Bjorn Phau of Germany returns a shot to Andy Roddick during a second round men’s singles match at Wimbledon. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
THESE ARE THE things you need to know as we round off the day in three easy steps:
THINGS WE LEARNED
#FLOODS Clonakilty’s town mayor said that the town was “like Venice” during the height of the floods last night. Heavy rain and swollen rivers brought devastation to the town, as well as the suburb of Douglas. The flood clean up in Cork and around the country is now well underway, with some business facing hundreds of thousands of euro worth of repairs. Take a look…
#CARERS The number of carers in Ireland rose by 23,000 according to the latest census figures, while more than half a million people are now claiming to have a disability, up from 393k in 2006.
#ABORTION Senator Ivana Bacik has written to the Advertising Standards Authority and the Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte to seek the establishment of a route for people to complain about the controversial Youth Defence ads, which bear slogans like “Abortion tears a life apart”. Youth Defence have said that Bacik’s criticism of the ads is an “odious abuse of taxpayer-funded privilege”.
#OBAMACARE The US Supreme Court today upheld a major part of Barack Obama’s historic healthcare law which ways that the requirement that most Americans have healthcare is constitutional. Confused about what it’s all about? The Atlantic has it all handily summed up in one paragraph. Meanwhile Buzzfeed reports that some people have made the drastic decision to move to Canada to escape Obamacare.
#CIRCUMCISION A German court has ruled that circumcising young boys constitutes grievous bodily harm, a decision that’s been criticised by Jewish and Islamic groups. Germany has now banned the practice when carried out on religious grounds.
#DOHERTY Sinn Féin’s finance spokesperson has been found not to have breached any rules regarding the use of his parliamentary allowance. He had been criticised for using around €8,000 to hire staff at his office, but officials at Leinster House have decided that because his travel costs for travelling between Donegal and Dublin would take up the entire travel allowance, he’s in the clear.
THINGS WE LOVED
- Funnyman Louis CK has proven that sometimes cutting out the middle man (or simply ‘The Man’) is the best way to go. Following his hugely successful experiment at Christmas to sell his latest live show directly to fans from his website, he’s now cut out Ticketmaster and sold tickets for his latest tour from the source without any fees or charges. He sold 100,000 tickets in 45 hours, which is not too shabby at all.
- This simple yet so very effective video of one particular subway station in New York with a wonky step had us giggling (except when the man carrying the toddler nearly fell. Then it wasn’t so funny).
Video uploaded by Dean Peterson
(AND SOMETHING WE DIDN’T LOVE THAT MUCH)
- If you’re a UPC customer you might have noticed some disruption to your service today. The company has said that it’s still working on the service issue and has apologised to customers. Some people took to Twitter to express their dismay:
THINGS WE SHARED
#CorkFloods and #Clonakilty trended on Twitter today following last nights deluge of rain which saw Clonakilty and Douglas under water, and so did #FliuchSake, putting a uniquely Irish twist on the dismal events of last night. Last time it was #WhatTheFliuch, and let’s hope we won’t need another one for a next time.
Residents took to Twitter and Facebook to post videos and pictures of flooding in their areas, like this one of Tesco in Douglas:
Image: @CoolStoraayBro
Finally, we had to stop cringing for just a second to share this, and then go back to cringing again…
Video uploaded by OireachtasRetortTV
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