From top: RTÉ Television Centre; Minister for Communications Richard Bruton

This morning.

The Government has agreed to replace the TV licence fee with a “device independent broadcasting charge”.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Minister Bruton said the new system must be ‘robust’ and capable of addressing the rapidly changing media and technology landscape.

He said a working group set up to examine the issue had not established whether everyone with a smartphone or tablet would have to individually pay the charge, adding that those details had yet to be ‘worked out’.

A new five-year contract for the collection of the licence fee will be put out to public tender later this year….

Govt announces major reforms to TV licence fee (RTÉ)

Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

Behold: G292.0+1.8 – a fine young supernova 20,000 light years away toward the southern constellation Centaurus. So what are we looking at here?

Massive stars spend their brief lives furiously burning nuclear fuel. Through fusion at extreme temperatures and densities surrounding the stellar core, nuclei of light elements like Hydrogen and Helium are combined to heavier elements like Carbon, Oxygen, etc. in a progression which ends with Iron. So a supernova explosion, a massive star’s inevitable and spectacular demise, blasts back into space debris enriched in heavier elements to be incorporated into other stars and planets and people. This detailed false-colour x-ray image from the orbiting Chandra Observatory shows such a hot, expanding stellar debris cloud about 36 light-years across. […] Light from the inital supernova explosion reached Earth an estimated 1,600 years ago. Bluish colors highlight filaments of the mulitmillion degree gas which are exceptionally rich in Oxygen, Neon, and Magnesium. This enriching supernova also produced a pulsar in its aftermath, a rotating neutron star remnant of the collapsed stellar core. The stunning image was released as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

(Image: NASA/CXC/SAO)

apod

‘sup?

This afternoon.

Mount Usher Garden, Avoca Cafe, Ashford, County Wicklow.

Models Corina Coughlan (top left) and Aine Dwan (above) launch the bovine-heavy ‘Eoin O’Connor at Tipperary Crystal Collection’.

Eoin is known for his brightly-painted cows. which will now feature on cups, place mats and whatnot from Tipperary Crystal, who say:

From concept to reality, the collection was over a year in development and required extensive input and collaboration between Eoin and our internal design team.’

Dresses  by Synan O’Mahony.

Update:

All better.

Leon Farrell /Photocall Ireland

Dubh Lee – Virtue

The debut single from the Dublin-based, Tullamore, County Offaly native is a smart fusion of folk and pop packed with words of wisdom.

The video by Declan Dooley is also a work of art, and follows Dubh Lee as she goes on an Offaly fraught adventure in the Slieve Bloom mountains with her mannequin paramour… but there’s a twist in the tale.

Dubh Lee writes:

‘The song details the mental battle between love for another person and one’s self-respect.’

Nick says: Never trust a mannequin.

Dubh Lee

Ah now.

This afternoon.

Assistant Garda Commissioner David Sheahan with Moyagh Murdock, Chief Executive of the Road Safety Authority (RSA)  unveiling a road safety progress review, covering the period January 1 – July 29, 2019… with the visual aid of a Northern-Ireland-may-not-even-exist-for-all-we-care map.

*shakes fist*

Leah Farrell/RollingNews

Meanwhile…

National Road Policing unit Garda Mark Murphy and actor Conor Creaby this afternoon

This afternoon.

Store Street, Dublin.

The “Mobility App” will also allow individual gardaí to process fixed charge notices, cutting down on back office paperwork and allowing gardaí to spend more time in the community…

…The app can also add Eircodes to addresses using secure web services. Some 2,000 individual gardaí are to be designated to use the app by the end of this year.

What could possibly go wrong?

New Garda mobile app ‘will revolutionise roads policing’ (Irish Times)

Leah Farrell/RollingNews


The result of an attempt by Canadian animator Yves Paradis to create one unscripted, improvised scene every week over the course of a year.

Pleasingly rendered in modern minimal style, the simple concept of a character pushing a big cube through the desert transforms into an increasingly complex sci-fi adventure.

shortoftheweek

This afternoon.

Ballybrit Racecourse, County Galway.

Extravagantly-hatted ‘revellers’ – including former Miss World Rosanna Davidson (above right) – attend Ladies Day at the Galway Races.

A winner will be announced at 3pm.

All pics via Teresa Mannion

Pics: See ALL the style from Ladies Day at the Galway Races (Evoke)

Meanwhile…

Fight!

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