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Saturday, August 31, 2013

Donie's daily Ireland news BLOG

40 % of all babies born in Ireland are outside of marriage

 

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures show that 36.5% of all births in Ireland were registered outside of marriage, official stats have revealed.

Of those 6,406 births, 3,685 were to parents living together but not married.
The CSO Vital Statistics First Quarter 2013 report showed that the number of babies born in the first quarter of the year was down 9% from the same time in 2012.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed a total 17,563 births were registered in January, February and March – down from 19,313 in the first quarter of last year.
The figures indicated an annual birth rate of 15.3 births per 1,000 people – down from 16.9 in the first quarter of 2012.
Geographically, the highest birth rate was recorded in Fingal, at 19.6 births per 1,000 people, while Donegal had the lowest at 11.4 per 1,000.
The CSO Vital Statistics First Quarter 2013 report also revealed that 36.5% of all births were registered outside of marriage.
More than half the babies born in Limerick City were born to unmarried parents, while Leitrim recorded the lowest portion of babies born outside of marriage.
While fewer births were recorded across Ireland in the first quarter of 2013 compared with the same time last year, the number of deaths increased.
Some 8,347 deaths were registered in the first three months of the year – up 4.6% from the same period in 2012.
The new figures represent a death rate of 7.3 per 1,000 people.

Shocking new figures for Ireland have revealed the scandal of our missing children,

11 KIDS FROM LAST YEAR REMAIN UNTRACED.

  
The latest Garda data shows that 18 children are reported missing every day, that is double the rate a decade ago.
The grim statistics disclose that 207 boys and girls who disappeared since 2003 — many of them foreign-born — officially “remain untraced”.
The force has dealt with a staggering 51,193 reports of missing youngsters aged under 18 during the past ten years.
And while many of them eventually show up, last year’s total of 6,661 was a massive 141 per cent surge compared to 2003.
And a Garda source told how some of the cases under investigation were classed as tugs-of-love involving feuding parents.
He said: “You see more cases in the past few years, especially where men and women from different countries have kids and then separate.
“One might take off to their home country and take the kids without permission and so the other parent reports them missing.”
Cases include the harrowing abduction of Faris Heeney, six, who was smuggled out of the country dressed as a girl.
His distraught mum Norma has urged the Government to intervene after the family was told there was no legal way of forcing the boy’s Egyptian father to return him.
And Michael Doyle, also known as Michael Lyons, was just two when he disappeared from his home in Tullow, Co Carlow in 2004. He is thought to have ended up in the UK.
The trend in recent years reveals more boys than girls are now being reported missing — but female disappearances outnumber males overall by 3,000 between 2003 and 2012.
Campaigners working with immigration and children’s organisations have also raised awareness of kids being trafficked into the underworld sex trade, at home and abroad, with some even suspected of being victims of murder.
And Gardai probing missing foreign kids expressed concern that some who enter the country unaccompanied are taken into care, only to be secretly taken by their parents who are already in the country illegally.
Research found that 12% of all children reported missing were born abroad, and these formed the biggest category of unsolved cases.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter insisted that everything possible was done to solve all the mysterious disappearances.
He stressed: “I am assured by the Garda authorities that all incidents where persons have been reported missing remain under investigation until such time as the person is located.”
He was replying to a parliamentary question from his Fine Gael party colleague, Kildare TD Bernard Durkan.
The garda breakdown was sent to Mr Durkan and showed there was also a major problem with locating missing adults, with the whereabouts of 174 persons unknown. Two in three of the 19,922 cases reported were men — and just over a quarter were foreigners.

Visitors to Ireland numbers up by 7.6%

  

