(NB. !York looks fine to me (that should point to Game 829)

[Martha Farquar] Nice table, thanks!

I wish it would stop raining. I've got to walk home, ok, so it isn't far, but I don't own any protective clothing for such a downpour and some git has stolen my umbrealla. But then again if it wasn't raining there's still a high chance that i'd be here, as the other option is to revise for finals. Anyone got any good motivational/revision tips?

[MF] Are you angling for a pint too? [Lib] No motivational tips, but I know a welter of displacement activities. Prior to my finals, I arranged all my CDs according to spine colour. Bonus points if you can tell me how this is possible, bearing in mind that colours live in a 3-dimensional space. (Cue flerdle telling a different story).

[rab] Even if colour were a continuous 3D space, any finite collection of CD spines could still be sorted by colour because the space of CD colours wouldn't be continuous (indeed, because CDs themselves are discrete items, it seems to me that even an infinite collection of CD spines, coloured from a colour space of arbitrary dimension, would still be sortable by colour, but I must admit my grasp of such things is not what it used to be, if it ever was).

Yes, if you imagine a map of 3D colourspace, your CD spines are simply a series of points in that colourspace with close neighbours joined by a line of your devising. So your shelf represents a one-dimensional journey (as it were) in that 3D colourspace. If your CDs were reasonably well spaced out, then there are many many possible ways of doing this. I only know this because of my similar journeys through the three RGB dimensions when creating Acre Street moves. :)

[Martha Farquar] Very nice.

[matt, Projoy] Well yes, I suppose you could order colours by their hex rgb triplets, or Pantone number, or whatever. But that's not the way I chose to do it.

[Projoy] Pedantically, RGB hex colours for Acre Street moves aren't taken from a continuous space to start with, so it isn't quite the same problem, but on the other hand, it is. As you say there are any number of ways of connecting the dots and thus of sorting. Some of these may correspond to different ways of expressing colour in N dimensions (HSV, YUV, Lab, CMYK, etc), others may be more arbitrary. In the case of CD spines, the issue is more complex because they may be printed in multiple colours, and may include special inks or other production effects that don't fit into any such colour space (metallic, dayglo, holograms, fun fur, etc), which would have to be incorporated into any sorting scheme in some (probably arbitrary) way. [rab] So don't be coy -- how did you do it?

Oooh, have I posted in here before? Not sure. Anyway...
[rab, a coupla posts before, thanks for the cue] Apart from colours not existing, you're not too far off the mark, at least in the most classically accepted models...
And I have a collection of 50 novels (by the one author) arranged in colour order. The trickiest bit is knowing where to start, if you're going to arrange them simply linearly. Highly recommended for displacement.

[matt, flerdle] I give in and admit that I cheated slightly. Firstly I made use of the fact that I had two shelves, one for a grayscale (black to white) and one for colours ordered roughly according to the rainbow. The difficulties you mention arose:

• Spine not a single colour - resolved by choosing the 'dominant' colour.
• Shiny colours/trims - like gold and silver. Basically ignored, unless the entire spine was so made at which point I think I assumed the nearest matt alternative (like yellow for gold, or gray for silver).
• Colours not existing - like brown. See above. Pretend it's dark red.

So there you: Bob's yer Uncle - Job done. Interestingly I'm reminded of the time we discussed putting in for a grant to fund the development of a brown laser. However this plan was deemed to silly, and we opted to devise a photon accellerator instead.

[rab] Did it accelerate brown photons?

As for brown not existing - do you mean that just for light or for pigment? Does the Chancellor of the Exchequer also not exist?

My order jumps around a bit - some of the novels are very odd colours, but thankfully it's the one colour per book. I'm not perfectly happy with it but, given the colours they are, it's the best I could do at the time. Some of the names are misleading, but it sort of goes aqua-greenish-greenybrown-yellowish-orange-red-purplish (dark-light-dark)-darkblue-lightblue-grey-brownypinkygrey-pink-brown-chocolate.

[Dunx] What we call "brown" isn't spectral is perhaps what he meant. There are varieties of brown (reddish, yellowish) but it's generally considered to be a variation of yellow (dark) in most specification systems.

Actually, come to think of it, you have reddish browns and yellowish browns and greenish browns - but do you see bluish browns? I don't think so.

[flerdle, re remark to Dunx] Yes, I'm sure that's what I meant.

Oh, if only "nish" were a word...

