At a recent Q&A session, actor Andy Serkis was asked whether Gollum was a fan of the Lord Of The Rings movies, prompting him to drop into (briefly NSFW) character.
Do not adjust your eyeballs.
“The passing of time is a fascinating concept which happens all around us, at every single moment of every single day. French photographer Laurent Dequick decided to capture these fleeting seconds in a series of photographs entitled Vibrations Urbaines. Each image is a collective sequence of multiple photographs, superimposed together to visually reflect the chaos and congestion of large urban areas”.
Minister for Health James Reilly has said a memorandum on planned abortion legislation will be brought to Cabinet next week and he hoped the new law could be produced before summer.
When asked when a new legal framework would be ready, he said: “I want it done as quickly as possible. I was hoping obviously that we could have something very substantial before Easter and that remains my hope.”
Asked if the planned law would be ready before the summer, he said: “I think in an ideal world that’s what I’d like to see but I mean I can’t foresee all the difficulties and potholes along the road.
Who can, Bottler? Who can?
Reilly hopes abortion law will be ready by summer (Mary Minihan, Marie O’Halloran, Irish Times)
(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)
Extremism
at
Just next to the Hellhammer three-pack briefs and Divine Heresy ankle socks.
(Hat tip: Ciaran lecool)
Barbara Cahill writes:
Special Olympics Team Ireland Floorball Team [above] after winning bronze at the Special Olympics world winter games in South Korea [today]. :-)
Follow the Ireland Special Winter Olympics team here
Previously: Meanwhile, At Dublin Airport.
David Murphy , RTE business correspondent writes:
The Irish are slipping into bad company. Tax on profits is 12.5% in Ireland. There are limited write-offs which allow companies to reduce their tax bills to an average effective tax rate of 11.9%, says Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton.
But some US multinationals are paying far lower rates. The reason these companies can build such aggressive tax avoidance strategies is because they exploit agreements between Ireland and other countries
…The authorities here are trying to convince other countries that Ireland is a low tax environment – not a tax haven. It is an important distinction. If all the US multinationals were paying 12.5% corporation tax there would not be a problem. But they are not.
The unanswered question is whether closing the loophole could result in some US multinationals quitting Ireland. If some did leave, it would mean the constant refrain that they came to Ireland because of our “young educated workforce” is hokum.
Oh.
Why Ireland Cannot Allow Multinationals Exploit Tax System (David Murphy, RTE)
Previously: How Google’s ‘Double Irish’ Tax Scheme Works
(Pic: Bloomberg)
The Lion Monument in Lucerne, Swtizerland – designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen and sculpted by Lukas Ahorn in 1820-21 – commemorates the massacre of Swiss Guards in 1792 during the French Revolution during the storming of the Tuileries Palace in Paris.
In his 1880 book A Tramp Abroad, Mark Twain called the work ”the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.” He continued:
The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff — for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. His head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang down the cliff and wave in the wind, and a clear stream trickles from above and empties into a pond at the base, and in the smooth surface of the pond the lion is mirrored, among the water-lilies.
Around about are green trees and grass. The place is a sheltered, reposeful woodland nook, remote from noise and stir and confusion — and all this is fitting, for lions do die in such places, and not on granite pedestals in public squares fenced with fancy iron railings. The Lion of Lucerne would be impressive anywhere, but nowhere so impressive as where he is.
Beyond mmf.
From The Gift Voucher Shop:
A baseless rumour that The Gift Voucher Shop (GVS), a subsidiary of An Post, is experiencing financial difficulties is totally without foundation and untrue.
In 2012, the company recorded a 14% increase in annual turnover to over €150 million which follows similar double digit growth in each of the past five years and it is on track for continued growth this year.
GVS would like to assure all its customers that One4all Gift Cards and Vouchers continue to be fully redeemable in over 5,300 retail outlets nationwide.
Thanks Kiera Doyle