Life & Stuff

Links for 2009-07-16 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

d-maps.com : free blank maps, free outline maps

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Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

25 places to watch movies subtitled in Spanish free online

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Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Monkeys feel regret like humans, study shows - Telegraph
Mind Hacks: The psychology of being scammed
Men Are Hard-Wired to Suspect Infidelity | Wired Science | Wired.com
Race: an anthropological perspective | Ad Hominin
Why are paleontologists always finding the "missing link"? - By Brian Palmer - Slate Magazine
Darwinism: The creationist straw man | Ad Hominin
Flickr Photo Download: Darwin wallpaper
Flawed Survey Says 99% of Women Don't Like Their Looks | LiveScience
The origin of bone words | Ad Hominin
21 Fonts That Shouldn't Be Free...But Are! | Web Design Blog by Union Room Web Design
7 Million People Direct Descendants Of Single Smooth-Talking Ancestor | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
Geneticists at the Johns Hopkins University announced Monday that an estimated seven million people worldwide carry a distinctive genetic marker linking them to a single smooth-talking common ancestor.
The neuroscience of an unwanted limb
ABC Catalyst has a completely astounding video on someone with 'body integrity identity disorder' who deliberately caused a leg amputation to feel satisfied with their body. It goes on to explore the neuroscience of body image and explores some of the best known body swap experiments.

Links for 2009-07-12 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

10 More Tips for Stunning Portrait Photography

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Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

New Blog

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2009-05-12T09:18:56+01:00

My New blog: Ad Hominin

Scientific literacy

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-06-14T11:40:20+01:00

I recently got around to watching the movie "What the bleep do you know?" and was struck by the inanity of its “scientific” claims. I couldn't believe that such a movie has had so much success. However, this is probably just a reflection of the generally scientific illiteracy in society. For the vast majority of people science education starts and ends with secondary school education, if even that. Here are some pointers that can help sort out real science from the junk variety.

Occam’s razor
Occam’s razor (also known as the “law of parsimony” or the “law of succinctness”) states that the best explanation is typically the one that makes the least number of assumptions.

Media release
You should be suspicious of any claim which goes directly from the lab to press. Scientific research should first pass through peer review and publication before it is announced to the public.

Links for 2008-06-03 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Word Connections — Word and Phrase Origins

English words evolve

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-06-03T23:03:10+01:00

In an earlier post I discussed how the meaning of the word “nice” has come to have a completely different meaning than its original sense. I thought it would interesting to track down some other words in the English language that have changed radically over the years.

Buxom
This word is etymologically related to the word “bow.” The original meaning of the word buhsum was "humble, obedient" from buh- "to bow" and -som "be capable of." The meaning took on the meaning of “compliant, obliging” and later "lively, happy, cheerful." By the 1890s the word was being used to mean "lively, healthy." This further gave rise to "vigorous, plump" from whence we get the word’s current meaning.

Awful
As one might guess the word awful originally meant "full of awe." However, the Old English word ege did not mean something like “wonder,” but rather “fear” or “distress.” Therefore, the words “awe” and “awesome” have instead changed their original meanings.

Eliminate shadows in photos

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-06-01T17:55:59+01:00

One of the most vexing problems for any photographer are shadows. There are many circumstances where we would like to get rid of the them. The most common ways to minimise shadows are through diffusing the intense lighting from sunlight and flash.

A popular technique used in indoor photography is to bounce the flash. This means, rather than pointing the flash directly at our subject, we reflect it off the wall or ceiling. This has the effect of diffusing the light and giving a more natural feel to the shot. If you happen to have a “slave flash,” you can use the on-camera flash and bounce the ‘slave.” If all else fails, seek out natural lighting in the form of a window or doorway, and be sure stand clear of walls if you don’t want the subject’s outline to have a big black silhouette.

Ignorance is nice

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-05-31T15:43:27+01:00

... or at least etymologically speaking. The word "nice" has one of the most interesting etymologies in the English language, as its meaning has completely changed over the centuries.

The word "nice", like many words in the English language, came to us through Old French and ultimately from Latin. The Latin word nescius means "unaware," "not knowing," or "ignorant." We can see this more clearly when we dissect the word into its parts; ne- means "not" and scire means "know, understand." The latter is the root that we also find in the word science. So, at least etymologically speaking, the word nice means ignorant, which itself comes from the from two Latin roots i- “not” and gnarus “to know, be acquainted with.”

Thus, the original usage of the word nice in the English language had the approximate meaning of "ignorant, silly, foolish." The meaning of the word continually evolved – over time having the following senses: timid, fussy, wanton, dissolute, showy, ostentatious, dainty, elegant delicate, careful, refined, respectable, decent, agreeable, delightful, kind, and thoughtful.

Richard Feynman

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-05-21T23:45:18+01:00

This interview with Richard Feynman is a charm to watch. Feynman has been lauded, along with Einstein and Hawking, as one of the great minds of the last century. One of the greatest things about Feynman was his ability to break through the barrier which separates many great minds from the general public - effective communication. This man was the epitome of what it means to be a scientist and teacher.

Richard Feynman Quotations

Physics is like sex. Sure, you get some results but thats not why you do it.

You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing — that's what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.

A brief history of violence

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-05-01T10:46:20+01:00

In this twenty minute presentation Harvard evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker smashes some of our preconceptions about violence. He argues that we are in fact living in one the least violent times in history. He reproves the ever-persistent myth that humans by nature are peaceful creatures. However, history, social anthropology and archaeology paint quite a different picture. While violent trends have been interrupted by peaks and valleys, the overall picture looks promising for the future.

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The power of the mind!

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-04-30T09:30:23+01:00

Origin of the name Enda

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-04-20T11:13:08+01:00

Enda (pronounced ['enda]) is an Irish boy's name, that is the anglicised form of Éanna. Éanna is probably related to the Irish word for bird éan. Thus, the meaning is bird-like. While many people associate the name with a 6th century Irish saint (Éanna, Éinne or Endeus, died c. 530) who built a monastery in Killeany, County Clare, the name had existed in some form or another for many year previously. Saint Enda who is considered to be one of the founders of monasticism in Ireland

There were at least three Irish kings with the name Enda, beginning around 1409 B.C. with Enna Airgtheach (Eanna Airgthach, Éanna I Airgtheach, Eorn Airgtheach, Enna Airgthioch, Enna Argthech, Enda the Despoiler or Plunderer, Nuadu [Nuaghat] Declam MacEchach, Enna [Eunius] Airgtheach). Around 892 B.C. we see the king Enda Dearg (Eanna Dearg, Enna, Éanna II, Enna Derg) and later on Enna Aighneach (Eanna Aigneach, Énna Airgdech, Énna Airgtech, Enda Agneach, Éanna III [Aigneach], Enna Aigneach, Enna Aighnech) who reigned around 312 B.C.

Related posts:
Fintan
Ciarán
Tadhg
Leyre/Leire
Brewster and Brewer

Sources:
Irish Kings
Behind the name

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Memorise text: tips and tricks

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-04-08T11:02:15+01:00

At some stage or another you will probably have to memorise some piece of writing. This could be poetry, famous quotations, scripture verses, a script or arguments for a debate. The following is a list of ways that you can help you learn short passages of text.

Use note cards or flash cards. Write the passage you want to learn on the card and carry the card with you everywhere throughout the day. If you read a lot, you can even use the card as your bookmark.

Say it out loud. We are more liable to remember text that we have heard rather than read; so it is better to say the text out loud while you are reading it.

Be interested. It natural to remember the things that you enjoy and forget the things you don't. Try and learn excerpts that interest you.

Origin of Brewster and Brewer

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-03-23T11:05:24+00:00

The "brew" part of the names Brewster (pronounced /bruːstər/) and Brewer (pronounced /bruːər/) allude to their relationship to the brewing trade. The "-er" suffix of Brewer is similar to that found in many professions in English, such as baker, painter and runner. By combining a verb and the suffix "-er" we can convert them into a noun that describes what a person does. Many of the etymologies of the name Brewster point to "-ster" being a suffix denoting a female profession. However, this is not completely true. Indeed, "-ster" (also found in other surnames such as Baxter and Webster) was first used to donate female professions. Some sources suggest that -ster eventually came to be used to denote a full-time profession, while -er was often used to describe an occasional participation in an activity. Particularly, in northern England and in Scotland the suffix "-ster" began to be used indiscriminately for both male and female professions, while in the south of England "-ster" was still used predominately to describe a female profession. Indeed, modern censuses reveal a clear north-south divide, with Brewster being most commonly seen in the north of Britain and Baxter being found further south.

Fintan

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-03-20T17:54:34+00:00

Fintan is a common name for a boy in Ireland. It is pronounced ['fIntən] and is the anglicised version of Fionntán. The first part of the name is related to another Irish name Fionn. This word is the Irish word for "fair" or "white." The word also has the older Gaelic meaning of "discover" or "find"; a meaning that can be traced to the Gaulish root *vindo-. Interestingly, the word fionn is also etymologically related to fios, the Gaelic word for "knowledge." The etymology of the word fios can be traced back to a Proto Indo-European root *weid- which gave rise to such words as vision in English and wissen (to know) in German. The final part of Fintan may have two possible etymologies. It may come from the Irish word for bull táin, much like other totemic names like Tadhg. Alternatively, it may originate from the Irish word for fire tine.

Related posts:
Ciarán
Tadhg
Leyre/Leire

Sources:
http://www.etymonline.com/
MacBain's Dictionary

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Happy St Patrick's Day

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-03-17T17:09:41+00:00

I could pass this one up! Have a great St Patrick's Day!

The Vagueness of Change

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-03-03T11:49:50+00:00

The theme of the US presidential race can be summed up by the cliché "change." This word has all the characteristics of a cliché, defined as "a word or phrase that through hackneyed use has lost all of its original ingenuity."

While this word might be an attention grabber, upon deeper reflection it soon loses its sparkle. Ask a passer-by the meaning of the word change and you will get something vague along the lines of "something different from what exists now." However, if we are not explicit about what we want to change, then the word effectively loses any useful meaning it may have. Besides, isn't change occurring all the time, from one instant to the next?

Perhaps it is this vagueness that gives this word its power. If the exact meaning of change can't be pinned down then the meaning must be, if you'll permit me alter another cliché, "in the ears of the beholder." Could this be an attempt to break free of the dogma of "you can't please all of the people all of the time" and to reach a wider audience? This is a marketing strategy we are all familiar with; you know, those advertisements that leave you thinking "what the...?" but the next day has you discussing it with colleagues and seeing if you were the only ones who didn't get it.

Etymology of the name Leyre

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-02-07T12:09:33+00:00

I was recently challenged by a friend to research her name, Leyre ['ley re]. Leyre is a popular Basque name that is somewhat unusual in that it contains the letter "y," a letter that doesn't exist in the Basque alphabet. In fact, the alternative spelling Leire is often seen, although it is less popular. A quick internet search for the name brings up a lot of hits relating not to the Basque Country but rather to its neighbour Navarra, or to be more specific the Monastery of San Salvador of Leyre (often shorted to the Monastery of Leyre). However, Leyre here refers to the name of the locality where the monastery is situated rather than the name of a specific person. This may suggest that the name is in fact not Basque in origin.

I could only find one source that pointed to a possible Basque origin for the name of the Monastery. The author draws parallels between the Basque word legor which can mean "hostel" or "shed." It should be noted that monasteries were common places of refuge for pilgrims and travellers. Digging a little deeper I found that the word legor and its derivative lehor can mean land or earth (in juxaposition with the sea). The roots of these words come from the Proto-Basque root words *agor̄ and *egar̄i meaning "dry." The related Basque word legar has the meaning of gravel or pebble. Thus, the leap from dry to hostel is not so great when we think of a refuge as a place that shelters us from the elements, specifically the rain, something present in abundance in this part of Spain. The name could also refer to the location of the monastery itself on dry land.

Links for 2008-02-03 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:00:00 PST

Gaelic Etymological Dictionary

Tadhg: Meaning, etymology, pronounciation and history

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-02-03T13:24:15+00:00

If anyone can relate to the problem I face with the mispronunciation of my name outside of Ireland it is my brother Tadhg. Like many Irish people with this name, my brother was christened Timothy but has ever since been called Tadhg. Through the Anglicisation of Irish names during the British occupation of Ireland the name Tadhg came to be a synonym for Timothy. However a little scratching at the surface reveals that the reason for this association is rather unclear as both names are etymologically unrelated. Similarly, Tadhg has been used as an alternative the Latin name Thaddeus. This name is often shortened to Thaddy, which is a particularly popular name among the Traveller community in Ireland.

The derivative "taig" has been used as a Loyalist slur word for Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland. The insult is somewhat similar to the derogatory use of "Paddy" but differs in implying that the person has nationalistic leanings.

In Ireland, Tadhg is normally pronounced like the first syllable in the English word tiger ['taig]. Many sources cite the name as meaning poet but the relationship between the two seems quite dubious. The original spelling of Tadhg in the Irish Uncial alphabet was "Taḋg", with the dot over the "d" donating the lenition of the sound. The "h" was later added when the modern Roman alphabet was adopted for the Irish language. Alternative spellings of the name include Tighe, Tadgh, Taidgh and Tadhgh.

Arabian words in English and Spanish

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-01-29T14:59:38+00:00

There are many words in English that come from Arabic by way of Spanish. Many Arabian words made their way into the Spanish language during the Arabian occupation of Spain. I have included a list of words in English with their Spanish counterparts in square brackets and a little background about the etymology of the words.

zero [cero]
Those of you have thought that the Arabian language gave us nothing are right, well kind of. The word zero comes from the word sifr which has same meaning.

alcohol [alcohol]
From Arabic al-kuhul fine powder of antimony sulfide used as eye makeup. Possibly related to the distillation process involved in extracting these substances.

sugar [azúcar]
From Arabic sukkar of the same meaning.

coffee [café]
Comes from the word Qahwa, itself probably referring to Kefa, Ethiopia, where the plant originated.

How is the name Ciarán pronounced?

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-12-18T21:30:37+00:00

Having lived for many years in the United States and Spain I have come to realise the main drawback of my name; its pronunciation. Ciarán is in fact an Irish Gaelic name and as such does not follow the rules of English pronunciation. In other words, best guesses are not going to cut it here. The first thing that throws people off is the accent on the last letter "a". In Spanish, for instance, the accent tells us which part of the word carries the greatest emphasis. However, if you were to guess that the stress is placed on the last syllable of Ciarán you would be mistaken (counterintuitively the emphasis is placed on the first syllable). Rather, the accent here tell us that the vowel sound is longer. Phonetically the name is pronounced more or less as ['keəɾˠαn]. I have posted a sound file below of the pronunciation.

