Tag Archives: united kingdom

There Are No Clear Lines When It Comes To Homeland Security, Says Napolitano

Protecting the nation from terrorism, breaches in cyber security and other threats inside its borders is such a massive undertaking it is “not easy to draw red lines” that can chart individual or departmental responsibilities, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said during a campus visit on Oct. 6.

In a talk hosted by the Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, Napolitano used the example of the so-called “Underwear Bomber” — a suspected terrorist who attempted to blow up (using explosives hidden in his underwear) a Northwest Airlines flight between Amsterdam and Detroit on Christmas Day 2009 — to illustrate the partnerships that are required to ensure the nation’s safety. Her talk in the Law School’s Levinson Auditorium highlighted the importance of international partnerships in that mission. (more…)

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Berkeley Lab’s Saul Perlmutter wins Nobel Prize in Physics

BERKELEY, CA — Saul Perlmutter, an astrophysicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor of physics at the University of California at Berkeley, has won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe through observations of distant supernovae.” Perlmutter heads the international Supernova Cosmology Project, which pioneered the methods used to discover the accelerating expansion of the universe, and he has been a leader in studies to determine the nature of dark energy.

Perlmutter shares the prize with Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess, leader of the High-z Supernova Search Team and first author of that team’s analysis, respectively, which led to their almost simultaneous announcement of accelerating expansion. (more…)

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Android Captures #2 Ranking Among Smartphone Platforms in EU5

*HTC and Samsung Emerge as Top Android Device Manufacturers*

LONDON, UK, 13 September 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore MobiLens service analysing growth trends of the smartphone platforms across the five leading European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom). In July 2011, nearly 1 in 4 smartphone users in EU5 reported using smartphones running on the Google Android platform. HTC had the highest market share among mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), accounting for 34.6 percent of Android devices used across the region in this period, followed closely by Samsung with 31.7 percent of Android devices. (more…)

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Thawing Permafrost Could Release Vast Amounts of Carbon and Accelerate Climate Change by the end of this Century

*New computer modeling study, led by a Berkeley Lab scientist, could help revise understanding of permafrost’s role in global warming*

Billions of tons of carbon trapped in high-latitude permafrost may be released into the atmosphere by the end of this century as the Earth’s climate changes, further accelerating global warming, a new computer modeling study indicates.

The study also found that soil in high-latitude regions could shift from being a sink to a source of carbon dioxide by the end of the 21st century as the soil warms in response to climate change. (more…)

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Retail Websites Now Reach 75 Percent of European Internet Audience Each Month

*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…)

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