Baked beans beat the crisis

Baked bean sales soar as families turn back to canned food
The humble baked bean is back in fashion as families return to canned food in a bid to beat the credit crisis.

Sales of baked beans have increased by 12 per cent over the last year, surpassing annual sales of £300 million for the first time.

As food inflation in Britain has risen higher than almost anywhere else in the developing world, consumers are cutting back on their grocery bills.

Sales of post-war, ration book era food are booming, according to statistics, and families are stocking up on canned goods.

In the 52 weeks to the end of August baked bean sales reached £300.4 million, compared with just £250.2 million three years ago, according to the market research company IRI.

The figures follow evidence from supermarkets, that shoppers are starting to buy cheaper cuts of meat, such as chicken thighs rather than breast meat and braising steaks rather than sirloin or fillet.

Sheraz Dar, head of marketing for Branston Baked Beans, which released the IRI data, said: "The credit crunch is undoubtedly having some effect. Baked beans provide a very cheap source of fibre and protein so it's not surprising people are increasingly turning to baked beans for nutrition."

Asda says that sales of its budget range of Smart Price baked beans, which retail for just 20p for a 420g tin, have soared by more than 50 per cent over the last year.

With £300 million of beans sold over the last year, this could buy each household in Britain more than 22lbs (10 kilos) – or 23 large cans – worth of high-quality baked beans. Not quite enough to stock up an underground bunker, but plenty to fuel a family if the economy plumbs new ration-book era depths.

Source: Telegraph

Has the crisis altered your shopping in any way? Have you stopped buying things because they have got too expensive? Do you still treat yourself now and again to something despite its expense?

This advert for beans is from 1986 but has the same jingle as today: "beanz meanz heinz".


Do you have a favourite ad, past or present?

Pronunciation Problems

Why 'phenonemon' is the most troublesome word in the English language

Ever been refused that much-needed pay rise? Perhaps it's because you didn't ask in the right way.

It seems that many of us have trouble getting our tongue around the word 'remuneration'.

But there are many more troublesome hurdles in the language.

'Phenomenon' is the most mispronounced word, research shows, with its succession of 'm' and 'n' sounds presenting the greatest difficulty.

'Anaesthetist' also causes problems due to the tricky mixture of 'th' and 't' noises.

'Remuneration', which is often heard in its mangled form 'renumeration', came in third in the study of 3,000 Britons.

And the fourth most difficult word to pronounce, according to the poll, was ' statistics'.

However, it may be a case of back to the drawing board for some, who admitted they often struggle with common words like 'February' - which appeared in 12th place in the list.

A spokesman for Spinvox - a voicemail to text message service - which carried out the research, said: 'Many words are difficult to say and when we struggle to pronounce a word correctly it makes us self-conscious about the way we speak.

'There are some real tongue-twisters in the list and it's understandable how many people can get confused when pronouncing certain words.

'We're fascinated by the way people speak as our automatic voice-to-text conversion system has to accurately convert the different ways that people talk - including common mispronunciation.

'This means people can be confident that a written message will be authentic and contain the essence of their voice.'

But researchers also stressed that mispronunciation was no laughing matter for many.

Almost half of those who confessed to frequent errors said they suffered embarrassment as a result.

More than a third even avoided using troublesome words to save face.

But 43 per cent of people admit they often correct mispronunciation in others, and - perhaps encouragingly for the tongue-tied - only a quarter of people think it shows a lack of intelligence.

Source: Daily Mail

Make a (short) list of the words that you have difficulty pronouncing.

Robin Bank

€500,000 scam of a Spanish Robin Hood

He calls himself Robin Bank and acts as the self-appointed avenger of downtrodden loan defaulters and all poor victims of the global financial meltdown.

Like his hero Robin Hood, Spanish outlaw Enric Duran steals from the rich and gives, if not to the poor, at least to the activist groups who are sworn enemies of the banking system.

Yesterday Duran circulated 200,000 copies of a single-issue free newspaper called Crisis to show how he had spent the past two years fooling banks into lending him nearly half a million euros (about £395,000).

He said he had given it all away to social activists or spent it on the newspaper. He is refusing to pay the money back and daring the banks to get him sent to jail.

