Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

Today, some of my friends were talking about a trip to America they’re planning, and it brought back memories of a recent trip to Chicago: the food, the sights, the sports.

That’s one of the things that’s so tempting about it — that it will be right in the middle of American football season, and not only would we get to watch an NFL game – and probably a very good game at that; we would get to choose the area we go to, after all – but we would get to see a college game as well.

I’ve not seen a college game before, not in the flesh, and the atmosphere and the spirit of them is fantastic from what I can see.

The trouble is, it is difficult to afford it. Especially after paying out so much for my sub-editing course over recent weeks. So I’ve been looking at independent financial advisers to help me put together a plan to combat my penniless state.

It will have to be a big move to afford it, either way. I’ve got my trusty current account and that’s it – I’ve never had to get a loan before, discounting my student one back in the day. And I don’t like the idea of increasing my debt.

I’ve been looking at a number of banking websites and browsing as much financial news as I can, to keep my eye on trends and deals that might help out, but ultimately I think it’ll have to be a loan and the debt that entails – or no trip.

Decisions, decisions…

This week, the Carnegie medal was awarded to Neil Gaiman, one of my favourite writers, for his wonderful The Graveyard Book.

It’s well worth checking out, if you haven’t already. In fact, it has already won the Newberry medal — the US equivalent to the Carnegie. This medal makes him the first person in history to win both for the same book.

And I can’t think of a better book to have won it. The Graveyard Book is about a boy whose family is murdered in the dead of night, but he – then a toddler – wandered out of the house and up a hill into a graveyard.

There, he is raised by ghosts and a vampire, living with and being taught by the dead. It’s a remarkable book, based on and inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.

But one of the fantastic things about these awards is that the shortlist often consists of a number of authors that I haven’t heard of. While there are some that I’ve seen, some that I’ve read, it’s a joy to discover altogether new books by altogether new authors – most of which are wonderful.

There is a video up here where you can see the winner being read out and hear his acceptance speech.

Some of what he says on cutting library funds is particularly poignant. Cutting library money, he says, might be easy, but it is also “stealing from the future” to help remedy today.

Today should be known as iPhone day. It’s certainly a mammoth occasion, judging by all the queues I’ve seen lining the town.

The phone was released in a plethora of countries today, and there has been the inevitable buzz of interest and frenzied excitement from fans and eager buyers keen to get their hands on the product.

Yet, take a step back for a moment. What is it, really, that’s so different about it?

Yes, it may look nice, but when it comes down to using it, is there much that sets it apart from competitors – or old iPhone models, for that matter?

There is much that’s wonderful about these smartphones. But when it comes to actually calling, actually using the telephone part of the phone, they aren’t anything special. And you can’t really go wrong to buy digital dect cordless phones instead – if you want to make a phone call that doesn’t disconnect if you hold it in the wrong way, or if you want a good, crisp connection on your call.

Indeed, while there is an array of apps at your disposal with a smartphone that make them handy for work – they still pale in comparison to a computer. Which you tend to have at work more often than not. They are not really phone systems for business, when you think about it – more phones for play. Phones for enjoyment.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just that there is a large range of telephones out there that actually telephone better than smartphones, but they suffer from not getting anything near as good publicity.

Unless you’re BT, of course. These BT phones grace our television every day. But I’m with BT, and, well, that’s probably a blog for another day.

Increasingly, newspapers and online news publications are reporting that a growing number of parents are breaking the law in a bid to help their children get cheaper car insurance.

Apparently as much as 41% of parents deliberately lie when filling out policy applications.

Essentially, when they ring up or fill in forms for car insurance, they claim to be the main drivers on the policy, when in fact it is one of their children who is the main driver, or owner of the car. – a practice known as “fronting” – which usually offers large savings, but could also lead to prosecution.

According to numerous sources, Co-operative Insurance found that almost half of the nation’s parents were actually fronting policies, while 61% admitted that they would do so in the future.

The industry is warning that it is an extremely risky practice – indeed, there is a number of law society websites and these sorts of legal services that have to deal with this so called “fronting”, as well as a growing number of car insurance fraudsters.

Tim Franklin, of Co-operative Financial Services, said: “The view that motor insurance fronting is harmless and does not hurt anyone could not be further from the truth.”

He added: “Parents who believe they are helping their children to save money by fronting are not only risking prosecution, but harming their chances of obtaining insurance in the future.”

But the real scam, I think, is the insurance companies themselves.

They charge extortionate rates to these young kids passing their tests. How are they supposed to stump up thousands of pounds, when they are 17 years old, and have just shelled out all their money on a car?

Never mind growing accident claims for compensation or the plethora of claims for whiplash injury compensation – the real problem is the fact that these people charge way too much money. It’s no wonder parents are resorting to “fronting” to help save money.

The issue seems to be being tackled in precisely the wrong way. Cut down the costs, and there will be no fronting to worry about.

Before I call it a day, I feel it only fitting to end on a light note.

I was browsing the Times Online, and stumbled across this: a piece of Sir Isaac Newton’s apple tree will soon defy gravity (ironic, eh?) when it is carried into space on the next Nasa shuttle mission.

Mr Newton is, of course, widely regarded as being one of the greatest scientists of his era, and is certainly one of the most famous faces around.

Perhaps his most well-known and popular story is the discovery of gravity. As the story goes, Sir Isaac claimed to have been inspired by a falling apple in his garden to investigate the theory of gravitation.

Now, after the spaceflight, the tree sample and picture will be returned to the Royal Society.

Lord Rees, the academic institution’s current president, said it was “both pleased and proud that such an extraordinary part of scientific history and important element of the Royal Society’s archive collection can make this historic trip into space”.

