Pól san internet. Tá eolas faoi amhrán gaelach "Póilín Póilín tar abhaile liom" deachair a lorg.

Gabh mo leiscéil le haigh mo grammar etc húfásach!!

Bhí mo bean chéile i Ros Muc 1980s

Tá fhois aici faoí amhrán "Póilín Póilin tar abhaile liom"

Tá version don amhrán anseo: https://ancroiait.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/k-49-coilin/ Cóilín Cóilín? Fóilín? Póilín? 

Níl fhois aici faoi na verseanna leis an ól agus súgán.

Bhí duine eile sa reddit ag lorg an amhrán https://www.reddit.com/r/gaeilge/comments/guoux5/%C3%A1_lorg_seanamhr%C3%A1n_gaeilge/ 

Tá bríthinnea an focail "splanc" go suimúil.

https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/splanc

https://www.teanglann.ie/en/eid/splanc

Plumb crazy, splanctha ar fad.

He hasn't an ounce/a grain/a scintilla of sense, níl splanc chéille ann.

He has no sense, níl splanc aige.

Spark of sense, splanc chéille.

To be smitten with/soft on/sweet on/passionately in love with a girl, bheith splanctha i ndiaidh cailín.

To have a rage for/be mad about something, bheith splanctha i ndiaidh ruda.

To go off like a shot, imeacht mar a bheadh splanc ann.

This letter came like a bomb-shell, tháinig an litir seo mar a thitfeadh splanc orainn.

A flash of lightning, splanc thintrí.

Like a streak of lightning, mar a bheadh splanc ann.

Vivid flash of lightning, splanc ghlé.

K.49 Cóilín

Amhrán le We 4

Ceol le Roger Whitaker ! agus lyrics le Niall Tobín ?

1. Bhí mé óg is bhí mé amaideach

I was young and I was foolish.

Is gan splanc agam i mo cheann,

And not a spark [of sense] in my head.

Nuair a casadh cailín deas orm,

When I met a nice girl

Agus phóg mé i mar ghreann.

And married her for fun. 

Curfá:

Cóilín (Cóilín!) Tar abhaile liom,

Cóilín (Cóilín!) Come home with me.

Beimid díreach in am don tae,

We’ll be just in time for tea.

Fóillín! (Fóillín!) Go raibh míle maith agat.

Take it easy! A thousand thanks.

Ach go fóillín, go dté tú slán.

But may you stlll go safely.

2. Bhí na blianta spóirt is óil agam,

I had years of sport and drink.

Sean gach dí, is nua gach bia.

Every drink, old, and every food fresh.

Is na sluaite ban sa tóir orm,

And there were crowds of women chasing after me

Is a muintir leis im’ dhiaidh.

And their people chasing after them.  

Curfá 2:

Cóilín (Cóilín!) As an mbaile leat!

Cóilín (Cóilín!) Out of town with you!

Tá an posse ag teacht faoi do dhéin!

The posse is coming to get you.

Fóillín! (Fóillín!) Go raibh míle maith agat.

Take it easy! A thousand thanks.

Ach go fóillín, go dté tú slán.

But may you stlll go safely.

3. Ach anois tá mé ag dul in aois,

But now I am going on in years.

Tá mé fós im’ cheann, imithe.

I am still gone in the head.

Is má chím cailín mar í arís

And if I see a girl like her again.

Ise a bhéas ag déanamh grinn.

‘Tis she who’ll be making fun (of me). 

Curfá 3:

Cóilín (Cóilín!) Gread abhaile leat!

Cóilín (Cóilín!), Clear off home!

Tá tú súgach is beagnach braon.

You are tipsy and almost drunk.

Fóillín! (Fóillín!) Go raibh míle maith agat.

Take it easy! A thousand thanks.

Ach go fóillín, go dté tú slán.

But may you stlll go safely.

New to me words: Monomino (Domino) Tromino Tetromino Pentomino Polyomino Methuselah

Happy Christmas 😊 🎄 

 Exciting new word discovery for me. Good Numberphile/maths video out on youtube with some important vocabulary for Blockus players 😜. 

