METRO Friday, November 6, 2009 D We would like to invite you to an OPENING MORNING on Sat. 7th November at 10.00am sharp. Facilities at our school include: Small Classes Pre-School After School Care until 6pm Homework Club Canteen available from 8.00am Limited places available for September 2010 Boys from 4 years upwards for Junior School Boys & Girls from 3 years upwards for Pre-School; JUNIOR SCHOOL 89 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 FURTHER INFORMATION: 01 644 9593 / 676 2586 OFFICE@CUS.IE Irish cougars in search of loves young dream THEY prowl the night in search of prey; always on the lookout for younger men. A survey by online dating site Parship has revealed that some older Irish women are stalking young men. More than one-third of 40 and 50 year old women would date a man five or more years younger. And its not just the matriarchs who indulge in cradle-snatching: thirty- somethings, are turning their atten- tion to the younger bucks: 17 per cent admitting they are in the hunt for a younger partner. Women dont want a fling; they want romance, love and even marriage. Dating a younger man has now be- come acceptable, perhaps this is down to the media reporting of celebrity age gap relationships, or due to the growth of internet dating where peo- ple realise that if they are more flexi- ble in their search criteria, they will have more matches, said psychiatrist Dr Victoria Lukats. Internet dating encourages people to focus on whats important in a rela- tionship and for many women, their priority becomes finding a partner with whom they are compatible, irre- spective of age. Sadly for the cougars, men arent so willing. Only one fifth in their 20s and 30s would date an older women. BY ROSS McDONAGH Three swans pass in front of the piece La Fourchette Geante (The giant fork), which stands in the Lake of Geneva, near Vevey, Switzerland. The 8m tall fork is the work of Jean-Pierre Zaugg Picture: EPA Fedora hat worn by killer Ruby is up for 23,000 THIS unremarkable grey Fedora looks in pretty good condition. But its place in history means it could be worth 23,000 at auction. The hat was worn by Jack Ruby, famously caught on camera gunning down Lee Harvey Oswald. Nightclub owner Ruby struck two days after Oswald apparently shot dead US president John F Kennedy in Dallas, in 1963. The Fedora bears Rubys embossed name inside and a $16.50 price tag. Also up at Saturdays auction is a newspaper signed for a hotel maid by JFK just hours before his death. Fire: Jack Ruby guns down JFK assassin Oswald Laser beam sends robot into the sky A ROBOT powered by a laser beam has climbed a cable dangling from a helicopter to examine the potential reality of the 1960s space elevator science-fiction concept. The highly technical US Space Elevator Games brought teams from Missouri, Alaska and Seattle to Californias Mojave Desert, a well known space shuttle landing site. The competition required the machines to climb nearly 1km (2,953ft) up a cable slung beneath a helicopter. A vehicle designed by the LaserMotive team zipped up to the top in just over four minutes, qualifying for a 600,000 prize. LaserMotives Jordin Kare said, while they were relieved after two years of work, we are pretty sceptical of its prospects. Mr Kare said their real goal was to develop a business based on the idea of beaming power, not the futuristic idea of accessing space via an elevator climbing a cable. Funded by Nasa, the competition is intended to encourage the development of a 1960s theory popularised by an Arthur C Clarke novel, The Fountains Of Paradise. Blue sky thinking: Robotic space elevator What the fork Is that? obama speech gets cheesy LIBERIAN immigrant Mansfield Neblett just wanted to wear his big yellow triangular cheese- head hat to President Barack Obamas speech at a school in Wisconsin, the self-proclaimed dairy state. The first roadblock, however, was US Secret Service agents. They initially told him the bright yellow hat in the shape of a slice of cheese usually worn by fans at Green Bay Packers American football games was a security risk. The 46-year-old Neblett told them hed skip the Wednesday speech. The agents relented and Neblett took his place in the last row of the gymnasium. But wearing the hat during the speech wasnt meant to be. Before Mr Obama took to the stage, someone representing him approached Neblett and offered to get the hat signed by the president. Mr Neblett gladly turned it over. Im going to sell it on eBay! he said. nice catch: Good guys get more girls than the pushy ones you just need to give them the space to work their magic. The less aggressive male pond skaters a water-skimming insect had more mating conquests than their pushy colleagues, research has shown. But their success only emerged after the females had enough room to get away from the highly charged lads, just as they would in the wild. Previous studies that found the pestering males monopolised mating may have used tanks that were too small, US researchers told Science. MY LOVeLY hORSe: A complete blueprint of the domestic horses genetic code has revealed remarkable similarities with humans, say scientists. Researchers hope the gene map will increase their understanding of diseases in both humans and horses. Horses suffer from more than 90 hereditary diseases which are similar to human disorders. An international team of scientists analysed DNA from an adult female thoroughbred horse named Twilight. Her genetic code was found to have around 2.7billion letters slightly more than the domestic dog, but fewer than humans. 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