San Francisco: the foodie’s dream November 27, 2011 THOSE lucky San Franciscans. One hour north and there’s Napa Valley. A hop skip and a jump (or 30 minutes) east of Napa and you’re in the stunning Sonoma wine region. Natural wonders including Lake Tahoe, Yosemite and the Big Sur are all on your doorstep. Top that with the fabulous food and drink and [...]
San Francisco: the foodie’s dream November 27, 2011 THOSE lucky San Franciscans. One hour north and there’s Napa Valley. A hop skip and a jump (or 30 minutes) east of Napa and you’re in the stunning Sonoma wine region. Natural wonders including Lake Tahoe, Yosemite and the Big Sur are all on your doorstep. Top that with the fabulous food and drink and [...]
America’s solar scandal is a warning: Bankrupt climate policies boost tax, not jobs October 11, 2011 IN SEPTEMBER 2009, the United States Department of Energy gave a $530m (£339m) loan guarantee to the solar company Solyndra. President Barack Obama said at the plant: “It’s here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way, towards a brighter and more prosperous future.” In September 2011, the company collapsed, the jobs which the Vice [...]
Why read Ulysses when you can shoot a zombie? September 11, 2011 In a meeting last week I bonded with my colleagues over shooting a poison pod into the mouth of a necromorph leviathan in the sixth chapter of Dead Space. We laughed at how I spent nearly two hours running in frustrating circles in an anti-gravity chamber, being splattered to the wind by giant alien tentacles. [...]
UK GDP growth confirmed at 0.2pc August 26, 2011 The economy grew at 0.2 per cent in second quarter of this year, confirming last month’s first estimate. The Office for National Statistics also confirmed the annual growth of 0.7 per cent, as analysts had forecast. The dominant services sector was the main driver of growth in the second quarter, but output fell by 0.1 [...]
Shops, sun and spice: Marrakech is the perfect winter weekend getaway December 5, 2011 HAVING spent a bit of time in Morocco before, I was bracing myself. Six years ago, on a lone voyage on a rusty old ship from Algeciras in Spain to Tangier, I was accosted by three tipsy artifact sellers on board, before getting my camera pinched on arrival at the dusty old port. Further into [...]
Why a Tobin tax would be a disaster September 29, 2011 VERY strange. That is the only way that the coalition’s half-hearted, let’s have our cake and eat it, position on the Tobin tax can be described. The Treasury is rightly opposed to the European Union’s plan – but it actually supports a Tobin tax in principle, as long as it is implemented globally and not [...]
Why a Tobin tax would be a disaster September 28, 2011 VERY strange. That is the only way that the coalition’s half-hearted, let’s have our cake and eat it, position on the Tobin tax can be described. The Treasury is rightly opposed to the European Union’s plan – but it actually supports a Tobin tax in principle, as long as it is implemented globally and not [...]
If it’s broke, then buy it and fix it up for a tidy return November 10, 2011 Q.Why should someone consider an unmodernised property? A.Unmodernised property provides the opportunity to buy at a lower price than a recently modernised equivalent, and the chance to create one’s own home to one’s own taste and standards. People also enjoy the experience of renovating a property; it’s creative and fun. Q.What are the biggest upsides? [...]
Google TV hopes US failure won’t put us off August 29, 2011 The roll-call of keynote speakers at The James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival reads like a who’s who of the industry. Rupert Murdoch, Mark Thompson, Jeremy Paxman, John Humphrys, Greg Dyke, Michael Grade, Tony Ball. (The list is only slightly sullied by the appearance of Janet Street-Porter’s name, which I assumed was [...]