"If we include interest on arrears the present amount of debt is over €500,000, which I will not pay," he said.

As Duran, 32, went into hiding, copies of the newspaper were being handed out by friends and relatives to commuters at dozens of metro and railway stations in his home city of Barcelona.
Friends said he had fled the country earlier this week.

News of his exploits caught Spain's high street banks, consumer finance houses and building societies by surprise. They were busy yesterday checking their loan portfolios to see whether Duran was on the list.

He has provided a list of all the 39 banks he took loans from. They include one bank, Cetelem, that gave him five loans.

The police and the local attorney general's office said they had not yet started looking for Duran as they were waiting for one of the banks to lodge a formal request for him to be found.

Duran said he had raised the loans partly by setting up a false television production company. He paid back some of the early loans to ensure he had a good credit rating but stopped paying them all earlier this year.

He had started out by getting personal loans but eventually used a company name to avoid being placed on a list of bad debtors.

A small businesses office of the regional Catalan government unwittingly helped him raise at least one of the loans, according to reports yesterday.

Most of the money had been donated to social activism groups.

"What could be better than robbing the ones who rob us and distributing the money among the groups which are denouncing this situation and building alternatives?" he asked.

Bankers reacted angrily. "It is not permissible for someone to laugh [at the system] like this," Jordi Mestre, director general of the Caixa Sabadell savings bank, told the Europa Press news agency.

Other banks said they would have no trouble writing off the lost money.

"Even if it is confirmed that he took €31,000, it won't mean anything to us," said a spokesman for Bankinter.

Duran posted a video interview of himself on the internet yesterday.

"It has been an individual disobedience action against banking that I have carried out to denounce the banking system," he said.

"Banks need to grant loans because that is the main way for them to get profits. It is a wheel that will not stop until the system comes to a standstill. As individuals, instead of helping the wheel to roll by asking for loans we have the opportunity and responsibility of making things difficult for this system."

The social activist could face a prison term of up to six years if convicted.

"When I started this action I was already prepared for that possibility," he said.

Source: Guardian

Do you admire this scamster? Can you think of any other criminals that you, if not admire, at least consider clever?

AlItalia troubles

Alitalia may be nationalised by Berlusconi after rescue fails

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, will consider the option of "temporary nationalisation" of Alitalia after the dramatic collapse yesterday of a rescue bid for the troubled airline by an all-Italian consortium.

As the Italian Cabinet prepared to meet to discuss the crisis this morning, reports said Mr Berlusconi had wrongly calculated that CAI, the consortium of industrialists, would go ahead with the rescue plan despite the refusal of CGIL, Italy's largest union, and the pilots' union to accept it.

Mr Berlusconi is putting pressure on the investors to change their mind and "try again" with the support of trade unions willing to back the deal.

His miscalculation accounted for his air of optimism yesterday afternoon as the deadline for the unions to accept the CAI offer approached.

When his assumptions proved false, the Italian leader was nonplussed, according to aides, asking his advisers, "What do we do now?". He soon bounced back, however, vowing "I will not give up" and undertook to keep Alitalia flying, the aides said.

Il Giornale, the newspaper owned by the Berlusconi family, today put the blame for the crisis on the left-wing CGIL and its leader Guglielmo Epifani under the headline: "Alitalia collapses — thanks to the unions". The paper added: "The unions have tried for years to bring down Italy but they have brought down Alitalia instead".

Most newspapers condemned Alitalia staff at Fiumicino, the main Rome airport, for exulting as news of the withdrawal of the rescue plan came through, with airline staff punching the air and shouting "Better a collapse than those bandits", a reference to the industrialists in the consortium. "The cost of this irresponsibility is clear" said Il Messaggero, the Rome daily: "163 aircraft on the ground and 18,500 employees without jobs".

It said the protesters were "like those who danced on the Titanic as the ship went down". They were like people "smiling at a funeral", said La Repubblica, reporting that Air France had already applied for Alitalia's slots at Fiumicino, while Lufthansa was seeking the slots at Malpensa near Milan.

Alitalia risks becoming the first big European flagship airline to collapse since Swissair Group and Belgium's Sabena went under in 2001.

