Read on to find out more about the amazing App you can buy in the iTunes App store and all of the fantastic things you can do with the show. Not only that, but you can get the shownotes in PDF form to read inside the app, downloadable wallpaper for each episode to use in your iPhone and some extra audio contact on selected episodes! Read on or go straight to the iTunes Store.

If you own an iPhone or an iPod Touch, you now have the opportunity to get the show in a really convenient way and with extras that are unavailable elsewhere! This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow App on your iPhone or iPod Touch.You’re always connected to the latest episode. Instant access, just touch and play! The App cost is set at a minimum cost of $1.99 or £1.19 if you are in the UK. We’ll try and take you through the App screens and show you some of the amazing features available….

Latest Episode Page

* Streaming access to play episode from anywhere * Always updated with the latest episodes- and an archived back catalog * Download the episodes and play them when offline * Playback resume (when interrupted by a call or other distraction) You don’t have to download the episode to listen to it. You can stream the shows or download them for offline listening. When the App opens, the screen to the right will always show you the latest episode. You can see 5 buttons, the first of which, the Episodes button, will bring you to the Episodes page..

Archives Episode Page

* Favorites (mark the episodes you want to return back to over and over) All of the episodes avaialable are listed here from the latest episode going back to the eareliest. The cool thing is that you can mark an episode as favourite (the little yellow star) so that you can save all your favourite episodes in one place. When you select a show and mark it as favourite you can choose to just mark it or download it from there. Then the star you have added is marked with a circle around it.

Contact Page

* Quick access to all the contact methods for the show From here you acan send us an email, come and have alook at the website (all inside the App), follow us on Twitter or come along and have a look at our Facebook fan page and talk to us there! You can even Report a problem if the App doesn’t perform like it should do.

Episodes Extras Page

From here you can download all sorts of Extras for each episode, and as time goes on we’ll be adding more and more. Keep an eye on the Facebook Fan Page where we’ll let you know whenever something new is added! As an added bonus, you get bonus stuff! * Downloadable Wallpaper for your iPhone / iPod Touch * Shownotes PDF viewable in App * Access to exclusive bonus content * Email the show your questions and comments * Follow the show on Twitter (Please note, not all features are available for all episodes.)

Anno 1670, not far from Cirencester, was an apparition; being demanded whether a good spirit or a bad? returned no answer, but disappeared with a curious perfume and a most melodious twang. Mr W. Lilly believes it was a fairy.

John Aubrey

I did not go to see the exhibition of Victorian fairy paintings at the Royal Academy of Arts (Nov 1997 to Feb 1998). Nor, so far, have I seen Nick Willing’s 1997 ‘adult thriller’ film entitled Photographing Fairies – not to be confused with a different film starring Peter O’Toole that was inspired by the so-called Cottingley fairies Edwardian trick photographs. However, I am aware that all these projects have led to something of a glut of fairy fare in the media. The Fairy Ring and the National Fairy Appreciation Society (disbanded in 1998) both report booming interest. So it seems entirely appropriate to devote a major part of this issue of At the Edge to looking in more detail at fairies and related phenomena.

But this begs a few definitions – such as ‘What are fairies?’ and ‘What is the difference between fairies and goblins, pixies, brownies, elves, gnomes, elementals and a whole host of other ‘little folk’?’ And, as if the answers to these two questions aren’t tricky enough, what is the difference between fairies (and their ilk) and a whole range of other fleetingly-seen ‘supernatural’ events such as ghosts, will o’the wisps, earthlights, or even – and the similarities are greater than you might think – UFOs and ‘alien abductions’? In this article I will attempt to answer these three questions, although it might be better to say that I will be looking less at the differences between them than drawing attention to the close similarities. Continue Reading »

Originally posted 2008-04-05 14:35:03. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Gnome Travels Pic: Wayne Rosbrook

A wonderful Facebook group has just beens started to promote the idea that Gnomes, or Earth Fey, are repsonsible for the Laws of Physics as we have observed them. The wise scientists will know that the concept of Physical Law is based only on Empirical Observastion and experimentation, but it is only a model – that is to say, an educated guess. Those that are fortunate enough to observe the workings of the Fey have spotted that the Laws are created by the workings of industrious Gnomes! The vigilant Facebook group have set up a Gnomepedia to collect the information that theyhave observed and have been able to make some of the following conclusions:

We believe that all the main physics principles can be explained away by the existence of tiny gnomes.

