VisitBritain, the official British Tourist Authority, has hastily pulled its current tourism marketing campaign. But mashup artiste Ben Churchill has single-handedly revived it with updated visuals.
The local residents of London’s Peckham neighborhood had a very different response to the riots.
MOVE is an entertaining little spectacle based on a whirlwind trip by 3 guys, to 11 countries, via 18 flights, over 38,000 miles, in 44 days, with 2 cameras and 1 exploding volcano. Move was directed by Rick Mereki and commissioned by STA Travel.
Here’s a wonderful color home movie of a road trip starting in London exactly 72 years ago.
Thanks to Colin Rich for this hauntingly beautiful multi-viewpoint, time lapse film of Los Angeles by night.
Hat-tip to Evan Smythe for this post:
For first time electric vehicles will be able to travel the length and breadth of Britain using the world’s first national charging network at motorway service stations across the country.
Every charging post will be powered with 100% green energy made at Ecotricity’s wind and solar parks across the UK, and means that electric car drivers (and motorcycle riders) will be able to drive from London to Edinburgh or Exeter completely free and with vastly reduced emissions.
This breakthrough in electric car infrastructure removes one of the main barriers for people wanting to buy electric cars – range anxiety – which currently restricts people to driving within their own city.
The first ‘top-up zone’ will be installed at Welcome Break’s South Mimms services [at the Junction of the M1 and M25] in July, and the first phase of the network spread across 12 motorway services will be completed by September. Each post will be located outside the main entrance, with two sockets that can be accessed by registering for a free swipe card. Within 18 months all 27 Welcome Break motorway services will have charging points.
Electric cars can top-up in just 20 minutes using rapid recharge points (32A supply) or fully charge in two hours; while those using the slower (13A supply) will be able to recharge fully if staying overnight at motorway service hotels.
Dale Vince OBE, founder of Ecotricity, said:
“Until now, charging posts have all been in city centres like London, but this is where you need them the least. Statistics show that it’s not in towns and cities where electric cars need to recharge, but on longer journeys between cities – and that means motorways.
“We’re creating the infrastructure to get Britain’s electric car revolution moving. This marks the beginning of the end for the old combustion engine. With world oil prices going through the roof, you’ll now be able to get around Britain using only the power of the wind It costs just over 1p a mile in an electric vehicle, compared to 15.4p in a petrol car (at today’s oil prices).
“We consume 23 million tonnes of oil every year in the UK to do the 250 billion miles we drive every year. But we could power all that with 12,000 of today’s windmills, or just 6,000 of tomorrow’s.”
Rod McKie, CEO of Welcome Break, said:
“We are very excited about working with Ecotricity. There is no doubt that the electric car will arrive on Britain’s motorways and Welcome Break wants to be at the forefront of giving the modern motorist what they want, when they want it. As hybrid and electric cars become part of everyday life, Welcome Break will have the facility to fast-charge these cars, giving electric car drivers the opportunity to travel the length and breadth of the UK.
“Welcome Break operate throughout the UK with locations as far afield as Scotland and down to the south-west and south-east of England, serving 80 million customers a year.”
A driver doing a year’s typical 8,500miles of motoring could save almost £1,200 in petrol costs at today’s prices, and save around 2,000kg in CO2 emissions1 :
Electric car owners who want to register for a free swipe card can visit Ecotricity’s website at http://www.ecotricity.co.uk
As well as its Welcome Break network, Ecotricity has also installed a charging post at its windmill next to the M4 motorway in Reading. It is the first charge post to be powered directly from a windmill.
In November 2010, Ecotricity launched the Nemesis, a wind-powered sports car that can reach 0-100mph in 8.5 seconds and with a top speed of 170mph. The first electric supercar to be designed and built in Britain, the Nemesis was created by an A-team of ex-Formula 1 engineers with the brief to “blow the socks off Jeremy Clarkson” and show that electric cars can be sexy, fast and fun to drive. It will be the first electric car to drive from Land’s End to John O’Groats this summer.
Since then, 2011 has been dubbed ‘The Year of the Electric Car’, with major manufacturers launching all-electric mass-market models including the Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi MIEV and Peugeot iOn. Ford will also launch an all-electric version of its Ford Focus, on sale in 2013
Most indie bookstores in the US are struggling to keep their doors open. Subterranean Books in St. Louis, MO is no exception. To support this terrific bookshop, Noir@theBar , an exceptional venue for author readings and book events, has put together the tres cool Noir@theBar Anthology of Crime Fiction, with all proceeds benefiting Subterranean Books.
So step up and support a fine indie bookstore and get yourself a copy of a super anthology for a mere $12 online at http://store.subbooks.com . And here’s a taste of what’s in store for you.
Restless Tolkien fans are anxiously awaiting the completion of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit, but until Christmas 2012 they’ll have to be content with sneak peaks at the production. This week, Jackson released a series of great group photos from the film to placate the fanboys. If you want more than a taste, check-out the official company blog at The Hobbit Blog website for updates, behind-the-scenes videos and photos.
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How I choose to remember Prague before the onslaught.
The London-based design group Troika has created a marvelous “world time clock” for London’s Heathrow terminal 5. The sublime electroluminescent installation, which is nearly 65 feet long, displays both London GMT and the time for changing exotic locales around the globe. Transcending the commonplace world clock, All The Time In The World focuses on natural wonders, mountains and museums instead of national capitals.
In this sad era of library closures and drastic funding cuts, one nation has found novel ways to reach out to library users. In the Netherlands, they’ve launched the world’s first airport library (at Amsterdam Schiphol) and now they’ve opened a beach library or strandbiblioteek at Ijmuiden. The small port city, just over ten miles NW of Amsterdam, has put a branch of the city library directly onto the beach. The library is open to locals and tourists alike, and they even stock English language books.
Travel Between The Pages 