As an aside the name may be alternatively spelt (often with a change in the pronunciation): Kieran, Kyran, Keiran, Kieren, or Kieron. Etymologically, the Irish word root "ciar" means dark or dusky.

Ciarán Pronunciation Sound File

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Incredible deal on Mac software

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-12-18T20:01:18+00:00

MacUpdate are running their second MacUpdate Promo and this time it is even better than before. For those of you unfamiliar with this deal it involves a bundle of Mac software applications at a heavily discounted price. For any Mac users out there this deal is a no brainer since you only pay $56 for a software bundle worth $686. If you are planning to buy a Mac you should probably also consider this deal. Since the XMIND 2008 Pro (worth $299.95) is bundled it also makes sound sense for Windows users to take advangage of this deal since the serial number that is sent with the application also works for the Windows version. Besides, you can always give the rest of the appliations to your Mac buddies as a Christmas present! However, you needs to hurry, as the offer ends in two days.

Desclaimer: I don't work for MacUpdate nor have I any invested interests in any of the developers' products. I just think this deal is incredible value for money.

10 reasons to shoot in black & white

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-02-09T18:11:55+00:00

It would be foolish to brush off black and white photography as the anachronistic half-brother of colour photography. In fact, there are many reasons to prefer black and white photography over colour.

1. Somethings just lend themselves to black and white photography. Just think about traditional weddings. Since your two primary colours are black (the groom and bestman's suits) and white (the brides dress) this medium is ideal.

2. It brings out the best in you as a photographer. Since you are only working with grayscale you are required to think about such things as shadows, patterns, lighting, angles, design, and perspective.

3. It draws attention to the subject. The use of stark contrasts against ambient grey tones is a great way to draw attention to the subject of your photo.

4. It is refreshing. In the modern world we are bombarded from all sides with a kaleidoscope of colours often making grayscale seem like a breath of fresh air.

5. More flexibility with filters. In black and white photography colour filters are used to change contrast. One of the main advantages of black and white photography is the greater variety and use of filters. Since colour filters change a particular spectrum range, we can control the tones. Red filters can be used to enhance blue skies. Blue filters to bring out the mist and haze and used to correct artificial lighting. Yellow filters are used to darken blue eyes and tone down freckles, lips and spots.

Etymology of the bones of the human skeleton

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2008-03-23T11:05:09+00:00

This article represents a work in progress and will be updated regularly. The goal is to create a guide of the word origins for all of the bones in the human body and any associated osteological terms. The goal is that this guide will be useful for biological, physical and forensic anthropologists, osteologists, those studying anatomy and physiology, and for those simply interested in etymology. By learning the origins of these strange names we can get a greater appreciation of why they called as such and this in turn will help to remember them. Be sure to bookmark this page or simply sign up for the RSS or email feed in the sidebar to get updates. All comments and feedback are greatly appreciated.

Cranial Bones

Occiptal: Comes from the Latin root words ob (behind/before) and caput (head) from which we also get the word cap.

Frontal: From the Latin frontem which referred to front part of something or the forehead.

Parietal: Comes from the Latin parietis meaning wall.

Mandible: This word has its roots in the Latin verb mandere meaning to chew.

Maxilla: It is the dimunitive form of the Latin word mala meaning cheek or jaw.

The vain in Spain: The cosmetic surgery culture in Spain

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-09-29T17:26:35+01:00

Spain is the number one country in Europe and the fourth in the world (behind USA, Mexico, and Argentina) for cosmetic surgery. The reason for its popularity in Spain is not clear. One suggestion is that since Spanish people spend a lot of time in the sun they tend to age more quickly as well as not wanting to show off their love handles on the beach.

400,000 Spanish people had cosmetic surgery last year and the number increases between 8% to 10% annually. Not surprisingly women between the ages of 22 and 45 are the principal clients. Around 30,000 breast procedures were performed last year. The most requested operations are boob jobs, abdominal surgery and liposuction.

Spain spends over €800 million a year on cosmetic surgery procedures. The average spent per person in Spain was €2000 compared to less that £120 in the UK. Many tourists go to Spain to have operations done because of the cheap prices, reputable surgeries and of course the sun.

Some 20% of those getting cosmetic surgery in Spain are men. The most common procedures for men are the eyelids, abdominal surgery and liposuction. Since a disproportionate amount of cosmetic surgery are performed on men prices have not dropped in the same way they have for women. While a boob job in Spain will set you back around €600 the majority of male surgeries begin at the tidy sum of €3000.

As in other countries patients need to be wary of quack plastic surgeons. Last year alone over 1000 law suits were brought against cosmetic surgeons in Spain. Since 1989 at least 15 have died and five have been left in comas due to failed interventions; the most recent high profile deaths being of two women who died within in a week of each other after attending the same clinic in Barcelona. A cosmetic surgeon should have at least a postgraduate diploma in Cirugía General and in Cirugía Plástica Reparadora y Estética. Of course, the best way to gauge a clinic is by checking their reputation with past patients.

Related links:
Spain leads Europe in cosmetic surgery spending
El cirujano que desean todas las mujeres

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The origin of photographic words

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-09-26T21:59:16+01:00

Two of my interests are word etymologies and photography. So I thought it would be fun to explore the origin of some of the more common photographic terms.

Photography: Comes from two Greek words that mean to write (graphos) with light (photos).

Lens: The shape of a lens and a lentil are quite similar. In fact the word lens comes from the Latin word lenticula, which means lentil.

Aperture: The aperture is the hole that allows light into the camera and the Latin word for an opening is apertura.

Camera: We could think of a camera as a type of chamber and as it happens these two words have the same etymologies, originating from the Latin word camera which means a arched room.

Focus: This word originally meant fireplace or hearth in Latin. The f in photographic words such as f-number and f-stop means focal, the adjectival form of the word focus.

Pinhole: My family namesake Sir David Brewster is credited with coining the word pinhole in his 1856 book The Stereoscope.

Film: Filmen is an Old English word meaning membrane. It shares an Indo-European root, which is seen in the Latin word pellis (skin or hide). As a matter of fact, this root is seen in the Spanish word for a film (in the movie sense of the word) película, which comes from the diminutive form of pellis (pellicula), literally meaning little skin.

Expose: From the Latin verb exponere, meaning to set forth.

Frame: - The Old English framian meant to be useful. The word evolved in Middle English to mean "make ready for use" and came to mean "to prepare timber for building" and ultimately to the modern sense of the word as a wooden structure.

Panorama: - Comes from the Greek roots pan meaning "all" (as in pandemic or pancreas) and horama meaning "view."

Matte: Came to English from French where the word originally meant "curd."

Digital - The Latin word for a finger or toe is digitus. I suppose this is because digital technology means that we don't have to make calculations by counting our fingers and toes!

Related Links:
Etymonline
The Oxford English Dictionary
Etymologically Speaking...
Podictionary
The Language of Photography
History of Photographic Words and Slogans

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20 tips and tricks to prevent blurry photos

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-09-19T23:17:16+01:00

There is arguably nothing worse for a photographer than to have an otherwise outstanding photo ruined by camera shake. This problem is caused by a combination of a slow shutter speed and an unsteady camera. I've compiled a list of 20 tricks (some of which I've already discussed in 101 tips for better photos) that will help you achieve sharp and blur-free photos.

1. Know your limit: As a rule of thumb most people can shoot at a shutter speed of 1/60th of a second without experiencing camera shake. At 1/30th of a second you are taking a gamble. I have met people that can consistently take sharp photos at 1/15 of a second but this requires an incredibly steady hand.

2. Use a tripod or monopod: The easiest way to take crisp photos at almost any shutter speed. The drawbacks of tripods and monopods are that they are not the most mobile items in your photo kit and can kill the spontaneity of your photos since they need to be mounted before shooting.

3. Improvise: If you don't have a tripod at hand you can also make an impromptu one. Shoulders, walls, bean bags, and chairs can all help to stabilise your camera.

4. Steady yourself: A pyramid represents a very stable physical form with the largest surface area at the base. Similiarly, the best posture for taking photos is with your feet spread at least shoulder width apart and the arms tucked into the body.

5. Gently squeeze the shutter release: Camera shake can occur by simply pressing down on the trigger. This actions can cause vibrations in the camera and ultimately camera shake. A common mistake is to thrust down forceful on the shutter release. Instead, press down slowly and gently on the shutter release until you hear the click.

6. Use the timer: A way to avoid the shake from pressing on the shutter release is to set the camera to timer, thus eliminating the need to press the button at all.

7. Use a air pressure shutter release: This device uses air to press the shutter release, rather than pressing down directly on the button with your finger.

8. Use the viewfinder: Since the introduction of digital cameras people have begun to use the LCD display rather than the view finder to frame their shots. In order to see the LCD screen the camera has to be held away from the face, which is is a very unstable posture. Rather, pull the camera up to your eye level so that it is braced against the side of your face.

9. Be aware of the extremes: Pay attention to things that can throw off your light metre. Since your camera will expose for medium grey tones, extremes of light and dark will fool your camera's light metre. If you don't compensate for very black objects in your scene you will end up with both an over-exposed shot and a dangerously low shutter speed.

10. Shoot when you exhale: A common mistake is to take a deep breath before you take your photo. This causes tension in your chest muscles that spreads to the arms. On the other hand, when we breath out our muscles relax and we steady up.

11. Sober up: It is no coincidence that photos from later in the night tend to be blurrier than those taken earlier on that day. Alcohol can throw off your co-ordination and sense of balance. If you want to avoid blurry pictures cut back on the booze.

12. Use faster film: Using a film with a higher ISO rating lets you take pictures at a higher shutter speed.

13. Use a lower F-stop: Open up the aperture as far as possible. If you have a lens that has a wider aperture use it.

14. Use flash: While flash tends to be over used in photography it does do come in handy when you are in a tight spot.

15. Increase the lighting: By opening curtains and using additional ambient light sources you may be able to squeeze out another vital fraction of a second to your minimum shutter speed.

16. Stand on the strap: If you have a long camera strap let it fall to the ground and stand on it. Pull the camera up until it is taut. This way the camera is held steady and less likely to shake.

17. Push the film: In my post on Pushing your film to the max I described how to change your film to allow you to shoot at a faster shutter speed.

18. Shoot lots of photos: If you take a lot of photos you will increase the likelihood that at least one will turn out well.

19. Change of lifestyle: Stress, lack of sleep, and drugs (including cigarettes, alcohol and caffeine) can cause hand tremors. If photography is an important part of your life consider making some changes to your lifestyle.

20. Hold the camera with both hands: A common mistake beginners make is to hold the camera with one hand or to grasp the camera with the fingers. We tend to hold babies with both hands because it is much more secure position than using only one hand. Surface area is key here, so be sure to use the palms of hands and not only the digits.

If you found this post helpful please go over to Daily Blog Tips and vote for my post "101 tips for better photos" in the photography category.

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Photography: Pushing your film to the max

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-09-18T20:28:54+01:00

Many people buy film without taking a second glance at its ISO rating or shoot their digital photos with the camera set to manufacturers default speed. If you have even looked closely at a film you will have probably noticed that it has a specific number, the most common being 100, 200 or 400. These numbers are the film's ISO (International Standards Organization) rating, or in other words its speed.

Why is speed important?
Film speed refers to the negative's sensitivity to light. As such a film with a low ISO will require more light to expose an image on the negative, while a higher number means that less time is required at the same shutter speed. Another way of saying this is that at the same aperture slow film will require a longer minimum shutter speed. Although digital cameras don't use film, the very same terminology and principles are used.

Grain
One of the biggest complaints that I hear about fast film is the increased amount of grain. To hear some people talking about grain you would swear it were a dirty word! Grain, otherwise known as noise in digital photography refers to artefacts left behind in the processing of the photograph in the camera and darkroom that gives the final print a speckled appearance. Grain is really a subjective thing; there are those who hate to have even a hint of grain in their photos, while there are those love the effect.

Contrast
The added noise in your photograph will cause a loss of sharpness. This is compensate for in small part by the increased contrast produced under fast conditions, since darker colours look sharper to the human eye than mid-tone greys. Contrast also increases the depth of the photo if the lighting is flat.

Atmosphere
By simply switching to fast film you can completely change the mood of a scene. The graininess of the shots hark back to photographs from the early 20th century, while at the same time bringing to mind the techniques used by artists of the neo-Impressionist Pointillist movement. The increased contrast also adds a sense of mystery to your photos as details get lost in the shadows and highlights.

How do you increase the ISO?
A common technique used for shooting at a higher ISO is to push the film. Pushing your film means shooting for and developing at a higher ISO than that on your film. For example, if you have a 400 speed film and want to shoot at 3200, you manually readjust the ISO setting on your camera to 3200. The film will be "tricked" into thinking that the camera is loaded with 3200 speed film and will expose accordingly. When you get your photos developed you will have to tell the developer that the film has been pushed 3 stops and to develop it accordingly. To push a film means that the negative has been underexposed; if it were overexposed we would use the term "pulled." The stops (short for f-stop values) mean that the light entering the camera's aperture has doubled for each successive stop. For example, we can push a 100 speed film to 200 (1 stop), 400 (2 stops), 800 (3 stops), 1600 (4 stops), etc.

Of course if this all sounds a little too complicated you could just buy fast film to begin with and save yourself the hassle. As a rule of thumb, anything from 400 upward is considered fast.

What should I photograph?
By its very nature fast film is best suited to situations that have low lighting or that require fast shutter speeds. For this reason, fast film is a part of almost every sport photographer's kit. I have found that fast film works particularly well for photographing wedding receptions. Fast film is ideal for highlighting the contrast between the bride's white wedding dress and the groom's and groomsmen's black tuxedos. Since the higher exposure index will allow you to shoot indoor without flash, you will also be less conspicuous and be able to capture more natural looking photos.

Should I use black and white or colour film?
It is easier to work with pushed black and white film than pushed colour film. One of the main difficulties with colour film is that the pushing process also causes a colour shift in your negative. As such, this requires a lot of foresight on the part of the photographer but when done correctly can produce spectacular results.

Be sure to check out my 101 tips for better photos.

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BlogRush: Increase your blog traffic exponentially

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-09-17T19:27:24+01:00

Previously, I talked about how StumbleUpon can be a great way of driving traffic to your blog. However, it looks like there is an even bigger player in town. The BlogRush widget (check it out in the sidebar on the right) has set the blogosphere alight. In well under a week the widget is in more places than the common cold and is the most talked about thing on the internet since Miss Teen South Carolina. BlogRush is a widget that you stick on your website with the ultimate goal of increasing your website traffic. The widget offers readers links to blog posts that are relevant to your own blog and of interest to your readers. So far, it sounds like a dozen or so other widgets that do the same thing.

