Amethyst, Mulberry, Quartz…. or Silver? (yell.com blog)

Petal rose, sun-blush pink, or sunset salmon? When it comes to painting that spare room, some people can argue for ages over the many different shades of the same colour.

So why, when it comes to buying a used car, do one in four people choose silver?

After analysing over 125,000 vehicle sales, British Car Auctions (BCA) has found silver’s charm the most popular, with 25% of used car sales sporting the metallic finish in the first three months of 2009.

Reliable Blue dipped to second place and many more buyers went back to the dark side as classic black moved up from fourth to third position.  Grey also crept up the charts with its popularity in new car registrations four to five years ago translating into more models now on the used car market.

Some sensible colours haven’t done so well though. Red, which was one of the safest colours to buy in the late 80s and early 90s has been completely knocked out of the BCA’s top five this year.

So what does this rather sensible colour pallet say about us as a nation of car buyers?  Why do the majority of us opt for the conservative choice over something that’s a bit more ‘in vogue’?

BCA’s Tim Naylor said, “When it comes to colours, manufacturers are clearly flexing their artistic muscles and fashion sensibilities to deliver a bewildering choice of colours and shades.  And underlining the growing numbers of women buying cars, we are also seeing softer colours and finishes such as lilac, mauve and pearlescent becoming more popular on certain models.  Despite that, most motorists appear fairly conservative when it comes to colour and still feel more comfortable choosing Black over Carbon Quartz.”

He added, “While fashionable colours – such as the current high-impact white finishes – are very appealing now, the worry is that they can just as quickly become deeply unfashionable.  In the same way, Limited Editions with over fussy colour schemes tend to date quickly.”

What do you think will be the most popular car colour in the next five years? Will silver hold its crown, or will we all be back in black?

Gaucho Restaurant Review: Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSLC20106720080812

LONDON Reuters Life! Aug 13, 2008 – The cream leather chair was extremely comfortable, the spacious glass tables glistened and cow skins hung on black walls under gleaming chandeliers.

The whole place screamed class and Argentinean beef.

Gaucho, a small chain of 11 Argentinean-themed restaurants in London has been serving up the beef, the ceviches, chorizo and the rich wines of the Latin American country in the British capital for 12 years.

Their latest restaurant in London’s bustling O2 entertainment centre on the banks of the River Thames has only opened recently, but boasts a wine-tasting boutique, a VIP suite, private dining and a balcony lounge for those who come to eat, party and see top acts performing in the O2 such as Stevie Wonder, Leonard Cohen or Nickelback.

“World class food and then a world class show,” said Martin Williams, operations manager at Gaucho’s O2 incarnation. “Gaucho embraces the coolness and the sexiness of Argentina and brings it to the heart of London.”

Williams said honesty was the simple formula for keeping Gaucho from becoming pretentious and satisfying guests with a personal attention that mixes food, atmosphere and service.

“We take the New York approach…We never take our guests for granted,” he said. “If you get the experience right you don’t have to worry about the money because it will come.”

Wines are stacked high in the tasting room where guests can blend their own drinks. Upstairs dance floors and a balcony for private parties await, while across the way stands the O2 arena, where Gaucho VIP guests can have their own box for shows.

But Gaucho also tempers the luxury aspect with rustic photographs on its walls of the villagers and people who work in the wine-making towns of Argentina.

And then there’s the beef, of which Williams and his staff are obviously proud.

“Argentinean cows are feed on grass not grain,” he said. “As a result the beef is much more tender and juicy. A Gaucho is an Argentinean cowboy. He spends his life with the cattle moving them along to fresh pastures.”

Williams said the ethos of Gaucho was to embrace the food and tells a little anecdote about how U.S. comic actor Will Farrell’s received some unexpected foodie tuition while trying to shake the paparazzi by exiting through his kitchens.

“He ended up having a 15-minute lesson in cooking beef to perfection,” Williams said.

He argues that although Gaucho is a small chain, it tries to avoid the pitfalls of sameness in each restaurant.

“Each venue is very different in style and atmosphere,” he said. “The only thing they have in common is the food.”