CSO FIGURES SHOW INCREASE OF ONE-FIFTH IN NUMBER OF TOURISTS FROM NORTH AMERICA IN MAY-JULY PERIOD

Surfers on Rossnowlagh beach in Donegal. Today’s figures from the Central Statistics Office show the number of trips to Ireland from overseas increased by 7.6 per cent in the months from May to July.
The number of overseas trips to Ireland increased by 7.6 % in the three months from May to July of this year, with the number of visitors from North America up by more than 20% compared to the same period last year.
Figures published by the Central Statistics Office show a total number of 2,084,600 trips were made to Ireland, up by 146,800 on the 2013 period.
Minister for Tourism Michael Ring said the figures were “very encouraging” and that they again suggested The Gathering initiative was delivering more overseas visitors.
“I would like to thank the thousands of volunteers throughout the country who have organised and helped out with Gathering events and brought a great sense of community and pride back to parishes and towns,” the Minister said.
“Visitors from overseas are enjoying their holiday experience here in Ireland with many promising to return again in the future.”
Trips by North American residents were up by 20.5 per cent to 418,700.
The number of trips by residents of European countries other than Britain was up by 5.1 per cent to 760,400 and trips from other areas were up 11.9 per cent to 134,700.
British visitors to here were up by 3.3 per cent to 770,800.
In total, the number of overseas trips made by Irish residents during the May-July period was up by 3.2 per cent to 1,999,200.
From January to July, the number of trips to Ireland increased by 6 per cent when compared with the same months last year.
Mr Ring said visitors from overseas were enjoying their holiday experience here with many promising to return again in the future.
He also welcomed CSO figures this week which showed an 8 per cent increase in employment in accommodation and food services over the last 12 months.
He said this showed the special 9 per cent tourism VAT rate and other tourism measures were supporting job creation.

Teen drinking among girls increases the chance of breast cancer by 33%

 

study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that mothers who had drunk around two units of alcohol a day in the decade after their periods began were 34% more likely to develop cancer than those who did not drink during the same period.

The association was strongest among mothers who started their family later in life.
Research has previously found that alcohol is a key factor in breast cancer, with women who drink around two units a day having about a 24 per cent increased risk of the disease.
The new study found that the risk was even more marked if women started drinking younger, with an even stronger association depending on how long they were fertile for before becoming pregnant.
Women who never have children, or delay becoming pregnant, were already known to be more susceptible to breast cancer.
Researchers led by Dr Ying Liu from Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, US, examined the history of 91,000 women aged 15 to 40,
The evidence suggested that alcohol consumed before first pregnancy may play an important role in the development of breast cancer, said the researchers.
“Reducing alcohol consumption during this period may be an effective prevention strategy,” they concluded.
The findings indicated a dose-dependent relationship, which means the more alcohol a woman drinks during that time, the higher her risk of developing breast cancer.
Dr Liu said: “The general consistency in the patterns of association between alcohol and risk of proliferative benign breast cancer disease and of breast cancer lends support to the hypothesis that alcohol intake, particularly before first pregnancy when breast tissue is likely at its most vulnerable stage, may play an important role in the etiology of breast cancer.”
She added: “These findings have potentially important implications for breast cancer prevention.”
Professor Paul Pharaoh, Professor of Cancer Epidemiology, University of Cambridge, said:
“What we already know is that in a rather general sense drinking alcohol is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer and that the more a woman drinks the greater the risk.
“What we did not know: whether drinking alcohol at different ages has greater or lesser effects. Of particular interest is the time between puberty (menarche) and first pregnancy, when the breast tissue might be particularly susceptible.”
The figures were collected using questionnaires as part of the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHSII).
Alcohol consumption in four age periods were obtained by asking participants about the total number of alcoholic drinks consumed at different ages: 15-17, 18-22, 23-30, and 31-40.
Among these women, 1,609 cases of breast cancer and 970 cases of BBD occurred during the study period.
Previous research has found that women who drink are more likely to develop many sorts of cancers compared with those who are teetotal.
As well as increasing the risk of breast cancer, it also increases the chance of disease of the liver, mouth, throat and oesophagus.
Research has yet to establish why drinking alcohol seems to increase breast cancer risk. Studies have suggested that alcohol can increase oestrogen levels which could trigger hormone-receptor-positive types of the disease.

