Netflix and Britain: We’re now a nation of 40m binge watchers, but BBC, ITV and Channel 4 beats US streaming rivals Ofcom Communications Market Report 2017 finds August 3, 2017 Britain is now a nation of binge watchers, as 40m of us watch more than one episode at a time, new research reveals. But traditional broadcasters remain more popular for satisfying that appetite than Netflix from which the watching habit sprung. More than three quarters of UK adults watch a back-to-back episode on catch-up or [...]
Amazon Development Centre Edinburgh devising and growing global innovations July 31, 2017 More than 4,000 miles from its global headquarters in Seattle, Washington, the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon, employs a crucial team of people at its Development Centre in Edinburgh. The hundreds of software engineers, machine learning scientists, designers and managers harness the latest technology and computer science to build features that help customers discover the [...]
Focus On Brixton: David Bowie, buzzing nightlife and honest burgers keep average house prices at around £550,000 July 27, 2017 In many ways, Brixton is the capital of south London. With its excellent transport links into central London and exhaustive range of shopping, dining and nightlife options, if you didn’t have to work, you probably wouldn’t need to leave. It even has its own currency. Over 250 businesses accept the Brixton Pound and around £50,000 [...]
Embracing a brilliant new era of close UK-South Korea relations July 27, 2017 Anyone who has walked through the graves at the UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan will never forget the huge sacrifices made by British forces in the Korean War. Yet, whether because of insufficient media coverage or post-World War II fatigue, many veterans returned to a country which did not acknowledge their service, and the Korean [...]
City of Ghosts film review: An important documentary held back by lumbering, artless direction July 21, 2017 In 2013, after ISIS took control of Raqqa, a group of citizen journalists began secretly recording and publishing their activities. Calling themselves Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), the group formed to counter ISIS’s slick propaganda machine, and deliver the truth about their atrocities to the world. Much of what we know about ISIS’s barbarism [...]
An intergenerational storm is brewing – politicians beware July 21, 2017 Two announcements were issued from Westminster this week that should strike fear into the hearts of anyone under 30. On the one hand, the Conservative government has brought forward the rise in the state pension age by seven years, increasing it to 68 by 2038. On the other, the Labour party dropped its commitment to [...]
Busuu is breaking down language barriers in nearly every country across the world July 19, 2017 We’re a nation of monoglots. Despite spending countless hours learning languages at school, many of our efforts are wasted. Through the power of technology and its social network, the London based company Busuu is trying to change that. But Bernhard Niesner’s ambitions are necessarily global, as he explained at a recent Leap 100 breakfast. Language [...]
Green belt expected to be targeted by Sajid Javid’s house-building plans July 19, 2017 The Home Counties and rural parts of Britain are expected to be targeted in bold new plans forcing councils to build more houses. Communities secretary Sajid Javid is expected to reveal plans to shake up the way housing market assessments are carried out, putting the focus on local house prices-to-income ratios instead of population forecasts, [...]
Focus On Woolwich: Crossrail, a huge regeneration project, cultural quarter and affordable housing in SE18 July 14, 2017 The West End, the Southbank, Shoreditch and now… Woolwich? Could this south east London suburb be the new place you head to on a Saturday night to soak up some culture? If it’s astronomical house price rises over the past five years are anything to go by, it could well be. In March, planning permission [...]
Spider-Man: Homecoming movie surprise box office success lifts Sony shares July 10, 2017 Shares in Sony climbed 1.7 per cent today after new film Spider-Man: Homecoming swung into the box office with a better-than-expected sales performance. Read more: Is Spider-Man: Homecoming the character-defining movie we’ve waited for? The movie spun a cool $117m (£91m) on its opening weekend at the North American box office, but industry experts had [...]