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I decided to appreciate what I own. Or else what's the point of owning anything? So I have listened to almost every album in my record collection, CDs and LPs - over 500 of them, casually working through them in random order during the past 12 months. Now, with no CDs left and only 14 LPs to go, my record player has broken. Will I ever hear the vinyl again?
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To celebrate the launch of the Cold Edge exhibition of my polar photography in Dublin, on September 13, I've worked with friend and poet Duncan Cleary to create a 60-page eponymous book, The Cold Edge, via Blurb - print and iPad version. I've brought together some of what I hope are ethereal, emotional photographs of the unforgiving wilderness, wild animals and blue icebergs question our romantic relationship with remote, harsh and pristine environments. Images that resonate with a quiet tension; all may not be right in the Garden of Eden.
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From davewalshphoto.com: There comes a time in a photographer's life when (s)he finally gets to announce the Big News; a first major solo exhibition. It's unnerving, exciting, heartening, and reassuring. There's also the sense of achievement, and a feeling of "yes, I was right to hammer away so for many years on something I care passionately about". And so, many, many thanks to Leszek Wolnik, at The Copper House Gallery in Dublin who has invited me to show my work on September 13th, 2012.
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In all my years as a writer, I've written many book reviews. But I've never before reviewed a book that uses one of my photographs as its cover. I'm talking about The Book of Migrations: Some Passages in Ireland, by Rebecca Solnit, which has been a joy to read, and an honour to become connected with. I was unaware of Solnit's work until May 24th of this year, when I read her insightful article the Strauss-Kahn affair, colonisation and the IMF: Worlds Collide in a Luxury Suite. That afternoon, I received an email from Bob Bhamra, of Verso Books, asking me if he could use my image of the Burren for a new editon of The Book of Migrations. Serendipity. We cut a deal.
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According to the The Irish Independent and The Irish Times, coroner Dr Kieran McLoughlin has found that a 76-year old Galway man, Michael Faherty, died of Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC) - the first documented case in Ireland, but NOT the first reported.
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Guest writer Oliver Bayliss, gives us his unique take on the London and UK riots which have engulfed the country for the last four days.
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Everything and everyone is Irish in the end - and now it turns out the that great-great-great-etc grandmother of today's polar bears were in fact from Ireland. This is not some desperate attempt by Ireland to enter a territorial dispute over Arctic resources (we have Rockall, after all) or to distract the populace from the grinding financial crisis.
No, it turns out that modern polar bears have carried a particular sequence of DNA via the female line - mitochondria, which they share with prehistoric Irish brown bears - this DNA is absent from other species of brown bear alive today. The international research, published in Current Biology suggests that the two species crossed paths during colder period in Irish prehistory, allowing the two breeds to cross paths. Even today, modern brown bears can interbreed with polar beards, despite physical differences between the species.
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By Pieter van de Park
Amsterdam, June 22nd 2011 -- Authorities are investigating after well-known superhero Spiderman was found face down in an Amsterdam Canal this morning. A man, yet to be named, but said to be the proprietor of local 'coffee shop' The Green Goblin, is currently being questioned. Unconfirmed reports of an all-night skunk binge are thought to have led to the American superhero's demise.
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Quantum Suicide is a scientific thought experiment. The scientist sits in front of a gun that is set up to either trigger or misfire, depending on the decay of a radioactive atom. With each run of the experiment, there is a 50% chance the gun will trigger. Under the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, the gun will eventually kill the scientist. But if the 'many-worlds' interpretation is correct, then at each run of the experiment there will be a universe in which the scientist lives, and another in which he dies. The scientist can only ever be conscious of the world in which he LIVES, and so never seems to die. This leads to the fanciful speculation that the many-worlds interpretation implies all conscious beings are immortal.
(Imagine the scientist, realizing he cannot die, stepping outside the lab and seeing for the first time what is worthwhile about existence).
Listen to the song on soundcloud.
Buy the download on bandcamp, if inclined. The other songs from Fables for Another Time can be bought there too.
Best of all, buy the Fables for Another Time CD on dacianos.com.
If you dare, read all about the creepy Blather.net connection to the Dacianos cover photo.
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Archaeological batshttery, mumbo jumbo misinformation and outright lunacy based on fringe interpretations of a couple of websites and five minutes research by ill informed amateur web 'journalists'?
It must be Friday, so.
It takes a quare and rare thing to confound the likes of us here at Blather HQ, but every now and then, we get a right doozie. Like this report of Irish prehistoric art turning up in Georgia, USA.
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From launch.is
"Bitcoin is a P2P currency that could topple governments, destabilize economies and create uncontrollable global bazaars for contraband."
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I saw these lads on Tuesday night in Scala, London backing up Bell X1. They stole the show. They'll probably despise me for saying it, but they instantly reminded me of a young Police. Catchy tunes, feet-shuffling rhythm sections, superb vocals.
This is 'Soon They Will Come'. And yes, that does appear to be Aiden 'Mayor Carcetti' Gillen at the start of the video.
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[DUBLIN] On Tuesday, an elderly British woman became the first inhabitant of the British Isles to visit Ireland in nearly a century. Her expedition included an army of security guards, short, fat dogs and the British 'Prime Minister' (similar to our Taoiseach). The British Isles are a small archipelago that lie to the east of the Irish mainland. The woman, who appeared to have borrowed her outfit from Iris was said (via a translator) to have been amused by the 'very odd accent' of the inhabitants.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny was asked to comment, but was stopped from doing so by several members of Seal Team Six who cited a a British Court-ordered superinjunction which prevents him from mentioning the woman by name.
His own political party, Fine Gael, are said to be enamoured with the idea and are considering lodging their own superinjunction against him saying 'anything at all in public' during the coming weeks.
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It's from Russia. It's on Youtube. It couldn't possibly be a fake.
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The Jurassic Park theme. Just really, really slowly. Thanks to a piece of software called Paulstretch. It stretches things.
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The world of banking and high finance explained in 30 minutes of animation. It's all about the Federal Reserve, kids. So. Fear-mongering nonsense? Prescient and brilliant activism? Anti-Semitic nonsense? Heroic use of modern communication channels to get the message out? Or just timely satire? You decide.
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[Dublin] Government sources have revealed that a cabinet decision reached late last night, will result in the cancellation of this years St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Ireland. Blather.net understands that all parades, parties and festivities will be banned, and anyone found in breach will be liable to substantial fines, custodial sentences and/or deportation. The new Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny, is expected to make the controversial announcement within the next 24 hours; thought to be directly related to Ireland's ongoing financial crisis.
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The long held and longer respected Irish nocturnal tradition of body snatching is alive and well in the 21st century, it seems. Sort of. Kinda. We're not exactly sure if it officially counts though, if you leave the body back. Kinda. Sort of.
Reports reaching Blather HQ today indicate a corpse has been mysteriously (and illegally) exhumed and reburied in a separate grave under cover of darkness in Co. Limerick in recent times. Limerick (Old Irish: Liabh mé de féic alóne; take mó bhállet) is no stranger to nefarious after-hours activity, but even by its own standards, this counts as a strange one.
No exhumation order was sought, nor were official graveyard authorities present at the 'removal'. It all just kind of happened by itself.
At night. In the dark. With nobody watching.
According to Irish law, a priest, a guard (Police officer) and an environmental officer must be present at any exhumation.
I wonder which one of them does the digging?
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Image from Flickr Commons, used under a CC Licence
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