Life

Life - Sport

Irish Wife Carrying Championships

July 26, 2008 by 0 Comments

They say that you learn something new every day. Today, that something new for me was the existence of a sport called Wife Carrying. Here, a male contestant carries his female team mate over an obstacle course in as quick a time as possible. Several styles of carrying are used, including piggyback, fireman’s carry (over the shoulder) or Estonian-style (where the wife hangs upside-down with her legs around the husband’s shoulders, holding onto his waist).

Whilst it is predominantly a Scandinavian sport, the inaugural Irish Championships were held in Co. Kerry earlier today as part of the Sneem Family Festival, with the winners going on to represent Ireland at the World Championships in Finland next July.

Source: RTE News

Life

Inside the LEGO Factory

July 21, 2008 by 0 Comments

Gizmodo is back with another amazing LEGO exclusive and this time he has been afforded the opportunity to explore (and film) inside the LEGO factory itself. His report includes several short videos showing the LEGO manufacturing process as well as some astonishing footage of how the bricks are stored in massive silos where no humans are allowed.

Some interesting facts and statistics I took from this are:

  • The plastic granules from which LEGO is made are a by-product of Diesel.
  • The LEGO machines produce 600 pieces per second (36,000 per minute, 2.1 million per hour or 19 billion per year).
  • The LEGO factory processes 60 tons of plastic  granules every 24 hours.
  • The plastic granules come in 70 basic colours, from which all other colours are derived.
  • The moulds that produce the LEGO pieces are retooled after 5 million uses.
  • Decorating the pieces is the most expensive part of the process.

Having spent a number of summer months working at an Injection Moulding company in a past life, I recognised much of the machinery and processes used but it is clearly off the radar in terms of scale, with pretty much everything controlled by a mainframe computer system.

Source: SlashDot

Life

Seamus Brennan R.I.P.

July 10, 2008 by 0 Comments

I was saddened to learn of the untimely death of Irish Politician Seamus Brennan earlier this morning (9th July 2008) at the age of 60. Politicians rarely catch (or hold) my attention but I can recall being impressed by Seamus Brennan on a number of occasions.

His honesty when answering questions and ability to explain complex matters in simple terms were a breath of fresh air in a political world where the norm was to dodge questions and fluff around the subject matter with vague answers and irrelevant waffle.

There were tributes to Seamus in the Irish Times and on RTE News.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

General - Life

Secret LEGO Vault

June 25, 2008 by 0 Comments

Here is real treat for LEGO fans everywhere. I learned today that there is a special vault at LEGO Headquarters in Denmark where they store one of every LEGO set ever created from 1953 to 2008, that’s 4720 sets, still in their original boxes!

Apparently one of the primary reasons for retaining such a collection is that LEGO can use it as a safeguard in copyright and patent cases.

To a long time LEGO fanatic like myself, this is an unimaginable concept and represents possibly the finest toy collection in existence bar none. Special thanks goes to Gizmodo for sharing the experience and emotion of his recent visit to this labrynth of true wonderment. His article and accompanying video are well worth checking out.

Source: SlashDot

Life

How clean is your car?

June 20, 2008 by 2 Comments

Sustainable Energy Ireland has a useful energy emissions calculator for all models of car purchased since 2000. I tried this out for my 2003 Renault Scenic and was quite shocked at how poor the emissions were (173 gC02/km) and that it could cost €600 under the new motor taxation scheme, compared to €292 under the current scheme. Fortunately, it will not cost this since it was registered prior to July 2008 and is thus exempt from the new system.

I was also very surprised to see how little by comparison a brand new 2008 BMW 520 Diesel is going to cost under the new scheme (€290 compared to €689 under the current scheme). This car is very efficient and emits a mere 149 gCO2/km.

The times they are a’ changin’

Life

Motor Tax changes

June 20, 2008 by 6 Comments

There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the new motor taxation system being introduced in Ireland at the start of July 2008, so I did a little research of my own to see what impact, if any, this will have on me (and my family). I found the answers to most of my questions on the Citizens Information website and for me, it basically boils down to this:

  1. Cars registered before 1 January 2008 will continue to pay motor tax on the basis of engine size.
  2. New cars registered from 1 July 2008 will pay motor tax charges on the basis of seven CO2 emissions.
  3. The CO2 emissions are measured in terms of grammes of Carbon Dioxide emitted per kilometer travelled, or gCO2/km.
  4. There are 7 different bands of emissions, ranging in price from €100 to €2,00.

So for me (and most others I know) nothing changes in the short term and we will continue to pay motor tax based on the older system of engine size, which ironically increased its rates in January 2008. Only when we trade up to a car newer than July 2008 will these changes affect us.

Life

Special Effects Legend dies at 62

June 17, 2008 by 0 Comments

I was saddened to learn today of the untimely death earlier this week of the special effects pioneer Stan Winston, at the tender age of just 62. Stan was responsible for the ground breaking effects in movies such as Alien, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park to name but a few. When I think about each of these movies, I can recall being totally blown away by them and never realised that the same person was responsible for them all.

As we say in Ireland, “Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam” which translates to, “May his soul be on God’s right side”.

Source: Underwire

Life - Technology

Rubik’s Cube Proof Cut to 23 moves

June 6, 2008 by 0 Comments

In March 2008, I commented on a Stanford-trained mathematician (Tomas Rokicki) who proved that it was possible to solve any scrambled Rubik’s cube in just 25 moves. The equipment used to do this was computer with 8GB and a Q6600 CPU.

Now a mere 3 months later, he has returned with an updated proof that shows it can be down in just 23 moves. He traded his previous computer for the supercomputers at Sony Pictures Imageworks and carried out his testing in the idle-time between productions.

I sense it will not be long before we hear from him again.

Source: SlashDot

Life - Technology - TSSG

Culloden Battlefield Guide wins Heritage Award

May 8, 2008 by 0 Comments

Yet another proud day for the TSSG as one of our spin-offs ZolkC, took home the UK Museums and Heritage Award for “Best use of Technology” at a gala ceremony in London last night.

The award was presented to ZolkC and the National Trust for Scotland for their Culloden Battlefield Guide, an innovative new service that provides an interactive tour of the site of the Battle of Culloden in Inverness, Scotland. The guide was launched recently to coincide with the opening of the new visitor centre at Culloden.

Well done to everyone who has been involved with this project at the TSSG and ZolkC.

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