Bystanders watch as a block of flats are demolished using controlled explosives in Glasgow earlier today (Photo: David Cheskin/PA Wire)

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

THINGS WE LEARNED

#ISRAEL: Israel has carried out its second air attack on Syria in two days, targeting a military research centre near the capital city Damascus. Tensions have escalated between the two countries as Israel has targeted weapons it says were bound for Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Syria has said the attack proves Israel is involved in “the conspiracy against Syria”.

#HOMELESS: A body found in a laneway in Ennis in Clare overnight is believed to be that of Josef Pavelka, a homeless man who came to national attention last month when it was discovered that he had been forced to sleep in public toilets in the town. A District Court judge had ordered the HSE to find accommodation for Pavelka, who was in his 50s and originally from the Czech Republic.

#CRASH: Ten months after a car crash which killed his 16-month-old son and unborn daughter, a 39-year-old Cork man has died of his injuries in hospital, RTE News reports.  Con Twomey and his wife Elber were seriously injured in the collision while on holidays in Devon in England last July. He had been on life support ever since the crash.

#POST OFFICES: Ireland’s 1,150 post offices are in danger of becoming extinct unless the government does more to support them, according to the Irish Postmasters’ Union, who say they have repeatedly asked the government for more business – such as water charges, motor tax renewals and hospital charges – to be put through post offices to prevent closures.

#TOXIC: One person has died and 49 have been injured after a train carrying highly toxic chemicals derailed and exploded in Belgium. Many of the victims were living some distance away from the scene of the accident but became ill from the toxic fumes released from the chemicals.

#APOLOGY: Harvard historian Niall Ferguson has apologised for what he has described as “stupid and tactless remarks” he made about John Maynard Kenyes. In an off-the-cuff remark at a conference, the academic suggested that Keynes didn’t think enough about what happens to future generations because he had no children and was gay.

THINGS WE LOVED

Dancers from the Irish National Youth Ballet rehearse ahead of their forthcoming shows with full orchestra at the Civil Theatre in Tallaght. (Photo: Karen Morgan)

• It costs $43,000 a year to attend, students get an iPad from when they enter its playschool, and teenagers who attend are given the chance to study abroad for a term in Beijing or Sao Paolo – but New York’s City newest and fanciest school has already been faced with a problem that it had never anticipated: the parents.
• “My father was a good man, a liberal who did his best” – Otto van Wachter was a Nazi, implicated in the deaths of tens of thousands of Jews; so how can his son refuse to condemn him?

THINGS WE SHARED

• Tweet of the day comes from the always interesting Solihull Police force in the West Midlands in England. We wouldn’t like to be in these two men’s shoes…

• Six inches of hair, 1.5 inches of nails, and almost 9lbs of skin – here’s just how much um, stuff your body produces in a year. Warning: you’ll either find this fascinating or gross:

(Video: BuzzFeedVideo/YouTube)

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