The Infrastructure Off-Topic Thread!

Sponge Bob

Right. I was bored so in order to test out the EU Commission 'processes' I sent them an email reporting that the N21 Adare Bypass Blue Route EPR around Adare crosses an aquifer and is too close to the Adare Woodlands NHA.

Just got a receipt for it, will keep ye updated

spacetweek

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Right. I was bored so in order to test out the EU Commission 'processes' I sent them an email reporting that the N21 Adare Bypass Blue Route EPR around Adare crosses an aquifer and is too close to the Adare Woodlands NHA.

Just got a receipt for it, will keep ye updated

A redesign is in order for that winding lane they call a bypass anyway.

mysterious wrote: »

So Why is newlands cross forgotten about.

It's part of a set that includes the N11 Arklow. That's going ahead, at some stage anyway, so presumably NC is too.

KevR

The Frontline is good tonight.

There was some political analyist in the audience who started saying that any unqualified person in the Dail is just as entitled to have a view on the economic crisis as someone like George Lee who is highly qualified. Pat Kenny started ripping the piss out of him saying "that's like if you have a space program and give the eejit in the corner who is an expert spreading slurry the same input as an actual space expert".

:pac:

Amtmann

And a fair point that is, too. I hadn't been online today and just turned to www.irishtimes.com when I got in the door and saw the headline about George Lee. Don't know what to make of it, except that it's people like Lee (skills wise) that we need in the Dail rather than yahoos like Jackie Healy Rae, morons like Mattie McGrath, and inarticulate blusterers like James Bannon. There's a lot to be said for filling ministerial roles with non-parliamentarians; you might get a better quality of public servant then than the publicans, builders and teachers who currently form the ranks.

But to be honest and pessimistic, I think the Republic has been a failure in too many ways. I would actually dissolve the state French-style, draw up a new constitution, create new and radically different administrative structures and call it the Second Republic.

We simply have to do better.

KevR

I'm not sure what I make of the whole George Lee thing. On the one hand, it has publicly exposed some of the biggest flaws in the political system. Obviously quite a few members of the public would have already suspected that these flaws existed but it can only be a good thing to have the flaws exposed in this public manner. Also, he stuck to his principles and stepped down when hadn't made the difference/contribution he had hoped.

On the other hand, although he felt he wasn't making a difference, he certainly won't be able to make one now that he has stepped down.

Amtmann

So what do people think of Martin McAleese's new website and scheme? I posted my motorway forests proposal to it. It won't create jobs but it might just cheer people up some.

rameire

your link <http://www.nra.ie/Publications/DownloadableDocumentation/Environment/file,

is a rotten stump of nothing.
if you can edit i would

Roryhy

Hadn't heard about that site till now, even registered and voted for your proposal furet. One question though, do you intend to plant beside entire stretches of motorway? One of the magnificent things that has come out of the roads programme in my opinion are the amazing views of the countryside we now have, i would hate to have them blocked off again. I find myself driving country roads now wanting to rip out the ditches so i can see whats behind. It would make long drives very boring if all we could see is the side of a forest. I don't want you to see this post as being against your proposal, i'm actually for it, but it needs to be implemented correctly for it to be to my liking.

Amtmann

rameire wrote: »

your link <http://www.nra.ie/Publications/DownloadableDocumentation/Environment/file,

is a rotten stump of nothing.
if you can edit i would

Can't edit it, but I posted the correct link in a comment below the main proposal.

Roryhy

dont think that links workin either

rameire

only caught the end of the 9 news and the last few seconds of the piece you relate to.
seems like a good initiative and something to get the masses thinking as it is easily Accessible.
in relation to your idea, i think it could be done.
there are many areas that need planting.
but as said by Roryhy it needs to be done properly and not all areas planted.
One area I can think of as an example that is already planted heavily is the old stretch of M9 between the Kilcullen junction and the M7 junction.
there is nothing but banks on either side as the roadway was dug into the countryside so planting of trees was very suitable.
One person who im sure will give you praise here is Mysterious as this person is very proactive in making their local environs a better place by planting and cleaing public areas.

Amtmann

Roryhy wrote: »

dont think that links workin either

It does, there's a comma in the link which the website doesn't recognise. But if if you simply copy the whole link and paste it to your address bar, then it will work.

