Joe’s Blog

I am currently having a little break and enjoying the sun and sights in a little place called Barcelona. The locals are surprisingly pleasant and the architecture everywhere is awesome. I like how mopeds and bicycles are used so much but far too many people have tattoos covering themselves.

Here are a few pics from the road;

 

 

On the way over too, I came across our American fiends in Shannon  - Air Force and marines mostly

Short answer to Mike - go to Franconia (northern Bavaria, in German: Franken). In Berlin, Becks seems to be the beer of choice. There is a beer known as Schultheiss but it was more of an old-mans beer. Berliner-Pilsner was a good alternative to Becks. I heard of Berliner Kindl too but can’t remember it being any good. Certainly didn’t try any green/red Berliner Weisse

Giving an uninformed guess, the beer in East Berlin was horrible and in West Berlin, you were happy if you had coal during the airlift. So a proud, continuous brewing tradition is unlikely. Even the new, hip, organic drink of choice, “Bionade” isn’t from Berlin.

The beer culture in Bavaria and Franconia is much stronger and even the wikipedia page reflects this EN. The German Wikipedia goes into more detail and states that Oberfranken (Upper Franconia) has more breweries than any other European country! Only the US (1383), China (420) and Russia (404) have more breweries but Oberfranken is much smaller of course and there are approx. 200 in Oberfranken and approx. 300 in all of Franconia). See:
Bierland-Oberfranken
List of breweries in Bavaria
www.franconiabeerguide.com

The An Ríocht Region of Engineers Ireland is delighted to present the following field trip

Field Trip - Limerick Tunnel Presentation and Site Visit

Time: 9am

Date: Friday 22nd February 2008

Venue: Meet at the Institute of Technology Tralee, South Campus

For further details please contact:
Claire Horan
Engineers Ireland An Riocht Regional Co-Ordinator
School of Engineering
Institute of Technology Tralee
Tel 066-7145612
Fax 066-7145650

or

Noel O Murchu
Tel:066 7127235

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Landscapes and gardens in eighteenth-century Munster

The Limerick Chapter, Irish Georgian Society will host the following series of lectures on Landscapes and gardens in eighteenth-century Munster.

‘Responding to the landscape in eighteenth-century Munster’
Dr Toby Barnard, University of Oxford
Limerick City Library, 19th February, 8pm

‘The Western Baroque: Dromoland, Ardfert, Lixnaw and Killarney’
Dr Finola O’Kane, University College Dublin
Limerick City Library, 1 April, 8pm

‘The eighteenth-century urban garden and its regeneration’
Belinda Jupp, Garden conservationist
The Georgian House and Garden, 2 Pery Square, Limerick, 8pm (Admission: 5 euro) 22 April

Further information; Phone 01-676-7053 or email info @ igs dot ie

We came, we saw, we rang in the new year.
Some Photos:
See how the entire city lights up with fireworks. We were in front of the palace which was all very civilised and had a great view. Down by the harbour, things were a little more chaotic. Next year, unlicensed fireworks are banned in Norway! - Last explosive celebration - Aftenposten.no

And one near to us

Thanks Kev!

Shannon Heathrow Rally is on Sat 20th (tomorrow) at 1pm on O’Connell St*
O’Dea cartoon #1
O’Dea cartoon #2
O’Dea cartoon #3
Government cartoon #1
Government cartoon #2

In other news:

An Irish Transport Map (especially the first comment)

Minister raids broadband fund for €10m to bail out energy conservation schemes overspend - Coveney
OR Broadband money re-routed to SEI scheme by Ryan

Seven year old PULSE flaw makes mockery of the law - Flanagan

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*organised by the four Mid West local authorities (North Tipperary Co Council, Limerick City Council, Limerick County Council and Clare County Council)

Giant Lego figure appears on beach

Turns out that there is a crypt worth visiting in Dublin - St Michan’s Church & Crypt via Elly and Maryrose

Also via Elly - Nokia Announces Battery Recall

GSpace - a firefox addon (not from Google) worth trying perhaps

Aaaah - the hippies are threatening our jelly babies! Next it will be chocolate…
UPDATE: Feic - the cost of chocolate is shooting up too;

Correct cheese coverage formation - a tip for the shop in UL?

Transport 21 has gone tits-up already - 2yrs delay for Citywest Luas after 18 months. Would Enda have stood for this? It wasn’t announced either - websites were simply updated…

Many other people have posted this but I was there too - John & Patrick Collison of Auctomatic share their experiences of setting up Auctomatic, ycombinator and Silicon Valley.


People were quite excited to be part of an interactive webcast too - we were getting feedback and questions from the people watching the live stream