Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Bord Gáis questioned the need "to proceed with Irish Water’s €540m metering programme.

  

Bord Gáis questioned the need to proceed with Irish Water’s €540m metering programme as a means of billing customers for water use

Senior officials at the semi-state company, which was given the task of setting up Irish Water, told the Department of the Environment they did not see the need to have more than 1,000,000 meters installed across the country as a pre-requisite to charging users for water.

Alan Kelly defended the use of water meters, saying they will be used as part of the charging system.

According to Irish Water, data based on meters already installed indicates up to 35% of households can beat the caps, i.e. if the bill based on consumption is less than the cap, that is what they will pay.

Irish Water claims if 10-15% of households conserve water, up to 50% can beat the cap.

A spokesperson for Alan Kelly also said the metering programme will be used to identify leaks in the system, adding that a number of substantial leaks have already been identified through this process.

The spokesperson also said that metering is essential for water conservation.

The revelation that Bord Gáis questioned the merits of the timeline for the metering programme is contained in a memo, which was recorded at a high-level meeting between officials at Bord Gáis and the Department of the Environment.

The meeting took place on 11 May 2012, just weeks after Bord Gáis had been appointed by the Government to set up Irish Water, and at the start of a critical phase in the establishment of the controversial new utility.

However, despite Bord Gáis’ doubts about the need to have water metering in place before billing, the memo shows that officials in then Environment Minister Phil Hogan’s department told Bord Gáis that it was the “Government’s wishes” that metering had to be in place before billing began.

The memo of the meeting was recorded by a senior official at the Department of the Environment.

Bord Gáis told the department it “didn’t necessarily see the link between metering and charging initially” for domestic water use.

The company, which is now called Ervia, expressed the view instead that “revenue and billing generation could potentially be seen as a priority before metering is delivered”.

The alternative to charging customers based on metered use from the start would have been to apply a flat or assessed charge per household.

However, the record shows that department officials told Bord Gáis at the meeting this was not in line with the approach that Government wanted to take.

The note goes on to say that Bord Gáis wanted to “further consider the metering programme and come to a view on it themselves”.

The spokesman for the Department of the Environment told RTÉ’s This Week the memo from the meeting on 11 May 2012 “reflects the fact that following the appointment of Bord Gáis, departmental officials were bringing Bord Gáis up to speed on the work which had been progressed to date and decisions of Government. It is reasonable that Bord Gáis in this early stage would interrogate all aspects of the reform programme to come to a full understanding” of the overall implementation plan for Irish Water.

The statement added: “While it is a technical point that charging was not dependent on metering – as other forms of charges could be looked at – the department was simply pointing out agreed Government policy was that metering was to be introduced”.

The memo of the meeting was obtained by RTÉ’s This Week programme under a Freedom of Information request.There were some Information gaps for meetings between Bord Gáis and the department

However, there are significant information gaps in terms of what was discussed at meetings between the Department of the Environment and Bord Gáis in the first six months of the roll-out of Irish Water.

According to a list of meetings obtained by RTÉ, there are no notes or minutes available for more than half of the 23 meetings which took place between Bord Gáis and the department during the first six months of Irish Water’s critical set-up phase, in the period from April to September 2012.

The records show that the Department of the Environment did not record any notes or minutes for 13 of those 23 meetings.

The meetings for which there are no available records include two meetings held between Bord Gáis and the then-minister Phil Hogan.

There were no official notes or minutes recorded in relation to any of the four meetings held between the department and Bord Gáis over the two weeks prior to that meeting on 11 May 2012, when Bord Gáis questioned the need to roll-out the metering programme before billing.

There were also no notes or minutes recorded at the meeting which took place immediately after that 11 May discussion, less than one week later.

Most of the meetings for which there are no notes or minutes available were described as ‘checkpoint meetings’ between Bord Gáis and the department.

However, two meetings took place that also involved minister Phil Hogan, on 28 June 2012 and again the following month, on 12 July, from which no notes or minutes of discussions were generated.

The department also failed to produce any notes or minutes relating to a meeting in June of 2012 with the water regulator CER, Bord Gáis and New Era, with whom the department was engaged in discussions at the time about the likely cost of metering, which would have to be paid via customer utility bills.

Of the 10 meetings in which there are notes or minutes available, half of these have just one page of typed text.

Asked whether the absence or brevity of records raised questions over the Department of the Environment’s governance and accountability in relation to discussions with Bord Gáis, a spokesman for the Department said that there are “strong governance and oversight arrangements in place, which cannot be fully judged from the perspective of single issue meetings”.

The spokesman said the development of the Irish Water implementation plan “required the involvement of all key stakeholders, for example workshops with local authority and CER input, and assistance from PWC in defining appropriate programme management structures and governance.

“As part of this process there was a series of meetings with BGE – these ‘checkpoint meetings’ were exchanges of information and noting of progress – leading to the department’s Irish Water implementation plan and the detailed Bord Gáis Project initiation document (PID).

“Implementation plans were supported by a memorandum of understanding, with key stakeholders reflecting their roles and responsibilities, deliverables and interactions with the department”.