Electricity:

Inside cables there are hundreds of tiny gnomes ‘high-fiving’ each other and running around swapping messages. This transfer of messages allows things to work, e.g. the gnomes in a plug socket tell the gnomes in the wire, who eventually tell the gnomes in (say) a kettle to fart in the water allowing it to boil.

Computers:

Computers are run by tiny gnomes. They do all the work sat at tiny desks inside your PC. When you turn it off they can all go home and have a rest before they are needed again. The screen is in fact an arrangement of gnomes wearing different colour hats.

Atoms:

Atoms are in fact miniscule gnomes, all holding hands and feet etc together to form an intricate web from which nearly everything in this universe is comprised of. Radioactivity occurs when a rebel gnome is catapulted by his friends from their structure. Should this gnome come into contact with the gnomes from our body, he will offer them beer, thus making the local area ‘cancerous’. As to whether the so called ‘cancer’ becomes aggressive or benign, depends on the body gnome’s acceptance or rejection of the beer. The more accepting they are, the more aggressive the cancer becomes and so it spreads.

States:

A solid is a closely compacted arrangement of gnomes, all holding hands, hats and legs. Heating (see Energy) causes the gnomes to becoming exited (or ‘tickled’). This means they start to lose a grip on their neighbours; thus becoming a liquid. When the gnomes become tickled ‘pink’ they just can no longer hold on and float away (in groups upwards of one) becoming a ‘Gas’.

Gravity:

As we are all well aware gnomes like the ground. They all strive to be in the ground, and this is where the basic theory for gravity comes from. Gnomes throw tiny (obviously unseen to the human eye) ropes to the ground. These ropes attach to unseen hooks allowing the gnomes to pull themselves towards the ground. There is minimal gravity away from bodies (e.g. in space) because very few gnomes have long enough ropes. All bodies have a gravitational attraction to each other because gnomes are sociable creatures and enjoy large gatherings.

FB Gnome Pic: Facebook

Light:

If you think about it, it’s quite obvious really. The gnomes that make up our eyes can see what colour other gnomes making up, say a table, are wearing. They then hi-five gnomes in our ‘optical nerve’ who run to tell the brain gnomes what has been seen. This makes us think we are seeing things when in fact it is all gnomes.

Anti-matter:

Now this is a little more complicated. There are evil gnomes. These make up anti-matter. Done.

Energy:

All types of energy are transferred through gnomes. Heat is just gnomes rubbing other gnomes. Potential energy is when gnomes don’t want to be separated (see ‘Gravity’). Kinetic energy is the movement of gnomes. Energy is always conserved so fundamental gnomes (see below) are only ever transferred and never made or destroyed.

Now that we have covered the basics of gnome theory we are going to discuss and ‘explain away’ certain physical phenomena.

Aurora Borealis/Australis (Northern/Southern Lights):

Having seen the principles concerning light in gnome theory this northern spectacle can now be explained. Gnomes become blind when they stay too long with the gnomes in the sun (because their clothing is really bright). They thus tend to get lost when the sun gnomes let go of them. Some of these blind gnomes accidentally attach their ropes to earth, and are thus pulled towards it (see Gravity). When they reach the gnomes in the upper ‘atmosphere’ of the earth they realise that they’re not the only gnomes in the universe and so have a tiny party/celebration. During this festive time the gatherings round the north and south of the earth have access to changes of clothes (e.g. from Santa). They take advantage of this wardrobe and the changing of clothes makes us perceive a colourful oscillating light in the sky.

Mobile Phones:

‘Scientists’ may try and fool you with talk of ‘waves’, but please don’t believe these distracting and frankly stupid theories. Mobile phones are built (by gnomes) to incorporate a gnome catapult. These devices are worked by gnomes in your mobile phone (which coincidently is made up of gnomes) to fire their gnome friends upwards when you place a call. The gnomes are fired into space where they land on ‘satellites’ (also made of gnomes). The gnome satellites then catapult separate gnomes to the mobile you are trying to contact (if you are attempting to ‘connect’ with a land line the gnomes are fired at a landing station where they run and hi-five down wires to the other phone receiver). When the gnomes reach the receiver you are connecting with there is an exchange of messages, hi-fives and presents (the unwrapping is the crackle you hear). More catapulting occurs back to the satellite and then to your phone. This process continues so that what you say is ‘transmitted’ to the other phone and vice-versa (the process is VERY quick, as these gnomes travel at the speed of light-gnomes). A call ‘breaks up’ or has no ‘signal’ when the presents exchanged are so good the gnomes don’t bother coming back, but just sit and play.

