Prior art......

One of Sir Terry Pratchetts creations: The Luggage The Luggage is a large chest that follows Rincewind literally wherever he goes- even onto Roundworld, which Rincewind only visited virtually. It is made of sapient pearwood (a magical, intelligent plant which is nearly extinct, impervious to magic, and only grows in a few places outside the Agatean Empire, generally on sites of very old magic). It can produce hundreds of little legs protruding from its underside and can move very fast if the need arises. It has been described as "half suitcase, half homicidal maniac" Its function is to act as both a luggage carrier and bodyguard for its owner, against whom no threatening motion should be made. The Luggage is fiercely defensive of its owner, and is generally homicidal in nature, killing or eating several people and monsters and destroying various ships, walls, doors, geographic features, and other obstacles throughout the series. Its mouth contains "lots of big square teeth, white as sycamore, and a pulsating tongue, red as mahogany." The inside area of The Luggage does not appear to be constrained by its external dimensions, and contains many conveniences: even when it has just devoured a monster, the next time it opens the owner will find his underwear, neatly pressed and smelling slightly of lavender. One of the most notable features of The Luggage is its ability to follow its current owner anywhere, including such places as inside its owner's mind, off the edge of the Disc, Death's Domain, inside the Octavo, the Dungeon Dimensions, and even (literally) to Hell and back. Like all luggage, it's constantly getting lost and having to track its owner down. It has only one way of overcoming obstacles, and that is by simply ignoring them and smashing a hole through them — including a wall to a magic shop that had since relocated to another city by magical means.

Dear Virginia......... http://www.newseum.org/yesvirginia/

If you have the time take Eurostar from London to Paris at 180mph, takes a little over two hours, Phil

Glad I dont live in the land of the free. Article from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8345341.stm

I had Friday 13 for two days in a row. Fiji to Hawaii.

If you want to see real museums go to Europe. The US has been around only a very short time. Londons museums are huge. You will need a week to skim each one. La Louvre in Paris is on many floors, and each wing is well in excess of a mile. Museums in Europe have stuff going back millenia, not just 200 years or so.

Bear in mind the Europeans helped themselves to other countries treasures in days of empire. Even European cities go back in many cases to Roman times.

Just suggesting that the world is not just the US.

Phil

Soylent Green is for Tuesdays, people food.....

1. House prices and property keep on rising. If you buy a house now you can sell it next year for say 15% more. Gear up, buy and then let out your property to make even more money. Look at all the TV proggys on making money from houses to prove this point. Whatever price you pay is not an issue. Borrow at 7 times your earnings and 125% of the said value of the property is no problem. Fill your boots and make a ton of money, guaranteed. No risk.

(Don't listed to those old type bank managers who were so unhelpful and whom banks fired years ago in favour of salesmen selling whatever they could. They knew nothing).

If in the unlikely event someone could not pay their mortgage (very rare event) the property would absolutely be worth more than their mortgage arrears. Even better sell the loans to some other sucker. No risk here.

2. As you all know interest rates are undeniably under control and will never significantly rise as our central banks are such clever chaps (and chapesses) and have everything under control. So we will see a low interest rate environment for many years, so no risk here.

3. Inflation is absolutely under control and will never get out of hand, again thanks to the geniuses managing our economy. So no worries here.

4. Gearing is good and isn't risky, if you are really clever. Gear up as much as you want and to make even more money at little risk. Better still borrow in say Yen at very low rates. The Yen will never rise against the $/£ to any degree, so no risk here.

5. Banks and bankers are very clever people and know what they are doing. Look at their pay and bonus packages to see how astute they are. Shareholders would never allow incompetents to have such large pay packages if they were not undoubtedly geniuses. With the bankers at the helm nothing can go wrong, obviously. No risk here.

Risk Calcs = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = naff all risk so fill your boots.

What could possibly go wrong?