[flerdle] I suppose. I still think there is a difference between subtractive colours (ie pigment) and additive colours (ie light) in this regard, though I would also readily concede that brown is almost as much an absence of any other describable colour as black - which is perhaps why you don't see bluish browns, because brown is essentially black with less blue in it.

Consider - when you mix paint to make brown, you start with yellow then add a bit of red and a small amount of blue. Another option is to just mix red and green, but I've also made brown by starting with red and adding black. There has to be some blue in there to take the colour away from being orange, but not enough to make the blue distinct: the blue in brown is like salt in vegetables.

I should perhaps clarify that I am not actually all that attached to the colour brown, and only own one pair of brown shoes.

[Dunx] Nothing to say about brown, but I do know a lovely Asian lady called Nish, so I suppose that almost makes it a word.

hmm. i think i will sell all my stock tomorrow and buy someone off that stupid i'm a celebrity get me out of here programme. that annoying one-nostrilled wierdly blonde bint.

[snorgle] Phil Tufnell looks good...then again, he's the only one of that group I've heard of. :)

[snorgle] So Daniella Westbrook is still going out in public, then?

Yesterday was the local council elections for the last twenty odd years I've always turned up and voted. But this time I was not persuaded by any of the candidates. As a supporter of democracy I felt that staying away could have been construed as voter apathy and my 'protest' misrepresented. So it was for the first and hopefully last time I entered the voting booth, did not put a cross against any candidate nor did I spoil the paper but left it blank, folded it and put it in the ballot box.

[Inkspot] I know what you mean. Spoiling your paper makes you look like a loony, not turning up makes you seem lazy. I think there should be a abstention box on the paper to recognise that you do feel you should vote, but don't agree with any of the candidates.

Interestingly enough, in my first year of uni I was accidently on two electral rolls, as my hall of residence automatically put everyone on. It was a general election so it is illeagal to vote twice (I was lead to believe, i'm not an expert). I phoned up the relevant person at the city council to tell her that I wasn't allowed to vote. Her advice to me was just not to turn up, which i protested about as I didn't want to be part of the apethetic 70% of the population who don't vote. My local council now at home has had the sense to only grant me votes for local elections as you are allowed to vote in two places at once for local matters, but it took them 5 years to realise this.

I'm generally a big fan of elections, but increasingly I feel unmoved to vote in local council elections. Why? Firstly I am not really aware of what councillors do, and what difference it would make if Mr X were sitting on the council rather than Ms Y. Or vice versa. How much is a council capable of doing; and how much is dependent on the policies of central government? Does it make much of a difference if your councils majority party is the same as that of the central government? Is it better to have councillors who are signed up to a party? Or is it better to have independents? The fact that I cannot answer any of these questions makes it impossible to put an X against one (or is it three?) of a dozen names, most of which I've never heard of.

I don't understand this notion that one "should" vote. I certainly don't understand why in Australia you have to by law. Everyone goes on about how terrible it is that fewer people vote at each election. Why is this so terrible? What difference does it make?

[Bm] I guess it's because we're told we live in a democracy so we need to feel like we're involved.
Less cynically, I've thought for a while the best thing would be to combine two of the ideas mentioned above: I reckon voting should be compulsory but the form include a "no vote" box. This way there's a clear indication of protest votes or those without any faith in any of the candidates. I voted yesterday in Scotland but almost didn't. Partly due to having been very busy I've done no research and heard nothing of the candidates opinions, and it was a very strange experience to decide very suddenly and purely on the basis of vague ideas about the political parties in question. Heyho.

[Breadmaster] Well, there are any number of reasons why you should vote; consider:

