Allan Cavanagh's Irish Coffee of Wonder
Things learned this week about the nation of Ireland;
Ireland is dedicated to introducing the burning white heat of technology to every step of the tourist experience. Thus, Minister Mary Hanifan’s announcement this week of grants provided for projects combining culture and technology. €1,064,000 in all was given out to 27 projects- most of them national cultural institutions. Most of them are relatively modest plans to develop iPhone apps and websites, funded to the tune of about €30k.
But by quite some distance, the largest grant was given to the Foynes Flying Boat Museum for the “Installation of a Pepper Ghost show tracing the history and development of Irish coffee for flying boat passengers at Foynes using “Musion” Technology- 3D Hologram”.
The total amount of public money granted for this ‘Innovative use of emerging technologies’?
Why, a snip at €180,000. That’s 17% of the entire money pot in one go.
And what kind of emerging technology is a Pepper’s Ghost show? Only the cutting edge of stage illusions of the Victorian Age!
UPDATE: As Musion, the provider of the ghost effect say that one costs “up to $20,000” we can only presume the plan is to provide the nation with nine hologram Irish Coffees.
You might be wondering how important the Foynes Flying Boat Museum is to the nation, to scoop the funding pot of cultural grant money like this. Well, fie to you, ignoramous! So vital is the Flying Boat in the country’s future (as well as its past) that the Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey TD appointed the Museum’s director to the National Transport Authority.
woo
5 Comments
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Simon McGarr, J G Byrne. J G Byrne said: RT @Tupp_Ed: New Tuppenceworth.ie blog post: "Flying Boats, public money and Irish Coffees" http://bit.ly/bXrEAe […]
I believe you are being a little unfair.
This technology has been used by no lesser a global leader as Disney in thrill rides.
Ok, so those rides opened 2 decades ago. That’s a minor detail.
The reality is that this cutting edge technology dates from as recently as 1862. (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper's_ghost)
Ok. So maybe the cutting edge comes into things if people drop the sheet of glass that makes the hologram happen and sharp bits fall on the floor.
€180k is a lot of cash for glass. Maybe they should have sought donations from the guys who own Manchester United. They’re rich Glazers.
Musion – cutting edge? Don’t make me laugh. They have been peddling their fake holograms around forever.
They charge huge sums for bouncing projections off plastic films because they managed to get a patent for it!
so Musion and their Pepper’s Ghost tech are back in the news after it was used to reanimate dead rapper Tupac during this year’s Coachella festival: http://www.broadsheet.ie/2012/04/18/how-the-tupac-hologram-worked/
I recently cast-off this locality to lay one’s hands on heating services , and I couldn’t be happier with the results. The search was straightforward, and I appreciated the detailed profiles and bloke reviews for each contractor. It made comparing options and reading about other clients’ experiences easy. The contractors I contacted were coax, trained, and offered competitive quotes. This locality is a alien resource seeing that anyone needing reliable territory form services. Enthusiastically recommended as a replacement for its simple interface and worth listings!