Scientists discover a massive canyon below Greenland ice sheet

  
Using radar data from NASA’s Operation Ice-Bridge, scientists found a huge canyon that runs from near the centre of Greenland northward to the fjord of the Petermann Glacier.
A canyon at least 750km (460 miles) long with depths of up to 800 metres (2,600 feet) has been lurking 1.6km (1 mile) beneath an ice sheet that blankets Greenland, data from an airborne science mission has revealed.
The canyon has the characteristics of a winding river channel and is longer than the Grand Canyon in Arizona, US space agency NASA said, adding that the canyon is thought to predate the ice sheet that has covered Greenland for the last few million years.
“One might assume that the landscape of the Earth has been fully explored and mapped,” said Jonathan Bamber, professor of physical geography at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, and lead author of the study. “Our research shows there’s still a lot left to discover.”
The research has been published in the journal Science.
The scientists mapped out the canyon by using thousands of kilometres of airborne radar data that NASA and researchers from the UK and Germany have collected over several decades.
NASA’s Operation IceBridge collected a large portion of this data between 2009 and 2012.
In their analysis of the radar data, the scientists discovered a continuous bedrock canyon that extends from almost the centre of the island and ends beneath the Petermann Glacier fjord in northern Greenland.
At certain frequencies, radio waves can travel through the ice and bounce off the bedrock underneath. The amount of times the radio waves took to bounce back helped researchers determine the depth of the canyon. The longer it took, the deeper the bedrock feature, NASA said.
The researchers believe the canyon plays an important role in transporting sub-glacial meltwater from the interior of Greenland to the edge of the ice sheet into the ocean. NASA said evidence suggests that before the presence of the ice sheet, as much as 4m years ago, water flowed in the canyon from the interior to the coast and was a major river system.

The shark that walks! New species discovery is a cool sign for conservationists

     
Conservation International’s Mark Erdmann captures this amazing footage of a new species of “walking” shark, which he and other scientists discovered in Indonesia.
Just watching a shark that uses its fins to walk across the ocean floor is cool enough, but the fact that one more “walking” species has been discovered is even cooler for conservationists.
“This is the third walking shark species to be described from eastern Indonesia in the past six years, which highlights our tremendous shark and ray biodiversity,” Indonesia’s foremost shark expert, known by the single name Fahmi, said in a news release from Conservation International. “We now know that six of the nine known walking shark species occur in Indonesian waters, and these animals are diver favorites with excellent potential to help grow our marine tourism industry.”
The latest species of walking shark was first photographed by divers in 2008, and has now been described as a new species in the journal Aqua. It’s known as the epaulette (long-tailed carpet) shark, or Hemiscyllium halmahera. Two specimens were caught by scientists from the Western Australian Museum and Conservation International in Indonesia’s Maluku Islands (also known as the Moluccas or the Spice Islands). The species name refers to Halmahera, the largest island in the Malukus.
Walking sharks uses their pectoral and pelvic fins to move across the sea bottom while foraging at night for small fishes and invertebrates. H. halmahera is distinguished from other walkers by the distinctive pattern of brown spots on its head.
Indonesia is home to at least 218 species of sharks and rays. In a blog post, Conservation International’s Mark Erdmann marveled at how much progress Indonesia has made in protecting its native sharks. “If you asked me a year ago about the long-term future of shark populations in Indonesia, I probably would have responded: ‘Bleak.’”
Indonesia has been the world leader in the export of dried shark fins and other products from the animal group that includes sharks as well as rays and skates, known as elasmobranches. But over the past year, the Indian Ocean country has come to appreciate that the creatures are worth more alive than dead.
“We now know, for instance, that a living manta ray is worth up to $1.9 million to our economy over the course of its lifetime, compared to a value of only $40 to $200 for its meat and gill rakers,” said Agus Dermawan, director of the Marine Conservation Directorate at the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.
A recent study showed that Indonesia ranks second globally as a manta tourism destination, with an estimated direct economic benefit of more than $15 million to the country’s economy annually.
To preserve marine biodiversity — and keep the tourist dollars coming in — new sanctuaries for sharks and rays are being created. The Indonesian government also has pledged new regulations to comply with the CITES treaty on species protection.
Update for 2:15 p.m. ET Aug. 30: On the “Why Evolution Is True”blog, Matthew Cobb says the shark’s walking style looks a lot like the gait of a typical tetrapod. “So this suggests that the neuronal control of the way that you run (your right arm moves with your left leg, and your left arm moves with your right leg – try it) goes waaaayyyy back even beyond our fishy ancestors, to the time before the evolution of bone,” he writes. “Another alternative is that this is convergent evolution — if you are going to ‘walk,’ the alternate gait is the best way of doing it.  Today’s question: How could we test between these two hypotheses?”

Friday, August 30, 2013

Donie's news Ireland daily BLOG Thursday

Retail sales rose in Ireland by 6.1% in July; Ex-cars up 1.3%

Irish Economy 2013: The volume of retail sales (i.e. excluding price effects) increased by 6.1% in July 2013 when compared with June 2013 and there was a increase of 4.7% in the annual figure. If Motor Trades are excluded, the volume of retail sales increased by 1.3% in July 2013 when compared with June 2013 and there was an increase of 1.3% in the annual figure.

