Axis Ballymun released a fantastic love-letter to the Irish Langauge this week, written and performed by Roxanna Nic Liam. Siúcra elegantly addresses the tension many Irish people experience when it comes to Gaeilge.
BBC Winterwatch is back this week & next on BBC Two at 8pm every night from Tues to Fri. aside from being a fascinating and enjoyable hour long TV show about nature and animals during Winter, they also have a set of live wildlife cameras viewable online from 10am to 10pm each day. Make sure to check out the 15-20 thousand starlings roosting at night under Aberystwyth pier!
I really came to appreciate music as being the nectar for the soul during lockdown. It also helped that lots of Irish artists picked up the pandemic and ran away with it in terms of fantastic releases and streamed performances. There were so many great streams and the Journal of Music still do a great job at colating everything in their weekly concert planner (which you can subscribe to here).
Working with researchers from TU Eindhoven, the Swinkels Family Brewers in The Netherlands are the first to employ at scale the burning of Iron as a renewable fuel. Finely ground iron powder burns cleanly at high temperatures and produces iron oxide (rust) as its only emission. Best of all, this rust can be reenrgised back in to iron powder using electricity, for use as a combustable source of energy again!
Virgin Hyperloop conducted its first test with passengers. Virgin Hyperloop co-founder Josh Giegel and Director of Passenger Experience Sara Luchian were the first to travel on the 500 meter long test track at 387kmph.