Saturday 27 March 2010

Schoolchildren 'failing to read books'

Most students fail to read complete novels at school after being presented with short extracts and worksheets to practice comprehension and sentence structure, it was claimed.

The National Union of Teachers said the decline was being fuelled by the widespread closure of school libraries to save money.

Next week, the union will use its annual conference in Liverpool to call for dedicated space in the timetable to be created to give children more opportunity to “read for pleasure”.

Alan Gibbons, the children’s author, who will address the meeting, said an over-reliance on short extracts risked undermining children’s grasp of classic works by Dickens and Shakespeare.

Speaking before the conference, he said: “Schools use extracts to spot the metaphor or the simile, instead of allowing children to read whole books.

“We have seen a real increase in the technical dismantling of literature with the specific aim of hitting targets and doing well in exams.”

He added: “One of my daughters came home to tell me she was doing Great Expectations as part of her GCSEs.

“It turned out that all they were doing was reading chapter one, when the character Magwitch first appears, and then skipping to chapter 39, when he reappears, to compare the two scenes.

“They also watched the David Lean film version which, despite being a very, very good film, doesn’t even have the same ending as the book.

“It was a completely ludicrous exercise. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not literature.”

Mr Gibbons, who wrote the bestselling Shadow of the Minotaur, told how one secondary school class he visited was asked to scan part of Macbeth for scenes that “fitted with the theme of ‘ambition’ because the teacher thought it was going to be in their exam”.

“There was no attempt to read the thing or understand it,” he said.

Research last year by Heinemann, the educational publisher, found half of schools admitted regularly failing to finish novels such as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Treasure Island, The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark and Goodnight Mr Tom because “whole book teaching was not a priority in class”.

Mr Gibbons has already led a campaign of children’s authors to protest against Sats tests in primary schools.

He has also written to the Government ordering extracts of his books to be removed from worksheets, insisting that novels “should not be used to bludgeon kids with comprehension”.

In a debate next week, NUT activists will say that all children should be given a designated entitlement to read in the school timetable.

Pupils in England and Wales should also be given automatic exposure to a wider range of texts, they will claim, and the union will back a campaign against the closure of school and community libraries.

Kevin Courtney, NUT deputy general secretary, said the regime of Sats tests and league tables has had a “stultifying effect on reading in schools”.

“The emphasis has been on moving children away from reading books for pleasure and turning the whole practice of reading into a broken-down, atomised skill set,” he said.
--By Graeme Paton,Published: 10:00PM GMT 26 Mar 2010

Ten ways to beat the stealth taxes

There are ways to protect yourself from these stealth taxes and guard some of your income and assets from another raid on the middle class and wealthy.

1. SWITCH INVESTMENTS TO YOUR SPOUSE
This works if one partner is either not working (and therefore a non-taxpayer) or a basic-rate taxpayer, while the other partner is a high earner. So you switch income-bearing investments into the lower-rate payer's name so you avoid income tax at the highest rate. Such assets could be a share portfolio, buy-to-let investment or unit trusts.

The biggest savings will be made with a partner paying the new 50pc tax (on income above £150,000 a year) who has a non-working spouse. But it only applies to married couples.

2. USE CAPITAL GAINS ALLOWANCES
The capital gains tax allowance per person is set at a relatively high level of £10,100 this tax year and many taxpayers fail to use this limit. For those who regularly fail to utilise the exemption, you can move assets that generate an income into capital growth investments instead. After all, why pay tax at 40pc or even 50pc when you can pay it at 18pc – the current CGT rate?

For those who have bulging share portfolios or have sold a large asset and used up their CGT allowance, make sure you use your spouse's allowance by transferring assets into their name.

3. PAY INTO YOUR PENSION
One of the most efficient ways to claw back tax paid is a pension contribution. Any money you pay into your pension will automatically be topped up by 20pc by the Government. So every £80 you pump into your pension will be increased to £100.

And higher-rate taxpayers can claim back 40pc of pension contributions. Those caught by the 50pc tax rate will be able to claim back 50pc tax relief.

Not only does this become a very tax-efficient way to save, it can take a slice of your pre-tax salary away from the taxman. This could mean dropping down a tax bracket from higher to basic, or it could mean getting your personal allowances back.

