General News
STFC: A massive global computer grid, designed to analyse the unprecedented amounts of data generated by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s biggest scientific experiment, is being utilised by two high tech start-up companies from Cambridge, who are working together to build the next generation of internet search engine.
These two Cambridgeshire companies, Imense Ltd and iLexIR Ltd have created a joint venture, Camtology, to use their individual expertise & products together to search both text and images online. They are using GridPP to test & enhance their software.
FSCS: More than 200,000 retail depositors with savings in Icesave UK, the topped up retail deposit business of the UK branch of Landsbanki, will get back their savings through an accelerated process, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme announced recently. FSCS expects to launch the process in a few days.
The Government has guaranteed 100% of all deposits held by retail depositors of Icesave and has said that people will not lose their tax status for their ISAs. FSCS is working closely with the Newcastle Building Society on the repayment arrangements. The building society provided Icesave’s online banking facility and is playing a key part in the process which uses their existing infrastructure to host the FSCS process.
Press release ~ Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) ~ Financial Services Authority (FSA) ~ Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)
FSCS: The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has made the first compensation payments to members of Heritable Bank just 17 days after the bank was declared in default by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
The bank was a subsidiary of Landsbanki Islands hf. The Treasury used its powers to transfer the accounts of the majority of Heritable's retail depositors to ING Direct. Eligible retail depositors whose accounts have not been transferred to ING Direct will be compensated through FSCS. FSCS understands that there are less than 100 eligible retail depositor accounts that have not transferred to ING Direct.
ScotGov: The push to rebuild & improve Scotland's schools received another boost recently as the Scottish Government confirmed £80m of funding to build four new low energy schools in Inverclyde. The Inverclyde Council Schools PPP project will deliver two new primaries and two new secondaries, with around 2,500 pupils set to benefit from the move into state-of-the-art learning facilities.
In the first tie-up of its kind in Scotland, the Carbon Trust has been working alongside Inverclyde Council and the building consortium e4i on ways to minimise the carbon footprint of the four schools.
Press release ~ ScotGov – School buildings ~ Scotland’s School Estate Strategy ~ Inverclyde Council Schools PPP project ~ Carbon Trust in Scotland
TfL: Community groups across the capital have given their backing to a new social networking site aimed at encouraging debate around how to make the city better place. ‘Together for London’ is an open forum for Londoners to share their ideas of how to make London a better place, starting with behaviour on public transport.
Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy was joined by representatives from Age Concern London and London Youth to pledge their support for the launch of the next phase of TfL’s campaign to encourage all Londoners to consider others when using public transport.
Press release ~ Together for London ~ TfL’s ‘Considerate Travel’ campaign ~ London Youth (LY) ~ Age Concern London (ACL)
CIOB: The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) will announce its ambitious plans for the development & establishment of a Middle East region at the forthcoming Big 5 exhibition in Dubai, on the 23 November 2008.
The establishment of a Middle East region is a strategic move which will allow the Institute to play a major role in supporting industry, professionalism and key development projects in the Middle East, as well as creating a link with the Indian Sub Continent, another key strategic area of interest for the Institute.
HA: Enabling Sustainable Development was the focus when the Highways Agency recently met with 120 key stakeholders from the development & planning sector to discuss how everyone can work together to improve the planning and development process, at the second annual Stakeholder Development Forum.
OGCB.S: OGCbuying.solutions has announced plans to deliver a pan-public sector air programme that will streamline the supply chain and improve efficiency in air travel procurement. By contracting directly with the airline industry, this new approach will strip out additional supply chain costs and create more transparent supplier relationships.
The initiative will build on the success of the existing Government Travel Group (GTG) air deal that is owned by Buying Solutions in partnership with Carlson Wagonlit Travel, which is due to expire in 2009. This innovative development will give the public sector much greater autonomy in its air travel arrangements.
NA: In November, The National Archives will host a number of free events and talks where specialists will share their knowledge & expertise to offer useful advice on research and best practice for using the archives. Subjects range from the administration of parish records to merchant seamen of the First and Second World Wars. Most talks & lectures will be made available as podcasts soon after they have taken place.
There are daily drop-in sessions to introduce first-time visitors to the range of services available at The National Archives and how to make the most of our resources. These free sessions start at 11:30 and last approximately 30 minutes; pre-booking is not required.
ATA: ATA (Automotive Technician Accreditation), a scheme to improve public confidence in the motor industry by formally recognising the skills & ethical competence of motor technicians in the UK, has welcomed its 11,000th registered technician.
Governed by the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) the motor industry’s professional association and Sector Skills Council, ATA is the first voluntary accreditation scheme of its kind, recognising professional motor technicians who have proved they have the right skills to work competently, have signed a code of honest conduct and are regulated.
CRC: According to the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC), the Government’s call for suppliers to reflect lower fuel costs in consumers' bills is a welcome step in helping tackle fuel poverty. Rural people have to rely more on oil or bottled gas for heating, but costs have doubled over the past year. 42% of rural homes are not connected to mains gas, so ‘dual fuel’ discounts are not available to many rural residents.
A third of homes in rural areas have solid walls compared with 26% in urban areas. They cost more to insulate but just 10% of Warm Front grants go to rural areas. Pension credit is a key eligibility criterion for grants, but the CRC State of the Countryside Update shows 250,000 eligible pensioners in rural areas aren’t PC.
MoD: An Armed Conflicts Memorial has been dedicated at Westminster Abbey in the presence of Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, honouring those who have been killed in conflict zones since the end of the Second World War.
Situated in the south cloister of the historic Abbey, the memorial commemorates Service personnel, both regular & reserve, and members of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and the Merchant Navy killed while in support of the Armed Forces. It is in the form of an integral metal plaque and inscribed with the words: "Remember the men and women of the Armed and Auxiliary Forces who lost their lives in times and places of conflict since The Second World War."
STFC: UK physicists are constructing a novel, highly sensitive detector to create & probe rare and exotic types of atomic nuclei. The Advanced Gamma Tracking Array (AGATA) will be a thousand times more sensitive than previous detectors and will not only give physicists a new approach to uncovering the structure of the atomic nucleus, but will help in the advancement of medical gamma-ray technology, used in hospital scans.
The social and economic benefits of AGATA include improved gamma-ray technology for PET and SPECT scanners - medical imaging and diagnosis machines which produce three-dimensional images of people’s bodies to provide information about localised function in internal organs and detect disease and tumors. Work is already in hand to develop portable radiation monitors based on AGATA technology, which could be used by the security services to detect dirty bombs and also to monitor radioactive waste.