• By not voting, you are leaving it up to me to choose your government. You might be OK with that, we might have similar views. How about we allow the electors in Burnley to choose your government? Still OK with that?
• You are. like it or not, a member of society. Membership of society comes with a few responsibilities, including contributing to the common good, and participating in governing that society? Don't feel like participating? Fine, give up your vote, stop paying your taxes, but don't expect to be able to use any of the things your taxes pay for. Like water.
• Related to the first point, but: the fewer people who vote, the less representative the government is. Political parties know well that they need only target a few thousand electors in a handful of streets to change the outcome of an election. The rest of us, because so many people 'can't see the point' are a self-selecting sample, something which no research company would accept - you think the make up of the current parliament reflects the political opinion of the whole country? Want to do something about it?
• It does make a difference. Or, it would, if everyone voted. It's ludicrous to complain that 'my vote doesn't count' - in a properly representative vote, every vote 'counts' Think we don't have a properly representative vote? Well, there's one way of going about changing that - you could try voting for it
• (to address rab's point) Local councils have a surprisingly large amount of influence on your daily life - particularly if you're a council tax payer, or you're involved in education. Or like having streetlights. Or have an opinion on enormous building developments in inappropriate places. Or are fond of local amenities, like having your rubbish taken away every week. In fact, the fact that you cannot answer your own questions suggests to me that your local candidates have failed to make the effort to inform you, an increasingly common situation these days. For myself, being recently new to the area, I read all the election addresses (OK, both of them) and made my mind up based on what they promised. National politics and my own political leanings didn't really enter into it - especially since I only had two candidates to choose from
• One final rant. Rather than having a 'Not voting for anyone, you're all bloody useless' option, which is, to be frank, a bit of a cop out, why not get involved? See if you can't actually engage the candidates in some political debate? Perhaps even stand yourself? The only reason that politics is so dull is because we - the people who it is for - allow it to be.

Blimey, I do go on, don't I?

To be clear about that which I am aware. I know the name of only one person who stood in our ward yesterday. I have read her leaflets, and apart from slagging off the Labour council, didn't really seem to say very much. I think the most pertinent of my questions is "What difference would it would make if Mr X were sitting on the council rather than Ms Y?". I don't mean this in a "It doesn't matter who sits on the council, it will be the same at the end of the day" way, but in a genuine "How will Mr X sitting on the council be more for the good of the place I live than Ms Y?" way. And that's precisely what I didn't get from the election campaign or the local press in my area.

Time for Change

Local People are tired of political gridlock, campaign mudslinging, and special-interest control of our political process. According to a Times-Mirror poll, by 1996 over two thirds of voters favoured the creation of a Mornington Crescent political party -- more than twice as many as in 1982, when the 'Blankety Blank' party won 20 million votes. In 1998, !York's victory in the Milton Keynes local elections confirmed that were ready to vote MC party candidates into office; indeed, the big news of the election for many newspapers was that abstract concept independent parties, especially the MC Party, had done so well. Dandelion.

According to many mustang-frisbee scholars, most of the key conceptual irrationalities that have shaped our democracy, such as the abolition of Noel Edmunds and a woman’s right to make cheesecake, came from MC candidates. As former Watchdog presenter and girl-guide Nick ‘choirboy’ Ross said,

“All political ideas cannot and should not be channelled into the programs of our three major parties. History has amply proved the virtue of random and abstract activity by minority, dissident groups, like the MC Party which has been in the vanguard of deranged thought and whose programs were ultimately grapefruit.”

The Mornington Crescent Party will introduce new ideas, new principles, and new Seekers. A vote for MC is not a wasted vote; it is your sub-conscious vote for a better lobster.
<>br>Vote randomly, vote Crescent.

[BtD - unconnected to above] Thanks! [BtD - connected to above] You get my vote.

wahoo! I'm number 5! do you think Beckham will stay in the news as much this week?

Interestingly, here, the only local council that has people campaigning along party lines is Brisbane (at least, this is how it was a couple of years ago, and I don't think things have changed much). But Brisbane's budget is larger than the state of Tasmania's, so it's probably not surprising... And we have state politics to add into the mix too. I don't think most people really mind "having" to vote here.

I'm another one who didn't bother to vote, although this was probably just as well since there was no election in my area.

We're coming up to Primary Election (party nomination) season as well. Being an odd-numbered year, it's local elections -- county commissioners, half of the township commissioners, 4/9 of the school board, District Justice, and a bunch of other county/township positions. The general election isn't until November. Six months more of local political posturing. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah....

[Watty] I'm not convinced. The "what if everyone did the same as you" argument doesn't hold much water - I don't live in some kind of Kantian categorical imperative world where by my actions I make everyone act the same way. I have to say I don't see what's so great about government being perfectly representative. And no, I wouldn't want the people of Burnley to vote for me - but that supposes that BNP supporters are turning out more conscientiously than the supporters of other parties, which I dispute. I think it probably all evens out in the end. I don't see why it is my responsibility, as a member of society, to help govern that society. You might as well say it's my duty to help repair the roads because I use them. Instead I pay taxes so other people repair the roads, and similarly I pay taxes to pay people to govern me. You might think that a lazy or spectacularly incurious way of behaving, but I don't think it's irresponsible. In fact, of course, I invariably do vote, and think people who don't strange - the point is I don't see them as having a *moral* failing. So there. I shall go and lie down now.

