Topics

Lads I'm looking for ideas for a good CCTV system (but obviously a low cost one) to monitor our new facilities around the club as we've recently installed a new 3G pitch and we would like it monitored so that we can cover ourselves in case of injury claims or damage that may arise. the area is question is roughly about 40m x 35m. However if the CCTV system was reasonable enough we could install a few additional cameras to the front of the club house and monitor the comings and goings.

I had a few messages from a few of you before the time my home was burgled about cameras so that's why I'm back for more information. Jasus if some of you wanted to give me a price for the installation and cameras i might even get ya's a bit of work (i can just see Laoislads ears perking up...lol)

[Is this man talking pure manure or has he a point?]

I have been wondering about why Whites are racists, and no other race is......




Proud to be White
Michael Richards makes his point..............
Michael Richards better known as Kramer from TVs Seinfeld does make a good point.

This was his defense speech in court after making racial comments in his comedy act.  He makes some very interesting points...

Someone finally said it..  How many are actually paying attention to this?  There are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans, etc..

And then there are just Americans.  You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction.  You call me 'White boy,' 'Cracker,' 'Honkey,' 'Whitey,' 'Caveman'... and that's OK.

But when I call you, Nigger, Kike, Towel head, Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink .. You call me a racist.

You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you... so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?

You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King Day.

You have Black History Month.  You have Cesar Chavez Day.

You have Yom Hashoah.  You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi.

You have the NAACP.  You have BET... If we had WET (White Entertainment Television), we'd be racists..  If we had a White Pride Day, you would call us racists.

If we had White History Month, we'd be racists.

If we had any organization for only whites to 'advance' OUR lives, we'd be racists.

We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce, and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce.  Wonder who pays for that??

A white woman could not be in the Miss Black American pageant, but any color can be in the Miss America pageant.

If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships... You know we'd be racists.

There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US .  Yet if there were 'White colleges', that would be a racist college.

In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights.  If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists.

You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you're not afraid to announce it.  But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists..

You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist.

I am proud.... But you call me a racist.

Why is it that only whites can be racists??

There is nothing improper about this e-mail..  Let's see which of you are proud enough to send it on..  I sadly don't think many will.  That's why we have LOST most of OUR RIGHTS in this country.  We won't stand up for ourselves!

BE PROUD TO BE WHITE!

It's not a crime YET... but getting very close!

Is this man talking pure manure or has he a point?

I always knew we were getting ripped off but when i read the following i couldn't believe by how much...


The true cost of a pint
Buy a pint and just 7p goes towards the cost of making the drink, while a £4 bottle of wine costs just 30p to make. So where on Earth is the rest of your money going?

Getting in a few rounds in the pub or splashing out on a decent bottle of wine in a restaurant can leave your bank balance, as well as your head, a little worse for wear the following morning.

Every year drinkers across the UK spend £19.8 billion on beer, £15.4 billion on wine and £8.3 billion on spirits. And prices are only set to increase.

The cost of a pint has been steadily rising in recent years: the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) says the average pint of bitter costs £2.80 with lager now at around £3.

That's nowhere near the average £6 price tag in Norway, but is a far cry from the 25p you'll shell out for a pint in Tajikistan.

Paying for more than beer
Ian Lowe of Camra says the mark-up on prices varies enormously but estimates this stands at around 55% on the average pint.

However, it's the government that is making the most from the nation's penchant for a tipple: around a third of the cost of a pint goes to the Treasury. For a pint of 4% beer, 37.4p goes in just excise duty, not counting the VAT of 17.5%. This excise duty rises to 50p for a 5% strength brew. In contrast just 7p is spent on the raw materials such as hops and barley.

"Global breweries say they make 1p a pint and it's actually the government that makes more money on beer than brewers and licensees," said Lowe.

Revealed: Britain's best pubs

Not just drinkers paying
Pubs have had a rough ride during the recession: beer sales at pubs are now at their lowest level since the 1930s, down by £650 million last year, with around 50 pubs closing every week as landlords can no longer make ends meet.

