2010 was the year UK travellers become bargain conscious, according to search engine Google.

In its annual Zeitgeist report, Google’s in depth look at search trends throughout the year, cheap travel searches dominated the bargain hunting category for online searches.

The top ten searches in Google’s online bargain hunting category from UK residents in 2010 were led by 1- cheap flights, 2- cheap holidays and 3- cheap train tickets.

Cheap hotels, cheap holiday deals and cheap travel insurance also featured in Google’s top ten searches in the bargain hunting category, which is seen as a state of the nation report for UK online search trends.

All but two of the 2010 top ten UK ‘bargain hunting’ searches, led by ‘cheap’ searches, were travel related.

The other two leading money saving searches were for perfume and laptops.

Google’s report also coincides with the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) travel trends report which reveals similar insights into UK travellers abroad bargain conscious activities in 2010.

Comparing the three months to October 2010, with the previous three months, spending by UK residents overseas decreased one per cent to £7.8 billion.

Similarly year on year visits abroad by UK residents decreased by one per cent to 14 million in the same period.

Holiday visits abroad fell by 3 per cent, although the rate of decline was much slower than in recent months. However the latest ONS figures reveal that between July and October, business visits abroad by UK residents were six per cent higher than a year earlier.

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Research shows that decision making isn’t always as rational as you might think (or hope) as for most people emotional responses prove much stronger.

So why is it important to consider emotional responses when deciding upon your next company car?

Your appearance says something about you and your company, we know we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but yet we still do: It’s for this very reason we wear suits for interviews, format documents before submitting them for review and wear makeup and style our hair when we go out?  Evidence suggests the better we feel about ourselves the happier we are in our working environment.

Taking this into account the below review is based upon a combination of both rational and emotional responses.

The rational approach looks at the facts and figures:

• How much does it cost?
• Are the CO₂ emissions high?
• How many miles per gallon does it do?

The emotional approach is about how the vehicle makes you look and feel:

• What does this car say about me and my company?
• Could I picture myself sitting in a traffic jam in this car?
• Is the car aesthetically pleasing?

The top 10

* Where the total scores are the same the car with the highest emotional pull takes preference

1. Audi TT 2.0 TDI Quattro Sport – Total: 55/66

1. VW Scirocco 2.0 TDI 140 – Total: 54/66

1. Peugeot RC-Z Sport HDI 163 – Total: 54/66

1. Mercedes-Benz E250 CDI BlueEfficiency SE– Total: 53/66

1. Audi A5 Coupe TDI S/S SE – Total: 53/66

1. Jaguar XF Saloon 3.0D V6 Luxury – Total: 52/66

1. BMW 320d SE Coupe – Total: 52/66

1. Mini Cooper Diesel – Total score: 52/66

1. Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion – Total score: 51/66

1. Mazda 6 Hatchback 2.2D 180 Sport – Total score: 50/66

For more information on a guide to company car tax rate please visit this site and enter your details http://www.whatcar.com/company-car-tax/

On behalf of Inchcape for business http://www.inchcapeforbusiness.com/

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Facebook’s new web feature to safeguard youngsters from online threats has been hailed as a major success by child safety experts.

The ClickCEOP safety button has finally been fitted onto Facebook pages following a long-running consultation between the police agency that focuses on child protection online: the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre and Facebook.

The information link offers online safety advice to young people and has received an excellent response so far with more than 55,000 downloads in just a few weeks.

More than 20,000 people are now getting regular online safety updates in Facebook, related to the issue of personal internet safety; and more than 5,000 young people have already accessed help, advice and support from CEOP via the new information and help link, which is also being described in various quarters as an online ‘panic button’.

Since its launch on July 12 this year, the button is giving youngsters a direct link to advice about internet safety from the country’s child protection experts; and also the opportunity to report any problems direct to the police if they are worried about strange or unwanted behaviour.

A number of child protection groups, various private and public organisations and also popular fan sites – including Chelsea Football Club, The Football Association, the X-Factor, Beatbullying and the NSPCC to name just a few, are also getting behind the initiative and helping to spread the word about the CEOP link.

Their sites have been adding the application to their profiles or sharing the link to the application with their fans through their Facebook status updates.

