METRO Tuesday, October 27, 2009 D Offer subject to availability terms & conditions Call now 01 8047100 Sale ends 31 October 09 699 Fr including taxes Join Sandycove Squash Club For full details contact 01-280 9645 email:sandycovetsc@eircom.net www.sandycovetsc.ie Skys the limit as Xbox streams satellite TV FROM today viewers can watch Sky television through a computer games console for the first time. The pay-TV broadcaster is making 24 channels avail- able over the Microsoft Xbox 360 console without the need for a dish. The broadcast of paid-for live channels via broadband is set to revolutionise the way millions of viewers watch television. Subscribers to the online Sky Player service, who are also members of Xbox Live, can now watch programmes through their consoles. Viewers can watch hit shows such as Lost and House on Sky One as well as MTV and Sky Arts. But people wanting to see Sky Sports or Sky Movies channels may have to pay more. Programmes will not be shown in high definition be- cause broadband speeds are simply not good enough. And terrestrial channels will not initially be available. Digital media analyst David Mercer said it was a big step forward for both companies. For BSkyB it offers further evidence that its future subscriber growth is not dependent on its traditional sat- ellite set-top box strategy, he said. For Microsoft, it is further confirmation that the Xbox is on its way to becoming not just a games console, but rather a complete home entertainment system. Griff Parry from BSkyB claims customers have never had so much choice over how they watch television. More channels are being added all the time and were confident terrestrial broadcasters will join, he said. By FRED ATTEWILL Actress and mother of three Natascha McElhone, whose mother, Noreen is Irish, with Saian Petit, at the launch of the Pampers & Unicef Gift of Life campaign. Its goal is to eliminate maternal and newborn tetanus by 2012. For every pack of Pampers nappies or wipes purchased with the 1 Pack = 1 Vaccine logo, Pampers will pay for one life- saving tetanus vaccine Picture: Fennells HELP WIPE OUT TETANUS Lewis attacker not fit to attend court A MAN accused of assaulting pop star Leona Lewis at a book signing is not fit to attend court, a judge has been told. A hearing at a London court was told Peter Kowalczyk, 29, who is charged with striking the singer, has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act and is being examined by psychiatrists. District Judge Daphne Wickham adjourned the case until November 23 at the same court. Kowalczyk did not appear in the dock and remains in secure accommodation at Londons Lambeth Hospital. Assaulted at signing: Leona Top striker broke nose of woman he gropedPREMIER League footballer Marlon King groped a young woman and then broke her nose when she rejected his advances at a central London nightclub, a court has heard. The Wigan Athletic striker had allegedly shouted Dont you know who I am, Im a millionaire, before smashing her in the face with a clenched fist. Southwark Crown Court heard his completely gratuitous violence came just minutes after he spotted the 20-year-old at the Soho Revue Bar last December. She was part of a group of sporty type friends and prosecutor Roger Daniells-Smith told jurors the 29-year-old defendant had not been part of their group and none of them had invited him to join them. But that did not stop the married father-of-three from sexually touching the woman on her bottom, he said. It was neither welcome nor consensual, nor could he have thought that she was consenting to it, Mr Daniells- Smith said. They were complete strangers to each other. It was not an accidental brushing, or innocent contact that occasionally happens in crowded bars. This was deliberate and sexual. King, who denies one count of sexual assault by touching and one of causing the woman actual bodily harm, insists he was the victim of mistaken identity. Mistaken identity claims: King A SNAKE smuggler was arrested after two dozen snakes and geckos were found under his clothes. The 22-year- old Norwegian citizen was stopped in Kristiansand, Norway, after getting off a ferry from Hirtshals, Denmark, with 14 royal pythons hidden in stockings duct-taped to his abdomen and ten albino leopard geckos in boxes taped to his thighs. Customs officials discovered the reptiles after finding a tarantula in one of his bags. Snakes in trousers HARD COPY: Worn and ravaged builders hands have acted as a stumbling block for fingerprint access control readers in the construction industry. However, all that is about to change thanks to computer technology developed by Warwick University that can identify partial, smudged, or warped fingerprints in just seconds. The system, which is already in use at six major building sites, will also impact on crime-fighting. It was voted best overall for accuracy by the National Physical Laboratory and the USs National Institute of Standards and Technology ranked it third out of 36 programmes. RAtll DO: The naked mole rat the only known cancerless animal has a double defence against the disease. It boasts a gene called p16 that makes the cancerous cells claustrophobic, stopping their proliferation when too many of them crowd together, cutting off growth before it can start, according to scientists at the Rochester University in New York. Its early to speculate but if the effect of p16 can be simulated in humans we might have a way to halt cancer before it starts, Profs Vera Gorbunova and Andrei Seluanov wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. bug bROtHeRs: Bugs similar to MRSA have jumped from humans to animals, scientists have said. The transfer happened about 40 years ago and coincided with the move to mass poultry production, they claim. If Staphylococcus aureus of which MRSA is a sub-type are also shown to be crossing over from humans to other livestock, there could be an impact on food security, said Dr Ross Fitzgerald of Edinburghs Roslin Institute. It is believed to be the first evidence of bacterial pathogens crossing to animals and then spreading since animals were domesticated 10,000 years ago. If you have a story for MiniCosm please e-mail us at news@metroireland.ie MINICOSMSCIENCE & DISCOVERY IN BRIEF index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html