Furthermore, around two thirds of the 53,000 pubs in the UK are tied to breweries. This means they have to buy their beer from the companies that own their pubs and this can often force landlords to pay up to 50p more a pint than wholesale prices.

Global breweries are also putting their prices up faster than smaller breweries despite benefitting from economies of scale. Brewing giant InBev UK, which makes Stella Artois and Budweiser, hiked the wholesale cost of a pint by an average of 4p at the start of February, blaming the increase on difficult market conditions and more expensive raw materials.

Scottish and Newcastle owner Heineken, which last month reported a 14% rise in underlying profit for 2009, recently added 4p to the wholesale cost of a pint of beer and 5p to cider as it battles lower sales.

Meanwhile Guinness producer Diageo raised its recommended retail price of a pint by 10p to £3.03 on 1 February.

And increases in wholesale prices, when combined with taxes and the rest, mean punters pay far more. A 1p rise in the wholesale price can lead to a 5p rise in the cost of a pint, according to Lowe.

Video: the decline of the British pub

More costs to come
What's more, the price of booze is likely to rise further as the government tries to claw back some of its massive Budget deficit through yet more tax hikes.

Duty rates on beer have increased 20% during the last two years. In April the rate of excise duty will go up by another 2% above the level of inflation and will continue to do so every year until 2012. This will mean a 5% rise this year based on the Retail Prices Index figures for inflation.

The government is also considering raising VAT from its current 17.5% to 20%. Analysts say these tax hikes could add as much as 45p to the cost of a pint by Christmas - and potentially send many more local pubs out of business as drinkers turn to supermarkets where a four pack of lager costs around £5.

Not just beer
Wine drinkers also face paying more for a bottle after the Budget.

The average bottle of UK wine costs £4.32 with total tax accounting for more than 52% of the retail price. Excise duty for the average bottle works out at £1.61 with another 64p going on VAT. Furthermore, tax on wine has increased by more than 20% in the last two years.

In contrast, the French only pay VAT of around 20% - so this means a cheap bottle of wine costing £2.51 there will soar to £4.26 in the UK. If you're planning on stocking up for a big celebration, that booze cruise to Calais can more than justify the cost of the petrol.

In the UK supermarkets account for more than two thirds of all wine sales; their size and purchasing muscle allows them to buy in bulk and sell at cost or even below cost price if they can recoup money on higher margin items.

How much should you spend?
Spend a few extra pounds and you get a much better quality of grape for your money. Buy a £4 bottle of wine and once you've taken off taxes, a retail mark-up of around 30%, sometimes a wholesaler mark-up of around 20% and packaging costs, the winemaker is left with around 30p to actually make the wine. This means they go for quantity over quality using veritable mountains of cheap grapes.

If you trade up to a £7 bottle the amount of money the winemaker has to produce the wine soars to around £2. This means they can use higher-quality grapes and develop different flavours by ageing the wine or perhaps using oak barrels.

Wine experts say that the best value wine to buy from the shops is between £6 and £9 as a decent amount of your cash goes towards the actual wine.

Restaurant mark-ups
This is definitely not the case when it comes to restaurants. They unashamedly make most of their money from wine: Gordon Ramsay has said he only just about breaks even on the cost of food with profits coming from the mark-up on drinks.

There are various ways restaurants mark-up the cost of a bottle; many tend to double or triple the price they pay. So if you're forking out £20 for a bottle, the chances are they only paid around £7 to £10.

This makes it worse value to go for more expensive bottles of wine as you're paying to line the restaurateur's pockets rather than getting a better quality drink.

A few restaurants don't do this and have flat-rate mark-ups - this makes the more expensive wines better value.

Money spirited away
If you're a fan of harder liquor, however, you could be in for a rude shock in the Budget on 24 March as the government battles to clamp down on binge drinking and, of course, raise extra cash to shrink its £178 billion deficit.

