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How Odd

Submitted by Ciarán on Tue, 14/08/2007 - 10:01

How strange. I set up a Google Alert thingy last week for any news on Irish Credit Unions. So, I get an alert this morning telling me about Hyndman et al's Accountability: A Study of Credit Unions.

Now, this book is available directly from Oak Tree Press for €45, including shipping. It's available for £31 from Amazon (including their £1.99 sourcing fee), which is about €46, or for £18.99/€27 incl postage from one of their marketplace sellers.

But the page Google directed me to belongs to some group in the Guinness Enterprise Centre in Dublin called Research and Markets. They sell the book for the same price as Oak Tree Press: €40. What I find intriguing, though, is the €50 'handling and shipping fee.'

I dare not ask what sort of handling the book would receive but I assume it involves tongues.

Pages and Pints

Submitted by isabel on Wed, 21/03/2007 - 23:39

The afternoon today was spent at the British Library Roadshow at which they demonstrated their rather brilliant Turning the Pages project and software. This technology has been used to create virtual books online by photographing each page of an old book and dropping the jpgs into an online book template.

The Roadshow was held at the Guinness Hopstore and participants were treated to a tour of the premises afterwards. The tour is informative and fun and culminates at the viewing area at the top of the building.

A few items of information on Guinness follow based on what I heard today:

Arthur Guinness inherited £100 from his godfather, a clergyman who dabbled in brewing. He used this money to set himself up in Leixlip before locating to a four acre site at St James's Gate (on which an earlier brewing operation existed).

Ale - Porter - Stout corresponds to Strong - Stronger - Strongest.

There are 5 breweries for Guinness in the world. The second biggest after Ireland is in Nigeria. Nigerian Guinness is a much stronger beast apparently.

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