The £6,475 personal allowance all working adults get before they start paying income tax will disappear on April 6 for those earning more than £100,000. But it will be eroded gradually, so you lose £1 of allowance for every £2 you earn above £100,000. So those earning £100,000 to £112,950 should try to move out of this bracket as, in effect, they're paying 62pc tax on this amount.

Anyone with income below £130,000 can make pension contributions of 100pc of their income. But above £130,000 and you are limited to making £20,000 a year contributions.

Tom Mcphail, a pensions expert at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ''You could also use up the pensions allowance of your spouse and your children. You can put £3,600 into a pension for each of them. And they can claim back tax relief as well, even if they're not working.''

4. TRUST YOUR CHILDREN
Naomi Smith, tax partner at accountants Grant Thornton, said: ''I would say to 50pc taxpayers who have children approaching university age to consider setting up a discretionary trust for their children. Up to £325,000 can be paid in without a lifetime inheritance tax charge, by each parent. The trust will pay tax at 50pc however, if the funds are distributed to the children to support them at university, the children will most likely be non-taxpayers, and can hence recover the full 50pc tax credit. This is far better than keeping the £325,000 invested in your estate and paying 50pc tax on the income.''

This does not work for young children, only those who have reached 18 with the parents continuing to support them.

Ms Smith said given the set-up costs involved – about £3,000 for solicitor and accountancy fees – only those planning on putting in assets of at least £200,000 should consider such a trust.

5. KEEP YOUR PAPERWORK
You have a £325,000 inheritance tax limit that you can combine with a married or civil partner to give you a total tax shelter of £650,000. You need to keep all your paperwork to make sure you are entitled to this nil rate band on the death of a partner.

Ms Smith said: ''This is particularly important if one partner dies a long while before the other. The surviving spouse has to prove what happened when their partner died and what inheritance tax liability they had. You will need to pull together all the paperwork yourself.''

6. SALARY SACRIFICE
If you want to get yourself out of a particular tax bracket or to lower your tax bill, you could make a pension contribution from your pre-tax income. This is the most popular form of salary sacrifice. For example, if you earn £100,000 and make a £20,000 pension contribution you will only pay income tax on £80,000. Other forms of salary sacrifice include health care and life insurance.

Not only is your income tax liability reduced, but so are your national insurance (NI) contributions. You pay NI at 11pc on any income between £5,721 and £43,875. This will go up to 12pc from April 6. Income above £43,875 will pay 1pc NI, which will go up to 2pc in the new tax year.

Speak to your employer about salary sacrifice and if you can pay more into the company pension scheme. Your employer will also save money by doing this as they will pay less NI on your income. Employers have to pay 12.8pc of your salary to the Government in NI contributions.

So a pension contribution will reduce your income and therefore the NI you pay, along with that of your employer, so everyone is a winner. You could ask your employer to pay some of the NI savings it makes into your pension instead.

7. TRANSFER YOUR BONDS
Many investment bonds trigger what is known as a chargeable event and therefore an income tax liability. This is normally when the bond matures. You can normally take up to 5pc of your money out of the bond each year without paying tax. But when a chargeable happens you will typically pay income tax on any profits. Many bond investors think when they sell a bond it's liable for capital gains, but normally it triggers an income-tax liability. You can get around this by transferring the bond to your spouse before you cash it in, assuming they are taxed at a lower rate.

8. GIVE WITH 'WARM HANDS'
You can reduce the value of your estate for IHT purposes by giving some of it away to relatives. You can make gifts to your children and as long as you survive seven years after doing so, these gifts will not be liable for IHT. This is attractive if your estate is hovering above the £325,000 threshold.

But be aware this giving with ''warm hands'' means you are handing over your assets and will no longer have a legal claim on them.

Or you can give away up to £3,000 a year and if you die within seven years of the gift you will not be liable for IHT. There are also one-off situations where you can give away more with no future liability. For example if your child marries you can give £5,000 IHT-free.

Small gifts of up to £250 are allowed on special occasions such as birthdays and Christmas.

9. DON'T GET WOUND UP
If you have already set up a discretionary trust for your children this will be liable for 50pc tax on any income its generates from April 6. Grant Thornton is finding lots of clients panicking and asking to wind up the trust. But its advice is not to be too hasty.

If you paid some of these funds out now to beneficiaries by April 5 you would avoid the new 50pc tax (although you are still liable for 40pc income tax) but the whole trust does not have to be wound up. If the trust does end up paying 50pc tax this can be recovered where the funds are distributed to a beneficiary who pays tax at a rate below 50pc.