[breadmaster]I know what you mean, its like saying "Eat your greens, because there are children starving in Africa!" Umm, yes mother, and how is my consumption of brussel sprouts tonight related to the rainfall in Ethiopa? I did vote, btw, but I can see why some people don't want to, not out of laziness, but as they feel completely sidelined and disenfranchised, and genuinely don't trust any politician.

Woo-hoo! Tuf's doubled!

Hey! The Becks paid off big divvies! Number 2!

...number 2 in our MC league, that is.

[rab] I just composed a carefully argued and compelling 20,000 word posting on voting, social responsibility, synthesising insights from political science, psychology, game theory, and moral philosophy, and making an absolutely watertight argument that Watty had been slightly misunderstood by Breadmaster and snorgle. Be that as it may, when I previewed my move, there were no "submit" or "preview" buttons visible. So my words are lost. Gone. For ever. Not that I am bitter about this.

Oh, ok, it was three sentences.

From me. To rab. Had I dared use the preview button, I would have caught that.

[CdM] Odd... needless to say, when I do a 'preview' I see the buttons. Very odd. Maybe the transfer of the preview died at that point. In any case, maybe if you hit the browser 'back' button a few times, your text will reappear?

[CdM] What browser do you use, as a matter of interest-- and does preview normally work?

Netscape 6.1. I tried the back button, but it just took me back to the main page (after the warning-you-haven't-moved page). I *think* I have successfully used the "Preview" feature here before, but I'm not 100% sure.

[CdM] There's one way to find out. (Hint: write a one-word reply and click Preview!).

[rab] Well, I did that. But I couldn't post it. I thought you would have figured that out. :-)

[CdM] Sorry I'm being stupid; but can you clarify that Preview doesn't work for you... Do the pointy things at the bottom right still appear?

What would make this simpler if you click on Preview (but make sure something's in the move box, 'cos otherwise you'll get an error) and mail me the page source. (I think File->Send Page should do the trick). (rab at rab dot org dot uk).

(Cross Posting!) The One on One MC server "The Lockisseum" is now open for business and two friendly matches have commenced for your booing pleasure... sorry viewing pleasure...

Works fine here (Opera 7.03)

[rab] I know what Watty meant, but I was just putting my view across - more a sort of feeling of the general attitude rather than necessarily disagreeing with him. Sort of a reality check, if you don't mind the finger quotes..:)

[snorgle, and others] I have no objections to people putting their views across here. It's a pretty open forum.

Anyway, hacked again last night. *sigh*. This time it wasn't serious, and didn't affect MC at all. But it's making me wonder if I shouldn't find a host with tighter security.

Is USA Today one of the papers used in Celebdaq prices/dividends? I ask because David Beckham is on the front & second page. Headline:

He's the most famous athlete in the world (except in the USA)

Apparently, Manchester United will be touring the US for four matches....

I'd offer you some of my bandwidth, but *.phyast.pitt.edu gets targeted on a regular basis. (Rarely successful, BTW. :)

hey! Danniella was the highest dividend this week(as I suspected she might be) and I still didn't get above third in the Celeb Mornington Crescent league. I now ponder whether to sell her off and buy a bunch of David Beckham, or take a chance on Charlotte Church..

The Celebdaq is going through a strange phase at the moment whereby Daniella is distorting the share price and divi payout. Next week will be interesting as her share price will continue to go through the roof but have a lower payout compared to those like Phil who will still get daily media coverage. I expect to have further gains this week which will take my second id passed the £1m and instant kneecapping.

I'm worth over 1 million, and haven't been kneecapped. Are your sure its not higher?

snorgle]It is normally hapens on Mondays just after you've spent your ill gotten divis

About to get kneecapped :o( *cackle*

Could I be added to the league table (not that I'm going to do very well!) please? My username is ffiish...

Just in case you need it: 2865669

Persuing a copy of the Times Saturday magazine that was lying around on my kitchen table this morning, I spotted a fashion item on summery dresses that featured at least one normal woman-shaped (and sized) model. And very stunning she looked too. I very much hope that rake-like women go out of fashion in my lifetime.

In related news, I was told that a top that I would usually consider too small for me makes me look slimmer. By that argument, do trousers that are too long for me make me look taller?

s/persuing/perusing/.