 The baby piece has another name: *Monomino* :). Yes, now it all makes sense, Monomino is immortalised in THAT Muppet show Monomino song ;). The two-piece is *Domino*, a bit scary (late 17th century: from French, denoting a hood worn by priests in winter, probably based on Latin dominus ‘lord, master’. The [tile/game] name "domino" is probably derived from the resemblance to a kind of carnival costume worn during the Venetian Carnival, often consisting of a black-hooded robe and a white mask.). 

 Then we have the two *Trominoes*. 

 Next we have the five *Tetronimoes* including baby snake all very familiar to Tetris players. 

 Next we have then the twelve (free) *Pentominoes* whose shapes some Blockus players know surprisingly well :-). This Numberphile video goes into the pentominoes and polyominoes a bit: https://youtu.be/ONdgXYEBihA?si=sZm7upEYcquWngH-

The pentominoes and earlier and some later orders are known since "antiquity". Further orders you have to decide if holes are allowed inside (making complete tiling/tesselations impossible). Nowadays a few hundred orders of polyominoes have been worked out but no absolute mathematical method for finding them is known. see also https://www.etymonline.com/word/domino https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominoes dice game, China origin, all combos of results of 2 * 6 sided die rolls dominos have unicode representations

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentomino Pentomino 2 naming schemes FILiPiNo STUVWXY or NOPQRSTUVWXY .. I think

  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetromino and Tetris

  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/361943.The_Riddles_of_Epsilon 

 Alex Bellos on Pentomino puzzle https://youtu.be/wZ1E_CM7MqA?si=q8wYFDFTlP4INnQK

Book. The Canterbury Puzzles and the broken chessboard puzzle - tile 8x8=64 square with the 12 free pentominoes and one square tetromino 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19191808-the-canterbury-puzzles-and-other-curious-problems https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27635 see page 66. The broken chessboard.

  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domino_(mathematics) The F or R Pentonimo is a Methuselah i.e. a long lived Conway Life pattern https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life

other pentominos die out or stabilize quickly 

 FILiPiNo STUVWXY 

F stable after 1103 generations, population 116, 86 in middle, a few 6? gliders heading off to infinity 

I stable Gen=6 Pop=12 pulsar (4 3bar rotators) 

L stable Gen=9 Pop=12 pulsar 

P Gen=4 Pop=0 dead 

N Gen=5 Pop=0 dead 

S Gen=3 Pop=0 dead 

T stable Gen=10 Pop=12 pulsar 

U Gen=4 Pop=0 dead 

V stable Gen=3 Pop=7 still life loaf = 2 dominos joined at corner forming sides of 90L triangle with 3 single monomino joining onside corners along hypotemuse 

W stable Gen=2 Pop=7 still life loaf 

X stable Gen=6 Pop=12 pulsar 

Y Gen=3 Pop=0 dead 

SEQUENCES ..

 Vpent-Wpent-x-loaf x=3sided square with missing centre and one corner pop=7 

 Tpent-Ttetra-Pop7.3Square.missing2adjacentcorners-Pop6.3bar.3monoinvabove-Pop6.novastar.emptycentresurroundedbydommondommon-Pop8.3Square.missingcentre-Pop8.3SquareOnDiagonal.missingcentreXPent-Pop12.3SquareOnDiagonal.missingcentreMon-Pop12.5Square.missing4cornersandallcentre-Pop20.4xXPents-pulsar 

the stable middle of Fpentominon after 1106 iterations

 Golly web site: http://golly.sourceforge.net/ Golly is an open source, cross-platform application for exploring Conway's Game of Life and many other types of cellular automata.

