Ray McCarthy / is on Nostr

Former Electronics, Software & Communications Engineer now a full time writer.
Living in the Mid-West of Ireland.

Last Notes

2024-11-19 23:01:48

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@nprofile…fle4
Curiously Bing's nearly 70 year old record of 50 Million "White Christmas" maybe hasn't been broken?
About 5 years ago I was trying to figure out if our house would be above sea level if all the ice melts.
I think it will be fine but lacking main road access. Obviously most of Ireland cities would be underwater, being sited at estuaries or mouths of rivers.
Ending -ford in Irish placenames is from fjord. Waterford, Strangford
Bel- prefix is Beal=mouth(of river) Belfast. Tra- strand.

2024-11-19 17:38:43

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@nprofile…d0dx
I must try some of my other actual Olympus lenses, not just the Miranda zoom (which is actually useful zoom range for video).
We have a 55″ 4K HDR semi-matt screen to view, but my son was suggesting I should get some prints. I had photo quality inkjets from about 1994 to 2004, then the quality went down.
I might look at some of the 6 colour tank based A3+ printers if not using a service.

2024-11-18 13:59:10

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@nprofile…d0dx
I've an old Dixion's Miranda zoom on my Canon EOS 70D via an Olympus adaptor (I had it for my OM10, which I still have). Only manual focus and aperture. I've also a stupidly cheap manual 800mm/1600mm.
I grew up with manual focus. I did my own B&W processing for years, last time was in 1986 using a slide projector as an enlarger.
I got Photo CD (not Picture CDs) from the OM10 shots. Then stopped when that go too dear.
Happy with the low running cost of the EOS 70D (S/H bargain).

2024-06-12 07:30:55

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@npub1sdk…0kgj There are other reasons to avoid Facebook and Instagram.

2024-06-12 07:30:55

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@npub1sdk…0kgj There are other reasons to avoid Facebook and Instagram.

2024-02-28 15:02:42

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@npub1sdk…0kgj
InDesign is ancient & expensive DTP intended for paper and then PDF. Fudged for ebooks. Unless you are corporate and doing magazines and complex paper text books and newspapers it's a millstone.

2024-01-24 17:13:54

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@npub1sdk…0kgj Is there much currently published non-fiction ebooks or PDF, especially textbooks anywhere that's DRM free?
Very evil with families and Schools that only use texts on Apple iPad and zero paper books. Several schools here. It ought to be illegal, where 'it' covers several issues.

2024-01-21 18:24:10

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@npub1zdz…tl8u I was surprised in my researches that the Mediterranean for a long time only had the Etrog (aka Citron/Persian Apple).
Oranges, lemons and grapefruit are all various crosses between the Etrog and small Chinese Mandarin orange. Also strawberries small like Alpin till crossed with North American ones.
No Oranges and Lemons for ancient Romans. They did import Indian Long pepper (not a chilli) but not ginger.

2024-01-21 09:48:09

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@npub1sdk…0kgj
For those that haven't been following this:
Sellner’s concept is eerily reminiscent of the Nazi’s 1940 plan to deport four million Jews to the island of Madagascar.
…
the organisers of the event chose a location less than 8 kilometres away from the villa where the Wannsee Conference took place – the meeting where the Nazis coordinated the systematic extermination of the Jews.
Exposed:
https://correctiv.org/en/top-stories/2024/01/15/secret-plan-against-germany/
See also 'The War Against the Jews' by Lucy Dawidowicz

2023-11-06 12:39:18

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@npub1qep…hklj
They'd be treated repectfully. There is a reason the Sidhe in Ireland, Scotland and Wales were called the Good Neighbours, or the Good People.
Prejudice to red-heads was and is an English thing. Never in Ireland or Scotland were it's more common.

2023-10-23 12:38:38

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@npub1sdk…0kgj
I think Washington Irving "mined" a lot of folktales brought to New York by Dutch (or sometimes Germans).
Rip Van Winkle as well as Sleepy Hollow.
Then now there is Disney, a serial wrecker of folktales and plagiariser. Washington Irving wasn't so bad in comparison.

2023-10-18 15:10:24

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@npub108x…8n99 That's what orange rain does.
Been wet here nr. Limerick, but not that bad.

2023-10-11 09:42:30

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@npub1sdk…0kgj @npub1zdz…tl8u
Example is Patricia Monaghan (d 2012), USA creator of "The Encyclopedia of Celtic Myth and Folklore" sometimes quoted and cited by Wikipedia. Seems bonkers.
Maybe less accurate than Robert Graves "The White Goddess" (mostly fiction)
"The Golden Bough" is less dubious and Campbell's "Hero Journey" is simply picking a few stories & ignoring most.
Check quality of citations that they are not as Pratchett explains!

2023-10-11 09:27:46

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@npub15gu…59k9 @npub1sdk…0kgj @npub1ce4…ecc3 @npub1ku6…5t4e
I suspect not. True for Asia, and also Greek & Roman "nymphs" (Dryads) can be associated with particular trees, but I've never seen a similar association in Celtic, Norse and Germanic stories.
Celtic traditions seem to associate entities with in habiting particular mountains, ancient megalithic sites/tombs, rivers and wells. Not just Insular Celts, but mainland Europe too as far as Northern Turkey.

2023-10-11 09:17:57

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@npub1sdk…0kgj @npub1zdz…tl8u
Variable quality folklore collections probably true for most periods of time and countries since 19th C.
Also I hate so-called encyclopedias of myth, legend or folklore where the author seems to be making up a lot of stuff and no sources listed (late 20th C.). Should be sold as modern fiction.

2023-08-21 14:51:16

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@npub1fwl…6a65
Troublemakers get thrown off the cliff top?
Maybe shouldn't be too much alcohol?

2023-08-21 14:51:16

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@npub1fwl…6a65
Troublemakers get thrown off the cliff top?
Maybe shouldn't be too much alcohol?

2023-07-24 14:54:03

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@npub17u8…uhnv China