SpudShow 4 Podcast

The latest podcast is now posted, it features a band from Bray, Ireland called Jains Groupie, click here for the podcast.

Postcards were the SMS messages of their day.

I came across a reference to this article on Tech Dirt. The article was published on the 160 Characters web site. It is a very interesting article that compares the era of peak postcard use to today's use of texting. There were at least two postal deliveries per day so people made arrangements for the evening of the day that they sent the card. The range of picture postcards is very similar to the picture messaging of today.I have a poscard collection that might be of interest to people. perhaps it is time for another new blog?

KGL in Ireland - New Blog

I have just created a new blog to celebrate the 200 anniversary of the arrival of the King's German Legion to Ireland. They were here from 1806 to 1811. In about June 1806 there were approximately 9,000 German troops here in Ireland from the KGL. I plan have a diary of their time here and add new pieces as they happened 200 years ago. The blog is called kglinireland and is at http://kglinireland.blogspot.com

SpudShow Podcast 3 is available

Hi,
The podcast is just out featuring a singer called Celine Burke she is playing in the Axis Theatre Dublin tomorrow 25th February.

Click here for the podcast.

Freeman's Journal 1784 - New Blog

I have made a new blog for the pieces from the Freeman's Journal called 1784 News (http://1784news.blogspot.com.)

Freeman's Journal 21st - 24th February 1784

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE

AMERICA

Philadelphia, Dec 9. Yesterday, at noon, his excellency general Washington arrived here from New York. His excellency was met at Frankfort, by his excellency the president of this state, the hon. the financier, general, St. Clair and Hand, the Philadelphia troop of horse, and a number of citizens, who had the pleasure of accompanying the general into the city. His arrival was announced by a discharge of cannon, the bells were rung, and the people testified their satisfaction, at once more seeing their illustrious chief, by repeated acclamations.
The council appointed for the present government of the city of New York have ordered, that all persons becoming inhabitants of that city, do, within 24 hours of their arrival, report their names, former place of residence and number of their family, to the secretary of the council : and that all inhabitants receiving inmates or lodgers, do, in a like manner, report their names and former place of abode, &c.

LONDON, Feb. 16
...
Friday evening a duel was fought in the fields near Chelsea, between capt. Mostyn, of the navy, and lieutenant Clarke, of the African corps, which terminated most fatally to the former, who, on the second fire from his adversary, received the shot through his body, and expired immediately on the spot. This unfortunate circumstance arose from a trifling dispute at the New Exchange coffee house, and is the more to be lamented, as capt. Mostyn was only 25 years of age, and at that early period of post captain in the navy, and possessed the most manly and endearing accomplishments.

...

A society of gentlemen are fitting out a large ship at Deptford for the purpose of making discoveries to the north pole ; she is to sail with the first Greenland ships, and after exploring those seas, is to go N. W. to Hudson's bay, where the passage into the Indian seas ( the probability of which is no longer doubted) is expected to lie. These explorers are to have the sanction of administration, but the nation is to be at no expense whatever, except they should find the so much wished for passage, in which case they will have a reward. Some of the most experienced seamen, and other necessary persons, are already engaged, and if the weather permits, they will sail the beginning of next month. The vessel is Dutch built, and equipping with every king of accommodation for the purpose.

...

The scarcity of mint halfpence, which at this time is a general complaint, is by no means owing to a less number being coined than heretofore, but to a species of traffic carried on lately, by exporting them to North America, and getting dollars in return. A profit of 28 per cent, is made by this illicit business.

Freeman's Journal 19th - 21st February 1784

...

In the Press, and in a few days will be published, by Luke White, No. 86, Dame Street, Corner of Crampton-court.
Mr. BURKE's SPEECH
on
Mr. Fox's East India Bill

...