So what is so different about this widget?
What sets this widget apart are its innovative features. Blogrush lets you earn what are called "syndication credits" every time your blog is viewed. Thus, if your blog gets 100 visitors every day, your widget will be displayed on other blogs that get similar amounts of traffic. It gets even better. Everytime someone clicks on the “Add Your Blog Posts - FREE” at the foot of the widget (go on, I know you want to!), you get syndication credit as a referrer. This means that you also get additional traffic from your referrer. And It doesn't stop there. Every time readers of the other blog click on the widget footer on the that blog you also get traffic from that site. So the traffic builds exponentially. Furthermore, the sooner you get on board the sooner you get to take advantage of this widget. It is like a pyramid scheme without any of the pit falls! So what are you waiting for?

Link: BlogRush

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Increase your blog traffic with StumbleUpon

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-09-16T21:54:39+01:00

Up until recently I was getting a small trickle of traffic to my blog. Then something happened a few days ago and the number shot up dramatically. This is because one of my articles got rated by StumbleUpon users. In case you are not familiar with StumbleUpon it is a site that generates random sites that you might be interest in, based on your predefined interests. Furthermore, StumbleUpon users can give thumbs up or thumbs down for each site they visit. If the post gets a thumbs up it will be become available to other users; if the site get thumbs down it will disappear into the StumbleUpon abyss. On the 10th of this month I decided to post my 101 tips for better photos to StumbleUpon and the traffic started coming; at first as a dozen or so referrals and then an explosion of traffic.

One of the main shortcomings of StumbleUpon is that the bounce rate is very high as impatient surfers decide to move on elsewhere rather than waiting for the page to load. This has led me to eliminate a lot of the javascript that was slowing my page load time. Every fraction of a second counts. Another problem with StumbleUpon is that as fast as the traffic comes it falls off again. Thus, the trick is in giving people material that they will want to share with others and of course getting them to sign up to your RSS feed.

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The rule of thirds

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-09-13T22:03:23+01:00

Since we often use photographs as mementos our gut instinct is to include everything in the picture. This can cause us to make two photographic blunders: firstly including to much detail or clutter in the photo and not giving enough detail to your subject; and secondly putting your subject right in the dead centre of the photo. In my 101 tips for better photos I mentioned that one trick that professional photographers use to make there photos more dynamic, since the eye is naturally drawn to a point about one third of the way up the page.

So what is the rule of thirds?
The rule of thirds involves dividing your picture into an imaginary 3x3 block, as if you were placing a tic-tac-toe (X's and O's) grid over your viewfinder. The first thing that you must decide upon is what should be the subject of your photo. If you can limit your photo to having only one subject all the better. You don't want various objects in your shots competing for attention. Minimalism is the key here. I will use a photo to demonstrate the technique.

In this photo I wanted to draw attention to the baby's face and more precisely her eyes. Thus, the face will be the subject of the photo. We should not confuse the term "subject" with how we generally use the term in English. In photography the subject doesn't have to be a person (although it can be) and doesn't have to be a whole entity, but rather can be a particular detail you want to highlight.

Once you have decided upon what is your subject will be it is time to set up our imaginary grid.

Ideally we want to place our subject in one of the four points where the lines intersect. Which of the four points you choose is up to you. Play around and see what works best for your composition. If you are not a visual person and find it hard to imagine a grid, don't worry. The most important thing is not have your subject right in the centre of your photo, i.e. the middle square.

Neither should you worry about capturing the subject right at the intersection point but within a broad radius of this intersection point.

Regardless of whether your print dimensions are horizontal, vertical or square the rule of thirds can still be applied. If after all your efforts you still don't manage to get it right you can always crop you picture later on in the photo lab or digital darkroom.

While the rule of thirds is a useful technique there are situations when you will want to break it. Disregarding everything that we talked about previously, which of the two picture below do you prefer?

The right answer is that it really doesn't matter. There will be people who prefer the first and those that prefer the second. It is really a matter of taste. If you feel that your picture will look better with your subject smack bang in the middle of the photo go for it. If you still can't decide, take two photos. It's the best of both worlds!

Here are some useful links about the rule of thirds:

http://www.aea1.k12.ia.us/lois/ruleofthirds.html
http://photospot2004.blogspot.com/2004/07/rule-of-thirds.html
http://www.colorpilot.com/comp_rules.html
http://www.photocritic.org/2007/the-rule-of-thirds/

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Should we compare the Basque Country to Northern Ireland?

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-09-12T16:51:47+01:00

Anytime there is a debate about ETA and the future of the Basque Country, Northern Ireland invariably gets thrown into the mix. Northern Ireland is put forward as a shining example of how dialogue, in place of violence, leads to peace. However, many question if such parallels can be drawn.

The peace negotiations between ETA and the Spanish government have a short history. The circumstances are reminiscent of Northern Ireland during the 1980's when unofficial negotiations took place behind closed doors between representatives of the IRA and the British government. Similar talks have taken place in recent years between the Spanish government and ETA representatives. While peace in Northern Ireland has been the accumulation of twenty years of give and take from those on both sides of the fence, the peace process in the Spanish peninsula is still experiencing teething problems.

In Britain many people were quite apathetic to the fact that both the Major and Blair administrations were holding dialogues with the IRA and making compromises on issues such as the release of prisoners, the reduction in the presence of British troops in Northern Ireland, the dismantling of observation towers and on policing. On the other hand, public opinion in Spain sees the punishment of ETA terrorists as the number one priority and there is a strong conviction that compromises are not the best way of achieving peace.

While there existed a certain consensus among the political parties in both Ireland and Britain not to exploit the delicate peace negotiations for political gain, the opposite is true in Spain. No sooner had ETA announced an end to their ceasefire in June of this year, than the leader of el Partido Popular Rajoy launched into vocal criticisms of the government for their handling of ETA and at the same time rejected calls from the Spanish president Zapatero for solidarity from the national parties.

The situation is further confounded by divisions among the Basque leadership. Pundits pointed to the lack of a roadmap as the main reason for the collapse of ETA's last ceasefire. Many have tried to draw parallels between Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and Arnaldo Otegui, the leader of Batasuna, considered to be the political wing of ETA. However, a fundamental difference is that while Adams had a lot of apparent influence over the militant faction within his party and was able to steer the organisation to look for Irish unity in a peaceful manner, ETA lacks any clear direction. Adam's strategy has led his once outlawed party to be represented in four parliaments: the Irish Dáil Éireann, Northern Ireland's Stormount, England's Westminister and the European parliament in Strasbourg. On the other hand Batasuna face an uphill battle against a Spanish government that refuses to recognise them as a legitimate political party.

Dialogue seems like it will be the key to a resolution of the Basque issue. Even former president Aznar and current opposition leader Rajoy held talks with ETA when el Partido Popular were in power, even though this is now strongly denied. Not very long ago, it would have been unthinkable to imagine the hardline Democratic Unionist Party leader the Reverend Ian Paisley being in the same room as Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness. Now they work side by side making political decisions over the everyday running of North Ireland. On the other hand, Spain seems to be many years away from finding a solution to the Basque problem.

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The art of the siesta

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-09-10T15:14:26+01:00

If you are anything like me you are probably prone to the afternoon slump. You know, that overwhelming lethargic feeling that sets right after lunch. This postprandial dip as it is known, occurs after eating, when your blood sugar levels take a nose dive causing your body temperature to drop and leaving you feeling sleepy.

Here in Spain the siesta is a cultural icon. As any full-blooded Spanish person will tell you there is a right way and a wrong way to take a siesta. Firstly, it should never last more than an hour. Ideally, you should be clocking in at somewhere between fifteen and forty minutes. If you oversleep a siesta you will wake up feeling disoriented and will most likely have problems falling asleep later on that night. The magic time of the day to take a siesta seems to be between 2 and 4 p.m. This time slot is right after lunchtime, and as such it is when most of us hit the wall. Taking a siesta early in the day doesn't give you the full effect; taking a siesta too late however makes you less likely to want to get out of bed at all!

iBook Battery, 2004-2007

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-09-06T14:57:33+01:00

I will always remember the 6th of September, 2007 as the day when both the great tenor Luciano Pavarotti and my laptop battery passed away. Late last night, I noticed that my iBook was showing a big X where the battery symbol is located and upon clicking it I saw the words "no batteries available." Arrrgh! I scoured the support forums for people with the same problem, tried all the recommended suggestions, including resetting the Pro System Management Controller (SMC), PRAM, NVRAM and PMU. Unfortunately, all to no avail. Finally, when I went to system profiler I got the following readout:

Battery Information:

Battery Installed: Yes
First low level warning: No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 2285
Remaining Capacity (mAh): 0
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 10248
Cycle Count: 217

After three and a half years of life the battery has finally given up its ghost. This may not seem like a long time but it is equivalent to around 60 years in computer years (calculated using similar premises to those used to calculate dog years and taking Moore's Law into consideration!). R.I.P.

Snap Shots and SmartLinks

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-09-05T09:46:45+01:00

Two new features that I've added to the blog need some explanation. You have probably noticed that when you move your pointer over a link you see a preview or snap shot of the linked website. Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without requiring you to leave the site, and other times it lets you sneak a peak before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Feelings are mixed about Snap Shots and it really depends on your personal browsing tastes. Should you decide this is not to use this feature, simply click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out. Your preferences will be saved for return visits.

You may have also noticed a little blue box next to some links. This is a SmartLink and when you click on blue square a dialogue box will appear offering you smart link options based on the whether the link is for a book, film, blog, travel destination, restaurant, person, etc. For example, if you click on a link for a movie you will be given options to view video clips on YouTube, rent or buy the movie, read reviews of the movie, or read actor profiles.

I hope these features make your browsing experience more enjoyable. I look forward to hearing your feedback.

Proofreading tips for bloggers

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-09-05T11:25:55+01:00

Blog entries tend to be relatively short in length but can often be peppered with mistakes because of our anxiety to get our article out into the blogosphere. While content is the most important part of any blog, poor spelling, grammar or punctuation can take away from the overall reading experience and seriously affect your credibility as a competent writer. Here are 21 proofreading tricks I like to use before I hit the publish button.

Slow down. While you are reading remind yourself to slow down. It is very easy to go into autopilot when you read and only skim over the words. It may help to over-pronounce the words, imagining that you are speaking to a lip reader.

Read and Reread. This is proofreading at its most basic. The amount of times you will need to reread your entry will vary from article to article, but as a rule I aim to be able to read my entry three times consecutively without finding a single mistake.

Read aloud. When we read silently we are relying primarily on our visual sense. By reading out loud we get to hear how the text actually sounds.

Read backwards. This helps you to focus more of the individual words rather than entire sentences.

Use others. Get someone else to read your work for you. We are often our own worst critics and nowhere is this more evident than when it comes to our writing. We are often the last ones to see our own mistakes.

Pay more attention to the second half of the article. This tends to be the part of the text on which you've dedicated the least amount of time and as such often has more mistakes.

Spellchecker. Most word processors and blogging software come with a spellchecker. Use it but be aware that many newer technological words won't be listed in their database.

Keep a list. Make a list of your most common mistakes and be extra aware of these while you are writing. You should update this list after each proofreading session. In my case my most common errors tend to be: misusing the apostrophe, verb and subject agreement, and the overuse of the passive voice.

Read one line at a time. This will help you focus on small chunks of text at a time. If it helps you can cover the subsequent text with a sheet of paper.

Takes regular breaks. Proofreading can be exhausting and besides you are less likely to catch mistakes when you are tired.

Wait. The worst time to proofread your entry is right after you write it. It is too familiar and as the saying goes –– familiarity breeds contempt. Take a break for a couple of hours or better still sleep on it, and proofread it when you wake up the following morning.

Lose the distractions. Find a quiet place where you can do your proofreading free from any distractions.

Work backwards. Read the last sentence first, then the second last and so on until you reach the beginning of the article. This technique purposefully breaks up the flow of the artlcle helping you concentrate on smaller portions of text.

Links. Double check that you have typed all of the links correctly. There are few things more frustrating than clicking on a link to find that the page doesn't exist.

Autocorrection. If you are using a word processor that autocorrects text be careful, as it may try to correct something that actually isn't wrong.

Computer voices. Most computers now come with builtin text-to-voice capabilities. There are also programmes that can be found on the internet such as the AT&T natural voices. This way you can have your computer read the text back to you, while you get to sit back and listen.

Network. Use social networks to find other bloggers that are willing to proofread your rough drafts, while you in turn agree to correct theirs'.

Keep your eyes open. Make other bloggers aware of any mistakes that you see on their websites. They will generally appreciate the heads-up and will be inclined to return the favour.

Skip words. Read every second word on each line and then go back and do the same but this time starting on the second word of the same line. I find this particularly useful for catching spelling mistakes.

Performance anxiety. Reading in front of someone else tends to make you more self conscious. However, this has the benefit of making you more mindful of any mistakes.

Reword. Say the sentence in a different way but try using different words. This has the double benefit of making you more aware of what you have written, plus it may help you to reword an awkward piece of writing.

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101 tips for better photos

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-09-10T20:30:27+01:00

1. Bookmark and link to sites that offer valuable tips (hint, hint).

2. Get closer. There is a temptation to include everything in your photos but don't be afraid to cut out some details. Try focusing more on the details rather than the whole.

3. Everything looks different when viewed from a different perspective. Try photographing your subject from different angles.

4. The majority of photos with the subject smack-bang in the centre of the picture can be dull and boring. The rule of thirds involves dividing your viewfinder into an imaginary tic-tac-toe square. The trick is place the main subject in one of the four intersecting points.

5. If your shooting outside and your subject's face is in the shade use fill flash to get rid of shadows.

6. Takes lots of photos. The more you practice the better you'll get.

7. Shoot in black and white. By eliminating colour you are forced to think more in terms of composition and form.

8. Carry your camera with you at all times. You never know when a great photo moment will pop up.

9. Just about any solid structure (walls, mounds, tables) can be used as improvised tripods to support the camera and avoid the dreaded camera shake.

10. When composing your photo look out for any walls, trees, holes, or lampposts that could be used to frame your picture.

11. Take spontaneous, unstaged photos. They are almost always better and more natural looking.

12. Always be aware of what is going on in the background of your shot. Be especially aware of anything that might distract or otherwise take away from your photo.

