notes.husk.org

prostheticknowledge: Rare Cloud-Free Satellite Image of the...

Wed, 30 May 2012 02:44:16 +0100

Rare Cloud-Free Satellite Image of the UK

Taken 26/05/12. Full resolution version can be found here

Previously in British Isles From Space: cloud free, 26th March (so, not quite that rare, eh?); snowed in, 7th January 2011.

Eastern North Atlantic at Night, from the International Space...

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 08:08:00 +0100

Eastern North Atlantic at Night, from the International Space Station, 28 March 2012. Photograph: André Kuipers. (Posted to Flickr by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, via iamdanw.)

Great Britain and Ireland by NASA Goddard Photo and Video on...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:50:00 +0100

Great Britain and Ireland by NASA Goddard Photo and Video on Flickr:

This nearly cloud-free view of Great Britain and Ireland was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite on March 26, 2012. Just a few days into spring, most of the land appears green, although not quite as brilliant as the summertime hues that give Ireland the nickname “the Emerald Island”.

London can be seen as a gray circle situated inland on the tan-colored River Thames.

Photograph: NASA/GSFC/Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team. Enlarged. via iamdanw. See also: British Isles under snow.

Irish newspaper advert, from December 1979 (via)

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:46:19 +0000

Irish newspaper advert, from December 1979 (via)

"After decades of fear, death and destruction in Northern Ireland, neither side wants to return to..."

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:35:52 +0100

“After decades of fear, death and destruction in Northern Ireland, neither side wants to return to those bad old days, but we’ll see — a new generation raised on hatred might not remember those days so well.”

- David Byrne, quoted by jim in austin.

I found the original piece to be full of simplifications (if I’m feeling generous; mistakes at worst). For example, it’s very bad on the history of the Reformation; the Ulster Protestants tend to be immigrants from Scotland, not England (and he’s poor on the chronology: a lot of that was in the 17th century), and the Troubles started with civil rights marches before the bombings really got going.

I’m uncomfortable with his conclusion, too. “In some ways the legality of the government here is hard to dispute” really does a disservice to a system designed to enforce consensus and ensure that, in a divided state, the executive has the support of well over two thirds of all voters.