News Ireland daily BLOG by Donie

Wednesday 10th August 2016

The cost of borrowing continues to fall for Ireland

   

Ireland’s cost of borrowing has continued to fall, after the yield on Irish 10-year bonds hit record low levels yesterday.

Peripheral euro zone bonds have become popular recently as economic uncertainty has led to an easing of monetary policy globally

A scarcity of bonds – highlighted by the Bank of England’s (BoE) inability to meet its bond-purchase target – has driven interest rates on government debt to record lows across the board.

In the week prior to the Brexit vote on 23 June, the interest rate on Irish 10-year bonds stood at 0.84%.

Yesterday that yield on Irish debt fell to a record low 0.37%, and today it is lower again at 0.34%.

Peripheral euro zone bonds have become popular recently as economic uncertainty has led to an easing of monetary policy globally.

Now further demand has been placed on euro zone bonds after the BoE failed to find enough willing sellers to meet its bond purchase target for the first time since it started buying government bonds in 2009.

German 10-year yields have fallen further into negative territory at -0.1%, while the Netherlands bond yield rate is also negative at -0.01%.

This has seen investors move towards peripheral euro zone bonds, such as Ireland, which would have a relatively higher rate of return.

Investors seeking alternatives

Spooked by the end of a 30-year bond bull run and bouts of money printing which have pushed stock values out of kilter with economic reality, high-profile investors are turning to fine wines, classic cars and jewels, research and index data show.

Even legendary bond investor and ex-Pimco boss Bill Gross said last week that he now favoured real assets like land and gold over more traditional investment classes.

This growing interest saw rare coins, collectable jewellery and classic cars join fine wine among the top performers in the year to end-March, the latest Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index showed.

A record breaking six months for Irish tourism with half a million extra visitors to Irish shores

More than half a million extra visitors to Irish shores for first half of the year…

    

Playing host to the likes of Game of Thrones and Star Wars helped Ireland achieve massive tourism growth in the first half of the year, with 507,400 extra visitors descending on the Emerald Isle than the same period in 2015.

Irish tourism’s best ever first-half performance saw the island welcome 4.4 million tourists, marking a mammoth 13% increase year-on-year.

Aside from the lure of screen tourism, air access, positive publicity and a global marketing campaigning were cited as contributing to the boom.

Tourism Ireland confirmed that revenue was also up 18% for the first quarter. The majority of tourists came from Britain and North America, while trips from mainland Europe were also on the rise.

Ireland now accounts for one in 10 of all American visitors to Europe.

There are 40,000 additional people employed in the tourism sector compared with five years ago.

Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said that hotels and other service providers have to continue to do their part to attract people here:

“The industry have to offer excellent value for money. Not be as good as our competitors; we have to be better.

“The good news is that if you look back at the actual statistics, in 1999… 3% of[British visitors] said Ireland was poor value for money. By 2009 that was 43%, and by 2015 that was back to single digits.

“I think we have to sustain and maintain those very positive value for money numbers.”

There were 16% more visitors from the UK in the first half, and Tourism Ireland is set to target that market with an extensive programme of promotions this autumn to boost off-peak business and mitigate for a weakened sterling following the Brexit vote.

Currency movements mean that Eurozone trips are now roughly 10% more expensive for British holiday makers.

Data protection chief Dixon must not distance herself from complainants

Disengaging from individuals could open Ireland to a sanction by European courts

   

In a recent speech, The data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon referred to some solicitors as “digital ambulance chasers”.

In a recent speech, Irish Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon set out her perspectives on data protection supervision – putting her on a collision course with the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the European Union.

At the Irish Centre for European Law annual Data Protection Conference, Commissioner Dixon expressed frustration at the lack of clear objectives for data protection and a failure to detail the harms it is designed to mitigate.

The commissioner went on to criticise the large number of complaints received by her office which, she said, were really proxies for disputes between different parties and had only a marginal connection with data protection issues.

Solicitors were singled out as “digital ambulance chasers” for bringing volumes of complaints of little apparent merit and using subject access requests for fishing expeditions in litigation.

Ms Dixon made it clear that she doesn’t think she should be obliged to consider every complaint received by her office and that she thinks the resources currently committed to investigating individual complaints would be better used examining systemic data protection issues.

So, should – or indeed can – the commissioner distance herself from individual complainants?

In my view, she cannot and should not.

Missed opportunity

To do so would not only require an amendment to European law, which guarantees such a right, it would also be a missed opportunity to engage with individuals in order to close the apparent gap between the general nature of data protection rules and the public’s understanding of the protections that it offers.

In disengaging from individuals, the commissioner would miss an essential aspect of data protection supervision, inevitably resulting in a standard of data protection supervision in Ireland below that set by European law.

Consequently, such a move could open Ireland to a sanction by the European courts.

To see why, it must be understood that data protection touches on every aspect of our lives – as consumers buying goods and services, citizens participating in a democratic society and as neighbours in our communities.

Data protection owes a lot to the experience of many millions of Europeans who lived in authoritarian communist regimes.

It values individual protection over pure self-interest, by setting moral boundaries to how our personal data may be used.

However, these boundaries are always specific to individual circumstances and can change over time. Crucially, data protection law doesn’t lend itself to absolute rules or codified, measurable objectives.

As such, the progressive nature of data protection law brings it into conflict with the conservative free market view that personal data is just another commodity that can be traded for profit.

There are similar conflicts with state bureaucracies looking for easy ways to exert control or deliver privatised public services.

The obligations on data protection supervisors, when hearing individual complaints, were spelled out by the Court of Justice of the European Union in the well-known Google Spain case, which concerned the so-called right to be forgotten, (i.e. the right of individuals to have certain links removed from internet searches on their names).

The court first noted that everyone has a right to make a complaint to an independent supervisor, such as our Data Protection Commissioner.

It then went on to find that interference with data protection rights, if sufficiently serious, cannot be justified on purely economic grounds but only with reference to other fundamental rights such as the right to freedom of expression.

The law is very vague?

Critically, in making a complaint, an individual is not required to demonstrate that they have been prejudiced.

Finally, the court stressed the importance of context. It noted publication by a search engine of personal data already legally published on the internet may nevertheless interfere with an individual’s rights.

Similarly, publication of personal data may cease to be justified with the passage of time.

So, if the law is vague and context dependent, how can the use of personal data be regulated and why are individual complaints so important?

Data protection places a high value on individual protection balanced only against other fundamental rights.

To regulate at the standards demanded of European law, a data protection supervisor must embrace the progressive ideals of this moral framework and engage in empathic dialogue with individuals to build a common shared understanding of data protection norms.

It is only through stepping into the shoes of individual data subjects that data protection supervisors can really give effect to the individual balancing of interests that is demanded.

Trivialising complainants and attacking their advisors is not the way forward.

If resources are truly an issue then Ms Dixon needs to press the State to fullfil its obligation to provide them.

Dialogue with individuals rather than distance is what is required.

It would be a serious mistake to remove the individual right to complain to the commissioner’s office.

This is the amount of exercise you should be doing every day

    

Reduce the risk of breast and bowel cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke with more exercise, 

The minimum recommended amount of exercise should be increased, researchers have said after a new study found that more exercise can drastically lower a person’s risk of five serious diseases.

Exceeding the current recommended minimum levels of exercise each week can significantly reduce the risk of breast and bowel cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke, experts found.

At present, the World Health Organisation recommends that people conduct at least “600 metabolic equivalent minutes (MET minutes)” of physical activity – the equivalent of 150 minutes each week of brisk walking or 75 minutes per week of running.

Researchers from the US and Australia looked into how much exceeding these levels can reduce one’s risk of the five common chronic diseases.

Their study, published in the British Medical Journal, examined 174 studies published between 1980 and 2016 which looked at the associations between total physical activity and at least one of the diseases.

Having higher levels of physical activity was significantly associated with a reduced risk in the diseases.

The study found two phased reductions in the risk of the five conditions – quick drops in the risk from 600 to 4,000 MET minutes of physical activity per week followed by slow but steady reductions from 4,000 to 10,000 MET minutes each week.

Most health gains occurred when people conducted 3,000 to 4,000 MET minutes per week, they found.

The authors said that 3000 MET minutes each week can be achieved by climbing the stairs for 10 minutes, vacuuming for 15 minutes, gardening for 20 minutes, running for 20 minutes, and walking or cycling for transportation 25 minutes on a daily basis.

“The findings of this study showed that a higher level of total physical activity is strongly associated with a lower risk of breast cancer, colon cancer, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, and ischemic stroke, with most health gains occurring at a total activity level of 3000-4000 MET minutes/week,” the authors wrote.

The crow who amazed the world by bending wire was simply using natural behaviour, 

Remember that crow who astonished the world by bending a straight piece of wire back in 2002?

      

Scientists finally have an explanation for that. They say the bird was simply acting out behaviour in her species’ natural repertoire.

Betty bent a straight piece of garden wire into a neat hook to lift a food-baited bucket from a vertical tube in a laboratory at the University of Oxford in 2002.

At the time, it was known that New Caledonian crows manufacture tools from twigs in the wild, but it seemed highly unlikely that this involved bending.

The resulting paper from the experiment suggested that Betty had spontaneously come up with a clever solution after understanding the experimental task.

This shook the field of comparative cognition and was regarded as one of the most compelling demonstrations of intelligence in a non-human animal.

But recent field experiments by biologists at the University of St Andrews have found that tool bending is part of New Caledonian crows’ natural behaviour.

Dr Christian Rutz was leader of the project, the findings of which are published in Royal Society Open Science.

“We couldn’t believe our eyes,” Dr Rutz said.

“Most birds trapped sticks underfoot before bending the tool shaft by bill, but one also pushed tools against the logs to flex them, and another wedged them upright into holes before pulling the shaft sideways, just as Betty had done.

“It turns out, the twigs that wild crows select for making their tools are pliable.

“Our study is a powerful reminder of the importance of basic natural history research.

“When my Oxford colleagues studied Betty’s cognitive abilities almost 15 years ago, very little was known about how these birds make and use tools in their natural tropical habitat.

“Our discovery of tool bending in wild New Caledonian crows has come as a complete surprise, and was the result of patient field research.”

The researchers provided the wild-caught crows with juicy treats hidden in wooden logs, as well as their preferred plant material to manufacture tools.

New Caledonian crows live in the remove tropical archipelago of New Caledonia, South Pacific, where the research for the study took place.

Birds were briefly kept in field aviaries before being released back into the wild.

Dr Rutz said the researchers were “absolutely over the moon” when the birds began making and using tools in their field aviaries.

Some of the crows vigorously bent their twig tools during processing in the same manner as Betty had bent wire in the Oxford experiment.

This time, however, bent tools were not required to solve the task.

James St Clair, report co-author, said: “Our observations raise the question of why wild crows would bend their stick tools as a matter of course.

“We believe a curved tool is advantageous, because the bird can position it in its bill so that the tool-tip is bang in the middle of the field of binocular vision.

“This should improve tool control during foraging.”

News Ireland daily BLOG by Donie

Saturday 27th February 2016

Marc MacSharry tops poll & on course to win his father Ray’s old seat in the Sligo-Leitrim constituency

   

Early indications suggest Fianna Fáil senator Marc MacSharry is on course to win his father Ray’s old seat in the Sligo-Leitrim constituency and has topped the poll. Mr MacSharry was polling strongly in the early boxes opened from the Sligo town area.

John Perry’s director of elections has accused Fine Gael of conducting an arrogant campaign which did not resonate in rural Ireland. The former minister of State John Perry  just got 7% of first preferences – half of the vote he received in 2011

Mr Perry has been one of the biggest Fine Gael casualties to date. He took a successful High Court challenge to be included on the Fine Gael ticket, but has polled the worst of the three party candidates and has conceded that he will not be re-elected.

His vote in the Sligo-Leitrim constituency has been more than halved from his 2011 performance when he topped the poll.

Mr Perry was not present this afternoon at the count in the Clarion Hotel in Sligo.

Instead, director of elections Thomas Walsh said the defeated former small business minister was “bitterly disappointed” and neither he nor the rest of the party had forseen how bad things would be.

Mr Walsh maintained the “keep the recovery going” mantra did not transfer to rural Ireland.

Mr Perry has conceded his seat after polling very poorly in the Sligo Leitrim constituency.

Mr Perry, who fought a court battle to be included on the Fine Gael ticket, received just 7 per cent of the first preference votes. He is trailing in seventh place, according to the final tallies.

His first preference vote of 4,298 is less than half of the 8,663 votes he received when topping the poll in 2011.

He was well behind his constituency colleagues, Leitrim-based Gerry Reynolds (6,505) and the other outgoing Fine Gael TD Tony McLoughlin(6,083).

The big winner in the sprawling constituency is Fianna Fáil’s Senator Marc MacSharry who will top the poll with 8,763 votes, according to the tallies. He is certain of a seat.

Top candidates

The only other certainties are that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin will get one seat each. The fourth seat will go to one of those parties. None of the Independents in this sprawling constituency have garnered enough votes to be in with a chance of election.

Leading candidates in order of first preferences are Marc MacSharry (8,763), Gerry Reynolds (6,505), Tony McLoughlin (6,083), Sinn Féin councillorsMartin Kenny (6,079) and Chris MacManus (4,721).

Former TD Declan Bree was the best of the Independents with 3,176 first preferences followed by Sligo Cllr Marie Casserley with 2,675 votes.

It was a disappointing election too for Labour’s Senator Susan O’Keeffe who polled just 1,803 votes. In 2011 she received 4,553 first preferences and came close to winning a seat.

Some 18 candidates stood in what is one of the biggest constituencies by geography in the country – comprising all of Sligo and Leitrim, but also including south Donegal and west Cavan.

Currency fears haunt Irish business

    

This is panning out to be a very tricky year for Irish exporters, as slowing international economic growth is being laced with extreme currency movements, led by the British pound falling under the pressure of an EU referendum now scheduled for June 23.

However, not all of the sterling fall can be loaded onto UK prime minister David Cameron’s commitment to an in-or-out referendum on the EU, or his failure to get Boris Johnson inside the tent.

The unexpected under-performance of the UK economy since the start of 2016 and the Bank of England’s delaying tactics on interest rate increases and lukewarm promises on more quantitative easing to support economic growth have also taken their toll.

Today, the sterling to euro exchange rate is down about 12% since November, which in many instances will have completely wiped out Irish exporters’ profit margins.

However, exporters may be faced with even more pain if initial sentiment supporting an exit grows.

Many international banking forecasts are indicating a further 10% to 20% slump in the value of sterling.

We will once again be looking at the spectre of trading ghosts of the years 2007 to 2009, when sterling fell by 30%, exporter sales to the UK slumped, and profitability and jobs were lost.

Of course, if over the next few months there is a clear shift in sentiment towards remaining within the EU, the situation is likely to change rapidly.

The consensus amongst foreign exchange currency dealers right now seems to indicate a return to euro to sterling rate of 70 pence, which was the average last year, if the UK commits to stay in the EU.

Exchange rate volatility will have numerous implications for Irish exporters, once the honeymoon period is over and debtor’s payments protected by forward currency contracts have been used up.

Of even greater concern to Irish exporters is if UK voters decided in June to exit the EU.

There are a number of scenarios independent think tanks, including the ESRI, have highlighted showing that Britain would struggle to maintain trade links with EU members and would give up 30% trade growth if it left the 28-nation bloc.

Some of the negative consequences are undoubtedly arising from the Scottish Nationalist Party’s declaration to push again for independence, in the event of the UK voting to exit the EU.

And there is the unique Irish prospect of the North outside the EU with the rest of the country within.

However, perhaps the biggest trading loses will come in the City of London, where the London financial services sector is by far the biggest centre for foreign exchange trading of the euro, a position it could not possible expect to retain if it was outside the EU.

This exit process is likely to take two years, which will stretch the trading skills of both Irish sellers and UK buyers, particularly if international forecasters’ expectations are right and sterling falls by a further 10% to 20% against the euro.

The UK is the single largest market for our rapidly growing services export sector, buying €23bn of computer software, financial services, insurance services, and accountancy and management consultancy services last year.

And, yes, there is also strong exposure for our agri-food and drink exporters, but it is the much smaller exposure of €4.1bn.

And of course there is exposure by the pharmaceutical exporters of €3.9bn and the computer and machinery exporters of €2.5bn as well as the many other small business exporters who export €3.2bn of their goods to the UK.

A UK outside the EU, a fragmented UK, and a much reduced economic UK will, without a doubt, be catastrophic for Ireland’s export industries.

However, it will still be an important market for Ireland, even if there is uncertainty in regulatory, currency and movement of goods and people.

For many companies both across the manufacturing sector and the various services industries in Ireland, the unsavoury option may be forced upon them to open UK offices and manufacturing facilities to retain market share, with the inevitable loss of jobs.

Carrots can help cut breast cancer risk by 60%

A new study has found that eating carrots regularly can slash your risk of developing breast cancer by 60%.

    

A new study has found that eating carrots regularly can slash your risk of developing breast cancer by 60%.

The research found women with high levels of vitamins called carotenes, which can also be found in vegetables like spinach and red peppers, in their blood faced a lower risk of developing certain types of breast cancer,

Richard Berks, senior research communications officer at Breast Cancer Now, said that people have long known that a healthy diet, carrots included, can help to lower your risk of breast cancer because it helps to maintain a healthy weight.

