This story edited from the original © 2012 The Associated Press. Tesla Motors has unveiled a solar-powered charging station that it said will make refueling electric vehicles on long trips about as fast as stopping for petrol and a bathroom break in a conventional car. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said at a news conference that the… Continue reading
EDF launches app to let customers submit meter readings, using smart phone camera
Smartphones have been around for several years now, and there’s a legion of apps available to use on them. They are supposed to to make our life easier, as well as entertain us. But how many do something that nothing else can, rather than give us information rather quicker, and more conveniently, when it’s already… Continue reading →
Release your inner Olympian. Take the Thames Path challenge
After this glorious summer of inspiration, we are all aspiring Olympians now. But, seriously, what can the ordinary, semi-fit person do about his or her own personal fitness legacy that doesn’t involve weeks in the gym, and heavy investment in specialist equipment? I found the answer, at a safe, flat place place I know well,… Continue reading →
Printing out a bright 3-D future
One of the reasons I’m excited about technology is that new and interesting things are happening so quickly, and, it seems, much faster than in past decades. A shining example of this speed is the proliferation of iPads in the recent Olympic Games in London. At the last Olympics, in Beijing in 2008, the iPad… Continue reading →
Cesme Peninsula, a place apart from mainstream, mass tourism Turkey
The Cesme Peninsula is one of the Turkish Aegean coast’s most stylish locations. This is the spit of land where the Silk Road from China used to end. For British tourists familiar with the mass tourism model of the big resorts, the small villages and towns here, with abundant small-scale accommodation, are an unexpected, and… Continue reading →
Parade’s End Country – Ford Maddox Ford’s south coast setting
Coming completely fresh to Parade’s End, in the new BBC adaptation, I found concentrating on the plot and characters challenging enough, without giving any regard to the locations. Quite early on there is a scene outside a grand house in the North where the Benedict Cumberbatch character, Christopher Tietjens, grew up. I discovered later this… Continue reading →