ESB Electric Ireland Appliance Calculator App

Today, Monday 12th September, ESB Electric Ireland announced the launch of Ireland’s first Appliance Calculator App for Smartphones. The Appliance Calculator App allows customers to calculate how much their various home appliances are costing them to run. You just select your appliances and indicate their typical usage to pin point the energy guzzlers in your home and see their cost.

The Appliance Calculator App works with a range of over 130 different home appliances and enables customers to compare the cost of using those appliances in different ways. This could be washing clothes at 40°C versus 60°C or using a small ring on stovetop versus a larger one. They can then see the positive impact of using their appliances wisely. They can also estimate a complete breakdown of their energy bills by creating a full list of all their home appliances. In addition, the App includes a search function where a comprehensive list of individual gas and electric appliances from games consoles to hair straighteners, kettles to fridge freezers can be found.

The App is available to download for all Smartphones. For iPhones simply search “Appliance Calculator” on the iTunes App Store and for Androids, search “Appliance Calculator” in the Android Market.

Ken McKervey, Commercial Manager, ESB Electric Ireland commented, “The ESB Electric Ireland Appliance Calculator App is a fantastic tool to help control costs in your home to make much needed savings. The Appliance Calculator is already a popular tool on our website, but given 600,000 Irish people own a Smartphone, we wanted to bring the App to Android and iPhones.”

Ken continued, “The App will give users an understanding of how their appliances use energy, and how they can reduce their energy costs by making some small adjustments, For example by reducing their electric shower running time by just a couple of minutes per day they can make a significant saving on their bill.”

Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project

Back in August I wrote about Smirnoff Night Life Exchange partnering up with Madonna, and yesterday the rest of the story finally unfolded. Smirnoff announced that this years Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project will be taking place on 12th November and will see Ireland exchanging a night out with Thailand.

As with last year's very awesome Argentina night out, party-goers should expect delicious drinks, tasty Thai food and an experience that will, in no doubt, be one of the best they've ever had. Irish Australian dance superstars the Potbelleez will be rocking the dancefloor with help from Fourplay DJ’s (Ray Shah, Killian O’Sullivan, Steven Cooper and Rory Lyna) and DJ Gordo.

For full information check out the Smirnoff Facebook Page and see my posts from the previous Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange activity.

As I previously posted, this year's Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project will see Madonna partnering with Smirnoff to hold a global dance competition. As part of this, Smirnoff have revealed that Madonna will be attending the New York celebration to help handpick the overall global winner of a dance competition alongside her choreographers Rich + Tone. Smirnoff fans can win tickets to the New York finale at the Smirnoff Facebook Page.

“This year’s Nightlife Exchange Project is triple the size of last year’s, has bigger global names and more local original ideas,” said Simon Burch, Global Brand Director for The Smirnoff Co. “We’re going to enjoy it with our fans. We are inviting our Facebook fans to share with us their one-of-a-kind nightlife experiences so we can create them on 12th November.”

Smirnoff is inviting fans to share their ideas and suggestions on the most original aspects of nightlife in their country. Fans with the most original ideas winning an invite to the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project in their city or abroad. Nearly 10,000 ideas have been submitted thus far including local cocktail recipes, new dance styles, types of music and city fashion trends.

The pairings for the 18 countries taking part in the nightlife swap are:
Great Britain with Jamaica
Ireland with Thailand
Brazil with Germany
Australia with Italy
Canada with Vietnam
USA with Netherlands
Lebanon with Mexico
Venezuela with Cyprus
Argentina with Turkey

Carlsberg: JC Jacobsen's Bicentenary

Today, 2nd September 2011, marks the 200th anniversary of Carlsberg's founder JC Jacobsen. Born in Copenhagen in 1811, it wasn't until he was 24 that Jacob Christian Jacobsen inherited his father brewery and became head of what would unquestionably become the most influential beer brewery in the world.

Jacobsen was well known for his explorative mind and entrepreneurial approach to things. And while he had no formal academic or scientific training, he believed that the production of beer had to be based on scientific methods and to be industrialised. In short, Jacobsen wanted to eliminate the element of chance when brewing beer caused by variable yeast quality.

In 1876, Jacobsen took on Emil Hansen to work at the Carlsberg laboratory. There, Hansen dicsovered that yeast was not a homogeneous substance but could be broken down into a number of strains, of which only a few were right for brewing. By 1883 he had isolated and propagated single-strain yeasts for the first time, to finally allow brewers the control over the fermentation process to guarantee a consistent product, brew after brew. Lager yeast is still known as sacharromyces carlsbergensis in Hansen and Jacobsen’s honour.

Dawn Allison, Brand Manager, Carlsberg commented; "Carlsberg is the world's original lager and JC Jacobsen was relentless in his efforts to create perfect beer. He revolutionised beer brewing and selflessly shared his discovery of pure yeast with other brewers so today, there is a little bit of Carlsberg in every lager beer! The brewers at Carlsberg work to live up to Jacobsen's golden words: 'To develop the art of making beer to the greatest possible degree of perfection'. Today is a very special day for the Carlsberg brand as we pay tribute to its founder, JC Jacobsen 200 years after his birth."

Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 2011

Back again for the October Bank Holiday weekend (28th-31st October 2011), tickets for the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival are now on sale, and this year's festival is set to be bigger and better than ever, with something to suit every music lover’s tastes.

The most interesting announcement around the festival, in my opinion, is the news that the opening act this year will be none other than the exceedingly talented Damon Albarn. Sometimes Blur frontman Albarn will be joined by his band, Another Honest John’s Chop-Up. Another Honest John’s Chop-Up is a collective of musicians who take inspiration from jazz funk and southern soul.


Another outstanding act who will be performing at the festival is the Kyle Eastwood Quintet. Kyle, who is also known as son of actor/director Clint Eastwood, has made a name for himself on the jazz scene, producing eight studio albums and composing the scores for many of his father’s films including Gran Torino and Million Dollar Baby.

Other noteworthy acts on the schedule include; Randy Brecker, the acclaimed trumpet player, Tia Fuller, the saxophonist, who not only has her own highly successful band but also plays alongside Beyoncé and Richard Galliano, the renowned accordionist. Galliano’s performance at the festival will be inspired by the work of Coppola and the music from The Godfather.

Barry Fitzpatrick, Brand Manager, Guinness commented, “We are very excited to introduce this year’s line up. The Guinness Cork Jazz festival maintains its jazz soul, but the line up includes some unexpected talent which will definitely appeal to all musical tastes. We will be announcing more acts in the coming weeks on www.guinnesscorkjazz.com”.

The Guinness Cork Jazz festival will not only have music hosted in more venues than ever before, but ticket prices have also been reduced this year. Tickets can be purchased through www.ticketmaster.ie and more information on all aspects of the festival can be found at guinnessjazzfestival.com/.

Facebook User Stats For Ireland

A great infographic from the lovely people at Edelman:


Thanks to Piaras Kelly for this. Piaras credited help from Dave Molloy and Damien Mulley, so a thanks to you dudes too :)