Berks noted that while it’s really important to eat vegetables as part of a balanced diet, there is unfortunately no such thing as a superfood when it comes to breast cancer risk.

He added “Everyone can reduce their risk of breast cancer and many other diseases through healthy lifestyle choices – such as maintaining a healthy weight, having a varied and balanced diet, being more active, and limiting your alcohol intake.”

Obesity is not good for memory

British Researchers Find

    

Excess bodyweight not only creates physical health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease, but it increases the risk of psychological health problems, such as depression and anxiety, a new study has found.

Researchers in the United Kingdom have found a link between overweight and poorer memory. Overweight young adults may have poorer episodic memory, which can be defined as an ability to recall past events, according to the study conducted by the University of Cambridge.

The study, published in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, tested 50 participants aged 18-35, with body mass indexes (BMIs) ranging from 18 through to 51.

Researchers found a link between high body mass index (BMI) and poorer performance on a test of episodic memory. The participants were given a memory test, where they were asked to hide items around complex scenes across two ‘days’. They were then asked to remember which items they had hidden, where they had hidden them, and when they were hidden.

Excess bodyweight may be associated with changes to the structure and function of the brain and its ability to perform certain cognitive tasks optimally.

“In particular, obesity has been linked with dysfunction of the hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in memory and learning, and of the frontal lobe, the part of the brain involved in decision making, problem solving and emotions, suggesting that it might also affect memory; however, evidence for memory impairment in obesity is currently limited,” according to a statement by the University of Cambridge.

Obesity is a growing problem around the world. In UK, around 60% of adults are overweight or obese. This number is likely to grow to approximately 70% by 2034.

Researchers noted that further research is necessary to establish whether the results of this study can be generalized to overweight individuals in general, and to episodic memory in everyday life rather than in experimental conditions.

The study was funded by the Medical Research Council and Girton College, University of Cambridge, and the James S McDonnell Foundation.

Nothing to fear except fear itself & there is also Wolves and Bears

    

By terrorizing island raccoons, scientists finally confirm that large predators can affect their prey through fear alone.

In the Gulf Islands, a short ferry ride south of Vancouver, there lives a population of distinctly un-raccoon-like raccoons. Their mainland cousins are nocturnal animals that stick to forested areas but these island residents are active throughout the day, wandering out in the tidal flats, far away from the nearest trees. And unlike normal raccoons, they forage intently, rarely raising their heads to search for danger. “If a predator came along, they’d be screwed,” says Liana Zanette from the University of Western Ontario. “They seem completely fearless.”

Their boldness is justified. Around a century ago, people wiped out all the large predators on the islands, including bears, pumas, and wolves. Their only remaining threat is the domestic dog. For Zanette, this utopia of fearless raccoons was the perfect setting for testing how fear shapes the natural world.

Predators kill, obviously. But even without baring a tooth or lifting a claw, they can affect their prey. Their very presence, manifesting through tracks, smells, growls and glimpses, produces a state of vigilance, apprehension, and stress. From their prey’s point of view, there will be safe areas where lines of sight are long, and danger zones where hiding places are more common and escape is trickier. The result is a landscape of fear a psychological topography that exists in the minds of prey, complete with mountains of danger and valleys of safety.

This concept came to attention in the 1990s, when gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park after having been exterminated seven decades prior. Ecologists showed that the park’s elk would spend so much time watching out for the re-emergent wolves that they spent less time eating and sired fewer young. They died in numbers way beyond what the wolves were actually killing, and their losses rippled throughout Yellowstone. The trees they ate grew taller, providing more wood for beavers and nesting sites for songbirds. The entire park changed, and all thanks to fear of the big, bad wolf.

Arthur Middleton said, “This story—that wolves fixed a broken Yellowstone by killing and frightening elk—is one of ecology’s most famous … But there is a problem with the story: It’s not true.” Follow-up studies suggested that the elk aren’t as afraid of the wolves as previously thought, and that other factors could have led to the elk declines including humans and drought and bears, oh my. And this dispute has fueled a broader controversy about whether it was a good idea to reintroduce the wolves at all, and whether it’s worth “re-wilding” other areas with other large predators that once patrolled them.

Meanwhile, the landscape of fear concept has since moved beyond correlative observations of wolves and elk, and into the world of experiments. In 2011, Zanette showed that song sparrows in the Gulf Islands raise 40 percent fewer chicks if they hear the calls of hawks, owls, and other predators through speakers—even if their nests are surrounded by protective nets and fences. A year later, Dror Hawlena showed that spiders with glued mouthparts can still terrify grasshoppers enough to change their metabolic rates, the chemical composition of their bodies, and the amount of nutrients they return to the soil when they die.

These studies unambiguously showed fear could affect populations and landscapes, but spiders and hawks are a far cry from the wolves, lynx, and bears at the heart of re-wilding debates. Zanette wanted evidence that these large carnivores could trigger the same kinds of effects that she saw among her songbirds. Hence: the raccoons.

News Ireland daily BLOG by Donie

Wednesday 7th October 2015

November general election most likely as Kenny set to reveal party’s key pledge

Radical welfare changes on payments to benefit working families, says Taoiseach Kenny.

 Enda & Joan joined at the hips?   

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, who is leaning strongly towards calling a November general election, will tonight unveil a key element of Fine Gael’s manifesto by pledging no one will receive more in welfare payments than they could earn at work.

Mr Kenny’s decision to announce the “working family payment” plan at the Dublin Chamber of Commerce annual dinner will further fuel speculation he intends to call a general election shortly after the budget.

It means a November election is now very much on the cards but the precise date will depend on the timetable for getting the Finance Bill and the Social Welfare Bill through the Dáil.

Officials in the Department of Finance have already been told to draw up a slimmed down version of the Finance Bill giving effect to the budget changes that can be passed quickly through the Dáil.

Kenny’s speech?

In his speech tonight Mr Kenny will pledge to change the welfare system to ensure people at work can be sure of being better off than if they were on welfare. A similar commitment was included in the British Conservative Party’s successful general election platform earlier this year.

A new “working family payment” will be aimed in particular at families with one or more children.

Mr Kenny will outline how it will be targeted at low-income families by supplementing, on a graduated basis, the income of a household while at the same time incentivising more hours and full-time work.

A key feature of the payment will be to better align it with existing jobseeker supports aimed at creating a seamless transition from welfare to work for families while removing many of the welfare traps facing families with existing schemes such as the family income supplement.

The Taoiseach will outline why, in his opinion, such a scheme is needed.

“It is clear that the lack of a job in Ireland is by far and away the leading cause of inequality in our society. There are still far too many traps that lock parents in particular into welfare dependency. In many cases for couples with children work simply does not pay.

A radical approach.

“This is why the next government needs to adopt a far more radical approach if we are to successfully help jobless households back into work.

“For these reasons I expect the theme of radical welfare reform, along with lowering the tax burden on low- and middle-income workers, to make work pay will be a key election issue,” he is due to say.

The Taoiseach will also outline why he believes the next government needs to do more for households trapped in a cycle of poverty in which nobody is working. He will claim the “working family payment” will be the helping hand up on to the career ladder for many unemployed parents.

Tánaiste Joan Burton is strongly opposed to an early election. A meeting of the parliamentary Labour party last night heard a “unanimous” preference from TDs and Senators for an election next spring.

At the meeting, Ms Burton repeated her position that the election should be held next year. TDs and Senators told the meeting it was imperative the banking inquiry complete its work and the legislation to give effect to public sector pay rises agreement was passed.

“There was a real sense of frustration that there is a feeding frenzy around November,” said one TD.

“It is starting to undermine the image of a unified and coherent Government. There is a real feeling the Taoiseach should come out and talk to Joan. It is starting to look embarrassing to us at this stage.”

Thousands apply for grant without paying their water bills

Alan Kelly asks Irish people not to ‘pull a fast one’ over the new water conservation payment

  

At least tens of thousands of people have applied for the water conservation grant without having paid their water bills, an analysis of the figures shows.

The water conservation grant amounts to €100 and was introduced by the Government to enable households to “adopt a more environmentally friendly approach” to water usage in the home.

Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly has urged people not to “pull a fast one” by applying for the grant without paying their bills..

As of tonight, 732,800 grant applications had been received, while the number of people who registered with Irish Water by the deadline of June 30th stands at 1.3 million.

This amounts to an overall application rate of 56%.

Speaking on Wednesday, Michael McNicholas, chief executive of Ervia, the parent company forIrish Water, said that almost 54 per cent of those who have registered have paid their bills.

That percentile amounts to 702,000 people.

This figure means that at least 30,800 people have applied for the conservation grant without paying their bill.

The deadline?

The deadline to apply for the grant expires at midnight on Thursday night.

The Department of Social Protection released a statement on Wednesday urging those who have paid their water bills to apply for the grant.

The statement said a total of 395,000 households have already received their grant payment.

It is expected that all payments will be made by the end of October.

Approximately 363,000 calls on the subject have been received by the department’s helpline to date, with about 50,000 of those coming in the last two days.

Due to the high volume of calls, an additional helpline has been made available.

The numbers are: 076-1087890, 02-12065880, or 1890-100043. The lines will be open from 8.30am until midnight.

Electric Ireland to reduce home electricity prices by 2%

Move comes after Bord Gáis Energy shaved 2.5% off its residential gas prices

   

Electric Ireland is to reduce its standard electricity prices for residential customers by an average of 2%.

Electric Ireland has announced it will reduce its standard electricity prices for residential customers by an average of 2% from next month.

The reduction, which comes into effect on November 16th, will benefit the average residential customer with a saving of €24.11 (including VAT) per year.

Must shop around’

Minister for Energy Alex White welcomed the move and said customers should “shop around” to ensure they are getting the best deal possible.

“Electric Ireland’s welcome move on prices, which comes in advance of increased winter energy demand, will be welcomed by families and businesses,” he said.

“It is the second such move by a major energy supplier in recent weeks, which suggests that conditions are right for other companies to follow. This is good news and I would encourage all consumers to shop around to ensure that they get the best price available.

“Even if consumers don’t want to change supplier they can call their supplier and ensure they have the best package on offer.”

In September, Bord Gáis Energy announced plans to shave 2.5% off its residential gas prices in a move which saw the average consumer make an annual saving of just over €20.

It also announced its intention to cut its unit rate of electricity by a further 2 per cent which would lead to electricity bill savings of €24.34 a year.

Household bills

Earlier this year, Mr White held a series of meetings with the energy suppliers to discuss the speed with which wholesale energy price reductions were being reflected in household bills.

Electric Ireland executive director Jim Dollard said the company was “happy to be able to continue to reduce prices for our electricity customers again this winter”.

“This reduction, combined with last year’s reduction, means the average residential bill will have reduced by almost €50,” he said.

“We are committed to offering the best value products in a very competitive marketplace and I believe today’s announcement will be good news for our 1.2 million residential customers.”

Irish men drink and smoke more than women,

says a health survey

Healthy Ireland study raises concerns over risky sex, snacking and low levels of exercise

   

While smoking is in decline, drinking alcohol remains a majority pursuit, engaged in by 76% of the population. Just over half of us drink at least weekly.

Significant variations in wellbeing between men and women and across social classes emerge from the first national survey of people’s health in almost a decade.

Men drink, binge drink and smoke more, but are also more likely to be highly active, and heavier, than women, according to the Healthy Ireland survey.

Wealthier groups smoke less but drink more alcohol in general than people in the most deprived areas, where binge drinking is higher.

The survey published by the Department of Health carries encouraging signs for the nation’s health, including falling smoking rates, a levelling off in obesity and positive levels of good mental health and social connectedness.

There are also numerous areas of concern, including high levels of risky sexual activity, binge drinking and snacking, and low levels of physical exercise.

Smoking is twice as common in deprived areas compared to more affluent groups, and levels of obesity among young women are twice those among male 15- to 24-year-olds.

More than 7,500 interviews were carried out for the survey, the first study of this size since 2007.

A reason for optimism?

Minister for Health Leo Varadkar said the findings provided some reason for optimism but also highlighted risks such as the prospect of a dramatic risk in chronic diseases.

The survey expresses concern that a majority of men who recently had sex with men did not use a condom. However, the study presents evidence of “more widespread risky behaviour”, with 17% of all those having sex with someone outside of a steady relationship not using any form of contraception.

“The exposure to risk for these individuals is significant,” it says.

Most of us describe our health in positive terms, with 85 per cent saying it is good or very good. Yet one-quarter of the population has a long-standing illness, and over half of this group experience limitations in everyday activities.

High blood pressure and back pain are the most common ailments, both experienced by one in eight people. One in 10 of us suffer from arthritis or an allergy, according to the survey.

On average we visit the GP 4.3 times a year, and women are more frequent attenders than men.

However, the overall figure masks a substantial variation between people with medical cards (6.3 visits a year) and those without any card (2.9 visits).

Smoking prevalence is falling, and Ireland is on the way to being tobacco-free, according to the survey. The proportion of regular smokers has dropped from 24% in the last national survey in 2007 to 19%.

Occasional smoking is also down, from 5 per cent to 4%.

People in the most deprived areas are over twice as likely to be smokers compared to the most affluent group – 35% against 16%.

While smoking is in decline, drinking alcohol remains a majority pursuit, engaged in by 76% of the population. Just over half of us drink at least weekly.

Men drink more frequently than women, and more over-55s drink weekly than among other age groups.

Drinking to excess

The survey says drinking is a core part of Irish life and “more worryingly” drinking to excess on a regular basis is also commonplace.

Four out of 10 drinkers in Ireland drink to harmful levels on a monthly basis, and one-fifth do so on a weekly basis.

“Given that one in six of those drinking at harmful levels felt in the past 12 months that their drinking harmed their health, it is likely that many of those drinking in that way are unaware of the risks associated with it.”

Alcohol consumption rises with social class but binge drinking is highest in the most deprived areas, the survey also finds.

It uses the WHO definition of binge drinking as six or more standard drinks on a single occasion, equivalent to three pints of beer. The drinks industry considers this threshold too low.

Two-thirds of the population are not sufficiently active, a negative finding compounded by the fact that people spend on average more than five hours a day sitting. Four in 10 men are highly active, but only 24% of women are.

Physical activity is not a cure-all for weight issues, however; 23% of those who are obese are highly active.

On diet, one in four people say they eat the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, while 22% say they don’t eat fruit or vegetables daily. Snacking is widespread, with 62% saying they eat an average of two snacks a day.

Sugared drinks.

Some 15% drink sugar-sweetened drinks but, worrying, consumption is twice this level among young people aged 15-24 years.

Men are more likely to be overweight than women and overall, 37% of the population has a normal weight, 37% are overweight and 23% are obese. Obesity is highest in more deprived areas.

The report finds encouraging levels of good mental health and reasonable levels of social connectedness in the population. Rubbish or litter lying around, and house break-ins, emerged as major sources of concern in this respect.

Rare Wood house-harmless spider discovered in Co Antrim cliffs

  

The funnel-web spider prefers the outdoors compared its relative the house spider.

A rare spider has been found in Northern Ireland for the first time – but fear not, it is completely harmless.

The Wood house-spider, or malthonica silvestris, discovered on cliffs at Whitehead in Co Antrim, is a close relative of house spiders that people are complaining about bugging their homes at the moment.

However, it is normally half the size of the eight-legged creepy crawlies that send many of us into histrionics.

And unlike the typical house spider, this spider – which has only been recorded in Cork so far on the island – prefers to live in crooks and crevices in natural outdoor surroundings rather than in the warmth of your home.

One theory on the creature’s movements may be that it is venturing north because of the warmer weather.

Adam Mantell, Buglife’s Northern Ireland Officer is the entomologist who found and identified the spider during a survey said: “This is a really exciting discovery.

“Not only is this the first record for Northern Ireland, but it is very rare across the rest of Ireland too.

“With two out of three of our bugs in decline and so much wildlife disappearing from our countryside, it’s brilliant to have some good news for once, and add another spider to the list of species found in Northern Ireland.”

Sneezing Monkeys & ‘Walking Fish’ are a fascinating new species discovered

  

A monkey that sneezes whenever it rains, a fish that can survive out of water for four days and a venomous pit viper that is as lovely to look at as a piece of jewelry: These are just a few of the hundreds of new species discovered over the past few years in the diverse but highly threatened region of the east Himalayas.

Between 2009 and 2014, scientists discovered a total of 211 new species in the region, which stretches from central Nepal in the west to Myanmar in the east and includes the kingdom of Bhutan, as well as parts of northeast India and southern Tibet.

An average of 34 new plant and animal species have been discovered annually in the region for the past six years, according to a newly released report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

“I am excited that the region — home to a staggering number of species including some of the most charismatic fauna — continues to surprise the world with the nature and pace of species discovery,” Ravi Singh, CEO of WWF-India and chair of the WWF Living Himalayas Initiative, said in a statement. [101 Animal Shots You’ll Go Wild Over]

‘Charismatic fauna’

Among the most impressive new species included in the WWF’s report is the sneezing monkey, which scientists nicknamed “Snubby.” The unusual critter lives in a remote region in northern Myanmar, an area of rugged mountains and dense forests. Snubby has an upturned nose (hence its nickname) that has a tendency to collect rainwater, causing the black-and-white–hued monkey to sneeze when it rains. To avoid sneezing fits, the animals spend rainy days with their heads tucked between their knees, according to the WWF.