The spokesman added there was a hierarchy of meetings between different stakeholders, of which the so-called ‘checkpoint meetings’ were generally reflected in updates of programme monitoring records.

“If a meeting was simply a briefing on issues, there would simply be a record of it having taken place and may be follow-up emails on exchange of documents”.

However, the statement did not address the absence of minutes or notes relating to meetings between the minister and Bord Gáis, or with New Era and CER.

Burton says the idea of bonuses for Nama developer’s ‘is an appalling idea’

 

Bad bank says ‘possible incentivisation arrangements’ are being considered

Tánaiste Joan Burton has sharply criticised suggestions that the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) might pay bonuses to developers.

She said the only bonus she wanted to see paid was the partial restoration of the Christmas bonus to pensioners and long-term social welfare claimants.

“The suggestion that we would put developers in the queue before our pensioners for bonus payments, I mean, I think it is an appalling idea,’’ Ms Burton added.

Speaking during a Christmas interview with journalists, the Tánaiste said she would be “astonished’’ if it was suggested payments to developers were a priority.

The cost of salaries for 122 developers working for Nama currently comes to €10 million annually. Three individuals draw salaries of €200,000, while a further 13 are paid between €150,000 and €199,000.

At a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last week, Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh said while no developers currently received performance related bonuses, it was something that was under consideration.

In a statement, Nama said there was “no question of paying bonuses to debtors’’, but added “possible incentivisation arrangements’’ would be triggered if “very ambitious or stretch financial targets’’ were met.

“If, in the future, debtors achieve these stretch targets, in certain cases, they will retain a small proportion of any excess achieved above target levels,’’ it added.

“The vast share of any excess will go to Nama and ultimately to taxpayers if the stretch financial targets are achieved.’’

The statement said the objective was to ensure that debtors were motivated to extract maximum value from the workout and realisation of their assets. Very few debtors were likely to achieve the stretch financial targets set for them, it added.

“The incentivisation of debtors is particularly relevant given the shortage of residential supply in Dublin and other urban areas,’’ said the statement.

‘Christmas is a season of peace’ President Michael D Higgins delivers his Christmas message

  

The President of Ireland MD Higgins– The Christmas and New Year Message 2014

President Higgins has done it again – delivering a Christmas message to the Irish people at home and abroad without mentioning Christ.

He does however elliptically reference the Christmas story and its value in reminding us of the power of hospitality.

“The story of Bethlehem, of the homeless Joseph and Mary anticipating the birth of their child, is at the heart of this holiday and it invites us to reflect on how we relate to the stranger, the vulnerable in our midst,” he writes.

“At Christmas we are reminded, not only of how a man and a woman had to leave their familiar surroundings and have their child in a strange place, of how they were joined by unknown shepherds and visitors from faraway lands, but most importantly, of the empowering ethic of hospitality,” the President adds.

Last year President Higgins also failed to mention God, Christ or Christianity in his Christmas message. It dismayed Christians of all denominations.

Msgr. Eoin Thynne, Head Chaplain of the Defence Forces, of which President Higgins is Supreme Commander, used his Christmas Eve homily at Windy Arbour Church, to comment on the absence of any reference to the Christian faith by the President.

Read President Higgins’ message in full here: In full: President Michael D Higgins’ Christmas message to Ireland

In this year’s message, President Higgins writes: “Christmas is a season of peace, a time to recall all that can be achieved through reflection, forgiveness and reconciliation.”

“I had the great honour of being Ireland’s first Head of State to pay a State Visit to our nearest neighbour in every sense, the United Kingdom. It was an immense privilege and pleasure to be thus able to manifest the friendship between our two peoples, who no longer “look at each other with doubtful eyes”, but, rather, with the trustful eyes of mutual respect and shared commitments. 59

Early diabetes diagnosis on the rise

   

Developing diabetes at a very young age could expose a child to severe consequences later in life. Dr. Neslihan Gungor discusses the categorical differences between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, mostly discussing that adolescent diagnosis of diabetes is becoming more and more common.

“The typical scenario is it is diagnosed in the 40s and 50s,” describes Gungor. “Those individuals will have some complications, even after diagnosis. But now we are diagnosing this in teens, so we may be faced with kidney complications, eye complications very early on in life. It’s very, very said, so that’s why I believe in prevention and I want to do more work on that.”

What they talk about here is genetic, but not every risk factor associated with diabetes is possible to track with genes.

“When I say healthy lifestyle, I’m not referring to organic food or expensive food,” says Gungor. “Maybe try to prepare most of the food at home with just regular ingredients instead of getting ready-made food all the time. Eating more fruits and vegetables, cooking from scratch as much as possible. I know lifestyles are very busy, but still there are things you can do. We don’t have to be gourmet cooks to do that, just basic ingredients and basic recipes can be very fulfilling.”

But that is just the beginning; obviously, there are many bigger problems at stake. American Diabetes Association executive direct of the Louisiana, John Guzzardo, “A big issue for children facing Type 2 diabetes is compliance, especially when the entire family is not committed to making lifestyle changes. Preventing, or at least delaying Type 2, would call for families to become more active and be more conscious of their food intake.”

