General News
TUC: The TUC and the National Union of Students (NUS) have launched a new campaign calling for the fair treatment of interns.
STFC: Imagine if every person on the planet were able to carry out 250,000 calculations per second simultaneously.
This is the combined capability of the next stage of development of 2 giant computers, HECToR and BlueGene/Q, based at the University of Edinburgh's Advanced Computing Facility (ACF). It marks the next chapter in the UK's supercomputing programme.
NA: Love letters from botanists & explorers, thought to be over 150 years old, have been discovered at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
IPPR: The think tank IPPR is launching a Commission on the Future of Higher Education in England, to address how higher education can respond to the challenges it will face over the next 20 years and develop a policy framework to strengthen the position of higher education institutions.
STFC: CERN has announced that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will run with a beam energy of 4 TeV this year. This is 0.5 TeV higher than in 2010 and 2011. The LHC's excellent performance in 2010 & 2011 has broughttantalising hints of new physics, with scientists on 2 of the LHC's 4 experiments now focussed on a window of just 16GeV in which the Higgs boson can exist.
CLG: Over 200 councils have signalled they intend to help with the cost of living by taking up a council tax freeze offer, Communities & Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has confirmed.
BP: The Earl & The Countess of Wessex will undertake an overseas tour of the West Indies from 21 February to the 7 March 2012, representing The Queen in the year of Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee.
NE: Youngsters in North West England are discovering more about what goes on behind the scenes at a modern farm, thanks to the efforts of an award-winning Cheshire farming family and the help of Natural England.
FSA: Granovita is withdrawing one batch of its Mushroom Pateole Yeast Spread. The product contains levels of gluten that are above the limits allowed for foods to be labelled gluten-free. The Food Standards Agency has issued an Allergy Alert..
MO: The Met Office recently brought together airport operators, airlines & regulators to discuss the challenges involved in establishing Europe-wide Airport-Collaborative Decision Making.
MoD: In honour of Her Majesty The Queen's 60-year reign nearly 2,500 Armed Forces personnel will parade through Windsor and muster in the castle grounds on Saturday 19 May 2012 for a unique event before an audience of more than 3,000 Armed Forces personnel, their families & veterans.
An impressive, tri-Service flypast of current & historic aircraft will conclude the celebrations. for a unique event before an audience of more than 3,000 Armed Forces personnel, their families & veterans. An impressive, tri-Service flypast of current & historic aircraft will conclude the celebrations.
An impressive, tri-Service flypast of current & historic aircraft will conclude the celebrations. for a unique event before an audience of more than 3,000 Armed Forces personnel, their families & veterans. An impressive, tri-Service flypast of current & historic aircraft will conclude the celebrations.
ScotGov: Alex Neil, Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure & Capital Investment has announced a further £500,000 available to households switching from poor performing boilers to a more energy efficient model. Over 1,000 households could receive £400 towards the cost of their new boiler by phoning the Home Energy Scotland hotline.
RoSPA: The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) is expanding its blind cord safety awareness campaign to 5 new areas in Scotland thanks to the generous donations of Scottish businesses. Local authorities and community organisations in West Lothian, the Western Isles, West Dunbartonshire, Edinburgh and East Lothian, supported by RoSPA, will raise awareness of the safety issues surrounding looped blind cords by distributing thousands of ‘Make it Safe’ packs.
STFC: The Science and Technology Facilities Council has announced a call for applications to the Projects Research & Development scheme (PRD). The applications should be submitted by the deadline of 5 April 2012 and will be reviewed at a meeting of the PPRP Panel on 6/7 June 2012. STFC intends to allocate a total of around £1.5m. More details of the scheme, including an updated guide for applicants is available.
FSA: A sampling programme for seafood from Dalgety Bay, Fife, is to be carried out after radioactive items were found on the beach. The sampling will be managed jointly by the Food Standards Agency in Scotland and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).
Although signs at Dalgety Bay advise people not to remove seafood & bait, some continue to collect shellfish from the area. Sampling seafood, such as cockles, mussels & winkles, should help to identify whether additional measures to protect the public are required.
TfL: Transport for London has increased the penalty charge for non-payment on its services from £50 to £80 as part of its ongoing commitment to deter & further reduce fare evasion on London's transport network.
The increase in penalties came into effect on Sunday 19 February 2012 and will cover all of TfL's services in the capital, including London Underground, London Overground, London Buses, DLR and London Tramlink.
Customers are required to pay the correct fare for their journey and failure to do so could lead to a penalty or even prosecution, resulting in a criminal record and a fine of up to £1,000.
