VW emissions scandal: Company to suspend promotions, report claims October 24, 2015 Those hoping for a managerial promotion at Volkswagon may have to wait a while. In order to meet costs associated with its emissions scandal, the German carmaker is planning to freeze job promotions for the time being, according to a report in the German publication Manager Magazin. “The brand executive board had agreed, among other [...]
Lord Grabiner quits Labour party whip over Corbyn leadership October 24, 2015 Lord Grabiner has become the second Labour peer to leave the party whip in a week. In a letter to The Times this morning, he said he left at the end of September due to his differences with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. “I can't square staying with my conscience,” he said. “I have nothing in [...]
Scotland house prices: Number of properties over £1m doubles, with over half based in Edinburgh October 24, 2015 Scotland is fast becoming a land of million-pound properties, with the number of homes selling for more than £1m doubling in the first half of this year. Figures from the Bank of Scotland show that from January to June, 111 properties went for this value or more, compared to 43 during the first half of [...]
Hurricane Patricia 2015: The West’s most powerful hurricane ever hits Pacific coast of Mexico October 24, 2015 The most powerful hurricane ever to occur in the western hemisphere has struck the Pacific coast of Mexico. Hurricane Patricia crossed over the cost of Jalisco state early on Friday evening, and is now moving northeastward inland over northern Mexico. Shortly after midnight, its wind speed reached an unprecedented 200mph according to the US National [...]
At the close: S&P 500 recovers from early year losses on tech giants’ results while FTSE 100 touches two month high October 23, 2015 The People's Bank of China may have cut interest rates for the sixth time since November on Friday, but even without its actions the S&P 500 would have made gains after Google, Amazon and Microsoft's share prices soared. As the markets opened in the US, shares in the three companies went crazy, with Amazon's stock opening nine per cent [...]
TalkTalk cyber attack: What to do if you’re a customer and you’re worried about personal data being hacked October 23, 2015 TalkTalk has been hit by a massive cyber attack that could affect as many as four million customers. The investigation into the hack, in which personal data such as names, dates of birth and credit card numbers may have been stolen, is still ongoing – by the company itself, police and the data regulator. But what can worried customers do while [...]
Crossrail: Latest images from Bond Street show how close London’s infrastructure project is to completion October 23, 2015 Crossrail may be another two or three years from completion, but the latest images released from London's £14.8bn infrastructure project show that the tunnels 30 metres below Oxford Street have already been finished. The western ticket hall on Davies Street is now "structurally complete" while excavation of the eastern hall on Hanover Square is due to finish [...]
Businesses can be more successful without offices, bosses or meetings – but to work, you have to have the right kind of employee October 23, 2015 Larry Page, creator of Google, recognised that a programmer “shouldn’t be supervised by a person with limited technical knowledge”. Based on my own experience of working as an engineer for big international companies, I can say I agree with him – it's easy to feel discontent and frustration with a project leaders who has limited [...]
Facebook’s iOS app is killing your iPhone battery – but there’s a new update to fix it October 23, 2015 If you feel like your iPhone battery just isn't giving you enough juice, don't blame Apple just yet. Facebook has raised its hands and admitted its iOS app could be to blame and released an update to cut out some of that battery draining action. One of those features was wonderfully described for the majority of users [...]
From TalkTalk’s hack and the clocks going back to mountainous commutes and where to get the best quality of life: Here’s what got us talking this week October 23, 2015 NULL