The piece of tree and picture of Sir Isaac will go on to form part of the History of the Royal Society exhibition that the society will be holding later this year, and, after that, will become more of a permanent exhibit.

About a year and a half ago, I decided to make the move to using a smartphone. I decided that it was about time, what, with my degree finishing and me moving into the working world. The ability to read emails on the go is a truly useful one.

And it all rendered my other phones pretty useless. I had two. One in case the other broke down. Because Until the arrival of the big, swish, new thing, they had been struggling along, sometimes flickering on and off, and doing odd things at odd times.

For some reason, I still have both of them, although I’m not entirely sure why.

I think that, perhaps, it’s laziness part laziness. But it’s also because you hear about so many schemes out there that claim to help you or offer you good deals, but actually they’re just scams or fraudsters.

Not to the extent of insurance fraud reports, like I remember seeing last month. But they are still there, still present threats nonetheless.

It even came with a little bag, which I could pop them in and post them off for recycling. Often selling your mobile phone to people like the Mobile Phone Exchange always seems like a great idea. Recycling it is even better.

But even these websites, charming as they look, get scolded by customers claiming that they’re scams. Claiming that they quote big prices — until you send something in, and the individual price they quote to you is a lot less than you expected.

You just never know when a company like this is genuine, or is actually a sort of mobile phone exchange scam.

And so, reluctance on my part turned to forgetfullness, and the phones are now sitting, lost somewhere in the house.

When I was reading the Times online today, and after a bit of browsing, I stumbled on this article: an interesting piece about how business is looking slightly more peachy for tech firms in the UK.

It reported that a number of companies were seeing profit rises after a difficult 2009. One company, in particular — Wolfson Microelectronics — reported strong sales over the first few months of the year, and predicted yet more growth as demand for mobile phones and other consumer electronics continues to recover from the murk of the recession.

They also said it had launched nine new products in the first quarter; a list including audio amplifier components for mobiles, and a digital audio hub.

It’s good to see companies like this rising out of the lows of the recession, and continue to create new products.

There was a similar story here, about the battery life of mobile phones. I know my own smartphone is painfully battery-consuming. The little battery bar disappears in an instant, if you actually use the thing, and don’t leave it sleeping in your coat pocket.

Of course, when you’re at work, you can have all sorts of business phone systems at your disposal, and aren’t restricted or limited to using your mobile, but I must admit, I still like to be able to use mine.

And anything that can increase its life length, so I am not forced to switch it off for an hour or so each day in order to use it on the train home, is a welcome invention.

A while back, a man was called the ‘world’s worst’ tennis player by the Telegraph and other newspapers. He didn’t take it lying down, and recieved a lot of money in damages from a number of news outlets.

But against the Telegraph, he lost his defamation lawsuit. There is an interesting story here about the tennis player, who was insulted by the description of his record 54-straight losses on the international circuit.

The legal action was threatened against a number of news outlets on the basis that descriptions and claims were defamatory, and could damage his career. The number that did back down is supposedly around 30 — he posted pictures of their damages payments on his website — the Telegraph refused to do so.

But the Telegraph fought the case on the basis that the article, “World’s worst tennis pro wins at last”, was not arguably defamatory when read together with another item in the same edition, and that Mr Dee had no real prospect of rebutting the defences of justification and fair comment.

Thinking about it, it reminded me of this story, where a teacher sued her school board after she was prohibited from giving an F grade to her students.

But, really, both pieces are interesting. It just shows what kind of effect conditional fee arrangements — or no win, no fee solicitors, has had on society. Law actions are ridiculously expensive … and yet, increasingly, people are offered these deals.

I wonder if Mr Dee took up a no win, no fee deal. And I wonder if the newspapers and news outlets who gave him money to prevent trials are regretting doing so.

Two retired American army men apparently want Congress to introduce laws to give US children better nutrition in schools, with less sugar, salt and fat.

Obesity is threatening the US army, they said. In fact, they said that the fat crisis ruled out more potential military service recruits than any other medical factor.

Worrying obesity rates among young Americans could undermine the future of the US military, they said. In fact, research indicates more than a quarter of young Americans are too fat to fight.

John Shalikashvili and Hugh Shelton, both former chairmen of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote: “Obesity rates threaten the overall health of America and the future strength of our military.”

The warning comes amid mounting fears that childhood obesity affects one in three young Americans.

But I can’t help thinking they just need to adapt their tactics. After all, Homer Simpson proved to be a phenomenal boxer in The Simpsons — even if it did involve taking an immense beating, and waiting until his opponent was too tired to stand up.

Everything is bad, bad, bad in the news at the moment. First there was volcanic ash. Now, apparently, there is all sorts on the way which is going to be horrible for your holiday. There is bad weather, and bad traffic, and the bad combinaition that these two combine to create — and

Now, on top of everything, the BBC is reporting that there will be horrible amounts of engineering work taking place on lines used by most of the major UK rail companies.

And even the AA themselves are predicting bad news. Roads will be congested to kingdom come as people visit DIY stores and garden centres, according to the story.

But then — should we not expect busy and congested roads when holiday season comes around? It’s part of the holiday experience. It’s to be expected. And bad weather — weather is weather: it’s not that that makes the holiday. Not really.

Of course it’s not very nice if it rains constantly while you’re abroad, but while you’re travelling?

My biggest worries abroad have always been financial ones. I remember going on tour while I was at university, and I just expected to be able to take my card out there and use it. But the first time I tried, it simply didn’t work. I wouldn’t want to carry too much cash in any case: it’s protecting your money abroad that can be a difficult thing.