NASA plans a space trip to Venus planet

  

NASA plans a manned mission to Venus to see if the atmosphere could be habitable for humans.

NASA has plans to send men to the atmosphere above Venus to determine if a permanent human colony could survive in a floating city.

NASA’s High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC) mission will probe the atmosphere of Venus prior to sending a manned craft, according to IBN Live.

Researchers from the Space Mission Analysis Branch of NASA’s Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate at Langley Research Center in Virginia believe a mission to Venus makes more sense than one to Mars.

They believe that Venus’ atmosphere offers similar qualities to those of Earth. For example, 50 kilometers above Venus, the gravitational pull is slightly lower than Earth and there is only one atmosphere of pressure.

Astronauts would not approach the surface of Venus because of the amount of pressure and surface temperatures. Venus can reach 863 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature hot enough to melt lead, The Daily Mail reported.

The HAVOC mission would begin with an unmanned airship to Venus, which would probe the atmosphere and collect measurements of temperature among other things.

If NASA receives an approval, they will then launch a manned mission with two astronauts to Venus, where they will live in Venus’ atmosphere for 30 days.

Then NASA would send astronauts on a year-long mission in the atmosphere followed by the establishment of a permanent colony for human habitation.   

Donie's daily news BLOG Tuesday

Gardai call for tough new laws to protect whistle-blowers at AGSI conference

   

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors says officers who expose wrong-doing should not “suffer reprisal or fear of victimisation.”

Mid-ranking Gardai yesterday called for stronger whistleblower laws so malpractice in the force can be exposed.

But delegates at the annual Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) conference in Killarney said the Garda Ombudsman should not handle complaints from within the force.

AGSI vice president Antoinette Cunningham stressed it was important whistleblowers “do not suffer reprisal or fear of victimisation”.

The motion was discussed in the wake of evidence given by whistleblowers, former Sgt John Wilson and Sgt Maurice McCabe to the Dail Public Accounts Committee about abuse of the penalty points system.

Ms Cunningham said whistleblowers’ claims “must be taken as genuine until proven not to be so”.

She added: “We do not want allegations of malpractice buried, we want to be able to report in confidence.

“We believe there has been damage to the confidential reporting system, members may be reluctant to report to a body which may have previously investigated them. At national level we have discussed this and it is not appropriate that GSOC could be the confidential recipient.

“GSOC was set up to investigate members of the Gardai and for us that is the job they do. If someone is investigating you, the confidential recipient should be entirely different.”

The motion was proposed by Sgt Jim Collins from Donegal.

He said: “With the exposure of recent whistleblowers, and the extensive media coverage they have received, confidence in the current system of confidential reporting has taken a serious blow.

“It is the belief of the Donegal branch colleagues the system is deterring whistleblowers within An Garda Siochana from reporting any matters they may deem relevant to these regulations, thus defeating the intended purpose of the legislation and regulations created to allow for the confidential reporting of corruption.”

Sgt Tony Lavery, from Claremorris station, Co Mayo, said reporting of the whistleblowers scandal did more “reputational damage to An Garda Siochana than anything since the foundation of the force”.

He added: “Members are sick to the back teeth with negative publicity.

“Their attitude is, ‘Why should I do anything, if I do I only get into trouble?’ It is driving morale into the ground.”  The motion was welcomed by Interim Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan.

Irish Government still wants €2bn in budget cuts and taxes for 2015

 

TAX RISES AND CUTS ON DEPARTMENT’S AGENDA DESPITE ERSI’S POSITIVE FORECAST. 

The Department of Finance is pushing back against the clamour for a softer budget next year as the economic recovery picks up.

In a fiscal policy document to be published today the department will also indicate that the improvement in economic conditions does not yet call for a big upgrade in its growth forecasts.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan will seek Cabinet approval today for a document in which his department says there should be no step back from the plan for €2 billion in tax rises and spending cutbacks in 2015.

Opening position: The Stability Programme Update document, which will be sent to Brussels for the approval of the European Commission, represents the department’s opening position in advance of talks on the preparation of the October budget.

After years of grinding austerity, the Government has billed the 2015 budget as the final round of deep cutbacks and steep tax hikes after years. However, Ministers would still prefer to keep any further retrenchment to a minimum.

  The Department of Finance document comes days after the Economic and Social Research Institute think tank said scope may be opening up to reduce retrenchment in the next budget to some €500 million from €2 billion and still meet fiscal targets set by the EU.

The ESRI said last week that the Government may be in a position to achieve a budget deficit below 3 per cent next year, as it is obliged to do under European agreements, by doing nothing more than introducing the new water charge.

At the same time, the institute said the Government should continue to plan for a €2 billion package of tax and spending measures and wait until September to change course if the quickening of economic growth continues.

Unwavering demand: Mr Noonan’s endorsement of the unwavering demand for a €2 billion adjustment next year reflects concern in his department to avoid giving line Ministers the impression that they can slacken the effort to assert control over the public finances.

