Words About Things

Anyone who has traveled to Asia is likely to have encountered the auto Rickshaw. They buzz around the big cities in India, Thailand, Pakistani and Sri Lanka ferrying tourists and locals through dense traffic at breakneck speeds. They are normally referred to as Tuk Tuks due to the sound of their engines. They are very cramped (particularly for westerners) and have open sides and no seat belts, they don’t have particularly eco friendly engines, until now.

Air Marshal Morakot Charnsomruad of the Clean Fuel Energy Enterprise in Bangkok has been working on creating the Tuk Tuk of the future. The year round sunshine in Thailand convinced Mr Charnsomruad that a solar power was the way to go:

The new tuk-tuk has a battery, but uses the sun’s rays to supplement the power supply. It is silent, emission-free and can run for 80 kilometres (50 miles) on a three hour battery charge costing 10 baht, compared with up to 60 kilometres for conventional models before they need refuelling.

Tourists thinking of booking a flight to Bangkok will be pleased to note that the new, improved Arun Sawasdi (Good Morning) Tuk Tuk is more spacious than the traditional model. It has extra head and leg room giving it the look of a three wheeled golf cart and the prototype suggests that it will be decorated in some pretty eye catching colours. The prototype continues the theme of having no side panels which suggests that riding in the new solar powered auto rickshaws will be just as exhilarating experience.

Unfortunately the Arun Sawasdi has yet to be approved for public use. It has the backing of Greenpeace environmental campaigner Tara Buakamsri who said “Tuk-tuks can lead the way for a better and healthier transport system in Bangkok and the rest of the country”. Bangkok city authorities actually stopped issuing new tuk-tuk licences in 2008 but are expected to approve the new model within the next few years.

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This video is only 39 seconds long but it’s still pretty amazing and certainly worthy of being the video of the week. It shows lightning simultaneously striking three of the tallest buildings in Chicago: Willis Tower; Trump International Hotel and the John Hancock Building.

Lightning strikes three of the tallest buildings in Chicago at the same time! from Craig Shimala on Vimeo.

As was expected George Osborne‘s first budget as Chancellor was not an easy pill to swallow. Few would envy Osborne’s task of cutting spending and increasing VAT whilst still trying to maintain some sort of popularity amongst voters. It was clear that some difficult decisions would need to be made in order to attempt to steer the country towards profitability once again. Mr Osbourne had stated that his budget would be ‘tough but fair’ although some thought that that might mean unfairly tough on some.

What is most clear is that we need to improve the state of the economy in a fast yet sustainable way. Corporations are turning to their  treasury management systems and finding that they don’t have enough funds to support the growth they need to achieve.  Individuals are finding that they are unable to save and afraid to spend.

The Chancellor has suggested that he will be able to cut borrowing from 10% of GDP to 1% within 5 years. The following measures where introduced in today’s budget:

1. VAT will rise from 17.5% to 20% in January 2011.

2. Duty on Alcohol, cigarettes and fuel will not rise.

3. Child benefits will be fixed for three years. Tax credits and housing benefits will be reduced.

4. Public sector worker earning over £21,000 will have their pay frozen.

All full list of changes can be found on the BBC’s Budget page.

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