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.