10. COMPANY OWNERS
There is more room for manoeuvre if you and your spouse have set yourself up as a company, when it comes to avoiding stealth taxes. You can stall payments of salaries and dividends and leave as much money in the company as possible until you need it.

But make sure you are set up as a company, not a partnership, as different rules apply. A partnership will pay tax at the highest rate of the partners on all profits whether they are taken or stored in the company. This could leave you open to a 50pc tax charge on profits you make. Inheritance tax is charged at 40pc for estates worth more than £325,000.

A couple can put allowances together so their estate has to be worth more than £650,000 before they pay IHT. The threshold will be frozen for four years, meaning about 650,000 more families will pay IHT.

Income tax starts becoming payable once earnings reach £6,475 if you are of working age. This limit rises to £9,490 for pensioners aged 65 to 74, and £9,640 for those aged 75 and older. The upper limit for the 20pc income tax band will stay at £37,400. Above this and you will pay 40pc tax.

And from April 6, once earnings exceed £150,000, there is the new tax band of 50pc.
--By Justin Harper

Friday 26 March 2010

Dell threat to leave China

Go Daddy Group, which sells internet domain names, said it would stop offering new ".cn" domain registrations in China, following the introduction of new regulations.

The Chinese government has said that anyone wishing to buy a website name in China will now have to provide full photo identification.

Go Daddy made the announcement during a committee hearing of the United States Congress dubbed "Google and Internet Control in China: A Nexus between Human Rights and Trade".

Christine Jones, Go Daddy's executive vice president, told the committee that the company was "concerned for the security of individuals" and that the new regulations would have a "chilling effect" on new domain name registrations.

Chris Smith, a Republican Congressman for New Jersey said: "Google fired a shot heard around the world and now a second American company has answered the call to defend the rights of the Chinese people."

Meanwhile, Dell, the world's third-largest PC company by sales, hinted that it may be considering switching its operations from China to India.

Michael Dell, the founder and chief executive of the company, made the suggestion in a meeting with Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister.

Mr Singh told the Hindustan Times: "This morning I met the chairman of Dell Corporation. He informed me that they are buying equipment and parts worth $25 billion from China (£16 billion). They would like to shift to safer environment with a climate conducive to enterprise with security of legal system."

The news came as Dell's first plant in India, in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, made its first export shipment. The plant has the capacity to make a million computers a year. So far, most of the plant's production has gone to the Indian domestic market, but it has now begun shipping to the Middle East. According to the Indian media, tax breaks given to Dell make it cheaper for the company to supply the Middle East, Africa and Europe out of India, rather than China.

A spokesman for Dell said the company had no imminent plans to pull out of China, however. "Mr Dell believes India also has an opportunity of becoming a hardware manufacturing hub, generating employment and adding to the country's impressive growth. Dell has not made any plans to shift its component spend at this time," he said.

Meanwhile, the fall-out from Google's departure from the mainland has begun in earnest, with China Unicom, the country's second-largest mobile operator, announcing that it will remove the Google search function from its new Android-based mobile phones.

"We are willing to work with any company that abides by Chinese law... we don't have any co-operation with Google currently," said Lu Yimin, China Unicom's president.

Unicom is the first company to drop its alliance with Google, alongside TOM Online, a Hong Kong-based internet company owned by the family of Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong's richest man and a key ally of the Communist government.
--By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai

Investment trusts: 8 of the best

We enlisted the help of three investment professionals who monitor and use investment trusts regularly, for their tips on what is hot and what is not.

To make it easier for you we have categorised them, so there are trusts for a cautious investor, trusts that should make decent core holdings and trusts that are speculative - where gains could be bumper, but so could the losses.

Here are the thoughts of Mick Gilligan of Killik & Co, Charles Cade of Numis Securities and Nick Sketch of Rensburg Sheppards.

Ruffer Investment Company
This is an absolute-return fund and one of the few long-only funds deserving of the label. Jonathan Ruffer and Steve Russell have done a brilliant job of preserving capital in bad markets and making money in good markets. They still have only 50pc in equities, and should materially outperform cash on deposit over the next five years, whether markets are "good" or "bad". What more does a cautious investor want?

BlackRock Hedge Selector

The fund has an absolute-return mandate and seeks to produce consistent returns with no formal risk or volatility target, although these have historically been low – since inception in April 2004 it produced an annualised return in excess of 17pc.

