Not paintings, but the dreamy, otherworldly flower photography of Sunnyvale, California-based Xuebing Du – surreally lit at full bloom but only by the natural light of the sun.
Australian boffins using using ‘citizen science observations’ estimate there are about 50 billion individual birds in the world
Some scientists put out the word
They wanted to count every bird
And it adds up to fifty
Billion, that’s nifty
But it strikes me as rather absurd
MORE to follow.
Not So Fast
at
This afternoon.
Going somewhere?
“I think it’s more towards the end of the summer that it’s more likely around August at the earliest before we’ll be saying to people that it’s okay to engage in non essential international trave.,”
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar earlier.
Meanwhile…
“No international travel until August” says Varadkar, as 23 international flights arrive in Dublin today. pic.twitter.com/KSLvMUQLAd
— Féach News (@_FeachNews) May 17, 2021
Good times.
‘August at earliest for holidays abroad’ – Tánaiste Leo Varadkar (Independent.ie)
Earlier: Something To Declare
Adrian Crowley – Bread And Wine
“So how’s life in the city of lost poets?”
Dublin-based alt.crooner Adrian Crowley (top) ambles down the mellow brick road with guest vocalist Katell Keineg in tow on the second single from his new album The Watchful Eye Of The Stars.
He describes the video as “a cross between The Wickerman and Bosco”.
Nick says: Wine, animation and song.
World Freedom Day march on Saturday in Dublin
🔴 Ministers have warned vaccine refusers are the “principal threat” to the final lifting of lockdown restrictions on June 21https://t.co/oRCo5ZsinU
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) May 17, 2021
This morning/afternoon.
🚨 | NEW: There is a moral debate taking place in government with some arguing that they have a duty to prevent deaths among those who refused the vaccine, and others privately suggesting that vaccine refusers cannot hold back the rest of the country, even if some die@politico
— Politics For All (@PoliticsForAlI) May 17, 2021
Gulp.
Earlier…
"We've got to combat vaccine hesitancy."
Former prime minister Tony Blair says 'part of the problem' with tackling COVID is that some people who are entitled to a COVID vaccine are not getting them.
Get the latest on #COVID19: https://t.co/35akzX3gdX pic.twitter.com/2ZdvyrxvB0
— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 17, 2021
Yikes.
Anti-vaxxers ‘are main threat to final lockdown freedoms’, minister warns *Metro)
Earlier: Your Call
Pic: KN
Shucks
at
Behold: what looks like a cosmic oyster filled with pearls but is, in fact, the star cluster NGC 602. To wit:
Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies 5 million year young star cluster NGC 602. […] Fantastic ridges and swept back shapes strongly suggest that energetic radiation and shock waves from NGC 602‘s massive young stars have eroded the dusty material and triggered a progression of star formation moving away from the cluster’s center. At the estimated distance of the Small Magellanic Cloud, the featured picture spans about 200 light-years, but a tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are also visible in this sharp multi-colored view. The background galaxies are hundreds of millions of light-years or more beyond NGC 602.
(Image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) – ESA/Hubble Collaboration)
