Assemblage

The second ‘On the Line’ or as we’ll call it until someone suggests better – Assemblage (it’s got archaeological meaning but no environmental meaning – so it’s not right yet – please help) is below. We’d also like to draw people’s attention to a request from a reader with regards to the Irish Civil War which we received over the weekend.

Thomas Monaghan’s father was in the free state army. Thomas has a photograph of him in uniform and when he went to reframe it he found a note on the back saying: “Michael Monahan Born in Cappataggle on the 23 may 1903, joined the Pat (?) army Sept. 1922, discharged from same March 1924. Photo taken in Clarmorris nov 1923″. Thomas understands that he joined up in Dublin, was sent to Fenit, Co Kerry and then marched all the way to Castle McGarrett, Co.Mayo where he was Quastermaster. Tom would welcome any information by email to monahansr@comcast.net

So to the ‘assemblage’…. First off, an assemblage is an archaeological term meaning a group of different artefacts found in association with one another, that is, in the same context (Wiki). The context here is our surfing and all things archaeological, environmental and ancient beer (or drugs) related.

This time round our attention was drawn to Network Nature which has the 103rd edition of the Tangled Bank Blog Carnival

As Cath Ennis describes the Tangled Bank (and blog carnivals in general) – It’s ‘One of the broadest blog carnivals around, it is named after Charles Darwin’s famous metaphor and features articles from across the fields of science and medicine. Reading a carnival gives you access to posts you might never stumble across by yourself; contributing to a carnival brings your work to a whole new audience.’

As our regular readers will know, one of our principle research interests is the archaeology of intoxicants – mostly ancient ale/beer. Intoxicants have been part of society from earliest times. So, our interest is not entirely confined to alcohol. It’s with that in mind that we note in Wired the death of Albert Hoffman, the inventor of LSD. Hoffman originally began studying the use of several plants and fungi for use in the pharmaceutical industry and synthesised LSD in 1938. Hoffman first synthesized LSD-25 in 1938 but it was later, in 1943, while re-synthesizing it, he accidentally absorbed a small quantity through his fingertips and serendipitously discovered its powerful effects before his bicycle ride home……

Via Mulley we came across John Smyth’s blog. Smyth is a Galway based photographer and posts some great shots on his blog.

Here’s an interesting post about mapping and biblical archaeology from Tyndaletech via ancientworldbloggers.

From infoactivism on animal agriculture/factory farming and on a related note a film screened recently on More Four.

Given our economic woes here’s how to build your own low impact eco-home…

And, finally for now, Jazz biscuit on binge drinking and alcohol in Ireland – which we’ll post more on shortly – and more on the same subject from Turbulence ahead.

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