By flying car from London to Timbuktu

A voyage to fabled Timbuktu in a flying car may sound like a magical childhood fantasy.But this week a British adventurer will set off from London on an incredible journey through Europe and Africa in a souped-up sand buggy, travelling by road - and air.With the help of a parachute and a giant fan-motor, Neil Laughton plans to soar over the Pyrenees near Andorra, before taking to the skies again to hop across the 14-km (nine-mile) Straits of Gibraltar.



Designed by a young British inventor, the Skycar enables its driver to pilot the vehicle at the mere touch of a button as though it were a microlite.The team behind it calls the Skycar the world's first road legal biofuelled flying car.Mr Laughton's destination is the west African country of Mali and its city of Timbuktu, a place which has had a mystical, "middle of nowhere" reputation since the heyday of Victorian exploration.

Winslet and Slumdog sweep Globes

Kate Winslet has won two awards at the Golden Globes in Los Angeles, winning best actress for Revolutionary Road and best supporting actress for The Reader.
"Is this really happening?" she asked as she collected her second prize.
Slumdog Millionaire was named best film drama, one of four awards Danny Boyle's Mumbai-set movie received.



The Globes - which recognise both film and television - are often regarded as an indicator of the movies and actors who will go on to win honours at the Academy Awards.

Winslet had been expected to be named best supporting actress for The Reader, in which she plays a former Nazi prison guard who has an affair with a teenager.

Do-it-yourself 3D movies at home

3D films may soon no longer be the sole province of movie studios with big budgets.
At CES, two firms have been showing off ways for home users to make and share their own 3D films.One is a webcam with two lenses that mimics human sight and turns the images it captures into 3D footage.



Another firm is producing software that it hopes will make it far easier for home users to show 3D movies on many different types of screen.Manchester-based PDT has created the Minoru webcam that has two lenses set roughly the same distance apart as human eyes. Software included with the webcam turns the two images into what is known as an anaglyph.To see the resultant footage in 3D, viewers must wear the familiar spectacles with red and blue lenses. This ensures that only one of the two images being shown is seen by each eye and forces the brain to turn them into a moving 3D image. DIY 3D movies shot with the Minoru can be shared on YouTube

Eurovision acts set for showdown

The six acts hoping to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest are facing their biggest test yet. Under the glaring lights of the BBC's main studio at Television Centre in London, the singers are tackling rehearsals for the first live show on Saturday night. The floor is crawling with production staff, the set is lit with the colours of the Union Jack, and the band strikes up with Abba's Eurovision classic Waterloo. The acts run through their group performance of the song with great success, the opener for Your Country Needs You. They may be just getting to grips with working on television, but for one act, the dream will come to an end on Saturday



A constant presence on set is Andrew Lloyd Webber, who is spearheading the UK's campaign to improve its Eurovision fortunes. So keen to showcase the six acts he has chosen for the finals, he has invited the press to hear them sing unplugged and at close With nothing more than the barest piano accompaniment in a corner of the studio, Welshman Mark Evans powers through his song first. "Keep your voice open," says Lloyd Webber, who gives musical guidance to each of his charges."He's a very talented boy and has a very good presence," he remarks, while the 23-year-old dashes across town to appear in panto. Five-piece vocal harmony group Emperors of Soul are a different prospect altogether. "I'm a fat lot of use with them!" Lloyd Webber says of his mentoring skills with the slick quintet.