Northern Myanmar is also home to a tiny but terrifying new species of fish, Danionella dracula, which is the size of a minnow but has pointy fangs jutting out from its jaws. Another strange fish from the eastern Himalayas is Channa andrao, a snakehead fish with some truly strange qualities. The vibrant blue fish can “walk” on land by wriggling around on its belly. The fish’s ability to breath air means it can live on land for a few days before returning to its freshwater habitat.

The only new reptile discovered in the eastern Himalayas since 2009, the bejeweled lance-headed pit viper (Protobothrops himalayansus), is also something special. Even if you don’t like snakes, it’s hard to deny this venomous serpent’s beauty. The reptile’s striking, diamondlike pattern and red-brown coloration give the snake a bejeweled quality.

‘At a crossroads’

All of these newly discovered species may sound like great news to anyone who appreciates biodiversity, but the WWF report also highlights the many threats facing the east Himalayas. Perhaps the most pressing is climate change, with the threat of habitat loss caused by deforestation, development and overgrazing not far behind.

Only 25 percent of the original habitats in the region remain intact, according to the WWF report, which found that rapid development has affected the vast majority of the region’s lands.

“The eastern Himalayas is at a crossroads. Governments can decide whether to follow the current path towards fragile economies that do not fully account for environmental impacts, or take an alternative path towards greener, more sustainable economic development,” Sami Tornikoski, leader of the WWF Living Himalayas Initiative, said in a statement.

In total, the Himalayas are home to an estimated 10,000 plant species and 300 mammal species. Nearly 1,000 different species of birds call the region home, along with hundreds of species of reptiles, amphibians and freshwater fish. In the new WWF report alone, more than 130 new species of plants were discovered in the area.

The challenge that organizations like the WWF face is to both conserve the species that scientists have already identified and protect a region that likely shelters even more creatures and plants waiting to be discovered.

News Ireland daily BLOG by Donie

Friday 18th September 2015

Noonan’s core theme is: no return to boom and bust follies of the past

Minister for Finance’s economic vision is for even growth, balanced budgets and rules-based policies

   

The Minister for Finance Michael Noonan says: “I am laying plans out that extend beyond the election – so the next minister can take them up if I’m not here. It’s continuity of planning rather than continuity of personnel I’m primarily interested in.”

After years in fiscal death/debt valley, Michael Noonan finds himself in something of a sweet spot as he steps up preparations for the budget next month.

With the economy growing speedily, the Minister for Finance is in the unusual position of having his outline plan for the budget endorsed by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council. After all, the council tends to say no. Yet its informal blessing follows tacit support for the budget plan from the OECD.

This pleases Noonan. “It’s always good in the political system to get outside endorsement for what you’re doing.”

At Merrion Street yesterday – in the middle of pre-budget meetings with business lobbies, farmers, trade unionists and social campaigners – he set out his vision for the recovering economy. His is an argument for even growth, balanced budgets and rules-based policy-making.

There’s no avoiding the looming election, of course. Noonan says a 25 per cent stake in AIB would be floated next year on the Dublin and London markets if the Government is returned to office.

Of the property market right now, he says the Central Bank should examine whether to ease mortgage caps for first-time buyers. “What I’m saying is that market conditions are changing rapidly and there are aspects of it now which, according to the construction industry, are inhibiting starter homes.

“All I’m saying is the bank should review. If the bank say we’re not changing anything then, of course, I’ll accept that.”

Noonan’s core theme is familiar enough: no return to the boom and bust follies of the past.

Yet he and Brendan Howlin, Minister for Public Expenditure, face a cascade of spending demands from their own colleagues in Cabinet to go well beyond the agreed €1.5 billion limit on the 2016 budgetary expansion. Have they not learned?

At issue are fiscal constraints set out in domestic and European law. Are spending Ministers now seized of these rules?

“I think they are. But I think at things like the think-in in Adare it would have been explained, and the parliamentary party is seized of it. But Government departments always bid for additional money, you know.”

Asked whether the magnitude of the bids came as a disappointment, he says that is in line with historic practise.

“It’s the job of line Ministers to ask and it’s the job of central Ministers like Brendan and myself to refuse them.”

A Selection

Noonan smiles as he acknowledges his selection to contest the election in the renamed Limerick City constituency.

Yet he will not say whether he plans to return to the Department of Finance if Fine Gael prevails. That would be a matter for Enda Kenny, he insists.

“I’m laying plans out that extend beyond the election – so the next minister can take them up if I’m not here. It’s continuity of planning rather than continuity of personnel I’m primarily interested in.”

As for the timing of the election, this is a matter for Kenny. “It’s his call. When he asks me for advice I give him advice.”

But is it true that Noonan would not be in favour of going to the country immediately after the budget? “It won’t be my decision, and we’ll see. The economy is driving on all the time, and things are improving all the time. It’ll be the Taoiseach’s decision. It won’t be a collective decision.”

The budget next month will be predicated on the achievement this year of a budget deficit amounting to 2.3 per cent of gross domestic product. Budget planning for 2016 assumes a deficit in the region of 1.5 per cent of GDP. “1.5 will get us well into the space our projection for the debt next year will be, well below 100 per cent [of GDP]\, he says,.

Can he be more specific? Noonan replies that the figure could come in at “95ish” per cent of GDP at the end of 2016.

“We’re not factoring in there any money from the sale of AIB. We’re going to get quite a lot of money this year and next year – without any sale of AIB – from preference shares and from CoCos and so on.

“We’ll sell 25 per cent of AIB if we’re back in government. All that will come off the debt then.”

Would this be by way of an initial public offering (IPO) on the stock market?

Top three

“Yes. It will be jointly Dublin and London. It will actually be the biggest IPO in London. I think it will be kind of in the top three historically, so we’re talking about very big money. It has to be carefully managed.”

How much roughly? “I don’t know. It was valued at over €13 billion or so. A quarter of it? It’s a good lump of money anyway.

“If it doesn’t happen until this time next year we’ll have another half year. We’ll have full-year returns and we’ll have half-year returns for 2016 – and everything is very positive, so values are going up, there’s no doubt about that.

“But you always have external factors, whether it’s China or Europe or America or interest rates rising or whatever, so I don’t want to get into precise figures.”

Using bank sale proceeds to pay down debt reflects concern – expressed most recently by debt rating agency Moody’s, as well as by the Fiscal Council and the OECD – that Ireland’s high debt level makes the State vulnerable to external shock. “Beyond that there isn’t another internal risk. So I am looking forward to making this budget the first budget of what I regard as the new business cycle,” Noonan says.

The recovery is a “work in progress” but plans for the budget assume annual growth rates between 3.25 per cent and 3.5 per cent until 2020.

“The only reason we’re stopping at 2020 is that it’s the forecasting period. I don’t see any reason why this wouldn’t go on for a decade.

“The primary policy plank on which I’m building is that we mustn’t let it happen again. We mustn’t go from boom to bust again, and there are ways to stop that…In future interventions for this Government – and its successor government if we can get back again after that – it will be quite clear that interventions will have to be countercyclical because we’ll have balanced the budget.”

The spring economic statement in April assumed the State would balance the books in 2019. However, Noonan says this will be within grasp a year earlier than that. So Fine Gael will promise in the election to balance the budget within three years? “We have to revisit the figures, but I think we can do better than the spring statement. Everything is moving forward with the very rapid growth.”

Noonan attaches high importance to the budget rules. “You know the theory that if we didn’t have the fiscal rules, Noonan and Howlin would go crazy. We’re not, no,” he says.

“We negotiated the fiscal rules. We brought them home, and we put them to the people by way of referendum. We’re committed to this model. But it goes back to the opening position. We need pieces in place that prevent that boom and bust cycle that bedevilled us for so many years. Three times in my political career the country has gone from boom to bust.”

Lowest income

Of the budget itself, he reveals little of the plan to cut tax but stresses that the benefit will be concentrated on people earning up to €70,000 from the lowest income.

“We think low and middle-income people are the target for reduction because they’re overtaxed. We’ll be operating in that space… But the purpose will be to give relief to people we identified in the tranche we had last year as kind of middle Ireland.”

On the question of whether the universal social charge might be dismantled or overhauled, Noonan insists he will say whatever he has to say on budget day.

“Whether you take it one way or another, the way most people look at it as at the bottom line. Now, the USC is quite unpopular because it’s new. People see it as the added imposition and the sacrifice that was made to take the country out of crisis.

“So now that the crisis is over the public perception is: well, if you’re removing a tax it should be USC. But from an economic point of view in terms of tax as a policy lever to drive the economy…well then it doesn’t really matter where you make the move. It depends on the impact on the individual taxpayer.”

Is he saying the USC is here to stay in one form or another?

“No I’m not. I’m not saying anything either way. I’m saying that under the rules of the game I can’t give you more accurate information in advance of the budget.”

Last election

Then there is the election. Noonan indicates he is unperturbed by the strength of Independents and others. This cohort was at 24 per cent in the most recent poll, down from roughly 30 per cent in previous surveys but up form 17 per cent in the 2011 election. “What I’m saying is that if you look at the changes from the last election, it’s moving back to where it was. That’s the trend.”

What would be the implications of a surge for Independents and others next time out?

“In my view political instability always leads to economic instability. It’s the last thing we need now, just as we’re getting out of the major crisis and growing at the fastest rate in Europe. We don’t want that knocked back by political instability.”

We can expect to hear a lot more of that once the campaign begins in earnest. He recognises, however, that the Government will lose votes over the water debacle. So what went wrong there?

“In the teeth of very strong opposition it’s always difficult to get acceptance for a new tax. I think there’s acceptance now, I find anyway

“ They’d be quite critical of the way the issue was handled, but there’s acceptance of the principle that water is a scarce and it should be paid for. There’d be an argument about how much, but I think it’s moving in the right direction. Of course there were difficulties, and I presume there’ll be electoral cost attached to those difficulties, but it was a difficult time, we had a lot of very difficult decisions to make.”

Water, of course, became the beacon around which anti-establishment political forces of all stripes rallied.

“The surprise I had, and the surprise Europe had, was that the protests didn’t begin earlier with all the tough things we had to do,” Noonan says.

Water is far from the only difficulty the Government has encountered. He has nothing to say of the inquiry into IBRC, which is under the responsibility of the Taoiseach’s department.

Of corruption allegations surrounding the disposal of Nama’s Northern properties, he says there is no case to answer for the bad bank.

“The sale was conducted absolutely properly. If there was any impropriety it was on the purchasing side, not on the sell side, and I don’t know whether there was impropriety or not.”

Asked whether UK or US investigators have approached Dublin for information, he says “not to me”. Nama has published 300 pages of data it made available to the Stormont committee which is investigating the affair, he says. “There mightn’t even be a committee in Northern Ireland the way things are going.”

Asked for his observations on all that, Noonan launches into a forthright attack on Sinn Féin. “Sinn Féin are incapable of running a government.”

So what exactly is the problem? Sinn Féin as a political party or movement? Or the individuals within it? Or is it a policy deficit? “It’s populism. The inability to make a decision which will cause Sinn Féin any potential loss. If they can’t handle a budget with a couple of hundred million around social welfare, how are they going to handle a national budget down here with all the things we have to do and the decisions we have to make every year? ”

None of this takes account of naysaying unionists. But is Noonan saying Sinn Féin is not ready for government? He laughs.

“If I said they’re not ready they I’d be saying they’d be ready some time in the future. I’m not saying that. I’m not analysing Sinn Féin. A legitimate way of continuing political debate is to look at the record of different parties. The record of Fine Gael and Labour for five years is that we have been very good at handling an economy that was in the greatest crisis ever since the State was founded.

“Then we can look at the only Sinn Féin experience in government in the Assembly in Northern Ireland and in their role up there. And in terms of economic management it’s been dire.”

Audit work on Irish banks in 2008 was “satisfactory”,

A report finds

Regulatory body says rules that governed 2008 bank audits were found “wanting”

    

The auditing of the 2008 accounts of the six banks and buildings societies that were the subject of the Government guarantee of that year was “satisfactory”, the regulatory body that oversees the profession has concluded following a major review.

However the Chartered Accountants Regulatory Board (Carb) report also concluded that the international standards governing the audits were “wanting” and has recommended a shift towards a more “principles based” regime.

The in-depth review, conducted by six Carb staff and headed by a senior Scottish expert, chartered accountant David Spence, took a number of years and involved a detailed examination of the records of the auditing firms involved and a questioning of the relevant personnel.

KMPG audited the 2008 accounts of AIB, Irish Life and Irish Nationwide, while EY audited those of Anglo Irish Bank and EBS, and PwC those of the Bank of Ireland. However the report does not mention particular banks or firms and is more general in content. Carb director Heather Briers said this was because it can only name firms if there is a sanction against them, and has no authority to regulate or name banks.

The report focused on the issue of loan impairments, which was the dominant topic for auditors working on the 2008 accounts. The Carb investigation found that the firms involved all devoted substantial resources to the issue and substantially more time than was the case with the 2007 accounts. The work included input from colleagues in foreign branches of the global firms.

However a new international rule, enshrined in law within the EU, and which had been introduced in 2005, dictated that provisions could not be made for loan losses deemed likely to occur in the future, and that this applied “no matter how likely” the losses were. Rule IAS 39 ensured that impairments could only be recognised in respect of circumstances existing at the balance sheet date.

The effect of the rule, which was designed to stop banks trying to “smooth out” their profitability over an extended period, using the level of impairments held on the books, meant that some auditors began to question whether the rules were “fit for purpose”.

Some banks tried to compensate for the effect of the rule by issuing statements warning that loan losses might increase significantly depending on how the then crisis in the property market developed.

However the report said more emphasis should be put on the “true and fair” stipulation for audited accounts, as against the qualification that was so in relation to the relevant accountanting standards.

“Carb believes that all interested stakeholders should discuss how a principles-based framework for the future could be developed,” the report said.

Carb chairman Don Thornhill said no member of the Carb board who might have had a perceived conflict in relation to the report, was involved with its production.

TCD’s Alzheimer’s breakthrough could have ‘tremendous potential’

The disease is most common form of dementia globally and affects up to 40,000 people in Ireland

      

Alzheimer’s is the fourth leading cause of death in individuals over 65. 

Scientists at Trinity College Dublin say a discovery they have made on the cause of Alzheimer’s disease could hold “tremendous potential” for new therapies.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia globally and affects up to 40,000 people in Ireland. It is the fourth leading cause of death in individuals over 65 and it is the only cause of death among the top 10 that cannot be prevented, cured or slowed.

Alzheimer’s disease is characterised, in part, by the build-up of a small protein in the brains of patients. Failure to clear this protein “appears to be a major factor” in the build-up of plaques, and then in the disease process itself, according to the research.

Delicate tissue

While the mode by which the protein is cleared “remains unclear”, it is “evident” that it needs to be removed from the brain via the bloodstream.

“Unlike blood vessels anywhere else in the body, those in the brain have properties that strictly regulate what gets in and out of the delicate tissue – this is what is known as the blood-brain barrier,” according to the research.

The scientists believe “periodic clearance” of the protein across the blood brain barrier could lead to new treatments.

“The next steps are to consider how this might be achieved,” they said.

The research, published in international journal Science Advances, was supported by Science Foundation Ireland and the US-based charity, Brightfocus Foundation.

Drinking beetroot juice could be key to getting more out of your workout

      

The key to getting the most out of your workout and succeeding on the playing field could be down to one unlikely super food, new scientific research claims.

According to scientists at the University of Exeter, drinking high nitrate beetroot juice improves both sprint performance and decision-making during intermittent exercise such as rugby and football.

In their latest study, 16 male team sport players drank 140ml of Beet It Sport – a high nitrate beetroot juice – for seven days.

On the final day, the men – who were all players in rugby, hockey or football teams – completed an intermittent sprint test.

This consisted of two 40-minute sessions of repeated two-minute blocks – a six second all-out sprint, 100 seconds active recovery and 20 seconds of rest, on an exercise bike.

At the same time, they were given cognitive tasks designed to test how accurately and quickly they made decisions.

The players completed the same tests after drinking the nitrate-rich beetroot juice and after consuming a placebo version with the nitrate stripped out.

Those who had taken the nitrate-rich version saw a 3.5% improvement in sprint performance and a 3% increase in their speed of making decisions without hindering accuracy.

Chris Thompson, of the University of Exeter, led the study – which is published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology and available on PubMed.

“This research is a really exciting landmark in the work conducted on nitrate supplementation so far,” he said.

“The improvement we found may seem small, but it’s likely to provide a meaningful advantage to the athlete on the sports field.

“It could mean that team sport players are able to make those important decisions faster and cover more ground than their opponents in the seconds when it matters most.”

The Beet It shots are being used in research by 150 universities across the world who are examining the benefits of natural dietary nitrate supplementation.

The research has identified that their naturally high dietary nitrate content – 400mg per shot – interacts with enzymes in saliva to generate nitric oxide in the blood system.

Nitric oxide is a vasodilator that increases the flow of blood and oxygen in the muscles to boost strength and endurance.

