Did you know that last week was National Chocolate Week? NO?!!!*
*(neither did I…)
Last Friday I had the pleasure of attending a very special evening courtesy of @GBchefs at which I learnt how to make the most delicious chocolate truffles in the world!
Great British Chefs is a relatively new venture that celebrates and champions the best in home-grown chefs across the UK. These are chefs who cook in their restaurants on a regular basis and whose food is distinctive and cooked with love. As somebody who has a French wife, I have …

Hello everyone. My name is Rax… and I’m a Twitterholic. I’ve also had dependence issues with Facebook, YouTube, FourSquare and more recently G+. I don’t know where to turn to for answers (Quora, Yahoo Questions, AskJeeves…?).
Thanks to Rabbi Zechariah Wallerstein of Ohr Naava,* my cries/silent-pokes for help may well be answered this Sunday as the world prepares for Day to Disconnect: October 2nd, 2011.
According to the Day to Disconnect website:
On that day thousands of people will voluntarily unplug their gadgets for some time – an hour, two or even all day. …

After a tough few days, there’s nothing I enjoy more than flicking through the online pages of Google Labs to see what new gadgets, widgets, services and gizmos the clever folk at Google are currently playing around with. It’s almost as cathartic as reading WIRED magazine…
Today in Google Labs, I discovered Art Project powered by Google – a new venture which enables you to explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces.
 

Google’s …

I have to admit that I had never heard of Airbnb until the infographic below was posted on PSFK yesterday. I felt compelled to click on the image and discovered the amazing growth that this community marketplace for unique spaces has experienced since its launch in August 2008.

Airbnb connects people who have space to spare with those who are looking for a place to stay. Guests can build real connections with their hosts, gain access to distinctive spaces, and immerse themselves in the culture of their destinations.
A couple of years …

The Internet has been nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its positive impact on humanity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaxD7R4QwC8&feature=player_embedded
We have finally realised that the Internet is much more than a network of computers.
It is an endless web of people. Men and women from every corner of the globe are connecting to one another, thanks to the biggest social interface ever known to humanity.
Digital culture has laid the foundations for a new kind of society.
And this society is advancing dialogue, debate and consensus through communication.
Because democracy has always flourished where …

The Metropolitan Police have launched an online ‘whodunnit?’ video to teach teenagers in Lambeth how minimal involvement with a crime could see them charged with a serious offence.
The Who Killed Deon? site aims to show how real people can turn away from violent crime and uses integration with Facebook and YouTube to get their point across.
The online tool features six character films – each with a different connection to a murder and explanation whether that person was involved:

http://www.youtube.com/user/whokilleddeon
To watch the other videos visit facebook.com/whokilleddeon or visit the Who Killed Deon YouTube Channel.
Joint …

How long could you go without a computer? Three Carleton College students take on the challenge of giving up their computers to see how their academic, social, and work lives are affected. No Google. No Facebook. No e-mail.  How will they get their work done? Will they cheat? Who will survive the longest? This documentary follows students Andrew, Caitlin, and Chel as they go through “digital detox” and learn to interact with themselves and with others in ways we have largely forgotten.
“Consistently funny, philosophical… casually ingenious!” -Rob Nelson, Film Critic
“A …

We all deserve a bit / lot of happiness in our lives and Coca-Cola would agree with that sentiment.
Back in January I featured Coke’s Happiness Machine on this blog – a really nice video concept which made it’s way around the web from the US.
Well, the machine has now arrived in London and found it’s way on YouTube today. So far, the clip has racked up just under 3,700 views* – a modest amount compared to the million views that the original video received in it’s first week. However, whilst the impact of the …

As part of the London Bloggers Meetup ‘bean themed’ meme that’s doing the rounds, here’s my attempt to win a luxury beanbag from Ambient Lounge.  Ambient Lounge’s designer bean bags are hopefully worth the effort that went into compiling this list of bloggers and their ‘bean’ equivalents. Random…
If London Bloggers were beans… what would they be?

TikiChris would be a Polynesian Green Bean
Because ‘Tiki’ refers to large wood and stone carvings of humanoid forms in Central Eastern Polynesian cultures of the Pacific Ocean. The term is also used as it relates to M?ori mythology where Tiki …

Just wanted to share this gem of a story with you all by the genius that was Douglas Adams (author of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy):
This actually did happen to a real person, and the real person was me. I had gone to catch a train. This was April 1976, in Cambridge, U.K. I was a bit early for the train. I’d gotten the time of the train wrong.
I went to get myself a newspaper to do the crossword, and a cup of coffee and a packet of cookies. …