The new invented
ELASTIC and PATENT WIGS

The most fashionable are now at ENGLISH's Patent Wig warehouse, the only one in the kingdom, No. 28 Nassau street, made under his own inspection, and of the very vest materials and colours to suit all complexions. By his Elastic and other Springs, as made by the Patentee in London, he is enabled to fit the most difficult Head or Temples : His Grey and Bag Wigs , &c. are superior to any in this kingdom for colour and manufacture. -- As said ENGLISH spares neither time, labour or expence to have his work finished in the most superb and best manner, and so give every satisfaction to his Customers, and such Noblemen and Gentlemen as please to honour him with their commands, has brought from London a considerable quantity of the best Hairs and other materials, and of the most beautiful colours that could be got in the city ; and he always made a point of employing none but the best work men. His Natural Wigs, Curls and Descriptions are of such excellence as not to be distinguished from the real beauties of the natural Growth ; and as he lays in all his materials at first cost, he means to sell thirty per cent. cheaper than any shop in Dublin.
N.B. Chambers continued, as usual, at the rere of the Four-Courts, for Gentlemen of Law to dress in.

....

Dublin, February 20
...
About seven o'clock on Monday night, a number of villains armed with knives, stopped a poor countryman at the Green-hills, near Tallagh, and after robbing him of what cash he had, beat and abused him in a cruel manner.
..
Thursday a great number of people, with cars, buckets, &c. were employed at low water, in gathering tobacco on the south strand, said to be part of the cargo of the vessel from America lately wrecked there.
...
A granary, a custom house, and a prison, are shortly to be erected at Naas, in the county of Kildare, in consequence of the communication now making between that town and the grand canal.
...
A humourous correspondent compares, in one or two instances, the now almost exploded measure of a parliamentary reform, to an ill-charged airballoon. Without doubt the national convention prepared a large quantity of inflammable gas, and which, it must be confessed, was rather added to rather than diminished by several garreleer scriblers, employed to keep the subject from a premature dissolution ; but alas / the parliamentary machine, plan scheme or system, call it what you will, not being rightly compacted, or in other words, not constitutionally constructed, this castle in the air, this abortion of rashness, idelness and discontent, rose only sufficiently high to be gazed at by fools and madmen for a shoty time, and then fell to the ground, from an evaporation of its inflammatory contents.

Quest 2

I now have two contenders for my ideal mp3 player.

1. The Pic 'N Roll MP313X from Truly Electronics in China.
2. The Melodistik FX or the Melodistik SD.

Item 1 has a display on which you can view pictures and ascii based ebooks, but it costs about $189 before p&p.

Item 2 has the basic requirements and for the 128MB version it cost $89 before p&p.

Freeman's Journal 17th - 19th February 1784

Theatre-Royal, Smock Alley
..
For the benefit of Mrs. Hitchcock,
On Wednesday the 3d of March, 1784 will be performed a new Comedy, called
The Quaker Girl.
Written by John O' Keeffe, Esq.
..
After which will be performed a Pantomime Interlude, called
The Fairy Revels or
Harlequin Triumphant

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE

Milan Jan 6

M. Venetiani, canonand professor of physic, is now employed in constructing an aerostatic globe, with the following properties: 1. It will glide with more or less velocity at the pleasure of the conductor, who is to guide it to the utmost possible height, without employing fire therein. 2. It will descend at pleasure, sustain itself in the air, or remount, without making any addition to the machine. Three persons may travel with the machine two or three days, and even whole weeks, without occasion to descend for provisions. If this experiment should be accomplished, it must be allowed that this discovery is arrived to a great degree of perfection in a short time.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE

Dublin, February 18.
..
By letters from Connaught and many other parts of the kingdom, we learn that the late frost has damaged all the potatoes, that great article of subsistence among the poor, and that the people look forward with regret to the wretched prospect of a threatening scarcity, such misery has the severity of the season entailed on them : and yet so great is their apprehension from the from the dissolving of the congealed snows, that they wish a continuance of frost, rather than experience the fury of mountain torrents, with which they will be afflicted by the thaws.

...
Three students were on Monday expelled from the College : one for taking books out of the library ; another for introducing bad women into the college ; and a third, for bringing in a constable, and arresting a contemporary for ten pounds.