The company, which has been losing €2 million (£1.58 million) a day, has debts of more than €1 billion and risks running out of cash by the end of this month, filed for insolvency at the end of August so that the state-backed rescue and relaunch effort could get under way.

Mr Berlusconi earlier this year rejected an offer from Air France-KLM to buy Alitalia, saying he preferred an "all-Italian" solution.

Air France-KLM withdrew its offer in any case because of the unions' "impossible" conditions. Mr Belusconi, who was campaigning for election at the time, was accused by the Left of "beating the nationalist drum" to get votes and, in the process, passing up a chance to rescue Alitalia with foreign help.

The CAI rescue package included more than 3,000 job cuts and contracts laying down more hours for the same pay.

Augusto Fantozzi, the government-appointed commissioner running Alitalia, said if no further credible bids were forthcoming he would have to start liquidation proceedings. He said the carrier might start grounding flights soon. But asked if Alitalia would continue flying until the money ran out, he replied: "That is what the law stipulates and I shall respect the law."

Maurizio Sacconi, the Labour Minister, said: "The road now opens up that leads to the collapse of all the companies in the Alitalia group." He confirmed a warning by Mr Berlusconi that workers left without jobs because of liquidation would not benefit from the generous redundancy terms offered as part of the CAI rescue plan.

Italy's civil aviation authority has called Mr Fantozzi to a meeting after the weekend to decide if Alitalia's temporary licence should be revoked.

The CAI consortium had undertaken to plough more than €1 billion into Alitalia, merging its flying operations with those of Air One, Italy's second biggest domestic airline, while selling maintenance operations and other support activities.

Source: The Times

Spelling Problems

The 20 simple words Brits are unable to spell because we are all text mad

Millions of adults are unable to spell basic everyday words, a study suggests.

Of 2,500 surveyed, 40 per cent could not spell "questionnaire", 38 per cent were *stumped by "accommodate" and 37 per cent were defeated by "definitely".

Around a third of those questioned were unable to spell "liaison", "existence" or "occurrence".

Other simple words which caused problems were "calendar", "embarrass", "library" and "receipt".

Two-thirds blamed their inability to get words right on the predictive text function on their mobile phones.

Despite the embarrassing results, almost a third claimed their spelling was excellent, while 46 per cent said it was good.

Alarmingly, 14 per cent did not think it was important to spell properly, and 11 per cent were not bothered by colleagues' spelling mistakes.

Twenty per cent said they avoided writing documents by hand because their spelling was poor, and 59 per cent said they relied on their computer's spell checker to get things right - even though some are programmed with American English.

Six per cent said their spelling was so bad they had lost a job because of it.

The study was carried out on behalf of www.whitesmoke.com, which provides software to help with English grammar and writing.

A spokesman said: "It's worrying how weak our spelling has become, especially with regard to simple, everyday words.

"It's interesting to see that despite getting basic words wrong, a huge majority still regard their spelling skills as excellent or good.

"It's inexcusable to see badly-written documents in a work environment. If something isn't done in this generation, spelling standards will only decline further."

The Plain English campaign said: "People seem less inclined to consider correct spelling important.

"When we spell words incorrectly, it is bound to cause confusion and make writing more difficult to read."

The 20 simple words Brits are unable to spell:

1. Questionnaire 2. Accommodate 3. Definitely 4. Liaison 5. Existence 6. Occurrence 7. Referring 8. Occurred 9. Millennium 10. Embarrass 11. Calendar 12. Receive 13. Necessary 14. Separate 15. Cemetery 16. Library 17. Accidentally 18. Independent 19. Occasionally 20. Receipt

Sorce: Daily Mail

I admit that the odd word from the list would occassionally create problems for me. My spelling has got worse, the longer I have been living abroad. I have made some embarassing spelling mistakes in the classroom. Once I corrected "restaurant" in an exam paper, while another time I wrote "off course" on the board when I meant to write "of course". Such simple mistakes.

(By the way, I made the above mistakes on purpose!)

*Vocabulary Focus

if you are *stumped you really don't have a clue what the correct answer is.

if you are stuck, you don't know the answer because it is too difficult.

