I'm sorry, I have only ever had hash browns with my English breakfast on holiday.

I've never been served hash-browns anywhere else - they tend to be seen as an American invention in the UK.

And where's the black pudding? Or even the white pudding?

Duh! If you have a better army, you can control greater territory; greater territory necessitates a greater administration and greater trade networks. You also gain new knowledge from newly administrated territory.

I got the creeps reading about that Zodiac Killer - no wonder the hippie dream died in the late 1960s with the Manson and the Zodiac Killer about.

Why the distortion? This sucks.

Isn't this the recipe for this years Darwin Awards?

Firing machetes on something that is unreliable with it's aim as a slingshot. Why don't they just throw the knives in the air and run around trying to avoid the falling machetes because that would be just as dangerous, and would actually be funnier.

I find it not at all surprising that the highest tax countries have the highest social mobility. People think that having lower taxes are a good thing - it's not, we are more likely - as individuals - to spend our money more irrationally than the government.

Strangely, the country with the highest income tax in the world - Denmark - is according to Forbes Magazine (certainly not socialist) the best place to invest money in the world.

The US and UK have been in decline since the Seventies, and almost certainly since Reaganomics of smashing the poor and the middle-class so that the rich can buy one more yacht or have one more supercar.

Anyone else thinking Ireland property boom and bust? I head people are fearing a similar problem, though China has a much higher saving rate than most Western countries.

The problem is that property developers often develop before there is a need, and often in places where there is no need for new development.

In the UK there are too many centre of city flats in big northern cities, particularly Leeds, Liverpool, and Glasgow.

I have a friend in Glasgow staying in a very attractive converted warehouse, with all mod-cons for £100 a week. Down in London it'll go for over £1500 (maybe £2500 a week). It's all down to demand and supply!

In Liverpool and Leeds there are more flats than people want to live in. Generally, British people much prefer houses to flats.

As well as too many flats, there are too many property developers!

minokawa...how do they work? It must be G-O-D!

I am honestly very surprised there has been no ill informed anti-union and anti-strike comments yet!

Whenever people do strike it is always for very good reasons, and only go on as long as the managers do not agree with the conditions the strikers have proposed.

I like turtles

What currency do they use?

This is most definitely true from what I know from being a chugger, a door-to-door charity worker. You should have seen the houses I went to, some were huge and they would not give a penny. Go to a council house and they are very generous.

Splint Chesthair - a poor person isn't going rip you off, or bankrupt a nation.

I've quit my job by saying what I did was morally dubious and could no longer bother people in their houses. I was a door-to-door chugger.

I essentially knocked doors and gave out a long schtick to the make the unfortunate so-and-so about the charity. It taught me one thing: the rich are far less generous than the poor - one rich guy living in a large opulent house with a top of a range Mercedes in his drive way very smuggly told me he was too poor to give money to charity. I did rather darkly think about burning down his house(!)

Just like in tax, the poor are 'happy' to pay their taxes, but those who can afford won't!

Grammar and spelling Nazis? I hardly think telling someone to spell and use grammar so you know what they are saying is much of a problem. I personally go red with anger when somebody starts spelling like this:

'GRAMMER n speling Nazis ? I don.t think so tellin sum1 who spel and use gramma so ukno wot they are sayin is much of prob. I go RED with anga wen sumbody starts spellin like dis.'

The problem is that doesn't do justice to the f******* ***** spelling and use of grammar I've seen on some blogs and forums. I find it ridiculous that somebody would deliberately misspell or use bizarre grammar rules just because to make themselves look cool, or for brevity. I've seen some 40 guy who a gay dating site I use language of moronic 14 year old texting language, just because he thought it would attract some younger guys. Its pathetic.

And don't get me started on the use of 'dis' and 'dat'. When I was a lad - before mobile phone technology became widespread - saying dis or dat would have people calling the person - quite rightly - a spacko.

Grrrrh!

Hey, I come from the English equivalent of Jersey Shores - quite a bit of money, no class! The first thing that hits me going back to my hometown is profusion of men - and particularly women - wearing clothes with massive logos on them. When I go to much wealthier parts of London, I really don't see this. So I have to agree with this.