A murmur runs through the audience as Bob Kriel withdraws his gloved hand from a darkened cage in the front of a small lecture room.
On the glove sits Bubo, a great horned owl. With his piercing eyes and imperial demeanor, this large bird with mottled gray feathers instantly dominates the room.
Kriel, a retired physician who still does clinical research at the University of Minnesota, volunteers weekly at the U’s Raptor Center, where sick and injured birds of prey receive treatment. (more…)
*One youngster only six times heftier than Jupiter*
TORONTO, ON – A University of Toronto-led team of astronomers has discovered over two dozen new free-floating brown dwarfs, including a lightweight youngster only about six times heftier than Jupiter, that reside in two young star clusters. What’s more, one cluster contains a surprising surplus of them, harbouring half as many of these astronomical oddballs as normal stars.
“Our findings suggest once again that objects not much bigger than Jupiter could form the same way as stars do. In other words, nature appears to have more than one trick up its sleeve for producing planetary mass objects,” says Professor Ray Jayawardhana, Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics at the University of Toronto and leader of the international team that made the discovery. (more…)
*Teams from Ireland, Taiwan, France, Poland, Brazil, Greece, Korea, Denmark and Romania today took home the nine top awards at Microsoft’s 9th annual Imagine Cup. Microsoft also announced a $3 million grant program to help Imagine Cup participants solve the world’s toughest challenges.*
NEW YORK CITY – July 13, 2011 – Student projects that tackle global problems such as improving road and fire safety, eradicating poverty, and creating a more sustainable environment took top honors at the Imagine Cup 2011 Worldwide Finals in New York on Wednesday.
Ireland’s Team Hermes won the competition’s premier Software Design category and $25,000 (U.S.) with their project that combined embedded technology, mobile devices and cloud computing technology to change driving habits and reduce road deaths. (more…)
*European Online Travel Industry Shows 11 Percent Growth in the Past Year*
LONDON, UK, June 1, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of internet usage in Europe, showing 365.3 million unique visitors went online in April 2011 for an average of 24.2 hours per person. This study draws its analysis from comScore’s research panel, which shows internet usage in 49 European markets aggregated under the European region and provides individual reports on 18 markets. Among the 18 markets, the Netherlands showed the highest average engagement at 31.3 hours per person, 30 percent higher than the collective European average. (more…)
*U.K., France, Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands Lead in Retail Site Visitation and Engagement*
LONDON, UK, March 21, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released results from a study of online shopping in Europe. In January 2011, 270.6 million unique visitors in Europe visited sites in the Retail category, representing a market penetration of 74.5 percent of Internet users, up 8.5 percentage points versus last year. Retail sites also showed high penetration in individual markets, reaching at least 75 percent of the total online audience in 7 out of 18 European markets. In 2010, approximately one out of every ten Internet sessions in Europe included a visit to a retail site.
Retail Penetration and Engagement Growth in Europe
In the United Kingdom, the Retail category reached 89.4 percent of the total online audience (up 6.3 points from last year), the highest penetration of any European market. France ranked second with a reach of 87 percent (up 10.5 points), followed by Germany at 82.1 percent (up 9.0 points). Ireland and the Netherlands round out the list of markets with highest penetration, with Retail reaching 80.7 percent in Ireland (up 15.8 percentage points) and 80.2 percent in the Netherlands (up 4.9 percentage points).(more…)
March 17 marks St. Patrick’s Day — a day when shamrocks, Ireland and “wearing of the green” are especially en vogue. To celebrate this festive occasion, NASA’s Aqua satellite has picked a clover of different views of the Emerald Isle, Ireland.
The collection of images acquired by Aqua’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on March 3, 2011, includes near-infrared/visible, infrared and microwave light views of the land where St. Patrick’s Day originated. (more…)
*Consumers line up to be among the first to own new handsets.*
REDMOND, Wash. – Oct. 21, 2010 – The much-awaited launch of Windows Phone 7 has begun, with the first handsets going on sale yesterday in New Zealand, followed shortly in countries throughout Europe and Asia Pacific, including Australia, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Singapore, Spain and the U.K. (more…)
*New Facility Delivers Commercial Development and Test and Desktop Cloud for European Clients*
EHNINGEN, Germany & ARMONK, N.Y.: IBM announced, on July 15, a new IBM Cloud Computing Competence Center in Ehningen, Germany, which will provide a broad range of cloud solutions and services to clients locally and internationally.