The loaf in Golly

moon behaviour - new moon sets near sunrise, new moon rises near sunrise

We had some more astronomy chats after Scouts :) crescent moon appears as boat at equator, angle of moon changes depending on your latitude, appears upside down in southern hemisphere. https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/upside-down.html AND this Dec 15th actually the moon is full and rises and sets the furthest north in 18.6 year cycle called a "major lunar standstill" https://www.timeanddate.com/news/astronomy/lunar-standstill-2024-2025 from Dublin it will set 9:23am at 322 degrees NW and rise 15:30 38 degrees NE https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/ireland/dublin?month=12 The sun is only getting up to 14 degrees of altitude height at noon these days and rises/sets at 40 degrees south of E/W, compare with altitude of 60 degrees in june and rise/set 43 degrees North of East/West https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/ireland/dublin And full moons always set close to sunrise time, whereas new moons rise close to sunrise time e.g. new moon 30th Dec rises 9:06am sets 15:06 BUT on this day reaches only 7 degrees of altitude so would be really difficult to see it even if it was not a new moon! https://www.space.com/17561-new-moon-explained-lunar-phases.html

Why are there Lime trees that don't grow limes and indeed lime leaves that also don't come from either plant?

Kafir lime leaves used in cooking Limes green citrus fruit Lime trees that grow in cities Lime white powder made from limestone used in lime mortar stone building or limewash or spread on land We need a relationship network map? Venn diagram? Kafir lime leaves used in cooking Limes green citrus fruit https://bloomboxclub.ie/blogs/news/types-of-lime-trees Mexican limes, Persian limes, Kafir limes(fruit and leaves used), Key limes Thank you Wikipedia disambiguation page! Covers everything https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime Lime most commonly refers to: Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany Australian lime, a species of Citrus native to Australia and Papua New Guinea Key lime, a citrus hybrid with a spherical fruit Persian lime, a citrus fruit species of hybrid origin Tilia, a genus of trees known in Britain as lime trees, lime-wood, basswood, or linden Wild lime or Zanthoxylum fagara, a green fruit native to the Americas Chemistry Agricultural lime, a soil additive containing calcium carbonate and other ingredients Birdlime, a sticky substance spread on branches to trap small birds Calcium hydroxide, a.k.a. slaked lime, slack lime, limewater, pickling lime or hydrated lime Hydraulic lime, used to make lime mortar Limewater, saturated calcium hydroxide solution Calcium oxide, a.k.a. burnt lime or quicklime Also, Italian .. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limes Limes may refer to the Latin word for limit which refers to: Limes (Roman Empire), a border marking and defense system of the ancient Roman Empire Limes (magazine), an Italian geopolitical magazine And then there's Lyme disease, an infectious disease carried by ticks caused by bacteria of the genus Borrelia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme Zanthoxylum fagara or wild lime, is a species of flowering plant that—despite its name—is not part of the genus Citrus with real limes and other fruit, but is a close cousin in the larger citrus family, Rutaceae. It is more closely related to Sichuan pepper. Australian limes former Eremocitrus Citrus glauca former Microcitrus Citrus warburgiana Citrus inodora Citrus maideniana Citrus garrawayi Citrus australasica Citrus australis Persian lime (Citrus × latifolia), also known by other common names such as seedless lime, Bearss lime and Tahiti lime, is a citrus fruit species of hybrid origin, known only in cultivation. The Persian lime is a triploid cross between Key lime (Citrus × aurantiifolia) and lemon (Citrus × limon). The Key lime or acid lime (Citrus × aurantiifolia or C. aurantifolia) is a citrus hybrid (C. hystrix × C. medica) native to tropical Southeast Asia. It has a spherical fruit, 2.5–5 centimetres (1–2 inches) in diameter. The Key lime is usually picked while it is still green, but it becomes yellow when ripe. Citrus hystrix, called the kaffir lime, Thai lime or makrut lime, (US: /ˈmækrət/, UK: /məkˈruːt/) is a citrus fruit native to tropical Southeast Asia. The citron (Citrus medica), historically cedrate, is a large fragrant citrus fruit with a thick rind. It is said to resemble a 'huge, rough lemon'. It is one of the original citrus fruits from which all other citrus types developed through natural hybrid speciation or artificial hybridization. The lemon (Citrus × limon) is a species of small evergreen tree in the Citrus genus of the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, including Northeast India where it was first grown. It is a hybrid of the citron and the bitter orange. The bitter orange, sour orange, Seville orange, bigarade orange, or marmalade orange is the hybrid citrus tree species Citrus × aurantium, and its fruit. It is native to Southeast Asia and has been spread by humans to many parts of the world. It is a cross between the pomelo, Citrus maxima, and the wild type mandarin orange, Citrus reticulata. The bitter orange is used to make essential oil, used in foods, drinks, and pharmaceuticals. The Seville orange is prized for making British orange marmalade. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrus https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrus_taxonomy https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/explore-food-citrus-genetics Citrus have come from just three (or five) primary ancestors: citrons, pomelos, and mandarins, all native to South and East Asia. Fruits’ family tree Scientists have used genetic research from the past and present to chart the lineage of the Citrus genus. Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species.[ In Great Britain and Ireland they are commonly called lime trees, although they are not related to the citrus lime. "Lime" is an altered form of Middle English lind, in the 16th century also line, from Old English feminine lind or linde, Proto-Germanic *lindō (cf. Dutch[8]/German Linde, plural Linden), cognate to Latin lentus "flexible" and Sanskrit latā "liana". Within Germanic languages, English "lithe" and Dutch/German lind for "lenient, yielding" are from the same root. "Linden" was originally the adjective, "made from linwood or lime-wood" (equivalent to "wooden" or "oaken"); https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_(material) Lime is an inorganic material composed primarily of calcium oxides and hydroxides. It is also the name for calcium oxide which occurs as a product of coal-seam fires and in altered limestone xenoliths in volcanic ejecta. The International Mineralogical Association recognizes lime as a mineral with the chemical formula of CaO. The word lime originates with its earliest use as building mortar and has the sense of sticking or adhering. https://www.etymonline.com/word/lime lime (n.1) "chalky, sticky mineral used in making mortar," from Old English lim "sticky substance, birdlime;" also "mortar, cement, gluten," from Proto-Germanic *leimaz (source also of Old Saxon, Old Norse, Danish lim, Dutch lijm, German Leim "birdlime"), from PIE root *(s)lei- "slime, slimy, sticky" (source also of Latin limus "slime, mud, mire," linere "to smear;" see slime (n.)).