Professor Andrew Jones PhD, associate dean for research at the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the university, said beetroot juice “could make all the difference”.

“These new results suggest that beetroot juice could improve both physical performance and decision-making during team sports such as rugby and football,” he said.

“In events like the Rugby World Cup, every second counts in those crucial moments, so this improvement could make all the difference”.

The first creature to walk on four legs revealed by pre-reptile fossils found,

Researchers say

    

After closely examining the forelimbs of a pre-reptile fossil species known as Bunostegos akokanensis, Brown University researchers concluded that it is the oldest known creature to walk upright on all four legs.

Bunostegos is a 260-million-year-old pre-reptile that roamed the supercontinent Pangea munching on plants. According to a news release, scientists previously thought that all Permian herbivores had a sprawling body type — where their limbs would extend from the sides of their body and slant downward from their elbows, similar to some modern lizards. However, Bunostegos fossils, which were originally found in Niger, Africa, in 2003 and 2006, paint a different picture.

“A lot of the animals that lived around the time had a similar upright or semi-upright hind limb posture, but what’s interesting and special about Bunostegos is the forelimb, in that it’s anatomy is sprawling-precluding and seemingly directed underneath its body–unlike anything else at the time,” Morgan Turner, lead author and graduate student at Brown University, said in the release. “The elements and features within the forelimb bones won’t allow a sprawling posture. That is unique.”

From their recent analysis, the researchers concluded that the Bunostegos resembled modern cows in both size and posture. However, unlike grass-grazing cows today, this pre-reptile was also suited with boney armor down his back and a knobby skull, according to Linda Tsuji, co-author from the Royal Ontario Museum.

In their study, the researchers explained how Bunostegos was able to stand tall. The answers lie in the pre-reptiles’ shoulder joint, humerus, elbow and ulna. Its shoulder faced down so that the humerus, the bone running from the shoulder to the elbow, was directly underneath its body. This is different than sprawlers, where the humerus sticks out toward the side of the body. The pre-reptile’s elbow also differed from sprawler’s in that it was more like a human knee — with a limited range of motion, capable of only swinging back and forth. In contrast, sprawlers were able to swing their forearms out to the side. Finally, the researchers noted that the Bunostegos’ ulna is longer than the humerus, a common characteristic among non-sprawlers.

According to the release, the Bunostegos’s posture suggests that it was an outlier. This makes sense based on the natural habitat it would have lived in 260 million years ago, where food sources would have been spread out. Being able to walk on all fours was necessary for the Bunostegos to travel long distances for food.

“Posture, from sprawling to upright, is not black or white, but instead is a gradient of forms,” Turner explained in a statement. “There are many complexities about the evolution of posture and locomotion we are working to better understand every day. The anatomy of Bunostegos is unexpected, illuminating, and tells us we still have much to learn.”

News Ireland daily BLOG by Donie

Thursday 7th May 2015

Bank of Ireland ‘did not need bail-out’

 Says CEO Richie Boucher

   

The Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher above who gave evidence to the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry.

Bank of Ireland did not need to be covered by a controversial bailout of the country’s six main lenders, which has already cost taxpayers 40 billion euro, the bank’s chief executive has said.

Richie Boucher said that on the night the state guarantee was brought in – on September 29 2008 – the bank had enough protection to withstand the crisis that was engulfing financial institutions.

Before the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry, Mr Boucher said he was annoyed at rumours around the finance world at the time that Bank of Ireland had asked the government for a guarantee.

“I was annoyed and also felt it was appropriate and necessary to make it clear in the market that Bank of Ireland did not go in and ask for a guarantee for itself,” he told the hearing.

“We didn’t feel that we needed a guarantee in terms of the pressures we were facing in the market.

“We felt subsequently that we had very significant collateral ourselves.”

Mr Boucher gave evidence to TDs and senators that Bank of Ireland had “quite a lot” of financial security through mortgages on properties in Ireland and the UK at the time.

But he said he could not say whether the lender would have needed help three or four weeks after the state guarantee if the international money markets had continued to hammer Ireland’s banks.

Mr Boucher said the bank held a top-level late-night credit committee meeting on September 29 to consider a request to give funding to Anglo Irish Bank.

But they learned after midnight it was no longer necessary when the lender’s then chief executive Brian Goggins told senior staff the coalition government had decided to effectively insure the country’s six main lenders, he said.

Two of the banks, including Anglo, later collapsed.

Mr Boucher said he was involved in talks with the Central Bank weeks before the guarantee about giving financial support to the other doomed lender, Irish Nationwide.

In the event they felt they could not offer the backing.

He said he was “shocked and shaken” at the time by the lack of information available to Irish Nationwide bosses and Central Bank chiefs about the state of the building society’s books.

Mr Boucher has been chief executive of Bank of Ireland since 2009.

He joined the lender as deputy chief executive of corporate banking in 2003 and was on the board of directors by 2006.

Before the inquiry, he said 100% mortgages given to borrowers in the run-up to the crash were wrong.

“I think we probably followed the market too much in relaxing our standards,” he said.

“Whether or not (the step) was taken prior to my arrival or after my arrival the decisions we took were wrong.”

Bank of Ireland was “uncomfortable” with the 100% mortgages and bosses met the financial regulator to see if anything could be done about them, Mr Boucher said.

But he admitted the bank could have refused to handle them if it had felt strongly enough about it.

The hearing was told Mr Boucher was on a salary of 242,000 euro in 2007 and was given a bonus of 615,000 euro the same year.

The following year he took a salary of 550,000 euro with a bonus for the same amount.

In 2009, while Irish taxpayers were pumping 3.5 billion euro into Bank of Ireland, he had a 690,000 euro salary.

Asked to justify the pay packages, Mr Boucher said they were approved by the Minister for Finance and the bank’s shareholders “who paid for it”.

• “I don’t have anything further to say on that,” he said.
• Mr Boucher said he spent his 2007 bonus on Bank of Ireland shares.
• “So maybe there is some poetic justice in that,” he added.

Cormac McCarthy, former chief executive of Ulster Bank, admitted he made big mistakes during the boom, in an attempt to become a major competitor with Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks.

“In aiming to become a genuine third force in Irish banking, Ulster Bank lent too much money to too many people on the basis of assumptions which turned out to be seriously flawed,” he said.

But Mr McCarthy denied the lender took a cavalier or reckless approach to banking,

All the economic indicators from 2003 to 2007 were positive, and the bank had forged an “ill-judged and mistaken strategy” based on the upbeat forecasts, he told the hearing.

“I deeply regret that this happened while I was chief executive of Ulster Bank,” he added.

Mr McCarthy said “hand on heart” he made all his decisions in good faith, based on the best information he had at the time.

“I never anticipated the circumstances that transpired in 2008 and beyond and I was mistaken not to have done so,” he said.

“I greatly regret the decisions I made while chief executive of Ulster Bank have had the impact they have had on so many lives.”

Irish nurses seek shorter working week and a pay rise

Concern about continuing trolley crisis expressed at start of INMO conference

   

Liam Doran, general secretary at the INMO (Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation) and Minister for Health Leo Varadkar: Mr Doran said the extra €74m from the Government to help the trolley crisis is welcome but is not enough to solve the problem.

Shorter working hours and the continuing trolley crisis in emergency departments top the agenda for the annual conference of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, which opens today.

The union is seeking a return to a 37½-hour working week, several years after nurses agreed to work an extra 90 minutes a week under cost-cutting measures agreed with the Government as part of the Haddington Road agreement. In line with other public sector unions, it also wants a significant first step towards the restoration of pay cuts.

It says the latest trolley figures, which a 26 per cent rise in the number of patients waiting for admission to hospital last month compared to the previous April, are very worrying. Of particular concern is a sharp increase in trolley numbers in hospitals outside Dublin – up from 12 to 806 between April 2014 and April 2015.

Today’s figures show there are 465 patients on trolleys or on wards today waiting for admission to a bed. Beaumont Hospital has the largest number with 47 patients waiting, followed by 41 at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and 39 at the Mater in Dublin.

The Government has provided an additional €74 million to implement the recommendations of the emergency department task force report, but the INMO says this will not be enough to solve the problem.

General secretary Liam Doran, who co-chaired the task force, described the extra funding was welcome but said much more was needed.

Minister for Health Leo Varadkar is due to address the meeting on Friday.

Dublin woman found she was bred by Nazis for ‘master’ race

 

Naomi Linehan, co-author of Irish No 1 bestseller Nowhere’s Child, on how Kari Rosvall survived Hitler’s breeding camps to find an Irish home

Kari revisits the Lebensborn home called Hohehorst, where she was kept for the first year of her life with other children chosen for Himmler’s scheme

Imagine you just appeared, as if from nowhere – a three-year-old orphan with no parents, no history, no idea of your nationality. Now imagine you had to live with that mystery for your whole life – not knowing where you came from or who you really were. This is what happened to Kari Rosvall.

She calls the first three years of her life the dark years, and that’s what they were until something happened recently in her home in south Co Dublin that changed everything – a clue from the past, about where she came from, a reality she could never have imagined possible.

A letter arrived at her house. Inside was a photograph of Kari as a baby, the first photograph she had ever seen of herself as an infant. At the time, she was 64 years old. The photograph was taken by the Nazis.

Kari discovered that she was born as part of a Nazi breeding programme during the second World War. Lebensborn, “the spring of life” programme, was a secret SS project designed to create a so-called Aryan race of blond-haired, blue-eyed children who would be the future leaders of the Third Reich. Kari Rosvall was one of those Lebensborn children. This is the secret that had been kept from her, for her entire life.

The Lebensborn programme was the brainchild of Heinrich Himmler. Himmler was obsessed with eugenics and the idea of a master race. He once said, “Should we succeed in establishing this Nordic race, and from this seedbed produce a race of 200 million, then the world will belong to us”.

This meant that at the same time that the Nazis were killing Jews as part of the Final Solution they were secretly breeding their own “Aryan race”. The Lebensborn extended beyond Germany, into countries like Norway, where Nazi soldiers impregnated Aryan looking women. Kari’s mother was one of these women.

As part of this plan, Kari was taken from her mother in Norway, when she was just 10 days old, packed in a crate and sent to Germany. There she was kept for the first year of her life with other children chosen for Himmler’s scheme in a Lebensborn home called Hohehorst.

When the war ended in 1945, everything changed. The children who were to be “the elite” suddenly became outcasts in every country. Nobody wanted this sinister reminder of Hitler’s regime. Manufactured by the Nazi war machine, Kari found herself homeless in the world, hidden in an attic with other Lebensborn children. Following a heroic rescue by the Red Cross and a period in an orphanage, she was adopted and grew up in Sweden and eventually found a home in Ireland. But questions from her past still haunted her and she decided to find the answers no matter how difficult this would be.

In her early twenties, Kari had tried to piece together her life story. Like many adopted children she longed for answers, and went looking for her birth parents. She discovered her biological mother in Norway and went to meet her. The meeting was difficult and shocking, and left her with more questions than answers.

Today Kari is an Irish citizen living an ordinary suburban life in Dublin’s Ballinteer. But she has travelled a long way to get there. This is the journey as told in the book, Nowhere’s Child. It is the story of a child abandoned in the world. But it is also a story of a mother and a daughter and of strong people who come to one another’s rescue. It is a story of hope. But it is also a horror story about the shocking reality of an evil regime.

Kari’s story spans the period from the Second World War up to modern-day Dublin. It is a firsthand account that will be gone after this generation. I was lucky enough to meet Kari just over a year ago – almost by accident.

I was reporting for the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk radio. As a journalist you sometimes think you have to travel to war zones and battlefields to find interesting stories, but sometimes you find them where you least expect.

One day, Kari was at an Irish Countrywomen’s Association meeting, telling her story to some of the ladies who were gathered there. I heard about her from people who were at the meeting, so I went to Kari’s home in Ballinteer to try to find out more.

She told me about her life – about everything that had happened to her – and the interview went out on air. People texted the programme in huge numbers. They wanted to know where they could hear more, and if there was a book about her life.

Kari and I talked about it, and she decided that it was time to tell her story in full, for the first time, and the idea for Nowhere’s Child was born. We both cared deeply about this story and knew it was something that had to be told. And so, we made another decision that would change both our lives. For the next year we would put everything on hold. Kari cancelled travel plans, and I quit my job in Newstalk.

We knew it would be difficult. There were a lot of very painful memories that would have to be relived: Kari’s search for answers, the abandonment by her birth mother, being an orphan in the world and all the feelings that go with trying to come to terms with being part of a history you have not chosen. It would be hard; we knew that. But what we didn’t know was that it would also be healing and inspirational. There were tears along the way, long conversations into the night, gallons of tea, and glasses of wine. And lots of laughter, too.

Kari is one of the warmest people I have ever met. Everywhere we go she brings a warmth and love of life with her. Her optimism is contagious. I do not know how she has found it in her to forgive and put the past to rest. She told me she wants to tell this story to show other people that there is hope and light, even in the darkest places.

Kari has found a home here in Ireland. It is where she is at peace in the world. She is surrounded by loving friends and family, who all came out in great numbers for the launch of Nowhere’s Child just a few short weeks ago. It is a testament to the life she has built with her husband Sven and her son Roger.

Kari Rosvall was just an ordinary person, going about her day. We may have passed her in the street, or in the shops, not knowing the story she had to tell. If there is something we can learn from Nowhere’s Child, it is that history is all around us. It is not some dusty thing from the past. It is a living thing. History is in people. We just need to take the time to stop and ask people what they have experienced, and how they feel about it all. We might just be surprised at what they have to say.

Varadkar rejects claims of lack of action on obesity

    

Childhood obesity has plateaued, says Varadkar, but adds we must treat obesity as seriously as tobacco

Health Minister Leo Varadkar has hit back at suggestions the Government is not doing enough to combat obesity, after research from the World Health Organisation predicted that Ireland would be the most obese country in Europe by 2030.

The WHO said 89% of men and 85% of women in Ireland will be classed as obese or overweight within the next 15 years.

Mr Varadkar said the figures should be taken as projections, not as fact, and are based on figures that are “quite old”.

“Research and numbers that we do have indicate childhood obesity has probably plateaued and we’ll have figures on adult obesity later in the year when the Healthy Ireland survey is published, so I think it’s important to stick to the facts and not sensationalise what is a serious issue,” he said.

“But it’s absolutely the case that obesity is a major personal and public-health problem and we need, in the next couple of years and in the future, to treat it as seriously as we treated tobacco in the past.”

Mr Varadkar outlined a number of initiatives to combat obesity that are already under way.

“The National Physical Activity Plan is at draft stage and will be published in the next few months; the Cabinet has agreed that we’re going to legislate for calorie posting on menus; and as well as that the special action group on obesity will be advising us on our new obesity policy which will be published by the end of the year.”

He stopped short of advocating a tax on junk food. “I think the jury’s still out on the sugar tax; we need to see if it’s worked. We’ll have some results from Mexico, where they’ve introduced it, quite soon. But if it doesn’t work then it’s just another tax.”

Medical experts have criticised this standpoint and say the Government must do more if it is to avoid the predictions made by the WHO.

Francis Finucane, a consultant endocrinologist at University Hospital Galway, said on RTÉ radio that the Government “needs to take action to legislate”.

“And it’s going to be the legislators in this country who change the obesity epidemic.

“We could use the money we generate from a health-related food tax to fund things like hospital-based services for people who are worst affected by this problem. The fact of the matter is we haven’t done enough to develop those services nationally.”

Prof Donal O’Shea, head of weight management at St Columcille’s and St Vincent’s Hospitals, said obesity was driving a diabetes epidemic, a cancer epidemic, and a heart-disease epidemic that “the health service is currently not coping with”.

Meanwhile, the Irish Cancer Society is funding new research to decrease the risk of cancer by changing dietary habits. According to the WHO, there is a strong link between obesity and many types of cancer.

THE 5 DAY ABS CHALLENGE?

      

Who’s ready to work on those killer abs? Join me for the 5 day abs challenge from Daily Hiit. No matter if you are on a holiday or busy with work you can find 20-30 minutes to work on your tummy and get those abs ready for the summer season which is just around the corner.

For those who are all excited to join me on the challenge, but are not sure how to perform some of the abs exercises scroll down and find a detailed explanation of each exercise below.

Reverse Crunch: Lie on the floor and place hands on the floor or behind the head.

1. Bring the knees in towards the chest until they’re bent to 90 degrees, with feet together or crossed.
2. Contract the abs to curl the hips off the floor, reaching the legs up towards the ceiling.
3. Lower and repeat for 1-3 sets of 12-16 reps.
4. It’s a very small movement, so try to use your abs to lift your hips rather than swinging your legs and creating momentum.

V-Ups: Lie on a flat surface with your lower back curvature pressed against the surface. Hold on to a fixed and sturdy object behind you (such as one of the beams from a squat rack) or you can just have your arms by your side with the palms facing the floor. Your feet should be straight in front of you and the upper torso should be aligned with the arms behind you holding on to the fixed object.

1. Raise your legs to where they are off the floor. This will be your starting position.
2. Raise your legs until the torso makes a 90-degree angle with the legs. Exhale as you perform this movement and hold the contraction for a second or so.
3. Go back slowly to the starting position as you breathe in.

Russian Twists: Sit on the ground with your knees bent and your heels about a foot from your butt.

