Michael Jackson Comeback

What began as a 10-night stand at London’s O2 Arena has exploded into a 50-concert affair as Michael Jackson added another 20 shows to his This Is It! run. All the tickets allotted during yesterday’s presale, roughly 360,000 of them according to MichaelJacksonLive, sold out yesterday, and the tickets that go on sale to the public tomorrow will likely do the same. As it stands, the 2009 concerts will end on September 29th, and then Jackson will return to the O2 on January 7, 2010 for at least 15 more shows, bringing the grand total to 50.By the end of the 50 concerts, 1million fans will have witnessed one of the greatest musical events in history,” reads a statement on the MichaelJacksonLive page. The figures speak for themselves —360,000 tickets sold in 18 hours during the pre sale so far, that is 20,000 tickets per hour, 33 tickets per minute! Demand was so great for the Jackson shows, Ticketmaster was struck with technical problems due to the high traffic.

Ban LZR Racer

FINA, the world governing body of swimming, have convened a summit meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, today to debate the issue of high-tech swimsuits with manufacturers, scientists, coaches and swimmers following calls to ban them on the grounds that they offer extra buoyancy and therefore amount to performance-enhancing aids. Critics of the suits point to the extraordinary statistics in Beijing where swimmers wearing the Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit won 90 per cent of all available medals and broke 23 world records, including Adlington's demolition of Janet Evans's 19-year-old 800 metres freestyle mark. Since Speedo launched the suit a year ago, an astonishing 108 world records have fallen. The powerful USA Swimming federation recently added their voice to the growing backlash against the new technology, calling on FINA to limit the amount of fabric on swimsuits, effectively outlawing the LZR Racer. But Jason Rance, who headed the Speedo research and development team that produced the all-conquering suit with the aid of NASA scientists, has denied that it offers any extra buoyancy and is willing to prove it in a laboratory. The issue of high-tech swimsuits has spiralled out of control since Beijing with some swimmers choosing to wear two or three suits at the same time, one on top of the other. The American and Australian federations have called for an immediate ban on the practice of wearing multiple suits. FINA will make a final decision on the new technology when their ruling 'Bureau' meet in Dubai next month.

Baby Faced Assassin!!

I am a life long Manchester United fan and this entry is about my favorite player of all time, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer!! Ole is a Norwegian football manager and former footballer who spent the majority of his career playing for Manchester United, often dubbed the "Baby-faced assassin". He is the current Manchester United Reserve team manager. He played 366 times for the Red Devils and scored 126 goals during a very successful period for the club. Solskaer's defining moment in football came in injury time of the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final where he scored the winning last-minute goal against Bayern Munich, completing a remarkable comeback and winning The Treble for United.

Rag Week!!

UCC's rag week took place from Feb 9th - 13th!! The aim of the week was to go out as many nights as was physically possible and to try and function somewhat properly with a major lack of sleep!!There were events organized on campus to raise money for charity during the week! Rag week gave us a chance to really let loose before having to start working for the ol' summer exams!!

Protest In Dublin!

On Feb 4th, 6 buses from UCC went to Dublin to march in the protest of the re-introduction of college fees!! Myself, macky, scum 1, scum 2, rufus, barry and nestor decided that this would also give us the a chance to experience the night life in Dublin as well(purely for educational purposes:P:P) Free bus up, contacts to put us up for the night and more contacts to get us home for free, what more could we have asked for!! We kinda got tired halfway through the protest so we didn't actually make it to the dail ha!! We returned the following day, some of us a little worse for wear and more then a little tired!! But to show our dedication to the course we made it back for jeremys lecture if only in body not so much in mind!!! From the pic above you can guess that the whole travelling on the luas was a little new to some of us!!

VDS Breaks British Record!!

On Feb 8th 2009 Edwin Van Der Saar broke the British record for not conceding a goal following Man Utd's 1 - 0 victory against West Ham at Upton Park. The previous record held by Rangers stopper Chris Wood stood at 1,196 minutes but following his 13th shut out in a row, Van Der Saar has gone a staggering 1,212 since last conceding a goal which was to samir narsi against the Gunners on Nov 8th 2008. If Van Der Saar goes 64 more minutes without conceding then he will break the world record set by Abel Resino of Athletico Madrid which stands at 1,275 minutes!!

BIS Ball

Thats Teapot, Scum, Macky, Laura, Keith, Rufus and Me!
This years BIS Ball took place last Thursday in the Rochestown Park Hotel!! For some reason only 2 first years decided to attend the whole thing, me and macky!! What a night it was though once all the formalities were done with. Must say we all scrubbed up well, looking sharp in the suits, black shirts must have been in this year!!