13. If you buy only one lens for your camera let it be a standard 50mm. Believe me you won't regret it.

14. Panning or moving your camera at the same speed as your subject is a great way to shoot action and at the same time eliminate any distractions.

15. Play around with filters to achieve various effects. Many digital cameras have built-in filters while any good photography shops will sell an array of filters for SLR cameras. The most common uses for filters are boosting colours, special effect and highlighting particular skin tones.

16. Don't be afraid to ask to photograph people. Many people will see this as a complement.

17. Always be conscious of lighting. It can be the difference between a mediocre picture and a winner.

18. The mere action of pressing down on the trigger can cause the camera to shake. Avoid the problem altogether by setting the camera on timer.

19. Keep a close eye on your camera in crowded places. Cameras are beckons for robbers.

20. Visit photo sites. Good starting places are Flickr, photosig and photonet.

21. Participate in forums. You can learn a lot there and ask questions too.

22. After any photo session do a critique of your pictures while asking yourself how you could have improved upon each photo.

23. Experiment with different film speeds. Changing ISO changes the contrast, grain and the minimum shutter speed of your shot.

24. Learn to bounce the flash for more natural looking indoor shots.

25. Getting in the habit of editing your photos digitally can make you a lazy and careless photographer. Try perfecting your photos first in the camera and later in the digital darkroom.

26. The most important part of any portrait is the subject's eyes. By positioning catchlights (reflections of light) in your model's eyes it can improve your shot tenfold.

27. Shoot still life. It can be quite challenging.

28. Always be on the lookout for patterns.

29. Know where the sun is relative to your subject. If you shoot into the sun your subject will likely be in shadow; shoot with the sun facing your subject and you will having them squinting back at you. Look for a place with less harsh lighting or use fill flash.

30. Ask other photographers to criticise your work. It can be a very humbling, but rewarding experience.

31. Always hold the camera with both hands. It helps to steady the camera.

32. For spur of the moment photos shoot first, then adjust your settings for the second shot. Too many great shots have been lost because the photographer spent too long finding the perfect settings.

33. Find a camera that allows for quick adjustments. Lots of buttons and switches can look good on a camera but may end up only slowing you down.

34. Learn all the ins and outs of your camera.

35. Learn to shoot from the hip. You will at one stage or another find yourself in a situation where you don't want to make it apparent that you are taking photos.

36. Join a photography club in your area.

37. Look around the room you are sitting in right now and find things to photograph.

38. Get a friend or partner to model for you.

39. Take a course in B&W white photography and development. You'll learn a lot about the basic concepts of photography.

40. If it's bright over-expose; if it's dark under-expose.

41. Read your camera's instruction manual.

42. Subscribe to a photo magazine.

43. If you photograph models take a makeup course. It will cut down on airbrushing time later on.

44. Try and keep the tone of conversation light and jovial with your models to help them relax and be more comfortable around you.

45. Enter a photo competition. It can be a great motivator.

46. Don't blame your equipment. Even disposable cameras are capable of taking great photos.

47. Always carry spare batteries. You don't want to miss out on a great shot just because your batteries ran out.

48. Always take extra film or SD cards with you.

49. Conceptualise how your photo would look in black and white.

50. Consider what parts of your image you want to be exposed, in shadow and blown out.

51. Invest in a camera bag. With any luck it will last you years.

52. Take photographs of the same thing at intervals to gauge your progress.

53. Treat your camera with care as it has many fragile and expensive components.

54. Buy a tripod.

55. You can find good quality used gear on sites like eBay and KEH.

56. Study the photos that appear on the front of the most famous national newspapers in your country. What is so good about these photos?

57. Spend time getting to know your models before photographing them. It helps them relax but also can help you figure out what part of their personality you want to reflect in your photos.

58. Photograph first, ask for permission after. You might break the spell of a wonderful shot by asking.

59. Read your camera's manual.

60. If you constantly take photos of friends and family, over time they will relax around the lens letting you snap off pictures that are less contrived.

61. Shoot from down on the ground and from up on a height. A fresh perspective can bring life into your pictures.

62. If possible process your own film. Chemists often "fix" your film so you are less likely to learn from your mistakes.

63. Use a short depth of field to eliminate distracting backgrounds. This can be achieved by using a telephoto lens, using a wide aperature or getting as close as possible to your subject.

64. Shop around for camera equipment. Prices can vary by hundreds of Euros.

65. Check out websites that give customer feedback on products. They tend to give cruder but more honest reviews.

66. You are only as good as your last set of photos.

67. Break the rules. Photography rules are better viewed as guidelines. While the rule of thirds holds true in many situations, you will undoubtedly come across a situation that calls for you to centre you subject.

68. Remember in art even rubbish can be art.

69. Take photos before and after people are ready. It is when people let their gaurd down. You might tick them off a little bit but it is better than having a fake, posed snapshots.

70. Blog about photography. It will keep your mind ticking over on the subject.

71. Keep a log of information such as shutter speed, f-stop, weather, etc. It can be useful when you are trying to figure out what you did right and wrong in your photos.

72. Use your non-trigger hand to eliminate glare by placing it above the lens to block out the sun. This breaks rule number 31 that said to use both hands, but since number 67 said break the rules no harm done!

73. Keep you horizons horizontal or else it will give the impression that everything is falling off the print.

74. Research the famous photographers and find out what was so great about the Greats.

75. Be on the lookout for telegraph wires. They are a photographer's greatest enemy!

76. Photograph a landscape at different times of the day. The lighting can completely change the mood of the photo.

77. Keep it simple. By removing clutter you draw more attention to the subject in your photograph.

78. Don't shoot portraits from down below. It will make the chin and nose more prominent.

79. Small children are great to practice on. They don't tend pose as much as adults do. Since they don't sit still for very long it will also help you to work on your timing. If they are not your own kids be sure that there is a guardian present at all times.

80. Get up early in the morning as the lighting is different at this time of the day, there are few people around, and certain weather conditions are best shot at this time such as mist, fog and freshly fallen snow.

81. Explore your locality for things to photograph. If nothing else it is a good way to get to know your neighborhood a little better.

82. Move your body. Don't expect the camera to do all the moving for you.

83. Look up. Anybody that has lived in an apartment with a balcony will know that people don't tend to look upwards. You could be missing out on a great shot right above your head.

84. We tend to think of shadows in a negative light (pun intended) but they can be used to our advantage. They can serve as guidelines and frames, add a sense of mystery to your photos, or hide something that you don't want to be seen.

85. Everybody has there own taste when it comes to photos. There will always be someone who doesn't like your photos. Take advice for what it's worth but don't take criticisms to heart.

86. When it comes to composition simplicity is the key.

87. Read up on graphic design concepts. You'll learn a thing or two.

88. If it's a choice between moving closer or using digital zoom, move closer.

89. Double check that the auto-focus is focusing on what you want. Portraits can be ruined because the photographer thought that they were focusing on the eyes when in fact auto-focus zeroed in on the nose. To avoid this problem switch to manual focus.

90. Use multiple pre-flashes to eliminate red eye, although it ruins the spontaneity.

91. Experiment with fast film speeds for indoor shoots rather than relying on flash. It will give your photos a more natural and moody feel.

92. I found it very confusing starting out that an F-stop value of 8 had a larger aperture than an F value of 32. Try thinking of these numbers as fractions and it all makes sense, i.e. 1/16 is larger than 1/32, etc.

93. Don't be wasteful with space. If the free space isn't adding to your photo move closer.

94. Find a photographer you like and find out as much as possible about them.

95. Book yourself a holiday. Taking photos always feels more natural when you are a tourist.

96. Read, read, read.

97. Pack some snacks if you plan to be off photographing for a few hours.

98. You don't have to capture everything in a single photo.

99. Experiment with your camera's manual mode while shooting landscapes or still life as this gives you plenty of time to get to know your camera.

100. Make sure that your fingers and camera strap aren't obstructing the view finder.

101. Reread this list again in case there was anything that you missed (especially number one!).

Why stop at 101? The plan is that this will be an ever expanding list. If you have suggestions, criticisms, advice, or more tips please leave a comment or send an email to ciaransblog@mac.com. If you found this article helpful please bookmark it below. While similar lists can be found elsewhere on the internet I've tried to be as comprehensive and as original as possible, using tips that have worked for me. Feel free to use this list however you see fit but please link back to me.

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Desclaimer: I have no connection to any of the publications and sites mentioned.

Ten interesting word etymologies

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-09-02T20:09:44+01:00

Anyone who knows me will know that I'm a bit of a word nerd and find word etymologies (the origin of words) infinitely fascinating. Since we use some 16,000 words a day I think that they deserve some attention. Here are some of my favourites.

1. Salary - You have probably learned that Roman soldiers were payed in salt. The Latin word for salt is sal, from which we get the word salary.

2. Robot - Comes from the Czech word robota meaning "forced labour." It appeared in a 1920 play by Karl Čapek entitled R.U.R. ‘"Rossum's Universal Robots’" in which the machines take over and implant wiring into humans turning them into robotic slaves.

3. Assassin - During the Crusades the Muslims employed an army of trained killers called the hashshashin who would smoke hashish before going into battle.

4. Quarantine - Comes from quarantina, the Italian words for forty. When a ship was thought to be infected with disease the crew were not permitted to make contact with the shore for 40 days.

5. Slave - A reference to the Slavic people, many of whom were subject to slavery during the ninth century.

6. Orang-utan - From the Malay orang huan meaning "forest person."

7. Hazard - This is a word that comes from the Arabic word zar which meant "dice." The word can be traced back to Moorish Spain and is related to the Spanish word azar, which means "chance."

8. Lucifer - Curiously means "light bearer." This is a reference to the morning star, i.e. the planet Venus. In Isaiah in the Old Testament a passage compares how the light of the morning star pales in comparison with the light of the sun (a metaphor for God).

9. Quintessential - Literally means the "fifth element" in Latin; that essence that was much sought after by alchemists. The fifth element, also known as the Philosopher's Stone, was supposed to have metaphysical powers and was composed of an unknown combination of the other four elements: rain, fire, wind and earth.

10. Whisky/Whiskey - Comes from Irish Gaelic words uisce beatha meaning "water of life." What more can I say?

Etymology sources: Etymonline
The Oxford English Dictionary
Etymologically Speaking...
Podictionary
Meriam Webster Word of the Day

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5 things I have learned in the last year

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-09-04T15:44:30+01:00

How could I have been living in ignorance for so long? Here are five things that I have found out in the last year.

1. Eskimos really don't have dozens of different words for snow. This is an urban legend that has more to do with the grammatical structure of the Eskimo languages, rather than a product of the environment influencing their language. This commonly held belief dates back to the claim by anthropologist Franz Boas that Eskimos have four words to describe snow. Since then the number has steadily increased.

Rather, Eskimo languages are polysynthetic, which is a fancy linguistic term meaning that long, complex words can be constructed to describe concepts that would otherwise be described in English with noun combinations or entire phrases, e.g. the Eskimo word "patuqun" would be described in English as "frosty sparkling snow." This means that the number of words that could be describe snow are almost endless in Eskimo languages. However, this is true of describing all things in Eskimo languages.

2. Kilts were an invented cultural add-on adopted during the 18th century. The historians Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger in the book The Invention of Tradition compiled a list of various cultures that have invented their tradition. On a chapter about Scotland the author Hugh Trevor-Roper recounts how kilts were introduced by a Quaker industrialist called Thomas Rawlinson. In light of this I can never watch the movie Braveheart in the same way again!

3. The word asterisk, as in the symbol *, is pronounced how it looks and not as "asterix", as I have been pronouncing it all along. You can listen to the correct pronunciation on the Meriam Webster website.

4. So far, I have lived in two brothels. About two months into living in my old apartment I found out from one of my neighbours that the apartment used to be a bordello. I also lived in a brothel while at university in Pennsylviania without even knowing about it. Pennsylvanian law states that a house with 16 women is considered a brothel. I don't know exactly how house is defined in this context but there were definitely more than 16 women living in my campus building. Luckily for me, up to 120 men can live in the same premises without breaking the law.

5. The Titanic never had a serial number (3909 04), a number that when written in longhand and viewed as mirror image read NO POPE. In fact, the designation number of the Titanic was 131, 428 and its yard number was 401.

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Do you have a Googleable name?

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-08-30T21:56:09+01:00

Once upon a time, having a common name wasn't such a big deal. Among your family, friends, and work mates, in other words your social network, it was a rare occurrence to bump into another person with the same first and last name. However, these days many of us belong to a much larger global network –– the world wide web. The internet values uniqueness since it makes you visible online. Many of you have had the frustrating experience of trying to find your friend John Smith among the myriad of such persons that exist in the directories of your favourite social networks or search engines. This phenomenon also plays an ever increasing role in your future employment prospects. Many job recruiters are using the internet to gather information on potential candidates.

Whereas the 1950's was about fitting in and keeping up with the Joneses, the dot com era is all about being different. More and more parents (many out personal frustration with their own commonplace names) are giving their babies distinctive names. Some parents are even going as far as to check the availability of their baby's .com domain name before the child is even born.

In today's information age, many women not only run the risk of losing their surname through marriage but any emails, online groups or webpages that bear their maiden name. It would not be completely ridiculous to see a more global adoption of the system that exists here in Spain and in other latin countries, where the woman retains her maiden name as well as adopting her husband's last name. An increase in double barrel names also seems on the cards. I wonder if in the future, love alone will be enough to convince Mary Axelbergersonich to take on Tim Lee's surname dooming her name's disappearance into internet oblivion.

Of course, their will be the few that take comfort in their conventional name, which grants them anonymity and as such a greater degree of security. While we strive to be more unique we are at the same time making it easier for stalking and identity theft to occur. There are a flock of web 2.0 companies like Wink, Spock, ZoomInfo, yoName, ex.plode.us, PeopleFinders, and PeekYou whose sole purpose is to search for people and any associated personal information they can find. By treating our children as some kind of product are we setting them up for a life of stalking and harassment?

On a final note, if you have a common name but still crave exposure you shouldn't fret. Although it is more difficult to get onto the ever elusive first page of Google it is not impossible. Science and technology writer Clive Thompson managed to get his blog onto the #1 spot in a Google search for his name, an impressive achievement when you consider that the entire first page of Google was dominated by Lord Clive Thompson, the British billionaire CEO of Rentokil. Since Google ranking can't be bought, it puts us all on an even playing field when it comes to making the search engine play ball with your name. With some extra effort and smarts you can start climbing to the top of the Google rankings.

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Aren't you glad that you don't live in Australia?