The Quest for my perfect MP3 Player

It is very much a personal quest, here are the specifications that I am looking for:

Flash - min 128Mb
takes SD/MMC cards
FM tuner
Built in mic
MP3 encoding built-in
line-in connection
AAA battery

I will let you know how I get on.

The Lonesome West

I went the a play tonight in Glór in Ennis tonight. It was the Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh. I think that it was set about 20 years ago in County Galway. The story revolved around two batchelor brothers living in the same house. The other two characters were the priest and a local girl. The acting was very good, it was probably a difficult play to put on. The references to 70's Tv like Alias Smith & Jones, Hill Street Blues reminded me of my youth and the childrens toy called Ker-plunk!. The audience seemed to really enjoy the show and laughed at much of it. I must admit that some of it was funny too, but I felt that the theme was very serious and the characters all too true and close to home for people living in rural West of Ireland. This happened and is happening today. The suicide of the local priest is familiar too, it happened in Clare in 2002. It is a personal think, when I go to a play I want something light or uplifting not a downer.

Cafe de l'Enfer

Situated on Boulevard De Clichy beside Hotel de Place Blanche. One of many theme cafes opened in Montmartre towards the end of the 19th Century.
There are a number of accounts of what this cafe had to offer: Bohemian Paris --Jerrold Seiger
Viking Penguin 1986
Chapter 8 Publicity and Fantasy:
The World of the Cabarets
Pg.240
"One cabaret dubbed itself "Heaven," placing its visitors among clouds, angels, and harps. Its opposite, the Cabaret de l'Enfer, draped itself in the trappings of hell, its waiters dressed in devil costumes. Clients entered its doors through the gaping mouth of a monster, cut into the facade whose misshapen windows were set off by what seemed a kind of solidified primal ooze, within which the nude bodies of sinners were suspended. " Bohemian Paris of Today
by W.C. Morrow & Edouard Cucuel
(London, 1899)
[ see chapter called "A Night in Montmartre ]
(pg 276 to 285 & 2 line drawings)
"..we will explore hell." Mr. Thomkins seemed too weak, or unresisting, or apathetic to protest. His face betrayed a queer mixture of emotion, part suffering, part revulsion, part a sort of desperate eagerness for more.

We passed through a large, hideous, fanged, open mouth in an enormous face from which shone eyes of blazing crimson. Curiously enough, it adjoined heaven, whose cool blue lights contrasted strikingly with the fierce ruddiness of hell. Red-hot bars and gratings through which flaming coals gleamed appeared in the walls within the red mouth. A placard announced that should the temperature of this inferno make one thirsty, innumerable bocks might be had at sixty-five centimes each. A little red imp guarded the throat of the monster into whose mouth we had walked; he was cutting extraordinary capers, and made a great show of stirring the fires. The red imp opened the imitation heavy metal door for our passage to the interior, crying, - "Ah, ah, ah! still they come! Oh, how they will roast!" Then he looked keenly at Mr. Thomkins. It was interesting to note how that gentleman was always singled out by these shrewd students of humanity. This particular one added with great gusto, as he narrowly studied Mr. Thomkins, "Hist! ye infernal whelps; stir well the coals and heat red the prods, for this is where we take our revenge on earthly saintliness!" "Enter and be damned,-the Evil One awaits you!" growled a chorus of rough voices as we hesitated before the scene confronting us.