This conservative approach is mirrored in the department’s update of its own official forecast for economic growth, which is appreciably below the forecast set out last week by the ESRI.

Although the unemployment rate is lower than expected at the start of the year, the Stability Programme Update says a only modest increase in the growth forecast is appropriate at this point.

The document is understood to forecast growth of some 2.1 per cent in gross domestic product, up only slightly from 2 per cent growth forecast set out in the budget for 2014.

Forecast validated: The department’s new forecast has been validated theFiscal Advisory Council, a formal body set up in 2011 to monitor fiscal policy. By contrast, the ESRI report last week forecast a 2.6 per cent expansion in GDP this year.

At its meeting today the Cabinet is also expected to sign off on legislation to introduce free GP care for children under the age of six.

No Irish Government decision made on basic water charge’s yet

SAYS THE TAOISEACH

 

Enda Kenny tells Dáil report of charge arose from draft Irish Water memo.

The Government has no made no decision on introducing a basic water charge for householders, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.

The Government has no made no decision on introducing a basic water charge for householders, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.

Mr Kenny also said no decision had been made on the level of waters charges, or the subvention to be paid by the Government to Irish Water, and he also firmly ruled out the privatisation of the service. He repeated that householders would know the details of the charges before the local elections on May 23rd.

Speaking in the Dáil this afternoon, Mr Kenny said he had seen the media report of a standing charge for water. “My understanding is that arose from a draft memo submitted by Irish Water,’’ he added.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin said that Irish Water had confirmed that it had sought the introduction of a 100 euro standing charge for all households.

“This, indeed, has shocked many people and has caused a considerable degree of disquiet and anxiety amongst the general public,’’ he added.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the company was seeking to impose a standing charge of one-third of the water bill, adding that it was very high when compared to other countries.

A helpline is the only contact some elderly Irish people have with others

 

Over 2,000 Irish people have called Senior Help Line in the first three months of this year.

One man called the Senior Help Line last month described how he felt, saying “I am going mad with loneliness.”

The helpline has received over 6,000 calls already in the first three months of this year.

The biggest concerns for callers include the cost of living, cuts to services, instances of abuse and feelings of suicide.

The CEO of The Senior Help Line, Aine Brady, said that the most common factor among those who call is a sense of isolation and loneliness.

Callers have expressed their loneliness by saying “The house is so empty since Christmas” and “I have no contact with my family any more”.

The high volume of calls since the start of the year is a sign of the challenges that older people are facing.

For many Senior Help Line is their only means of contact with other people. Callers have said “I find the days very long on my own.”

Listening services for the elderly.

“Regardless of age, we all have problems and worries. It is important to have an outlet, someone to talk to, to share those worries with.

For many older people, their trusted circle of friends has diminished and there is no one to share a worry or even the joys of life with.

“We urge any older person who is worried about issues concerning health, family or any other matter to call us.”

The Senior Help Line is Ireland’s only peer to peer national listening service for older people.

Brady explained, “A unique aspect of our service is older people listening to older people. This helps create an empathetic atmosphere for the caller helping them to open up and discuss their problems easily.”

However, for all the calls we answer, we know that many go unanswered. Our resources are limited. We are working hard to answer as many as we can and to be there for as many people as possible.

Senior Help Line is available 365 days a year from 10am-10pm. & all calls to 1850 440 444 are handled in strict confidence.

MEANWHILE:

Loneliness is a health risk for the elderly people of Ireland & the world

 

Extreme loneliness has twice the impact of obesity on premature death.

Feeling extreme loneliness can increase an older person’s chances of premature death by 14% according to research by psychologist John Cacioppo.

A 2010 meta-analysis showed that loneliness has twice the impact on early death as obesity does.

The consequences to health are dramatic, as feeling isolated from others can disrupt sleep, elevate blood pressure, increase morning rises in the stress hormone cortisol, alter gene expression in immune cells, increase depression and lower overall subjective well-being.

Research: Cacioppo joined other scholars at a seminar “The Science of Resilient Ageing” in Chicago over the past week.

The researchers looked at dramatic differences in the rate of decline in physical and mental health as people age.

They examined the role of satisfying relationships on older people to develop their resilience, the ability to bounce back after adversity and grow from stresses in life.

Cacioppo said: Retiring to Florida to live in a warmer climate among strangers isn’t necessarily a good idea if it means you are disconnected from the people who mean the most to you.

Although some people are happy to be alone, most people thrive from social situations in which they provide mutual support and develop strong rapport.

Silver Demographic: Cacioppo says we are “experiencing a silver tsunami demographically. The baby boomers are reaching retirement age”. Speaking about America, he said:

Each day between 2011 and 2030, an average of 10,000 people will turn 65.

The researchers identified three core dimensions to healthy relationships:

• Intimate connectedness – which comes from having someone in your life you feel affirms who you are
• Relational connectedness – which comes from having face-to-face contacts that are mutually rewarding
• Collective connectedness -which comes from feeling that you’re part of a group or collective beyond individual existence

Cacioppo said older people living alone are not necessary lonely if they remain socially engaged and enjoy the company of those around them.