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-08-30T15:04:54+01:00

This video has been doing the rounds on the blogosphere. While I would like to say that Miss Teen South Carolina is the exception to the rule my experience tells me that this is not so.

Upon my arrival in the US I was asked by a fellow student how long it took to drive from Ireland to Erie, Pennsylvania. The same girl proceeded to enquire if we had running water, pizza and microwave ovens in Ireland. I kid you not.

While in college in the US I took a course called Geopolitics. On day one of the class we had a pop quiz on entitled "How well do we know our neighbors?" The quiz tested people's general knowledge about Canada and Mexico. I was shocked at the number of people that thought that Toronto and Cancun were the respective capitals of Canada and Mexico. What's more, the last time I checked Mexican was not a language.

I also recall a dispiriting conversation that I had with a girl who told me she was 100% Irish (which causes me to wonder what percent Irish I am!). When I enquired to where exactly Ireland was located in the world I got the reply: "It's in that country, you know, what's it called, yeah right, London."

A recent survey by National Geographic showed that half of young American adults can't find New York on a Map, 20% believe Sudan is in Asia, and only 37% could correctly identify Iraq even though US troops have had a presence there since 2003. Not only is US primary and secondary school education lacking in when it comes to geography, but also in most of areas that should educate children in worldly knowledge such as history, civics, and foreign languages. The situation has not been helped by the No Child Left Behind initiative which has caused a shift in emphasis to areas such as science, maths and reading at the cost of the social sciences.

I'll leave you with a video that makes me glad that I don't live in Australia.

Cheeky tourists!

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-08-26T22:34:40+01:00

Patrick Devine from Donegal has been released on bail after spending the last month sitting in a Senegalese jail for mooning the governor's home in the city of Saint Louis. The 19 year old, who was in Senegal working for a teaching project, mooned the governor's home as a dare. This seemingly harmless act was not taken lightly in this conservative Islamic country and Patrick was arrested and placed in a prison cell with 40 others.

By all accounts Patrick was a good natured teenager, which I have no reason to doubt. Why then do tourists behave in a way that they wouldn't even dream of back home? The English, especially some of their alleged football supporters, have given themselves a bad name over here in Spain, so much so that the word Hooligan has entered the Spanish dictionary with a definition that translates as: An English fan characterised by vandalism and violent acts. I don't think that Irish tourists in Spain are in the clear either but it seems that in Spain we have a certain amount of impunity (I'm guessing it probably has something to do with the Spanish Armada and the Battle of Kinsale). Since the Spanish often have a problem distinguishing between the nationalities of English speakers Irish louts often get mistaken for being English. Indeed, in a survey back in 2002 by Expedia the Irish came in second behind the British as the world's worst tourists.

Opinions vary as to why we make such bad tourists. No doubt cheap booze is a big cause of the problem. Spain seems like a drinker's paradise for English and Irish tourists with bottles of wine for as little as €1. Furthermore, us English speakers often draw attention to ourselves since we tend not to make much of an effort at learning the local language, often arrogantly expecting everyone to speak English. Of course, all of this involves a lot of generalising, and I hasten to add that "bad tourists" are definitely in the minority. However, you have to figure that these stereotypes have to come from somewhere and anyone who has spent a summer holiday in the south of Spain might find it difficult to disagree. However, I could have just got it all wrong as I'm sure Jeremy Clarkson would contest.

First impressions of Facebook

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-08-25T14:10:34+01:00

As much as I've tried, I could never get into MySpace. The first thing that happens when you create an account is you make friends with a complete stranger –– Tom Anderson (the co-founder of the company). MySpace is an open social network –– too open for my liking.

Facebook is different in the sense that it gives you more control over who joins your network. Don't get me wrong, I think that MySpace's open policy has its own advantages; for this very reason it has been such an attractive choice for people wishing to advertise themselves to the world. The Arctic Monkeys, Brittany Fuchs and Tila Tequila owe much of their celebrity status to MySpace. However, many people are looking for something more personal and intimate. Those who say that Facebook needs to more like MySpace and that MySpace needs to more like Facebook miss the point. Each one offers its own set of defining features and can easily co-exist side by side.

One of the first things that struck me about Facebook is its minimalist layout, as opposed to MySpace's too often in-your-face style templates. In many ways you could think of Facebook as the more socialist of the two models putting everyone on a equal playing field, whereas MySpace takes a more liberal and expressive route. Facebook's minimalism is one its greatest strength. For this reason I don't like when someone's Facebook profile is littered with dozens of unnecessary applications such as Superpoke, Happy Hour and Food Fight that would be more at home on MySpace. What disturb me even more are the apps that seem designed to cause resentment among other network members namely Top Friends and Compare People. Come on now, do you really want to know that Paul is more fun to socialise with than you or that in fact you are really not Mary's best friend after all? And am I the only person who doesn't get the Zombie application? Whenever, I get a zombie invitation I feel like saying "actually, I would prefer if you didn't bite me, thank you very much!"

I still haven't decided how I feel about pokes. I'm still trying to figure out if they mean poke in the sense of "to jab" or "to nudge." Besides, I can see poking sessions ending up like the "no you hang up" telephone conversations from our puppy love days. Where they do come in useful is in offering a way to test the strength of your relationship with someone else. For example, suppose you haven't talked to Tim in five years. You send him a poke and one of three things can happen. If he reciprocates your poke this means that Tim has acknowledged your friendship and that you may add him as a friend. He may just skip sending another poke and add you as a friend saving you the trouble of second guessing yourself. On the other hand, you may receive no acknowledge from him whatsoever probably signifying that there was a reason why you haven't talked in five years!

Similarly, the jury is out on the wall. Quite frankly it seems rather unnecessary to me, especially since you can use the peer-to-peer email to send a more private message. It should seem like a no-brainer but the wall shouldn't be used for your more intimate comments. And don't even considering writing on anyone's wall while under the influence unless you are ready to do a lot of explaining.

As a social network Facebook works swimmingly. Since joining I've become reacquiented with my childhood best friend who I haven't seen since 1991, I've been able to get reacquainted with my college friends and I discovered that four of my classmates have got married and two have babies. No need to wait until the ten year college reunion to get the low-down on how everyone is getting on. Furthermore, you don't have to worry about forgetting a friend's birthday since the information is right there in the sidebar. While MySpace is about keeping up with friends and making new ones, Facebook seems to be more about consolidating and developing the friendships that you already have.

What I'd like to see in del.icio.us "2.1"

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-08-24T15:39:10+01:00

del.icio.us

Back in the days when everyone still used netscape and internet explorer if you came across a webpage that grabbed your attention you bookmarked it. However, before very long you realise that you have dozens of pages bookmarked so you start organising them into folders. Pretty soon your bookmark folders are overflowing with subfolders and it becomes a needle in a haystack scenario. Furthermore, your bookmarks were tied to one computer meaning that the bookmarks you'd saved to your home computer were not the same as the ones on your desktop at work.

About a year ago I became aware of a web 2.0 company called del.icio.us. Del.icio.us is a site where you can store your links, in essence online bookmarks. However, what made this company innovative was the use of tags. This feature, which has since become just as ubiquitous as the web itself, allows you to associate words or tags with a particular weblink. For example, common tags for the popular Irish TV show Father Ted website might be priests, Catholic, comedy, series, TV, Irish, etc. Del.icio.us then organises these tags into clusters known as tag clouds of with tags of varying font size based on its popularity (see the del.icio.us cloud tag on the right hand side of the side bar).

Another feature of del.icio.us is that it allows you to connect to networks which are effectively other people's tagged webpages. Herein lies my problem with del.icio.us. in that there is no easy way to find people with similar interests without having to go in and check out a particular users network. There has been some talk of late about del.icio.us become more of a social network supposedly in the sense of MySpace or Facebook. However, I would like to see the pendulum swing more in direction of social networking à la LastFM. LastFM, a social radio station website uses an adaptive algorithm to predict based on your own music taste which other LastFM listeners dig the same music as you. Since the process is automated you can easily find people to add to your network. By implimenting this feature into del.icio.us I believe that they could branch into social networking without losing the overall integrity of the company as an effective bookmark management solution.

Frappr Map

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-08-22T08:42:24+01:00

I've added a Frappr map to website (find link in the navigation bar above) that will allow you to add your location to the map. The other map which just works off users' ISP details can be now found at here. I hope that this new map will allows users to be more interactive with the webpage.

Spam

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-08-21T19:54:27+01:00

Does anyone remember the days when reading email used to be a pleasurable activity? Now we have to swim through the ocean of spam that occupies our inboxes everyday. RTÉ just reported that 85% of Irish emails consist of spam.

So is spam just an unavoidable part of having an email account? Not necessarily. Or at least there are some measures that you can take to minimise the amount of spam in your inbox. When you sign up for a new email account the first thing you notice is a spam-free, albeit empty inbox. This is because at this stage only you and your email provider know of this account's existence. How this email address is distributed is the key to determining the amount of spam you'll get. I remember my very first email account (nowadays it's not uncommon for a person to have five or more email addresses). I could use this email address to sign up for message boards, forums, and become a member of a host of dodgy websites. At first the spam started trickling in and then they started flooding in. This was before I became aware of bots or more specifically spambots, mini programs whose sole purpose in life is to com the internet looking for email addresses. This is in fact a more common place practise than you might think. Google and other search engines gather their information using bots of a rather less malicious nature. While keeping your email address out of cyberspace helps but by no means guarantees a spam-free email account.

The other variable in the equation is one's contacts. I remember a time not so long ago when I had managed to keep my hotmail account completely free from spam. Then one day arrives an email from a friend of mine who had signed me and nine other people up for free t-shirts. The viral email forward was in the form of a chain letter asked me to send this email on to ten of my contacts. By this stage the damage was already done; my email address was already registered by my friend on a system somewhere in cyberspace. I went to www.snopes.com (an invaluable source for checking the validity of not only email forwards but of any old-wives' tales and urban legends) to check out the validity of the email and sure enough it checked out as address harvesting spam. The day had not even ended and my hotmail account received it's first piece of spam mail.

What many people don't realise is that the simple act of reading the email itself may be enough to alert the sender that you indeed do have a legitimate email address and that the onslaught can begin. Often code is cleverly disguised as text or embedded in a picture within the email. This is why some email services such as Mac Mail (see image above) initially disable graphics as a precautionary measure. In fact code exists all around us in cyberspace; it is the very fabric of the internet's user interface. This very web page was written using hundreds of lines of html code. Most websites use invisible code to track user statistics such as the number of visitors, popular pages, etc. It is not very difficult for someone with even a basic knowledge of coding to use this very same coding language to place a malicious piece of code embedded in an email.

When we were children our parents told us not to talk to strangers. The same principle applies when it comes to sorting out the good from the bad mail. Not only should be hyper alert to emails from people we don't know but also be suspicious of free or "too good to be true" type offers, ridiculous looking user and domain names and poor spelling (spam mail is notoriously plagued with orthographical mistakes, which probably has more to do with tricking spam catching software rather than the sender's education level). All of these spam characteristics can be seen in the above picture.

One final option is to use a disposable email address. Mac Mail offers what Apple calls aliases. These consist of pseudonyms that you can create in addition to your main account name. This means that if at any of your aliases get clogged with spam you can just delete that account. If you don't have a Mac account don't fret. There are many free solutions out there on the net, my personal favourite being mailinator. Mailinator lets you create email addresses on the fly without any registration. In fact you can invent a mailinator address right now before even visiting their site. For example, you choose the name blahblahblah@mailinator.com and when you check the inbox for this account at mailinator it will already be created for you (don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself). Similar services are offered by both spamgourmet and pookmail. All these services offer temporary accounts that are deleted within a few hours of their creation, giving you enough time to confirm your registration or get your code and get out of there. No harm done. Spamgourmet also offers email forwarding to your legitimate email address. Since some sites reject emails with these sites' domain name, these temporary email accounts also offer alternatives such as mailinator2.com, sogetthis.com, mail8r.com, mailinator.net, and klassmaster.com.

Update: Since writing this article I came across this great site that offers a list of 20 temporary and disposable email addresses.

The Basque people according to McGyver (Spanish)

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-07-28T21:34:14+01:00

A video clip of an episode of McGyver that realistically portrays the Basque people and traditions.

Idioms

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-08-18T12:51:50+01:00

One of the most difficult things to learn in a foreign language are the idiomatic expressions. These are phrases, words or expressions that lose their meaning when translated literally into another language. Some common examples from English are: It is raining cats and dogs or in two shakes of a lamb's tail. Below I have listed some of my favourite Spanish idioms alongside both their literal translation and their meaning in English.

Spanish Idiom	Literal Translation	Meaning
¡Narices!	Noses.	Rubbish! Damn!
¡Qué te den Morcilla!	That they give you black pudding.	Get stuffed!
Tener más cojones que el caballo de Santiago.	To have more balls than Santiago's horse.	To have balls.
Costar un huevo.	To cost an egg.	To be one hell of a job. To be tough going.
Hacerse el sueco.	To become the Swede.	To play stupid. To act dumb.
La hostia.	The host. The holy communion wafer.	The dog's bollocks. The bomb.
Llevar el gato al agua	To bring the cat to the water.	To pull of a difficult task.
Tocar las pelotas.	To touch the balls.	To take the piss. To yank someone's chain.
¡Cuando las ranas críen pelo!	When the frogs grow hair.	When hell freeze's over! When pigs learn to fly!
Tener cara de pan.	To have a bread face.	To have a round face.
Esetar con cien ojos.	To be with 100 eyes.	To be on one's guard.
Es chino para mí.	It is Chinese for me.	It's all Greek to me.
Una chuleta.	A chop (of meat)	A cheat sheet.
Chuparse el dedo.	To suck one's thumb.	To come away empty handed.
Por si las moscas.	For if the flies.	Just in case.
Todo Dios.	All God.	Everybody.
Pagar el pato.	To pay the duck.	To take the rap. To be left holding the baby.
Estar de malaleche.	To be sour milk.	To be in a foul mood.
La puta madre.	The bloody mother.	The dogs bollocks. The shit.

Manuel

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-08-16T15:18:43+01:00

If one show has created a negative stereotype of Spanish people it has to be Fawlty Towers. Andrew Sachs, a German-born actor, played the role of the loveable but hapless waiter from Barcelona, Manuel. The combination of Manuel's pigeon English and Basil Fawlty's flailing temper created a number of uncomfortable and often surreal situations. An interesting titbit is that due to the demeaning presentation of Manuel's character his name was changed to Paolo in the dubbed Spanish version and his nationality changed to Mexican in the Catalan one.

