The glow of gorse fires from the Ballycroy National Park in the early hours.
Thanks Pat Dowling






The biannual Concurs de Castellis human tower competition in Catalonia, Spain is a well documented affair, but these near-aerial photographs of thronged castellers at the 2012 event are unique.
Sharing his experience with Colossal, photographer David Oliete sez:
[The] XXIV edition took place during the 6th and 7th October 2012 with the participation of 32 teams from all around Catalonia and a live audience of more than 20,000 people. During the competition, the higher and difficult to build a tower is, the more points a team gets. Every human tower is usually between six and ten levels high. Teams are made of between 100 to 500 women and men. Young and light members form the top of the tower while heavier members form the base.
The “castells” have also been one of the most important cultural traditions in Catalonia for more than 200 years. “Strength, balance, courage and common sense” is their motto. In 2010, the castells were declared by UNESCO to be amongst the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity”.
The rest of the 38 image set can be viewed here.
Previously: VIDEO: Eye Candy: The Human Tower
An unhinged hand-made, stop-motion, action-western scifi by CalArts student Bradley Schaffer wherein a grandiose Texan lawman makes short work of an invading force of thumb-fetishising aliens.
And that’s just a sentence describing it.

Mairin O’Moore (above) delivering a petition calling for justice for the survivors of the medical procedure Symphysiotomy at Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin, this afternoon.
You may recall Mairin was at Leinster House last year to attend the first ever dail debate on the issue.
Symphisiotimy, where the pelvis is widened during childbirth, was carried out on 1500 women In Ireland. The last in 1992.
Some Irish obstetricians favoured the procedure instead of Caesarean sections because women subjected to repeated Caesareans ‘might be tempted to use contraception’.
Survivors of Symphysiotomy (Facebook)
(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)