Jim Gamble, Chief Executive of CEOP, says:

“The response to this campaign has been excellent so far. The sheer numbers of people who have engaged with the app, including the volume of positive comments received, has shown that this move has been extremely well received by parents and young people alike.

“We are grateful to all those who have downloaded the app and shared the app with their online networks; and similarly grateful for the support of all our partners and the virtual army of tens of thousands of CEOP volunteers who are sharing the CickCEOP app with young people at their schools, youth groups and online networks.

“Together we really can make a difference to the safety of young people online”.

CEOP has been advising all social network websites to adopt its safety button so children can get immediate assistance if suspicious activity occurs.

Emma-Jane Cross, Chief Executive Officer of children’s charity Beatbullying, says:

“It is promising to see that the app has had such a clear impact within a relatively short space of time. In addition to the impressive download figures, Beatbullying has seen an uplift in the amount of young people seeking help from us in dealing with cyber bullying.

“This is vital, as we know that where we are able to educate, as we do via our in-school programmes and our CyberMentors peer mentoring site, and intervene early, young people can be protected from bullying both off and online.”

The installation of the safety advice link follows a number of high profile cases involving people targeting youngsters online.

Joanna Shields, Facebook’s Vice President for EMEA – Europe, Middle East and Africa – agrees the new safety feature has proved a success:

“It’s great news that so many users have interacted with ClickCEOP by downloading the application or by linking their page.

“There is no single answer to making the internet safer but CEOP have taken a great step forward by setting up their ClickCEOP page.”

The CEOP Centre works in both online and offline environments to protect children from abuse.

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NASA, the UK and Russian space agencies are joining forces in a historic new deal on 21^st Century space exploration.

Space Minister David Willetts revealed the UK has signed new agreements with NASA and their former cold war opponent: the Russian Federal Space Bureau.

Under the terms of the agreement, the UK Space Agency and NASA will look for new areas where they can work together in what is being seen as a new age of cooperation between the American and UK Space Agency and its Russian counterparts.

There are a number of areas being prepared for greater cooperation such as space exploration to improve scientific understanding of the universe and earth sciences, which includes climate change.

“These historic agreements promise to help us unlock some of the mysteries of the universe and develop a better understanding of our planet, Mr Willetts said.

“I am delighted to usher in an era of greater co-operation between our nations’ space activities.

“These agreements show our international partners view Britain as a major player in the space industry. They will help bring new opportunities for British innovators.”

David Willetts also announced a one year pilot programme to design and launch a CubeSat, which is a shoebox-size satellite that can be fitted with the latest space technology.

The compact size of the satellite, which is called UKube1, will allow the UK to test new equipment and carry out research in a relatively cheap way.

Mr Willetts says: “Britain’s first CubeSat will bring major benefits to the UK space industry. Firms will now have a cheap and quick way to test their latest prototypes.”

Other UK space plans include a £4.9 million contract which has been awarded to build an Earth Observation Hub at the International Space Innovation Centre in Oxfordshire.

The hub will enable the UK to manage spacecraft operations and process the information collected by future space missions.

The Earth Observation Hub aims to help UK scientists make the most of the wealth of information being collected about our home planet, in vital areas such as monitoring the effects of climate change, to enable better responses to natural disasters throughout the world.

Mr Willets added: “It’s the important first step in making the International Space Innovation Centre a reality – linking regional space capabilities and promoting knowledge-sharing between academia and industry.

“This will support further growth in a sector already worth more than £6 billion a year to our economy.”

Mr Willetts also announced further investment in the future of British research with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council awarding fellowships totalling £38 million.

The investment in science and space technology will be welcomed by UK business in the space sector. Supporting innovative scientists and engineers is seen as a crucial step towards driving the UK’s science base and economy forward and making the UK more competitive in a global market.

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It’s a star Jim but not as we know it.

British astronomers have discovered what is thought to be the Universe’s biggest star. The star, R136a1, the Universe’s biggest known star is so big that it dwarfs our own sun into a paltry insignificant blob in the sky in comparison.

With a mass 320 times greater than the Sun the ‘big whopper’ of a star has been discovered on the Outer Limits of our galaxy. You might even say it is in the ‘Twilight Zone’ of the universe so far away is this humongous beast of a star.