• I'm stuck with number 7. Can you give me a clue?

if you are baffled, you are extremely confused and nowhere near the solution.

• The police are baffled by the murder. They don't have any suspects and can't find any motives.

Madrid Fashion Week

Madrid Fashion Week is coming to an end but it doesn't seem to have made the international headlines. The only time that it was in the news was a couple of years ago, when the decision was made to ban ultra-skinny models from taking part.

Skinniest models are banned from catwalk

The organisers of Madrid Fashion Week have announced that they are banning skinny women to develop a more healthy image for the event this month. If any very skinny models do *turn up, they will be classed as unhealthy and in need of medical help.

The move has been heralded as good news for younger and lesser-known models, who often force themselves to become thin in the battle to secure a place among the top flight. But pear-shaped females should not celebrate too heartily, for the leading names of world fashion are showing no sign of following in the Spaniards’ footsteps. The Pasarela Cibeles trade fair in Madrid is a minnow compared with the big fish of Milan, Paris, New York and London fashion weeks.

Madrid city council, which sponsors the fashion week, has ordered that every model on show must have a body mass index (BMI) of at least 18. Models who are 5ft 9in (1.75m) tall must weigh a minimum of 8st 11oz (56 kg).

Esther Cañadas, Spain’s best-known model, does not qualify under the new rules as she is said to have a BMI of only 14. Almost a third of the women lined up appear to have been barred. The council promised that a nutritional expert would be on hand to check every model taking part in the shows, and that any woman found to have a BMI of below 16 would receive medical treatment.

The ban comes amid a row in Spain about the trend for extreme thinness on the catwalks and in high street shop windows. Cuca Solana, the organiser of the Pasarela Cibeles, was hauled before the country’s parliamentary commission for youth in April to defend the event against criticism that it pressures young women into losing weight.

According to the World Health Organisation, a woman is underweight if her BMI is less than 18.5, but Jesús del Pozo, vice-president of the Spanish Association of Fashion Designers, said that up to 40 per cent of the models who took part in last year’s event would have fallen foul of the new rules.

The organisers of London Fashion Week, which begins on September 18, said that they would not be introducing a similar rule. According to the leading agency Models 1, the models with the biggest pulling power are likely to be those with the smallest waistlines. “We have changed a lot in that there have been many more requests for bigger models, but on the catwalk long dresses do look lovely on tall, thin girls,” the agency said. “Girls who model at 15 or 16 tend to be thin girls, whose mums are thin, it’s part of their genetics, and obviously they look great in clothes.”

However, Lisa Armstrong, the Times fashion editor, asked: “Why do casting agents persist in using 15 and 16-year-olds to sell clothes to women in their thirties and upwards?” She added that the Madrid rules might have positive consequences for young British unknowns: “Madrid is a small fashion week and so this move will make very little difference to the bigger names, but younger and more inexperienced British models are sometimes sent to the smaller shows, effectively to practise.”

Sarah Doukas, Kate Moss’s agent, said that her agency, Storm, did not employ unhealthily thin women. “It’s useless to talk about body mass indexes. Who knows what that means apart from your doctor? It depends on different body types. Some people have different muscle density. I believe that girls should just eat healthily, exercise and just be normal. We just wouldn’t use someone who was really underweight or too thin.”

Source: The Times

*Phrasal verbs with turn

1. He's always turning up late for work.
2. She turned down his marriage proposal because she thought it too soon to make such an important commitment.
3. Don't worry - things will turn out alright.
4. You can always turn to her if you need any help.
5. The suspect in the murder case turned himself in last night.
6. Hundreds of people turned out to see the stars arrive for the premiere in spite of the rain.
7. They turned away anyone who wasn't dressed in the appropriate attire.
8. He was given six months to turn the fortunes of the company around.

Can you guess the meanings of the above phrasal verbs? Then check in your dicitionaries and write some examples of your own.

McCain Gaffe

You gotta feel for José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Here the Spanish Prime Minister is only four months from an end to his government's strained relations with that of President George W. Bush and blam! — along comes John McCain to suggest that the next four years might not be any better. During an interview in Miami earlier this week with Spanish-language station Union Radio, a reporter asked McCain whether, if elected, he would receive Zapatero in the White House. McCain answered, "Honestly, I have to analyze our relationships, situations and priorities, but I can assure you that I will establish closer relationships with our friends, and I will stand up to those who want to harm the United States."