Near us was suspended a cauldron over a fire, and hopping within it were half a dozen devil musicians, male and female, playing a selection from "Faust" on stringed instruments, while red imps stood by, prodding with red-hot irons those who lagged in their performance. Crevices in the walls of this room ran with streams of molten gold and silver, and here and there were caverns lit up by smouldering fires from which thick smoke issued, and vapours emitted the odours of a volcano. Flames would suddenly burst from clefts in the rocks, and thunder rolled through the caverns. Red imps were everywhere, darting about noiselessly, some carrying beverages for the thirsty lost sols, others stirring the fires or turning somersaults. Everything was in a high state of motion. Numerous red tables stood against the fiery walls; at these sat the visitors. Mr. Thomkins seated himself at one of them. Instantly it became aglow with a mysterious light, which kept flaring up and disappearing in an erratic fashion; flames darted from the walls, fires crackled and roared. One of the imps came to take our order; it was for three coffees, black, with cognac; and this is how he shrieked the order: "Three seething bumpers of molten sins, with a dash of brimstone intensifier!" Then, when he had brought it, "This will season your intestines, and render them invulnerable, for a time at least, to the tortures of the melted iron that will be soon poured down your throats." The glasses glowed with a phosphorescent light. " Three francs seventy-five, please, not counting me. Make it four francs. Thank you well. Remember that though hell is hot, there are cold drinks if you want them." Presently Satan himself strode into the cavern, gorgeous in his imperial robe of red, decked with blazing jewels, and brandishing a sword from which fire flashed. His black moustaches were waxed into sharp points, and turned rakishly upwards above lips upon which a sneering grin appeared. Thus he leered at the new arrivals in his domain. His appearance lent new zest to the activity of the imps and musicians, and all cowered under his glance. Suddenly he burst into a shrieking laugh that gave one a creepy feeling. It rattled through the cavern with a startling effect as he strode up and down. It was a triumphant, cruel, merciless laugh. All at once he paused in front of a demure young Parisienne seated at a table with her escort, and, eying her keenly, broke into his speech: "Ah, you! Why do you tremble? How many men have you sent hither to damnation with those beautiful eyes, those rosy, tempting lips? Ah, for all that, you have found a sufficient hell on earth. But you," he added, turning fiercely upon her escort, "you will have the finest, the most exquisite tortures that await the damned. For what? For being a fool. It is folly more than crime that hell punishes, for crime is a disease and folly a sin. You fool! For thus hanging upon the witching glance and oily words of a woman you have filled all hell with fuel for your roasting. You will suffer such tortures as only the fool invites, such tortures only as are adequate to punish folly. Prepare for the inconceivable, the unimaginable, the things that even the king of hell dare not mention lest the whole structure of damnation totter and crumble to dust." The man winced, and queer wrinkles came into the corners of his mouth. Then Satan happened to discover Mr. Thomkins, who shrank visibly under the scorching gaze. Satan made a low, mocking bow. "You do me great honour, sir," he declared, unctuously. "You may have been expecting to avoid me, but reflect upon what you would have missed! We have many notables here, and you will have charming society. They do not include pickpockets and thieves, nor any other of the weak, stunted, crippled, and halting. You will find that most of your companions are distinguished gentlemen of learning and ability, who, knowingly their duty, failed to perform it. You will be in excellent company, sir, " he concluded, with another low bow. Then, suddenly turning and sweeping the room with a gesture, he commanded, "To the hot room, all of you !" while he swung his sword, from which flashes of lightning trailed and thunder rumbled. We were led to the end of the passage, where a red hot iron door barred further progress. "Oh, oh, within there !" roared Satan. "Open the portal of the hot chamber, that these fresh arrivals may be introduced to the real temperature of hell !2 After numerous signals and mysterious passes the door swung open, and we entered. It was not so very hot after all. The chamber resembled the other, except that a small stage occupied one end. A large green snake crawled out upon this, and suddenly it was transformed into a red devil with exceedingly long, thin legs, encased in tights that were ripped in places. He gave some wonderful contortion feats. A poor little Pierrot came on and assisted the red devil in black art performances. By this time we discovered that in spite of the half-molten condition of the rock-walls, the room was disagreeably chilly. And that ended our experience in hell.

Spudshow 2 podcast now out

I just finished spudshow 2 it features two tracks from Annette Buckley from Cork. The tracks are very smooth. I have keep the show short until I register Castblaster and I cannot register until I get a new pc.

Click here to download the show.

Freeman's Journal February 14th - 17th 1784

Theatre-Royal, Smock-Alley

Feb. 17th Comedy - Love for Love with farce The Divorce
Feb. 19th Comedy - The Gamesters and a The Giants Causeway

English Opera-House, Capel Street

Feb. 18th comic Opera Love in a village and a farce called The Musical Lady

....

