How big are your carbon feet?

Carbon footprints are all the rage these days, so I decided to calculate mine using the Act on CO2 website provided by the government. Its a nice site, and I recommend you have a go. I was astounded to find that our household footprint is over 22 tonnes - maybe I should change a few light bulbs. How does yours compare?

http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/

BBC iPlayer

I have been trialling the new BBC iPlayer (beta) service. The basic concept is that you can download programmes up to 7 days after they are broadcast, you then have 28 days to watch them before they expire. This is the perfect thing for me, as I'm stuck on a train for two hours a day with nothing to do, and in the evenings I'm normally busy.

I have to say, I've been quite impressed. The files download quite quickly, the quality is almost as good as broadcast TV and the application doesn't take over your computer (like the channel 4 on-demand service).

However, there are some short-comings, firstly the lack of content. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the TopGear Arctic special, there haven't been that many programmes that have caught my attention. Secondly; it's a bit complicated. You have two usernames and passwords, you use a website to browse the programmes, and an windows application to download them. Thirdly, the service needs some features like 'subscribe to this series' or 'favourites' to make it easier to find the programmes you want. This is only a beta, so I'm sure things will improve, but it's a great first step towards a far more preferable way to watch TV.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayerbeta/

London maps

LondonTown.com have added a nice map to their website.

It has the tube stops and lines marked on, as well as some landmarks. You can also pan it around in the google maps style. Nice. It only covers central London, and is really geared towards hotels, but I think it's worth using to plan a trip!

View the website

First medical article

Clare just had her first article published, a letter to the Rural and Remote Health Journal - yey! You can read it here.

In other news, the Neufelds have gone back to Canada - boo. And the Talbots (Astburys in disguise) have returned from Cameroon - yey!