Just returned from an amazing trip to Hong Kong - and in many respects it's like stepping 20 years into the future - skyscrapers that link together on a grand scale to blend housing, hotels, businesses, shops and restaurant facilities; cheap and plentiful transport; and a crazy mix of culture - East meets West on a grand scale to showcase the best and worst of both worlds.

Serious air pollution and smog issues aside, one thing this European eco-socialist was amazed at was the multi-media lightshow extravaganza that lit up the Skyscrapers to music. The twenty minute show occurs every night from 8pm. It's estimated cost in financial terms $1,000,000 an hour!

Not only does it create an impressive show to those watching from the Kowloon side - but it also throws a definite two-fingers in the direction of global concerns over carbon emissions!!

Three days to go until the London Marathon, and all my preparation is done.  I'm now carbo-loading, which has to be the easiest part of the training.  Tomorrow, I'll go out and run about 4 miles to keep things ticking over.  It's funny that at the start of the year 4 miles was a run - now it's hardly worth getting my running gear on for!  I suppose that's a sign that the training has gone pretty well.

The one thing I have no control over is the weather.

Having trained in great conditions for running (nice and cool, maybe a drop of rain, little wind), the weather this week has made a turn for the worse/better.  It's pretty warm and humid at the moment, and not ideal conditions for long-distance running.  So I'm wondering what it's going to be like on Sunday.  I've consulted two different sites for their forecasts, and they are markedly different.

The Weather Channel v the BBC Weather (if you click on those links you'll see the forecast from whenever you click - so no point clicking on them sometime in May, unless you're interested in the weather forecast for London from then).

Anyway - this is what they say the weekend, and most importantly Sunday will be like:

Great idea, but not sure how practical it'd be. It'd definitely be a talking point, especially after a few glasses… 

I'm also not sure how much it will cost to buy.  I'm thinking that John Lewis would sell this sort of thing, and it wouldn't be cheap.

Looking at it a bit more, the potential for drinking games utilising this glass is huge.  In fact, I definitely want one now.

You can find out more about this and other great product designs on Kyouei's website.

Hot on the heels of Rolls-Royce's announcement of the launch of the 'baby Rolls', Bentley are releasing their fastest, most-powerful car ever.  They are selling it as such. 
Look at these figures:

• twin-turbocharged W12 engine
  
• producing 621bhp
• 204mph top speed
• and a 0-60 time in under 4 seconds.

But they're also trying to market it as environmentally friendly as it can run on bio-fuel.  They boast about the reduced carbon emissions:

 At the 2008 Geneva Auto Salon, Bentley announced a far-reaching environmental programme to reduce CO₂ emissions and improve fuel economy across its model range.

An important element of this strategy is by 2012 to make the entire Bentley fleet capable of running on renewable fuel through the introduction of FlexFuel technology, where engines are capable of running seamlessly on bioethanol, petrol or any mix of the two. 

At the same time Bentley declared that this would be achieved without sacrificing its well-known performance and luxury.

This statement of intent has taken shape in the Continental Supersports – a car that balances extreme potency with the pioneering use of biofuel technology in the luxury sector.

The result is a net CO₂ reduction of up to 70 per cent on a well-to-wheel-basis, the measurement of CO₂ release of a fuel from its production (well) to its combustion or deployment (wheel).

Bioethanol can be derived responsibly from crops such as corn, soybeans, sugarcane and switchgrass. Second generation bioethanol uses the non-food fibres of the plant (biomass), as well as agricultural waste and forestry residues. These are collected and refined into cellulose ethanol.

CO₂ is absorbed by plants as part of the photosynthesis process, and cars using biofuel then release that CO₂ back into the atmosphere, thus creating an unbroken energy cycle. In addition, biofuels are not derived from fossil fuels, making them a renewable resource ensuring a secure supply into the future.

Bioethanol is often blended with petrol in a variety of percentages ranging from E10 (10% bioethanol) to the most widely known, E85, blended to a ratio of 85 per cent bioethanol to 15 per cent petrol to ensure cold-start capability.

Bioethanol presents unique engineering challenges compared with petrol, due to its chemical composition and characteristics. E85 biofuel has a very high octane rating of 105 but a lower energy content that requires a 30 per cent increase in the engine fuel flow rate.

It looks like a cracking car.  But environmentally-friendly?  Please.  If it manages 15 miles to the gallon I'd be surprised.

You can read more this 621bhp eco-warrior here.

I've got a new laptop.  It's very nice.  A Dell Vostro - with a beautiful WUXGA screen with a 1920 x 1200 resolution.  With a fast hard drive, 4GB of RAM and a duo core processor and dedicated graphics card it's a joy to use.  Unlike on my old IBM laptop which was over 2 years old, this new one makes light work of Photoshop and anything else I throw at it.  As a bonus the screen resolution is ideal for multi-tabling on blondepoker - something that's difficult to do without resizeable tables or a resolution of 1600×1200 or greater.

The Vostro is a work-machine, and less 'pretty' than many other laptops.  But I quite like that, and it's more about what it can do rather than how pretty the box looks.

One thing that makes me laugh though is the on-screen notices that the Dell software pops up from time to time. 

The most useful one is the one that tells me that I've either plugged in or unplugged my headphones into the computer. 

This is something I'm quite aware of, having just plugged the headphones into the computer. 

I'd have to have extreme short-term memory loss to forget what I've just done.  Helpfully, it also tells me when I've unplugged the headphones as well.  Most useful.

Information - you have just read this post.

As you may already know, I met the queen earlier this year. It was such a great experience that last weekend I took the opportunity to spend a day at the races in her presence at Royal Ascot!

An article in the Sunday Times described the socio-economic demographic of Ascot visitors as a blend of the 'Haves' and the 'Chavs'. Although not obviously belonging to either of these groups, I can see what the Times was getting at.

Ascot is no longer the place to take Eliza Doolittle in pursuit of good grammar. Pursuit of a good gram a' coke is more like it. Most of the patrons of the "Silver Paddock", where we spent the day, had their tickets tattooed on their arms…

But I digress - the experience was brilliant fun and a great day out no matter whether you're a "Have" or a "Chav" or somewhere in between (and to my mind the two groups aren't mutually exclusive). A flutter at the races, in the presence of the queen, is the quintessential 'English' experience.

Here's the good, the bad and the ugly…

(more…)

Just returned form another cycling trip - this time in Poland around the Tatra mountain range and border with Slovakia.

We flew into Krakow and stayed in the city for one night at the beginning and at the end of our 1 week stay. It's a pretty city; not too dissimilar from other Eastern European cities in so much as the city-centre squares that, over the years have witnessed such political, economic, social and religious turmoil, now fall victim to Britain's latest export - "The Stag-do." And whilst the purpose of this blog was not to rant, can I just say that it's bad enough that "booze-britain" is a recognised anti-social phenomenon in this country; so let's not take a perverse pride in turning that into a global reputation. "Stag dos should stay in Britain!", subject for a future blog no doubt.

Krakow, was interesting, but the remote Tatra Mountains and their surrounding countryside were worlds apart.The countryside at this time of year is simply breath-taking - and the strip farming regime using horse drawn ploughs and carts, transports you to a time a century or so ago when cars, electricity, and cycling helmets weren't even dreamed-of. It was strange to think that although I felt I was looking at scenes from a past era, this sustainable, environmentally friendly, self-sufficient approach to life could also, quite easily, be a glimpse of our future.

(more…)