However some aspects of ageing, such as blindness and loss of hearing place people at a special risk for becoming isolated and lonely.

Diabetes care for Irish children falls badly short in our hospitals

  

A team at Temple Street Children’s Hospital conducted the research, which found only one of the 19 hospital centres treating children with type-1 diabetes had the recommended ratio of nurses to patients

Only one of the 19 hospital centres treating children with type-1 diabetes had the recommended ratio of nurses to patients, according to a new study.

Insulin pump instruction was available in eight centres and the number of children using these alternatives to an insulin injection ranged widely from zero to 42%.

The study, by the Department of Paediatric Endocrinology in Temple Street Hospital in Dublin, pointed out that type-c diabetes is a chronic condition affecting five to 40 per 100,000 of the child population.

The incidence is higher in the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia than in most of central and southern Europe and is rising, particularly in children under five.

SKILLS: The report in the ‘Irish Medical Journal’ showed a wide variation in the structure and process of care between centres. The authors said that “regionalising diabetes care for children with type-1 diabetes should be considered”.

Large patient numbers are necessary to justify full-time employment of a large multidisciplinary team. “This would allow for the maintenance of skills, attendance at best practice meetings and improvement in patient care,” said the study.

“It would also facilitate skilled out-of-hours coverage as well as emergency cover of sick leave. While this may improve patient outcomes, it will be associated with an increased requirement for patients to travel to appointments and careful geographic consideration of location of centres is required to mitigate the burden for families,” it added.

Tiny particle that is smartphone readable could curb counterfeit goods

  
Researchers hope to crack down on counterfeiting of all types with a new invisible microparticle that is smartphone-readable and glows brightly under near-infrared light.

Some 2 to 5 per cent of all international trade involves counterfeit goods, according to a 2013 United Nations report. These illicit products – which include electronics, automotive parts, pharmaceuticals, and food – can pose safety risks and cost governments and companies billions of dollars annually.

Many strategies have been developed to try to label legitimate products and prevent illegal trade – but these tags are often too easy to fake or cost too much, according to MIT researchers who have developed a new alternative.

Led by Patrick Doyle and Albert Swiston, the researchers have invented anew type of tiny, phone-readable particle that could be deployed to help authenticate currency, electronic parts, and luxury goods, amongst others.

The particles, which are invisible to the naked eye, contain coloured stripes of nanocrystals that glow brightly when lit up with near-infrared light.

These particles can easily be manufactured and integrated into a variety of materials, and can withstand extreme temperatures, sun exposure, and heavy wear, says Doyle, the senior author of a paper in Nature Materials. They could also be equipped with sensors that can record their environments – for example, if a refrigerated vaccine has been exposed to heat. The paper’s lead authors are Jiseok Lee and Paul Bisso.

A massive encoding capacity: The new particles are 200 microns long and include several stripes of different coloured nanocrystals, known as “rare earth upconverting nanocrystals.” These crystals are doped with elements such as ytterbium, gadolinium, erbium, and thulium, which emit visible colours under near-infrared light. By altering the ratios of these elements, the researchers can tune the crystals to emit any colour in the visible spectrum.

To manufacture the particles, the researchers used stop-flow lithography, a technique developed previously by Doyle. This approach allows shapes to be imprinted onto parallel flowing streams of liquid monomers – chemical building blocks that can form longer chains called polymers. Wherever pulses of ultraviolet light strike the streams, areaction is set off that forms a solid polymeric particle. In this case, each polymer stream contains nanocrystals that emit different colours, allowing them to form striped particles. So far, they have created nanocrystals in nine different colours, but it should be possible to create many more, Doyle says.

Using this procedure, they can generate vast quantities of unique tags. With particles that contain six stripes, there are 1 million different possible combinations; this capacity can be exponentially enhanced by tagging products with more than one particle. For example, if the researchers created a set of 1,000 unique particles and then tagged products with any 10 of those particles, there would be 1030 possible combinations – far more than enough to tag every grain of sand on Earth.

Versatile particles: The microparticles could be dispersed within electronic parts or drug packaging during the manufacturing process, incorporated directly into 3D printed objects, or printed onto currency, the researchers say. They could also be incorporated into ink that artists could use to authenticate their artwork.

The biggest advantage of these particles is that they can be read without an expensive decoder like those required by most other anti-counterfeiting technologies. Using a phone camera equipped with a lens offering twentyfold magnification, anyone could image the particles after shining near-infrared light on them.  

Donie's Ireland news Monday

China to send its first woman into space

   
Either Captain Wang Yaping (l) or Major Liu Yang will join the Shenzhou-9 manned spacecraft docking mission.

Two fighter pilots battle it out for honour of joining manned mission to Tiangong-1 space lab

One of two female fighter pilots will become the first Chinese woman inspace later this month, after the two 
were shortlisted for a place in the three-person team that will blast off in the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft, the state news agency Xinhua said.

