Phileas Fogg's Blog

Tomorrow (July 13th 2009) sees the end of the 360° scheme that YAHOO started quite some time ago and as such they have been warning people this will happen for quite some time. Therefore I would like to remind my friends on 360° to make sure that they have transferred their data from 360° to this by the end of Sunday afternoon (to ensure that nothing gets lost on the way)

As you might have noticed from the British press today, the House of Commons published every expense claim by every MP since 2004. There was however just one tiny little problem which I will now demonstrate:

Mr. Harry Hayfield
███ ███ ██████
█████████
██████████
████ ███
Telephone: █████ ██████

Expense Claim from April 1st 2009 to April 30th 2009
Fuel Bill Claim: £137.99 to ███████ ███
Electricity Bill Claim: £153.76 to ████████
Other Claims: £1,500 for █ ████ ████ and £3,957 for █ ███ ███

Get the picture? And this is called "transparency"!!!

Following the announcement that the US budget for 2009/2010 is in the trillions, I thought I should assist my friends with the numbers that are being talked about (and to put them into contexts that people can understand)

1 = one, one second = one second

1,000 = thousand, a thousand seconds = 16 minutes and 40 seconds

1,000,000 = million, a million seconds = 4 hours, 37 minutes and 46.7 seconds

1,000,000,000 = billion, a billion seconds = 31 years, 259 days, 4 hours, 26 minutes and 40 seconds

1,000,000,000,000 = trillion, a trillion seconds = 31,709 years, 289 days, 4 hours, 26 minutes and 40 seconds

Taken in our courtyard just 800m (½ a mile) from the Irish Sea coast

Today the United Kingdom was formally in a recession. This happens when you have two quarters of negative growth in the economy. The third quarter saw the UK economy shrink by 0.6%, and the fourth quarter saw the economy shrink by 1.5%. There is nowever a bright side to this

A chart showing the value of £1 in dollars over the last 12 months

At the start of 2008, £1 was worth $2 (which for me was brilliant as it meant that I could buy things from the US at virtually half price), however since then the pound has collapsed and is now only worth $1.37. This is bad for me (as things in the US now cost 32% more) but excellent news for my US friends who will find that their dollars can now buy 32% more. So I would therefore like formally state that if any of my Americans friends fancy coming to the UK for their holiday this year, then please do let me know and I will be more than happy to help you in your lanning