1 months money.

Only 9% of Germans shop online.

They must still like walking around shops hoping they have what they need

I buy pretty much nothing online apart from kindle books.

Fine if you live in a metropolis but out in the sticks you pay a premium for little or no choice. Online marketplace is a godsend to us hicks

In my father-in-law's village, there is an Electronics shop. For a fixed fee, Herr Lippert sits with the customer and advises them on what to get. He can get pretty much anything from anywhere.

In addition, many people in the old East still work from 0700 to 1500, which means they can just pop in after work.

The goods usually arrive faster than the on-line retailers can manage and the buyer doesn't need to know anything about the tech behind it all.

I would say they are lucky. My experience with this sort of thing is that it is an invitation to profiteer. YMMV and I was taught to be independent and have no friends

You pretty much have to go into Belfast sh1tty centre for anything B&M don't sell, so I say fcuk it all and buy just about everything online.

That Redbubble are now doing throw pillows

http://www.redbubble.com/shop/trending+ ... ing-header

Now, If you'd asked me before if I ever needed throw pillows...

Profiteering? That would explain why all the shops are going out of business. it is simply more expensive to run a bricks and mortar shop with actual staff who can advise.

I still go to my local electronics markets first, when looking for new stuff, because I can actually try the stuff, look them over etc. I will check the prices online and if they aren't too much more in the shop, I'll buy in the shop.

There are also no online supermarkets over here. People also like to go to the baker's and get fresh bread for breakfast in the morning, for example. Food here is also among the cheapest in Europe, so an online store wouldn't be able to offer much in the way of savings.

So here is an instance. I had to replace the n/s mirror and bezel on my van. I was passing the main dealer so popped in and paid £50 for the trouble. Checked the price on ebay later and another main dealer (not local but same brand) had the same parts at 1/3 the price in their ebay shop.

One Top Fuel 500 cubic-inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower (8,000 HP) than the first four rows of cars at the Daytona 500.

Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 11.2 gallons of nitro methane per second; a fully-loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.

A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce ?enough power to merely drive the dragster’s supercharger.

With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.a

At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.

Nitro methane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.

Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.

Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees Fahrenheit. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow.

If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split ?the block in half.

Dragsters reach over 300 MPH before you have completed reading this sentence.

In order to exceed 300 MPH in 4.5 seconds,dragsters must accelerate an average of over four Gs. In order to reach 200 MPH well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches eight Gs.

Top Fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!

Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.

The redline is actually quite high at 9500 RPM.

Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once, NOTHING BLOWS UP, each ?run costs about $1,000 per second.

0 to 100 MPH in .8 seconds (the first 60 feet of the run),0 to 200 MPH in 2.2 seconds (the first 350 feet of the run), six g-forces at the starting line (nothing accelerates faster on land), six negative g-forces upon deployment of twin ‘chutes at 300 MPH. ?An NHRA Top Fuel Dragster accelerates quicker than any other land vehicle on earth, and quicker than a jet fighter plane – even quicker than the space shuttle.

Buy one from ebay and return to the main dealer to get your £50 back.

Frank Herbert's son and his associate have written more Dune books that Frank Herbert did when he was alive.

Frank Herbert write notes for a Dune 7 book, which aimed to tie off the series. This was written posthumously as two books. There are also two books between Dune and Dune Messiah, as well as prequel trilogies, trilogies about the Butlerian Jihad, the finding of the Bene Gesserit and so forth. Add in some short stories, and you have a body of work larger than the original books.

Apparently, these posthumous works are a bit if a mixed bag, having started on Dune last week! I am wondering if I should read the two newer books before hitting Dune Messiah.

I have read the original Dune books over 10 times. I would stick with the originals first. The new books seem to be more cashing in on the legacy.