Little Children = Juegos Secretos!?

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-08-01T21:08:20+01:00

When we think of small talk one of the first topics of conversation that comes to mind is movies. However, anyone who has every tried to talk to a Spanish person about films will very quickly fall upon a stumbling block. You might be forgiven for thinking that a movie title such as the Sound of Music would have the logical title La Sonida de Musica. Makes sense right? Well as it turns out this film has been alternatively called Sonrisas y Lagrimas (Smiles and Tears) and La Novicia Rebelde (The Rebel Nun). It is not just this movie that has undergone this title-makeover but the vast majority of movies and TV programmes. I have compiled a list below of just a sprinkling of my favourite film and TV show translations.

Movie Title in English	Movie Title in Spanish	Literal Translation
A Nightmare before Christmas	El Extraño Mundo de Jack	The Strange World of Jack
Baywatch	Guardianes de la Bahia	Guardians of the Bay
Star Wars	Guerra de las Galaxias	The war of the Galaxies
Die Hard	Jungla de Cristal	The Jungle of Glass
Speed	Máxima Velocidad	Maximum Velocity
Bruce Almighty	Como Dios	Like God
Cliffhanger	Maximo Riesgo	Maximum Risk
Groundhog's Day	Hechizo de Tiempo	The spell of Time
The Flintstones	Los Picapiedras	The Stone Breakers
Face Off	Cara a Cara	Face to Face
Some Like it Hot	Con Faldas y a lo loco	Skirts and go Crazy

And the winner is...

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-07-10T21:57:55+01:00

And the winners of the much hyped New Seven Wonders of the World are: The Great Wall of China, the ancient city of Petra, Machu Picchu in Peru, the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza in Mexico, the Colosseum, the Taj Mahal and... the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. Huh! Somehow I suspect that the majority of votes for the latter probably originated in Brazil. Some of the notable exceptions to the list include the Eiffel Tour and the Acropolis. The Taj Mahal, which at one stage wasn't even in the running just needed a little last-minute publicity push to get it onto the list.

This competition to find the new Wonders amounts to little more than a farce, highlighting the problem with Internet polling. There was absolutely nothing to stop people from voting multiple times. Furthermore, countries such as China (population 1,298,847,000), India (pop. 1,065,000,000), and Brazil (pop. 184,100,000) have an overwhelming advantage over countries with more modest populations. In fact, at one stage the Great Wall of China had the same number of votes as the Dublin Spire until there was a nation-wide drive in China to increase the number of votes. In the space of only 20 days the Great Wall had moved from 32nd up to 1st.

That the Dublin Spire was so far up the list just shows how big of a joke all this really is. Mass email forwarding ensured that the Spire made the preliminary list but couldn't help the "Stiletto in the Ghetto" didn't quite reach the glorious heights of the Wolfe Tones' "A nation once again", which managed to beat out the classic Hindi hit Vande Mataram in the BBC's "World's Most Popular Song" contest. And just when everyone thought that the Eurovision Song Contest couldn't get any worse it did just that by opening the competition to online voting.

Ronnie O'Brien who had been signed as a rookie by Juventus amazingly shot up to the top of an internet poll to find Juve's most promising star of the future. If this wasn't enough the former shop shelver found himself at the top of a Time Magazine poll to find the Person of the Century. That was before the magazine decided to prevent this Bray lad from being one of the candidates because of his largely unknown status. Before long emails were forwarded around all four corners of Ireland encouraging people to vote for Ireland's iconic turkey - Dustin. Time Magazine were finally forced to narrow down the list of candidates to a fixed 100 carefully chosen personality of the last century.

Parallel to the voting for the new Seven Wonders there was a poll conducted in Spain by Telecinco to find the Seven Wonders of Spain. The last time I check the Burgos Cathedral and the Aqueduct were leading the poll with 25% votes a piece (I've since lost all interest in this sham). Incredibly the Alhambra, the magnificent palace in Granada, that was in the running for one of the new Seven Wonders in the global competition, couldn't even summon 1% of the votes in Spain.

The running of the bulls

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-07-07T22:47:56+01:00

One of the first words anyone learns in Spanish is fiesta; and for good reason. If anyone knows how to party it's the Spanish. The running of the bulls in San Fermin is one of the best known festivals in all of Spain. The running, which began yesterday in Pamplona attracted some one million visitors this year. The festival involves revellers, loaded to the eyeballs on both adrenaline and alcohol running through the cobbled streets of Pamplona, trying to keep ahead of the six fighting bulls that are pursuing them. This year around 2000 people took part in the run. The bull run has been heavily criticised by animal activist groups such as PETA. On Thursday, Pamplona saw the "nude run"; a demonstration by animal rights activists who run the same course stark naked in order to highlight the cruelty of the event.

Slob Evolution

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-07-02T22:43:41+01:00

A parody of the Dove evolution commercial (see video below).

El Camino de Santiago

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-06-27T10:36:08+01:00

It's impossible to live in Burgos for any length of time without knowing about the Camino de Santiago. Sometimes translated as the Way of St. James it is more often referred to by its shortened Spanish name, el Camino. At this time of the year hundreds of pilgrims pass through the city of Burgos with their rucksacks and walking sticks.

The legend goes that the bones of the apostle James were brought to Santiago de Compostela and buried there. Santiago de Compostela, located in the north-western province of Galicia, is the final destination for many pilgrims as all the routes funnel to an end here. Where you start the pilgramage is up to you. Many people take the Camino frances which starts in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France, although you can start anywhere you like on the route. While many people do the Camino for religious reasons there are increasing number of secular people who do it to meet new people, for the love of backpacking or to disconnect from the world. I had a Spanish student who does it every year in order to practise his English, which is the unofficial language for foreigners. If you plan on doing the Camino a good pair of walking boots are a must. The same student, began his first Camino in a pair of trainers and after a couple of days had to retire because of severe blisters.

The pilgrims typically stay at cheap hostels provided exclusively for them. Only just yesterday, I got stopped by a South Korean woman looking for the pilgrims refuge in Burgos. She had heard about the Camino through another South Korean friend who did the route last year and decided to do it herself. She told me that she set out two months ago from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and is continuing on to Santiago de Compostela, a journey of 780km. When you arrive in Santiago de Compestela you receive your Compostela, which is a certificate that you completed at least 100km of the route. During the Middle Ages the Compostela counted as an indulgence and meant half-off the time spent in purgatory or a complete indulgence if you completed the route during a Holy Year. Finally, if you see a Pilgrim pass you by be sure to wish them a "buen Camino!"

Real beauty?

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-06-25T20:38:26+01:00

This is the award winning video from the cosmetics group Dove. Dove made a risky decision when they decided to embark on their Campaign for Real Beauty. What this videos serves shows that the old idiom "seeing is believing" is not so cut and dry.

However, It comes as no shock to anyone that the advertisement agencies may have been trying to deceive us. The question we should be asking is what constitutes deception and whether there is a level of fraud that is acceptable? Deceit is a common facet of the human psyche that manifests itself on both conscious and subconscious levels. You would be naive to think that the goal of advertisement is not to present a product in the best light possible, but rather to simply show the product for what it is; warts and all.

Some people would argue that this is acceptable when we are talking about the latest car or gadget but when we are addressing how we as a society define beauty then we have crossed the line. The truth is that we have been using deception as a principle tool in the quest for self-beautification since time eternal. Makeup, fashion trends, hair-styles and piercings are not an invention of the 20th century but have been documented since written records began and in the archaeological register. If we want to talk about the dangers of beauty just read the Homeric legend of Troy that tells the oft-recited tale of the stunning Helen, whose beauty caused the death of thousands of men.

What is seen as beautiful from one generation to the next is not clear; in Victorian times pale skinned voluptuous women were favoured, while lean bodied males were symbolic of a rich upbringing that the muscular labourer found hard to fake. Many will argue that this is not the problem but rather that we have crossed the line in our definition of real beauty. After hundreds of thousands of years of evolution as a species we belong to the very first generation that sees starvation as an integral part of self-improvement. When we consider that conditions such as anorexia weren't even heard of a few decades ago we are forced to ask questions of society. Some suggest that what has changed is the distortion by mass media of what we consider beautiful.

So by Dove highlighting this problem will it suddenly go away? The uneasy reality is this is far from likely. By using normal people as models in advertisements, companies run the risk of not maximising their sales. The tactic has worked for Dove because it is novel and has struck a cord with the public. Neither should we forget that Dove, after all, is a company that is interested in increasing profits, rather than some type of open-source style cosmetics company. Part of the key to Dove's success is the breaking the nauseating advertising formula of mixing sex, beauty and happiness. However, if everyone employs the same approach, the opportunity for some other company to cash in by using top models becomes even more tempting. As such, it's a zero sum game.

Another interesting point that has surfaced in response to this article is whether or not we can trust a photograph. What few seem to realise is that from the get go photography has been manipulated through various composition, lighting, exposure and darkroom techniques to influence public opinion, to show the ghost of our dearly departed uncle Dan, or to capture beauty. Since, digital photos offers more room for manipulation doesn't this invalidate their truthfulness? This question can be addressed in what is in my opinion the real achievement of this movie short, in that it highlights a flawed way of thinking on our part – our gullibility. It asks us to be sceptical of everything. Being a sceptical thinker does not mean being incredulous about everything, but on the contrary it requires questioning things that come from unreliable sources such as the internet (yes, I am suggesting that you should be sceptical of what you are reading right now) and those that have ulterior motives (in the case of advertising, increased sales). In the end, we may not have the time nor energy to question everything that makes up our reality. However, just being aware that what we hold to be true may not be so is more than half the battle.

I beg your pardon?

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-06-24T20:03:38+01:00

Over at yourdictionary.com there is a list of the most commonly mispronounced words in the English language. I was bowled over by the number of words that I personally mispronounce. Here are my top ten list. Find many more examples at http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/mispron.html.

Spanish stereotypes

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-06-24T11:33:26+01:00

What one realises very quickly when you live in Spain for a while is that many of the stereotypes we hold about the country are either false or ill-founded.

1. Sun & Beach
Maybe I should have known better when I arrived in Spain for the first time with a suitcase packed with shorts and t-shirts. Like many of the stereotypes that we'll see this one relates to south of Spain. Anyone who has spent anytime in Burgos outside the summer months will note that the temperatures can be baltic. In fact, it is considered to be one of the coldest cities in all of Spain. Rather than being a negative the Spanish climate has the up side of offering a wide range of landscapes from the rain soaked hills of Asturias and Galicia (the Ireland of Spain in more ways than one), the dry heat of the central plain, and the hot and humid southern and western coasts.

2. Bullfighting
While it is true that bullfighting remains a multi-million euro enterprise in Spain the popularity of the activity is on the decrease. With the increase in animal rights awareness people are less prone to calling it a sport and more to referring to it as slaughter. Whichever side of the fence your on the reality is the once popular family outing is going the way of the dodo.

3. The siesta
This is another activity that has seen a decline in recent years. In the metropolitan cities of Barcelona and Madrid it is near impossible to take a midday nap, since most places have adopted a northern European timetable. The siesta is has a strong link to the local climate. Since it is almost impossible to work outside in the searing heat of places like Granada and Seville the locals will use this time to recharge the batteries. Although Burgos becomes a ghost town between the hours of 3 and 5 it is more because people are taking their incredibly long lunch breaks. Of course, there is the odd person that will take this opportunity to catch some Zs.

4. Sangria
I have maybe drank sangria a total of 6 times in Spain and at least half of those times were in the company of foreigners. The Spanish are wine lovers to the bone and also like their beer. Calimocho is the drink of choice for teenagers in Spain. It is a mix of coke and cheap wine; guaranteed to get you plastered and give you a hangover to match.

5. Flamenco
Flamenco is a style of music localised in the provinces of Andalusia and to a lesser degree Extremedura in the south of Spain. If you go to the north of Spain you have a much better chance of finding some Irish trad music than flamenco. And as for Spanish women being able to dance Sevillanas (flamenco dance) it is another stereotype, although I know a fair few Spanish women that are not afraid to give it a go. Hey, hand ups any Irish lads or lasses that haven't given Riverdance a go after a rake of pints?

On the other hand there are many stereotypes that hold true for the most part. The Spanish are full-blooded footie fanatics. Many a Spanish person will live with their parents well into their 30s. And of course they are passionate about their food and wine.

Losing the art of speaking

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-06-22T17:27:44+01:00

It's amazing how somethings that should be second nature change so dramatically by living in a foreign country. Today I was getting into a car when I had to stop and think about what side of the car I had to get into. This may sound ridiculous but having living my life between Ireland (where we drive on the correct side of the road) versus the United States and Spain (where they drive on the right side of the road - here I use right in the directional sense of the word only) getting into whichever side of car is no longer a no-brainer.

You really know when you've lived in a country too long, not when you speak that other country's language, but rather when you start forgetting your mother tongue. Having lived in the US for so long I have moments where I need to stop and think. . . hmmm do we say elevator or lift in Ireland? This is for the most part forgivable since both languages are English at their core (although I am quite open to arguments to the contrary).

A while ago I had to go to the dentist to get a filling. Afterwards, I was chatting to my mum and I started telling her "so I went to the dentist today to get a . . . a . . . " I couldn't think of the damn word filling. Such a simple, obvious word that somehow got lost somewhere along the synapses. The only word that would come to mind was empaste (the Spanish word for a filling). Finally, I had to resort to the method used by my English students - "you know, that thing that a dentist put in your tooth when it has a hole!" My mother's tone of voice reeked of disgust as she said quizzically "a filling?" I can still hear the sound of my mother's voice as she quickly quipped:

"Ciarán you're losing the art of speaking."

Fiesta!

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-06-19T20:45:33+01:00

Fiesta. It's one of the first words you learn when you set foot in Spain. Burgos is getting geared up for its annual festival - Los Sampedros. The festival kicks off on Friday the 22nd with the Gigantillos, giant puppets that look like over-sized Punch and Judy characters. Throughout the week there is music from the likes of Dover, Antonio Carmona, Ricky Martin, Miguel Bosé and Julieta Venegas. Not quite Glastonbury, but hey it's Burgos and nearly all are free. Of course, it wouldn't be Spain without Bulls, and there are bullfights everyday. Finally, what's any festival worth its salt that doesn't have fireworks. Burgos has gone all out on this one, having organised an international pyrotechnic competition. However, the tapas (small bar snacks) competition is the one I'm most looking forward to.