Bambie Thug Eurovision and anti-war ogham

Fun activity: I was thinking of getting people to decode Bambie Thug's ogham. Might be quite a bit too much for younger ones ? 😀 But fun and perhaps mind opening for older ? :-7 😮 pushing boundaries too much? :-p Should not have to be, but possibly wiser(and more boring) to be a bit careful around this.

Note to self correct pronouns for Bambie Thug are they/them/fae. :-) Well done to RTE newsreaders last night getting them right.

Accidental discovery of another "fun" activity: in blog html css how to rotate ogham script. :-p Holy God. jaypers. Down a twisty tight rabbit hole there we went!

In the News ...

https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2024/0508/1447898-eurovision-ogham/ Bambie Thug changed Ogham message after EBU 'order'

https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsandculture/arid-41390479.html

https://eurovision.tv/participant/bambie-thug-2024 Official Eurovision site image has the "ceasefire" ogham.

https://twitter.com/MarkAgitprop/status/1787754522196017368 Humm, Republican Irish twitter account, some haters in the comments, #WereNotInKansasAnymore

https://twitter.com/PantiBliss/status/1787971762430374144 Good one for a walking debate sometime.

Tweeting ogham and tuathal/deisal

https://twitter.com/WeirdAndWindy/status/1788654760377073873

Fabulous stuff from #BambieThug @Gaeilgeoirí please be kind in case of errors! ᚛ᚉᚑᚏᚑᚅᚐᚔᚌᚆ ᚐᚅ ᚉᚐᚔᚂᚂᚓᚐᚉᚆ᚜ corónaigh an cailleach = crown the witch. #Eurovision2024 #Ireland #CrownTheWitch #BambieThug #Eurovision

Please rotate your screen widdershins(tuathail) or your head in the opposite direction(deiseal) to enjoy the most optimal reading direction for the ogham. ᚛ᚉᚑᚏᚑᚅᚐᚔᚌᚆ ᚐᚅ ᚉᚐᚔᚂᚂᚓᚐᚉᚆ᚜

Cool how Irish has separate words for clockwise and widdershins/sinister (not that English is short of them). Deiseal related to ar deis on the right. Ar deis, ar clé on the right, on the left. Tuathal related to tuath - the people, the tribe, the territory. https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/clockwise https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/clockwise

tuathal, "Direction against the sun, wrong direction" "turned the wrong way" "in disorder" "~ a dhéanamh, to make a mistake, to blunder." Somewhat sinister indeed. https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/tuathal

https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/tuath

The ogham used ...