London. Feb 9, 10
..
Wednesday a machine, nearly upon the plan of that constructed by Mr. Moore a few days since, was exhibited upon the serpentine river. The inventor called it an ice balloon, and it travelled with amazing celerity , having a sort of keel made of iron, and being impelled forward by a spring, giving motion to a wheel at the front of the carriage. The novelty of invention induced several people of fashion to ride in the above machine, and several of them handsomely complimented the proprietor for his ingenuity ; but the price demanded was but the moderate sum of one penny from each passenger. A hog was roasted whole upon the ice the same day, and afforded an exempore to a great number of people.

...

The last Amsterdam gazette gives an account of some experiments recently made at Lyons, with the large aerostatic machine, constructed there by Montgolfier and Pilatre.It had twice ascended to the height of 500 toises ; in the first ascent an accidental fire broke out, or rather the enclosed gaz took fire, and burst the balloon on the top, notwithstanding which the aerial travellers in the chariot came gradually to the ground, without receiving and injury. A handsome compliment on the occasion was paid them the same evening in the theatre.

....

Where are only to be had genuine, the following
MEDICINES
Genuine Peruvian Bark

This medicine, so universally celebratred for the cure of agues, intermittent and putrid fevers, nervous headaches, &c. &c may be had in the highest perfection, either in tincture or in powder, as faithfully prepared by Mess. Freake and Newbery, of London, and allowed to be of infinite service after the use of Dr. Jame's powder.

Conn over on Imeall links to the Blog

I see that Conn at Imeall has put a link to my blog and podcast. Thank You Conn.

If anyone has followed his link, you are welcome to my blog. As you can see it is a mixture of history and computer related information with some images added. I am thinking about keeping this blog less cluttered by creating a number of new blogs for each of may particular interests.

Friday I do a podcast, with some podsafe Irish bands and hopefully an Irish Promo. I use castblaster to mix the tracks. The podcast is very short because I am still using the deom version of the software. All the music comes from the podsafe music network.

email me at spudshow@gmail.com if you have any comments.

The Podosphere mourns with you Madge.

Freeman's Journal February 12-14 1784

Domestic Intelligence

Cork, Feb 9
On Saturday last arrived the brig Lively, capt. Wm. Wyer, in eight weeks from Newbury Port, New England.

Kilkenny Feb. 13
The following very singular circumstance accurred in this city, one night last week, during the very intense frost : - A cat having discovered a rat with five or six young ones in the corner of a room, made a set at them : the old rat regardless of her own safety, kept her situation for the protection of her young, and the cat not to be out-done in vigilance, remained sentinel all night, and in the morning they were all found frozen to death, in the most watchful attitudes.

Foreign Intelligence

Hague, Jan 26
Private letters from Berne being advice, that there fell lately, near Nyon, in Switzerland, an aerostatic balloon, in the gallery of which were found four persons dead, according to all appearences from cold. This event happening at the moment of the departure of the post, he could not give us any further particulars.

London

The Alexander, an American ship, is arrived in the river from New York, by which there are accounts of fresh disturbances having happened at Philadelphia, which the civil power not being able to quell, general Washington had been sent for, and was expected would shortly set out for that place.

Crosbie's Aerostatic Balloon

Crosbie was the main Irishman in the ballooning scene in Ireland. He seemed to be a general inventor or natuaral philosopher as they were described back then. There will be plenty of references to him during 1784.

IT Tools for Researchers

• Hand held scanner that does OCR on-board.
• The tool to remember and store all your internet searches
• The Tool to hold hierarchical information Key Note
• Online Translation of web pages and small amounts of text
• English Literature out of copyright Project Gutenburg
• Online Newspapers
• UK Universities
• Generate calendars for any year
  
  

Optical Character Recognition

The best package that I have used is from a company called ABBYY. Their package called FineReader comes with the ability to scan in a large number of languages. The latest version can scan into pdf files. I have used the package with some success to scan languages that do not have a latin script. You can train the package to recognise new symbols and even symbols that are very close together. The work I carried out was with the old Irish script and the old German script called Fraktur. You can train the package on a sample page then let it of by itself to do the OCR.

