Tim Worstall

A 15-year-old schoolgirl has become France’s hottest literary property after writing a book about a teenager who loses her virginity at 14. He’s bidding for the film rights, of course, he just can’t decide whether to direct or take the leading male role himself.

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A group of 40 American billionaires have pledged at least half their fortunes to charity as part of a campaign by the financier Warren Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Isn’t that just lovely? Mr Buffett has promised to donate more than 99 per cent of his estimated $47 billion (£30 billion) fortune and is [...]

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Back when it was all banned there was an argument that the ban had little or nothing to do with protecting gamblers. It was to protect American companies (both on and offline) who were getting their lunch eaten by foreign competitors. Now they’re thinking of allowing it again: With pressure mounting on the federal government [...]

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Known as GenShocks, the contraptions will mean that motorists will no longer just worry about their suspension, but regard every jolt as potentially cutting the cost of a visit to the filling station. This in turn means that less fuel is needed to power the electrics. This is because the devices not only absorb the [...]

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The scale of online activism was unprecedented. Bloggers like Simon Perry and Zeno took the BCA membership head on: they waded through every single members website, checked if they were claiming to treat infant colic, and if so, referred them to the the General Chiropractic Council, a statutory body who are obliged to investigate all [...]

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Well, you could do what some Spanish peeps have allegedly been doing. Run a diesel generator to sell power to the grid at 45 p a unit. Or you might want to check out the Bishop’s comments section. Sticking your solar panel under the street light that’s on all night works for me.

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Is electro smog causing your headache? No. Next question? The computer industry airily dismisses any concerns, claiming that Wi-Fi uses only a few watts of energy – ‘less than a lightbulb’. But this ignores the fact that light and microwaves are different kinds of electromagnetic radiation, so the analogy with the lightbulb is meaningless. Erm, [...]

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In small print accompanying its annual report, the OFT admitted that the alleged fraud had not been detected because of a “control weakness” in the accounts payable department. The problem saw the OFT lose £97,000 last year and £153,000 the year before. Anyone got the details? The OFT refuses to say because “the police are [...]

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Looks like that edifice is finally going to come tumbling down. A test case is to be heard in the chourt of appeal within weeks, which will challenge the investigation for the first time and could expose a “huge miscarriage of justice”, lawyers claim. Chris Saltrese, the solicitor representing the convicted man, Anthony O’Shea, said: [...]

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The South African task force is reported to be considering freezing or confiscating Mr Tannenbaum’s assets. He is reported to have lured hundreds of investors with the promise of monthly returns of 11.5pc linked to pharmaceutical imports in an alleged fraud reported to be worth as much as $1.2bn. Investors were told that Frankel Chemicals [...]

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Owes the taxpayer £538,290. And my, isn’t he struggling hard to not have to pay it back.

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Having licences for medicines when they’re going to be handed out to homeopathic remedies? Prof Colquhoun said that the claims could contravene consumer protection laws which ban “falsely claiming that a product is able to cure illnesses”. The pills are labelled “a homoeopathic medicinal product used with the homoeopathic tradition for the symptomatic relief of [...]

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Hello, How are you doing?hope all is well with you, i am sorry that i didn’t inform you about my traveling to England for a Seminar. I need a favor from you as soon as you receive this e-mail because i misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where my money,and other valuable [...]

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An official Parliamentary inquiry ruled last night that Mrs Spelman had "inadvertently" broken the rules on expenses. Mrs Spelman apologised and said she would immediately repay the money. Phew, bit of a relief, eh? I’ll use that next time I "inadvertently" walk out of the bank with ten grand that’s not mine shall I? Ooops, [...]

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The complaint against Pendergest-Holt said she failed to tell investigators she had served on the Antigua bank’s investment committee and that the investment portfolio holding more than 80 per cent of its assets included a $1.6 billion loan to Stanford "Executive A" – evidently Stanford himself. It said Pendergest-Holt also wrongly denied she had prepared [...]

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Sir Allen: Last night, US television channels reported that Stanford had attempted to leave the country by private jet from Houston to Antigua, but the plane leasing company refused his credit card.

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There were also reports last night that five players in the victorious Stanford Super Series final side – Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Kieron Pollard, Sylvester Joseph and Dave Mohammed – had reinvested their personal winnings of $1m each with Stanford, and now risk losing it all.

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The ‘Autovolantor’ – based on a £200,000 Ferrari 599 GTB – is being developed by "Moller International". It will have the ability to take off vertically and hover thanks to eight powerful thrusters which direct air down for take off. Vents then tilt so the car can fly forward. The car is expected to be [...]

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The Department of Homeland Security is testing a type of body scanner that seeks out invisible clues that a person might be harbouring criminal intent, such as raised body temperature, pulse and breathing rate. The system, called MALINTENT, uses a raft of "non-invasive" sensors and imagers to detect such factors remotely – subjects are not [...]

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Bravo to The Times for this piece of research: New microchipped passports designed to be foolproof against identity theft can be cloned and manipulated in minutes and accepted as genuine by the computer software recommended for use at international airports. Tests for The Times exposed security flaws in the microchips introduced to protect against terrorism [...]

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