At present, tax makes up almost 72% of a bottle of 70cl spirits at 37.5% proof imported from the EU. Excise duty accounts for £5.94 of the average price of £10.46, with VAT coming in at £1.56. This means you're paying just £2.96 for the product itself.

The drinks industry is bracing itself for spirit duty to rocket after the Budget, far above the 5% increase earmarked for beers, wines and spirits under the government's alcohol duty escalator.

MPs on the health select committee last year called for a return to 1983's level of duty, when a litre of pure alcohol had duty equivalent to 11% of the average male weekly manual wage, compared with 5% in 2002. This could add around £8 to a bottle of whisky or gin, according to the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA).

However, a spokesman stressed that while the government is being pressured into taking action and alcohol is seen as an easy target, the actual increases coming through in the Budget are likely to be far less.

Time to stop the rising prices
Industry bodies want the tax escalator to be postponed as companies struggle with falling sales and the rising cost of raw materials, energy and transportations. The weak pound is also making imports more expensive.

"Enough is enough. We know the public finances are in difficulty but pushing up prices with higher taxes does nothing to help British consumers or businesses battling to recover from the recession," said Jeremy Beadles, chief executive of WSTA.

The UK's alcohol duties are already much higher than most other European countries but with taxes set to rise significantly further, that after work drink is about to become a lot more expensive.

Happy Birthday Tyrone Girl

there is a debate on you're age but judging by you're facebook photos i'd say you're about 34

Lads our club is getting a major redevelopment and due to this we are selling our current catch nets, they are only 4 year old. The net for the catchers at one end are in great condition. However, a new net will be needed for the other end. The galvanising and all steel structures are in perfect condition.

If your club is interested let me know and i'll provide you with the rest of the information

It's a fantasy all but the very richest of us have probably entertained: tell the boss where to stick his one-to-ones and spreadsheets, turn on our heel and storm out, never to suffer the daily grind again.

But how much would you really need in the kitty to turn this dream into a reality?

We've crunched the numbers for an average couple at various stages of their lives so you need wonder no more.

How much money will you need to retire? Share your thoughts

So, who are the Averages?
To give you an idea of how we reached our conclusions, here are some of the basic assumptions we made: Mr and Mrs Average have two children, which remain financially dependant until our couple hit 50. The family have one foreign holiday a year and run a small car.

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, the average mortgagee is 36 and owes £112,030. We'll assume that they keep faith in the NHS and have very average taste in clothes and food.

The Averages age 40
By age 40, they will owe around £110,000 on their mortgage and when they're no longer battling the rush hour traffic, will do up to 6,000 miles a year in their saloon.

According to recent data from comparison site confused.com, these are the Average's outgoings: credit card and loan debt (£2,791 per year), utility bills (£1,167 each year), insurance costs (£1,476.84) mobile and landline phones (£627 per year) and council tax (£1,222). Food costs £3,724 a year.

Find the best paying cash ISA

As well as the boring stuff, it assumes the average person pays out for a TV licence (£142.50 a year) and a satellite or cable package at £225 every year. Internet access will set them back an average of £204 a year.

We'll also let them go on one foreign holiday a year. According to the Expenditure and Food Survey, Office for National Statistics this is £650 per year, but this seems rather low. Research for Holiday-Rentals.co.uk earlier this year put the figure at £2,092, including spending money and holiday wardrobe.

For the couple alone, we're looking at very basic outgoings of around £18,000-per-year, including clothing, car costs and leisure money.

However, kids are expensive. Research published in January 2009 by Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society found that the cost of parenting one child is almost £200,000 (£193,772) until the age of 21.

This figure includes the cost of education, food, clothing, babysitters, uniform, pocket money, presents and all the other trappings of family life.

So for two kids, we're looking at nearly £20,000 a year. We'll assume that Miss and Master Average are dependent, 11-year-old twins, living at home, for the next seven years. This will need a sum of £140,000.

However, the years between 19 and 21 are the most expensive (estimated at nearly £40,000 a year). So for three years, the two will cost £240,000.