Freeman's Journal 10 - 12 February 1784

Paris Jan. 8.
We learn that the ascension of the M de Montgolfier's globe, at Lyons, will not take place till the 20th of February. This aerostatic sphere is of an enormous magnitude, and capable, it is said, of carrying up ten persons, with provisions and baggage.

Mullingar, Feb. 7
On Tuesday the 3d inst. the frost was so intense, and ice so firm on Lough Owell, that Sir Richard Levinge ventured to drive a four-wheel chair and four ponies almost round the lake, and returned home through the middle of the lake, by the large island, with great safety.

Dublin, February 11.

Letters, it is said, are received in town, advising that Mr. Riddock's air balloon, launched on Wednesday last from the lying in hospital, fell to the ground in the earl of Clanbrassil's demesne in the county of Louth.

...
Drink and prostitutes create many robbers, is an observation as old as just. It would, therefore conduce much, not only to the security, but also to the quiet of the parish of St. Andrew, if the inhabitants could devise some mode of banishing the swarms of prostitutes that infest that parish, particularly Essex-street. A correspondent is of opinion, that if the magistrates were to take the proper notice of the house almost opposite to the Castle hotel, where these unhappy females with their bullies assemble nightly, no step would be found more conductive to this desirable end.

I downloaded and printed to paper a copy of The Podcast User Magazine itseems to have been just released. You can download it as a 4.5Mb pdf file. At this moment I am about half way through the 24 pages. It is well worth a read and of interest to podcasters and listeners. There is even a piece by Mark Hunter of tartanpodcast about why he left Adam Curry's Podshow.

If you are looking for a rare book that is out of print Abe Books is very good. It is a collection of book sellers from around the world, so when you search on the site you are searching the catalogs of all the bookshops that are members.

The Scotsman newspaper has a digital archive of every issue from 1817 - 1950, you can access it for £7.95/day.

The image is from Farrar's Limerick Directory 1769. I am interested in what life was like back in history. Images are great but stories are ok too.

• Just heard about a new podcast on podcasting called Today in Podcasting it could be interesting.
• List of the keyboard shortcuts available in Windows XP.
• If you are interested in using podcasts in education try Podcast for Teachers.
• St. Valentine is buried in Dublin.

Did you ever feel like you were living in a black hole? Well scientist believe that it might be true, have a look at the New Scientist article.

222 years ago in 1784 Dublin

From the Public Register or Freeman's Journal -from Saturday, February the 7th, to Tuesday, February the 10th 1784.

What's on:

Theatre Royal, Smock Alley.
By his majestiey's company of comedians.
[Seventh Night]
This present evening, Feb. 10, will be presented a comic Opera, called
Orpheus and Euridice,
To which will be added a farce, called Barnaby Brittle.

A Grand Oratorio.
For the Benefit of the poor confined Debtors
in the several Marshalseas of this City.
On Thursday evening next, Feb. 12, 1784, will be
performed at the Rotunda, the Sacred Oratorio of
Judas Maccabeus.

Exhibition-Room, William-Street
On saturday Evening, February 14th, 1784, will be a
Concert of Music
Consisting of serveral favourite Overtures, Trios , Duets , &c.
First Violin, with a Solo, and Solo Concerto,
by Master COBHAM
(who is but SEVEN years of age)

Dublin February 9
...
A gentleman in this city, a native of the kingdom, of great knowledge in mechanics, has devised a method of managing an aerial chariot, so as to guide it in whatever direction he chooses. He proposes, if assisted by public subscription, to ascend himself, in the machine, and has no doubt of bringing it to the fullest perfection and use of which it is capable. As the power of directing this machine is the grand desideratum, and appears to be the only improvement which can render it of any particular utility, we are glad, for the credit of Irish ingenuity, that the honour of this discovery originates with ourselves.