1. Lean slightly back without rounding your spine at all. It is really important, and difficult, to keep your back straight, but don’t let it curve.
2. Place your arms straight out in front of you with your hands one on top of the other. Your hands should be level with the bottom of your ribcage.
3. Pull your navel to your spine and twist slowly to the left. The movement is not large and comes from the ribs rotating, not from your arms swinging. Inhale through center and rotate to the right. This completes one rep.

Sit Ups: Lie down on the floor placing your feet either under something that will not move or by having a partner hold them. Your legs should be bent at the knees.

1. Place your hands behind your head and lock them together by clasping your fingers. This is the starting position.
2. Elevate your upper body so that it creates an imaginary V-shape with your thighs. Breathe out when performing this part of the exercise.
3. Once you feel the contraction for a second, lower your upper body back down to the starting position while inhaling.

Side Jackknife: Lie on your left side on an exercise mat with your legs extended straight downward and the right leg on top of the left. Place your left hand on your abdominals. Place your right hand behind your head. This is your starting position.

1. Raise your right let straight in the air while simultaneously raising your torso, bringing your right elbow toward your right leg.
2. Hold for a moment and then return to the starting position.
3. Repeat for a complete set and then switch sides.

Mountain Climbers: Start the exercise by lying face down on the floor.

1. Straighten out your arms and then touch your knees down to the ground or floor.
2. Now you are ready to lift yourself up into position. When doing this, be sure that your hands are directly under your chest at a width that is slightly more than your shoulder length distance.
3. Once you have settled into position and checked the position of your hands you should be sure to keep your legs stretched out, ensuring that they are properly lined up with the rest of your body. Pay special attention to your knees as many people tend to create a gap here but that should be avoided. If the recommended position is uncomfortable for you, it is alright to modify it slightly as long as you maintain the correct posture.
4. Now you should stretch out your left leg for stability. Bend your right knee and bring it up in the direction of your right hand. At this point, you should be in a similar position to the one you would be in if you were climbing a mountain or tree (hence the name) except horizontal instead of vertical.
5. After bringing your right knee up, return it to the original position and do the previous step with your left leg. (Once again, bend the left knee and bring it up towards the left hand mimicking the actions of a mountain climber)

Scissors: Lie flat on your back. You can extend your arms so they’re against the sides of your body with your palms pressing into the floor, or you can bend your elbows and place your palms under the back of your head.

1. Bend your knees and draw them into your ribs. This will make it easier to pull your navel in towards your spine and actively press your lower back flat on the ground.
2. Lift both legs straight up toward the ceiling, continuing to engage your abs and press your lower back into the ground.
3. Keeping your core strong, slowly lower your right leg down toward the ground, until it is a few inches above. Then scissor your legs, so you lift your right leg back up as you lower your left leg down towards the ground.
4. Keep the movements slow and steady, moving with control, and keeping your core engaged the entire time, and your lower back pressing into the floor.

Side Plank: Lie on your left side with your knees straight.

1. Prop your upper body up on your left elbow and forearm. Position your elbow under your shoulder.
2. Brace your core by contracting your abs forcefully as if you were about to be punched in the gut.
3. Raise your hips until your body forms a straight line from your ankles to your shoulders. Your head should stay in line with your body.
4. Hold this position for the prescribed amount of time while breathing deeply. That’s one set.
5. Turn around so that you’re lying on your right side and repeat.

Plank: Start off on a yoga mat in the pushup position. Starting with the pushup position is the easiest way to get into the plank.

1. Lower both your forearms to the ground so that both your elbows and fists are flat to the ground. Your palms should be balled up, and directly underneath your shoulders.
2. Curl your toes under and engage your abs by tilting your pelvis and pulling your belly button toward your spine.
3. Straighten your body but keep your neck and spine neutral. Imagine that you’re a plank of wood, and that you’re straight as an arrow.
4. Flex your abdominals and squeeze your glutes. These are the two major muscle groups you’ll be working out in this exercise.
5. Hold this position, also known as the plank, until after the burning begins. Keep your eyes on the floor in front of you. Avoid raising your behind. Your body should make a straight line from your heels to the back of your head.

Bicycle Crunches: Lie flat on the floor with your lower back pressed to the ground and contract your core muscles.

1. With your hands gently holding your head, lift your knees to about a 45-degree angle.
2. Slowly, at first, go through a bicycle pedal motion.
3. Alternately touching your elbows to the opposite knees as you twist back and forth.

Burpees:

1. Begin in a standing position. Your feet should be shoulder-width apart. Now, lower your body into a squatting position, placing your hands on the floor in front of you.
2. Kick your feet back so that you are in push-up position. Keep your hands firmly on the ground to support your body.
3. Lower your chest to do a push-up. Bring your chest back up.
4. Kick your feet back to their original position. Stand up, and then jump into the air while clapping your arms overhead.
5. Repeat.

How muscles created from humble onion cells provide scientists to develop artificial muscles

   

The humble onion is proving its strength outside the culinary world, enabling scientists to develop artificial muscles by using gold-plated cells of the vegetable.

The humble onion is proving its strength outside the culinary world, enabling scientists to develop artificial muscles by using gold-plated cells of the vegetable.

Unlike previous artificial muscles, this one, created by a group of researchers from National Taiwan University, can either expand or contract to bend in different directions depending on the driving voltage applied.

“The initial goal was to develop an engineered micro-structure in artificial muscles for increasing the actuation deformation (the amount the muscle can bend or stretch when triggered),” said researcher Wen-Pin Shih.

“One day, we found that the onion’s cell structure and its dimensions were similar to what we had been making,” said Shih, who lead the study. The onion epidermis is a thin, translucent layer of blocky cells arranged in a tightly-packed lattice.

Shih and his colleagues thought that onion epidermal cells might be a viable candidate for the tricky task of creating a more versatile muscle that could expand or contract while bending.

News Ireland daily BLOG by Donie

Saturday 31st January 2015

Euro zone falls deeper into trouble and deflation as collapse in oil prices bites

 

Prices in the euro zone drop 0.6% in the year to January, echoing 2009 low.

The government of Spain’s Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, which faces an election towards the end of the year, predicts Spain will grow by at least 2% this year.

The collapse in oil prices has helped to push the euro zone deeper into deflation, strengthening the case for the European Central Bank’s landmark decision to begin buying government bonds later this year to stave off a serious bout of falling prices in the region.

Prices dropped 0.6% in the year to January, a figure on a par with the lowest reading recorded since the 18-country currency area’s creation, according to Eurostat, the European Commission’s statistics bureau. The flash estimate is the same as the record low recorded in July 2009, during the sovereign debt crisis.

Energy costs, which make up about a 10th of the basket of goods used to measure inflation, had tumbled 8.9% over the past year on the back of a near 60% fall in the price of Brent crude.

The core measure of inflation, which strips out more volatile goods such as food and energy, slowed to a new record low of 0.6%, down from 0.7% in December. The dip in core inflation is concerning as the measure is seen as better reflection of the weakness of domestic demand.

Both estimates will bolster support for the ECB’s quantitative easing package, unleashed by policy makers earlier this month.

Government debt

The ECB will buy €60 billion worth of government debt, asset-backed securities and corporate bonds a month from March until September 2016 to counter a prolonged bout of deflation that threatens to wipe out the region’s stuttering economic recovery.

The fear is that falling prices will prompt consumers to delay purchases, denting already weak demand.

Deflation also exacerbates high debt burdens in parts of the region’s periphery.

Monetary policy makers have said they will keep buying until inflation is headirng towards the central bank’s target of below but close to 2 per cent.

But the fall in oil prices could spur growth in the region by lifting spending on other goods. That appears to have happened in Spain, the region’s fourth- largest economy, which is growing at its fastest pace in seven years despite prices falling by 1.4% in the year to January.

German retail sales figures, also out yesterday, suggested falling oil prices had boosted consumption – though not by as much as expected. A rise in retail sales of 0.2% between November and December missed expectations of a bigger spending surge in the Eurozone’s largest economy.

Spending up

In France, the region’s second-largest economy, consumer spending by volume rose by 1.5% as lower energy costs boosted the amount of energy and food bought by households.

But economists fear the high unemployment rate in the eurozone will constrain prices. The region’s unemployment rate remained high at 11.4%, down just 0.1 per cent from November, according to Eurostat figures published yesterday. That is more than double the US jobless rate.

Half (50%) of Irish households have registered details with Irish Water

 

Irish Water sets February 2nd registration deadline to ensure accurate water bills in April.

Protesters take part in anti-water charge demonstration before Christmas outside the Irish Water Head Office on Talbot Street, Dublin.

Just over half of the households expected to pay bills to Irish Water have registered their details with the new utility.

The latest figures from Irish Water show 837,400 homes (56%) have given their details out of the estimated 1.5 million customers that will receive their first water bills in April.

Irish Water estimates that up to 1.9 million households will need to respond with registration details.

Irish Water has set a February 2nd deadline for registration to ensure people receive accurate water bills in April. There is no penalty for not registering by this date.

Of that total, an estimated 400,000 households will not be required to pay bills because they deal with water in (drinking water) and water out (waste water) themselves – eg having a private well and septic tank.

About 35,000 households returned their registration packages with no details, according to the water company.

All households, including those who are not Irish Water customers, are eligible to apply for the water conservation grant of €100 but need to register with the company to apply.

The Department of Social Protection has set aside a budget of €130 million to pay for the €100 euro water conservation grant – equivalent to paying the fee to 1.3 million households.

The Department of Environment has confirmed that there is no deadline for households to apply for this grant – which will be paid from September.

“There are no plans currently to introduce a cut-off date,” a spokesman from the Department of Environment said, adding that the budget allocation was based on the 2011 census and feedback from other “demand-led schemes”.

The spokesman said the grant only applied to principal residencies and if applications exceeded the 1.3 million estimate these would be paid.

“Every household who applies and is eligible for the water conservation grant will receive it.”

The total number of households on the 2011 Census in the State was 1.66 million.

The Department of Social Welfare said: “The grant will be paid to the registered householders annually in respect of their primary dwellings, with the first payment to be paid in September 2015 and each subsequent year up to and including 2018.”

An Irish Water spokeswoman said a total of 1,060,000 households have sent back details to the utility company to date on Friday, including around 180,000 responses from homes which are not Irish Water customers.

“We’re anticipating we’ll have a high level compliance in terms of payment but we do have means at our disposal to add charges,” she said.

Irish Water will use the Revenue Commissioner’s local property database to send out bills to those who do not register their details.

The spokeswoman said the company’s focus next month would be properties owned by landlords.

“It’s not the landlord’s bill, it’s the tenant’s bill because they are using the service,” she said.

There has been a surge in phone calls to their help line in the last week with an average of 5,000 a day, up from 1,500 before Christmas.

She said there were no queues or backlogs and the numbers were much lower than the 25,000 calls received daily in October.

The spokeswoman said 565,000 water meters had been installed to date, halfway to the planned total to be installed of 1.03 million.

Gerry Adams blames the Taoiseach Kenny for Dáil debate collapse

  

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams says his party is not trying to undermine the Ceann Comhairle.

Opposition parties criticised Sean Barrett for cancelling a Dáil debate on a Commission of Inquiry into Garda malpractice.

The Ceann Comhairle said it may overlap with a High Court case being taken by Alan Shatter.

Fianna Fáil has called on Mr Barrett to withdraw claims that the Opposition is trying to undermine him.

Deputy Adams has said that responsibility for the cancellation of the debate lies with the Taoiseach.

“There’s no plan by Sinn Féin to undermine the Ceann Comhairle,” he said.

“There always has t be somebody who chairs the meetings and makes sure that everybody’s within Standing Orders, and we may have concerns about how he did that, but the Taoiseach is the person who allowed the controversy to build, and refused to take a sensible approach.”

How a healthy lifestyle can reduce the risk of Gallstones

    

A healthy diet and lifestyle is key to avoiding most health problems. But with gallstones, thought to affect as many as one in six people, with famous sufferers including the likes of Eric Clapton and the Dalai Lama, it’s not quite that simple.

In fact some lifestyle factors which may seem healthy, like low-fat diets and losing weight quickly, plus not drinking alcohol, can actually make gallstones more likely.

One of the most common medical and surgical conditions, it’s believed they occur due to chemical imbalances in bile stored in the gallbladder; this leads to tiny crystals developing, which can grow into gallstones, ranging from many as small as grains of sand, to one the size of a pebble.

  GP Dr Sarah Brewer, whose book Overcoming Gallstones has just been published, points out that 70% of gallstones are made from cholesterol, and a diet high in saturated fat and pre-formed cholesterol increases the amount of the substance being pumped by the liver into bile, making it more likely gallstones will form.

However, she warns that “the opposite is also true”. A diet that’s unusually low in fat can promote gallstones, as the gallbladder mainly contracts in response to dietary fats, so it empties less frequently if a low-fat diet is followed, or if dieters eat less regularly than normal. Bile can pool in the gallbladder, giving gallstones more chance to form.

Dr Brewer references a study of almost 90,000 nurses, which found that losing 4kg-10kg in weight over a two year period increased the risk of gallstones by 44%, and those who lost more than 10kg were almost twice as likely to develop them, with a 94% increased risk. Avoiding gallstones may even be aided by a moderate intake of alcohol.

Dr Brewer says: “Alcohol acts as a solvent, helping to stop the components of gallstones precipitating out of the solution in stored bile. This is probably the main way in which a moderate intake of alcohol reduces gallstone formation but please don’t use this as an excuse to increase your intake!

“And you may think you’re doing good by trying to lose weight, cutting back on fats and being really strict on your diet, but your gallbladder can become under-active, the bile in it sludges, and you’re more likely to develop stones.But other than that, it’s all the usual messages? 

Eat lots of fruit and vegetables, high fibre, nuts.

You can take steps to reduce the risk, and even if you do develop gallstones, not everybody has symptoms. “Where lifestyle factors are a probably cause, there’s lots you can do to ensure … you don’t develop more gallstones,” advises Dr Brewer, who’s also a registered nutritionist.

She says plant sterols, fibre and vitamin C can all help prevent the condition, and a diet rich in monounsaturated fats from foods like olive, Macadamia nut and avocado oils can also be beneficial, as can omega-3 polyunsaturated fats, like those found in flaxseed, walnut and fish oils.

Dr Brewer says nutritional and herbal supplements, like vitamin C, magnesium and lecithin, may help to reduce stone formation or enlargement. “If you eat the right food and take the right supplements, and avoid things that are going to make gallstones worse, then you can live with them quite happily— and many people do, without even knowing they’ve got them.”

After I moved back home to Ireland, ‘Lucy Michael said nothing felt normal’

 

It was exhilarating at first, but the pressures of a new job and a long commute were isolating, and I felt the absence of everything I had left behind

Lucy Michael says  “Nothing felt normal. The exhilaration of the move home had dissipated, the pressures of a new job and a long commute were isolating and I had started to feel the absence of everything I had left behind. I worried.”

Suddenly, in the midst of a cold English winter, I decided I was going home. I held my decision close for months. I had applied for jobs in Ireland selectively over the years, repeating my intention to make a life there, but my colleagues had heard it from Irish people before, and I think they never really believed it. When I finally did hand in my notice they counselled against such a rash move. I still had no job to go home to.

My professional work is about immigration, so alongside job-hunting I read everything I could about returning migrants. I listened to Irish radio to catch up on the chat. I planned for the higher living costs. I even learned to declutter by giving away my books, which prompted friends to take my departure rather more seriously.

Back in Dublin my impending return was no secret. We celebrated my decision. I laughed and joked with friends about what great times we would have when we were all together again, with their kids who had been born and become people while I was away.

I finally found a good job in Ireland, packed up my flat and was grateful to family and friends for welcoming me home with open arms. My boyfriend booked almost weekly visits for the first few months, to help me settle into my new job without the pressure to travel. I was in the best position anybody coming home could hope for.

I read another story in the Generation Emigration section of The Irish Times about a woman who, home from the US after 30 years, was shocked by the difference and prepared to feel like an outsider for a long time to come. For me it was different. I had been home every two months right through the 12 years I was away. I thought I would slip easily into Dublin life.

It started after about a month. I couldn’t place the breathlessness that would hit me out of nowhere, making me exhausted and tearful. I blamed exhaustion and ongoing bronchitis, but I knew it was more than that.

Nothing felt normal. The exhilaration of the move home had dissipated, the pressures of a new job and a long commute were isolating, and I had started to feel the absence of everything I had left behind. I worried.

For three months I could not put words to the roller coaster I was on. I couldn’t explain it to family and friends in Ireland; it felt like disloyalty to admit missing my other life. I missed my friends in England. A while back a few of us had talked about quitting our jobs and moving to other places. It seemed exciting at the time, but I moved before they did, and then suddenly I was here and they were still there together – and I had left a hole in a fabric I could not see while I was still part of the pattern.

None of my friends could imagine that moving home to Ireland would have any trace of sadness for me; I had talked so much about Dublin. I never expected to grieve for a life overseas I willingly gave up. I suspect at least one close friend in England has not yet forgiven me for the betrayal of leaving. She no longer tells me her secrets, denies me the privileges of our close friendship. I don’t think she really believed I would leave either.