Danny Cox of Hargreaves Lansdown explains that any retiree should aim to be mortgage-free, so you already need a lump sum of £110,000 in the kitty just to clear that.

As well as making sure you can sustain this for - what could be - a very long life, you must always have what Cox calls: "a cash cushion, a contingency and emergency fund.

"Normally this would be three to six months' expenditure. For retirees, I think cash balances should be much higher - the chances are that in the early years they are going to spend more (holidays etc).

"I would work on the basis of £50,000 plus any planned capital expenditure and this assumes that they live within their income."

To maintain an income of £18,000 a year, they will need a pot of cash to invest. Cox gives a conservative figure (assuming a yield of 2.5%, or 3% after tax): "For every £100,000 invested this generates £2,500 of income."

Mortgage pay-off: £110,000
Contingency: £50,000
Investment: £700,000
Cost of kids: £380,000

To keep them in a very modest, basic but paid-for lifestyle, they'd need a whopping £1,240,000.

Mr and Mrs Average aged 50
When the couple reach 50, something very helpful happens: they become debt-free. This has a significant effect on the amount they need to maintain their lifestyle.

According to finance experts, Your Money Matters, the average age that Brits shake off the shackles of debt (not, sadly, including mortgage debt) is 50 years and 90 days.

This knocks down the amount needed each year by almost £3,000. Also, their mortgage will be closer to £30,000, having been paying it off at 4% for the last decade.

The average annual outgoings will be around £15,000 a year.

Mortgage pay-off: £30,000
Contingency: £50,000
Investment: £600,000

To keep them in a modest, but paid-for lifestyle, they'd need £680,000.

Get your free investment trust brochures

Mr and Mrs Average aged 60
By the time Mr and Mrs Average reach 60, they have paid off their mortgage and their debts. They will probably still need around £15,000 to live a basic lifestyle, but will not need a lump sum to clear the mortgage.

However as it stands, if they have paid enough in National Insurance Contributions, Mrs Average will now be able to draw a state pension, and Mr Average will be able to in five years (assuming the age of retirement stays the same).

Mrs Average's pension will bring in just under £5,000-per-year. When Mr Average turns 65, this becomes just under £8,000-per-year.

For the next five years, the couple need £10,000 from their investment. After this, they need only £7,000 to supplement the state pension.

Mortgage pay-off: £0
Contingency: £50,000
Investment: £350,000

To keep them in a very modest, but paid-for lifestyle, they'd need £400,000.

In reality, today's 60-year-olds will most likely be reliant on a state pension or combination of state and private pensions.

Some words of warning, however. We are increasingly taking debt into retirement, while living longer. The average age expectancy of around 80 means very little in relation to 40-year-olds today.

Chris Wicks, financial planner at N-Trust Limited explains, this scenario is very simplified.

"The calculation of the mortgage costs depends on how long is left and what basis it has been set up on. As you can imagine, it is likely that a 60-year-old will have a smaller mortgage than a 40-year-old as they will have paid all or most of it off by then.

"The other problem with the calculation is that you can't just assume a life expectancy of 80 years. A person's life expectancy means that they have a 50:50 chance of making or exceeding it."

The moral of the story is, of course, that Mr and Mrs Average don't exist. If you're genuinely considering retirement options, it's important to seek proper financial advice specific to your individual needs and finances.

I think we should have a 6 county GAA Board Christmas dinner this year...(the Mexicans can come too if they wish).

Do you agree that a poll be put up to decide date & venue?

Lads/Ladies I'm not into the consoles but my daughter is looking a DS from Santa and there are 3 different models to choose from:

DS
DS Light
DSi

I assume by the prices that they are new models from the previous ones!!! My we girl will be 5 shortly and some think she is too young for a DS but every time i bring her to her cousins all she wants to do is play the DS...I want to get the stuff in early this year and not leave it till 1 week b4 Christmas like i did last year and was running around like a headless chicken trying to get toy in.

So all you console lads could you advise me what one to get, if any...

