Yearly Archives: 2014

Houseprices

New figures from Eurostat show Irish house prices rose by 4.1% between June and September [known as the third quarter] of last year. Estonia was the only country to have a higher increase than Ireland.

Over the same period, prices rose by 0.6% on average in the Euro area, and 0.7% on average in the EU.

Gulp.

Read full report here.

Previously: We’re Back

birds-1
https://vimeo.com/78188069

Artist Dennis Hlynsky, a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, records footage of bird flight and murmuration, then edits it with After Effects to highlight individual flight paths.

There’s no digital animation or layering, just a sort of temporary time lapse from which the natural pattern of flight paths emerge.

Many more videos of his work here, including the trails of insects, ducks and other animals.

colossal

Greyhound

“[Greyhound] says it has begun refunding those affected and has claimed that the blunder was caused by the actions of its main rival in the capital, City Bin. Customers who switched to City Bin in November and December were slapped with Greyhound’s annual service charge, which ranges from €50-€200 depending on the individual contract.”

Customers hit with extra charges in row between warring bin firms (Irish Independent)

How on earth did we end up with Greyhound anyway?

In December 2011, then Dublin City Council manager – current CEO of Irish Water – John Tierney,  invoked a veto [introduced by former Environment Minister Martin Cullen] to overrule a Dublin City Council vote 52-50 against the sale of its waste-collection services to Greyhound.

This was despite the fact that Greyhound was, in 2009, forced to pay back €1.3million to Iarnród Éireann because of inadequate services. And, in January 2011, Greyhound was forced to pay €9,000 in fines and costs to the Environmental Protection Agency for breaches of its licence to run a waste facility in Clondalkin, Dublin.

Good times.

Previously: “I Have Every Confidence In Him”

Chief Running Water

Revealed: The Dublin Bin Wars Dossier

Now THAT’s Waste Management

Pics: Dublin People and Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland

annieandamy

[Annie West with Amy ‘back in the day’]

Are you free on January 31?

Care for a creative morning in the company of Annie West and her daughter?

Miss Amy West and Mrs Annie West will be discussing the things that influenced them as children, leading to a career in, respectively, illustration and graphic design, “instead of management or some kind of consultancy”.

Ronald Searle, Peter Blake, TV comedy, pranks, practical jokes, marker theft, general mischief and being in trouble at school all the time may feature, Annie warns.

8.30am-10am at Medley, 56-58 Drury Street, Dublin.

Annie West And Amy West – Childhood (Creative Mornings)

Gilmoree

“The Government is set to reopen the Vatican embassy, The Irish Times has learned. The Cabinet is this morning considering a request from Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore to open eight new embassies and consulates at its weekly meeting. The list includes re-opening the Vatican embassy, as well as new embassies in Bangkok, Jakarta, Nairobi, Zagreb and consulates in Austin, Texas, in the US, Hong Kong and Sau Paulo.”

The Irish Times this morning.

“The Government has “no plan” to reopen the Irish Embassy to the Holy See, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said. In a written response to a question posed by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, Foreign Minister Gilmore said he “will be keeping the deployment of our diplomatic and consular resources under review in light of ongoing national priorities and the availability of resources”. However, the Tánaiste said “there is no plan to re-establish a resident embassy to the Holy See in the immediate term”.

The Irish Catholic, September 26, 2013

Government considers re-opening Vatican embassy (Irish Times)

Gilmore stands firm on Vatican Embassy (The Irish Catholic)

Previously: A Knock Knock Joke

Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland