Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan arrives at government buildings for a cabinet meeting yesterday

An environment safe and sustainable
Is something we know is attainable
But to reach this end
We’re not willing to spend
And this I find less than explainable

John Moynes

RollingNews

Behold: space jellyfish! dark streams of dust in the Orion Nebula. But what are they and where do they come from? Answer me, damn you! To wit:

This part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, M43, is the often imaged but rarely mentioned neighbour of the more famous M42. M42, seen in part to the upper right, includes many bright stars from the Trapezium star cluster. M43 is itself a star forming region that displays intricately-laced streams of dark dust — although it is really composed mostly of glowing hydrogen gas. The entire Orion field is located about 1600 light years away. Opaque to visible light, the picturesque dark dust is created in the outer atmosphere of massive cool stars and expelled by strong outer winds of protons and electrons.

(Image: Jari Saukkonen)

apod

This morning/afternoon.

Via New York Post

President Biden is being widely mocked on social media for running a “Truman Show presidency” after he was pictured speaking from a fake White House set that features a digital view of the Rose Garden in full bloom from a fake window behind him.

Twitter erupted after Biden was spotted sitting in front of the digital projection window on Wednesday as he held a meeting with business leaders and CEOs on the need to raise the debt ceiling.

Some ridiculed Biden for using a “literal game show set” as president, while others accused him of deliberately trying to deceive Americans into thinking he was in the White House.

Stephen Miller, a former senior adviser of President Donald Trump, claimed Biden only used the imitation White House set so he could read a script directly from a face-on monitor.

Biden mocked for ‘Truman Show presidency’ over fake White House set (New York Post)

Alternatively…

Conservatives online are continuing to push a conspiracy theory that President Joe Biden was in a “fake Oval Office” as they tried to spread accusations about his fitness for office. But in reality, he was just using a set in an auditorium across the street from the White House.

The “fake Oval Office” conspiracy tends to insinuate that Biden isn’t mentally fit to be president, or is not actually the president. It crops up frequently, most recently when Biden received his COVID-19 booster shot and yesterday when he held a meeting with business CEOs about the debt limit.

But the answer is much more simple: Biden was holding the meeting in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

The Biden ‘fake Oval Office’ conspiracy once again makes waves online (Daily Dot)

Getty/EPA

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney this afternoon

This afternoon.

Merrion Street, Dublin 2.

West Brit hits the fan.

Coveney to attend event marking NI centenary after President Higgins declined invitation (Independesnt.ie)

Meanwhile….

Um.

RollingNews

Above from left: Conor Keane (son of the late playwright John B Keane, who wrote Sive); Conor Doyle (godson of much-loved Dublin actor and comedian Jimmy O’Dea); Ellen Bonner of Riverdance; and Joe Conlan, Gaiety Pantomime Dame, with the An Post stamps celebrating 150 years of opening nights at the Gaiety

This afternoon.

King Street, Dublin 2.

An Post celebrates 150 years of opening nights at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre with a series of stamps that show scenes from Abdication’ (1948), ‘Dick Whittington’ (1957), ‘Riverdance’ (2017) and the Druid theatre company’s ‘Sive’ (2018) by John B. Keane.

Stamps available here

Photo: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

This afternoon.

Further to yesterday’s Liveline on RTÉ Radio One where host Joe Duffy berated Republic of Ireland forward Callum Robinson for not taking the jab…

…via Ewan MacKenna (full article at link below)

“This is not pub talk, it’s science,” howled Joe Duffy on Wednesday afternoon.

Thereafter, in a nonsensical hour about Callum Robinson who has had Covid twice, the conversation talked about how he wouldn’t get into Azerbaijan without being vaccinated (he has a Covid passport), how 15 months of vaccines have been great (vaccines began 10 months ago), how Robinson may really be a public figure to promote anti-vaxxers (what do we even put in these brackets), before Joe proudly told us that: “I respect his choice but if you’re not vaccinated you should stay in your bedroom”. (He also suggested we “take one for the team”, this in a year when he took home €392,494 while speaking to those losing everything and telling them we’re in it together.)

I get it.

Lie with dogs and catch fleas, but the problem with Liveline is that it not just captures much of the national mood, it creates and influences it. And while no doubt a hugely successful programme, that alone should not be the remit of the national broadcaster.

Can’t it do better? Sure, correct what is wrong, but do that on both sides rather than being a hustle through the brain-dead badlands, a proud strut through the carcasses of enlightenment.

For what little it’s worth, I think Robinson should get the vaccination. I’d advise anyone to, but advice and abuse are not the same thing. Like it or not, it is his choice, and even if it’s for the wrong reasons, the science remains. This is what’s been lacking throughout a testosterone fueled tearing apart of him. [more at link below]

Forgive Me RTÉ For I Have Sinned – It’s Been Two Months Since My Last Vaccination (Ewan MacKenna)

Yesterday: Callumny

RollingNew/Getty

This afternoon.

Barrack Street, Cork.

Via Irish Examiner:

Gardaí were at the scene this lunchtime awaiting the arrival of Garda scenes of crime experts. They will undertake an inspection of the discovery in situ in an effort to confirm that the skeletal remains are human and to establish whether the remains are historic or more recent.

Garda probe after discovery of possible human remains in former Cork pub (Irish Examiner)

Chief Executive of the National Treasury Management Agency Conor O’Kelly

This afternoon/

Public Accounts Committee hearing.

The Chief Executive of the National Treasury Management Agency Conor O’Kelly said that the Rainy Day Fund stood at €1.5 billion at its peak.

Via RTÉ:

However, all of the money was used during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“There is no funds in the Rainy Day Fund as we speak,” Mr O’Kelly told the PAC today.

Mr O’Kelly also said the NTMA oversaw loans to Aer Lingus of €150m during the pandemic, and is in talks with the airline to see if it needs more assistance.

The NTMA also loaned the the Dublin and Cork airports operator Daa €40m, he added.

Mr O’Kelly told the committee that Ireland borrowed just under €36 billion since the start of the pandemic at an average interest rate of 0.16%.

NTMA chief says Rainy Day Fund is empty (RTÉ)

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