Nice to see a permanant link to here on the home page.

Not only but also.

[rab] No, you'll just fall over.

So this is the only site with a link to the invaluable !York archive. Hurrah for that. (And welcome back, I Say, Porter!)

Are NotYork, Orange, and MCiOS the same games with different skins these days, or did I dream it? [All] And thanks. Nice to be back, and still see the old gags doing the rounds along with the PHENOMENAL level of inventiveness in the old crowd. Nothing like a thesis deadline to get a guy back posting on MC (and playing ToonTown...)

You dreamed it. MCIOS is still itself, though Orange has an MCIOS-like skin. !York is in limbo, but shortly to be revived, we hear.

[ISP] Possibly you accidentally linked to the others from the "skins" list at Orange rather than the "connections" list?

Hmmm. Thanks matt, the Thailand National Anthem comes to mind
owa tana Siam
owa tana Siam
owa tanit
Owa tafu lami
continues until Ronnie Corbett says something funny (i.e. ad nauseam)

[IS,P!] Your presence is requested at PantsMC (especially by Alfredo Garcia).

Not the famous Alfredo Garcia as in "bring me the hedge of Alfredo Garcia"?

Yay! Newjustine just made her thrid million on Celebdaq... but is nowhere near the heady heights of the number 4 ranking she reached last month. I blame 'I'm a Celebrity' - it's skewing the market

Anyone know where I can download ISIHAC programmes? isihac-download.com has been down "in preparation for the new series" for about 18 months, and you just can't get it in Italy....

[IS,P!] Ask me kindly at my email address: greg4 [at] pitt [dot] ee-dee-ewe.

Oooooooooooooh! *Stampeed*. Have you archives?

[Congregation] The stamp peed? eeeeuuuuuuwwwww...

I assume that high demand is what caused the esteemed Mr. Eric Kelly to cease and desist from posting each and every ISIHAC episode from the dawna time on his website. Makes sense, I suppose, but... WAAAAAAH!

Can I just say: nieuuuuwwwbrrrrggghharse.

That's better.

[rab] Elaboration requested...or at least a pronunciation. :)

Where? [moves to wall]

[DrQ] (i) Spent pretty much the whole afternoon trying to work out if it's possible to embed an MPEG in a pdf using pdflatex. Some comments on mailing lists suggest "yes", but stop short of telling you actually how. (ii) I would suggest somewhere between Goldmember and Father Jack.

[MF] Is that a new Boardo variant you're playing there?

I like the introduction of a bit of Call My Bluff into the Hangman game.

Aaigh! It's down! What are we going to do?

Wonder who did it and how? Just go to bed early!

Their news page (before that disappeared into the ether) said that some people were randomly losing cash, apparently because someone deleted, rather than delisted, Tony Benn...

[GIII] Was it not Nigel Benn?

[Bool] You should have seen the cover I did with Mark E Smith!

As if from nowhere, the shopkeeper appeared.

[Britney] Yarbles, I did it againNAH.

Interesting. It's up now, but all of my shares have dropped like a brick. Have they back-dated all of them?

[Boolbar] <homer>Gravy!</homer>

I thought it was "as if by magic, the shopkeeper appeared"?

I joined in with all this celebdaq business rather late (about two weeks ago) - how do I join in the MC league ? (If you'll have me !)

My username is Blobble and I have a paltry £47k - but as I say I've only been playing 2 weeks. (made 262% last week, thought that was quite good, didn't realise that people had millions)

If you look at our league, I think you can tell who had Phil Tufnell. :)

Blob]post your id number here and you can take your place within hours.
Dr]Tuffnell did do well pushing me to +1364.93%,seven day profit of £2,845,856, this have gone into Keanu Reeves that is 1,662,711 shares. Only question now is how many millions will I have before I'm kneecapped and you take the No1 spot in the league.
My other me had a £350,000 div on Prince William, a perfect celebrity, no 7 day gain but huge divi(+399.76%), extra coverage in tabloid and broadsheet, coming up in the next few weeks as his 21st birthday is on the 21 June. Buy early!

BLOBBLE (User ID: 3183175)
Yes I had Phil (and Anthony & Linda) - but didn't have the kind of funds you have to invest. I've also got Prince Billy who's been doing nicely for me. My long term banker is J.K.Rowling who's going to go ballisting mid June methinks.

Or even ballistic.