Food:

Gnomes make up everything, including food. When we eat, say, a sandwich the gnomes making up the sandwich are digested and travel to our stomach. The stomach gnomes are so pleased to see other gnomes that a party soon gets underway (when you eat too quickly the party gets out of hand very quickly thus causing indigestion). The party is of course a wild affair, and the beer flows free while the gnomes party hard. The morning after (which in human time is only like 4-6 hours) the clean up begins. The stomach gnomes collect up the rubbish in bin bags. Intestine gnomes (the bin-men of the human body) collect up these bags and take them through the intestine to the… well I’m sure you can guess. The bum gnomes then drop these bags of rubbish out of the body (known as a landfill). Different varieties of foods are of course different nationalities of gnomes. Spicy foods are Asian gnomes. These gnomes party particularly hard and thus the morning after is particularly bad. They also like to smoke, which is why humans feel ‘gaseous effects’ after a rather spicy meal.

You can find out more about these great Gnome theories on the Facebook site, Physics doesn’t exist, it’s all gnomes! You can also see the amazing Gnomedia!

Caergwrle Bowl Pic: Nat. Museum of Wales

The Caergwrle ‘Bowl’ is a unique votive object, thought to represent a Bronze Age boat. It was made from shale, tin and gold; its applied decoration signifying shields, oars and waves. There is also a pair of oculi (‘eyes’) at both ends of the boat, which probably acted as a charm against calamity at sea.

The incomplete and broken bowl was found in 1823 by a workman digging a drain in a field below Caergwrle Castle, Denbighshire. It was probably a votive offering, deliberately placed in wet boggy land not far from the River Alyn, an important ancient water-way linking this area to the River Dee and the coast.

Evidence is scarce for boats and sea-faring in prehistoric Britain. However, people from Wales had contacts with coastal areas such as south west England, and traded overseas with Ireland, Brittany and beyond. Travelling by sea would have been an essential means of forging contacts and acquiring exotic materials.

The above summary can be found on the BBC Timeline of the World in 100 Objects website.

Pic: North Wales News

A language campaigner yesterday called on new First Minister Carwyn Jones to write a new Welsh language act, reports the North Wales News. Osian Jones, Cymdeithas yr Iaith organiser for North Wales, made the call on his return home after his release from Altcourse prison in Liverpool.

The 32-year-old has spent the last two weeks behind bars after refusing to pay fines and compensation for painting slogans on high street superstores. The action was part of Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s campaign for a comprehensive Welsh Language Act to include the private sector.

Mr Jones, from Llanllyfni, near Caernarfon, had painted “Ble Mae’r Gymraeg?” (Where is the Welsh?) on stores in Llangefni, Bangor and Caernarfon in June. Yesterday he insisted the Welsh language Legislative Competency Order, currently going through its Parliamentary process, needs to be strengthened. He said:

I hope my actions will mark the start of a new exciting period in the history of Cymdeithas yr Iaith. The future of Welsh hangs in the balance because too many politicians don’t take it seriously. Despite the overwhelming support, the next decade could see Welsh destroyed because of the indifference and failures of politicians, multinational businesses, and the Welsh establishment.

While I was in prison I wrote to Carwyn Jones urging him to dump the Legislative Competency Order and start again. Nothing proposed in it is already covered by the 1993 Welsh Language Act so its next to worthless. If Mr Jones doesn’t take the appropriate measures to strengthen the act and make private companies liable to comply with legislation, I don’t think I will be the last person to spend time under lock and key.

The 28 day sentence is the longest given to a Welsh language activist since 1991 and more than 50 supporters were at Bangor railway station to welcome him home. An advertising hoarding at the station had been covered with Cymdeithas yr Iaith posters. There were hugs and kisses from his mother, Olwen, and sister, Gwenan, as he stepped off the train.

Thanking his supporters for turning out, Mr Jones said the last two weeks had been hard and that prison was not as easy as he though it would be.

He said:

Other prisoners were very positive in their attitude towards me and the fight for the Welsh language.