Chinese media described Major Liu Yang, from Henan, as a "hero pilot" who achieved a successful emergency landing after a dramatic birdstrike incident spattered the windshield of her plane with blood.

Meanwhile, her rival, Captain Wang Yaping, from Shandong, is said to have flown rescue missions during the Sichuan earthquake and piloted a cloud-seeding plane to help clear the skies of rain for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

"They are selected as members of the first batch of female astronauts inChina because of their excellent flight skills and psychological quality," said Xinhua.

This month's mission is regarded as an important stage in China's ambitious space programme. 
"The Shenzhou-9 will perform our country's first manned space docking mission with the orbiting 
Tiangong-1 space lab module," Zhou Jianping, chief designer of the manned space program, told state media.

"It means China's spacecraft will become a genuine manned shuttle tool between space and Earth. It can send human beings to space stations or space labs. This will be a significant step in China's manned space flight history."

China will be the eighth country to see one of its female citizens go into space, and only the third to put one there itself. Valentina Tereshkova of the Soviet Union became the first woman to go into space in 1963.

Both the women shortlisted are in their 30s and have one child: Chinese authorities have decreed that only mothers can train as astronauts, apparently because of their concern that spaceflight might affect women's fertility. 
Earlier this year, the deputy editor-in-chief of an official magazine said women astronauts should also have no scars – which might open and bleed in space – nor body odour.

"They even must not have decayed teeth because any small flaw might cause great trouble or a disaster in space," said Pan Zhihao of Space International, published by the China Academy of Space Technology.

But he also told China Daily that female astronauts tend to be more "keen and sensitive with better communication skills than their male counterparts".

The lack of sleep may cause obesity by affecting the brain’s ability to choose the healthy food options

 

In those who had less sleep, the reward centres of the brain were more active when shown pictures of unhealthy food compared to those who had more sleep.

PEOPLE more attracted to eating unhealthy food after not getting enough sleep, new research has suggested.

Two new studies that scanned the brains of people who have been sleep deprived have revealed their brains react differently when presented with choices of healthy and unhealthy food compared to those who have had adequate sleep.

The research showed that key areas of the brain related to reward were activated while activity in regions that control behaviour were inhibited.

The findings may help to explain the link between sleep

DEPRIVATION AND OBESITY.

Dr Marie-Pierre St-Onge, from Columbia University in New York who led one of the studies, said: “The results suggest that, under restricted sleep, individuals will find unhealthy foods highly salient and rewarding, which may lead to greater consumption of those foods.”

In her study 25 men and women of normal weight were asked to look at images of healthy and unhealthy food while in an fMRI scanner after five nights where their sleep was either restricted to just four hours or they were allowed to get up to nine hours.

In those who had less sleep, the reward centres of the brain were more active when shown pictures of unhealthy food compared to those who had more sleep.

When they were shown pictures of healthy food this area of the brain did not activate.

Dr St-Onge, who is presenting the research at the annual conference of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society, added: “This may suggest greater propensity to succumb to unhealthy foods when one is sleep restricted.

“Indeed, food intake data from this same study showed participants ate more overall and consumed more fat after a period of sleep restriction compared to regular sleep.”

The second study, also being presented at the conference, looked at 23 healthy adults after a normal nights sleep and a night where their sleep had been restricted.

After each night, the participants were asked to rate how much they wanted food items shown to them while inside a fMRI scanner.

Stephanie Greer, who conducted the work at the sleep and neuroimaging laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, said sleep deprivation impaired the activity in the frontal lobe of the participants brains – an area critical for behaviour control and making choices.

She said they failed to see any activity in areas of the brain associated with reward in this study.

She said: “It seems to be about he regions higher up in the brain, specifically within the frontal lobe, failing to integrate all the different signals that help us normally make wise choices about the food we eat.”

She added that if people cannot make the right choices about what food to eat after suffering from poor sleep, it may explain why other studies have found a lack of sleep is risk factor for obesity.

The smart bed that makes itself up in 30 seconds

   

For those of us who find it hard enough to peel ourselves off the mattress every morning, let alone make our bed, Spanish furniture maker OHEA has come up with the ultimate in self-indulgence, a smart bed that will apparently make itself in 50 seconds, mechanically.

According to the company, its smart bed is equipped with a mechanical device that enables it to automatically straighten out its bedding once one gets up.

The device, it claims, will mechanically straighten out the bed's bottom sheet, duvet, plus the pillowcases. Meanwhile, the bottom sheet will stay straight because it will attach with Velcro to the mattress cover.

OHEA said the bed's duvet has lateral cords that allow it to be pulled across the bed.

Those who decide to splash out on the bed can opt to set it to manual or automatic mode. With manual, when one presses the go button on the remote control, the bed's mechanism will begin to make it.

Or else one can go down the automatic route. In this instance, the mechanism will kick into action three seconds after a person gets up to automatically make the bed.

The company has not revealed how much the smart bed will cost, however.

Check out this video clip of the bed in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hrWEenI_ozM

The Euro currency gains as markets greet a Spanish deal

   

Many Spanish banks were badly hit when a property investment bubble burst but the euro has made gains against the dollar and the yen as markets react to the Eurozone deal aimed at shoring up Spain’s troubled banks.