Other close friends acknowledged my future absence and planned early visits. In turn I accepted their need to make plans without me, even though it stung.

But now, the other side of Christmas, it’s easier to see the bigger picture. The “Goodbye and Good Luck!” cards on the wall in my new home don’t make me so sad any more. Photos of friends start to populate the wall, too, reminding me that I used to love living across two countries and travelled easily between them – and to remind me not to be too careless with the friends I left behind.

A 5metre female killer whale washed up on beach in Co Waterford

 

Biologists say 5 metre carcass is so large it must be cut up on beach before being removed

A female killer whale is seen on the beach at Saleens near Tramore, Co Waterford.

Marine biologists are working to remove the body of a killer whale which washed up on a beach near Tramore in Waterford on Friday morning.

The five metre whale was spotted by a passerby who alerted members of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG).

It is believed the predatory mammal may have died of malnutrition and was dead before it washed up on shore.

“It’s probably a young female, but its teeth are worn down which is kind of surprising. Looking at the teeth you’d think it’s a very old animal,” said Andrew Malcolm of the IWDG.

“When you see the teeth as worn down as that you would speculate that it could be malnourished, and that it wasn’t getting enough to eat.

“It doesn’t look particularly malnourished to me compared to some I’ve seen washed up, but we won’t be able to tell for sure until after the postmortem,” he added.

The large size of the creature means that it will have to be removed from the beach on a phased basis.

Members of the marine biology unit at Galway Mayo IT are currently working on extracting vital organs and blubber from the stricken animal. It is hoped its skeleton can be preserved and mounted in the local area following the postmortem.

“The cutting up of the animal would be done on the beach. If it was a smaller animal they’d probably stick it on a trailer and take it back, but because it’s such a big animal stranded on the beach means that it will have to be done on-site,” said Mr Malcolm.

Sightings of orca whales in Irish waters are rare and just 15 carcasses have been recovered from these shores over the course of the last century.

The last such record was at Tullaghan Bay, Co Mayo in 2010.

The whale’s location has perplexed some, given that virtually all killer whale sightings occur along the west and south west coast. Indeed, the last sighting in the Dunmore East area was recorded four decades ago, according to Mr Malcolm.

He says that although a pod of nine whales regularly visits the waters off Ireland’s west coast it is not thought the Tramore whale belongs to that group.

Saleen beach has been busy since the discovery was made with people visiting the site to look at the deceased animal.

“It’s pretty mad down here, there’s just a constant stream of people coming, taking selfies of themselves with the whale,” said Mr Malcolm.

He also cautioned against any physical contact with the whale’s remains, as it is not yet certain as to whether it died of some kind of contractible illness or disease.

Members of the IWDG are on site to protect the scene from vandals.

This follows the carving of names and initials into the body of a sperm whale which washed up in nearby Dungarvan two years ago.

News Ireland daily BLOG by Donie

Tuesday 19th August 2014

Beautiful sweet Sligo success as some 400,000 thousand of music lovers took over the streets. 

  

The best free traditional music show in the World as described by many, that is the Fleadh Cheoil na Eireann, as many thousand’s of music lovers packed the streets of Sligo all of last week.

Large parts of the city Centre was sectioned off as a big pedestrian only zone as many thousands of music lovers parked their cars up to three kilometres away from the town Centre and took bus rides in to the “Land of hearts desire City Centre Sligo to enjoy hundreds of sessions of traditional music and dance in dozens of pubs and at every street corner.

Two groups of young buskers at the all Ireland Fleadh in O’Connel Street, Sligo.

 Buskers from all over Ireland and abroad aged from as young as eight years of age to eighty played and fiddled, whistled and tapped their bodhrans and boxes’ in the thronged parades and streets along the banks of the Garavogue River, which flows through the City Centre of the beautiful Yeats county of Sligo.

An estimated 30% of the 400,000 visitors to Sligo last week for the 63rd Fleadh Cheoil were from the overseas, mainly from Britain and America, but they also include dedicated Irish music lovers hailing from as far away as Australia, Japan, Korea, Spain and even Mexico.

The fleadh school, Scoil Eigse, which has been staging lectures and music classes, were also packed as they turned people away on some of the days last week.

Crowds were also turned away from a special fleadh film running at the Gaiety Cinema.

The Fleadh chairman Bartley Gavin said while the festival was attracting crowds since President Michael D Higgins opened it on last Sunday, The crowds were very big all week but the biggest crowds were on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The surge in visitors at the weekend was partly attributed to it being the opening day of the contests. Three days have been set aside for competitions this year, compared to two in previous years. They finished on Sunday night, there were many other events during the week, including a concert on the Peace 111 Gig Rig at Stephen Street car park on the final day Sunday where Dervish with lead singer Caty Jordon performed to a packed crowd there.

The curtain came down on this year’s successful Fleadh Cheoil Na Heireann 2014 in Sligo at 3pm on Sunday with a massive long colorful parade of choirs, Stilt walkers, an Orange order club from Northern Ireland, Macnas arts performers from Galway, and the Rathcormack, Drumcliffe choir performers who enacted the life of Colmkille on the opening day Sunday the 10^th August, and many more entertaining happy groups from other areas of the Art’s.

 Pictured left some of the Rathcormack choir group who took part in the Colmkille Pageant on the opening day and in the final day parade through the City Streets of Sligo.

Bartley Gavin said early on the week that he would hope that many of the traditional musicians would stay over until about next Wednesday or Thursday, when the pubs have quietened down and they could enjoy each other’s music and make new friend’s, and this what exactly happened.

Mr. Gavin said: “That’s partly down to third places in many contests in the provincial finals going through this year. In the past it was always two.

He said the success of the Fleadh this year in Sligo was down to Sligo having played such an important part in our traditional musical heritage and the County it was fully recognised for that.”

Robert Naczas (38), from southern Poland, attracted lots of interest. When he was selling homemade two and three-string instruments made with hurleys, called da shtick guitars Robert, who has been in Ireland for eight years and lives in Sligo, plays harmonica in a group called the Out Of Towners.

The traditional music shop Manager/Owner in Castle Street said he was very happy with the shops trading performance at this year’s Fleadh,adding it was up there with the best.

The real success of the Fleadh in the Yeats county of Sligo this year was the amount of young people performing and playing our traditional music, some of them for the first time to thousands of  people from Ireland and abroad. It was a wonderful example of Ireland’s greatest tradition “our music culture” being passed on to our Sons and Daughters, and them not being afraid to express their ways of playing our music and stamping their authority on our culture in a proud and emotional way.

The other success was the way the City and county was managed and shown in a new and proud way that the people of Sligo can work together with young, not so young, and the older experienced and wiser sectors of the community along with the Authorities pulling together to show Sligo what it has craved for many years, a true picture of what it is really about through co-operation at all levels, A “Beautiful, Clean, Friendly and Delightful” City to behold not just for now but for ever more.

Irish prisons struggling to tackle drug and staff problems

  

Use of methadone in Mountjoy criticised by prisons oversight group

The Methadone and Medication station in Mountjoy jail.

Prisons are still struggling to tackle drug and staffing problems, according to the latest round of prison visit reports released by the Department of Justice today.

One of the reports, which were compiled by prison visiting committees for various detention centres across the State, expressed severe reservations over the introduction of methadone into Mountjoy Prison’s low security Training Unit.

Committee members voiced concerns over the highly-addictive nature of the drug, which is used to wean addicts off opiates such as heroin, but acknowledged some successes of the fledgling system introduced earlier this summer.

Despite largely positive findings on conditions in Castlerea, Mountjoy, Wheatfield and Midlands prisons, the core issues of understaffing and drug use within jails provided particular points of concern for inspectors.

The report on Dublin’s Wheatfield Prison identified “a lot of [drug-related] difficulties” still ongoing in the facility, and also made reference to health issues such as a “vermin” problem caused by unsanitary methods of refuse disposal from prisoners’ cells.

It also detailed problems emanating from severely reduced library opening times within the 540 capacity prison, a situation which may detract from prisoners’ ongoing rehabilitation according to the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT).

“While IPRT welcomes the improvements noted, particularly in Mountjoy Prison, we are concerned at recurring reports of limited access to libraries and workshops,” said IPRT executive director Deirdre Malone.

“It is essential that those aspects of prison life which support rehabilitation, including year-round access to education, training and libraries, must be fully resourced and accessible to all prisoners, including those on restricted regimes,” she added.

Minister for Justice and Equality Frances Fitzgerald said issues such as understaffing and drugs remain a top priority for the Irish Prison Service.

“The Irish Prison Service will continue to implement policies and procedures to reduce the availability and use of illicit drugs in the prison estate,” she said at the publication of the reports.

“Efforts are made on a continuous basis to prevent the flow of contraband into our prisons. Nevertheless the IPS recognises that constant improvements are required in this area,” she added.

Although offering a largely positive assessment of prisoners’ conditions amid ongoing refurbishments to Mountjoy’s D wing, the report on the unit stated that staffing arrangements had reverted back to 2012 levels of two prison officers for every 500 prisoners, a situation which had been described in a previous visiting committee publication as “unsatisfactory”.

It was also found that 30 prisoners had been confined to their cells for 20 hours a day in the State’s largest prison as of January 2014, with a further 10 locked up for periods of 19 hours per day.

The reports come during a busy period of activity for the IPS, with the release of two further reports – the inspector of prison’s annual report for 2013 and an 18-month overview on deaths in custody – expected imminently.

An investigation by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs and Alcohol in April found that 43 per cent of inmates who used heroin had started taking it in prison, while further visiting committee reports released at the beginning of May pointed to issues of severe overcrowding in Cork and Cloverhill prisons, describing some of the accommodation provided as “Dickensian”.

Cities of Ireland still littered but towns getting cleaner

Irish business against Litter 2014

    

Areas of Dublin, Cork and Limerick occupy the six lowest positions in the table of 40 areas surveyed

Ireland’s towns continue to get cleaner but the main cities are still littered according to the latest survey by business group Irish business against Litter.

Areas of Dublin, Cork and Limerick occupy the six lowest positions in the table of 40 areas surveyed.

75% of towns and cities were found to be as clean as, or cleaner than European norms.

Kilkenny and Cavan were once again Ireland’s cleanest towns, followed by Killarney, Tramore and Longford.

They were among 18 towns deemed to be cleaner than the European average.

By contrast, Cork city, Limerick city, Dublin city, Tallaght, Dublin north inner city and Farranree in Cork were at the bottom of the table.

The survey shows a clear disparity between cities and towns.

IBAL puts this down to residents’ associations and tidy towns groups compensating for the scarcity of resources in local authorities in many towns, whereas these groups are often absent in cities.

The survey found that sweet papers were by far the most common form of litter, followed by cigarette butts, fast food wrappers and chewing gum.

A healthy eating regime can save sight

    

Diabetes Ireland, amongst other organisations to launch Eye Am What I Eat campaign.

Diabetic retinopathy is a common complication of diabetes and is the leading cause of blindness in working-age adults in Ireland. In fact, Irish statistics show that on average, one person with diabetes goes blind in Ireland each week. In the early stages, diabetic retinopathy will not affect the sight, but if the changes get worse, eventually the sight will be affected.

Symptoms of diabetic retinopathy can include blurred vision and black spots that appear to float in your eye.

According to eye doctor Mark Cahill, spokesperson for the Irish College of Ophthalmologists at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, “If diabetic retinopathy is not detected in the early stages it can lead to vision impairment and even vision loss.

“Eating well and maintaining a healthy lifestyle are hugely important but it is also essential for anyone with diabetes to have their eyes screened annually in order to detect the signs of diabetic retinopathy as early as possible.”

Sinead Hanley, Senior Dietitian at Diabetes Ireland, explains “Following a healthy lifestyle by taking regular physical activity and achieving a healthy weight through a balanced diet is the key to managing your diabetes and maintaining healthy eyes.”

The National Diabetic Retinal Screening Programme, ‘Diabetic RetinaScreen’ offers free, regular diabetic retinopathy screening to all people with diabetes, aged 12 and older.

Through the programme, people who are registered are invited to attend for screening. When people get the letter of invitation, they need to call the Freephone number listed on their letter to make an appointment. This will go a long way to maintaining healthy eyes and preventing vision loss in people with diabetes.

What are the Chimps saying? 10 Hours of ‘chimp chat’

    

Dutch academics want to encourage research into what animals say in recordings

Ten full hours of “chimp chat” have been put up online in order to encourage more research into what the animals are saying.

Ten full hours of ‘chimp chat’ have been put up online in order to encourage more research into what the animals are saying.

This valuable resource was originally recorded the early 1970s in Tanzania, but has now been digitised and made available to help the study of chimpanzee communications.

It ranks as the largest dataset of recordings from free-living immature chimps yet collected, and includes the whole gamut of their vocalisations including grunts, hoocalls, barks and squeals.

Details of their recording are published this afternoon in the journal Scientific Data. They were collected by Dutch researchers the late Hetty van de Rijt-Plooij, and Frans Plooij at Gombe National Park, Tanzania from 1971 to 1973.

None of the recordings have been analysed for any meaning behind the hours of adolescent chimp chatter, so they could represent an important opportunity to learn whether the sounds have any real meaning, the journal suggests.

The great apes including chimps are our closest living relations. We share about 95 per cent of our DNA with chimps so it may be that there is hidden content in the sounds.

There is already extensive research into great ape vocalisations because of this and the journal points to this work. Recent studies have found there are similarities between human and chimp language including having regional dialects.

The digitised recordings are stored in the Macaulay Library at Cornell University and released via the Dryad Repositoryonline.

The release also incudes the original notes on the contexts of the calls, now translated from the original Dutch into English.

News Ireland daily BLOG by Donie

Thursday 31st July 2014

Banker’s McAteer and Whelan to enjoy 240 hours of community service “Ha Ha”

 

Judge concludes hearing saying: ‘Thank you gentlemen. Enjoy your community service’

William McAteer (left) of Rathgar, Dublin, and Pat Whelan of Malahide, Dublin, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court this morning.

Two former directors of Anglo Irish Bank have each been sentenced to 240 hours community service for giving illegal loans to developers to buy shares in the bank.

North-Dublin-based Patrick Whelan (53) Anglo’s former director of lending in Ireland, and 63-year-old William McAteer, the bank’s former finance director, have been sentenced to 240 hours of community service to be completed over the course of the next year.

Judge Martin Nolan handed down the sentence and said: “Thank you gentlemen. Enjoy your community service”.

The two men were convicted in April of giving the loans to ten customers of the bank six years ago, but they were found not guilty of illegal lending to members of the Quinn family.

Judge Martin Nolan said in April that he felt it would be unfair to imprison either man as he believed the Financial Regulator “led them into error and illegality”.

He said he believed that the Regulator had effectively given the “green light” to allow the illegal purchase of Anglo shares.

Judge Martin Nolan had adjourned sentencing to assess the men’s suitability for community service. The type of community service the two former bankers could be asked to carry out includes ground clearance, graffiti removal, maintenance, the improvement of parks and other services.

Mr Whelan and Mr McAteer had been convicted of giving illegal loans to a group of developers known as the ‘Maple Ten’ to buy shares in Anglo in July 2008. Anglo their trial had heard feared the entire bank would have collapsed otherwise.

The developers loaned to include well-known names like Paddy McKillen, Gerry Gannon and Joe O’Reilly. Judge Martin Nolan said of the ten men: “They were certainly good men and acting with good motives.”

Mr McAteer and Mr Whelan were the first prosecution of offences under section 60 of the 1963 Companies Act. The loans were part of a larger scheme to try and place a huge interest in the bank built up by businessman Sean Quinn in its shares.

Mr McAteer grew up in Co Donegal and qualified as a chartered accountant in 1975. After becoming a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers, McAteer became managing director of Paul Coulson’s Yeoman International Leasing, a venture capital lending firm. In 1992 he joined Anglo in a senior role. He was finance director of the bank for 15-years when it expanded rapidly.

Mr. Whelan grew up in inner-city Dublin, on Marlborough Street. He worked with AIB before joining Anglo in the late 1980s. By 1997 Mr. Whelan was an associate director in the bank and was mainly involved in lending before moving in 2002 into group risk. In 2006 he joined the board of Anglo, and the following year was made head of Irish lending.

According to the Prison Service a judge can impose a community service order of between 40 and 240 hours’ work.

While the judge specifies the duration the type of work is determined by the probation service.

There are eight categories of community service listed on the Prison Service website. These include:

1. Ground clearance work and general gardening projects;
2. Graffiti removal; environmental work;
3. Recycling projects;
4. Basic building maintenance and landscaping;
5. Improvements to park and community facilities;
6. Painting and decorating in community centres etc;
7. Assisting voluntary and community clubs, facilities and bodies;
8. Working with individuals or groups in need;
9. Supporting local initiatives.

Stop huffing and puffing & blaming companies for using Irish tax system

 

Apple’s profits might bypass tax coffers of the US and UK, but it does not mean that the money is gone

Apple’s tax arrangements in Ireland made international headlines.

In May 2013, Apple was one of several US multinationals in the hot seat before a bipartisan US senate subcommittee investigating the use of corporate tax avoidance schemes.

Apple’s tax arrangements in Ireland made international headlines, as Apple chief executive Tim Cook revealed that the company paid a sixth of Ireland’s multinational tax rate of 12.5%.