Perpetual Income & Growth
A mainstream UK equity fund with a cautious stance. Its attractions are based on excellent management, a decent dividend, lower charges than similar unit trusts and the ability to take "income" in a form that will be taxed as capital distributions.

Utilico Emerging Markets

This AIM-listed fund aims to provide long-term capital growth by investing predominantly in infrastructure, utilities and related sectors, mainly in the emerging markets. We like the resilient characteristics of the underlying portfolio earnings and the growth potential associated with emerging markets. We see this as an attractive entry point.

SVM Global

Invests in all the areas that make up small slices of most portfolios, or are ignored altogether – such as property, private equity, emerging markets, commodities and hedge funds. The management team is strong and highly incentivised by owning the stock themselves.

Aberforth Smaller Companies

The managers were positive at the start of 2009, introducing gearing of 10pc. Even so the fund has underperformed in the rally over the past 12 months as it avoided financially stressed companies with weak balance sheets. However, we believe it remains well placed to benefit from a pick up in merger and acquisition activity among smaller companies over the next year. The fund is currently trading on a discount of 14pc and pays an attractive yield of 3.7pc.

Eurovestech

For investors who fancy a punt this AIM-listed fund invests in a diverse range of internet and technology-related business across Europe. The holdings in the portfolio are relatively mature assets, having been held and developed by Eurovestech for almost 10 years. This raises the possibility of significant sales of assets and subsequent return of shareholder capital.

VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity

Vietnam has been growing strongly ever since the government adopted a policy of increased economic liberalisation in 1986. GDP growth has averaged 7.2pc per year over the past decade, driven by foreign investment and a low-cost entrepreneurial workforce.

Vietnam was one of the best performing global markets in 2006-07, but collapsed in 2008 and remains 55pc below its peak. As a result, there has been little interest from foreign investors who have focused instead on China. However, we believe that valuations in Vietnam now look attractive.

Best places to have a midlife crisis

If you're bored with your life and looking to shake things up, Lonely Planet has come up with 10 destinations where you can reinvent yourself and feel young again. The list is from Lonely Planet's 1000 Ultimate Experiences book.

1. DUBAI, UAE

It's time for a new outfit, which means an expedition to Dubai. Fashion is serious business in this shopping-mall heaven, where small and flashy togs can be stuffed into designer handbags. To finish the look, eye-punishing displays of glittering gold line the streets of Dubai's gold souq. Over 25 tons of the stuff are on display in the city's jewelry-shop windows. Choose from earrings, rings, necklaces or bracelets - the more ostentatious the better.

2. ROUTE 66, USA

Search for freedom on the open highway with a road trip across the USA. It requires a Harley or a classic convertible, and plenty of 'issues' to resolve. Take your pick from a multitude of interstate routes, but to travel in the footsteps of film, literary and music legends it has to be well-worn and iconic Route 66, from Chicago to Santa Monica. Do take a movie camera to record your trip. Don't forget to fill up with gas.

3. MONTE CARLO, MONACO

Dust off your tux and brush up on the slick one-liners as you join the jet set, Bond-style, in Monte Carlo. The beautiful people out-glamour each other from their million-euro yachts moored along the harbor, as international businesspeople monitor their investments from this secure tax haven. Visitors to the casino glint with gold, like the sun on the Med. The Monte Carlo Rally in January and the Monaco Grand Prix in May offer adrenalin-fueled breaks from spending cash.

4. RISHIKESH, INDIA

If your crisis is one of faith, take your pick of places in which to have a spiritual epiphany: St Peter's in Rome, Lhasa in Tibet or Mecca in Saudi Arabia could help you find your calling. But we reckon the ideal spot is Rishikesh, on the banks of the sacred Ganges in the foothills of the Himalaya. It's lined with ashrams, and holy men mingle with tourists and the odd celeb. This was the Beatles' favorite center of Hindu philosophy and learning, and it's nicknamed the yoga capital of the world.

5. LAS VEGAS, USA

You've realized what your first wedding was missing: an Elvis impersonator, matching polyester pantsuits and a partner you'd only just met. So it's time to take a gamble of a different sort with a second/third/seventh wedding in Vegas. It offers more than 30 places to say 'I do', and over 100,000 couples take their vows here each year, including more than a handful of celebs. The Little White Wedding Chapel is open 24 hours, so when your eyes meet over a crowded poker table, there's no need to bother waiting before tying the knot.

