manhole

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Photographer S. Morita captures the beauty of Japan’s stylised manhole covers – a phenomenon that apparently started back in 1985 when a high-ranking bureaucrat in the construction ministry hit on the idea of allowing municipalities to design their own, thereby making the high cost of sewage projects a little more palatable while encouraging taxpayers to take pride in their local area.

Nearly two decades on, with ongoing design competitions and much publicity, there are an estimated 6000 such sewage-related delights in place.

Hundreds more here.

colossal/agreenthoughtinagreenshade

survey

“We couldn’t work out if we should use the word Mam, Mum, Mom or Ma to promote our Mother’s Day campaign, so we decided to ask the people of Ireland. What started out as a bit of fun ended up giving us some pretty interesting insights in to Irish people’s relationships with their mothers”

Lulu O’Sullivan, Founder of Gifts Direct

GiftsDirect

The online survey ran from March  14 -19.

Thanks Ross O’Mullane

Cancer
“[The Irish Cancer Society] said the two charities had tried to arrest the decline in the performance of the lottery by looking for “innovative sales approaches”. Efforts were also made to “keep operational costs as low as possible”. The statement said the dominant position of the National Lottery and a cap on the prize money charity lotteries can award placed it at a competitive disadvantage.”

The Sunday Independent’s report yesterday of how a scratch card lottery run by a Rehab Group company – the Polio Fellowship Trust – and the Irish Cancer Society has recorded accumulated losses over the last 10 years totalling over €1.1million, despite selling over €8.8m worth of tickets. The two charities decided last November to close the lottery.

Scratch-card game didn’t make money in a decade (Shane Phelan, Sunday Independent)

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The South Africa Gaels from Pretoria in UCD, Dublin yesterday playing St Vincent’s.

The Gaels, coached for the match by former Dublin footballer and UCD Director of Sport, Brian Mullins (pic 3), are South Africa’s first GAA team. They face St Enda’s under lights at UCD on Tuesday at 8pm.

Previously: Meanwhile At UCD

Pics by Nick Bradshaw

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