LONDON, October 24 /PRNewswire/ --

Northern Trust has become one of the first asset servicers to adopt the Financial Product Mark-up Language (FpML) messaging format in processing over the counter (OTC) derivative trades. As part of Northern Trust's move towards increasing automation and straight through processing (STP) in OTC derivative trade processing, this format can be used for Northern Trust's clients across the globe.

FpML is a messaging format which automates the flow of information between an asset servicer like Northern Trust and its clients and operates independently of any underlying software or hardware infrastructure pertaining to derivative trades.

For the second time this year, The University of Western Ontario Meteor Group has captured incredibly rare video footage of a meteor falling to Earth. The team of astronomers suspects the fireball dropped meteorites in a region north of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, that may total as much as a few hundred grams in mass.

The Physics and Astronomy Department at Western has a network of all-sky cameras in southern Ontario that scan the sky monitoring for meteors. 

On Wednesday, October 15 at 5:28 a.m., all seven cameras of Western's Southern Ontario Meteor Network recorded a bright, slow fireball in the predawn sky. 

WILLEMSTAD, Curaçao, October 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- The New Flash Game From Fortunanzo

Fortunanzo Inc. is releasing Obama's Tower Race, the first online 3D flash game that features both Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his Republican opponent, John McCain. The game is funny, cleverly built and rewards players with ton's of cash prizes.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081024/325911 )

Barack Obama is standing on top of a sky scraper, waving triumphantly. John McCain is standing at the base, angry.

See if you can move McCain along the side of the sky scraper, avoiding the windows that light up, breaking glass and falling objects, and kick Barack Obama from the top of this Tower of Power.

Does your boss  feel like an environmentally aware entrepreneur?   If so, it might  be worth mentioning that business travel, conferences and meetings have an  effect on the environment.   Virtual participation is possible but computers, networks and the entire data infastructure consume massive amounts of power as well.

What is needed is a way to quantify meetings in terms of energy use.   At a recent “Informatics Day at the Technopark Zurich" , a Microsoft booth allowed visitors were able to test how much CO2 they would save, if any, if they replaced a “real” meeting with a videoconference. Using life cycle analysis methods and the «ecoinvent» database, Empa researchers produced comparative data showing what environmental effects were created, and where.

HOUSTON, October 24 /PRNewswire/ --

Endeavour International Corporation (Amex: END) (LSE: ENDV) today announced a discovery at the site of the Knockandoo prospect in the Brage field located in PL055 in the Norwegian North Sea.

The Brage platform well 31/4-A-01 AT2 well found oil in the upper part of the Middle Jurassic Brent Group. The operator StatoilHydro estimates the size of the discovery is between 1.8 and 6.3 million barrels of oil recoverable. The well was not tested; however, extensive data was acquired during the drilling.

LAVAL, Quebec, October 24 /PRNewswire/ -- LAB Research Inc. (LRI or LAB Research) (TSX: LRI), a Canadian-based global non-clinical contract research organization (CRO), announced that its Hungarian site (LAB Hungary) successfully completed its biennial Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) inspection by the Hungarian authorities (OGYI: National Institute of Pharmacy) (the Inspection). Consequently, its GLP certificate remains in full force. In addition, to the Inspection, the site was also subject to a favourable audit of the chronic inhalation studies performed for one of its sponsors (the Audit), last August by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Audit was conducted in conjunction with the OGYI and did not alter the GLP status of the site.

The Inspection

Yesterday, the Zefiro 9-A motor successfully completed its first firing test at the Salto di Quirra Inter-force Test Range in Sardinia (Italy). This was the penultimate firing test for the engine prior to the Vega launcher’s qualification flight, scheduled to take place by the end of 2009.
 
The Zefiro 9-A (Z9-A) solid-fuel rocket motor, which will power the Vega launch vehicle’s third stage, left the production facility of Avio, in Colleferro (Italy), at the end of September and was installed at the test site over the last three weeks. 
 

Does ice-cream actually taste better when it is licked from a cone than when eaten from a spoon?

Massey food technology senior lecturer Kay McMath thinks so. Although she is not aware of any specific scientific evidence to prove it, she says “there are some physical and physiological reasons why there are likely to be differences in flavour”.

“Flavour in ice cream is only released when the fat content – which carries the flavour – is warmed in the mouth to at least body temperature,” she says.
 
“During licking, the tongue is coated with a thin layer of ice-cream which is more quickly warmed and the flavour is detected by the large surface area of the taste buds present on the tongue.”

Some animals live longer when raised on low-calorie diets but now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis say that they can extend the life spans of roundworms even when the worms are well fed — it just takes a chemical that blocks their sense of smell.

Three years ago, the researchers, led by Kerry Kornfeld, M.D., Ph.D., reported they found that a class of anticonvulsant medications made the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans live longer. But until now, they didn't quite know what the drugs did to give the worms their longevity.

The dense, hot, radioactive core of the Sun rotates significantly more slowly than the layer next to it, the radiative zone, a Stanford solar physicist has concluded. According to Peter Sturrock, professor emeritus of applied physics, the idea of a slower core has been hinted at before, but his paper published in the Astrophysical Journal provides for the first time a precise rotation rate.

- The core spins round once every 28.4 days

- The radiative zone rotates once every 26.9 days

- The surface rotates faster still-once every 25.2 days.