London borough refuses ‘ugly’ broadband cabinets, and faster Internet speeds - TECH.BLORGE.com
Working online from home means I need a fast and stable Internet connection. If it goes down, slows down, or is interrupted in any way I can’t get my work out and consequently don’t get paid. And I’m far from being alone in this new Internet-centric world we find ourselves living in. Businesses increasingly need fast and stable Internet connections to compete.
Unfortunately for businesses located in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea the look of the area means more to the council than Internet speeds. According to BBC News, Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council has blocked 96 of the 108 broadband cabinets BT needs to install in order to deliver faster Internet speeds to its customers.
The council’s reasoning is that the larger cabinets would ruin the “historic streetscape.” In other words they’re just too ugly. Granted the cabinets aren’t as visually appealing as they could be – they’re green metal boxes – but this is function over form. They do what they’re meant to do and nothing more.
There are already broadband cabinets installed across the borough, but these new ones are required to deliver increased speeds from the current 16Mbps to 76Mbps. The difference in size is minimal: the current boxes are 1.15m high by 1.37m wide, while the new boxes are 1.6m tall by 1.2m wide. This is hardly an epic change for the worse.
This is a classic case of a council out of touch with the way of the world. Schemes to protect the look and feel of an area are fine in principle, but when they start to affect the needs of the people living in the area then there should be some flexibility. And access to the Internet is a need rather than a want for many people in this day and age.
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London 2012 - Kenya looks for answers in Oregon - Yahoo! Eurosport
The proud distance running nation of Kenya hopes to find a solution to 44 years of Olympic frustration when the African country holds its men's 10,000 metres trial in Oregon.
Fourteen Kenyans will line up in a special race at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting in Eugene, Oregon, hoping to get a step closer to becoming the first countryman to win Olympic gold at the distance since Naftali Temu in 1968.
Beijing Olympic bronze medallist Micah Kogo, former world track or cross country medallists Eliud Kipchoge, Paul Tanui and Moses Masai and world junior champion Dennis Masai all will be aiming for a top three finish and a chance to win in London.
"Optimistic I am, but I would not want to be naive," Athletics Kenya Olympic team manager Joseph Kinyua told Reuters when asked about ending the drought. "At 10,000 metres there are very many good athletes."
He specifically mentioned Britain's Mo Farah and runners from sporting rival Ethiopia, which has produced the last four 10,000 metres Olympic gold medallists, two each by Haile Gebrselassie and reigning champion Kenenisa Bekele.
Kenyan officials made the somewhat controversial decision to hold the trial in Eugene to take advantage of its low altitude and London-like weather. Other team selections will be determined in Kenya later this month.
"I don't think there is any problem," Kinyua said of the decision. "If you're doing one thing again and again and it doesn't give you the result you expect, it is only fair that you try a different method.
"Do you know the definition of a mad man? He is a person who does the same thing, the same way all the time."
Ethiopia has already gone out of country to pick its 10,000 metres team for London, doing so at Hengelo in the Netherlands last weekend.
Hammersmith Apollo in London sold by HMV to Stage C - BBC News
Entertainment venue Hammersmith Apollo which has held concerts by bands from The Beatles to Queen, has been sold by its owner HMV.
HMV agreed to sell the west London art deco venue to American-German joint venture Stage C for £32m.
The 9,000-capacity venue was taken over by entertainment retailer HMV in 2010.
HMV chief Simon Fox said: "The Hammersmith Apollo is an iconic London venue and it has been a privilege to own it over the last three years."
The venue opened in 1932 as the Gaumont Palace cinema, as part of a wider turnaround.
It has played host to many famous performances, including David Bowie's last concert as alter-ego Ziggy Stardust in 1973.
It is also the eponymous venue in the BBC stand-up comedy series Live at the Apollo.
Stage C is jointly owned by London's indigO2 operator Ansco Music Club, a subsidiary of US company Anschutz Entertainment, and a subsidiary of Munich-based CTS Eventim.
The sale is conditional on banking approvals, shareholder approval and Stage C securing regulatory approvals.
With 252 stores in the UK, HMV said the sale allowed it to focus on its core retail business, while the proceeds from the disposal would be used to reduce the group's outstanding debt.
The sale follows a decision to place its HMV Live division, which runs 13 venues and a number of festivals including Lovebox in London and Global Gathering near Stratford-upon-Avon, under review.
The entertainment retailer recently surprised the City by forecasting a return to profit in 2013 despite estimated losses of about £19m for the past financial year.
GM's Vauxhall announces new Astra at UK plant - Yahoo Finance
LONDON (AP) -- General Motors' Vauxhall plant in northern England will build the company's top-selling Astra vehicles, the automaker said Thursday — a relief for U.K. politicians who had lobbied its American owner to keep the plant open.
The announcement comes after workers at the Ellesmere Port plant, near Liverpool, overwhelmingly backed a job deal which turned the factory into a 24-hour-a-day operation, a key cost-cutting measure pursued by parent company GM Europe.
GM Europe lost $700 million in 2011 and has been struggling to turn around its Opel and Vauxhall brands. It had been feared the company would close the Ellesmere Port facility in favor of consolidating production elsewhere — such as its headquarters in Ruesselsheim in Germany or Gliwice in Poland.
In a separate announcement, Opel said that the Ruesselsheim plant would switch to producing other models.
GM's announcement — which comes with a 125 million pound (nearly $200 million) investment and 700 extra jobs — is a break for leaders such as British Business Secretary Vince Cable, who fought to keep the British plant open.
Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking from the northern city of Manchester, called the decision "a fantastic vote of confidence."
"The U.K. government gave this its full backing. The unions supported the necessary changes. The workforce has responded magnificently. It is a British success story," he said.
Cable, who at one point traveled to the U.S. to plead the plant's case, told BBC television that no financial inducements were offered to General Motors Corp. to keep the U.K. facility open, saying the move underlined that Britain is "a good business environment for the motor industry."
Production of the new car is due to begin in 2015, with at least 160,000 vehicles scheduled to be produced every year.
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