This weeks' no.1 tech innovation from the @rationetwork studio is the A.T.S. #AutoTeaStirrer

IMG_0955.MOV Watch on Posterous

Posted via email from Marc Biles

Cheddar expedition

A beautiful day to be climbing the awesome Cheddar Gorge. Onsighted a couple of 4+ climbs and just did my first 6a outside. Dogged it on the lead to set the route then seconded it (almost) clean. Time for lunch then back on it.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Posted via email from Marc Biles

Marc and Sam's epic journey

A few people have asked me recently about mine and Sam's "RG Top Gear challenge" videos are, so I promised to link them up here again. For the unitiated, way back in 2010 Sam Wells and I made an epic plane/train/road/boat/road trip from the Mahe in the Seychelles back to Bournemouth.

Myself, Sam and a whole group of our friends stayed on the idyllic island of Cousine in the middle of the Indian Ocean. We spent our mornings studying, our afternoons fishing, snorkelling, kayaking in the afternoons and much of the evenings mixing of coctails and tearing about the place in golf buggies. Check out Cousine's website here. 

It was that week that the (catchily-named) Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland started to erupt and spew thousands of tons of pumous, ash and general nastiness into the air, grounding thousands of flights across the northern hemisphere in the process. When it came time to return to the UK after our week in paradise flights out of the Seychelles were being cancelled and the group opted to wait it out on Mahe, the main island. Having heard rumours of a late night flight to Rome being the last flight that was going to be able to leave the island, Sam and I jumped at the chance to have a little adventure of our own, trying to get home from the Italian capital.

The video linked below was our way of communicating with the friends, family and collegues back at home who became our support crew over the two day epic journey home that ensewed. 

So here's mine and Sam's epic journey back from the Seychelles. It's 9 episodes and I've put them in a playlist back to back here.

Posted via email from Marc Biles

Lego Darth Vader

Very tempted to purchase this incredible Lego Darth Vader alarm clock

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A new take on breast cancer awareness

Being a bit of a geek and a fan of the internet for some time now, it has occasionally struck me that for such a large and advanced country, we don't see a huge contribution to the advancement of technology from our neighbours across the channel in France. Imagine my surprise and delight this morning on discovering http://www.boobstagram.fr (thanks to Dan Hinton for the link).

Ok, let the amazement at the wonderful pictures subside, what we have here is a light hearted and original awareness campaign for very real issue - breast cancer and breast cancer screening. Founders Julien and Lionel say: The fight against cancer is long-standing. Progress is real but relatively slow when compared to other diseases, in spite of the considerable human and financial ressources dedicated to it.

We cant all become doctors or surgeons. But we can all take part in prevention, for ourselves, for our friends and family. But how are we going to do that? How to be heard through the noise of our daily lives when we are so overwhelmed with messages? That is what Boobstagram attempts to realise, using a combination of a simple idea and the latest technologies.

(apologies for my paraphrased translation, but you get the idea)

Get involved by sending your own pics to boobstagram@gmail.com, follow the site on Twitter at @boobstagram or find out more on the subject by visiting http://breastcancer.cancerresearchuk.org/

Posted via email from Marc Biles

A new challenge

I'm in Hollywood with Jim Beedham, Duncan Cook and Jon Black. We need to meet some friends at the Las Vegas sign at around 1630. We had the bright idea of hiring a Camero which has 4 seats but no room for all of our luggage. Feels like the perfect opportunity for a race. Duncan and I (team Camero) are going to take the car, Jon and Jim are taking a flight (team Spirit). First team to the Vegas sign wins. Losing team pays $100. Game on. Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Marc Biles

Photosynth Panorama

I created this panorama on my iOS device with the Photosynth app, http://www.photosynth.net.

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Marc Biles