Northern Rock has launched two new variable rate savings options for customers who want access to their funds, but don't want to compromise on the interest they'll receive. Rainy Day Saver is a new 120-day notice account, paying 2.90% gross/AER pa variable, which includes a 1.50% gross/AER pa bonus payable for 12 months from account opening. Longer term, the interest rate is also guaranteed to be no less than the Bank of England base rate until 30th June 2013. Rainy Day Saver is available to open by post or telephone with a minimum initial deposit of GBP5,000, and can ...

Jumeirah has announced that its Burj Al Arab hotel has welcomed the first Michelin-starred chef to its culinary team; chef Mansur Memarian, who has been appointed as chef de cuisine for Al Mahara, the under-water themed fine dining restaurant where guests enjoy contemporary seafood whilst seated in full view of one of Dubai's most beautiful aquariums. As the first Iranian chef to be awarded a Michelin star, chef Mansur brings a wealth of experience and personal passion to the position. After moving to Frankfurt, Germany at a young age, chef Mansur discovered his passion ...

Ideasbynet has announced the re-branding of its US site, moving from its previous name of PromotionalPro to IdeasByNet, matching the US site to its European counterparts in the UK, Germany and Spain. The company hopes the change will reinforce IdeasByNet as a truly global brand. IdeasByNet hopes to become a popular name for promotional products in America and the re-branding is pushing the company forward towards becoming a market force in the US much like its UK counterpart. IdeasByNet sees this as a beneficial move as its customer base will be reassured that they are ...

2entertain has announced the release of Clarkson: The Italian Job, will be released in time for Christmas. The new Jeremy Clarkson DVD is his first double disc release. Filmed at a number of stunning locations across Italy and showcasing the world's best supercars, this spectacular release also comes with an added bonus disc of Clarkson's five most explosive destructions of the past 15 years, as voted for by the fans. The DVD sees Clarkson heading to Kent for the race of a lifetime but he first heads to the Fiorano test track in Italy where he spends a while not ...

Standard Life has appointed Ann Flynn as Head of Customer Management in corporate marketing, reporting to Corporate Marketing Director Jonathan Hewitt. Ann joins the company from Scottish Widows where she was Head of Marketing Communications for Corporate Pensions. Ann joined the corporate marketing team this week and will be responsible for supporting clients and their advisers to further strengthen Standard Life's offering in the corporate market. The Edinburgh-based savings and investments company is one of the leading providers of corporate and company pensions. ...

British Airways has announced that it is introducing first class on its popular flight to Las Vegas next summer, from June 1, 2011 and it will also be increasing capacity by 18 per cent. The direct daily flight to Las Vegas from Terminal 5 at Heathrow was launched a year ago (October 2009) and is currently operated by a three-class Boeing 777. A four-class B747 offering BA's First cabin will replace it. By moving to a B747, BA will be sending an additional 124 seats on every round trip. Each flight will now have 14 seats in the first cabin. Richard Tams, British ...

Foster Care Associates (FCA) has stepped up its activities to recruit remand foster carers, complementing the agency's ongoing foster carer recruitment campaign. Remand fostering placements add to the standard range of fostering services provided to Local Authorities and Trusts throughout the UK. Remand fostering placements provide temporary care for young people with challenging behavioural issues. They are provided for young people who have been charged with an offence, that they may or may not have committed, and are waiting for their cases to go through the courts. ...

Debenhams, the high street store, has announced that sensible shoes have virtually disappeared from the market. The traditional, thick soled, lace-up, comfy varieties of shoes are on the way out. Trainers have taken their place, with more organisations now allowing the American-style shoe to be worn to work rather than the tough, British, black, leather stalwarts. The news brings to an end to the decades long association of sensible shoes with countless professions such as nurses, teachers, police officers and traffic wardens. Debenhams spokesman Ed Watson said: ...

Debenhams, one of Britain's leading department stores, has reported that 'taking' afternoon tea, the epitome of British refinement, is making a surprising comeback thanks to American pop sensation Lady Gaga. Sales of china teacups and saucers are up to 119%, and other afternoon tea accoutrement such as teapots, plates and cake stands are flying off the shelves since Lady Gaga made delicate crockery her accessory of choice. The international pop sensation was pictured drinking from a china cup and saucer earlier this year and was bizarrely seen walking round cup and ...

Business Intelligence and database veterans James Fox and Joseph DeLucia announce the launch of DataRoket, Inc. a data integration and visualization suite built on an entirely new paradigm of connected, real-time streaming data, transforming a company's disparate data into a global data repository. DataRoket is the first to provide a single holistic platform that connects, transforms, integrates and streams a company's data from their ERP, BI, Data Warehouse and General Ledger platforms. DataRoket also supports unstructured and semi-structured data such as flat-files, MS ...

Based on the research and investment strategy developed by former Harvard university professor Michael Edleson, VA Investment Software conducted a study with regards to how investors would have done had they used the value averaging strategy to achieve their investment goals. In order to conduct the study, VA Investment Software created a powerful web-based software system that allowed it to back-test the value averaging investment method, over any time frame, using historical data for any North American Stock, ETF or US based mutual fund. The program also compares the ...

Fengtao Software, a dedicated and professional multimedia software provider, has released the actual Blu-ray to DVD converting software in the world on Nov. 11, 2010, DVDFab Blu-ray to DVD Converter, which can convert Blu-ray to DVD-Video disc and allows you to watch Blu-ray movie with DVD player, or some player software. This will quite possibly mark a turning point for Blu-ray entertainment. We all know that Blu-ray Disc competed with HD DVD format during the high definition optical disc format war, and finally win the war as Toshiba, the main company that supported ...

