Friday, October 31, 2008

National Concert Hall Christmas Lunchtime Concert


Many thanks to everyone who attended the ASITS trip to the The National Concert Halls Lunchtime Christmas Concert on Wednesday December 10th, the concert was entitled "A Russian Christmas" and featured the RTE Orchestra and special guests
I think everyone who was there will agree that it was a great success and a really enjoyable festive treat. We regret that due to limited tickets a lot of our members were dissapointed but we will be organising more events of this kind in the future and we look forward to seeing a s many of you as possible there.

Dail Eireann Visit


A big thank you to Chris Andrews TD and his assisstant Lynda for all their help in organising two tours to Dail Eireann for ASITS during the month of December. In all almost 40 members got tour the beautiful government buildings and sit in the public gallery. Once again due to a huge interest in this tour we hope to be running this again in the near future, we will keep you imformed of this and other outings in the pipeline.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Spanish Computer


Spanish Computer
By John Fernandes
Submitted by Eamon Henry


A Spanish Teacher was explaining to her class that, in Sapnish, unlike english nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

"House" for instance, is feminine: "la Casa."
"Pencil," however, is masculine: "el lapiz."
So, a student asked, "What gender is 'computer'?"

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether "computer"should be a masculine or a femine noun.
Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.
The mens group decided that "computer" should definitely be of the feminine gender ("la Computadora"), because:
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.
(THIS GETS BETTER!)
The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine ("el Computador"), because:
1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but still can,t thinkk for themselves;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realise that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.
THE WOMEN WON.
Show this to all the smart women you know....and all the men that have a good sense of humour.
By John Fernandes