Stargazing Live

Stargazing Live is a British live television programme on astronomy that was first broadcast for three evenings on BBC Two between 3 and 5 January 2011, with a second series broadcast between 16 and 18 January 2012, a third series between 8 and 10 January 2013, a fourth series between 7 and 9 January 2014, a fifth series from March 18 and March 20, 2015, and now between January 12 and January 15, 2016. The series is primarily presented by scientist Brian Cox and comedian and amateur astronomer Dara Ó Briain with support from TV presenter and biochemist Liz Bonnin and astronomer Mark Thompson. It is broadcast from Jodrell Bank Observatory and has featured live links from scientific facilities in Hawaii, South Africa, Norway and NASA.

Overview

The first series was scheduled to coincide with the partial Solar eclipse of 4 January 2011, a conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus, and the Quadrantid meteor shower. It also featured Jonathan Ross learning how to spot planets, and a discussion with the International Space Station.

Dara Ó Briain

Dara Ó Briain (/ˌdɑːrə oʊˈbriən, ˌdærə-/; Irish pronunciation: [ˈd̪ˠaɾˠə oː ˈbʲɾʲiənʲ]; born 4 February 1972) is an Irish comedian and television presenter in the United Kingdom and Ireland. He is noted for hosting topical panel shows such as Mock the Week, The Panel, and The Apprentice: You're Fired!. His TV work also includes starring in and writing of television comedy and documentary series. Ó Briain has also been a newspaper columnist, with pieces published in national papers in both Britain and Ireland.

In 2009, the Irish Independent described Ó Briain as Britain's "favourite Irishman" and in 2010, Ó Briain was voted the 16th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups.

Early life

Ó Briain was born in 1972 in Bray, County Wicklow, and attended Coláiste Eoin secondary school, a Gaelcholáiste (Irish-medium school) on Dublin's southside. He attended University College Dublin (UCD), where he studied mathematics and theoretical physics. In 2008, he remarked: "I haven't written it into my act, but it occasionally comes through. I could come on with a chalkboard and say: 'Now you're all going to pay attention.'"

O'Brien dynasty

The O'Brien dynasty (Classical Irish Irish: Ua Briain, (Modern Irish Ó Briain, IPA: /oːˈbʲɾʲiənʲ/), genitive Uí Bhriain, IPA: /iːˈβʲɾʲiənʲ/) are a royal and noble house founded in the 10th century by Brian Boru of the Dál gCais or Dalcassians. After becoming King of Munster, through conquest he established himself as Ard Rí na hÉireann (High King of Ireland). Brian's descendants thus carried the name Ó Briain, continuing to rule the Kingdom of Munster until the 12th century where their territory had shrunk to the Kingdom of Thomond which they would hold for just under five centuries.

In total, four Ó Briain's ruled in Munster, and two held the High Kingship of Ireland (with opposition). After the partition of Munster into Thomond and the MacCarthy Kingdom of Desmond by Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair in the 12th century, the dynasty would go on to provide around thirty monarchs of Thomond until 1542. During part of this period in the late 13th century they had a rivalry with the Norman de Clare house, disputing the throne of Thomond. The last Ó Briain to reign in Thomond was Murrough Ó Briain who surrendered his sovereignty to the new Kingdom of Ireland under Henry VIII of the House of Tudor, becoming instead Earl of Thomond and maintaining a role in governance. Today the head carries the title of Prince of Thomond, and depending on succession sometimes also Baron Inchiquin.

Brian Cox

Brian Cox may refer to:

See also

Mystery meat navigation

Mystery meat navigation (also known as MMN) is a disparaging term coined in 1998 by Vincent Flanders, author and designer of the website Web Pages That Suck, to describe a web page where the destination of the link is not visible until the user points their cursor at it. Such interfaces lack a user-centered design, emphasizing aesthetic appearance, white space, and the concealment of relevant information over basic practicality and functionality.

The epithet "mystery meat" refers to the meat products often served in American public school cafeterias whose forms have been so thoroughly reprocessed that their exact types can no longer be identified by their appearances: like them, the methods of MMN are clear to the producer but baffling to the consumer.

Flanders originally and temporarily described the phenomenon as Saturnic navigation in reference to the Saturn Corporation, whose company website epitomized this phenomenon. Flanders writes, "The typical form of MMN is represented by menus composed of unrevealing icons that are replaced with explicative text only when the mouse cursor hovers over them".