Ouch. The question about Zapatero came after a series of questions on how McCain sees relations with Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba. He said he would not speak to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez "without any sort of preconditions, as Senator Obama has said he would," and said Chávez was "depriving his people of their democratic rights." He judged Bolivia's Evo Morales as "very similar" and also condemned Cuba's Raúl Castro. When the questioner said, "Now let's talk of Spain" and asked whether he'd invite Zapatero, McCain responded with a vague statement that he would meet "with those leaders who are our friends" and then cited Mexican President Felipe Calderón as an example. The questioner tried several more times to steer the Senator back to a clear answer on Spain, but McCain never directly addressed the nation, saying, "What I would say is that my record is that of someone who has worked in a friendly atmosphere with those who are our friends and faced up to those who aren't."

From this, much of the Spanish press has concluded that the Republican candidate, who hails himself as the experienced foreign policy choice in this election, confused Spain — a NATO member and key ally in the fight against terrorism — with one of those troublesome Latin American states. That was certainly the interviewer's impression, for she followed up with a gentle reminder that Spain was a country in Europe. As Spanish newspaper El País put it, "In the best-case scenario, [his answer] demonstrates his ignorance with respect to Zapatero."

Of course, there's a worst-case scenario: that McCain would, if elected, maintain his predecessor's chilly relationship with Spain. Spaniards may, on the whole, revile American politics and American comida de basura (junk food), but they still tend to measure their Prime Minister's international worth by the esteem with which the U.S. President holds him. And so, for the past four years, the Spanish Prime Minister has tried, ever so earnestly, to prove that he's one of the big boys. At every international summit he has tried to maneuver himself into position for a photograph with Bush. The press has breathlessly reported on every perfunctory exchange the two have had. And the much longed-for invitation to the White House — let alone to a certain ranch in Texas — has been the object of countless pages of speculation. But for all the aspiration, Zapatero has never managed to achieve anything like that famous 2003 photo of his predecessor, José María Aznar, in the Azores looking like he just got invited to the cool kids' party.

Of course, the fact that the cool kids' party happened to be taking place in Iraq explains a lot of the distance between the two current leaders: upon taking office in April 2004, Zapatero immediately pulled Spanish troops out of "the alliance of the willing." Which is one of the ironies of this situation — that Spain can so strongly support a foreign policy opposed to the Bush doctrine (whatever that is), while so strongly hoping for a show of respect from Washington. On Thursday, Spanish newspaper ABC's regret was palpable when it lamented that "the coldness between the governments of the U.S. and Spain could continue if the Republican candidate John McCain reaches the White House."

As for Zapatero himself, the Prime Minister is apparently taking this latest attack on his ego with characteristic equilibrium. McCain may not know who Spain's leader is, but Zapatero promised to work with the new Administration "whatever it is."

Source: Time

HMS Victory in peril

As the former flagship of Britain's greatest naval hero, she is an iconic vessel.

It was aboard her that Lord Nelson died after his most famous seafaring success, the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

HMS Victory embodies the pride, history and traditions of the Royal Navy. But now she faces another skirmish

'England Expects': The Victory sees 400,000 visitors a year, but the historic ship's future is in doubt because of the upkeep cost

The Government says she may be given to a private owner as a cost-cutting measure after fears among defence chiefs that she is becoming too expensive to maintain.

The Ministry of Defence argues that increasing budgetary pressures mean it must review Victory's future like any other ship.

But the idea that the world's oldest commissioned warship could fall into private hands or go to a charity has been criticised by naval experts, who say it would be a tragedy.

Victory has pride of place at Portsmouth dockyard, where she is visited by some 400,000 tourists annually.

She costs a minimum of £1.5million to maintain and run each year, but that figure can go up when major work is needed.

The MoD is considering whether to hand Victory to a private company, to a charitable trust similar to the one that looks after the Mary Rose, to another government department, or keep the status quo.

