A branch of the World Health Organization announced Tuesday cell phones are “possible carcinogens” — a statement that was met with skepticism from many American cancer experts.
The statement came from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which convened 30 international experts in Lyon, France, this past week to sort through data on cell phone safety, reports Lancaster Eagle Gazette. (more…)
*Males Nearly Twice as Likely as Females to Use Mobile Banking*
LONDON, UK, May 27, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore 
MobiLens service which showed that 20 million mobile users across the five leading European markets (UK, France, Spain, Germany and Italy), representing 8.5 percent of mobile subscribers in these markets, accessed their bank account via a mobile phone in March 2011. Since August 2010, the first month this activity has been measured in MobiLens, there has been a 15.4 percent rise in mobile bankers which has been largely driven by smartphone users who accounted for 70 percent of the mobile banking market in March 2011. Among Smartphone owners the number of banking users has risen by 40 percent since August 2010. (more…)
Scientists seeking to understand the origin of the human mind may want to look to honeybees — not ancestral apes — for at least some of the answers, according to a University of Colorado Boulder archaeologist.
CU-Boulder Research Associate John Hoffecker said there is abundant fossil and archaeological evidence for the evolution of the human mind, including its unique power to create a potentially infinite variety of thoughts expressed in the form of sentences, art and technologies. He attributes the evolving power of the mind to the formation of what he calls the “super-brain,” or collective mind, an event that took place in Africa no later than 75,000 years ago. (more…)
*comScore Releases First European Data on Media Tablet Users from MobiLens Service*
London, UK, 21 April, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the results of an EU5 (UK, 
Germany, France, Spain, and Italy) study of media tablet owners, based on data from the comScore MobiLens service. The report includes comScore’s first publicly available data showing demographics and other characteristics of users of connected media devices, such as the iPad, iPod Touch and devices running on Google’s Android software. Initial research indicates that Apple’s iOS platform, which resides on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches, has a combined platform reach of 28.9 million users in the five European markets, outreaching the Android platform by 116 percent.
“comScore is excited to offer insights about the comprehensive mobile ecosystem, including connected media devices, such as the iPad,” said Jeremy Copp, comScore vice president of mobile in Europe. “This new data set is part of our MobiLens service and enables our clients to understand the detailed demographic and behavioural attributes of connected media device users. This of course has significant implications for the media and developer communities as they consider how best to reach their audience on all types of connected devices.” (more…)
*U.K., France, Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands Lead in Retail Site Visitation and Engagement*
LONDON, UK, March 21, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released results from a study of 
online shopping in Europe. In January 2011, 270.6 million unique visitors in Europe visited sites in the Retail category, representing a market penetration of 74.5 percent of Internet users, up 8.5 percentage points versus last year. Retail sites also showed high penetration in individual markets, reaching at least 75 percent of the total online audience in 7 out of 18 European markets. In 2010, approximately one out of every ten Internet sessions in Europe included a visit to a retail site.
Retail Penetration and Engagement Growth in Europe
In the United Kingdom, the Retail category reached 89.4 percent of the total online audience (up 6.3 points from last year), the highest penetration of any European market. France ranked second with a reach of 87 percent (up 10.5 points), followed by Germany at 82.1 percent (up 9.0 points). Ireland and the Netherlands round out the list of markets with highest penetration, with Retail reaching 80.7 percent in Ireland (up 15.8 percentage points) and 80.2 percent in the Netherlands (up 4.9 percentage points). (more…)
*Study Finds that Without Proper Adjustments, Site-Server Estimates can Overstate Audience Size by Factor of up to 2.7x*
Sydney, Australia, February 3, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its 
white paper, The Impact of Cookie Deletion on Site-Server and Ad-Server Metrics in Australia: An Empirical comScore Study. The study addresses the key sources of discrepancy between server-based and panel-based data and reveals that cookie deletion can lead to large overstatements in servers’ measurement of the size of online audiences. Without appropriate adjustments, site-server measurement of the size of website audiences in Australia can be inflated by up to 2.7 times the actual number of unique visitors. (more…)
Energy drinks are a recent invention of mankind, even though their ingredients have long been used to stimulate the nervous system. They have become the salvation for students during the exams and office workers that have to meet the deadlines. Yet, are these products as good as they seem? (more…)
Russia has finally decided to purchase two Mistral helicopter carriers from France in the total amount of 1.37 billion euros. It is not the first time when Russia concludes defense deals with France. However, the Mistral deal is the largest one in Russia’s recent history when Russia purchased military hardware from a foreign state. (more…)