If the MOd's were to allow one of the famous banned 3 back who would you pick

Nail Loney
Corn 02
Longball

[if you were a boxer what nickname would you pick for yourself and when entering the ring and what song would you want played]

There have been a number of boxing events recently organised for both charity and for club/county fund raisers and i have seen guys in the local papers with their boxing nicknames printed below their pictures...

My question to you guys is: if you were a boxer what nickname would you pick for yourself and when entering the ring and what song would you want played

Nickname = Mr T
Song       = The A Team (of course)

Ladies/Gents how happy are you with your life?, I'm not just referring to your girlfriend/boyfriend or husband/wife. I'm talking about everything in general...should you have taken a different career route should you have resisted that pass at your brothers girlfriend should you have bought that house when prices were low. What about that car you bought and couldn't afford it...that type of stuff

How happy are you with the decisions you have made in your life so far?

Alcohol
Marriage
Soccer
Friar Tucks
David Becham
Dublin football team


...I'll think off more later

The G's man is live now on Radio Ulster

Right folks i don't want any filth but genuine answers from male and females posters...

If the opposite member of sex walks past you what is the first thing you look for...I personally look at a woman's bum first but others maybe prefer eyes, hair, cleavage, legs etc...how do you like yours?

P.S. when i get a few answers I'll put up a poll. (or I'll be banned and someone else can do it)

Bastads broke into my car last night but the weird thing is they didn't take anything. My cheque book, credit and debit cards were left on my seat with just documention scattered everywhere. I still don't understand how they got in as there is no sign of entry. My neighbour had the same only they took his cards and wallet and broke the front window of his car to get in

I'm 99% sure i locked my car which has me baffled how the f**k they got into my car without causing any damage and why did they not take my cards and cheque book?. I cancelled the cards this morning just to be sure and now I've no money until the new ones come...raging

10 foods to kiss goodbye

Nutrition Team
When trying to lose weight, an occasional slip off your diet wagon is perfectly fine. No one is perfect and a little indulgence is good for keeping you from slipping down that dark alley known as Binge Street. But some foods not only have no nutritional value, they also aren't worth the damage they do to your diet.

If you've been around the dieting block, you probably know that giving up certain foods can make you want them even more. For this reason, nutritionists agree that a healthy, sustainable eating plan allows you to eat practically anything in moderation.

However, there are some foods that just aren't worth the damage they do to your waistline. (Don't despair, there's always a better alternative.)

Here are 10 foods that we recommend kissing goodbye:

1. Doughnuts These are true diet busters because it's loaded with sugar - and then deep-fried. One ring doughnut packs almost 240 calories and 13 grams of fat. Opt for some jaffa cakes or plain biscuits instead. At around 40 cals a pop, your waistline will thank you!

2. Real mayonnaise Thanks to the eggs and oil that comprise this favourite salad spread, just one tablespoon of the real stuff contains 11 grams of fat and 100 calories. The reduced-calorie version has half the calories and half the fat but you can go lighter still by spreading mustards, relishes, horseradish and low fat salad dressings on your sandwich.

3. Ciabatta Style Pizzas Ciabatta is a type of bread made with olive oil so it's much higher in fat than your average pizza base. Add to this a topping of cheese and pepperoni and you could be approaching 1000 calories for just one little pizza! Choose thin-based pizzas and avoid stuffed crusts, deep pan style and pepperoni.

4. Hot dogs These bonfire night favourites can get up to 150 of their 180 calories from fat. It makes you wonder whether they qualify as meat at all. The nitrites contained in hot dogs have also been linked to increased rates of cancer in some studies. For a tasty, low-fat replacement, choose grilled veggie sausages or chicken kebabs instead.

5. Deep fried cheese This popular starter option in many restaurants should carry a health warning! Full-fat cheese already contains more than its fair share of fat, most of it saturated. Deep-frying boosts the fat and calorie content even higher, making this gooey concoction a serious nutrition no-no!