Lieutenant Commander Michael Cheshire, now retired, who was commanding officer of Victory from 1992 to 1998, said: 'If they sell her or give her away to charity it will be an absolute tragedy.

'This magnificent ship means so much to both naval people and the whole nation - selling it to a private firm would turn it into Disneyland and would be its ruin.

'To sell off this icon would indicate the decline of the Royal Navy.'

Former First Sea Lord Sir Julian Oswald said: 'The Victory is a national treasure. Talk of selling her

or anything of that sort is absolutely daft. It can't be that expensive to keep her - she is just wood and canvas.'

Portsmouth council leader Gerald Vernon- Jackson said: 'It's essential Victory remains available to the public and in tip-top condition - she must not be allowed to rot.

'My concern is a private firm could restrict access and just open her for corporate events or increase admission prices.'

The MoD said it was committed to keeping Victory in the best possible condition, adding that sticking with the current set-up was one of the options.

A spokesman said: 'Whatever happens, we are committed to keeping Victory as a commissioned warship.'

Source: Daily Mail

Lost in Translation

Have a read of these mistranslations. Do you get all of them? What did they really mean to say?

1. In a Tokyo Hotel: Is forbitten to steal hotel towels please. If you are not person to do such thing is please not to read notis.


2. In another Japanese hotel room: Please to bathe inside the tub.


3. In a Bucharest hotel lobby: The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.


4. In a Leipzig elevator: Do not enter the lift backwards, and only when lit up.


5. In a Belgrade hotel elevator: To move the cabin, push button for wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order.


6. In a Paris hotel elevator: Please leave your values at the front desk.


7. In a hotel in Athens: Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 A.M. daily.


8. In a Yugoslavian hotel: The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid.


9. In a Japanese hotel: You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.


10. In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox monastery: You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and Soviet composers, artists, and writers are buried daily except Thursday.


11. In an Austrian hotel catering to skiers: Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension.


12. On the menu of a Swiss restaurant: Our wines leave you nothing to hope for.


13. On the menu of a Polish hotel: Salad a firm's own make; limpid red beet soup with cheesy dumplings in the form of a finger; roasted duck let loose; beef rashers beaten up in the country people's fashion.


14. In a Hong Kong supermarket: For your convenience, we recommend courteous, efficient self-service.


15. Outside a Hong Kong tailor shop: Ladies may have a fit upstairs.


16. In a Rhodes tailor shop: Order your summers suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation.


17. Similarly, from the Soviet Weekly: There will be a Moscow Exhibition of Aets by 15,000 Soviet Republic painters and sculptors. These were executed over the past two years.


18. In an East African newspaper: A new swimming pool is rapidly taking shape since the contractors have thrown in the bulk of their workers.


19. In a Vienna hotel: In case of fire, do your utmost to alarm the hotel porter.


20. A sign posted in Germany's Black Forest: It is strictly forbidden on our black forest camping site that people of different sex, for instance, men and women, live together in one tent unless they are married with each other for that purpose.


21. In a Zurich hotel: Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose.


22. In an advertisement by a Hong Kong dentist: Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists.


23. A translated sentence from a Russian chess book: A lot of water has been passed under the bridge since this variation has been played.


24. In a Rome laundry: Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time.


25. In a Czechoslovakian tourist agency: Take one of our horse-driven city tours -- we guarantee no miscarriages.


26. Advertisement for donkey rides in Thailand: Would you like to ride on your own ass?


27. On the faucet in a Finnish washroom: To stop the drip, turn cock to right.


28. In the window of a Swedish furrier: Fur coats made for ladies from their own skin.


29. On the box of a clockwork toy made in Hong Kong: Guaranteed to work throughout its useful life.


30. Detour sign in Kyushi, Japan: Stop: Drive Sideways.


31. In a Swiss mountain inn: Special today -- no ice cream.


32. In a Bangkok temple: It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed as a man.


33. In a Tokyo bar: Special cocktails for the ladies with nuts.


34. In a Copenhagen airline ticket office: We take your bags and send them in all directions.


35. On the door of a Moscow hotel room: If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it.


36. In a Norwegian cocktail lounge: Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.


37. At a Budapest zoo: Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty.


38. In the office of a Roman doctor: Specialist in women and other diseases.


39. In an Acapulco hotel: The manager has personally passed all the water served here.


40. In a Tokyo shop: Our nylons cost more than common, but you'll find they are best in the long run.


41. From a Japanese information booklet about using a hotel air conditioner:
    Cooles and Heates: If you want just condition of warm in your room, please control yourself.


