A supreme, yet to be bested example of cosplay from 2016 featuring the two CGI characters from Dire Straits’ 1985 ‘Money For Nothing’ video.
That time already?
It comes around so fast.
Greta Murphy writes:
Today, BIC, a world leader in manufacturing safe, high-quality lighters has teamed up with Phoenix STS, a leading Irish fire safety training consultancy to announce National Lighter Safety Day, in line with its commitment to protect consumers in Europe against dangerous products…
*raises lighter aloft*
*places right thumb under cold tap*
How do you celebrate National Lighter Safety Day? With pyroflatulence or something more traditional?
Tell us below.
From top: Putney, Southwest London and Bermondsey, Southeast London
In fairness.
This morning/afternoon.
Via London Evening Standard:
Massive queues have formed outside polling stations in London on election day, with one man claiming his was “20 times busier” than in 2017.
One woman said she was queueing for 35 minutes outside her polling station, which was the busiest she had seen it in 20 years of voting there.
Polls close at 10pm, and many people would have been hoping to tick their preferred box before heading to work.
Earlier: A Limerick A Day
Pics: Twitter
The latest print edition of the Dublin Inquirer
By Dublin-based Designer and illustrator Karen Vaughan writes:
T his cover is the result of what we’re being forced to accept as the new normal.
Families pushed into tent towns and hostels when there are a huge number of vacant properties.
The absolute hideousness of an administration that seems to prefer that to building social housing.
What gives me hope is seeing ordinary people organising to help each other when they’ve been so utterly failed by their government.
With this illustration I hope to highlight and celebrate that.
Meanwhile, in other festive cover related news…
RTÉ Guide‘s Xmas edition.
In fairness.
Print Edition Cover (Dublin Inquirer)
Related: Taoiseach says ‘Santa will find’ homeless children (Irish Times)
Minster for Children Katherine Zappone
Yesterday evening.
Just after 5.30pm.
Minister for Children Katherine Zappone released a press statement saying the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill, 2016 will not allow for adoptees to automatically access their birth information.
In a footnote to editors, Ms Zappone’s press release states:
The Minister’s legal advice is that there must be some protection of birth parents’ constitutional right to privacy reflected in the legislation.
There are two rights at play, the right to identity and the right to privacy, and legislation must seek to harmonise these rights.
However, this advice is contrary to the desire of advocates for unrestricted access to identity information and to birth certificates.
In the accompanying press release, the minister is quoted as saying:
“I would like to sincerely thank those who have given me their views and opinions on this matter and who have supported me in my efforts to seek consensus to progress these matters.
“I am personally deeply disappointed that it has not proved possible to reach a consensus on the complex and emotive issue of the release of birth information and that this issue must be set aside for now.
I hope this can be progressed in the future, but my priority, for now, is to move forward with those issues on which there is general consensus.”
The press release can be read in full here
Previously: The Adoption Myth
‘To Ensure That It Can’t Be Found’
Related: “We Have The Right To Know The History Of Our Incarcerations”
Boom!
at
Behold: the 2,000 year-old blast radius of N63A – a supernova remnant, still expanding. To wit:
As little as 2,000 years ago, light from a massive stellar explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) first reached planet Earth. The LMC is a close galactic neighbour of our Milky Way Galaxy and the rampaging explosion front is now seen moving out – destroying or displacing ambient gas clouds while leaving behind relatively dense knots of gas and dust. What remains is one of the largest supernova remnants in the LMC: N63A. Many of the surviving dense knots have been themselves compressed and may further contract to form new stars. Some of the resulting stars may then explode in a supernova, continuing the cycle. Featured here is a combined image of N63A in the X-ray from the Chandra Space Telescope and in visible light by Hubble. The prominent knot of gas and dust on the upper right — informally dubbed the Firefox — is very bright in visible light, while the larger supernova remnant shines most brightly in X-rays. N63A spans over 25 light years and lies about 150,000 light years away toward the southern constellation of Dorado
(Image NASA, ESA, Hubble, Chandra; Judy Schmidt)
Free At 3pm?
at
From top: Chair of the Public Accounts Committee Seán Fleming; clerk of the Dáil Peter Finnegan, a Komori offset printer; live link to today’s Public Accounts Committee meeting
This morning.
The Public Accounts Committee asked the clerk of the Dáil Peter Finnegan and representatives of the OPW to appear before the committee at 3pm to answer questions about the controversial Oireachtas printer.
It follows reports last night that the total cost of the printer has reached around €1.8million, €200,000 more than the €1.6million outlined by the Oireachtas two weeks ago.
It also follows the publication of Mr Finnegan’s report on the purchase of the Komori printing press, which is located in the basement of Kildare House.
Previously: “I Was Advised That The Estimated Cost Was €230,000”
Meanwhile…
The Department of Social Protection detected 23 cases of fraud 2018 and 16 this year to date, this amounted to €943,000 in savings the Public Accounts Committee has been told in correspondence #iestaff
— Elaine Loughlin (@Elaine_Loughlin) December 12, 2019
PAC chair Sean Fleming says it’s “not acceptable” that 10,000 children who are entitled to school meals are not getting food because schools have refused an offer to join the programme. He has asked the Dept of Education to follow up with schools and report back #iestaff
— Elaine Loughlin (@Elaine_Loughlin) December 12, 2019
The meeting can be watched in the link above or here.
Former Irish Naval Service patrol shop LÉ Aisling; Its new owner, Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, who has renamed the vessel ‘Dignity’.
This morning.
Further to the Irish Naval Service suspending its rescue missions in the Mediterranean earlier this year…
And its involvement in training the Libyan coastguard for the EU’s Operation Sophia in which asylum seekers fleeing Libya were being intercepted in the Mediterranean and being brought back to detention centres in Libya...
Colm Keena, in The Irish Times, reports:
In 2017, the State sold the decomissioned LÉ Aisling to a Dutch shipping broker for €110,000.
A year later, the Dutch company sold it to a company in United Arab Emirates for €473,000.
Almost immediately, the UAE company sold it to a company in Libya for €1.3million.
The vessel is now called Al Karama (Dignity), it’s been refitted with weapons and belongs to a “warlord” Khalifa Haftar.
Good times.
Previously: Meanwhile, On The Liffey
Pics: GalwayShips/Getty
Reinforcements for the #NightShift 👊💪 pic.twitter.com/Wksi1afMXb
— Irish Farmers’ Association (@IFAmedia) December 11, 2019
Last night.
Outside Dunnes Stores in Cornelscourt in Dublin 18.
Members of the Irish Farming Association hold a 24-hour protest over beef prices, following four similar 12-hour protests elsewhere in Ireland over the past week.
The protest outside the Dunnes Stores will end at 12 noon today.
IFA extends Dunnes depot demonstration to 24-hour blockade (Agriland)
Previously: For The Way We Live Today
Pic: IFA