I was lucky to have so much support while I was inside, I want to thank to everyone who wrote to me – I’ve received hundreds of cards including dozens of letters from chapels, organisations and individuals.

Mr Jones then led supporters to the Welsh Assembly office in Bangor to deliver the letter to the new First Minister.

[Source]

Originally posted 2009-12-31 07:41:44. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Celtic Sword and Scabbard Iron and Copper Alloy Made about 60 BCE Pic: mharrsch

The development of the long edged weapon known as the sword was already well underway by the Bronze Age. In fact, rudimentary swords were developed even before metals, though of course these had very crude blades (made of flint, bone, or similar materials) and were not nearly as sharp as any metal weapons that would follow them. Plus, the stone and other materials used for the blade were very brittle, and would crack or break easily. The first bladed weapons appeared as early as the thirteenth century B.C. in multiple locations around the globe.

During the Bronze Age, the first metal blades were introduced, and bladed weapons grew from the dagger to the longer weapon now known as a sword because newly discovered metals were strong enough to allow the construction of longer blades. The oldest metal sword-like weapons were crafted of arsenic copper (from around 3700BC), and later in tin-bronze, from the late third millennium BC in the Middle East. The oldest such weapon found to date was unearthed in Turkey and dated to around 3300 BC, though this is considered a long dagger, not a sword. Bronze Age swords made of copper were unearthed in India and dated back to 2300 BC.

Swords longer than about 24 inches were simply not possible during the Bronze Age because the bronze and other metals then in use lacked the strength, so longer weapons would bend too easily. These swords, made of a much softer metal than later versions, would need frequent sharpening. Copper-tin and other alloys were a bit stronger than bronze, though they would have still required much more sharpening than we would expect of modern blades. As stronger alloys and heat treatment processes were used, longer swords gradually became practical. During both the Bronze and Iron ages, multiple materials were used as the swords’ creators experimented with different alloys and construction techniques.

Swords constructed of iron were, at first, produced alongside copper swords during the Bronze Age, beginning around 3000 BC. Swords made of iron became increasingly common, and soon overtook the production of bronze swords. The Hittites and the Mycenaean Greeks were both early users of iron swords. Because the iron was more widely available, more swords can be produced of this material than those crafted of earlier metals. Harder and more durable than earlier blade weapons, they would require much less maintenance and sharpening.

Still, the quality was incomparable to later blades, especially those made of steel. The iron of this era was not very hard, and according to some accounts, was actually quite comparable in strength and hardness to earlier Bronze Age swords. These swords were known to bend during use, but for the first time entire armies could be equipped with swords and similar bladed weapons. Both the Greek and Roman empires were equipped with iron swords. In the late Roman Empire, the longer spartha sword was commonly carried; it would provide the basis for the Medieval and Renaissance ‘longsword.’ Swords of this period typically measured 24 to 30 inches long.

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Author: Steve Efren
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We contacted our host about the Malware problem, at the same moment that they sent us an email saying that a security hole had been noticed. How re-assuring to see that they’re on the ball They performed a full security scan for us and were able to pin-point, isolate and disable some code that was being used to introduce the Malware. The code turned out to be inside a WordPress Stats plugin!

They said:

We have checked and confirmed that your hosting account had php files which contained a javascript malware injection. We have since removed the contaminated code as a courtesy. Please note, that this is not a permanent solution because it does not remove the vulnerability that allowed the malicious code to be inserted.

If you have any plugins that cache data for your software, be sure to update the cache as soon as possible.

To address the specific vulnerability, please ensure that you fully upgrade all installations of any third-party software in which you may be running to the most recent version.

So, once the plugin was disabled, the cache cleaned and everything updated, we’re all secure again – phew!

More than that, some friends on Facebook have suggested ways to make the site even more secure and many thanks to Tracy and to Debra for their ideas. These ideas are brilliant and much appreciated, and we’ll be putting them into action as soon as possible!

Thanks everyone for your patience, understanding and help in sorting all this out – as always, you’re the best!