42. From a brochure of a car rental firm in Tokyo: When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage then tootle him with vigor.


43. Two signs from a Majorcan shop entrance:
    - English well talking.
    - Here speeching American.

Saving the pennies

Why is a 99p price tag so attractive?

The tactic of shops ending prices with 99p is nothing new, but a study has found it's as effective as ever in getting shoppers to part with their cash. So why is one of the oldest tricks in the retail trade hard to resist?

In terms of familiar retail ruses employed to entice shoppers to part with their money, ending price tags with 99p, rather than rounding up to the full pound, is right up there with buy one, get one free promotions and half-price offers.

But according to a French study the phenomenon still swings a considerable number of shoppers. Researchers found that lowering the price of a pizza from 8.00 euros to 7.99 euros boosted sales by 15%.

For consumers, the saving is minimal and the copper coins they receive as change when paying with a note seem to be more of a hassle than a benefit - in 2005, Britons discarded or stashed away £133m in unwanted coppers, according to Virgin Money.

So if shoppers aren't concerned about saving mere pennies these days, why are they falling for the 99p effect?

Emotional difference

One theory is consumers just aren't up to the maths. Dr Jane Price, lecturer in psychology at the University of Glamorgan, says we "tend to put numbers in categories like 'under £5' or 'under £6' - rather than them representing a value. Shoppers are aware of what is going on, but don't respond to it because they don't think logically about how close numbers are - such as £99.99 and £100."

She thinks shoppers tend to focus on the big denomination - which the pound sign draws the eye to - rather than the smaller denomination: the pence. There is also the emotional incentive - people like to feel they are getting better value for money.

Robert Schindler, professor of marketing at Rutgers Business School in the US, has published several papers on the "99 effect". He expresses it slightly differently, observing that people overweigh the left hand number.

"When a price changes from $30 to $29.99, the change from three to two makes more of a difference than the value of that money could predict," says Mr Schindler. "It is like when a 39-year-old turns 40, the birthday feels like a big deal. Or when 1999 ends and 2000 starts. It feels like an emotional difference."

Discount associations

It's sometimes suggested the "99 effect" was adopted as a control on employee theft - cashiers had to open the till for change, reducing the chances of them pocketing the bill.

But Mr Schindler thinks it has a different origin. It was introduced for sale items, to emphasise the discount.

"I studied adverts in the New York Times from 1850 - where there were no 99 endings - to the 1870s and 1880s where they started to appear. Although department stores were doing it - which would fit with the cash register hypothesis - they were advertising discounts. But for the regular price they would use a round number," he says.

He thinks the retail practice developed from there, to communicate discount or the impression that things are on sale - even when they are not.

But it is a subtle effect, which works when consumers are susceptible to price sensitivities and are making a snap decision, rather than deliberating over big items like cars and houses. And high end brands which exude a classy image tend not to use the tactic.

Pressure on income

Nick Gladding of Verdict Research, is sceptical shoppers are fooled by the "99p effect". However, in these more straitened times, even tiny adjustments in price can be enough to win over hard up consumers.

"We are seeing fuel prices going up and down by 1p - it is a tiny amount of money, but people want to hear about it," he says.

So are there any other numbers that the unsuspecting shopper should be aware of?

A .95 ending is also popular, observed Mr Schindler, although anyone shopping in Asia might be struck by how prices often end in .88. The reason? Eight is an auspicious number in countries such as Japan, Hong Kong and mainland China.

Source: BBC News

18,000 Euros to leave Spain

Spain's radical plan for migrants

On the northern outskirts of Madrid, the Tres Cantos railway station is getting a makeover.

Under a fierce midday sun, immigrant labourers from North Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe shift huge concrete slabs into place on the platform, and scatter fresh layers of shingle between the rails and sleepers.