...
James Vance
no 102 capel Street
..
Spirits per gallon

Strong Whiskey 4s 4d - 5s
Brandy 4s 6d - 8s
Rum 5s -8s
Geneva 4s 6d - 6s 6d

-----------------------
For the flourishing city of Philadelphia.
The good ship HANKEY, JOhn Cheap, Commander.
Burden 250 tons, a remarkable fine stout ship, uncommonly well calculated for passengers, being upwards of six feet high between decks, and most conveniently fitted for the purpose; such persons as wish to take this favourable oppertunity of going to America, will do well to apply in time; a few younfg healty men and boys will be taken as redemptioners :- freight reasonable to be paid here or in Philadelphia, as may be agreeable. Apply to James Eddy, Esq; at Alderman Darragh's on lower Ormond Quay.

Overcast day in Limerick, but dry.

I went to Cork yesterday. The James Barry exhibition in on in the Crawford gallery, I had a quick look. I am interested in the times that he lived in. There are some paintings there by Nataniel Grogan also. Grogan has a painting called "Whipping the Herring", it represents a tradition in Cork where there was a procession led by a person carrying a herring on a stick. It seemed to represent banishing poverty from the city. The picture is full of life and characters. I could not find an image online.

Cork City Library was my next stop. A few weeks ago Newsround on RTE has a piece on the Royal Cork Yacht Club and mentioned N. Ludlow Beamish. This was the person who wrote the History of the King's German Legion so I am interested in who he was. The library has the recently published book on the Royal Cork Yacht Club and I found a mention of him sailing in Little Paddy in a race in Torquay against J.P. Packington's Liberty and S. Farnell's Julia.
I got a book about the Beamish family and found a few sentances about N. Ludlow, he married a Swedish heiress Aline Marie Foreström and seemed to spend some time in the Hanoverian Army. He wrote two other books, Discovery of America by the Northmen and The uses of Calalry in War. He died in Cork on April 22nd 1872 and was buried in St. Michael's Blackpool.

Hello from a wet Limerick. I am at the cornmarket and it is a little wet.

Yesterday I thought that I would add a regular feature to the blogg. I will call it the 222 section and it will be pieces from the Freeman's Journal from 1784. I happen to have a copy of every issue from that year. I will try to bring the latest news from my time travels. Last year I was gathering material about early ballooning in Ireland and I spent a lot of time scanning the papers from 1784. I grew up in Tullamore and if you look at the crest for the town you will see a phoenix rising from the ashes. I think that in 1785 a large part of the town particularly Patrick Street where I grew up was burned down in a ballooning accident. Early ballooning user two methods to make the hot air (1) inflammable gas (hydrogen), (2) hot air made from having a fire under the balloon. So the Hindenberg accident was just another accident in the history of lighter than air transport using hydrogen.

I bought some chocolate from one of the girls from the Cocoa Bean company that was featured on TV recently. They make some very unusual flavours of chololate, some made with pepper, salt and even chilli but I got some very traditional types e.g. Earl Grey Tea, ginger, orange etc.

The book shop here in the market has a great mix of books, cards, music and some pictures. I got a lovely flyer for a Remmington typewriter and a small book from the 1930's.

Did you see the article in the Irish Times Science section during the week about green house gas emissions from cattle? It seems that each cow creates 500 litres of greenhouse emissions per DAY! There are a lot of cattle here in Ireland.

Busy day today. No time to post so far. The podcast is now available.

I was glad to hear that Adam Curry played the promo for Conn's Irish Language podcast Imeall. I think that Conn's podcast is very important for promoting the Irish language, it is always very up to date and interesting.

I just heard today that a new open source Irish grammer checker developed by Kevin P. Scannell is available, it is called "An Gramadóir" and it is available for download.

