The good, the bad and the ugly from Las Vegas January 18, 2012 The dust is settling after what turned out to be something of a damp squib at the Consumer Electronics Show. The ultrabook (read: thin laptop) was king, with most manufacturers launching rivals to Apple’s lauded MacBook Air. Mobile had a big presence but hero releases were thin on the ground – perhaps waiting for Mobile [...]
No Lolcats for a day? Now you’ve got me really angry January 18, 2012 The internet is angry. Yesterday icanhascheezburger.com threatened to go offline. And if you take away my pictures of cats yawning, so help me God I’ll cut you. It wasn’t just Lolcats, either. Reddit switched off. And something called Wikipedia (which, as a journalist, I’ve never visited). It was a dark day for the internet. Literally: [...]
Lean and green but not very mean January 17, 2012 Whenever I see a Toyota Prius, it is travelling in the outside lane on the M6 Toll road at a blistering pace. I have always assumed that the owners are keen to recharge their batteries, or that even worthy eco warriors sometimes like to let loose and cane their cars once in a while, when [...]
CAR TALK January 17, 2012 F1 DRIVERS TAKE TURN OFF PISTE In a display of spectacular silliness Scuderia Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa have raced two FF four-seater, four-wheel drive Ferraris down a ski slope in the Italian Dolomite mountains. Alonso said of the 600hp FF: “It’s perfect for everyday use with the whole family in the car.” [...]
Tom Aikens’ return is a hit January 16, 2012 Tom Aikens Restaurant 43 Elystan St, SW3 3NT T: 020 7584 2003 FOOD ***** SERVICE ***** ATMOSPHERE **** Cost per person without wine: £90 Popular culture can be a depressing economic barometer. In the 90s and early 2000s British music was all working-class swagger and barefaced ambition. It was a time when it didn’t seem [...]
Wine trade goes Burgundy mad January 16, 2012 HEAD SOMMELIER AND MANAGER OF LUTYENS RESTAURANT Last week saw one of the English Wine Trade’s odd annual rituals, the Burgundy en primeur tastings. For a week, we all traipse around assorted grand venues, tasting samples of wines from the new vintage about to be released. In many cases the wines have not even been [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS January 16, 2012 MUDDY WATERS’ SON TO PLAY BOISDALE If you’re a fan of Chicago blues, head down to Boisdale at Canary Wharf (pictured left) on 28 January to see the closest thing to the legendary Muddy Waters: his eldest son Mud Morganfield. Muddy Waters was the founder of the Chicago electric blues sound and his son has [...]
Homes more affordable as supply slumps January 15, 2012 HOMES are at their most affordable level for 14 years, according to data released today by Halifax, while figures from Rightmove suggest very low housing supply will prevent the market falling further. First-time buyers spent 27 per cent of their disposable income on their mortgage, down from the 37 per cent average seen over the [...]
MEADOWHALL CENTRE TO GO UP FOR SALE January 15, 2012 PROPERTY developer London & Stamford is close to putting Sheffield’s Meadowhall shopping centre up for sale in a deal that could be worth as much as £1.6bn. London & Stamford owns half of Meadowhall, one of Britain’s biggest malls, with a Middle Eastern partner, while British Land owns the remaining half. The sale is likely [...]
Sleeping tight in NYC January 15, 2012 NOBODY needs an excuse to go to New York; the Big Apple is one of the few cities in the world to match London for sheer breadth of sights to see, entertainment to sample and scenes to explore. But the opening of a sprinkling of new high-class hotels that demand to be visited is as [...]