Bijou skiing on a budget: Saint Martin de Belleville March 15, 2015 You can’t beat this intimate 14th century village for convenience and scenery. Saint Martin de Belleville is the most civilized way to access the Three Valleys without having to re-mortgage your dacha. It’s aptly named; villes don’t get much more belle than this. The town square boasts a church built in the 14th century facing [...]
Total Amateur: Boost your mobile photography and video skills with these super-snappy camera gadgets February 4, 2015 iBlazr £29.99 Ever wanted to take a selfie in the dark? With most smartphones it’s impossible, as the flash only works for the camera facing away from the screen. The multifunctional Iblazr flash can help. Four LEDs plug into the headphones jack and can be synced with iOS or Android smartphones and tablets using the [...]
SpaceX launch Q&A: Expert explains the science behind landing a reusable rocket January 8, 2015 Tomorrow morning at 10:09am, SpaceX will launch its Falcon 9 rocket towards the International Space Station (ISS). Once far enough into space, the rocket will release its Dragon cargo and gradually turn around to go back on itself. Then, for the first time ever, scientists will try to land a rocket on Earth. [...]
Born to win November 30, 2014 SPONSORED CONTENT BY SANTANDER McLaren tests a new piece of equipment every 20 minutes. “We have a different time frame compared to the real world,” says Sam Michael, sporting director of McLaren, speaking at Santander’s Breakthrough Box last week (see right). The British Formula One team is one of the most successful in F1 history. [...]
Billy cycling December 22, 2014 The Elephant and Castle roundabout is infamous among cyclists. In 2013, the last year for which we have complete data, there were 15 incidents involving cyclists on or next to the junction. In May last year, Abdelkhalak Lahyani, a married man of 47, was knocked from his bike as he cycled to work at the [...]
Inside Track: Tesco’s boss is out on a limb with a limp recovery plan June 4, 2014 PHILIP Clarke is beginning to sound like the corporate equivalent of Alastair Cook at the end of England’s disastrous Ashes defence. On yesterday’s conference call to discuss Tesco’s worst like-for-like sales performance in roughly 20 years, his insistence that his strategy is working sounded faintly ridiculous. “We are more competitive now than we have been [...]
We take the Aston Martin Vanquish to Dartmoor June 23, 2014 It’s the tail-end of dusk in Devon and silence is broken. Thundering down the twisting A382 from Exeter to Chagford, an ancient tin-mining town set on the upper reaches of southern England’s most rugged terrain, Dartmoor, the Aston Martin darts into a private road. Its V12 echoes through a dark tunnel of trees, skimming the [...]
The new 911: the ultimate geek car September 23, 2013 This tech-heavy, street-legal racer will have petrol-heads panting with anticipation IT’S bonkers fast, isn’t it?”, says my co-driver as we climb out of the latest Porsche 911 Turbo S. We’ve been chasing Alex Riberas, one of Porsche’s junior drivers, around the race track at Bilster Berg, Germany, at appropriately blistering speeds. It’s a tricky circuit, [...]
Funding for Bakrie buyout comes as a ray of hope for embattled Bumi boss February 12, 2013 BUMI’S under-fire chief executive Nick von Schirnding was last night celebrating the most significant piece of good news since taking over the troubled mining outfit at the end of last year, adding to mounting confidence ahead of the crunch vote next Thursday. Coal miner Bumi confirmed yesterday that the Bakrie family has committed $50m (£32m) [...]
Rapid Responses September 10, 2012 Taxing wealth fails [Re: These politicians are wrong. A tax on wealth would be bad for Britain, yesterday] It’s interesting that Andrew Sentance’s article makes the same point as the one by Andrew Haldenby, but from a different angle. The truth they both reveal is that low tax economies have faster growth, greater productivity gains, [...]