Its not very often I have to thank comment spam for something, but in this case its giving you this picture.
This year has been hectic, and a few days ago I dumped the contents of my camera’s memory card on to a stick before bringing it with me out in the cold. For the record I was worried about corruption in the frost, naturally the camera never got used.
Anyway, I got a change to glance through the pictures taken since September. And I discovered the later shots taken as part of a photowalk in Cork. Not the ones from the start of the walk, but only the later ones.
I was convinced that I had lost them. Then I had to go in to my comment spam, only to discover a comment on one of my photos from the walk. Turns out I had uploaded them, but left some of the later ones on the memory card.
I still have three months of photographs to process, but I haven’t lost anything. Except my mind of course.
2009 has been a year of mess and hassle. I’m hoping for improvements in 2010. But thanks to early morning traffic mysteriously vanishing off the roads on the run up to Christmas, there is already a small improvement; five minutes extra in bed.
T’is the season of Christmas parties. OK, this year, subdued Christmas parties, but the “be careful on the road” message still applies.
Twenty years ago, the transport accident commission of Australia created its first television safety campaign. The video below is an edit of 20 years of campaigns. Be warned if you thought that the “The Faster the Speed, the Bigger the Mess” advert for the Republic and Northern Ireland was bad, 20 years worth will have you in tears.
She was woken up by frenzied banging at the front door to her bungalow. Half asleep the elderly lady swung around in the bed, instinctively grabbing her cane by the bed as she put her feet to the floor in search of her slippers.
Instead she found over foot and a half of water.
My aunt was evacuated from her Ballinasloe house, later to be submerged under four and a half feet of water, by boat with only her cane, glasses, nightie, dressing gown and an overcoat grabbed from the hook near the door by one of her boat bound rescuers.
Thankfully she isn’t exactly homeless as her daughter lives on higher ground near-by, but most of her possessions are gone.
Yes folks, this is about the floods.
Today FM and The Ray Foley Show have launched an appeal to the public to give what they can or in the case that you can’t give, do what you can to help these families.
It doesn’t have to be money, we’re all strapped these days, the SVP are calling for practical contributions. Lets face it, some people are going to splurge on new clothes and shoes on the run up and the aftermath of Christmas. Well take this chance to go through your wardrobe and donate anything that doesn’t fit, suit you or you haven’t worn for over two years without a very good reason. (Yes, a Munster shirt signed by the entire team does count as a good reason Ant).
If you have time to give or a skill that could be useful in the aftermath for example builders, carpenters, van/truck drivers if there was a list it would go on, then there’s a website Offers of Help and everything is appreciated.
There are also a bunch of fundraiser activities taking place around the country. Tonight (December 7) in Cork’s Silversprings Conference Centre is the Raising Cork Quiz is in aid of the Cork Flood Victims – with all proceeds going to the SVP Cork Flood Victims Fund. It starts at 8pm with George Hook offering his services as quizmaster. A table of four costs €80.
If you can’t attend (I’ve heard that registration may be full) then you can make donations directly to
St. Vincent de Paul Cork Flood Victims Fund.
AIB 66 South Mall Sort Code:936383 Account No:47092772
Alternatively, contributions to the SVP Annual Appeal, that includes the Irish Flood victims, can be made by calling 01 8386990 or one of the Regional Offices. Or log on to www.svp.ie and click on “Donate Now” or send a cheque to PO Box 1234 Dublin 1.
Many organisations are providing support for the SVP on a national level including a range of newspapers and radio programmes. Arnotts has selected the SVP as one of six charities to be supported by a €20 charity voucher to given to customers with every purchase over €100 on a key shopping day, 8th December. This voucher can then be used to donate to a charity of their choice.
Byrne’s World of Wonder toy stores, the pregnancy and parenting resource website Eumom.ie, Pfizer Healthcare Ireland and ESB Customer Supply are also heavily involved in the fund-raising campaign.
Another major initiative is the SVP Giving Tree campaign which is a big success in companies, homes and stores throughout the country. The Giving Tree campaign asks people to buy a gift for someone who may not get one otherwise this Christmas, to be distributed by SVP volunteers. Giving Trees will be positioned in all cinemas showing ‘A Christmas Carol’ throughout Ireland. National Irish Bank staff across the country are taking up the Giving Tree and buying gifts for those who need it most. SVP is National Irish Bank’s Charity Partner in 2009.