Face: ceasefire ogham.co

Leg: Saoirse don Phalestine ogham.co

Face: Crown the Witch ogham.co

ceasefire	Saoirse don Phalestine (hmm, could be an e too many there on the end :-p	Crown The Witch	Sos cogaidh agus corónaigh an cailleach (for the twitter gaelgóir hatersunhappies - ceasefire as gaeilge = Sos cogaidh)	Saoirse do Phailistín agus an Úcráin (hoy, have we forgotten about Ukraine ? (sorry Myanmar, Sudan, elsewhere with war (and people of Russia also)
ceasefire ᚛ᚉᚓᚐᚄᚓᚃᚔᚏᚓ᚜	Saoirse don Phalestine (hmm, could be an e too many there on the end :-p ᚛ᚄᚐᚑᚔᚏᚄᚓ ᚇᚑᚅ ᚚᚆᚐᚂᚓᚄᚈᚔᚅᚓ᚜	Crown The Witch ᚛ᚉᚏᚑᚒᚒᚅ ᚈᚆᚓ ᚒᚒᚔᚈᚉᚆ᚜	Sos cogaidh agus corónaigh an cailleach (for the twitter gaelgóir hatersunhappies - ceasefire as gaeilge = Sos cogaidh) ᚛ᚄᚑᚄ ᚉᚑᚌᚐᚔᚇᚆ᚜ ᚛ ᚐᚌᚒᚄ ᚜ ᚛ᚉᚑᚏᚑᚅᚐᚔᚌᚆ ᚐᚅ ᚉᚐᚔᚂᚂᚓᚐᚉᚆ᚜	Saoirse do Phailistín agus an Úcráin (hoy, have we forgotten about Ukraine ? (sorry Myanmar, Sudan, elsewhere with war (and people of Russia also) ᚛ᚄᚐᚑᚔᚏᚄᚓ ᚇᚑ ᚚᚆᚐᚔᚂᚔᚄᚈᚔᚅ ᚐᚌᚒᚄ ᚐᚅ ᚒᚉᚏᚐᚔᚅ᚜

Oh google translate translates "crown the witch" as "coróin an cailleach" URNNNNNNK(wrong honking sound). It should be something like tabhair coróin don cailleach ? Or corónaigh an cailleach .. oh weird. the coronation in english, corón and corónaigh as Gaeilge, corón = crown. Which came first I wonder ? https://www.etymonline.com/word/coronation https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/coróin https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/corónaigh

Ogham transliteration tools and html css stuff

Tool #1 https://ogh.am/ gives transliterated and bottom to top unicode. In .css we can see this class is defined and can use e.g. in h2 tag like class=vertical.

  .vertical {
    writing-mode: tb-rl;
    transform: rotate(180deg);
  }

Or, in table add id=ogham and in css template add this:

  #ogham td, #ogham th {
    writing-mode: tb-rl;
    transform: rotate(180deg);
}
  

https://support.google.com/blogger/../how-can-i-add-css-code-to-my-posts-not-to-the-theme-or-layout-of-the-blog "Theme > Customize > Advanced > Add CSS > then paste your custom table css here..."
Design (on blog page) - Theme - Customize - Edit

Tool #2 transliterate latin chars to ogham: https://ogham.co/ But, annoyingly, outputs images, not the unicode string. Humm. Other stuff from that website: Test test ᚛ᚋᚐᚊ ᚉᚓᚏᚐᚅᚔ ᚐᚃᚔ ᚐᚈᚆᚓᚉᚓᚈᚐᚔᚋᚔᚅ᚜ = MAQ CERAN[I] AVI ATHECETAIMIN Son of Ciarán, descendant of the Uí Riaghan ᚄᚓᚐᚅ = Seán