The Irish Government was quick to deny assertions that it was providing a “tax haven” to such companies.

Two of the senators leading the investigation retorted with a joint statement, insisting: “Most reasonable people would agree that negotiating special tax arrangements that allow companies to pay little or no income tax meets a common-sense definition of a tax haven.”

In the same year, a similar scenario played out before a parliamentary subcommittee in the UK. Companies highlighted this time included Google and Amazon. Over there, it was noted, Amazon paid just £2.4 million in corporate taxes in 2012 on sales of £4.3 billion.

Ireland came up in those discussions too, as a base through which many of these companies with UK subsidiaries funnelled their tax (lets set aside that if, as UK tax campaigners have argued, Amazon and its compatriots were taxed in each country on the basis of what each country contributes to overall revenue – about 10 per cent in the case of Amazon UK – Amazon in the UK would be entitled to a large tax credit now due to recent global losses).

The fact is, all this huffing and puffing of government investigatory committees remains just so much grandstanding.

Last week, an American president finally had the courage to argue, in a hard-hitting speech in Los Angeles, that the time has come to – yes – change the American tax system to prevent American corporate profits from heading off on productive international tours. Ireland, of course, got yet another mention.

Gaming the system

“What we are trying to do is to say that if you simply acquire a small company in Ireland or some other country to take advantage of the low tax rate [and] you start saying, ‘we are now magically an Irish company’, despite the fact that you might have only 100 employees there and you have got 10,000 employees in the United States, you are just gaming the system. You are an American company,” President Obama said.

He also identified one of the other hallmarks of the US corporate system whereby many benefit from subsidies and market supports,even now and then, full-on bailouts, at the expense of the US taxpayer.

25% of babies born here are now to non-Irish parents

   

One-in-four (25%) of children born here in 2012 were to non-national mothers.

The mothers hailed mostly from EU accession states, Asia and Africa, a new study on Ireland’s children of immigrants reveals.

Interestingly, the team found that while English was the most commonly spoken language in their homes – even when neither parent was Irish – more than half of the children who had at least one parent from the EU accession states didn’t speak English.

The most commonly spoken languages in those homes were Polish (66%), Lithuanian (17%), Russian (9%) and Romanian (5%).

The findings are included in the first-ever study of the children of migrant parents here entitled ‘New Irish Families: A profile of Second Generation Children and their Families’ by researchers at Trinity College.

The study also found that mothers born outside of Ireland tended to be much more educated than their Irish counterparts.

Sixty percent of non-Irish mothers born elsewhere in the EU – excluding the UK – had attained a third-level degree or higher, while close to half (46%) of Asian mothers had a third-level degree compared to just 28% of Irish mothers.

Yet despite their education, families with at least one parent from the EU accession states, Asia or Africa, were found to be at greater risk of poverty and with lower household incomes and jobs predominantly in semi-skilled or unskilled sectors.

Conversely, families with at least one parent from established EU member states were found to be the most socio-economically advanced group.

The study, led by Trinity College sociologist Antje Roder, was conducted in order to gauge the impact of the mass influx of migrants over the past decade on Irish society in years to come.

“Very little is known about (migrant) children born and raised in Ireland whose families will face different challenges to those that moved here with their foreign-born children,” the report states.

Children with diabetes to suffer ill-care after good improvements made recently 

  

Children’s health will suffer with the loss of a quality paediatric diabetes service at University Hospital Limerick, a national campaign group has warned.

Over the last year, children’s diabetes services at the hospital had improved dramatically with the appointment of a full time locum endocrinologist replacing one on ‘half-time’.

The full-time consultant was solely concerned with medical care for more than 250 children with type 1 diabetes and, as a result, there was a fivefold increase in care and support.

Diabetes Ireland said families had been delighted and patients had received quarterly medical appointments.

However, the full-time post is reverting back to a half-time position.

Dr Anna Clarke of Diabetes Ireland said that, at a minimum, Limerick and Galway required a part-time post in each hospital to support their care plan.

“Cutting the Limerick service medical support by a fifth will put children’s health at risk on a daily basis and we will end up spending more on inpatient treatment and long-term complications. Our children deserve better,” she said.

Children with type 1 diabetes, an auto-immune condition, need three-monthly reviews to ensure their growth and development.

Diabetes Ireland said the part-time consultant could not physically review the 250 children attending Limerick four times a year.

Parents of the children now fear appointments will slip from next month when the service reverts back to a ‘half-time’ post.

John Saunders, whose 10-year-old son attends Limerick, had been very impressed with the management response to addressing personnel shortages in the past year.

“The improvements have been tangible for our son as well as for all children attending,” said Mr Saunders.

“It is vital to build on rather than reverse recent gains. To reduce resources now as patient numbers continue to grow would be a severe blow to the health and morale of all who use and work in this service.”

The part-time consultant is to be shared with Galway University hospitals as part of the plan to implement the type 1 diabetes model of care for under fives.

The care plan will see all children in the age category having access to insulin pump therapy, the optimal treatment for most young people with diabetes.

Dr Clarke said she was worried that what happened at Limerick would set a precedent for the rest of the country. “The whole of the west should be up in arms about this, not just people in the Limerick area.”

A Care plan

1. Four children a week are being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, a lifelong condition requiring intensive medical and personal management to reduce the risks of complications in later life.
2. Type 1 diabetes is an auto immune condition that affects a child’s ability to control the glucose level in the blood.
3. Insulin is required regularly, either as injections or continuous infusion (pump) which must be balanced to food intake and physical activity level.
4. Managing a child with diabetes requires education, motivation and ongoing support of the family from the specialist paediatric diabetes team.

– Diabetes Ireland’s helpline number — 1850 909909; www.diabetes.ie

The benefits of a short daily run “too good to miss out on”

  

Running for just seven minutes a day could cut your risk of heart disease by almost 50%.

Running first thing in the morning or straight after work can seem like a slog. But what if doing it for just seven minutes could already have a huge impact on your health? A new study suggests a short run, even at a slow pace, could dramatically decrease your chance of heart disease.

Iowa University conducted a study with 55,137 adults aged between 18 and 100 and the result was that exercise did not have to leave you shattered in order to benefit your health.

The long-term research followed the lives of the people involved over 15 years. During this time, over 3,000 died, with 1,217 deaths linked to heart disease.

Runners made up just under a quarter of the study population and results showed their general health and lifespan to be much better and higher. Runners’ risk of heart disease and stroke was 45 per cent lower than non-runners and there was a decrease in risk of death from all causes by 30%. Runners also lived, on average, three years longer.

All that was needed was around 51 minutes a week. This works out at just seven per day. Running slower than six miles an hour for fewer than six miles a week also reduced the risk of death.

Unfortunately there’s some bad news for those putting in more effort – those who ran for less than an hour per week benefited just as much as those who ran for more than three hours a week (don’t let that put you off though!)

But the great news is that this study could finally motivate those who don’t think they have enough time to squeeze in a workout.

“Since time is one of the strongest barriers to participate in physical activity, the study may motivate more people to start running and continue to run as an attainable health goal for mortality benefits,” lead scientist Dr Duck-Chul Lee said.

“Running may be a better exercise option than more moderate intensity exercises for healthy but sedentary people.

“[This is because] it produces similar, if not greater, mortality benefits in five to ten minutes, compared to the 15 to 20 minutes per day of moderate intensity activity that many find too time consuming.”

If you walk to and from work or the station every morning, consider using this time to squeeze in a quick run. Pack some trainers to change into after work and build just ten minutes of jogging in a day.

Massive dinosaurs evolved and eventually shrank into agile flying birds

 

Birds evolved from heropod dinosaurs, the only dinosaurs that kept getting inexorably smaller, scientists find

Massive meat-eating ground-dwelling dinosaurs shrunk over 50 million years and evolved into agile flying birds, according to new research.

Scientists from the University of Southampton have presented in the journal Science a detailed family tree of dinosaurs and their bird descendants, which maps out the evolutionary transformation.

They showed that the branch of theropod dinosaurs, which gave rise to modern birds, were the only dinosaurs that kept getting inexorably smaller.

Darren Naish, vertebrate palaeontologist, said: ”These bird ancestors also evolved new adaptations, such as feathers, wishbones and wings, four times faster than other dinosaurs.”

Associate professor Michael Lee, from the University of Adelaide, added: ”Birds evolved through a unique phase of sustained miniaturisation in dinosaurs.

”Being smaller and lighter in the land of giants, with rapidly evolving anatomical adaptations, provided these bird ancestors with new ecological opportunities, such as the ability to climb trees, glide and fly. Ultimately, this evolutionary flexibility helped birds survive the deadly meteorite impact which killed off all their dinosaurian cousins.”

Co-author Gareth Dyke, senior lecturer in vertebrate palaeontology at the University of Southampton, said: ”The dinosaurs most closely related to birds are all small, and many of them – such as the aptly named Microraptor – had some ability to climb and glide.”

The study examined more than 1,500 anatomical traits of dinosaurs to reconstruct their family tree. The researchers used sophisticated mathematical modelling to trace evolving adaptions and changing body size over time and across dinosaur branches.

The international team also included Andrea Cau, from the University of Bologna and Museo Geologico Giovanni Capellini.

The study concluded that the branch of dinosaurs leading to birds was more evolutionary innovative than other dinosaur lineages.

Associate Prof Lee added: ”Birds out-shrank and out-evolved their dinosaurian ancestors, surviving where their larger, less evolvable relatives could not.”

Bumblebees can spot which flowers have the best pollen before they land

  

Not all flowers are created equal and now, it turns out that bumblebees can tell the difference.

Not all flowers are created equal and now, it turns out that bumblebees can tell the difference. Scientists have found that these insects can connect differences in pollen quality with floral features, like petal color, so that they only land on flowers that offer the best rewards.

Bees don’t ingest pollen while foraging on flower. That’s why researchers have long wondered how these insects could form associative relationships between what a flower looks like and the quality of its pollen. In order to find out, the scientists examined bumblebee forages under controlled conditions.

“There is still very little known about how bees decide which flowers to visit for pollen collection,” said Natalie Hempel de Ibarra, one of the researchers, in a news release. “Easily learning floral features based on pollen rewards, without needing any nectar rewards, is a fast and effective way to recognize those flower species which bees have previously experienced to be the best ones.”

The researchers manipulated the quality of pollen offered to the bees under controlled conditions by diluting the samples. Then, the scientists examined which pollen the bees preferred to collect, and if they could differentiate quality before landing by smell and sight of the pollen alone. In all, the researchers presented the bees with four different colored discs containing stronger and less diluted pollen.

“Bees need to be able to select flowers providing the most nutritious food for rearing their young,” said Elizabeth Nicholls, one of the researchers. “Since bumblebees don’t eat pollen when foraging, it was unclear if or how they might be able to assess differences in quality. Here we’ve shown that they are able to detect differences in pollen, even before landing, which means they may be able to tell, just from the color of the petals, which flowers are worth visiting.”

News Ireland daily BLOG by Donie

Friday 23rd August 2013

Nearly 100,000 20% of Irish mortgages in arrears by over three months or more

 

Irish Central Bank figures show over 200 homes repossessed by banks in second quarter of year

Mortgage arrears continued to climb in the second quarter of the year, and a more than 200 homes were repossessed by banks, new data from the Central Bank showed today.

The latest figures show more than 97,800 private residential mortgages were in arrears of over 90 days by the end of June, some 12.7 per cent of home loans, compared with 12.3 per cent in the previous quarter, or 95,554 loans.

When it came to longer-term arrears, the number of mortgages that had fallen behind by more than 180 days rose by 3.8 per cent, while quarter on quarter the number of accounts in arrears over 720 days was up by 11.3 per cent.

However, early arrears showed a decline, falling by 3.3 per cent to 45,018 loan accounts.

The Central Bank said a total of 223 properties were repossessed by lenders during the three-month period, with 160 voluntarily surrendered. The banks disposed of 133 properties during the quarter, leaving them in possession of 1,001 properties. Legal proceedings were brought in 270 cases.

More than 79,300 mortgage accounts are now classed as restructured, with 76.5 per cent deemed to be meeting the terms of their current restructure arrangement. The majority of these arrangements are interest only or reduced payments that exceed the interest on the mortgage, with a small number – about 5,400 – paying less than the interest owed.

Some 30,326 buy to let mortgages were in arrears of more than 90 days, rising from 29,369 at the end of the previous quarter.

The Irish Banking Federation said the rise overall arrears was unwelcome, and warned it would likely increase further before hitting a peak, but pointed to the reduction in early arrears as a positive move.

However, financial brokers body PIBA said the current crisis was prolonging the agony for homeowners and was a severe drag on the economy that needs to be tackled urgently.

“The longer that this situation is left to continue the more catastrophic the consequences will be on the wider economy,” chief operations officer Rachel Doyle said.

Potential first Irish abortion carried out under new legislation

 

National Maternity Hospital on Holles Street terminated unviable pregnancy at 18 weeks

The Department of Health has confirmed that the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Act, signed into law by the President on July 30th, 2013, has not yet commenced. So therefore, the statements below that a termination was carried out under the provisions of new abortion legislation and that it was performed under section 7 of the Act are not entirely correct.

The first termination of a pregnancy carried out under the provisions of new abortion legislation has taken place at the National Maternity Hospital on Holles Street, Dublin.

The termination of the twin pregnancy was carried out on a patient who was almost 18 weeks’ pregnant in view of the risk to her life and the unviability of her pregnancy, according to sources at the hospital. Foetal heartbeat were present.

The case bears a number of similarities to that of Savita Halappanavar, in that the woman’s membranes had ruptured and she was demonstrating signs of sepsis.

In contrast to Ms Halappanavar, who died in University Hospital Galway last October after she was refused a termination, the National Maternity Hospital patient has made a good recovery after receiving antibiotic treatment and undergoing the termination a number of weeks ago.

The National Maternity Hospital is one of 25 hospitals in the State authorised to carry out terminations under the provisions of the Act.

the Risk of loss of life

It was performed under section 7, which deals with the risk of loss of life of a woman from physical illness. The controversial suicide provision and another provision covering medical emergencies were not invoked.

In accordance with the legislation, the woman’s obstetrician and another medical practitioner certified that there was a real and substantial risk to her life, which could only be averted by carrying out a termination, before the procedure was carried out.

The Act does not provide for the identification of either patients or the doctors involved in the process. In this case, it is understood the master of the hospital Dr Rhona Mahony, former master Dr Peter Boylan, other senior obstetricians at the hospital and a paediatrician were involved in the decision-making process.

“Even before the passage of the legislation, Holles Street would have carried out terminations in cases like this, where the prognosis for the pregnancy was very poor,” a senior hospital source said last night. “What’s changed is that we can do our work in the best interests of patients without fear of a possible Medical Council case.”

Dr Mahony was out of the country yesterday and could not be contacted.

Membranes were ruptured.

In this case, after the woman’s membranes were ruptured for almost 24 hours and the risk of infection increased dramatically, she and her partner agreed to the procedure after discussions with doctors at the hospital.The twin foetuses had no chance of survival after being born at under 18 weeks.

Estimates vary as to the number of terminations carried out in Irish hospitals each year to save the life of the mother. During the debate on the legislation, Dr Mahony estimated that between 10 and 20 terminations are performed, while her counterpart at the Rotunda, Dr Sam Coulter-Smith, estimated the number at between 20 and 30.

To comply with the legislation, the hospital is required to provide Minister for Health James Reilly with the Medical Council registration number of the doctor who carried out the procedure and the registration number of the doctor involved in certification. It must also state under which provision of the Act the termination was carried out.

The Minister is required to publish a yearly report on terminations carried out under the terms of the Act.

MEP Marian Harkin hails consumer refund scheme for EU consumers

  

Marian Harkin MEP said the European Consumer Centre in Ireland was contacted by 3,326 consumers in 2012

More than €100,000 was refunded to people who contacted European consumer chiefs last year.

Marian Harkin MEP said the European Consumer Centre in Ireland was contacted by 3,326 consumers in 2012 as on-lines sales and EU cross border shopping rose.

She revealed 60% of inquiries were successfully resolved with €112,058.69 refunded to the complainants, who included a woman whose teenage daughter was refused boarding on a flight in Spain as it was over-booked.

“More and more people are buying online and more and more people are buying cross-border,” said Ms Harkin.

“While there are laws in place to help protect consumer rights, it can often be difficult to vindicate those rights because of language problems, different legal systems and attempted fraudulent trading.”

Claims successfully resolved included an Irish person who found that goods bought from a UK trader were not as described in the purchase order and a Swedish consumer who ordered goods from an Irish trader that were not delivered and who had not received a refund.

Elsewhere a customer whose order was cancelled by a UK web trade without a refund was assisted, along with a holidaymaker who was billed and charged for “special cleaning” of a rental car from a French company. That claim was resolved following the intervention of the French European Consumer Centre and a full refund was made.

Ms Harkin said the data shows not only is there legislation in place that can protect the rights of people buying across EU borders, but that the centre will assist them in vindicating those rights.

“The European Consumer Centre in Ireland will investigate the case and contact the Consumer Centre in the country involved, as well as the company or trader concerned,” she said at the launch of the report in Sligo.

“They will also provide information and advice where needed.