Madrid win La Liga

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-06-19T13:54:03+01:00

Unless you've been living under a stone you will have seen that Real Madrid won the Spanish League. It's the Hollywood style ending that Beckham was looking for before he heads off in that direction. The end of a season was a thriller with Barcelona, Sevilla and Madrid all having opportunities to close the deal in the penultimate game. After going a goal down Madrid came back to finally win 3-1 against Mallorca. It seems like a Rangers-Celtic type of deal here in Spain. Even if you come from a place that is neither Madrid nor Barca you still have to have a preference for one or the other. From the celebrations in the streets of Burgos you would swear that Burgos C.F. had won the league. Speaking of which, it looks like Burgos C.F. after defeating Sevilla Atlético are going to get promoted to the second division.

Miss Spain to allow transsexuals and mothers to compete

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-06-16T00:53:09+01:00

In what seems to be a direct reaction to the dismissal earlier this year of Miss Cantabria for being a mother, the organisers of Miss Spain have decided to allow mothers to compete. The dethroned Miss Cantabria appeared on TV last night stating that she was taking legal action in an attempt to get reinstated. Even if she manages to do so I imagine that the pageant organisers will not look to fondly on the fact that she appeared nude in the latest edition of the Spanish magazine Interviú.

The competition has also set a precedence by allowing transsexuals to enter the competition for the first time. This follows from a law passed earlier this year allowing for transsexuals in Spain to change their legal gender without having to undergo surgery.

The way I see it, if a transsexual can win Miss Spain, fair dues to them. That'd be one hell of an achievement. Neither do I see this as an impossibility. Many a fellow had a crush on former Eurovision winner Dana International (left), at least that is before discovering that she used to be a man. Of course this will set alight the debate over what actually consitutes being male, or female, or whether these categories are more shades of grey, rather than simply black and white.

I think that a quotation from Renton (Ewan McGregor) in the film Trainspotting said it best:

"In a thousand years, there will be no men and women, just wankers, and that's fine by me."

The follies of the football faithful

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-06-15T23:28:01+01:00

Why are some people Catholics while others are Protestants? And why are some people Buddhist, while others may be Hindus, animists, Jains, Baptists or any of the other hundreds of religions we have in the world. Why do some people vote Republican rather than Democrat, or Conservative, or Centre, or even Centre-Right, while still others vote Red, or Green or some other colourful political line. Moreover, how come some people think abortion is wrong while others profess that it is the right of the mother to choose, or how do you explain the cultures that dicate that adulteresses should be stoned to death, while others believe that killing even a bug is wrong. I propose that our beliefs for the most part are the product of our environment and sheer happenstance, since as someone so poetically said "no man is an island."

And so it also goes for sport. We all have heart-felt passionate convictions towards are favourite teams, while inversely held prejudices against our most hated enemies. For many of us we can't remember exactly when, or for that matter why we support Liverpool but hate Man United. It is one of the ironies of being Irish that you follow an English football club. It is common to hear the boys done in the pub profess their love for Arsenal in one breath and in the next exalting the great Michael Collins who freed us from England's Imperial chains!

In this regard I am no different. It all began when I was 12 years old and my mother arrived home with a Leeds United jersey to wear for my physical education class, a jersey chosen for its machine washability rather than some tribal zealotry. And that was it. Suddenly, one minute I'm a proverbial island, the next I'm somehow and inexplicably connected to network of fans that number the size of a small country. By wearing this jersey I was making a statement; my loyalty to all things Leeds United and my disdain of all things not. Very soon I was swept up in the passion, heart-break and euphoria of "my" team.

So when Leeds United went down this season I felt that heart-wrenching knot in my stomach that was shared with fans the world over. To try and explain or even rationalise this feeling is completely futile. If that weren't bad enough I had to endure the agony of seeing my hometown club, Longford Town live out the most disconsolate period in the clubs history. I think that this blow was a harder one to take since it hits closer to home; you can never distance yourself from the town in which you grew up, which always remains an important part of who you are as person –– for better or for worse. As steadfast supporters we can only try and look to the positives and hope to rebuild and come back stronger in the future. But, then again football isn't quite a matter of life and death, now is it? Well, to quote from one of the greats of the game "it's much more serious than that."

Understanding and being understood in Spain

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-06-15T12:29:36+01:00

I arrived in Spain for the first time in the summer of 2005, not speaking a word of Spain beyond the compulsory hola, adiós, siesta, and arriba, arriba, ándale (the latter isn't even used in Spain –– damn you Speedy Gonzalez). I was here as an anthropology student studying at the world famous Atapuerca archaeological site.

From the moment I set foot in Barajas Airport in Madrid the communication problems began. Armed with phrase book in hand I asked a passer-by in my very broken Spanglish for directions to the bus station. Since, my first attempt was a stillbirth I decided to ask again –– "Downday aystaw la station day awtobus?" This time I got a reaction but it scared the bejeezus out of me. The words coming out of this person's mouth sounded like rapid machine-gun fire to me. But I had one saving grace. There is a joke that goes like this: if you want a Spanish person to shut up you tie their hands behind their back. As politically incorrect as this may sound I have yet to meet a Spanish person who would not agree with me. Trying to ignore the cross-fire of words shooting from this helpful person's lips I decided to follow the hand signals that accompanied it and before long I was on my way.

The archaeological field season began soon thereafter and I got on surprising well with all my colleagues, except for my director, Maicu. Being English-challenged she would give me instructions in Spanish; which was fine when someone was around to translate but when left alone in a one-on-one situation I would end up being shouted at. The thing that confused me even more was that outside of work Maicu was as nice as pie to me. After a few days of roaring and shouting I had had enough and decided to air my grievances to some of my colleagues. What a fool I felt when they guffawed at my heightened state of agitation. They explained to me between their tittering that in Spain people will raise their voices to make themselves understood. A valuable lesson was learned in my Spanish Culture 101 course.

Later on in the field season we went to a dinner where I was sitting at a table with my friend Marina. At the neighbouring table another friend, Eva, was chatting to one of her aged professors. She was wearing a t-shirt in the comical style of Kukuxumusu (good luck trying to pronounce that one), so I decided to comment to Marina that I loved Eva's t-shirt. No sooner had the words left my mouth than Marina replied "you're sick!" I was completely taken aback and scrambled to find out how such an innocuous comment could warrant such a harsh retort. It turned out that she thought that I had pronounced my love for Eva's grey-haired teacher instead of her t-shirt! Soon after, dessert arrived and simply trying to make conversation I announced that the dessert looked gorgeous. Marina snapped back at me with a "Can't you just drop it! Teacher, t-shirt, t-shirt, teacher. Stupid Spanish people can't pronounce!" I repeated the word, vocalising as much as possible "de-ssert." This only added fuel to the fire and I scrambled through my phrasebook until I found the translation of dessert in Spanish –– "el postre." The next day, we were at a party where there was a serious lack of chairs. I was trying to be as nice as possible to Marina, when I suddenly noticed two people leaving to go and I said that I'd go and get two chairs. Marina turned red and she scrunched up her forehead. She looked me in the eye and said "Ja, ja, very funny. I'll and get get t-shirts! You're still going on about that. Teacher, t-shirt, dessert..." I don't want anyone to think that I have a self-righteous attitude to my own language skills. In fact, during the same field season I managed to ask my room-mate if he wanted to have anal-sex with me, while I was simply trying to ask him where were we going out that night. But, that a story for a different day.

A month ago I saw first hand how cultural differences come into play regarding effective communication. I was at the bakery in my local Spar and ahead of me was an Asian woman. The poor lady, who obviously had only a few words in Spanish, asked politely for some "pan" (bread). What she wasn't expect was a tirade of follow-up questions: what type? hard or soft? warm or cold? The woman's reaction was to simply nod and smile, which only added to the confusion by making the baker think that she was being understood. Herein, lies a main cultural difference between some Asian cultures and European cultures. In Spain or even my own home-turf of Ireland for that matter, we tend to give our puzzled look when we don't understand something; you know that pained expression that involves a lot of squinting and frowning of the forehead. Well, in Asian cultures this look is seemingly seen as offensive toward the speaker as you are signalling that they are ineffective communicators. While a nod and smile have a specific communicative meaning in Asia, the same action will cause you to crash and burn in Spain.

Finally, last week I observed an interesting conversation on the train between some Spanish nuns who were trying to tell a group of American passengers that they were ocuppying their seat. Upon, seeing that the Americans clearly didn't understand Spanish, one of the nuns paused, recalculated her tactics, took a deep breath and proceeded to explain to them in French!

France

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-06-08T21:28:11+01:00

I enjoyed my few days away in the south of France with my brother Fintan, his wife Michelle, my niece Emma and nephew Adam. One of the days I decided to visit Perpignon city. I had forgotten how difficult the easiest of tasks can be when you don't speak the local lingo. I tried ordering myself a steak and lemon flavoured coke at one restaurant and ended up with a burger and a coke with quarter of a lemon it in. While rambling around the city I managed to get lost and ended up in the Arabian quarter of the town –– a quite rundown neighbourhood but at the same time full of character with lively streets. While I was still trying to find my bearings a young lad asked me something in French, which of course I didn't understand whatsoever. Of course, he could clearly see that I was a tourist and asked me if I was Spanish. Since a no answer invariably requires a followup explanation of "why not?" I decided to lie and say oui hoping that would be the end of the conversation. No sooner had I affirmed that I was Spanish than he started to speak to me in perfect Spanish. That was all fine and good, that is, until he yelled at his family to come outside to observe the spectacle. With his mother, sister and brother now outside he proceeded to translate from Spanish to French for their benefit. As bizarre a situation as it was, I actually enjoyed able to communicate with someone, anyone . . . even if it was some French (or Spanish? or Arabian?) kid. Oh, the joys of travelling! Check out the photos in the France link.

ETA end ceasefire

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-06-05T17:03:52+01:00

The Basque separatist group ETA have announced an end to their year-long ceasefire stating that "the minimum conditions for continuing a process of negotiations do not exist” and that the Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has responded to their ceasefire "with arrests, torture and persecution.” In December Zapatero broke off talks with ETA after a bombing in Madrid airport. The ending of the ceasefire means that ETA are currently the only major armed political group within the EU. ETA want an independent Basque state for the more than 2 million people who live in the Basque regions in north of Spain and south of France.

Okupas

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-06-02T19:49:45+01:00

One of the problems facing Spain at the moment is that of Okupas (squatters in English). Over the last few years, Spain has become a global centre for Okupas with Barcelona being Spain's squatter capital. Since its beginnings in the 1960's Spain has not been the only country affected by this movement with London, Paris and Berlin being old hands in dealing with this issue. There is a large imbalance in the distribution of squatters throughout Europe, due in large part on the severeness of each country's policies.
The squatter movement began in Britain in the 1960s as a consequence of the hippy movement. From there it spread across Europe under various labels: crackers in Holland and Besetzers in Germany.

Okupas are often associated with the most radical movements of the left, particularly anarchism. If something positive has to be said about them it is that they have been a powerful force in opposition to the neo-Nazi demonstrations in Spain. In fact, this has made Okupas enemy number one in the eyes of the neo-Nazis.

Spain did not formally enact a law preventing the occupation of abandoned place until 1996. This, along with the increasing housing prices caused the okupa movement to grow during the 90s. However, for the most part squatters are cited for public disorder, robbery and vandalism. An increase of up to 300% in housing prices in cities like Madrid and Barcelona has only served to attract people to this alternative lifestyle.

One of the most recent examples of this movement was the taking over of the Can Ricart premises in Barcelona. In Barcelona alone there are more than 300 dwellings illegally occupied. These squatters are for the most part youths unable or unwilling to pay ever increasing rents. Since 11 of May of this year one wing of the physics department, which was being renovated at Madrid's largest university –– the Complutense –– has been taken over by Okupas.

Okupas often arrange public cultural and artistic events to raise money for the squat. Quite often they will organise festivals or parties with music and drink and a mandatory entrance fee.

The ambiguity of the Spanish law has complicated the issue. While article 33 of the constitution "se reconoce el derecho a la propiedad privada" (recognises the right to private property), squatters counter this law by quoting article 47 of the constitution which states that "todos los españoles tienen derecho a una vivienda" (all Spanish people have the right to a dwelling).

How to get in touch

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-07-03T20:14:56+01:00

On the sidebar on the right there is a Meebo IM chat that lets you chat with me from the website if I am signed on. Also, in the sidebar you have a Skype button that allows you to view my Skype status and to see if I'm available to chat. A second button allows you to leave an Odeo voice message provided you have a built-in or external microphone. Of course, you can still get in touch the old fashioned way by clicking on the contact me link at the bottom of the page to send an email. You can also comment on any of the blog entries by leaving a comment. Finally, you can subscribe to both the blog and comments RSS feeds.

Flamenco

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-06-01T18:12:00+01:00

I purport that what makes stereotyping offensive not so much the content of what is said but rather the person who is saying. I thoroughly believe that there is nothing more that we love than stereotypes about ourselves. The popularity of shows such as Father Ted and Ballynaskully all attest to this truth. But when someone even attempts to mock of cultural institutions like Riverdance or beating the bejesus out of a bodhrán, we launch a venomous diatribe leaving the offender drenched in a gooey layer of saliva. Similarly, the same goes for the Spanish. Two great Spanish institutions are sport (arguably a Spanish phenomenon) and Flamenco (Ok, we'll them have that one). As luck would have it Nike have decided to pull these two things together in the following TV advert.

The differences between marketing, PR, advertising and branding

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-05-31T11:06:42+01:00

Courtesy of Ads of the World

Immigration in Spain

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-06-01T17:39:34+01:00

Being an immigrant in Spain has motivated me to write a few words on the subject. First, let me clear about one thing; there are immigrants and then there are immigrants. Being an Irish in Spain doesn't mean the same thing as being Romanian, Moroccan or Chinese. I feel like I myself am viewed as something between a tourist and an foreigner. The loaded word immigrant somehow doesn't quite seem to capture it.

On the other hand, the Spanish would consider the African immigrants arriving everyday to the southern coast and islands as true immigrants. Spain's proximity to Africa means that it is the favoured landing ground for many Africans. These immigrants arrive to Spain and the Canary Islands in their thousand, often in makeshift boats, typically with many moralities from the crossing.

To complicate the picture even further Spain has two enclaves in the north of Morocco, namely Ceuta and Melilla. Here immigrants attempt to cross over a guarded barbed wire fence in order to reach Spanish soil. They typically do so in groups of hundreds, to maximum their chances of success. In fact Moroccans comprise the biggest minority in the country followed by Ecuadorians, Romanians, Columbians and Brits. 8% (3.5 million) of the population are immigrants.

