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A 'potted history' of Ireland

Cumulatively we spent many happy hours in a variety of museums and visited a lot of historical sites but despite my discovery of mutual ancestors I realised I knew little of Ireland's complex history until this visit. I've subsequently relied a lot on Wikipedia for fact checking but I'm happy to be corrected where I have strayed upon 'alternative truths'.  So this section is rather long and those of you who like your reading constrained to 140 characters or less may wish to skip to the next section or if you would just like to see some photos go to the Google Photos Album. 

 

There are many Australians with Irish heritage so a little bit of Ireland's history had indeed seeped into our awareness as Wendy and I grew up. For example, when I was at UNSW (post Grad) learning Computer Science, typing: 'get irish' into a computer consol produced a three centimetre thick pile of green and white striped fan-fold line printer output listing hundreds of 'Irish Jokes' like: 'Did you hear about the IRA man who went to London to blow up a bus and burnt his lips on the exhaust pipe?

A bit earlier in the 1970's we had both, quite independently, lived in London.  At that time there were several Irish terrorist events that dominated the news.  Yet those IRA (Irish Republican Army) bombings in London were just a first taste.  The bombings were to continue all the way into the 21st century as a result of the escalating 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland.

The origin of 'The Troubles' can be traced to many past events, perhaps to the arrival of Christianity as a result of the Romans.  But like all history one event follows another so we could go all the way back to when modern humans first arrived in Ireland.

 

 

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Travel

Laos

 

 

The Lao People's Democratic Republic is a communist country, like China to the North and Vietnam with which it shares its Eastern border. 

And like the bordering communist countries, the government has embraced limited private ownership and free market capitalism, in theory.  But there remain powerful vested interests, and residual pockets of political power, particularly in the agricultural sector, and corruption is a significant issue. 

During the past decade tourism has become an important source of income and is now generating around a third of the Nation's domestic product.  Tourism is centred on Luang Prabang and to a lesser extent the Plane of Jars and the capital, Vientiane.

Read more: Laos

Fiction, Recollections & News

Electricity Shocks

 

 

 

I've always thought that would be a good headline. 

Now that I have your attention I have to report that Emily McKie, my daughter, is the author of a new e-book on Smart Grid technology in her sustainable cities series.

 

 

 

Read more: Electricity Shocks

Opinions and Philosophy

Issues Arising from the Greenhouse Hypothesis

This paper was first written in 1990 - nearly 30 years ago - yet little has changed.

Except of course, that a lot of politicians and bureaucrats have put in a lot of air miles and stayed in some excellent hotels in interesting places around the world like Kyoto, Amsterdam and Cancun. 

In the interim technology has come to our aid.  Wind turbines, dismissed here, have become larger and much more economic as have PV solar panels.  Renewable energy options are discussed in more detail elsewhere on this website.

 


 

Climate Change

Issues Arising from the Greenhouse Hypothesis

 

Climate change has wide ranging implications for the World, ranging from its impacts on agriculture (through drought, floods, water availability, land degradation and carbon credits) mining (by limiting markets for coal and minerals processing) manufacturing and transport (through energy costs) to property damage resulting from storms.  The issues are complex, ranging from disputes about the impact of human activities on global warming, to arguments about what should be done and the consequences of the various actions proposed.  The following paper explores some of the issues and their potential impact.

 

Read more: Issues Arising from the Greenhouse Hypothesis

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