This back-breaking work pays €1,200 (£950) per month, and everyone is making the most of it.

With the construction industry in dire trouble, their Spanish boss has no other projects in the pipeline, and the entire workforce will be laid off when this job ends.

So, any takers for the government's new offer to unemployed immigrants?

If they volunteer to go back to their home countries and not return to Spain for three years, foreigners will qualify for lump-sum benefit payments, typically worth around €18,000 (£14,200).

The scheme applies to the citizens of 19 non-EU countries which share social security agreements with Spain.

"If someone offered me that cash now I'd go," says Patrick, from Equatorial Guinea. "Back home, it would go further; I could invest it," he adds.

Guillermo, from the Dominican Republic, warns that: "if the economy carries on like this, we'll all have to leave". But given a choice, he would rather stay. "I now consider myself Spanish," he grins.

Unemployment benefits

In the space of barely a decade, Spain's immigrant population has leapt by an astonishing 800%, and cheap immigrant labour was a vital factor in the construction-led economic boom.

As long as there was work to go round, Spain mostly avoided the kind of immigration-related tensions witnessed in other European countries.

Today, however, with an EU-high unemployment rate of 10.7%, the picture looks very different.

"Immigrants were seen by everyone as helping," explains Pedro Schwarz, an economist.

"They took jobs in construction - boosting growth and keeping wages down. But today, with the jobless total rising, some Spanish-born citizens are complaining that the new immigrants are beginning to hog the unemployment benefits."

For the time being, the 2.1 million foreigners registered for Spanish social security are net contributors to the system - paying in more than they receive.

But, over the past 12 months, the number of immigrants claiming unemployment benefit has surged by 81%, to 178,230 in July 2008.

"What we're trying to do is link immigration to the labour market," says Celestino Corbacho, Spain's minister for work and immigration.

"The forecasts say it'll take two or three years for the economy to recover, so we think it's good to offer people possibilities.

"If someone is entitled to $15,000 (£8,000), that's going to create more opportunities in their home country than here in Spain."

"Thank you and goodbye"

Under the new scheme, scheduled for launch in September, participating immigrants would receive two years worth of up-front unemployment benefits - 40% when they volunteer for the scheme in Spain, the rest on arrival back in their country of origin.

To qualify, they would have to surrender their Spanish work and residence papers for the duration of the deal.

The government insists this is merely a common sense response to Spain's undeniable economic problems, but immigrant welfare groups view the policy with suspicion.

"I feel that we've been used," complains Washington Tobar of the Hispano-Ecuadorean Foundation in Madrid.

"When they needed cheap labour, the doors opened. And now they don't need us, they just say 'thank you and goodbye' - and expect us to go back to our own countries."

In a modest apartment in Madrid's La Latina district, 42-year-old Leonardo Ramirez prepares lunch for his two children.

A marketing graduate in his native Ecuador, he paid his way here through construction, until the work dried up a year ago.

Now renting out a spare room to help pay his mortgage, Leonardo is one of 100,000 unemployed foreigners whom the government hopes immediately to tempt with its offer. But he is far from keen.

"Even $20,000 or $30,000 isn't that much money, in terms of capital to invest back home," he explains.

"They are people who'll have to buy a house, and children's schooling is expensive. Also, immigrant families are integrated here - they don't want to start all over again."

Avoiding conflict

Outside, on Leonardo's housing estate, immigrant children play football, while Latino pop blares out from several apartments.

This new Spain is unrecognisable from the country of 10 years ago, and the government is controversially trying to turn back the clock.

But Mr Corbacho denies that Spain is ungrateful for the contribution made by immigrants, or that foreigners are being made scapegoats for the country's economic woes.

"Immigration is not a problem, it's a phenomenon," says Mr Corbacho.

"And phenomena are never neutral - they change a lot of things and create new challenges. Our challenge is to manage this phenomenon, so that our diverse, multicultural society avoids conflict in the future," he says.

It is a radical approach to immigration from a socialist government which appeared to run shy of the issue in the lead-up to its election victory in March.

Now, the politicians hope - quite literally - to make the problem go away. And other EU governments, facing similar challenges, will be closely monitoring the Spanish scheme's progress.
Source: BBC News