Amtmann

Roryhy wrote: »

Hadn't heard about that site till now, even registered and voted for your proposal furet. One question though, do you intend to plant beside entire stretches of motorway? One of the magnificent things that has come out of the roads programme in my opinion are the amazing views of the countryside we now have, i would hate to have them blocked off again. I find myself driving country roads now wanting to rip out the ditches so i can see whats behind. It would make long drives very boring if all we could see is the side of a forest. I don't want you to see this post as being against your proposal, i'm actually for it, but it needs to be implemented correctly for it to be to my liking.

Thanks for the support! No, I wouldn't envisage endless forests up and down them at all, rather clusters every so often, with many low-growing shrubs (such as hawthorn) that wouldn't obstruct views. The aim would be to complement the lovely scenery you describe rather than obscure it.

BluntGuy

Furet wrote: »

Thanks for the support! No, I wouldn't envisage endless forests up and down them at all, rather clusters every so often, with many low-growing shrubs (such as hawthorn) that wouldn't obstruct views. The aim would be to complement the lovely scenery you describe rather than obscure it.

I would second this, currently the state of the roadside ruins what might otherwise be as wonderful view.

Also Furet, when you get back and see how Cashel-Mitchelstown is deteriorating with every single drive you'll almost want to cry.

It just gets... worse and worse. I drove it yesterday and it looks more hideous than ever.

The drive on the M8 Mitchelstown-Fermoy used to be lovely until the litter blight hit it.

Amtmann

BluntGuy wrote: »

Also Furet, when you get back and see how Cashel-Mitchelstown is deteriorating with every single drive you'll almost want to cry.

It just gets... worse and worse. I drove it yesterday and it looks more hideous than ever.

The drive on the M8 Mitchelstown-Fermoy used to be lovely until the litter blight hit it.

Seriously? Ah no. Things will only get worse until a proper policy is implemented. This is a serious matter on lots of grounds - it's only a matter of time before we develop an international reputation for "having ruined our country with motorways" or some such interpretation. The reality is different: it's the lack of civic responsibility and pride, simple as. I really hope something gets done about this. It will affect people's impression of us, and it is RUINING the countryside near the motorways in question.

Blunt, and chance of taking pictures of the new R639 signage once up?

KevR

Signed up and voted!

The M4 near close to Dublin has really nice trees/shrubs in spots. Not sure if they're native though..

BluntGuy

Furet wrote: »

Blunt, and chance of taking pictures of the new R639 signage once up?

Yeah, shouldn't be too hard, I'll see what I can do. I don't know when they'll be up though, there wasn't any yesterday.

KevR

You Country, Your Call was just mentioned on i102 104.

I just started listening because someone said there are crazy lights in the sky up in Sligo and it's being reported on the radio. No weird lights here in Galway, just a glow from streetlights. Could be a solar storm in Sligo :eek:

Amtmann

That'll be the Atlantean fleet headed for Anaholty.

Tech3

A road travel report of the Rep of Ireland from a few years ago.

Road Travel Report: Republic of Ireland

-Corkie-

It reads more like a driving guide for bombay to mumbai:D:D. Are we that bad!!!

Tech3

malcox wrote: »

Are we that bad!!!

No

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohX9W35gnEI

L1011

A few years ago? It has the M11 redesignation, the Nitelink cuts to weekend only....

but has Castleblayney as unbypassed. Looks like its had a wee update recently maybe? Actually looks like the 'bad roads' section is ancient and the rest modern enough. The M4 toll section is listed under both good, as open, and bad as planned!

Irish and Proud

BluntGuy wrote: »

I would second this, currently the state of the roadside ruins what might otherwise be as wonderful view.

Also Furet, when you get back and see how Cashel-Mitchelstown is deteriorating with every single drive you'll almost want to cry.

It just gets... worse and worse. I drove it yesterday and it looks more hideous than ever.

The drive on the M8 Mitchelstown-Fermoy used to be lovely until the litter blight hit it.

Saw the motorway forestation initiative on the Your County, Your Call site.

Would be a very good idea in trying to restore a bit of pride in this county and therefore, start taking the country back from the parasites who ran it into the ground. For people who feel:

"This country doesn't care about me, so why should I care about it, and why shouldn't I litter it etc."

My answer is:

This country belongs to the people, not the government, not the speculators, not the developers etc. As soon as we pull together and take responsibility, we will begin to turn the tide against corruption, greed, arrogance etc. As soon as we stop thinking "what's in it for me" and instead think: "what is in the best interest of us all", then this country will improve!!!

Quoting the great John F Kennedy:

"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!"

From my own observations, the M1 is also being badly littered. How disgusting can people get - if I drop anything while walking, I pick it up - if I didn't, I'd be ashamed - I don't believe I'm such a primitive being so as to have a total disregard for my surrounds.

