House prices fall 0.6 per cent in July August 6, 2012 British house prices fell by 0.6 per cent in July, mortgage lender Halifax said today, a marginally bigger fall than economists had forecast but one that leaves the pattern of broadly stable prices intact. House prices in the three months to July are 0.6 per cent down on a year earlier, in line with forecasts [...]
An alternative paradise August 5, 2012 IT is raining on Dominica, and this is no passing shower. I’m soaked to the skin, I’ve lost the sole from my shoe and I’m covered in a reddy brown mud. Dominica, known as the “nature island”, is already turning all my preconceptions about a Caribbean “paradise” on their head. Not famous for its white [...]
The very finest of the Fringe August 2, 2012 Daniel Kitson reminds Steve Dinneen why he is still the comedian’s comedian COMEDY DANIEL KITSON Battersea Arts Centre **** The last time I saw Daniel Kitson was 12 years ago, at Glasgow’s The Stand comedy club, at which point he was an up-and-coming young comedian. With milk bottle bottom glasses, lank, greasy hair and a [...]
I Against I is a formulaic, humourless crime flop August 2, 2012 FILM I AGAINST I Cert 15 | By Steve Dinneen ** THE British crime drama hasn’t fared very well since the glory days of The Long Good Friday; all Danny Dyer romps and hackneyed mockney geezers. I Against I does little to redress the balance. Co-directors Mark Cripps, David Ellison and James Marquand set out [...]
Hotmail to hit the trash as Microsoft rebrands its email August 2, 2012 Hotmail has become something of a bad joke among the tech community, lacking the polish or technological nous of rivals like Google’s Gmail. Now, as Microsoft prepares for its biggest product overhaul since Windows 95, it is ditching the name in favour of “Outlook.com” and revamping the interface to tie in with its new Windows [...]
Happy birthday to the Commodore 64 August 1, 2012 MITS ALTAIR 8800 The first home computers came as build-it-yourself kits, led by the MITS Altair 8800, launched in 1975. The technology, which was later sold as an assembled unit, was the inspiration for future PCs. APPLE II The Apple I had already been released as a kit computer but the Apple II was where [...]
House prices suffer biggest drop since 2009 – Nationwide August 1, 2012 British house prices fell at their fastest annual pace in nearly three years last month, data from mortgage lender Nationwide showed today, as the effects of nine months of recession spread further across the economy. Nationwide reported a 0.7 per cent decline in house prices in July, a much bigger drop than that forecast by [...]
Mortgage approvals plummet to their lowest level for 18 months July 30, 2012 MORTGAGE approvals plunged to their lowest number in a year and a half in June, according to Bank of England data released yesterday. Only 44,192 loans for home purchase were waved through by lenders last month, down from 50,544 in May and significantly below economists’ forecasts. While two extra bank holidays falling in June might [...]
Conquer a daunting wall of ice without a trip to the Antarctic July 30, 2012 Clinging precariously to a sheet of rippling blue ice, the summit in sight, I took a leap of faith. Digging my spiked shoes into the metre-thick walls of the “chimney” of frozen water, I lunged with an ice axe, connecting for a brief second, only to dislodge a block the size of my fist: it [...]
EPISODE 62 – THE HANGING COMMITTEE July 30, 2012 The school year has ended. The children have dispersed, if only briefly. It seems that many of them will reconvene shortly in Tuscany, with splinter groups in Umbria and the Dordogne. Noel presented Mr Donnelly with a fine and very expensive teapot as his end of year gift. As recommended by Nick. It seems that’s [...]