Ailsa Craig

Image: Ailsa Craig, this photo is available to licence on EyeEm.

#402

Friday, January 17, 2025

In This Edition:
Indoor air humidity, your driving & switching to electric, eco design of digital services, Moon physics, & how mountains are measured!

The recent closure of Holyhead at Christmas resulted in a rerouted trip to Scotland, with the added bonus for me of seeing and photographing Ailsa Craig. Whenever Ailsa Craig comes up, I always tell people about this great folktale from the book The Fabled Coast.

Tickling a giantess

Ailsa Craig is a towering volcanic rock in the Firth of Clyde, rising 1,114 foot above sea level. Like other isolated sea-crags, it was said to have been dropped in place by the Devil, or, in a more detailed and dirtier legend, by the Cailleach, an ancient Gaelic goddess. The Cailleach of Arran liked to eat sailors, and to catch them she would stand astride Loch Fyne, legs wide apart, her great left foot planted in Carrick on Bute, and her great right foot more than thirty miles away on Kilmorey, Knapdale. Whenever a ship tried to pass she would drop stones on them to sink them, and then pick the men out of the water and pop them in her mouth.

One day a French captain wanted to sail that way, and saw her waiting with an immense rock to drop on his ship. Being an artful fellow, 'by a very adroit handling of his mizzen-mast he tickled her in the obvious place that you would expect a Frenchman to tickle a woman.' The Cailleach screeched and dropped the rock, and that was Ailsa Craig.

The story was recorded in 1962 from Alexander Archibald, a Prestwick policeman, who in turn had heard it from a Ballantrae fisherman. It was not a unique idea that somebody could escape from a giantess by tickling her, although tales including this motif are not generally so precise about which bit of the giantess gets tickled.

Indoor Air Humidity

Image: RTÉ

A SmartLab project in Limerick that installed air sensors in 70 buildings found that humidity readings were 60% over the threshold more than half the time. This RTÉ article includes recommendations on how to reduce indoor dampness.

Source:

Your Driving & Switching To Electric

Image: TCD

Trinity College Dublin's School of Engineering TRACT project released an app that allows you to track your driving habits and get custom recommendations that match to benefits of switching to an electric vehicle.

Eco Design of Digital Services

Image: Arcep

Arcep published a useful General Policy Framework For The Eco Design of Digital Services, sorted by priority and difficulty.

Source:

Moon Physics

Image: Bartosz Ciechanowski

Bartosz Ciechanowski published a monster post describing the physics behind the celestial movement of the moon, complete with interactive visual demonstrators.

How Mountains Are Measured

Image: YouTube, Encyclopedia Britannica

This video by Encyclopedia Britannica gives a short description about how mountains can be measured differently.

About Found This Week

Found This Week is a curated blog of interesting posts, articles, links and stories in the world of technology, science and life in general.
Each edition is curated by Daryl Feehely every Friday and highlights cool stuff found each week.
The first 104 editions were published on Medium before this site was created, check out the archive here.

Daryl Feehely

I’m a web consultant, contract web developer, technical project manager & photographer originally from Cork, now based in Liverpool. I offer my clients strategy, planning & technical delivery services, remotely & in person. I also offer freelance CTO services to companies in need of technical bootstrapping or reinvention. If you think I can help you in your business, check out my details on http://darylfeehely.com

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