The number of new cars sold in July jumped by 51% following the introduction of the 132 number plates, figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.
There were 9,306 new private cars licensed last month, compared with 6,164 in July 2012.
The CSO said the sectors with the largest month on month volume increases were Motor Trades (+37.4%), Books, Newspapers and Stationery (+16.2%), Clothing, Footwear  & Textiles (+5.3%) and Bars (+2.8%).  The sectors with the largest monthly decreases were Electrical Goods (-4.9%) and Fuel (-4.2%). (See Table 3).
There was an increase of 6.1% in the value of retail sales in July 2013 when compared with June 2013 and there was an annual increase of 4.4% when compared with July 2012. If Motor Trades are excluded, there was a monthly increase of 2.3% in the value of retail sales and an annual increase of 1.5%.

New cancer research collaboration announced

  

The centre aims to develop ways of better predicting the best treatment for breast cancer patients

Details of a new cancer research collaboration, said to be the first of its kind in the world, have been announced by the Irish Cancer Society.
The Breast Predict project will see €7.5m invested over five years in a collaborative breast cancer research centre involving Irish scientists and academic institutions.
The aim of the centre will be to develop ways of better predicting the best treatment for breast cancer patients.
Over 50 leading researchers from six academic institutions across the island and abroad will be brought together in the virtual collaboration.
They will share resources, technical expertise and patient samples, while producing a breast cancer database and treatment models.
Their ultimate goal is to develop more accurate, precise and personalised therapies.
The project will be funded by means of a €1.5m investment by the Irish Cancer Society every year over its five-year term.
It will be the only breast cancer collaborative research centre in the world that can track patients over a long period – a process made possible by Ireland’ssmall population.
Professor John Fitzpatrick, Head of Research at the Irish Cancer Society, said he is confident the programme will deliver improved personalised breast cancer treatments.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Prof Fitzpatrick predicted that noticeable progress would be made within a year

British police arrest two men in Horse-meat scandal ‘fraud’

 

Two men have been arrested as part of an investigation by British police into the horsemeat scandal, it was revealed today. 

City of London Police said that since launching an inquiry in May they have held two men on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and interviewed a further two men under caution.
The force said it has only released details now due to “operational reasons”, and would not say when the men were arrested or reveal their nationalities.
Detective Chief Superintendent Oliver Shaw, from the City of London Police, said: “This is an extremely complex investigation covering a number of jurisdictions and a variety of businesses.
“We are working closely with police forces, other law enforcement agencies and regulators to determine whether horse meat being used in a range of meat products was deliberate and coordinated criminal activity.”
City of London Police were asked to work with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) as part of its inquiry into the scandal. It reviewed evidence from law enforcement agencies in Europe and the UK, as well as from the FSA.
The force launched an investigation in May and said it made the arrests “during the initial stages” of the inquiry. Officers also carried out searches at businesses and homes in the UK.
Last month MPs condemned the slow pace of the national investigation into the horsemeat scandal, with no prosecutions six months after the problem was first identified.
The Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee said authorities in both the UK and Ireland – where horse DNA was first discovered in processed beef products – had yet to acknowledge the scale of the illegal activity involved.
It said: “The evidence we received from retailers and food processors in the UK and Ireland suggests a complex, highly organised network of companies trading in and mislabelling frozen and processed meat or meat products in a way that fails to meet specifications and that is fraudulent and illegal.
”We are concerned at the failure of authorities in both the UK and Ireland to acknowledge the extent of this and to bring prosecutions.
”We are dismayed at the slow pace of investigations and would like assurance that prosecutions will be mounted where there is evidence of fraud or other illegal activity.”
The FSA has already agreed to an independent review of its response to the scandal.

Cruise ships to boost the NI economy

 Cruise ships to boost NI economy

(On the right) the new £7m (€8.2m) cruise facility will be completed by 2014.

NORTHERN IRELAND’S ECONOMY COULD SEE A 25% BOOST IN THE REVENUES GENERATED BY CRUISE SHIP VISITS OVER THE NEXT THREE YEARS.

