The land of Route 66 and the gas station diner, the good old US of A is well known for its love of the automobile. So the following may come as something of a surprise. Especially when you consider that this all happened, way back when, in a twenty-year period between 1897 and 1916.

1897 - The first electric taxis hit the streets of New York City early in the year.

1910 - The Pope Manufacturing Company of Connecticut becomes the first large-scale American electric automobile manufacturer. The electric automobile is in its heyday. Of the 4,192 cars produced in the United States, 28 percent are powered by electricity, with others powered by steam. Electric autos represent about one-third of all cars found on the roads of New York City, Boston and Chicago.

1916 - A man by the name of Woods invents the first hybrid car, combining an electric motor and an internal combustion engine. This predates the Toyota Prius by an amazing 81 years.

I’m new to gaming and game culture but this struck a chord when I saw it yesterday. Here’s something I found on the BBC’s Click, and it’s purportedly an example of Web 2.0 gaming, with enhanced control for gamers including character and world building on a completely new level. The BBC’s Spencer Kelly takes a look at LittleBigPlanet, the latest online multi-player game for PlayStation 3 and creates his own level, with help from one of the game’s creators Kareem Ettouney.

View the BBC clip here and also if you have time; have a look at the Sony official website.

Over dinner the other evening, I got into discussions with a colleague’s husband, a data centre architect about the halting of data centre construction in central London. He says the culprit is the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The City of London has a power demand of 1,000MK which is expected to increase by 80 per cent over the next 5-7 years, while Docklands, home of several data centres has a power demand of 250MK, which is predicted to rise to 90 percent over the same period. It’s claimed that political prioritisation has occurred to ensure the games’ success so risking the UK’s financial sector. Chris Crosby, VP of Digital Reality, the largest provider of data centres in the world, says “There’s the potential now for London to go technology-dry because of the lack of power”.

The broader question, has the government dithered over what is probably one of the most critical issues for business, a clear strategic policy to provide energy security for the next ten years and be compliant with its own CO2 emission targets? Review the BBC’s survey findings, it’s very insightful.

After a ground-breaking win in the US Presidential Election I went onto YouTube this morning and typed ‘Barack Obama’ into the search facility; 373,000 videos, 1,070 channels and 123,000 playlists; confirmation that to fully engage with your audience, social media is the new channel - traditional media is feeling the heat!