Ben Saunders

'Why I'm in Pole Position'. Article on yours truly in today's Daily Mirror (in the Careers section, would'ya believe?!)

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Bags made with fabric from Everest expedition tents, Americas Cup boat spinnakers and landing parachutes from the Soyuz missions.

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Wet t-shirt competition

Tony and I were told off by an instructor in my gym this evening. We were doing some interval training on elliptical trainers when he came over, tapped Tony on the shoulder and informed him that there is, in fact, a twenty minute time limit on the machines during peak hours.

We'd been on them for an hour and forty minutes.

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British Artist Simon Faithfull travelled to the coast of Antarctica and back with the British Antarctic Survey and sent back daily Palm-Pilot 'sketches' to document his journey and 'look at what it is that fascinates us still about this beautiful emptiness'.

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I've just upgraded the RAM in my PowerBook and am left with a homeless 256mb DDR stick. If it's any good to you, dear reader, I'll post it to you in exchange for a donation to Medecins Sans Frontieres. (Edit: sorry, it's gone!)

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Suivre son r??ve

Maud Fontenoy has just set out to row the Pacific. In 2003, aged 25, she became the first woman to row across the Atlantic ocean (West to East) in an epic 117-day, 3,512-mile battle against nature at its most cruel (for weeks, Maud kept getting blown backwards as fast as she could row).

And now she's rowing across the Pacific. Her last journey kept me on the edge of my seat for months. I have a feeling this journey will be every bit as challenging, every bit as compelling to follow and every bit as inspirational. Go Maud.

Suivre son r??ve (follow your dream).

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Why I'm never buying a webcam (link poached from Airbag).

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Congratulations Matty, Eric, Sarah, Conrad and Hilary! (A ski-sailing expedition from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole and back in 70 days.) Awesome.

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The TED Commandments

I met Chris Anderson, the Chairman and Host of TED at Pop!Tech last year, and I spent much of the flight home wondering how on earth I could wangle a speaking slot at what sounded an utterly incredible event. A few days later, as I was in the process of drafting what must have been my tenth email to Chris, he called me out of the blue. 'How do you fancy speaking at TED?' he asked. 'Erm… wow… yeah, I'd love to'.

And you know it's not going to be a normal speaking gig when instead of the usual emailed 'Theme: North Pole/Inspirational. Duration: 45 minutes. Dress: smart/casual', a half-kilo chunk of stone plops through your letterbox via Fedex with ten guidelines burnt onto it. My favourite: 'I) Thou shalt not simply trot out thy usual shtick'. Cool.

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Interactive Polar Bear.

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Polar bears near the North Pole (thanks, Damien!)

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Culture Vulture

A day of fun in the Big Smoke:

1) The Royal Institute of British Architecture's exhibition of winning designs for the British Antarctic Survey's new Halley VI Research Station (see sci-fi stylee pic).

2) An exhibition of Herbert Ponting prints (amongst other cool photography) at the Atlas Gallery.

3) 'Turtles Can Fly' at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (shot on location in an Iraqi refugee camp on the Turkish border – the first film to come out of Iraq since the collapse of Saddam's regime).

4) A trip to the rather snazzy Apple Store on Regent Street (note to self: next time, leave your wallet at home).

No's 1-3 wholeheartedly recommended. No. 4 may require an understanding bank manager and/or second mortgage/fast getaway car.

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