Medievalists.net have released a new article of interest to Celtic scholars. Medievalists.net is a website for people interested in the Middle Ages.  This includes scholars, writers, historians, readers and anyone who enjoys medieval history or culture.  Our aim for this website is to create a central online hub for news, resources and videos on medieval topics.  This will include material that we add ourselves, and others that we find from elsewhere on the web. Child-centered law in medieval Ireland By Bronagh Ni Chonaill The Empty Throne: Childhood and the Crisis of Modernity, edited by R. Davis and T. Dunne (Cambridge University Press, 2008)

Introduction:

The study of medieval childhood has come a long way in the last two decades and recent publications have argued convincingly how several well-known theories on historical childhood current in the 1960s and 1970s can now be put to rest.  Such theories proposed not only an evolutionary model of how childhood should be viewed across the ages, but also questioned the very recognition of childhood within medieval society.  However, as Hanawalt correctly observed, the current challenge is to achieve a greater awareness across the popular and scholarly communities of the progress made on medieval childhood, in order to recognize, debate and move on from the inheritance of Aries et al.  This contribution aims to serve that purpose, in addition to highlighting a unique, early medieval source on childhood, which has been surprisingly absent from discussions to date.

Download the PDF and read the full article at medievalists.net

Originally posted 2009-01-03 09:24:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Pic: Unknown Artist

The Celts were a powerful ancient civilization that influenced all that they dominated militarily. They existed before the Roman Empire and around the same time as the Greeks and Alexander the Great and Philip of Macedon. The Celts also existed before the Greeks and started their civilization on the Danube River. The Celts shared many similarities with the Indians from India. One is in their religious beliefs and the Celts believed in Karma and reincarnation and the Otherworld. Another similarity between the Celts and the Ancient Indians was their social levels.

The Druids were a part of Celtic society, but the word Druidae was a Greek word used to describe the second tier of Celtic society. The second tier consisted of the educators, philosophers, judges, etc that made up the Celtic intelligentsia. This tier in Celtic society was underneath the leaders of Celtic society much like the Brahmins existed underneath the leaders in ancient India.

They were highly advanced for their time. They began crafting swords and spears and lances with iron and thus dominated everyone else they fought. They also used iron smelting to build tools to clear forests and build roads. The ancient Romans, noted for their road building simply learned from the Celts and improved upon what they learned. Also, they had advanced cavalry tactics for their time and dominated ancient battlefields with them. Alexander the Great formed a peace treaty with the Celts claiming that the Greeks were they equal and sought peace. The Celts agreed to peace with Alexander the Great which allowed Alexander to fight his conquests in Asia and Persia. Upon Alexander the Great’s death, the Celts waged war with the Greeks and conquered Macedon and were about to invade the other city states like Athens when the Celtic leader Brennus killed himself. Three Celtic armies then backed off and disappeared northward.

The Celts also largely fought the Romans and often defeated them in battle, yet never made it as far south as Rome itself, they stayed in northern Italy except for when Hannibal sacked Rome with his mighty war elephants. Hannibal could not have traveled through Celtic lands without Celtic allegiance and the Celts along with Hannibal sacked Rome. The Romans however, were stubborn and learned much from fighting the Celts and adopted their tactics and weaponry and improved upon them and began defeating the Celts in Northern Italy and with Julius Caesar, in Gaul and finally into what is now England. By Hadrian’s time the Celts were left in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. The Romans built Hadrian’s wall at the height of their Empire and the Celts were on the northern side of the wall and the Romans on the southern. The Celts near Hadrian’s wall on the southern side often revolted and this was a trouble spot for the Romans.

The reason the Celts are often overlooked in history and that the Romans and Greeks and Egyptians are not is because the Romans and Greeks and Egyptians all wrote and had their own written alphabets. The Celts knowledge was all passed down orally so that others would never learn their ways.

In conclusion, the Celts were one of the most successful civilizations of the ancient time period. The Celts used iron smelting to build advanced weaponry and used advanced tactics to dominate their Ancient foes. The Romans, after learning from the Celts and improving upon what they learned began defeating the Celts in battle and established their own Empire with the fall of the Celts.

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Author: Edward Carr
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
US Dollar credit card

The picture used to accompany this article was found on a website that we credited until it was pointed out that their political agenda  is most certainly *not* in line with this website’s, the podcast’s or anyone else that we personally know come to think of it. I have removed the credit to the website but left the image as I’m sure one of their members would not be the original artist of the piece. I have assumed the image to be, therefore, in the public domain unless or until the artist contacts us at which point he/she will have my deepest apologies and the image will be withdrawn. I thank the sharp-eyed reader for spotting the link and apologiser to any other reader who may mistakenly have been given the impression that we have any sort of relationship wioth this organisation or any other of its ilk.

– Gary