss - poor quality, improperly fitted. Show your insulation guy these areas, check them again after he's finished.

There's a few problems with spray foam insulation. For example, it will leave parts of your attic difficult to access for maintenance, may hide roof leaks and damage. Also, it can cause an effect known as cold spots related to thermal bridging. This causes moisture to build up, which ruins the insulation and causes further damage. It can also be difficult to find where that problem is, if you use spray foam. So if your guy hasn't heard of thermal bridging and cold spots, get someone else.

RE: army deserters

My point is that they were all technically deserters. Throughout this thread you talk alot about loyalty to the government and country. My point is that governments can be wrong, and shouldn't be followed blindly. Sometimes you have to go against a government to serve your country best.

No, not at all. That seems to be how you perceived my post. Economically we have been dependant on Britain for a long time, for imports/exports, trade and work. How many people go there for work now? How many went in the 40's, 50's, 60's? The point is, if Britain's ports come under threat or close down, we're in trouble too. If Britain gets attacked, it directly affects us economically.



Once again, you've missed my point. When I put inverted commas around the word "protect", like that, I'm referring to what the British plan at that time said. It also indicates that I have issues with the use of the word in that context. The word "protect" was to be used to help justify the invasion of Ireland by Britain to the Irish people and the international community. That word would have appeared in propaganda speeches and papers had the invasion gone ahead. Whether or not I think it's right is irrelevant, it still happens every day.

Regarding Dev staying out of the war, what about the German POWs he kept in the Curragh camp? And the German pilots handed over the border to the British?

Personally I think Ireland as a nation was better to stay out of the war, but vilifying soldiers who helped to bring down one of the worst regimes in history is wrong. It's a greater good type of issue.

RE: leave animals alone

RE: leave animals alone

There's lots of people and only a few tigers. . so let the tigers have a nibble here and there. It's not like tigers are going to force the human into extinction.

RE: army deserters

Nothing is plain black and white.

Famous "Deserters"? General Robert E Lee, Confederate Army. Resigned from the Union army to fight North America in the 1860's, along with a lot of other officers.
Eamon De Valera: Deserted Irish Free State Army, led an uprising against the State.
What about the French who deserted the Vichy Regime to fight alongside the Allies in WW2?

These men were not cowards, they fought for what they believed in at that time.

Does anyone know about the extreme food shortages here during "The Emergency"? We were dependant on food imports, from Britain in particular, and the Germans were sinking every ship they possibly could. The Irish people were starving. America was sending food and strategic war materials to Britain long before Pearl Harbour, a great deal of that was sunk by the Germans too.

De Valera was hedging his bets. He didn't know which side was going to win, so he tried to stay on good terms with both. Germany wanted Ireland for a naval base. Churchill's plan was to re-occupy Ireland to "protect" us, if Germany got within a stones throw of an invasion here. If we try to think like a soldier in that time, the fastest way to open up the ports and end the Emergency was to help the Brits defeat Germany; because if Germany came even close to invading here, the Allies and the Axis would have destroyed this country in the fight to control it.

So, who would have played "wait and see", like Dev? Or would even some of us have tried to do something about it?

RE: are irish women too fussy when it comes to a guys looks,financial status and height

From 5.06 to 5.28, sums it up.

RE: Is there any thing you want to achieve

Pilot a plane, learn to weld, maybe do an honours degree, meet interesting people, learn as many new things as I can.

RE: Books

Nice plug there, barely even noticed it!

Don't have a kindle, but will see if I can buy it as a PDF. Kindles can read PDFs, so there must be a way to change the kindle data format.

There's a guy in Kerry starting up a literary journal, short stories, essays, prose etc. He aims to help people get published outside of the publishing business. Sounds ambitious, but might be worth a look, even though you're published already.

Best of luck with the book.

RE: Books

Well done man.

Do you have a how, when, why story regarding becoming a writer? Or do I have to buy the book to find out?

Ridiculous form answers

Good one man!!

RE: Why are YOU here??!

Joined for two reasons:
Tired of the pub/club thing - meeting the same people etc.
Became too busy to go out as much as I used to.