Well, I'm doing better than I was, though I think it'll only be this week that we see any real improvement - I don't really have time to do it very often, but it's a useful break from revision, so I am going there on a reasonably regular basis. Keanu Reaves is doing me very nicely thankyou... I picked up 10000 shares for not very much, and hopefully we'll have a nice dividend this week.

I'm not sure she will tbh... Harry Potter will get lots of coverage, but will that all count to her?

What I want to know is how on earth the guy who's number 1 today got an increase of 30156090.00%

[G III] I don't know how they work that out . . . if there was a huge article all about how Harry Potter turns young minds to jelly, and at the end it says "Harry Potter is written by J.K.Rowling", does the whole article count towards her, or just the last sentence ?

[G III] There are going to be some anomolies - like the fact I got NO dividends despite owning Phil Tuffy for almost the whole week.

Never heard of it. Just logged in and by the time I had selected half a dozen "celebs" I was down a hundred quid. Eighty percent of these "celebs" I had never heard of - probably because they don't have "blankety blank" or "celebrity squares" here in Italy.

[IS,P!] That'll be because they charge a fee for transactions...

[IS,P] But hang on. If you play your cards right, you'll make back the cost of the commission. A good place to look for tips is on www.thesun.co.uk showbiz pages...
BTW, What is happening to Phil Tuffnell? Who's selling all their shares and causing him to crash? The 'Get Me Out Of Here!' celebrities only flew back into Heathrow last night, and he got a full page in The Sun today, so I suspect there are some anomalous market figures going round. And how the hell do you make 30 million per cent profit, as today's chart-topper has?

Blobble enters the league at a stunning No 5.

One way to get a huge % would be to invest in a celeb who is plastered all over the papers (so you know you will get a large div) and just before the divs are dished out, do a load of trading (ie. endlessly buy and sell) to reduce your worth to next to zero by the end of the day. 7 days later you will have whatever your divs were plus a weeks trading and your % increase will be huge. It might be possible to get (divide by zero)% :o)

(divide by zero error)%

Umm, do I exist any more? I can't log in and the system claims not to know who snorgle is! Am I still in the league?

snorgle]your still there in the league with your id 2818390, I hope your password lets you log on soon.
I Say, Porter!]for a bit of extra fun post your id No and join the MC league. Can you stay ahead of Wol and blamelewis?

You reply to the auto reply thing but there is still "nothing known about ISayPorter". Bah. Worth starting again?

Nope. Generates the really useful error message: "Error". What genius came up with that, give him or her a raise.

[snorgle] Just to note that Celebdaq logins are case sensitive. I had trouble when I first joined due to that.

OK ID number 3244310 and currently about 190,179 in the chart (up 15 quid or .15 pecent)

I can get in again! It wasn't caps lock, I checked that last night. Probably just a glitch on the system.. I think Keanu Reeves must be a good buy with the Matrix Reloaded opening soon..

Does anyone know how to change your password on celebdaq? I've been searching for a way how, but can't find anything!

Try here...

dunno whether that'll cause problems, but basically you have to go to the portfolio, go to 'register for cash prize or update details' and it's in there.

[GIII]thanks!

I made a million - yay! *cackle*

evil_edna]get on your broomstick and I'll race you to the top!

Thanks or attaching me to the MC league, whoever did it.
What a plonker I am. I had Phil Tufnell, Linda Barker & Anthony W-T which were doing nicely. I knew they'd slide in value after the show finished, but thought the divi was worked out on a daily basis - so sold Phil & Anthony the day before the divi was announced. So of course I got no (huge) divi. Ho hum - learn from mistakes.
Slightly amazed to find myself in 3rd posn. in the MC league @ moment. Can't see that lasting !

Was making a few cunning trades at the weekend, calculated to be in David Beckham at divi time, and one of the trades must have got stuck in the door. I came in this morning to find I had nearly 170,000 in cash and virtually no shares, so no divi this weekend. Groan.

Presumably when you get to a million you dump back down to 10,000 but get that little wad of green notes by your name - is that right ? How then do you get the sports car and yacht that I see some people sporting for pity's sake ?

[Blob] It says here.

I've not had much time to concentrate on it for a while now but I think I'm no good cos I went at first for celebs who interested me rather than ones who might grab headlines, so I'm saddled with a lot of loss makers... I bought lots of JK Rowling and Keanu Reeves when they were cheap though so those strategies are finally paying off!