Gaucho is open from midday to midnight and you can take your pick from Piccadilly’s seasonal sandy beaches to Greenwich’s class and elegance.

Gaucho at the O2

The O2, Peninsula Square

London SE10 0DX

Tel: 020 8858 7711

Fax: 020 8858 0352

URL: www.gauchorestaurants.co.uk

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Science Of Survival: Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL172444720080801

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080801/tuk-life-exhibition-britain-science-dc-fa6b408.html

By Mike Buonaiuto

LONDON (Reuters Life!) – Create your own eco-car, design a super-food and journey into a future world of sustainable living at the “Science of Survival” exhibition this summer in London.

Curators of the exhibition at the Science Museum (www.sciencemuseum.org.uk) said the interactive attraction will explore how humans can survive on a changing planet, including how we should respond to climate change, diminishing resources and our other options for a sustainable future.

“Families should come away without a feeling of right or wrong, but instead with ideas of ways science and technology can help us in the future,” curator Melissa Prince told Reuters.

The show is a hands-on experience that takes visitors through seven areas; Briefing, Drinking, Eating, Enjoying, Moving, Building and Future City. Each area looks at why the future will be different and what we can do about it today.

Virtual guides Dug, Tek, Buz and Eco from the year 2050 will show you new and exciting ways to find water and design a new super-food, create your own vehicle and build your own neighborhood, before seeing it come to life in Future City.

Visitors can see inventions such as the Toilet-lid Sink, which recycles the water we use to wash our hands, sending it straight to the toilet cistern; and the Q-drum, a roll-able water container which is a simple, hygienic and comfortable way of transporting large amounts of water over large distances in poorer, drier countries.

“The whole thing has a kind of do-it-yourself feel,” Prince said.

Experts talk about the sustainability challenges they see in today’s world, highlighting possibilities for positive change and where science and technology could help.

“I haven’t come across an issue with such a global importance other than climate change,” said Pushpanath Krishnamurthy of Oxfam. “If the planet gets hotter by only two degrees it will have a very real problem indeed.”

Ewan Murray, who works with the Carbon Trust — a British government agency dedicated to reducing man-made greenhouse gases driving climate change such as carbon dioxide — also speaks to visitors throughout the exhibition.

“I want to inspire people to want to know more because we can solve the problem if everyone gets involved,” he said.

The exhibition runs until November and then goes on a world tour.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

Digital Revolution Could Be Olympics Salvation: Reuters

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/inDaepthNews/idUSL2379815220080724

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/23/AR2008072303238_3.html

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080801/tuk-life-exhibition-britain-science-dc-fa6b408.html

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/web2.0/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209600449

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/81610,digital-revolution-could-be-olympics-salvation.aspx

feeds.pcworld.com/ click.phdo?i=9bbe09260c6ecbdfceee9d012b76a94b

http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/beijing2008/story.html?id=5c273404-b2e5-444d-acda-236da3984d8f&p=3

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/l23798152-olympics-digital/

http://www.forbes.com/reuters/feeds/reuters/2008/07/24/2008-07-24T120435Z_01_L23798152_RTRIDST_0_OLYMPICS-DIGITAL-SPORTS-FEATURE-PIX.html

 

LONDON (Reuters) – For the Olympic movement, the digital revolution is armed with a double-edged sword — it has lured the younger generation away from sport but could open up the Olympic experience to a far wider audience.

“It (digital media) will have a transforming impact on the Olympics at multiple levels,” says Shoba Purushothaman, CEO of Web-based video marketing platform The NewsMarket.

“It will change story-telling for the Games by making it more human and personal.”

A Summer Games was one of the sporting and television highlights of the year for today’s parents and grandparents.

In the 21st century, young people have a huge variety of sport, music and entertainment media to flick through, both on television and the internet, and the Olympics has no special aura for many of them.

“The Olympic Games are not that credible or relevant to most young people in the developed or developing world,” said Jon Tibbs, whose public relations company has several Olympic clients, at a conference on sport and technology in London.

The average age of viewers for the 2004 Games in Athens was over 40 and shows no signs of falling.

