Construction begins on Cardiff hotel

Construction has started on a new hotel in the centre of Cardiff.

Piling has started on the building that will replace the Central Hotel which burned down in 2003.

The site is situated next to the Cardiff Central railway station in close proximation to the Sleeperz Hotel and Travelodge.

The hotel will be Maldron Hotels operated 214 bedroom building with shops and retail units on the ground and first floors.

This is how the site looked on Sunday 6 June:

The Pinnacle

There have been a couple of new renders of the Pinnacle posted on the Skyscraper Forum website.

The renders show the upper floors in more detail including the restaurants and the viewing deck set to become the highest in the UK.

The Pinnacle, also known as the Bishopgate Tower, is currently under construction in the City of London.

It is set to be 288m and 63 floors high when completed in 2012, and is one of three major skyscraper projects in central London alongside Heron Tower and the Shard.

The site on which the Pinnacle will stand was cleared in mid-2007 and construction started in March 2009.

Time for Change?

As the likelihood of a hung parliament increases, I wonder whether it is actually the best result for the UK.

After the dust settled on the final leaders debate this evening, the polls indicated that the Liberal Democrats had gained the most from the debates as a whole.

The unprecedented gains seen by the Lib Dems were groundbreaking, but in truth it has not changed what we knew before the first debate on the 15th of April: we are more than likely heading for a hung parliament.

The fear is that the economy will suffer as the government flounds around arguing with itself rather than taking action. I believe, however, that it will mean that on important issues the opinion of more voters will be represented in the commons.

Take for example the row over National Insurance. If, for example, Labour had a majority they would be able to vote through their proposals without taking into account the beliefs of everyone in constituencies who didn't vote for Labour.

In a majority led parliament, your views may not be represented in the commons if your constituency did not vote for the largest party.

In a hung parliament, everyone can pressurise their own MP on important issues and their views will have a much better chance of being represented in the commons.

Therefore, I believe, a hung parliament would be a better overall reflection of the opinions of the British public.

What is a hung parliament?

Generally speaking, the largest party in the commons has a working majority. This means that when that party wants to make new laws, it can vote them through with relative ease because it has more seats than the rest of the parties put together.

When the smaller parties have enough seats that they are collectively able to outvote the main party, that is a hung parliament - see this handy BBC guide.

First ever leaders debate on British TV

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg was the winner of the first ever leaders debate on British TV, say the media.

Clegg was the most visibly at ease early on and gave a confident pitch in which he represented the Liberal Democrats as a change from the 'old' parties of Labour and Conservative.

Both David Cameron and Gordon Brown appeared to be trying to curry favour with the 42-year-old Lib-Dem leader as the likelihood of a hung parliament come May 6th increases.

In terms of election coverage during the debate by the media outlets, there were no real surprises as to who the broadsheet newspapers, and their readers, were backing.

What was interesting was that the Daily Mail appeared to declare David Cameron the winner before the debate had even finished.

Disappointingly, the web page has since been changed to reflect the reality of what happened in Manchester this evening, and stupidly I failed to get a screen shot of the offending page which has now changed.

However, it is interesting to note how the media have reacted to tonight's events and I will make sure I pay closer attention to the how the next debate, televised on Sky on April 22, is covered.

Turkish singer sets blind speed record

Turkish pop-singer Metin Senturk became the world's fastest unaccompanied blind driver last week after piloting a Ferrari 430 to 182mph.

Senturk, who has been blind since the age of three, was followed down a runway in eastern Turkey by his driving coach Volkan Isik.

Isik, a former rally driver, relayed instructions to Senturk via radio as he smashed the previous record of 176mph held by a British bank manager.

Senturk, who wept as he stepped from the car, said: "I don't think there are any words to describe this feeling. I am really happy. It was really hard, like a dance with death."

The accompanied record for a blind driver, set by South African Hein Wagner in a Mercedes-Benz SL65 Black Series last October, is a fraction over 200 mph.

Ugly new King Edward Tower, Liverpool

New Plans for the King Edward Tower in Liverpool have been released, and they are ugly...

The previous renders for the 540ft office, apartment and hotel tower, released by joint developers Richmont Property Ltd and Y1 Developments, looked similar to the 658ft proposed Regal Tower on Birmingham's Broad Street in terms of cladding and shape.

The redesign is as a result of a protestations by developer Peel who believe it did not fit in with their vision for Liverpool Waters.

I am a supporter of the Peel project in principle because Liverpool's waterfront will look fantastic with a series of high-rise buildings.

However, with the exception of the Shanghai tower, I am not of the architecture currently on display in their renders and the new render for the King Edward Tower is no better.

Buildings made out up of out-of-line boxes, as though built with ill-fitting lego bricks, only look good when surrounded by other modern projects.

I don't believe that this new design is fitting of being a flagship building for Liverpool.

Elsewhere, the recession has taken another victim in the form of the Lumiere Towers in Leeds.

The council has, it seems, refused planning permission for the newly revised designs because the developer has not met its infrastructure requirements due being in administration.

Website accessibility

A few months ago I wrote about the steps that the ChinaDaily website has taken to improve accessibility for disabled people.

I have just found this article by WebCredible on things that web masters should look for when creating a site.

As I commented previously, I believe that websites in the UK are still not doing enough to open up their sites so everyone can use them.

Individuals should take responsibility for the content of their website, but there needs to be more regulation in place to ensure that everyone can enjoy online content in the same way.