However, not all sub-saharan immigrants who cross into Spain plan on staying there; about half of them have the intention of moving onto countries where their language is spoken. For the vast majority this means France.

In general, the Spanish view themselves as non-racists, although I think tolerant may be the most appropriate word to use. Only this year immigration has emerged as the number one preoccupation of the Spanish populace, dethroning unemployment and relegating housing and terrorism to 3rd and 4th positions respectively.

I think that the Spanish immigration situation compares with that of Ireland in many regards. Many people in both countries equate immigration with increased criminal activities. Unfortunately this situation is not helped by the desperation of many immigrations without papers who see this outlet as there only option. One only need look to the large number of Africans selling pirated CDs and DVDs on the streets of Madrid or the spate of raids on Eastern European prostitution rings in Barcelona to see that there is a real problem. One thing that is certain is that Spain and Ireland still haven't encountered the integration problems seen by countries such as Britain and Germany. Only time will tell how both countries deal with this complex issue.

The absurdity of English spelling

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-05-29T17:21:57+01:00

Most of us don't sit around considering the ins and out of the English language. It is only after all that thing that we speak. That is of course if you are not an English teacher. One thing that you realise when you take a closer look at our mother-tongue (or the language of the oppressor for all you nationalist out there) is that our pronunciation make very little sense whatsoever.

For those of you who have studied a language such as Italian or Spanish that has a phonetic pronunciation you will already have learned to appreciate the logic of their orthography. For example, the pronunciation of -iel in Spanish is always the same, whether the word is fiel, piel, miel, etc. On the other hand consider the pronunciation of -ough in English, which is pronounced "oo" in the word through, "ou" in bough, "oh" in though and even "uf" in enough. Starting to get the picture. We even have words that are spelt differently but are pronounced the same: there, their, and they're; two, to, and too; bite, byte, and bight; wheel, we'll and weal; isle, I'll and aisle. And how about those words that are spelt the same but pronounced differently. I'm looking at you read (present tense or past tense?), wind (are you referring to the weather phenomenon or what you do to a clock?) and minute (60 seconds or very small?). And why do the words eight and night have a -gh in them if we never pronounce it? And anyone remember that oh so useful mnemonic rhyme, "I" before "E" except after "C" and neighbour, weigh, seize, protein, height, sleight, poltergeist, seismograph, heir... Below is a poem which demonstrates just how absurd our language is. Enjoy!

English is tough stuff
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough --
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

Axturias

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-05-01T14:09:11+01:00

Well, just got back from a bridge (literal Spanish translation of a long weekend) in Asturias, that oft forgotten part of Northern Spain that has been the misguided destination of many a deslexic backpacker on their way to Austria. The bus ride itself from Burgos to Oviedo is breathtaken, with a lot of mountains, lakes and an overabundance of green. The colour green is not the only thing that the Asturians have stolen from the Irish. Other things include:

Music - which is really Irish trad music with cheap imitation uilleann pipes.

Cider - Bulmers should sue.

Language - More than once I overheard people saying "eres un crack" which of course translates as "you're mighty craic."

Pointless scultures dotted throughout our cities - It's a toss up between Dublin's Spire, a.k.a. The Stilleto in the Ghetto and Oviedo's Arse.

Men wearing skirts - This is an interesting one. Invented by the Irish to show the lengths the Scots and Asturianos will go to in order to plagarise Irish culture (officially skirt-wearing has never been considered cool in Ireland).

Ca Beleño is the place to go in Oviedo if you're looking for some live Asturian music. Well actually, I only found canned Irish music of the Wolftones variety, but sources close to me inform me that Asturian Music can be found here. Calle Jovellanos is a street littered with cider houses where the locals pour bottles of cider from above their heads into their glasses. It appears that it is some genetic defect that allows Asturianos to do this with minimum spillage. Does anybody have statistics on the amount of cider wasted/spilled in Asturias per annum (I'm talking to you Luis)?

Gijón is a seaside town, with a seaside town feel...funny that, eh? El elogio del horizonte (eulogy to the horizon), a modern-looking sculpture that resonates the sound of the sea when you stand inside it, is worth a visit if only for its beautiful vista of the sea, although my highlight was the pizzeria beside the town centre...mmmmmmmmmm!

Why Spain needs English teachers (Part 2)

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-03-30T13:02:14+01:00

Evolution according to Guinness

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-02-22T15:34:17+00:00

Franco speaks in English

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2007-01-19T12:22:48+00:00

If ever one needed to justify the need for English teachers in Spain, heres a good reason.

Switzerland

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2006-12-17T19:44:25+00:00

Switzerland is a country with an identity crisis. The country is landlocked; it is hemmed in on all sides by Germany, Italy, France, Austria and Liechtenstein. Culturally speaking, the country is a Frankenstein's monster of all its neighbours. To further confound the situation there are no less than four official languages, none of which is English although most people seem to speak it (get your head around that one my monolingual friends). Furthermore, if like me you learned German many moons ago don't fool yourself into thinking that you'll understand anything because Swiss German is more Swiss than it is German.

One of the first things I noticed upon arriving was the copious amount of Czech cars on the roads. To the chagrin of my unwitting self-delusion I discovered that CH in fact stands for Confoederatio Helvetica, the latin name for Switzerland, not the Czech Republic. I guess they couldn't come to a consensus among the four languages when they were naming the country. We could use the same naming convention in the Ireland and it would keep both Protestants and Catholics (oh and also the Muslims, Buddhists, Mormons, the Latter Day Church of Michael Collins, etc.) happy. "Viva Hibernia!"

The biggest culture shock of all was the exorbitant price of everything. Almost €6.50 for a pint of Carlsberg. What a shower of bloodsucking tight-fisted bastards. Oh, wait a second, now that I think of it, that was in an Irish bar. It's surprising that you don't see more Irish pub-owners alongside the likes of Roman Abramovich and the other 31 Russians (can somebody explain to me why this is?) that made it into the Forbes 2005 richest people in the world.

For those of you who revel in the acquisition of useless information, seemingly every homeless person in Switzerland has two dogs. The government give out allowances for taking care of dogs (the limit being two). The only thing was that I didn't see a single homeless person there, ergo Switzerland is an expensive country.

Continuing with the topic of useless information, I found out there is a gun in almost every home. Military service is compulsory in Switzerland, which certainly begs the question to be asked "why the hell is conscription obligatory in a neutral country like Switzerland?" Are they exporting Swiss Guards to the Vatican in bulk? Is it just the equivalent of our very own Free Clothes Association (before anyone denounces my lack of patriotism I ask you to tell me what FCA really stands for without looking it up). I would like to inform my American readers, the Irish FCA does not refer to the Farm Credit Association, although it could easily be argued otherwise.

Cheese fondue is the Swiss equivalent of an Irish breakfast. Not only is it a national (I use the term "national" loosely here) institution but also meets the prerequisite of being a heart-attack in a dish.One of things that surprised me was that for being a country renowned for its chocolate, the concept of a chocolate fondue doesn't exist here. The paradox of all paradoxes.

On my last night in Lucerne I went to a mega-disco on the outskirts of the city. Now, I'm not one to judge crowds but there had to have been the entire population of Longford there, figuratively speaking of course. To all the nay-sayers from the Big Smoke and contrary to popular opinion this number does in fact amount to a five-figure sum. The entire complex was full up with internationally-themed bars and what I can only describe as props left over from the last Britney Spears world tour.The music ranged from hardcore techno to traditional Swiss pop. There was even a half hour set from three geezers dressed a la Scream thumping it out on the drums. At this stage the contradictions shouldn't come as any more of a surprise to you than they did to me.

If you come to Switzerland looking for the mountains, lakes and Heidi-style houses you'll find them here a plenty. On the other hand, if you come looking for yodelling and people dressed like those in the picture I'm afraid they only exist on the internet (thanks Wikipedia). For all its quirkiness Switzerland is definitely worth a visit. In fact I would say that is part of its charm.

The latest

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2006-09-14T08:48:54+01:00

Howya all!
I'm back in Burgos once again...and this time indefinintely. Since I've talked to ye last, I've found a job teaching at a language academy called Metropolitan and also managed to get myself an apartment; it just happens to be just across the street from my academy. Happy days! Besides that, I'm trying to find time to work in the human evolution lab. All going well I'll be officially starting my doctorate next month. I've been spending the last few months filling out endless documents, forms, applications, making translations of academic material and generally pulling my hair out, but I'm sure it's worth all the effort! Take care!

Atapuerca 2006

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2006-08-04T13:11:49+01:00

After over a month of dormancy I've got around to updating the website with photos from Atapuerca. Over the next few weeks I'm gonna try and keep the Atapuerca section updated with new photos. What can I say about the field season this year; a long, exhausting, but thoroughly enjoyable month of work hard, play hard!

Cuenca

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2006-05-06T12:18:31+01:00

During the bank holiday weekend I took a trip to Cuenca. The old part of the city was built on the cliffs of a gorge, and it is famous for its casas colgadas (hanging houses), which are precariously suspended off the edge of a precipice. The city's gothic Cathedral with its deceptively incomplete facade is among the most impressive in Spain. As usual, photos can be seen in the España section of the website.

Ávila

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2006-04-29T01:05:11+01:00

On Easter Sunday myself and a mate Loïc took a daytrip to Ávila; an impressive walled city in the mountains on the outskirts of Madrid. I've posted pictures under the photos tab.

Salamanca

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2006-04-17T20:14:35+01:00

Last week I was on holidays for Easter Week, so I decided to go to Salamanca for a few days. The city is a sightseers dream with a heap of places of interest to visit. The buildings of the city are built from sandstone with intricate designs adorning their facades. If you can find the frog amongst the mind-boggling university building motif it's supposed to bring good luck. I'd describe the experience of searching for the frog as somewhere between trying to figure out one of those 3-D pictures and trying to find Wally (or Waldo depending where you come from)! The entire time that I was in the city there were Easter Week processions through the nights. This experience I'd describe as a St. Patrick's Day parade meets a KKK rally! I'll post some video when I've some more free time. In the meantime you can check out the photos in the "España" section of the website.

Flook!

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2006-04-17T20:05:10+01:00

On the 5th of April I finally got to see Flook play in concert, in Sala Sol here in Madrid. As expected it was a rocking concert, with a ton of improvisation and a lot of tunes from their new CD "Haven." I met a bunch of other Irish banjo players who are living in Benidorm and came up for the concert. Us banjo players are like magnets for each other (and I'm not quite sure if it is such a good thing!).

Weekenders in Madrid

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2006-03-13T20:30:03+00:00

A typical weekend in Madrid begins around ten o'clock when you meet up with your mates to go for dinner (yes, this is the normal dinner time here!). At around midnight you head to the bars for some scoops. At around 1 or 2 a.m. things begin to really get started, which leaves you in a bit of a dilema since the metro shuts down between 1:30 and 6:30. So, you usually end up doing what most Madrid folk do; partying until the madrugada (wee hours). At around 4 a.m. the clubs begin to fill up. Clubs here, on the whole tend to be a trendy affair, so it helps to have connections that can get you free passes for the night. Once the metro opens back up in the morning people start streaming back to their homes, but not before first stopping for an overpriced snack from the Asian vendors on the street corners or chancing some cafés opening for business. A Saturday morning metro ride home tends to be an interesting sight; with the unorthodox mix of bleary-eyed partiers commingled among the button-neck suits on their way to the office.
During the weekend half of Madrid descends on Retiro Park; Madrid's answer to Central Park. The beauty of Retiro is that it has something for everyone. If you are seeking respite from the thumping sensation inside your head, caused by an excessive amount of enjoyment the night before, you can soak up the fresher air. On the other hand if you are in celebratory denial you can join the group of partiers down by the lakeside gyrating to the sounds of some fifty South American drummers. And at some stage in all this mayhem you manage to find time for some sleep!

Palacio Real

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2006-03-03T16:33:23+00:00

On Wednesday I went to the the Royal Palace here in Madrid after classes. Wednesday has the added benefit of being free entry for all E.U. citizens (if you happen to be Swiss, American, or Icelandic your s.o.l.). The palace itself is impressive but can be a bit of a pain trying to dodge the guided tours that tend to crowd the narrow hallways, but all the same worth the money! I have posted some pics in the España section. I've once again changed the theme of the website. Boredom will make you do such things. This weekend I am gonna see what other free activities I can seek out in Madrid. Later!

Prado

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2006-02-19T21:00:17+00:00

Today, I checked out the Prado Museum, upon the strong recommendation of one of my students. I was not disappointed. Both quality and quantity are two words that come to mind. The collection is massive, and it'll take a number of visits to truly appreciate the vastness of paintings. I don't claim to be an expert by any stretch of the imagination but I know what I like and don't like when it comes to art. For me, the standout exhibition has to be Goya's Pinturas Negras (Black Paintings), so called for both his portrayal of the underbelly of society and for the sparse use of light. I included some of my favourites in the "España" section of the website. I've hopefully fixed the links for the personal webpages. If anyone wants me to add their sites to the links pages just drop me an email. ¡Hasta pronto!

Spain Again!

ciaranweb@mac.com — 2006-02-13T19:49:18+00:00

After much procrastination (and nagging...you know who you are) this site has finally been updated. Some of the most notable changes are the change in the appearance of the site, the removal of the (extremely) out-of-date Eircom League table, and the removal of the contact page which never worked anyhow. For those of who don't know, I'm working in Madrid as an English teacher. I'm enjoying teaching the subtleties of the English language such as the meaning of the word "craic", the difference between the words "beach" and "bitch", and the typical idiomatic Irish phrase "does be"! I am living a 10 minute bus ride from the Atletico Madrid stadium. And while I'm on the subject, did anyone see the 6-1 trashing Real Madrid got at the hands of Zaragoza last week. Specatular to say the least. I'm a twenty minute metro ride from the academy where I work and another fifteen minutes from where I teach. I'm also taking Spanish classes, which I get for free from my academy. Nice, huh? The classes themselves are pretty interesting. Spanish can be a fairly difficult language to understand, but try and understand Spanish spoken by French, German, Austrian, Swiss, Italian and Russian classmates. Goodluck! Beyond that I'm working on editing my thesis for publication. I've set a deadline of March 16th to submit it. We'll see how that works out. This weekend I had the opportunity to visit Segovia; an hour-and-a-half bus ride outside of the city. I can say without doubt that it is the most beautiful city I've every seen (sorry Erie!). I've started a section on the website about Spain, which will include facts, pictures and stories from here. If you click on the tab for Spain and then click on the sub-tabs I've posted pictures from this weekend's day trip to Segovia. ¡Hasta luego!