A woman and child walk watch a dog sculpture in Beijing, China. (Ng Han Guan/AP)

HERE ARE THE things we learned, loved and shared today as we round off the day in three easy steps.

THINGS WE LEARNED

#PENALTY POINTS: Alan Shatter has said he revealed Mick Wallace’s encounter with Gardaí last year in an effort to maintain public trust in the Garda force. Shatter was making a special Dáil statement on the issue, after Enda Kenny once again said his justice minister had no reason to resign.

#CORPORATION TAX: A US senate committee has heard that Apple’s use of Ireland as a corporate ‘tax haven’ is leaving US children without education. An influential committee heard evidence today from Apple executives about its tax structure. Back home, the Oireachtas finance committee is to hold its own inquiry into the levels of corporation tax paid by large companies.

#ABORTION: The Oireachtas’s health committee has been holding the last of its sessions on the government’s draft abortion law, where there was some feisty exchanges between TCD Professor William Binchy and former Supreme Court justice Catherine McGuinness. Read all about them in our rolling liveblog.

#PUBLIC PAY: Brendan Howlin says a series of agreements have been reached with trade unions on securing savings in the public pay bill. The sector-specific deals will now be put to the membership of each individual union, as a substitution to the failed Croke Park 2 deal.

#BIN LADEN: A court in the US has ruled that intelligence photographs of a deceased Osama Bin Laden can be kept classified. The court said revealing the pictures could pose a threat to classified intelligence methods.

#SCAM: The Jack & Jill Foundation has refunded €130,000 in donations to the holders of credit cards whose details were used for scam payments. Scammers used the card details to make small donations to the charity, testing to see if the cards were still ‘live’ – before then going on to spend the cards’ funds elsewhere.

Athletes compete in the men’s 3000m steeplechase during the IAAF World Challenge competition, held in China’s ‘Birds Nest’ National Stadium in Beijing. (Alexander F. Yuan/AP)

THINGS WE LOVED

• We’re not sure if ‘loved’ is the right word for this. Erno-Erik Raitanen took these photos by taking bacteria from his own body, and cultivating them on photographic film. The results are colourful and also a bit creepy.
• Here’s the new 1 World Trade Center, looking pretty damn snazzy in New York’s summery sunshine.
• No doubt you’ll have heard of the all-conquering CoderDojo – a project aiming to teach computer programming and coding skills to children. Four students from IT Blanchardstown have spent the last year making this short documentary about it, and it’s lovely:

(YouTube: coderdojo)

THINGS WE SHARED

• You’ve seen Alan Shatter’s election leaflet where he compares himself to William Shatner, right? Or Simon Cowell? Or a crooner? (Thanks to the excellent Irish Election Literature blog, who also dug up this one from 1987…)
• Speaking of striking photos: we really enjoyed this Reddit thread about the photos that would be the most baffling if humanity was to lose all knowledge of Photoshop, but retain its images. Our personal favourite is the bearsharktopus.
• Finally this evening, here’s a quick game for you: can you name three Germans?

(YouTube: djflula·)

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