EXPERIMENTs

	TABLE WITHOUT ID, using class=VERTICAL style where needed
PLAIN: ᚛ᚉᚓᚐᚄᚓᚃᚔᚏᚓ᚜	Saoirse Don Phalestin'e ᚛ᚄᚐᚑᚔᚏᚄᚓ ᚇᚑᚅ ᚚᚆᚐᚂᚓᚄᚈᚔᚅᚓ᚜	᚛ᚉᚏᚑᚒᚒᚅ ᚈᚆᚓ ᚒᚒᚔᚈᚉᚆ᚜ ᚛ᚉᚏᚑᚒᚒᚅ ᚈᚆᚓ ᚒᚒᚔᚈᚉᚆ᚜ How do we word wrap? ᚛ᚉᚏᚑᚒᚒᚅ ᚈᚆᚓ ᚒᚒᚔᚈᚉᚆ᚜

P CLASS=VERTICAL ᚉᚓᚐᚄᚓᚃᚔᚏᚓ

H2 CLASS=VERTICAL ᚉᚓᚐᚄᚓᚃᚔᚏᚓ

	TABLE ID=OGHAM
VERTICAL and TABLEOGHAM: ᚉᚓᚐᚄᚓᚃᚔᚏᚓ TABLEOGHAM: ᚉᚓᚐᚄᚓᚃᚔᚏᚓ PLAIN: ᚛ᚉᚓᚐᚄᚓᚃᚔᚏᚓ᚜	ᚄᚐᚑᚔᚏᚄᚓ ᚇᚑᚅ ᚚᚆᚐᚂᚓᚄᚈᚔᚅᚓ	ᚉᚏᚑᚒᚒᚅ ᚈᚆᚓ ᚒᚒᚔᚈᚉᚆ ᚛ᚉᚏᚑᚒᚒᚅ ᚈᚆᚓ ᚒᚒᚔᚈᚉᚆ᚜ ᚛ᚉᚏᚑᚒᚒᚅ ᚈᚆᚓ ᚒᚒᚔᚈᚉᚆ᚜ How do we word wrap? ᚛ᚉᚏᚑᚒᚒᚅ ᚈᚆᚓ ᚒᚒᚔᚈᚉᚆ᚜	Sos cogaidh agus corónaigh an cailleach (for the twitter gaelgóir hatersunhappies - ceasefire as gaeilge = Sos cogaidh) ᚛ᚄᚑᚄ ᚉᚑᚌᚐᚔᚇᚆ᚜ ᚛ ᚐᚌᚒᚄ ᚜ ᚛ᚉᚑᚏᚑᚅᚐᚔᚌᚆ ᚐᚅ ᚉᚐᚔᚂᚂᚓᚐᚉᚆ᚜

REFERENCEs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogham

https://www.omniglot.com/writing/ogham.htm

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6028128/how-do-i-rotate-text-in-css

This blog page was brought to you, from and with thanks to https://ogh.am/, google translate, stackoverflow, teanglann.ie foclóir gaeilge-bearla, wikipedia, etymonline and various others.

Visitor advice for dangers on a working farm

So CUTE:

https://www.hsa.ie/eng/Publications_and_Forms/Publications/Agriculture_and_Forestry/Stay_Safe_on_the_Farm_with_Jessy.pdf  (although I disagree with banning dangerous play outright, some level of risky activity is required although warnings & supervision & basic actions to make environment safe as possible)

There are some dangers on a working farm 

(e.g. tractors, machinery and vehicles on roads and in fields, large animals, slurry pits).

All visitors to the farm should be aware of risk.

There are some educational resources that could be useful:

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/4133b-farm-safety/?referrer=http://www.gov.ie/farmsafety/#children-on-farms-school-training-and-resources

 

News just in (DOH): bike gear cable housings are disposable items (as well as cables)

My current non-mountainbike stopped shifting gears on rear completely. 

Rear cable frayed when I went to clean and lubricate it.

Short cable housing by rear derailleur only allows stiff cable movement. 

For bikes under lighter use the gears have less changes (per year) so it can be many years before changes to gear cables and/or gear cables housing are needed but bikes under more frequent or harder use will need gear cable housing and cable changes.

