A Middlesex businessman is to become the first person in the world to use air miles to be blasted into space.

Alan Watts, 51, from Harrow, has flown upper class with Virgin Atlantic to the US around 40 times in the past six years.

It earned him two million air miles - enough to pay for the £100,000 trip to space with Virgin Galactic.

Mr Watts, the managing-director of an electrical engineering firm, said it would be the most exciting thing he has ever done in his life.

"The nearest I've come to space before was going on the Space Mountain ride in Florida," he said.
The businessman will have three days of training before boarding the spacecraft, which travels at almost 5,000kph.

Richard Branson revealed that Mr Watts would be among the first passengers as he unveiled a model of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShip2 in New York.

Shameless recommendation.

Al Gore's take on global warming: 'An Inconvenient Truth'.
Film now in theatres in Europe:

Belgium : 11 oct.

The Netherlands 12 oct.

Other country's?

The struggle of man against tyranny is the struggle of memory against forgetting.(Kundera)

         Arno                                                                                                                 Axelle Red                                                                      

The initiative for the free open air concerts comes from Tom Barman, front man of the Flemish band dEUS. Barman says that the concerts are intended to blast away racism and promote tolerance.

It's no coincidence that the concerts are being staged one week before the local elections. All eyes will be focused on the performance of the far right Vlaams Belang that hopes to capture Antwerp City Hall, but also in Brussels and Charleroi the far right Front National is expected to pick up many votes.

Ghent is an example of a city that seems to have successfully stemmed the advance of the far right extremism.

The events were covered yesterday afternoon on TV and radio.
For Belgium, 100.000 people is huge.
So there is some hope.


The struggle of man against tyranny is the struggle of memory against forgetting.(Kundera)