In early Asian trading on Monday the euro bought $1.2647 and 100.73 yen, up from $1.2514 and 99.49 yen in New York on Friday.

The Nikkei index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose 1.7% in early trading.

On Saturday, Eurozone ministers agreed to lend Madrid up to 100bn euros ($125bn; £80bn) to help its banks.

Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy hailed the decision as a victory for the single currency.

Correspondents say markets are reacting positively as the loan was larger than expected and has helped remove uncertainty over the crisis.

It could also buy time for EU policymakers to work with other weak economies threatening the future of the 17-nation bloc, analysts say.

Recession

Spain’s weakest banks were left with billions of euros worth of bad loans following the collapse of a property boom and the recession that followed.

The exact amount that Spain will receive will be decided after the completion of two audits of its banks, due within a few days.

On Sunday, Mr Rajoy said that the rescue would speed up the flow of credit loans to families, to small and medium enterprises and to self-employed workers.

He said the real winner was “the credibility of the euro”.

But he warned that the near future looked bleak, pointing out that the economy – in its second recession in three years – was still expected to shrink by 1.7% this year.

Greece’s election next weekend could result in it being bounced out of the euro

“This year is going to be a bad one,” he said.

The loan to Spain was welcomed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as the US and Japan.

EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn said the deal was a clear signal to the markets that the euro area was ready to take decisive action to calm markets and contain contagion.

Spain is the eurozone’s fourth-biggest economy – twice the size combined of those of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, the countries bailed out so far.

However, tensions over the euro remain high with another election to be held in Greece next weekend.

If voters elect a government that refuses to abide by the terms of the country’s bailout deal, Athens faces a possible exit from the bloc.

There are fears that a Greek exit could trigger a run on the banks – not only there but in other eurozone countries.

Greece has been in recession for five years, crippled by huge debts, high unemployment and labour unrest.

Ex footballer’s hair transplant to go live on the Internet

    

Wayne Rooney Manchester united & England star with his before and after his successful hair transplant. Michael Gray above left has said he hopes the hair transplant will boost his confidence

Ex-England footballer Michael Gray is to undergo the first UK hair transplant of its kind to be streamed live on the internet.

Gray, known as Micky, and now a pundit on Talksport, will take part in a real-time question and answer session as well as Tweeting through his surgery in an effort to provide more information and answer questions about transplants.

The procedure is thought to be the first of its kind to be streamed live in the UK and will be performed by Dr Bessam Farjo, an authority on hair loss and hair transplant surgery, who will also answer questions as he carries out the surgery.

Gray, 37, who played for premiership teams including Sunderland, Blackburn Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday during his career, noticed he was receding when he was about 32. And after seeing other celebrities undergo the procedure, he said he decided to go under the knife.

“I think it’s more acceptable now and that was one of the reasons that I wanted to go through with it,” he said. “Cosmetic surgery now is an everyday occurrence. People might be out there and may be worried about the operation and if I’m going to get it done then why not let people see it. There’s a lot of people out there who are worried about it. Here they can see it from start to finish.”

He said the transplant would help improve his confidence.

“I’m working in the media at the moment and doing quite a lot of the TV and when I watch myself back I’m conscious about the way I look, so from the confidence side of things I’m hoping that will beat that.

“People refer to the harrowing experience a woman must go through when losing her hair, however it can be equally upsetting for men, who can suffer from a severe loss of self-esteem. I hope the live broadcast will help us to educate people about hair transplant surgery and open up discussions around the solutions available to those experiencing hair loss.”

The transplant will involve taking 3,500-4,000 hairs from the back and sides of his head and “re-planting” them into his receding hairline, said Dr Farjo.

The surgery, which starts at 10am on Monday, will be streamed live to viewers across the internet to livesurgery.farjo.net and questions can be tweeted to @BessamFarjo or @mickygray33 using the hashtag #LiveTransplant.

Aggressive pre-diabetes approach needed 

‘Say study researchers'

    

An “early and aggressive” approach to people on the cusp of developing Type 2 diabetes is justified to reduce cases of the disease, a study suggests.

People with “pre-diabetes” have higher than normal blood sugar which has not yet reached diabetic levels.

A US study, published in the Lancet, showed restoring normal sugar levels more than halved the numbers going on to Type 2 diabetes.

Experts said the findings were clinically important.

It is thought that seven million people have pre-diabetes in the UK and 79 million in the US. They are at heightened risk of Type 2 diabetes, heart attack and stroke. Many are undiagnosed.

Some measures, such as weight loss and more exercise, can reverse pre-diabetes. The study, by the US Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group, tried to determine how effective the treatment was at preventing Type 2 diabetes.

It followed 1,990 people with pre-diabetes. Some were being treated through drugs or lifestyle change, others were not.

It showed patients who reduced their blood sugar levels to normal, even briefly, were 56% less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes during the six years of the study.