6. Fizzy drinks While technically not a food, fizzy drinks are often included among the list of culprits in the nation's increasing weight problem. With no nutritional value and as many as 12 teaspoons of sugar in each can, most nutritionists see no reason to keep them in your diet. If you can't give them up, at least choose diet soft drinks, which are calorie free.

7. Cinema popcorn A super-size bag of this snack, typically popped in vegetable oil and doused in butter, is enough to turn your tummy into a double feature! Believe it or not, some sweets are actually less calorie- and fat-laden than popcorn. If you must munch at the movies, opt for liquorice or jellies (stick to one serving) - or smuggle in some air-popped popcorn. 

8. Crisps and Dips "Once you pop, you can't stop!" rings true for many of us! A few handfuls of Pringles or Doritos in front of the TV of an evening usually turns into a whole bagful! Already heavily laden with calories and fat, scooping on some creamy dip will double the damage and you could easily crunch your way through your entire calorie allowance for the day!

9. Full fat salad dressing With around 120 calories and 12g fat per 1oz (28g) serving, full fat dressings like Thousand Island and Ranch dressing are just not worth the weight you can gain by eating them - even if it's carrots and celery you're dressing. Fortunately, there are plenty of perfectly tasty lower-cal alternatives around.

10. Bacon Cheeseburgers Anything that combines two forms of meat with full-fat cheese is not likely to be diet friendly. This heart-stopping favourite at Burger King packs a whopping 400 calories and 22 grams of fat. A Bacon McDouble Cheeseburger from McD's has 478 calories and 24 grams of fat.

Please find below my suggestion for fixing Britain's economy. Instead  of giving billions of pounds to banks that will squander the money on  lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan. You can  call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:

There are about  5 million people over 50 in the work force. - Pay  them £1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the  following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire.  Five  million job openings - Unemployment fixed.

2) They MUST buy a new British CAR.  Five  million cars ordered -  Auto Industry fixed.

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing  Crisis fixed.

4) They must send their kids to school / college /university - Crime rate fixed

5) Buy £ 100 of alcohol / tobacco a week There's your money back in duty  / tax etc

It can't get any easier than that!

P.S. If more money is need ed, have all members of parliament pay back  their falsely claimed expenses and second home allowances.

Do you think this would work?

I was thinking the same for the Irish Government but we Irish don't make any cars so that f**ks it up a bit

[Woman who missed Flight 447 is killed in car crash]

Woman who missed Flight 447 is killed in car crash


An Italian woman who arrived late for the Air France plane flight that crashed in the Atlantic last week has been killed in a car accident, it has been reported.

Johanna Ganthaler, a pensioner from Bolzano-Bozen province, had been on holiday in Brazil with her husband Kurt and missed Air France Flight 447 after turning up late at Rio de Janeiro airport on May 31.

All 228 people aboard lost their lives after the plane crashed into the Atlantic four hours into its flight to Paris.

The ANSA news agency reported that the couple had managed to pick up a flight from Rio the following day.

It said that Ms Ganthaler died when their car veered across a road in Kufstein, Austria, and swerved into an oncoming truck. Her husband was seriously injured.


Is that spooky or what???

Ladies/Gents i was at a wedding on Saturday and done a short video from my digital camera (2min 40sec approx), i took it off the camera and tried to email it and to my astonishment it was 43MB in size. I tried to compress and zip it and it reduced it by about 1.5MB

Surely a small video that length in time should be a lot less than 43MB. How can i reduce it folks

Lads what's your stance on GAA players taking a piss on the field of play...you know what i mean they way you hunker down and throw the lad out to the side of the shorts and let her flow.
The reason I'm asking this was during a recent game a few players took part in this awful act of savagery and some of the crowd complained even though they couldn't see the penis as it was covered with the kneeling leg, they just knew he was taking a piss. Speaking from experience when you have consumed litres of water it has to come out somewhere and if your about to start a game and you ages away from the club house what do toy do...

I know people will say take a leak before you come out onto the pitch but that was done and by the time the warm up was finished and the match ready to start the lad needed another!!!