It is after Belfast Harbour received a £7m investment to build the first cruise facility in Ireland.
Belfast Harbour Chairman, Len O’Hagan said the new facility will revamp the Queen’s Island area as a tourism hub.
“Belfast is Ireland’s fastest growing cruise destination – a market which is one of the most important drivers of the local tourism economy.
“The facility will enable Belfast to be promoted as a tourist destination to an even wider range of operators, leading to a projected increase of 25% over the next three years in the revenue generated for the local economy by cruise ship visits.”
He said: “With over one million people visiting Titanic Belfast in just over a year and the popularity of attractions such as the Odyssey, the newly refurbished Nomadic and the marina at Abercorn Basin, combined with the development plans for the Titanic Drawing Offices, HMS Caroline and the Titanic Dock and Pump House, Queen’s Island in the Harbour Estate has become a major tourism destination.”
Sixty ships are expected to stop at Belfast this year generating more than £18m for the local economy.
Regional Development Minister Danny Kennedy said: “I am delighted to be able to welcome this further and substantial investment in infrastructure.
“It demonstrates the significant economic contribution that Belfast Port continues to make to Northern Ireland in terms of connectivity, jobs and the local economy.”
The new facility will also include an area for coaches and a new welcome centre.
Tourism Minister Arlene Foster said: “The berth facility will be located beside Titanic’s Dry Dock and Pump-House and will include a large area to accommodate coaches.
“The improvements to infrastructure will ensure the best possible cruise ship experience and enhance Belfast’s reputation among cruise operators and visitors alike.”
From 2014 cruise ships will move from Stormont Wharf to a berth adjacent to Alexandra Dock in Co Down.
This year, Belfast was ranked on Trip Advisor as one of the UK’s top destinations.

Eating certain fruits lower’s the risk of diabetes

    

Eating more whole fruits, particularly blueberries, grapes and apples, is linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, according to a new study.

The new research also suggests that a greater fruit juice consumption has an adverse effect on a person’s risk of developing the condition.
Researchers from the UK, USA and Singapore examined the association of individual fruit consumption to type 2 diabetes risk. Data was used from three studies among US adults.
The study included both men and women and ten individual fruits were used: grapes or raisins; peaches, plums or apricots; prunes; bananas; cantaloupe; apples or pears; oranges; grapefruit; strawberries; blueberries. Fruit juice included apple; orange; and grapefruit.
Food frequency questionnaires were used to assess participants’ diet, asking how often, on average, they consumed each food in a standard portion size.
Information was gathered on the participants’ body height and weight, smoking, physical activity, multivitamin use and family history of diabetes. Information for women was collected on menopausal status, post-menopausal hormone use and oral contraceptive use.
Results showed that 6.5% of the participants developed diabetes. Their total whole fruit consumption correlated positively with age, physical activity, multivitamin use, total energy intake and fruit juice consumption.
Three servings per week of blueberries, grapes and raisins, and apples and pears significantly cut the risk of type 2 diabetes. In contrast, a greater consumption of fruit juice increased the risk.
Replacing three servings per week of fruit juice with individual whole fruits reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes by 7%, with the exception of strawberries and cantaloupe melon.

Scientists unravel ancestry of Ireland’s rarest fish

   

(Above right) lough Leane in Killarney Co Kerry. Killarney shad or goureens are as they are also known are found in just one Kerry lake.

Scientists have unravelled the eventful family tree of a remarkable County Kerry resident right back to the Ice Age.
This is the fish episode of the ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ genealogy show and traces the family history of the Killarney shad – that’s the Shads of Killarney – born survivors with an apparent keen instinct to overcome adversity and adapt to dangerous environments.
Known locally as the ‘goureen’, it turns out that the Shads of Killarney have kept themselves to themselves for quite a while and are unique to one lake in the world, Lough Leane in Kerry. The herring-like fish are now “critically-endangered” and in need of protection.
The UCD, University of Salford and Inland Fisheries Ireland study is published in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, and reconstructs the origin of the shad, providing genetic evidence for the timing of colonisation of the lake after the last glaciations ended.
“Fish are programmed to go upstream to spawn and they came to the rivers after the ice retreated,” said Prof Stefano Mariani, the senior scientist involved. “Some of them got trapped and were ‘landlocked’ in freshwater lakes.”
Prof Mariani and Dr Ilaria Coscia used a “molecular clock” based on analysing the rate of DNA change to date the arrival of fish in the lake.
“Two groups of twaite shad arrived,” said Dr Coscia. “The first 16,000 years ago towards the end of the Ice Age and another branch arrived 7,000 years ago.”
Prof Mariani explained that the fish could no longer venture out to sea. “On top of being isolated spatially, these guys were forced to change their lifestyle, eat a differentdiet and live in fresh water. With these strong selective forces, inevitably you become something different.”
Today’s Killarney shad is now genetically isolated from its ancestors. “The two groups are no longer there. The lake became a genetic mixing pot and today they’re all the same,” said Prof Mariani.
The fish has become so adapted to its new habitat that no migration to the sea is needed for the completion of its life cycle.
The major concern for the goureen now is that a “catastrophic environmental event in Lough Leane could eliminate the entire genetic pool”, given that the fish is only present in one location in the world.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Donie's Ireland daily news update