How many times brighter than the sun is it you ask? Well, how about 10 million times brighter. Yes that is right – it is very, very bright.

How far away is it? About 164,000 light-years away in the Large Magellenic Cloud. Yes, that would be one major intergalactic Star Trek.

Hyper-star R136a1 was discovered by astronomers at the University of Sheffield using the European Southern Observatory’s ‘Very Large Telescope’ in Chile and data from the Hubble Space Telescope.

The name Very Large Telescope is the real name for the telescope. If you have seen pictures of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope you will understand the reason why it is called Very Large. Because it is.

The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is made up of four separate optical telescopes – the Antu telescope, the Kueyen telescope, the Melipal telescope, and the Yepun telescope, all grouped together. Each telescope has an 8.2m aperture. Working together the highly powerful telescopes can achieve an angular resolution of around one milliarcsecond, which is a lot. So powerful it could distinguish a mouse on the moon.

It was able to spot R136a1, located in the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy which orbits the Milky Way, which somehow has remained hidden until now.

Experts identified it amongst a group of big stars – whose size and brightness exceed what many scientists thought was possible.

It is very hot.

Sheffield Uni Professor Paul Crowther says: “R136a1 is believed to have a surface temperature of more than 40,000 degrees Celsius.”

Hyper-stars like R136a1 are believed to be formed from several young stars merging together and are only found in the very heart of stellar clusters.

It is also the most luminous star ever found.

If R136a1 replaced the Sun at the centre of our solar system it would outshine the Sun by as much as the Sun currently outshines the Moon.

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Like something from the pages of a Jules Verne novel, an experimental manned aeroplane powered by energy from the sun has made a 26 hour test flight, including an historic night flight, a first for a solar-powered aircraft.

The Solar Impulse HB-SIA, which stores energy in solar panels on its wings, successfully landed to the cheers of a crowd of supporters applauding what is being described as a major landmark in the history of aviation.

The flight departed from Payerne, Switzerland just before 7am local time and landed the next day at 9am, the aim of the flight being mainly to assess the plane’s ability to fly in the dark, using solar cells to generate enough power to stay in the air for 24 hours.

For more than 24 hours pilot André Borschberg steered the huge aircraft with its 64 metre wingspan.

Powered purely by solar energy the flight is the longest and highest in the history of solar aviation.

The Swiss solar-powered plane was piloted by the project’s Chief Executive who flew the aircraft to nearly 28,000 feet and then descended slowly with it to 4,500 feet during the night.

Mr Borschberg described the experience of monitoring the solar battery while he was in flight:

“I’ve been a pilot for 40 years now, but this flight has been the most incredible one of my flying career. Just sitting there and watching the battery charge level rise and rise thanks to the sun and then that suspense, not knowing whether we were going to manage to stay up in the air the whole night.

“And then finally the joy of seeing the sun rise and feeling the energy beginning to circulate in the solar panels again.”

Solar power technology continues to develop at a pace but the success of the Solar Impulse does seem like something from a science fiction novel, an aeroplane fuelled by sun rays.

The results of the test flight should not be underestimated. The flight has shown that it is possible to fly 26 hours without using any fuel and without causing any pollution.

“This is a crucial step forward. It gives full credibility to the speeches we hold since years ago about renewable energies and clean techs; and allows us now to get closer to perpetual flight without using a drop of fuel,” says Bertrand Piccard, founder of the project.

Mr Piccard is no stranger to headlines. He was the man that piloted the first non-stop balloon flight around the world.

As well as a passion for adventure, the team’s mission statement is to rewrite the history books in terms of aviation and solar energy.

The Solar Impulse project intends to contribute to the world of exploration and innovation, to the cause of renewable energies and to demonstrate the importance of these new technologies in creating a sustainable future.

During the flight, the 12,000 solar cells attached to the plane’s wings and horizontal stabilizers charged a battery, which was used to power four engines.

The aircraft has a wingspan of over 63 metres, is almost 22 metres in length and weighs about 1,600kg. It can travel up to 70km per hour.

The night flight test is being seen as a crucial moment for the Solar Impulse project, proving its credibility.

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