She's such a sweetheart
This is classic and pretty much somes up Britain's mismanaged train network to a tee...
Network Rail, the company responsible for the country's rail network (as the name suggests) have discovered that sending 200 of their staff from Reading to Coventry is prohibitively expensive by train - so they're sending them by coach instead!
An open return ticket by train is a whopping £135. By coach, it's just £12. A bit of quick mental arithmetic tells me that the train costs just over 11 times more than coach. Yes, that's right - ELEVEN times!
Despite Network Rail being the company that maintains the rail system they aren't entitled to discounted services from the companies that run the trains on their network. Even if they were to receive a discount, it's hardly likely it could compete with the far more sensible fares provided by bus and coach (including the ones run by the same companies that run the trains!)
By choosing road over rail, the company has saved itself £24,000. None to shabby!
Remember a few days ago I posted about a bunch of luxury phones being sold on the streets of Basingstoke after being half-inched from a warehouse outside of the town a couple of months previous? Well it appears these are being flogged on eBay. Not only that, it would appear they're not making much of an effort to conceal what they're doing from Hampshire's finest.
I can't say I'm 100% sure these are the stolen handsets but, check the following out and I'm sure you'll agree there's some fishiness here, is there not?
Priced at £1,200 new, these aren't your common garden variety mobile handsets. Seems just a little suspect that someone based in Basingstoke should be selling one on eBay for such a considerable discount on the RRP (especially as it's listed brand new in box) not long after 118 were stolen from a warehouse near Basingstoke...
'Direct from Motorola UK' indeed!
Of course this could be genuine, in which case I apologise to 'Tanya' for thinking otherwise - and offer these words of advice for her: In future, tell the gift-giver how much you appreciate what they've given you but ask them to take it back to the store for a full refund. They'll appreciate that more than you flogging the £1,200 gift they gave you for a third of the price. Hey, you could split the difference and both be quids in!
Just up the road from Basingstoke, in Fleet, we have two more lucky people who received an Aura as an unwanted gift...
On the off chance that these were stolen and you naughty people get charged with handling stolen goods or whatnot - DON'T blame me! FFS, what do you expect if you put the items on eBay? Do you not realise that the boys in blue check eBay for such booty and a quick Google search brings up the Basingstoke seller?
Okay, so only one of these films actually revolves around the fall of the Berlin Wall and the impact it had on East Berliners. The other two are still worthy of a view too as they either feature attempts to cross the border or what life was like for those living in the former German Democratic Republic.
This is one of my all time favourite films. It can be appreciated even if you're usually not into foreign language films. Sorry about the sound quality of the trailer, 'twas the best I could find...
This gives you an idea of what it must've been like to live in the former GDR, how the state monitored every aspect of people's lifes.
And finally, back to something more light hearted and in English (for those of you not keen on subtitles...)
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
This is supposedly the real life story of US game show creator, Chuck Barris. He was responsible for 'The Dating Game' ('Blind Date' in the UK). He was also, apparently, an agent for the CIA - chaperoning winning couples from the show to Berlin...
Oh, and I said, games too, didn't I? Well make that one game, Tony Hawk's Underground 2 which, if my memory serves me right, has Checkpoint Charlie in it and the odd piece of the wall.
Nokia are instigating a product recall, swapping out faulty chargers. Apparently some have casings that can come loose, posing a risk of electric shock.
According to The Times, there's a whopping 14 million that need to be replaced!
Rather than list all the ones affected - head over here instead.
Thieves stole over one hundred Motorola phones from a warehouse near Basingstoke, Hampshire back in September. Now local police are claiming these are being sold in the town itself. Okay, so not exactly the most interesting story ever but, as you'll be aware from the title, these are no ordinary phones. No siree, Bob! These things are worth a whopping £1,200 each!
I'm a local and have yet to see or hear of anyone with one of these or to have been approached by someone trying to flog one. But the police claim these are doing the rounds and have warned people they face up to 14 years in prison if they buy one. Yeah, right. Recently a local man stabbed his wife to death and is likely to serve just 3 years. Strange world we live in, isn't it?