Was going out and talking to a lot of people in pubs/clubs, it was fun for a while. But it was difficult to meet anyone I really liked. The pub/club thing is so hit and miss, you chat to so many people only to discover that they're not what you were looking for - or they drop off the radar etc.

Then, about 6 months ago, I was finishing a course in college that left me with practically no time off to head out. It was intense, all week, most of the weekend. So, I thought, with summer coming up, I'd give the internet thing a try. Maybe set up a few dates for the summer. Also, I thought that chatting to people here first might be better than approaching randomers in a club and trying to extract a conversation from them. Like an opportunity to get to know someone, before you get to know them. Or something like that.

But after a while, I realised that it's actually harder to meet someone here than it is socially. I was going to delete my account, but decided to check out the forums. Some of the people were nice, so I stayed on a while.

That's my CS story, book's out next year!!

Ridiculous form answers

It seems we're always filling out forms these days, so here's a few suggestions for the next time.

All recommendations welcome :)

Q. Have you any dependants? If so how, how many?
A. At the moment, around 4 million.

Q. Have you been involved in an accident in the last five years?
A. Yes, his name is Josh.

Q. Are you, or are any members of your family illiterate?
A. Yes, all of us.

Q. Please state your religion.
A. Other - Jedi

Q. Do you suffer from a disability?
A. Severe hearing impairment - according to wife.

The hidden meaning thread.

Laralou has a nice ring to it, but by the sounds of it you came pretty close to becoming "Clara Lara".

Vinny, if you can fool people by 10 years on your age, you must be doing alright.

Thumblina was an old fairy tale too, right? And the ship has definitely sailed on "Shortass"? It's kind of catchy. .

Heart of Gold, nice one. Very tasteful.

MarsMan, we've all been caught stargazing once or twice. .

RE: Books

Reading "Chariots of the Gods" by Erich Von Daniken, and "Don Quixote" at the moment. Unusual mix, but both good books. ;)

The hidden meaning thread.

Well Madforchat, here's a toast to being online when we're meant to be studying.

Urbuddy, nice ethic. Would look good when mailing people on CS.

RE: Regrets on your death bed

I'm going to be wheeled off like Phil Lynott - full of morpheine, singing "I did it my way".

The hidden meaning thread.

Fascinating stuff. Did you ever read about ancient cosmology - relating to ancient knowledge of the Earth's elliptical orbit, even accounting for the wobble in the Earth's rotation? Apparently ancient civilisations had the same, and even more advanced knowledge of astronomy than their supposed available technology allowed them. It's Earth shattering material.

Have a look at this:

The hidden meaning thread.

Think your mam might have been right. Eyes like that can be a Weapon of Mass Distraction.

The hidden meaning thread.

We all picked an online name for CS, and some of them have a hidden meaning.

Some are obvious, others are a little vague.

So why did you pick yours, what does it mean?

RE: Worst and best chat up lines.

RE: Worst and best chat up lines.

Nice dress, it would great on my bedroom floor. .

RE: Eleven and a half million to Haiti?

I can agree to that, but it's a pity - it could have been a good debate.

There's a document I was looking over relating to construction contracting in foreign countries, it's lengthy, but it explains in part that large contractors prefer to use their own subcontractors on large projects. They may or may not hire natives based on equal opportunities employment.

RE: Eleven and a half million to Haiti?

That's happened a few times in the Middle East too. The West promise jobs to the natives building pipelines etc., then contract the work externally. Sad, but it seems it's just the way they operate.

And to Stan, I understand your point, it's very valid. But you wouldn't go putting water into a leaky bucket? We need major reform here, that's going to benefit us much more than money. We're getting hundreds of millions here already, there was supposedly billions in the country left over from the boom, where's the good it's doing? If we put 11.5 million into schools (for example) tomorrow, by the time it filtered down what would they have? A few extra calculators?

RE: youtube videos

Very good! There's nothing up for Water Rates, so I might as well have a go.

RE: Eleven and a half million to Haiti?

11.5 million is only a drop in the ocean here, it's unlikely it would have any significant impact on our horrible economic situation. It would be like pouring sugar into a sieve.

On the other hand, over there in Haiti, 11.5 million could go a long way. I agree with you in part, the jobs should go to Haitian people, possibly with training and oversight from experienced, and why not Irish, construction personnel.