I met a guy from a local band and was telling him about the podsafe music network, he was very interested. There are so many ways that bands can make contact with fans without signing with the labels. Some bands have got world wide fans without great cost. How can we spread the word?

email
web
blog

Last night I was trying to explain about some cultural differences between Ireland and USA. I lived in the UK from about 1987 to 1992. When I returned I was struck by many things but in particular the arrival of adult magazines on the top shelves of Irish newsagents. It was a shock.
In my conversation I went on to say that condoms also made their appearence about the same time. The country has changes a lot from the days of Dev. "An Ireland free and Irish speaking, with the comely maidens dancing at the crossroads".

On the 21st of January it was the 500th anniversary of the establishment of the Swiss Guards in Rome. I was reminded of their role in the "Angela & Demons" by Dan Brown. Yesterday I was having coffee with a group of historians and they questioned the accuracy of Dan Brown's books. I have read or listened to all the books and found them good stories.

Audible.com is an online audio bookshop where you can get audio books to download to your mp3 player or computer. Audible do charge for the audio books but there are some sites that provide audio books free, librevox, audiobooksforfree, gutenberg there is much more than music to put into your iPod or Mp3 player. Project Gutenberg was setup to provide digital copies of all the works of english literature that was out of copyright. It is a great resource.

• The camera company Konica Minolta is due to stop selling cameras by 30 September 2007. The industry changing.
• BBC has put up a web site to help people undertands RSS (Really Simple Syndication) it is aimed at beginners and more advanced users.
• If you want to check if an internet doamin name is available check allwhois.

www.spudshow.com

day 2

Did you see the advert in the Irish Times on Monday for Aer Lingus? It was for Valentine's weekend - a romantic city break. There was grid made up of love hearts with a different city written on each. When I was growing up love hearts were familiar but I do not know about today.

I watched the program about the girl training to be a geisha. It was interesting. A few years ago I read a few geisha books, studied japanese for a few months. Unfortunately at this point all I can do is introduce myself ( I will introduce myself in Japanese on the podcast on Friday. I read a book of Japanese Folktales by the Irish writer Lafcadio Hearn, he lived there for years and is well respected by Japanese people. In the middle of this Japanese moment I was eating Japanese food at a multi-cultural food fair. Some of the food was nice and some was awful. But now you do not need to make the mistakes that I made - there is a podcast called Josh in Japan his most recent episode is about dating in Japan.

I was sorry that there was no podcast from Conn at An tImeall today. I sent Adam Curry and CC Chapman a link to a promo that Conn made and perhaps Adam will play it on the DSC podcast. Adam mentioned a site that explains about not needing an iPod to listen to podcasts called noipodrequired.com , this seems to be a real problem of education with many people.

I got my copy of Computer Active today and they have a Photo Competition that might interest you.

The "Future Come and Get Me" album from Stoat arrived in the post today, I am looking forward to listening to it.

Did you watch Ros na Rún last night? I was interest in the plot line that is looking at music copyright issues. Two of the characters are making pirate cds. There was even a mention of IRMA Irish Recorded Music Association. There is a lot of talk on the internet and in podcasts, particularly the DSC , about the big changes to the music industry and the impact that the podsafe music network could have. Musicians do not have to sign with a record company, they can make contact with their audience via podcasts that promote new music or via their myspace site. Many bands now have a world following without giving up their independence.

day 1

Welcome to the first, hopefully not the last.

I have to go to lunch now but hope to return soon.

...

Last night I was playing Empire Earth. It was in the Imperial Age at the easy level. I like the Imperial Age because I am interested in that period of history. Unfortunately I am not very good but in the end I won. My interest is history particularly Irish History from 1780-1820.
Don't get me started on the King's German Legion (KGL) . I am currently researching what they were doing in Ireland. This year is the 200 th anniversary of their arrival in Ireland. In June 1806 there were almost 9,000 of the KGL in Ireland some stayed here until 1811.

I came across an Irish band called Stoat on a podcast that I listen to every day called Reaching For Lucidity . You can download some tracks from the Stoat site. The songs are fun, one mentions Frank Hall and another features a recording of Eamonn De Valera . I bought the latest album from Stoat on Friday last and hope to get it very soon.



spud