The Irish Muslim community has announced it is to conduct a nationwide collection at the State’s mosques in aid of those affected by the recent floods. Mosques involved in the collection with include those in Clonskeagh, Co Dublin; Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo; and Cork and Galway. The Irish Muslim Flood Relief Committee can be contacted on 01 6729038.
Last week, the Irish Red Cross estimated it has raised over €300,000 so far for its flood relief operations. Donations can be made online at www.redcross.ie or by calling 1850 50 70 70. There are approximately 6000 members of the Irish Red Cross who are all volunteers serving in local communities in every county in Ireland. The Irish Red Cross is responding to floods in Ireland, in fulfilment of its role as an auxiliary to the state.
As we all know, the future was supposed to be full of flying cars, and that simply didn’t happen.
Maybe they were too busy thinking “jet cars” to think “sail boats that fly”.
Industrial designer Damien Grossemydesigned a hypoththetical flying electric vehicle for Renault that is simply beautiful. The “Zep’lin” has a mostly vertical structure, a large part of which can be covered with solar panels, that resembles the offspring of a seed pod and a sail boat. Its actually possible to imagine that this is a genetically engineered type of maple until you see the elegant rudder / engine combination. True, I don’t see this doing a tight turning circle, and I’m not too sure how it would perform in a high wind take off to work, but it needs no dedicated infrastructure to land.
To park might be another matter.
And I wanna try it out.
It sails rather than powers from one location to another. The promotional video implies a potential around the world Zep’lin race for rich playboys. Which, if the design works, is not as infeasible as an around the world yacht race. So he has his early adopters identified, and can use their attention seeking antics to market the thing while their payments pay for the development of a commuter model.
And they look beautiful.
You may need to click through to see the embedded video.
Apparently the solar panels can tilt toward the sun, but looking at more of the designs I think its the solar equivalent of tacking, getting power in the sail from one angle, while traveling in another.
Renault spent 2 months designing a scale model, and we’ll see if it eventually becomes a working design.
Barcamp Cork III was on last weekend. Gordon Murray, Ciara Feely, Ciara Crossan did a brillian job, and the conversations alone are a good reason to go. the Talks are the icing on the cake. I did get there, and had a great time (take a look at Martha Rotter’s review for a better idea).
I said that there are competing standards in 3D TV. Hatchai Full Parallax 3D Display seems to be up and running (I assume the Hitchai is the phonetic spelling in Japanese) and showed off their screen at the Ceatec Japan 2009 show. The news is via Gigazine and SDR News.
As you can see from the above video, you get a 3D parallax view, something you don’t get from the cinema, giving a holographic view. You also see that its working great for still objects, just like holograms. No details on how it works with moving objects, or indeed if it can work on a landscape. The secret (I’m working off a machine translation here) seems to be using multiple projectors, more projectors mean more 3D objects; which implies you could have a 3D newsreader in your living room, but a panel might not be possible.
Lets get the cynical bit out of the way first. Studios and cinemas love 3D as its impossible to do the “camera in the theatre” pirating trick with them. Just try watching a movie without the polarising glasses and you’ll see what I mean.
At the moment there are no movies that are greatly improved by the use of 3D. Just as the Jazz Singer was a gimmick where there was only 5 minutes of sound tacked in to a silent movie in 1927.
Try to imagine a modern movie done as a silent now? How much dialogue could be removed to work with those cards with the few lines? Exposition would need to be simpler in order to cope… etc.
Sound, widescreen and colour were all gimmicks once.
The entire production in photography would have to change in order to make the most of 3d. Since all movies have to be capable of being displayed on a 2d screen (DVD sales, Sales for tv broadcast, legal download) there isn’t going to be much use made of 3d, just as there isn’t much use made of IMAX.
So keeping that part of the market in mind, what is needed for 3d to take off?
The first big leap will be 3d home displays or 3D computer monitors. Then 3d still digital photography displayed on these home screens, and 3D games and interfaces on computers and consoles.
The still experiments will be what teaches the photographic and lighting requirements to the DPs (remember that lighting a black and white movie is a completely different technique to lighting a colour one. Something taken for granted today, but hard learned when it came in). The gaming and interface side will show what can be avoided an what people do and don’t notice.
