Books of Dublin

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Dublin, Ireland’s capital city, is a popular travel destination for a myriad of reasons. But for book lovers and bibliophiles Dublin is synonymous with great literature and a must visit for its renowned libraries, amazing antiquarian and indie bookshops and rich literary heritage. Dublin was even named a UNESCO City of Literature in 2010.

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Now there’s a wonderful new, free app called Books of Dublin which reveals the hidden treasures of the city’s historic libraries. It features fascinating insights into some of Ireland’s greatest literary treasures and includes video commentary by leading scholars.

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Books of Dublin focuses primarily on the truly magical Marsh’s Library, which is situated close by St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Unchanged for more than three centuries, the perfectly preserved library houses more than 25,000 rare books in original oak bookcases.

I’m hoping that the updates of Books of Dublin app will include the fabulous Chester Beatty Library, the National Library of Ireland, and of course the stunning Trinity College Old Library. But it’s a great start.

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Adieu to all that

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Those of us from the pre-Internet Age fondly remember the joys of a great set of encyclopedias. Before the web if you needed to know about cuneiform writing or what the capital of Namibia was, you turned to the Encyclopedia Britannica, World Book or Funk and Wagnalls.

When the iconic Encyclopedia Britannica ceased publication after 244 years, book artist Guy Laramée began his Adieu project to pay tribute to the great books. Utilizing a full 24 volume set, he created a fantastic landscape ranging from mountains to grasslands to desert. I think that encyclopedia fans will agree that Adieu is an extraordinary salute to a lost literary institution.

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Monkeys on a Plane

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During the 1950s,60s and 70s, Danish painter and illustrator Otto Nielsen produced a treasury of marvelous illustrations for periodicals, books, travel guides and advertising posters. He is well known for his wonderful posters for Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, but some of his best work was done for Scandinavian Airlines System. One of Nielsen’s finest series for SAS was based on animals found at the airline’s destination countries. I recently ran across a few for sale.

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Fly Air Tahiti

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English: Air Tahiti Nui A340-300 F-OSUN departing LAX (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you have ever wondered what your airline flight looks like from the perspective of the pilots and crew, you will enjoy this amazing video of an Air Tahiti Nui flight. The behind-the-scenes, non-commercial film project was created by a group of airline staff to celebrate Air Tahiti Nui’s 15th anniversary and was shot primarily with GoPro cameras. The video was edited by Matthieu Courtois. Take a peek:

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London Underground

Way back in 2013, the London Underground marked its 150th anniversary, and to celebrate the historic event the UK’s Institute of Civil Engineers released this impressive short film, “Engineering the London Underground”. The compelling little documentary highlights just how revolutionary the Tube really is. If you are as much of a public transport geek as I am, you’ll be riveted.

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Books vs Films

The British book selection website Lovereading has created an interesting infographic called, “The Ultimate Showdown: Books Vs. Films”, which asks the question, “which is better the book or the film?” for popular films based on books for the past twenty-two years. The graphic covers an aggregate of reviews for both books and movies and compares perceptions of which is better. It’s not always an easy choice, but I usually lean towards the book.

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New Year’s Day is Always Kafkaesque

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comic by Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

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Last Check-in 2013

Facebook recently released this infographic on the top 25 location “check-ins” on Facebook in 2013. Is it sad that 4 of the top 25 check-ins were at Disney theme parks? Many of the other locales were predictable tourist hot-spots—Piazza San Marco in Venice, Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Taksim Square in Istambul. But the biggest surprise on this list is that Germany’s top check-in this year was on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn; how sleezy is that.

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Spend New Year’s Eve in Times Square

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No matter where you are around the globe you can spend this New Year’s Eve in New York City. The free Times Square Official New Year’s Eve Ball App 2014 will allow you to follow the festivities, listen to the live musical performances, watch live streaming video feeds and watch the famous Waterford crystal ball drop. You can get the app here or at the event website.

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Holiday Lights

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Last month my favorite Spanish street art collective Luzinterruptus installed their Consumerist Christmas Tree in Durham, England as part of the annual Lumiere Festival. To construct the nearly 30 foot tall tree, the group asked local residents to donate plastic bags in exchange for cloth ones. In addition to the 3,000 bag anti-consumerist tree, the collective, along with volunteer artists, created colorful garlands with hundreds more bags to hang across the streets around Prince Bishops Plaza.

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What a neat way to raise concerns about holiday consumerism and the environmental threats from plastic bags at the same time.

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all photos courtesy of Gustavo Sanabria

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