Lead author Dr Leigh Perreault, from the University of Colorado, said: “This analysis draws attention to the significant long-term reduction in diabetes risk when someone with pre-diabetes returns to normal glucose regulation, supporting a shift in the standard of care to early and aggressive glucose-lowering treatment in patients at highest risk.”

Dr Natalia Yakubovich, from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, said the “findings clearly suggest” that restoring normal blood sugar levels was “of clinical relevance”.

She added: “Identification of regression to normal glucose regulation could be an important way to stratify people into those at higher and lower risk of progression to diabetes.

“Such stratification could therefore identify individuals for whom additional treatment might be needed to prevent diabetes or to slow down disease progression.”

Type 1 Diabetes (Insulin dependent) 

on the Increase Among Youth

  

A new analysis showing a 23% jump in Type 1 diabetes among American youth is giving fresh impetus to researchers looking at whether environmental factors or behavior can influence the onset of the autoimmune disease.

Among the theories is the possibility that faster growth and weight gain early in life could exacerbate genetic factors and bring on the disease.

The study, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, was reported this weekend at a meeting of the American Diabetes Association. The analysis was among the first to put numbers on the nationwide prevalence of the disease, which can lead to kidney, nerve and cardiovascular damage.

“There is now an urgent need for effective ways of preventing the disease in youth,” said Giuseppina Imperatore, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC.

Type 1 diabetes, formerly known as juvenile diabetes, causes the body to lose ability to produce insulin, which controls the level of sugar in the blood. Type 2 diabetes is linked to the high prevalence of obesity in youth and is characterized by insulin resistance or the inability to produce sufficient levels of insulin. Type 1 diabetics are insulin dependent while Type 2 diabetics in many cases can manage the disease with changes to diet and exercise.

The growth in Type 1 stumps researchers who haven’t been able to identify what triggers the autoimmune response or explain why an increasing number of people are afflicted. About 80% of Type 1 diabetics don’t have a close relative with the disease.

“We don’t know yet what is triggering diabetes or why it is increasing,” said Dana Dabelea, professor of epidemiology and pediatrics at the University of Colorado, Denver.

A leading theory known as the accelerator hypothesis suggests that greater weight gain and growth early in life puts stress on insulin-producing cells in the pancreas that sets off the autoimmune attack.

Another explanation is the so-called hygiene hypothesis, which is also linked to the rise of asthma and food allergies. Children in a modern society contend with fewer parasitic, viral and bacterial illnesses than previous generations, so the underchallenged immune system begins reacting to other stimuli in ways that are harmful.

Some theories explaining the rise of Type 1 are being challenged. A study released at the meeting deals a blow to the theory that links vitamin-D deficiency to diabetes. In a study of 72 people over a year, researchers tried to assess whether large doses of vitamin-D supplements might stymie the development of diabetes. The study found the supplements had no effect.

Rosemarie Hooker, whose 10-year-old son, William, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in November, took him to diabetes centers around the East Coast hoping to find an explanation. “How are there no answers?” asked Ms. Hooker, 40, a mother of three from Ridgefield, Conn. “It’s so frustrating.”

The study used data from 20,000 children and youth under 20 at hospitals and health centers in five states over an eight-year period ended in 2009. The CDC estimates 18.8 million Americans have been diagnosed with either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, and an additional seven million undiagnosed, generating $116 billion in direct medical costs. Of those, between 5% and 10% are thought to have Type 1 diabetes.

The study found a 21% jump in Type 2 diabetes over the period. In one bright spot, however, it found a slowing of growth in the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes among African-American and American Indian youth, the two ethnic groups where the disease first emerged among young people, according to Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, a professor at the University of North Carolina.

Two men arrested in Co Mayo over dissident activity & discovery of explosives

   

Two men were being held in Castlebar Garda station last night following a raid in a house in Mayo on Saturday.

Gardaí found explosives and component parts for bomb-making in the house in Clogher, Claremorris.

The two men, one in his late 20s and the other in his 30s, were arrested at the scene and detained in Castlebar station under section 30 of the Offences against the State Act.

An Army team attended the scene and the house was sealed off for the purposes of technical and forensic examination.

The raid was part of an investigation into dissident republican activity in the west of Ireland.

A Garda spokesman said last night that the Mayo investigation was ongoing.

Deutsche Bank figures show the high level of vacant property in Co Donegal

  

A new report has highlighted the high level of vacan property in Donegal and concludes  that Ireland has so many empty houses that it would take up to 43 years to fill them all.

Deutsche Bank figures suggest that there are 289,451 empty houses in Ireland, including almost 60,000 vacant holiday homes.

This represents a vacancy rate of 15 per cent.

A Deutsche Bank map shows, the empty properties are highly concentrated around the Atlantic coast with Kerry and Donegal particularly badly afflicted.

In these areas, it is felt the amount of empty homes will have a major impact on future property prices.

Deutsche Bank says  200,000 houses would need to be demolished in order for the housing supply to fall to three years of current population growth.”

In April 2010, Nama boss Brendan McDonagh told the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee that the state agency would consider bulldozing properties in certain circumstances, but that this would not be the “first option”.