Just place your bets on a 3D chess game being an early release… slow rendering is possible as most of the pieces can be pre-rendered. A slow moving game like this, well slow moving when compared to a first person shooter should be fairly easy… at most 2 pieces move at once. Then things can get faster.
Then, live action 3D comes to play… (at the moment it is limited to CG and stop motion animation).
Suddenly 3d editing becomes a desirable (and probably new found skill). Set budgets will soar (as the limited field of view is killed, as will be digital matt painting, unless they go 3d too.
Expect “AR” style commentaries on home released by that time too.
At the moment there are competing standards for home 3d, just as there were competing standards for sound in the 30s. And technicolor fought with de luxe for years. Give it time, and remember that the technical best does not always beat the good enough.
Tony points out that HD is still not ubiquitous. Well, the HD argument is flawed because of “good enough”. Few broadcasters use it, and its coming out at a time when the low definition YouTube channel is the most successful one at the moment. In other words its not being used. It may look great, but its not being used.
However, would one second of 3d and one second of HD have the same bandwidth/spectrum cost? The HD broadcast protocols might just be useful yet.
There is only one advantage to joining a Photowalk late, you join by a different route, and you have slightly different photographs from everyone else. Thanks for setting everything up Donncha!
When my grandmother died the family decided to sell her house. At the back of a wardrobe they found an old photograph slowly fading away. The photo was scanned and restored and copies, both electronic and physical were handed around the family. That photo was a family portrait taken in 1910. Thanks to the release of the 1911 census data I am currently looking at the signature of my great-grandmother and the rest of the family in that shot.
By the way, we have no record as to who took the photo almost 100 years ago.
Well almost. My great-grandfather died between the taking of the photo and the census, however it is my great-grandmother who is the head of the household and not her brother-in-law who is also in the house.
Staring at her signature suddenly made that photo come to life. You see, with the exception of the baby on her knee (my grandfather) I never met the people in the photo, however I can see element of her in my aunts and cousins. Seeing how the family changed. How they lived after that photo made this old image come to life.
A similar reaction happened when I tracked down the other side of the family. Something my father must have done, and some day I’ll figure out where he put his archives of the Knott family back to the 12th Century. Seeing proof of life of my own bloodline means I’m seeing elements of my history I never thought of.
Having said that, while the documents make my past more real, I know my history. I knew that my mum’s side were blacksmiths (the long disused forge was later converted to a kitchen, and I used to play with the inbuilt bellows) and I knew that dad’s side were farmers. However both houses have changed in the course of my lifetime. One renovated (twice, the forge is now the living room of the new owners home) and one destroyed. For the next generation, this will be the main record of the family past.
The families were very different. One one side was a widow shortly after 11 years of marriage, working as a seamstress raising the three surviving children of the seven who survived childbirth (no record of those stillborn) while the Knott’s raised nine of nine born alive and after 33 years of marriage were in the house with two adult sons (interestingly listed as being “domestics”, a category presumed for females). Yet despite their differences, the cursive style of writing are amazingly similar. That and the fact that every over the age of four was listed as being able to read and write.
You know the swooping style of the Coca-Cola logo or the Arthur Guinness signature? Well those swoops are there for every capital letter. The expansive swirls of the lead in and lead out “W” of Will and widow. The two families were many miles apart, but the learned writing style is nearly the same throughout the country. Redmum has reproduced her ancestor’s census form and you can see the writing style there. I’m not reproducing mine. I’m keeping some
secrets. After all a census search for “William Knott” shows quite a few results spread through the country. But even checking out the neighbours show fingerprints of a writing style which died out a long time ago here.
I would put money on the guess that I’m related, somehow, to all of them.
Something else of interest is that neither side admitted to being able to speak Irish. Was it a political thing then?
Donncha is settup up another photowalk in Cork, this time on Sunday September 26 2009 (I’m including the year as this blog is now 6 years old. There is a lot of archive, and years need to be considered now).
I missed the last photowalk due to a family emergency, but I really want to get to this one. I also need time to find out what is on my camera’s memory card and upload more.
And given the fact that Cork is “De Capital”, I couldn’t resist this shot. Oddly, its more Waterford. Oh well.