“This is a really good service and should help consumers navigate the sometimes tricky area of cross-border business.”

Most precise clock in the world to watch tiniest ever time dilations

   

Time can now be divided into slivers hundreds of trillions of times smaller than a second, thanks to a pair of atomic clocks made from ytterbium that have just set a new record for precision.

This could allow us to detect how an object just 1 centimetre above another might age differently, as prescribed by Einstein’s theory of general relativity. It could also set a new standard definition for the second.

“We’ve reached a new level, an order of magnitude improvement over what had been done before,” says Andrew Ludlow of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, who led the work.

The “ticks” of atomic clocks are the hyper-regular switching of a group of atoms between two energy levels. The most accurate definition of a second is currently the amount of time it takes for a group of caesium atoms to swing between two states 9,192,631,770 times.

“If you were to run this clock for around 100 million years, it would only gain or lose about a second,” Ludlow says. These clocks are accurate because we’ve identified their sources of error and eliminated most of them, so physicists can be confident that its ticking is true.

Speed limit

But the trouble with caesium is that it can’t switch energy states any faster, limiting the clock’s precision – how finely we can divide time.

In the past few years, physicists have been constructing clocks that use elements like strontium, aluminium and ytterbium, whose transitions are thousands or millions of times more frequent.

“The caesium clocks, compared to most other technology, are wonderful,” Ludlow says. “But compared to these next-generation clocks they are significantly worse in terms of the stability, or the time precision that they can achieve.”

As well as the speed of its tick, a clock’s precision depends on its regularity. If the pendulum in a grandfather clock takes one second to complete one swing, two seconds to complete the next, and a second and a half to complete a third swing, you wouldn’t trust it to time a race. So a clock’s ticking rate must also be consistent. “The same is true for these atomic clocks,” Ludlow says. “You need to make sure that each tick is the same as the one before it.”

Magic frequency

Now, Ludlow and his colleagues have created ytterbium clocks that are stable to one part in a quintillion (10¹⁸): it would take a quintillion ticks to find one that is different from its neighbours.

To create each clock, the team cooled 10,000 ytterbium atoms to 10 millikelvin, or 10 thousandths of a degree above absolute zero, and used a series of lasers to trap them in a sort of egg carton of light. Another laser, called the “clock” laser, provoked a transition between two of the atoms’ energy levels.

The magic frequency for ytterbium is about 518 trillion oscillations per second, about 100,000 per second faster than caesium.

The team used an extremely steady laser to reduce jitter in the atoms, and thousands of atoms to average out any disturbances that could have knocked individual atoms off their cycles. To put a figure on the precision, they compared two nearly identical ytterbium clocks against each other.

“It’s an outstanding paper. This is really a breakthrough,” says Christoph Salomon of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, who was not involved in the new work.

Although the clock is more precise than the caesium gold standard, it still not as accurate.

You might think of these properties of equivalent, but there is a distinction. Precision describes how finely you can divide something, and accuracy is the extent to which you can be sure the measurement is correct or erase systematic errors. And the researchers are more certain that the caesium clock does not contain a systematic error than they are for ytterbium.

Einstein test

If they beat down the clock’s uncertainties, it could eventually become more accurate than the caesium clock too, potentially unseating the world standard for timekeeping.

The milestone opens new frontiers in ultra-precise measurements of gravity and fundamental constants.

It could also help find holes in general relativity. The theory predicts that time runs slower in a gravitational field, meaning clocks on the ground are slower than clocks in space, or even clocks on a step-ladder.

Using the ytterbium clock’s precision, you could sense these time differences at the level of a single centimetre. That would allow physicists to test general relativity’s predictions to 10 parts per billion, well beyond what has been done so far.

Relativity, although hugely successful, doesn’t sit well with quantum mechanics, so physicists expect it to break down at some point, revealing a new, more fundamental theory.

“We know that general relativity is not the ultimate theory,” Salomon says. “People are searching for violations of general relativity that would indicate new forces or new particles or new physics, and that would be really exciting. These [atomic clocks] are exquisite tools for doing that work.”

Volunteering could lengthen peoples life & improve your health

  

Volunteering may improve your health, according to a new study which found that those who do it live longer and are more satisfied with their lives.

People who volunteer report having lower levels of depression and higher levels of well-being than average, while some research suggests it promotes a longer and healthier life.

A review of 40 academic papers on the subject by University of Exeter researchers found that volunteers are a fifth less likely to die within thenext four to seven years than average.

Across the studies volunteers had lower self-rated levels of depression and higher levels of well-being and life satisfaction, although this has not been confirmed in trials.

It is thought that volunteering can be good for the physical health of older people in particular, by encouraging them to stay active and spend more time out of the house.

Volunteers often explain their motives in terms of wanting to “give something back” to their community, but without receiving anything in return the reported improvements in quality of life are harder to explain, experts said.

An estimated 22.5 per cent of people in Europe devote part of their spare time to volunteering, compared with 27 per cent in America and 36 per cent in Australia.

Dr Suzanne Richards, who published her systematic review in the BMC Public Health journal, said: “Our systematic review shows that volunteering is associated with improvements in mental health, but more work is needed to establish whether volunteering is actually the cause.

“It is still unclear whether biological and cultural factors and social resources that are often associated with better health and survival are also associated with a willingness to volunteer in the first place.”

News Ireland daily BLOG

Saturday/Sunday 10th & 11th August

Serious respiratory infection illness made Charlie Haughey look for his place in Irish history

   

Charles Haughey: The US ambassador complimented the “measured statesmanlike tones” of Haughey during his ard-fheis speech in February1989, which she said were “in strong contrast to the stridently partisan speech of Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes at his party conference”.

A bout of serious illness led to a dramatic change in Charles Haughey’s leadership style as Taoiseach, making him realise it was his “last chance to make his place in Irish history”, US ambassador Margaret Heckler told secretary of state James Baker in a confidential cable in March 1989.

She said the illness made Haughey “determined to rise above his hitherto dominant image as the ultimate political boss”.
In ‘firm control’
A few days later another cable sent in advance of Haughey’s St Patrick’s Day visit to the US described him as being in “firm control” of Irish politics.

“The only cloud on Haughey’s horizon is his health. He has not recovered fully from a severe respiratory infection last fall and will consult a specialist during his Washington trip.”

Haughey had spent time in the intensive care unit of the Mater hospital in October 1988 and the Cork Examinerreported that his heart had stopped but this was vehemently denied by a government spokesman.

The cables were obtained under the US freedom ofinformation Act on foot of a request to the state department for any records from 1989 relating to Charles Haughey. Some records were refused for US national security/foreign policy reasons.

Many of the cables from 1989 deal with the fallout from Haughey’s disastrous decision to call a surprise general election in June which resulted in Fianna Fáil losing seats.

To retain power he formed a coalition with the Progressive Democrats, the first time Fianna Fáil ever participated in a coalition government.
Great survivor
Heckler wrote on July 15th, the day the coalition was formed: “In the end, it would seem, after all, that Haughey, the great survivor of Irish politics, has once againfashioned a victory from defeat . . . In entering a coalition he has put national interests above sectarian party concerns.”

In the cables, Heckler complimented the “measured statesmanlike tones” of Haughey during his ardfheis speech in February1989, which she said were “in strong contrast to the stridently partisan speech of Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes at his party conference”.

HSE managers warned of risks to patients from funding cuts and understaffing

Confidential ‘risk register’ shows scale of challenges facing health service

 

Under pressure from the troika over health costs, the HSE budget has been cut by more than 20 per cent, or €3 billion, since the financial crisis began in 2008.

Health Service Executive managers have warned of high risks to patient safety as a result of under staffing and spending cuts across key areas of the health service, internal records show.

The executive’s confidential “corporate risk register” provides an insight into the most urgent challenges facing the organisation as it tries to cope with fewer employees and increased demand for services.

The register, seen by The Irish Times, shows the greatest risks facing the executive over the past year. They include:

Harm to patients arising from inadequate delivery of vital health services linked to understaffing;

Funding running out for the nursing home support scheme, causing knock-on problems across the health services;

Unsafe services for children due to a failure to comply with childcare regulations and standards; and

Risk of vaccine-preventable disease, such as measles, occurring due to failure to achieve targets for vaccine uptake.

The troika
Under pressure from the troika over health costs, the HSE budget has been cut by more than 20 per cent, or €3 billion, since the financial crisis began in 2008.

It has also lost more than 11,000 employees over the same period. This year the HSE faces another steep budget cut, although its service plan pledges to deliver the “maximum level of safe services possible”.

However, a detailed breakdown of risks facing individual services across the HSE shows elevated concern over the safety of cancer care for thousands of patients.

Highest risk
One of the highest risk ratings is linked to not having sufficient staff that are “essential to ensure adherence to quality control and quality assurance strategies” across cancer services.

There is also concern that designated cancer centres may fail to meet basic standards or targets for speedy delivery of care due to “fiscal challenges, the recruitment moratorium and other priorities”.

The HSE was not in a position to comment on the register last night, but the documents show it has drafted action plans for all risks identified.

For example, in areas such as patient safety, the register states there is a stronger focus on clinical care through the appointment of clinical directors, healthcare audits andtraining.

The risk register – a common tool across large firms – measures the greatest threats facing an organisation and ranks them in terms of impact and likelihood of occurring.

Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher has described warnings of high risks to patients as a result of understaffing and spending cuts as “frightening but not surprising”.

He said the revelations confirm what his party has been saying “about the high risk to public safety arising from Minister James Reilly’s handling of the health service”.

“[IT] is a damning indictment of Government policy and will cause huge amounts of anxiety amongst patients and their families,” he said.

The TD for Cork north-central called on the Health Minister to “urgently” clarify how these concerns are going to be addressed.

“This will impact on every family in Ireland,” he said. “Minster Reilly needs to urgently change his priorities and focus on frontline services to patients, which he has failed abysmally to do.”

Experienced Seán O’Rourke set to take over Pat Kenny’s slot

 

The veteran RTÉ news and current affairs broadcaster Seán O’Rourke is to be announced as successor to Pat Kenny’s morning radio show.

O’Rourke, who currently presents the RTÉ News at One programme and The Week in Politics on RTÉ television, will replace Kenny who announced his shock departure from the national broadcaster, where he has worked for over four decades, last week.

The move is set to create an intensive radio rivalry between two of the industry’s greatest luminaries in current affairs and whose shows will air at the same time.

A source revealed the decision was made at a meeting in a Monaghan hotel yesterday morning, and involved several key Montrose executives including director general Noel Curran and head of news and current affairs Kevin Bakhurst.

The announcement is due to be made on RTÉ Radio 1 on the Marian Finucane Show today where he will be interviewed by Aine Lawlor.

O’Rourke is renowned for his presence on the national broadcaster’s flagship radio news programme and has a reputation as a formidable interviewer, particularly of politicians.

His appointment will see him leave that slot for the first time in nearly two decades having started there in 1995.

The 54-year-old, from Portlaoise, began his career at the Connacht Tribune, following up with stints at the Sunday Press and Irish Press as a sports journalist, feature writer and political correspondent.

He has been with RTÉ news and current affairs since 1989 as an editor and presenter. He has also reported extensively from abroad.

It is unclear if, at all, the move will affect his other role as presenter of The Week in Politics which airs every Sunday night on RTÉ television.

Kenny made the surprise announcement last week in what was widely considered an industry coup for Newstalk Radio, his new employer who said he would be on air from September 2nd next.

He said he was “relishing the challenge ahead and looking forward to a new chapter”, particularly in the world of independent broadcasting.

Last night, betting on Kenny’s replacement appeared to have been suspended on Paddy PowerKenny worked with the State broadcaster for the last 41 years before joining the Denis O’Brien controlled Newstalk where he will anchor the station’s prime time slot.

Thousands of AIB customers subject to loan credit errors

    

Thousands of AIB customers may have been turned down for loans because the bank sent incorrect customer data to the Irish Credit Bureau, according to reports.

The Irish Independent today reports that as many as 12,000 customers may have been incorrectly identified as having poor track records for repaying loans.

It’s believed the errors occurred over a period of six years.

Last year thousands of AIB customers learned that incorrect records were kept on their loan histories, as overdue loans were marked down as being a 4 weeks late, when in fact they may have been only overdue a week.

Harvard School study says breakfast every day can keep the doctor away

   

The well known benefits of eating a good breakfast are endless, from its metabolism-boosting powers to staving off mid-morning hunger pangs.

But recent research added a new factor to the mix, when it was found that men who regularly skipped breakfast had a 27% higher risk of heart attack or death from coronary heart disease than those who routinely ate a morning meal. 

The study, by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) in the USA, is the first of its kind to indicate a direct link between the two, and found that breakfast-skippers were generally hungrier later in the day and ate more food at night, perhaps leading to metabolic changes and heart disease.

It followed 26,902 men aged 45-82 over a 16-year period and even after accounting for diet, physical activity, smoking and other lifestyle factors, the association between skipping breakfast and heart disease persisted.

Lead author Dr Leah Cahill, a research fellow at HSPH, suggests: “Skipping breakfast may lead to one or more risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, which may in turn lead to a heart attack over time.”

Cahill says the research team expects the results to apply to women as well, and they currently have a similar study with females under way.

Daniel McCartney, a lecturer in dietetics at DIT says: “Breakfast kick-starts the metabolism and wakes up the body.

“A high-fibre cereal will also slow absorption of sugar from the gut. Insoluble fibre — found in cereals such as Weetabix and All Bran and in bananas — can fill you until lunch time.

Dietitian Victoria Taylor suggests wholegrain toast or cereals like porridge with low-fat milk are a good way to start the day.

“Try a sliced banana or dried fruit on top and you’ll be on your way to five-a-day before you’ve even left the house,” she adds.

“A healthy and filling breakfast can make that mid-morning biscuit less tempting, as well as giving you another opportunity to widen the variety of foods in your diet.”

Healthy options include the following: nPorridge made with semi-skimmed milk topped with a selection of dried fruits. Oats are a good source of insoluble fibre.

* Muesli, fresh fruit and low-fat yoghurt. Added fruit counts towards your five-a-day, and low-fat yoghurt provides calcium and protein.

* Wholegrain breakfast cereal with semi-skimmed milk. Many cereals are fortified with vitamins and minerals.

* Boiled egg with wholemeal toast and low-fat spread. Eggs are a good source of protein, minerals and vitamins A, D and B2. Wholemeal bread contains B vitamins, vitamin E, fibre and a range of minerals.

Perseid meteor shower will help astronomers get a better view of space

  

As sky-watchers marvel at the beauty of the annual Perseid meteor shower — set to peak late Sunday and early Monday — astronomers will be thanking their shooting stars for another reason. Airborne pollution from vaporized meteors is proving crucial for the nextgeneration of super-sharp snapshots of exotic moons and distant galaxies.

Pollution of any kind is usually bad news for telescopes, which thrive on clear skies. But shooting stars — flaming bits of debris from comets — leave behind traces of an element astronomers are harnessing to sharpen the focus of their telescopes.

That element is sodium. Traces of it waft in a band encircling the Earth about 55 miles above ground. American astronomer Vesto Slipher of Arizona discovered this sodium layer in 1929, but only recently have astronomers found a use for it — by zapping it with lasers.

“We can excite the sodium [with a laser] and make an artificial star,” said Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory, a multinational consortium that operates telescopes in Hawaii and Chile.

Sensors watching these artificial “guide stars” see them twinkle — the effect of atmospheric turbulence. This wavy air usually renders distant targets fuzzy. But by watching the guide star, sophisticated computers on the ground can calculate the turbulence and send that data to the telescope. Sophisticated mirrors in the telescope then deform hundreds of times per second to compensate for the wavy air.

It’s like adding a pair of glasses with rapidly changing prescriptions to the telescope.

This technique — adaptive optics — has been called the biggest advance in ground-based astronomy since Galileo’s first telescope some 400 years ago. “You get better resolution from the ground than you can from space,” Trujillo said.

Astronomers began to tinker with crude adaptive optics in the 1950s. But the technology did not mature until the military became interested in artificial guide stars in the 1980s, said Claire Max, director of the center for adaptive optics at the University of California Observatories. “At that point, it was all highly classified,” said Max, who was working at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory at the time. The military wanted to image Soviet satellites, but Max had other ideas: “I said, ‘Astronomical objects move a lot slower that satellites, so I think it will be a great idea for astronomy.’ ”

Max and her colleagues pushed the Defense Department to declassify the technology, which it did in the early 1990s. “There was a famous meeting of the American Astronomical Society when the veil was lifted and everybody heard what the Air Force was doing,” Max said.

The first laser guide-star system came online at the Lick Observatory in 1995. Max used the system to bring Saturn’s moon Titan into focus. A hazy blob sharpened into view, allowing study of the storms raging in the moon’s methane atmosphere.

Earlier this year, the most sophisticated laser guide-star system to date came online at the Gemini South telescope in Chile. The $25 million system sharpens the telescope’s 25-foot mirror onto a wider swath of sky than ever before.

“We’re looking deep into the cores of colliding galaxies now and watching black holes. It’s really fun,” Max said. “You couldn’t see any of the detail if you looked without these systems.”

It took five years to build the Gemini guide-star system, but the experience will aid the next generation of giant telescopes. Laser guide stars will be crucial for maximizing their views.