Some people seem so basic to me - I mean it - littering is not smart, it's simply basic!!! Just as basic as the people who ran this country into the ground - their capacity is so limited that they simply can't see or value anything other than money - they're all sad!!!

Regards!

spacetweek

MYOB wrote: »

A few years ago? It has the M11 redesignation, the Nitelink cuts to weekend only....

but has Castleblayney as unbypassed. Looks like its had a wee update recently maybe? Actually looks like the 'bad roads' section is ancient and the rest modern enough. The M4 toll section is listed under both good, as open, and bad as planned!

Thought that report was very poor!

Very badly written, filled with obvious typos (Roasslare, ERUO Route, Governor instead of Grosvenor) and astoundingly inaccurate information! On some pages, absolutely every single statement is wrong, and not just due to being outdated.

As for the date it was written, it says 2006 in the footers. They mention M11, but I think they mean the Bray bypass.

Generally, I don't agree with most of what they said.

Tech3

spacetweek wrote: »

Generally, I don't agree with most of what they said.

The only section I agreed with was the Irish driving behavior.

spacetweek

BluntGuy wrote: »

I would second this, currently the state of the roadside ruins what might otherwise be as wonderful view.

Also Furet, when you get back and see how Cashel-Mitchelstown is deteriorating with every single drive you'll almost want to cry.

It just gets... worse and worse. I drove it yesterday and it looks more hideous than ever.

The drive on the M8 Mitchelstown-Fermoy used to be lovely until the litter blight hit it.

Are you referring to the weeds, or the litter? Which is worse/more noticeable?

The littering along roads is really extreme in this country. I couldn't get over how much of it was along even new roads like the M11 Gorey which I drove on for the first time recently. That's only 2 1/2 years old, but it's at the stage where it needs a massive litter picking operation to clean it up. What exactly do the councils do? They appear to do absolutely nothing, as even the rest area was a rubbish tip, and this is an easy one to clean, as it's a small site and there's room for the council van to pull in etc.

The trick to this is light, but frequent roadside cleaning. Leaving it for 2 years is a no-no as then the amount of work to rectify is beyond the resources available.

We also need to start fining people systematically for littering. Absolutely everyone gets away with it. In South Dublin, for example, I believe the stats are around 300 fines per year. Considering I can count dozens of discarded objects in my locality alone, over the course of a few days, it seems that millions of items are dropped in South Dublin over a year - so they're fining probably 1 in 10,000 litters. I know people will object initially, but they really need to get used to it. Littering is anti-social and disrespectful, end of story. No excuse.

Along roads, it's harder to catch people. I wonder if we could use littering cameras or something like that along black spots, like rest areas and onramps.

NedNew2

From Western Argentina (Patagonia):

http://www.rionegro.com.ar/diario/funciones/popups/imagenes.aspx?idcat=12362&tipo=8

Amtmann

Although I don't believe in the supernatural, I'm nevertheless very interested in other people's beliefs about it.

I read this article today:

ARE you afraid of the Devil? The world's most famous exorcist levels his gaze at me and then smiles.

"No, it is he who is afraid of me. I work in the name of the Lord. Poor Satan."

Poor Satan?

"Oh yes. The Evil One shouts and makes noises, but we are made in God's image, we have the Holy Trinity on our side. There is no need to be afraid of the Devil unless we give in to his temptations."

We are in the infirmary of the Society of St Paul, the order of Fr Gabriele Amorth, in the shadow of St Paul's Basilica, Rome. The Vatican's chief exorcist was taken to hospital last autumn with a blood infection and is now convalescing -- "they found nothing serious". Perhaps it was the Devil who laid him low? "Oh no -- just an illness. He has more serious evil to perform."

Fr Amorth made headlines this week by suggesting that those who had "given in to Satan's temptations" included paedophile priests and even some cardinals and bishops who paid only lip service to the Gospel.

The growing crisis over the clerical sex abuse now engulfing Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican, he said, was the work of Satan, who had even "infiltrated the Vatican corridors".

Is the sex abuse crisis really due to the Devil?

"Oh yes. All evil is due to the intervention of the Devil, including paedophilia."

And the Vatican? "Legions of demons have lodged there. The majority of those in the Vatican do good work. But Pope Paul VI talked about the 'smoke of Satan' infiltrating the Vatican as long ago as 1972. Satan sets out to damage the leadership of the church -- and of politics, industry and sport, for that matter."