German business confidence at highest level for some 16 months

  

GERMAN GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT EXPANDS 0.7% IN SECOND QUARTER OF 2013

German business confidence rose to the highest level in 16 months in August, beating forecasts and indicating the recovery in Europe’s largest economy is gathering pace.
The Info business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, climbed to 107.5 from 106.2 in July, the Munich-based institute said yesterday. That’s the highest since April 2012.
Economists had predicted an increase to 107.
German gross domestic product expanded 0.7 per cent in the second quarter, rebounding from a colder-than-usual winter that curbed output and helping the 17-nation euro zone emerge from its longest-ever recession.
Germany’s growth was led by private consumption and included the first increase in plant and machinery investment since 2011.
“The latest business sentiment readings confirm our viewthat the German economy will be able to maintain a somewhat more moderate but still robust momentum in the second half of 2013, following the exceptional rebound in the spring,” said Alexander Koch, an economist at UniCredit Group in Munich. “Domestic demand should remain a major growth pillar, currently adding to an overall broad-based recovery path.”
An assessment of construction activity slid to -4.2 from -1.5 the previous month and a measure of retailing dropped to 2.6 from 3, signalling a potential slowdown.
“The fall in the construction index seems to confirm that the second quarter’s sharp rise in activity was a temporary bounceback from bad weather in the first quarter,” said Jennifer McKeown, an economist at Capital Economics in London.
“The fall in the retail index is a reminder not to put too much faith in German consumers. Nonetheless, it seems that a moderate recovery is finally underway.”
The Bundesbank predicts German GDP will expand 0.3 per cent this year and 1.5 per cent in 2014.

Ryanair not happy with watchdog’s ‘bizarre’ decision

 

RYANAIR is to appeal a decision by the UK competition watchdog, which ordered the company to sell the majority of its Aer Lingus stake.

The Competition Commission found that Ryanair’s 29.8pc stake in Aer Lingus could affect competition on flights between Ireland and the UK.
Following an 11-month investigation, the body called on Ryanair to reduce its stake in Aer lingus to just 5pc.
But responding today, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary slammed the finding.
He said the low-cost airline will now appeal the decision.
“I don’t think we have any alternative. It’s a bizarre decision in a bizarre process.
“Here you have two Irish airlines, one of whom, the target, Aer Lingus operates just four routes to the UK, and we have the UK Competition Commission imposing an even more draconian remedy on Ryanair,” he said.
Faulty
“The decision is faulty because in seven-and-a-half years of all this minority stakes existence, they’ve come up with not one instance where Ryanair has influenced the behaviour of Aer Lingus,” said Mr O’Leary.
“Aer Lingus has managed to order €2.4bn worth of aircraft and then cancel the order; they’ve opened bases in Gatwick and Belfast only to cut them back.
“They’ve happily followed their own strategy without any influence from Ryanair.”
Earlier this year, the European Commission blocked Ryanair from purchasing the remaining stake in Aer Lingus.
The head of the investigation team, Simon Polito, said that Ryanair has an “incentive” to weaken the competitiveness of Aer Lingus.
Aer Lingus welcomed the Commission’s ruling.
Company chairman Colm Barrington said it showed that Ryanair’s stake in Aer Lingus is contrary to the interests of passengers.

Tourists here lift business for 25% of Irish city pubs

 

DESPITE ALL THE MARKETING IT SEEMS TOURISTS STILL COME HERE FOR THE SIMPLE OF THINGS – THE PUB.

