Richard Branson and the Virgin Group have announced on their Virgin blog that they have joined forces with Google to launch a new ambitious business venture called Virgle.
Virgle’s aim is to set up a human settlement on Mars. Apparently, over the coming years, spaceships will leave earth to carry all sorts of supplies and tools to Mars and they are now looking for intrepid explorers with world-class skills to join them.
There is a quick questionnaire that needs to be completed by all those interested where you will be asked very intense and thought provoking questions about how you would deal with life on Mars. For example, how would you respond if you were ‘unexpectedly confronted with the emergence of a bewildering alien and frighteningly advanced Martian life form?’.
A question that we must all ask ourselves quite often!
Ok, so it is the 1st April but how many of us would try to escape earth for a new life on Mars. Would you?
April 1st, 2008
Reading bedtime stories to children can be a great pleasure - and sometimes a bit of a chore, especially when you’re tired, and it’s at the end of a long day. I found these audio stories on the Times Online website - classic fairytales read by celebrity story-tellers - and I am going to download them all if I can, or at the very least begin to stream them at bedtime for the kids. The complete set of stories - produced in association with Ford Galaxy and by Classic FM for the Times Online includes:
- Robert Lindsay reading Rumpelstiltskin
- Ashley Jensen (from Extras) reading Cinderella
- Maureen Lipman reading The Gingerbread Man
- Julian Clary reading Puss in Boots
- Shane Ritchie reading The Tin Soldier
- Samantha Morton reading The Princess & The Pea
- Greta Scacchi reading Rapunzel
- Miranda Richardson reading Little Red Riding Hood
- Imelda Staunton reading Alice in Wonderland
- Sanjeev Bhaskar reading The Ugly Duckling
- Tom Baker reading Aladdin
- Jack Davenport reading Jack and The Beanstalk
- Tamsin Outhwaite reading The Little Match Girl
- Geoffrey Palmer reading Tinderbox…
…and many more besides. Now, I enjoy bringing the stories I read to life, but having listen to a couple of these already, these really are wonderful productions and will really provide a special story-time at bedtime or on a car journey…
November 7th, 2007