FINE Champagne Magazine selects the world's best champagne - a rare winner. FINE Champagne Magazine, the only international publication devoted to champagne and a renowned industry authority, announces its list of the "100 Best Champagnes for 2011". During the year 2010 the magazine's editorial team assessed over 1000 champagnes that are now available on the market. After the semifinal, three-day blind-tasting of the top 200 champagnes, the panel selected 30 champagnes that were blind-tasted again in the finals in Reims, Champagne. In the tasting, the most important ...

Recent scientific studies focus on the importance of exactly what type of mother/child interaction leads to an optimal outcome for the child. Fetus to Fifth Grade provides the most up-to-date scientific research on pregnancy and child care. "What Dr. Spock didn't tell us about childrearing, Dr. Schapira does. From strategies for saving money to how best to help your baby grow intellectually, this frank and enlightening book provides essential information to help parents plan for and raise children," says Walter F. Baile MD, Professor of Behavioral Science and Psychiatry ...

If you are looking to save money by eliminating your monthly cable bill, ARGYLEtv.com should be your next destination. ARGYLEtv.com, a provider of free Internet TV channels from around the world, provides one of the most comprehensive lineups of television channels on the Internet. Although a relatively new startup, to date over 150,000 people have logged on to ARGYLEtv.com to watch TV online. As reported by CNN, "In December [of 2009], more than 178 million Americans watched TV online, streaming 33 billion shows". As more and more people look to save money, thousands ...

Tis the season to be wary. LifeShield Security, a national leader and innovator in wireless home security and monitoring, is encouraging all Americans to be extra cautious during the upcoming holiday months. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, nearly 400,000 burglaries occur in the United States from November through December every year. LifeShield's team of home security specialists have put together their "Top 5 Do-It-Yourself Tips" on how anyone can help make their home more secure. LifeShield's "Top 5 Do-It-Yourself Tips" for increased home security: 1. ...

SINGAPORE – Researchers at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore have uncovered a novel feedback mechanism that controls the delicate balance of brain stem cells. Zif, a newly discovered protein, controls whether brain stem cells renew themselves as stem cells or differentiate into a dedicated type of neuron (nerve cell). In preclinical studies, the researchers showed that Zif is important for inhibiting overgrowth of neural stem cells in fruit flies (genus Drosophila) by ensuring that a proliferation factor (known as aPKC) maintains appropriate levels in ...

The handwriting problems that affect children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are likely to continue into their teenage years, according to a study from the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Md. The research is published in the November 16, 2010 issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. In 2009, Kennedy Krieger researchers conducted the first study to examine handwriting quality in children with ASD, finding that motor skills (e.g., timed movements) predicted handwriting deficits. This latest study revealed that, like children ...

Cambridge, MA, November 15, 2010 - Epizyme, Inc., a company leading the discovery and development of first-in-class, targeted cancer therapeutics against epigenetic targets, today announced the publication of breakthrough new research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). The discovery, centered on the epigenetic enzyme EZH2, illuminates a clear path for the translation of basic science into targeted therapies for the safe and effective treatment of specific forms of human lymphomas. EZH2 is a histone methyltransferase (HMT), a class of enzymes ...

To mark The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, which takes place on Sunday November 21st, PLoS Medicine publishes two research articles on Road Traffic Crashes. The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims takes place on the third Sunday of November every year as the appropriate acknowledgment of victims of road traffic crashes and their families. It was started by RoadPeace in 1993 and was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005. Prescribed medicines are responsible for over 3% of road traffic crashes in France In France, ...

Disruptive behaviour disorders in male teenagers, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder are associated with about a one-third increase in the risk of being seriously injured in a road traffic crash – either as driver or pedestrian. This increase is similar to the increased relative risk found for patients treated for epilepsy. These are the findings of a study by Donald Redelmeier and colleagues from the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, and published in this week's PLoS Medicine. Male teenagers are ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A sophisticated new examination of teeth from 11 Neanderthal and early human fossils shows that modern humans are slower than our ancestors to reach full maturity. The finding suggests that our characteristically slow development and long childhood are recent and unique to our own species, and may have given early humans an evolutionary advantage over Neanderthals. The research, led by scientists at Harvard University, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology (MPI-EVA), and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), is detailed in ...

Specific, relatively uncommon variations at a region of human chromosome 8 have recently been linked to fat (lipid) levels in the blood that decrease an individual's risk of atherosclerosis (a disease of the major arterial blood vessels that is a main cause of heart attack and stroke). The only currently described gene in this region of chromosome 8 is TRIB1, but it has not been previously linked in any way to regulation of lipid levels. Now, a team of researchers, led by Jan Breslow, at The Rockefeller University, New York, and Daniel Rader, at the University of Pennsylvania ...

EDITOR'S PICK: At-TRIB(1)-uting a gene a new function in the liver Specific, relatively uncommon variations at a region of human chromosome 8 have recently been linked to fat (lipid) levels in the blood that decrease an individual's risk of atherosclerosis (a disease of the major arterial blood vessels that is a main cause of heart attack and stroke). The only currently described gene in this region of chromosome 8 is TRIB1, but it has not been previously linked in any way to regulation of lipid levels. Now, a team of researchers, led by Jan Breslow, at The Rockefeller ...

The active involvement of health professionals in hygiene, sanitation, and water supply is absolutely crucial to accelerating and consolidating global health progress, says a new series of papers in PLoS Medicine by a leading group of public health academics and water advocates. Professor Sandy Cairncross from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and colleagues show how water and sanitation issues are woefully neglected across the world and suggest that action could prevent more than 2 million children dying each year. The authors say that in 2010, ...