And although all manner of incidents, scandals and misdemeanours in Italy and abroad leap to mind as potential evidence of diabolical intervention, he declines to give examples.

Fr Amorth -- or Don Gabriele, as he is universally known -- has just published 'The Memoirs of an Exorcist', a book of interviews with Marco Tosatti, the Vatican journalist. In a style that is somewhat reminiscent of a medieval chronicle, he describes his often hair-raising experiences over the past quarter of a century in the front line against the Evil One and his minions.

Now nearly 85 and honorary president of the International Association of Exorcists, he fought for the Resistance in the Second World War, took a law degree but then entered the church. He began conducting exorcisms shortly after his ordination 60 years ago; in 1986 he was appointed by Cardinal Ugo Poletti, then the Vicar of Rome, as assistant to Father Candido Amantini, the chief exorcist, eventually succeeding him.

Now frail, he becomes animated as he describes his life-long struggle with demons who possess the bodies of their victims, at one stage spreading his arms wide to show me the length of one particular demon occupying the body of a woman he had "liberated".

He talks to Lucifer and his demons, he says, and knows their names. On the writing table in his room he keeps pictures of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, "who came into the world to fight the Devil and return us to God". But the modern world, he says, has "given in to the Evil One. You see it in the lack of faith, the empty churches, the collapse of the family."

"Compare the world of today to when I was a boy in Modena: families and parish communities were strong, women did not go out to work. Now they have to because one income cannot support a family. So young people are left to their own devices, they get into bad company, they have lost their roots and replaced them with the negative influences of television and the internet, or the occult."

What about those who believe in neither God nor Satan? "The Devil is only too happy to take advantage of those who do not believe in his existence. It means he can operate with complete freedom, even inside the church. He exploits lust and power."

The Devil tries to reach all of us, Fr Amorth adds, and "the possessed are those who listen to him most. Mind you, they are a minority. If you read my book you might get the impression the whole world is possessed, but I am describing a small number of cases, comparatively speaking."

His claim to have carried out 70,000 exorcisms seems incredible. "But I was talking about the number of exorcisms, not the number of people exorcised. You often have to exorcise someone dozens, even hundreds, of times, and an exorcism ritual can take anything from a few minutes to several hours."

Exorcism can only be done with the approval of the local bishop, usually after medical or psychiatric tests show no rational explanation for the symptoms, which include vomiting, violent headaches and stomach cramps but also superhuman strength, fits and extreme aversion to holy symbols.

He is adept, he says, at distinguishing hysterics from the real thing. There are more women than men among the possessed, "but we don't know why. There are various explanations: Satan taking revenge on the Virgin Mary, or using women as a means of reaching men. None of them is convincing."

The possessed talk in languages they do not know, including ancient tongues such as Aramaic, the language of Christ. "Sometimes the language is incomprehensible. I once asked a demon what it was and he said, 'Satanic language'."

The victims often react so violently to the ritual of prayers, incantations, holy water and the sign of the cross that they have to be held or tied down while the priest touches the possessed person with his stole and places his hand on his or her head.

In many cases, he says, they vomit objects such as nails or glass. Fr Amorth has a collection weighing 2kg. "You get used to being vomited over. I once performed an exorcism on a woman who hit me in the face with a stream of vomit from the other side of the room -- physically impossible."

The Devil, he says, is humourless but does sometimes play tricks. He and his demons speak through the victim, sometimes using their normal voice but sometimes in hoarse, raucous tones. He imitates the unnerving low growl for me. But they are not visible, any more than angels are.

"Angels exist -- they are pure spirit. We all have guardian angels. Demons are, of course, fallen angels who rebelled against God; that is why they are so intelligent, and so arrogant."

Fr Amorth has no designated successor, and complains that even now the church hierarchy does not take exorcism -- or the Devil -- seriously enough. But "the Lord has made use of me" and his example has inspired many other priests -- as did the 1973 film 'The Exorcist', which, although "exaggerated", was "substantially true".

At his age does he still have the stomach for the battle with Satan? "Oh yes. I have work to do." (© The Times, London)

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/no-rest-for-the-wicked-until--chief-exorcists-work-is-done-2098355.html

I found it fascinating. Here's a man who believes that all bad things are the works of devils. He is on record as stating categorically that both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were possessed, and that all that followed was the work of the divil. The same, he says, goes for paedophile priests.

I think some people are just innately twisted, maniacal and deadly - nothing demonic involved. It's all us.

Plowman

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