Overseas visitors have boosted the incomes of one in four Dublin pubs in the past year.
Although an AIB report on the drinks sector shows 50pc of publicans have seen their income in the past year, some 30pc have reported a rise in turnover.
A change in drinking patterns has also resulted in 71pc of drinkers coming later to the pub and staying for a shorter time. The age profile, too, is higher, with only 30pc of all pub customers under 30.
Four out of five pub owners also believe their customers have a drink at home before going to the pub.
The survey, which was compiled with the help of the Vintners Federation of Ireland and the Licensed Vintners Association, says 50pc of publicans had a drop in turnover last year, particularly in rural areas.
Publicans are hitting back at the drop in sales however – 35pc increased the amount of food they serve and 79pc of pubs organised events such as comedy or quiz nights to attract more business.
More than half the publicans said they expect business to improve over thenext three years, while 37pc think it will take five years for the industry to fully recover.
Local authority rates, access to cheap alcohol in supermarkets and wage costs are the main worries of the pubs.
DELIGHTED: Chief executive of the VFI, Padraig Cribben, says the research demonstrates “a resilience and determination of behalf of many in the sector to overcome these challenges”.
Chief executive of the LVA Donall O’Keeffe is delighted the Dublin market is performing relatively well. “We are confident in the future of the Dublin pub,” he said.
Meanwhile the drinks industry has welcomed new research showing a “marked reduction” in the amount of alcohol pregnant women drink.
A Royal Academy of Medicine probe found that almost two-thirds of pregnant women abstain from alcohol compared to 28pc eight years ago.

An overload of screen time ‘causes depression in children’

  

Study claims there is a link between too much television and computer game-playing and lower self-esteem in the young

Children who spend most time in front of televisions and computer screens have lower self-esteem and greater emotional problems, according to a study published today by Public Health England.
The report found that excessive “screen time” – more than four hours a day – was linked to anxiety and depression and was responsible for limiting a child’s opportunity for social interaction and physical activity.
“The greater the time spent in front of the screen, the greater the negative impact on both behavioural and emotional issues relating to the child’s development,” said Professor Kevin Fenton, director of health and wellbeing at PHE. Professor Fenton said that too much screen time limited a child’s opportunities for physical activity and face-to-face social interaction with friends and family, which are key factors in reducing childhood anxiety.
British children spend disproportionately large amounts of time in front of screens, compared to counterparts in other Western European countries, the report observed.
“In the UK, 62 per cent of 11-year olds, 71 per cent of 13-year olds and 68 per cent of 15-year olds report watching more than two hours of TV a day on weekdays, compared to Switzerland where the figure is less than 35 per cent across all three age groups.”
Professor Fenton said there was a clear “dose-effect” in the impact of screen time on a child’s emotional state, and that “each additional hour of viewing increases children’s likelihood of experiencing socio-emotional problems and lower self-esteem”.
The report, titled ‘How healthy behaviour supports children’s wellbeing’, found that: “Higher levels of TV viewing are having a negative effect on children’s well-being, including lower self-worth, lower self-esteem and lower levels of self-reported happiness.”
The amount of time British children spend in front of televisions, computers and other screens is also increasingly rapidly, driven by the popularity of computer games. Between 2006 and 2010 “the proportion of young people playing computer games for two hours or more a night during the week increased from 42 per cent to 55 per cent among boys and 14 per cent to 20 per cent among girls”, the report said.
The study was based on research conducted by the Children’s Society among 42,000 eight to 15 year olds, and on other data. Lily Caprani, its director of policy, said that the children who were least likely to be happy with their lives tended to be the ones who spent longer in front of screens.
She said that social interaction via a computer or mobile phone did not deliver the same benefits in emotional well-being. “It’s nowhere near,” she said. “You have to be physically present with your friends to get the benefits of social interaction. Texting, Facebooking or even chatting on the phone has a remoteness that means you lose a lot of the positive impact.”
But the television industry last night rejected the idea that it impacts negatively on  children. “We are proud that there is so much carefully created and curated TV content for children – to watch alone or with their families – that excites and inspires them. That might be watching Professor Brian Cox, Dora the Explorer or Hannah Cockcroft,” said Lindsey Clay, Managing Director of industry body Thinkbox.
“Watching professionally made TV content is one of the most beneficial uses of the many screens that children now have access to, and the average level of children’s TV viewing is totally compatible with a physically and emotionally healthy lifestyle.”