Here's Trusted Review's take on the Aura - as it's known. There's no 3G, Wi-Fi or GPS and only 2 gig of built-in memory with no options for expansion. Seriously, what the fudge?!?
I'm not in the habit of buying stolen goods and this phone wouldn't tempt me anyway. I mean really, £1,200 for that?!? Yes, a circular screen looks rather cool but can you imagine finding apps to work with it? No Opera Mini for a start!
“According to Linden Lab, creators of Second Life, more than 1,400 organizations -- including large companies, educational institutions, government agencies and even the U.S. military -- use Second Life to hold meetings, conduct training and prototype new technologies more efficiently.”
“He says one problem is that virtual
teams may not share national and organizational cultures, and that
virtual workers should make a conscious effort to see things from
their colleagues' point of view.”(Note, this one fits directly into my favorite daily interest of Social Science and the Sociological Imagination mind frame)
)
"Not only did we save travel time,
but because the environment was so engaging, a lot more ideas came
through," he said.
Click here to read the entire article.
I've been swamped this week so I wasn't able to blog everything I wanted to blog about straightaway. Well not on VOX anyway. I was microblogging over on Twitter. So, if you follow me there (and you know you should) you'll have seen me posting live from the big bash for the BB1.
I was asked along to the launch party of Peugeot's new baby, the BB1. It was a rather glamourous affair held at The Hospital Club in London's Covent Garden on Wednesday night. Yours truly was by far the most dressed down - although I did have brand new shoes on! Attending the event were a varied bunch of celebrities including Christopher Biggins, the Cheeky Girls and Jodie Kidd (who, by the way, is unbelievably tall!)
Being completely out of touch with modern pop culture I had no idea who all the other famous people were - only that they had to be famous as the photographers were taking lots of pictures of them.
One person I did recognise was Soul II Soul's legendary Jazzie B, who was DJing. Two of my all time favourite tunes were Back to Life and Keep on Movin'. I can't even begin to say how awesome it was to meet him in person.
Just a quick rough 'n' ready summary for those that didn't see my earlier VOX post or my tweets...
The BB1 is an all electric concept vehicle that Peugeot have designed. Although it's very small it's big enough to fit four. It's very comfy - at least the front seats are (there's a video of me in the driving seat on its way - once I've finished editing it!) As for the rear seats, I didn't manage to sit in the back, my own motor skills (excuse the pun) aren't all that great after a few drinks! To be honest it looked like a tight squeeze but then again, it's not really meant to fit four adults in on daily basis.
Now, as many of you will know, I'm not a motorist. I can drive but for various reasons I don't have a car (no, I didn't lose my license!) On top of that I'm not a motoring enthusiast - so you won't ever catch me watching Top Gear. But I do love fun and quirky designs and, well, anything that challenge's convention. I'm saying this so that you know where I'm coming from. If you're after detailed analysis and comparisons between other electric vehicles you'll need to go elsewhere.
The great thing about such events as these is the chance to talk to top bods at the companies. This, IMHO, is more fun (for want of a better word) than talking to the celebs. Why? Because it's great being able to ask questions about the product, the design and how it came about. There's a real passion there, they're talking about their 'baby' after all. Speaking of which, that's apparently why Peugeot named this mini marvel of theirs the BB1. Cute, huh?
What really amazed me about the car, and I think I may have an 'exclusive' on this (I don't recall seeing it elsewhere!) is that it only takes six hours to fully charge from a normal household electrical supply. As it has a range of 75 miles, that's none too shabby (especially when you think how long those electric ride-on kid's cars take to charge!) Remember that the BB1, and similar cars, are meant as a city run-around vehicle - they're not designed for a long motorway commute. And, if you're still not convinced that 6 hours is not too long - it will charge even quicker from a suitably equipped garage supply.
Not everyone likes the looks of the BB1, which is a shame. Yes, at first sight it does look a little on the ugly side - but once you've seen it a few times and in person, it really does grow on you - and I'm not just saying that out of politeness.
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