I can confirm this need to replace cables/housing for bikes that I had for longer periods (unfortunately when younger my bikes could last just from 1 to 5 years before being beaten up or stolen!). My bikes have decent use a few times a week and there are hills/wind/traffic lights/etc and multiple gear shifts required every trip. Bikes have had reasonable maintenance including cable lubing and derailleur clean/lube and cable replacement. With bikes that I have had for longer times gear shifting eventually gets harder and sometimes cable snaps (snap can be near rear derailleur or at shifter) before I got to replacing.

After experiencing this now on a couple of bikes the penny has dropped. I would maintain the cables ok and replace when problems but eventually they became problematic even after new replace => HOUSING is the problem. 

Anyway I'm learning here which is good.

TLDR; summary from some web grepping:
1. cables and housings wear and do need replacing before there are problems, replacement period depends on amount of use of the bike and gears.
1.1 Somewhat surprising the cable housing needs to be replaced more often than the cables.
1.2 The housing that bends right around by rear derailleur (or other bend points) can be especially a point of wear.
2. Cable might not need replacing but of course it is difficult to avoid fraying/damage.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bikes+how+long+between+gear+cable+changes
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/when-to-change-gear-cables.245958/#:~:text=The%20outer%20cable%20where%20it,used%20on%20wet%20salty%20roads.
4 years old bike/cables well maintained, how often others change their gear cables ?
inners and outers ought to be done at the same time?
"Outers are a different kettle of fish and can need changing annually or more frequently in some instances."
"The outer cable where it curves round to the RD needs changing every 6 months if used on wet salty roads." - defo seems applicable to my situation
"The RD will be fine as the pivots last for years. Just change the jockey wheels."
"Absolutely no point changing the inners without doing the outers. The inners are just metal and can be cleaned up and lubed. The outers have a nylon type liner that gets worn, gets contaminated and loses the factory installed lubrication, the outers have by far the biggest effect on the cable/shifting performance."

https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/34725/when-is-it-time-to-replace-the-gear-cable-housing

https://www.bikeforums.net/bicycle-mechanics/1240252-how-long-do-rear-derailleur-cables-last.html
"Your resulta are about on par with expectations. 3-5000 miles for a right shifter is pretty common depending on how often you shift. I've never worn a left (front) shift cable. I'd venture 10k plus but, you never know. YMMV."
"Why didn't you use a tool from your fix-it kit & drive the "H" screw all the way in to a better cog? I'm sure the 14, 15, or 16 cog would've been nicer than the 11 all the way at the bottom."

https://www.reddit.com/r/bikewrench/comments/9xaevo/roadies_how_often_do_you_change_your_housings_and/
"Housing needs to be replaced when it loses integrity (rare) or noticeably increases friction (common). The latter is either from rust at the ends or from inner liner wear at hard bends (mostly brake housing under the bar tape). Dirt, grease, and distortion at the ferrule interface can also add friction, though correcting this may not require new housing."

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/cables.html

https://sheldonbrown.com/cable-installation.html

Interesting, does not talk about housing replacement but does mention modern plastic lined cables are different, lubrication not recommended, maybe. (grease/oil breaks down plastic lining maybe). Older housings maybe did last forever if cleaned/greased/oiled. 

"Cable Lubrication

In the old days, before the development of plastic-lined housing, it was necessary to coat the inner cable with light grease or heavy oil.

Modern plastic-lined cables have made the use of grease inappropriate, because the viscosity of the grease makes for sluggish cable movement. This is a more critical concern with modern brake and gear systems that use weaker return springs, and with indexed shifting in general.

Many manufacturers now recommend against using any lubrication on cables. It certainly should be avoided with sealed systems such as Gore-Tex ®. Bicycles used in wet conditions, however, will often benefit by the application of a bit of oil, more as a rust-preventive than as a lubricant. The area of particular concern is the short loop of housing which carries the rear derailer cable around from the chainstay to the derailer.

Some bicycles provide awkward cable routing which forces housing to enter cable stops/adjusting barrels at a fairly sharp angle. This is particularly common on rear cantilever brakes. It often helps to put a bit of grease on the bit of cable that runs through such fittings."