“I will maybe watch highlight shows on TV later in the evening but I can never see myself watching it live,” said Richard Cousins, a 19-year-old British student.

If the Games lose their cachet in years to come, billions of dollars from sponsorship and broadcasting rights that support the Olympic movement could melt away.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has recognized the warning signs and took steps to attract a younger audience by introducing sports like snowboarding to the Winter Olympics, and BMX cycling which makes its debut in Beijing in August.

In February, the IOC went further by choosing Singapore to host the first summer Youth Olympics in 2010, a “key moment” in the words of IOC President Jacques Rogge.

“They (the Youth Olympics) will also be the platform through which youngsters will learn about Olympic values and the benefits of sport, and share their experiences with other communities around the globe,” Rogge said.

Platforms and access to communities in the digital world could be just as important in deciding if the Olympics retain their high profile, experts said ahead of a Summer Games in Beijing which is being billed as the first digital Olympics.

“The Olympic Games will be played out on Facebook, YouTube and Flickr whether we like it or not. We need to engage not disengage with them,” Alex Balfour, head of new media at the London 2012 organizing committee, told the London conference. Flickr is a photo-sharing Web site owned by Yahoo.

CONTROLLED BLOGGING

U.S. internet users viewed more than 12 billion online videos during May, according to digital research firm Comscore, a 45 percent increase over the year before. About one-third of those were on YouTube, owned by Google.

But fans expecting to visit the site to catch up on the day’s action in Beijing next month are likely to be disappointed because the IOC is having problems adjusting to the share-it-all ethos of the internet.

In company with other major sports federations, the IOC keeps a very tight rein on its showpiece occasions and views video postings on sites like YouTube as a threat to its rights holders, who can broadcast on television and a number of digital platforms.

The IOC uses video-fingerprinting technology and Web-crawling (monitoring) techniques to prevent unauthorized content being uploaded and track illegal content on Web sites.

However, it has acknowledged the young’s infatuation with social networking sites and the increasing power of citizen journalism.

In February, the IOC said it would allow blogging by athletes for the first time at August’s Games. In 2010, the 3,500 competitors at the inaugural Youth Olympics will be urged to have their own blog.

“Technology is the key enabler for the Olympic Games,” said Alexander Vronski, technology vice president for the Sochi Winter Games of 2014. “New media can engage nations.”

MINORITY SPORTS

Technological advances mean minority sports will get a greater share of the spotlight via streaming video on Web sites and digital television.

In the United States, NBC will offer 3,600 hours of coverage of the August 8-24 Games, triple its offering from the Athens Games, and about a third of this will be streamed over the internet.

3G mobile phone technology could also have a huge impact on the Olympics, allowing athletes and visitors in the Chinese capital to communicate their experiences to those back home.

“People taking photos and video with their cell phones will change the way we watch the Games,” says The NewsMarket’s Purushothaman.

“For the first time, digital technology will liberate how we all, sitting outside, see the Games.” But the IOC will not allow spectators to publish on the internet photos and video taken inside Olympic venues.

“As the iPhone capabilities are growing by the day I can probably see myself using my iPhone to view Olympic clips on the go, maybe on my way to work or when out with my friends,” said Richard Woods, 20, a public relations executive.

The long-term goal of the IOC in embracing modern technology is to try to get young people away from their video consoles and out into the fresh air to play sport and stay healthy.

One reason London was chosen to stage the 2012 Games was its pledge to engage young people in the Olympic project and to encourage them to participate actively in sport.

Tibbs says the “digital marketplace has the potential to re-engage hundreds of millions of people with sport” and, as an added benefit to the Olympic movement, re-energize the interest of consumer companies in sponsoring the Games.

Rogge believes that once youngsters have been persuaded to play sport, they will realize digital competition — even the active interactivity of Nintendo’s Wii console — is no match for the cut and thrust of sporting competition.

“You will never achieve in a video game,” Rogge told The Times newspaper in May. “It is not really success.”

(Additional reporting by Mike Buonaiuto and Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Sara Ledwith)