Author: ian

Nickelodeon, usually abbreviated as Nick, and originally named Pinwheel up to 1979 is an American cable television owned by MTV Networks.

As of 2011, Nickelodeon is ranked as the #1 children’s channel.

It was the first American television network aimed at children. In 1990, Nickelodeon Studios was opened in Universal Studios Florida in Orlando.

In 1991, its first animated series was developed. Doug, Rugrats and The Ren and Stimpy Show. These were known as Nicktoons and premiered on August 11 1991. Nickelodeon UK, however, was not launched until September 1^st, 1993.

The Rugrats Movie was released in theaters in 1998 and made more than $100 million in the United States alone crowning it the first non-Disney animated movie to ever earn so much.

The following year, SpongeBob SquarePants was released which quickly became one of the most popular Nicktoons in the network’s history and has remained very popular to this day consistently ranking as the channel’s highest-rated series since 2000.

Back in October 1995, Nickelodeon ventured into the World Wide Web and launched Nick.com. Initially the website was only available to American browsers but was later broadened. The website’s popularity grew and by 1999 Nick.com became the highest-rated website aimed at children aged 6-14 years old.

Last month the Chinese celebrated the start of their new year, the year of the rabbit. 

The Lantern Festival marks the 15^th and final day of the Chinese New Year festivities. It is the first night of the new year to see a full moon, and the Chinese believe that when there is a full bright moon in the sky, there should be thousands of colourful lanterns hung out for everyone to appreciate and celebrate. 

On the night of the festival, lanterns decorated with pictures of birds, beasts, historical figures, and a number of various other themes are hung outside  homes and along the streets. 

There are many different beliefs about the origin of the Lantern Festival. 

One legend claims that many years ago fierce beasts roamed freely in China. One day, a hunter mistook a sacred bird for a dangerous beast and killed it. The heaven Emperor was furious and ordered the land to be burned. Luckily, he had a very kind daughter who warned the people.

 One man suggested that every family light up lanterns and fireworks to fool the Emperor into thinking that the land had been burned. On the 15^th day of the first lunar month, the heaven Emperor looked down on China to see red fire everywhere. From then on, people continued to light up lanterns and fireworks to celebrate the success. 

Customs associated with the Lantern Festival include eating Yuanxio(a small rice ball sometimes served in soup), guessing lantern riddles and the lion and dragon dance. 

The Lion Dance is performed at many Chinese celebrations as it is seen as a symbol of bravery and strength believed to scare away  evil and bring luck. 

This year, the Chinese welcomed the year of the Rabbit. From the chinese zodiac, it  indicates a year of caution and calm.

‘Loose Women’s’ Denise Welch left Dancing on Ice last night after losing to war hero Johnson Beharry in the skate-off.

The Loose Women presenter has been lingering at the bottom of the judges’ scoreboard for the last few weeks, yet tonight, after doubling her score and ending up in third place, she still landed in the bottom two.

Upon hearing the skate-off participants, most thought that Welch would leave, especially after her argument with Jason Gardner earlier that evening. Tim Healy may have been defending his wife, but it is doubtful that it had any affect on the Judges.

Welch scored 30 but still found herself in the bottom two with Johnson who scored 17.5 after managing to perform his first lift of the series.

Starting the skate off was Welch giving her routine “Alone” a second try. It has actually been one of her better performances in recent weeks but she still had trouble getting in and out of lifts and showed little speed on the ice.

Johnson was up next with “You Are So Beautiful”. He gave just as good a performance as he had done earlier in the evening, yet he ended up in the bottom two last night.

After Robin Cousins and Emma Bunton had voted for Beharry to go through, Jason Gardner stated, “its a clean sweep. I save Johnson”.

Following the judges’ verdicts Welch said, “I loved it, I did the best I could the second time”.

Doctors can now find out if children have food allergies in a matter of seconds thanks to new research carried out by University College Cork.

An online calculator for doctors has been developed, which can predict the presence of the three most common food allergies.

The new device is reported to be 96% accurate, according to research published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

“The calculator should replace uncertainty for many doctors treating children with food allergies,” said Kevin Dalton of UCC’s Office of Technology Transfer.

Cork researchers, Dr Audrey Dunn Galvin and Professor Jonathan Hourihane of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, devised highly accurate allergen-specific algorithims for each of the most important food types — cow’s milk, egg and peanut.

Observing the outcomes of data on different factors, including a skin prick test, blood tests, allergic reaction history, gender and age, researchers were able to develop an accurate prediction model.

Ireland is now the fifth most popular tourism destination in the world on Facebook – according to Tourism Ireland.

Tourism Ireland’s fanbase has grown from zero at the beginning of 2010 to 250,000 this week.

The organisation is seeing the page get about 2,500 new fans per day.

Tourism Ireland now has fans in 14 countries around the globe – including Great Britain, America, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, India, Japan, New Zealand and the Gulf Countries.

“Social media now allows word of mouth about a holiday destination to reach a truly global audience,” said Mark Henry, Tourism Ireland’s Central Marketing Director.

“Having a fanbase of this size allows Tourism Ireland to communicate over 3.5 million messages about the island of Ireland each month to prospective visitors,” Mr Henry added.

The north of the country is experiencing the worst of the snow at the moment. Elsewhere it is very cold and there is severe frost forecast for tonight.