A Mini ‘human brain’ grown in lab to help understand neurological disorders

  

THE “MINI BRAIN” IS ROUGHLY THE SIZE AND DEVELOPMENTAL LEVEL OF A NINE-WEEK FOETUS

Miniature “human brains” have been grown in a lab in a feat scientists hope will transform the understanding of neurological disorders.
The pea-sized structures reached the same level of development as in a nine-week-old foetus, but are incapable of thought.
The study, published in the journal Nature, has already been used to gain insight into rare diseases.
Neuroscientists have described the findings as astounding and fascinating.
The human brain is one of the most complicated structures in the universe.
Scientists at Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have now reproduced some of the earliest stages of the organ’s development in the laboratory.
Brain bath: They used either embryonic stem cells or adult skin cells to produce the part of an embryo that develops into the brain and spinal cord – the neuroectoderm.
This was placed in tiny droplets of gel to give a scaffold for the tissue to grow and was placed into a spinning bioreactor, a nutrient bath that supplies nutrients and oxygen.
  A cerebral organoid – the brown pigments are a developing retina
The cells were able to grow and organise themselves into separate regions of the brain, such as the cerebral cortex, the retina, and, rarely, an early hippocampus, which would be heavily involved in memory in a fully developed adult brain.
The researchers are confident that this closely, but far from perfectly, matches brain development in a foetus until the nine week stage.
The tissues reached their maximum size, about 4mm (0.1in), after two months.
The “mini-brains” have survived for nearly a year, but did not grow any larger. There is no blood supply, just brain tissue, so nutrients and oxygen cannot penetrate into the middle of the brain-like structure.
One of the researchers, Dr Juergen Knoblich, said: “What our organoids are good for is to model development of the brain and to study anything that causes a defect in development.
“Ultimately we would like to move towards more common disorders like schizophrenia or autism. They typically manifest themselves only in adults, but it has been shown that the underlying defects occur during the development of the brain.”
The technique could also be used to replace mice and rats in drug research as new treatments could be tested on actual brain tissue.
‘Mindboggling’ Researchers have been able to produce brain cells in the laboratory before, but this is the closest any group has come to building a human brain.
The breakthrough has excited the field.
Prof Paul Matthews, from Imperial College London, told the BBC: “I think it’s just mindboggling. The idea that we can take a cell from a skin and turn it into, even though it’s only the size of a pea, is starting to look like a brain and starting to show some of the behaviours of a tiny brain, I think is just extraordinary.
“Now it’s not thinking, it’s not communicating between the areas in the way our brains do, but it gives us a real start and this is going to be the kind of tool that helps us understand many of the major developmental brain disorders.”
The team has already used the breakthrough to investigate a disease called microcephaly. People with the disease develop much smaller brains.
A much smaller brain develops with microcephaly
By creating a “mini-brain” from skin cells of a patient with this condition, the team were able to study how development changed.
It’s a long way from conscience or awareness or responding to the outside world. There’s always the spectre of what the future might hold, but this is primitive territory”
Dr Zameel Caderohn Radcliffe Hospital 
They showed that the cells were too keen to become neurons by specialising too early. It meant the cells in the early brain did not bulk up to a high enough number before specialising, which affected the final size of even the pea-sized “mini-brains”.
The team in Vienna do not believe there are any ethical issues at this stage, but Dr Knoblich said he did not want to see much larger brains being developed as that would be “undesirable”.
Dr Zameel Cader, a consultant neurologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, said he did not see ethical issues arising from the research so far.
he said “It’s a long way from conscience or awareness or responding to the outside world. There’s always the spectre of what the future might hold, but this is primitive territory.”
Dr Martin Coath, from the cognition institute at Plymouth University, said: “Any technique that gives us ‘something like a brain’ that we can modify, work on, and watch as it develops, just has to be exciting.
“If the authors are right – that their ‘brain in a bottle’ develops in ways that mimic human brain development – then the potential for studying developmental diseases is clear. But the applicability to other types of disease is not so clear – but it has potential.
“Testing drugs is, also, much more problematic. Most drugs that affect the brain act on things like mood, perception, control of your body, pain, and a whole bunch of other things. This brain-like-tissue has no trouble with any of these things yet.”