6. PHUKET, KUALA LUMPUR, MANILA, MUMBAI

Fed up of peering in the mirror, jiggling your wobbly bits and wishing everything was a little further north? Considering a little nip and tuck or two, but worried about showing your post-op bruises in public? Cheap prices coupled with recuperation in the sun is making surgery in Phuket, Kuala Lumpur or Manila increasingly popular. India is the daddy of them all. Today state-of the-art facilities make a facelift or a hip replacement a short inconvenience before relaxing by the beach.

7. MACAU, China

Cashing in the pension fund and remortgaging the house might just be enough to get you in the door of Crown Casino, Taipa Island, Macau. Boasting six stars and more than 200 gaming tables, the casino's not shy about the number of noughts involved. For those with pockets smaller than China, there are another 27 casinos to choose from. These include the grandly decked-out Emperor Palace Casino on the peninsula - featuring plenty of marble and as much gold on the brick floor as on the gamblers themselves - or the famous, lively Casino Lisboa.

8. SILVERSTONE, ENGLAND

It's not too late to fulfill that dream of being a racing driver, temporarily at least. Crowds have watched heroes like Senna, Prost and Stewart hurtle around the legendary Silverstone track, home of the British Grand Prix, since the 1950s, and you can recreate it with a power test drive. Imagine the cheers as you burn rubber in a Ferrari, slide into corners in an old single-seater or test a 4WD on something more taxing than the streets of Islington. Just don't try this on the school run.

9. PETRA, JORDAN

Petra, setting for much of 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, looks like it should only exist in films. A narrow canyon winds to its iconic entrance, carved from deep-rose colored sandstone. As you enter, you're greeted by the intricate facade of the famous Khazneh (Treasury), fictional home of the Holy Grail. The site contains plenty more to explore, including the Temple of the Winged Lions, still in the process of excavation. Today the only hazards are bumping shoulders with the other 3,000 visitors; poisoned arrows, rolling balls of rock and snake pits are usually avoidable.

10. SYDNEY & MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

For centuries humans have pitted themselves against beasts to prove their worth, from rather one-sided trophy hunting to careering down side streets at the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. Something a little more equal and up close is diving with sharks, and for that you should head to Australia. For those with no diving experience, tank dives in Melbourne's aquarium and Sydney's oceanarium give a chance to watch these predators glide past soundlessly, eyeing you up as a potential meal. Friends and family can watch your "bravery" via a glass viewing screen.

Tuesday 23 March 2010

Google ends censored search in China

Not even Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder and the man reportedly driving this tough new stance with China, is sure how this story will play out.

As he told the New York Times, after two rounds of "back and forth" with the Chinese authorities, Google is still unclear how the Chinese will react .

"There's a lot of lack of clarity," he said, "Our hope is that the newly begun Hong Kong service will continue to be available in mainland China." Before adding: "The story's not over yet."

At the time of writing – midday on March 23 in Beijing – Chinese internet users were still able to access the re-routed search service on the Hong Kong page which carried a note in Chinese saying "Welcome to Google Search in China's new home."

However, searches from within China for sensitive topics, such as "Tiananmen Square Incident" were still blocked to internet users in mainland China thanks to the Great Firewall.

The question now being asked is whether the Chinese government will move to further punish Google by blocking the re-routed Google.cn site, at the cost of highlighting the extent of internet censorship in China to its own public.

The initial reaction from China's State Council Information Office was hostile, describing the decision to halt censoring as "totally wrong", apparently rendering flimsy Mr Brin's hopes (disingenuous or otherwise) that the Hong Kong search would be allowed to continue unmolested.

While some analysts see the Hong Kong strategy as a potentially elegant compromise to an apparently intractable dispute, others like Dr Mathew McDougall, CEO of SinoTech Group, one of China's leading online advertising agencies see an inevitable new round of confrontation ahead.

"It looks to us as if Google has thumbed its nose at China with this Hong Kong strategy. They've tried to be clever by exploiting a legal loophole, but that's surely going to anger the authorities.

"We're already taking bets in the office as to how long the Hong Kong-routed Google.cn stays open. My take is that the Chinese will close it down by the end of the day."

In practice, that will mean blocking the Google.cn domain name in China, so that Chinese internet users will simply receive a 'page not available' message when they attempt to log on to Google.

However, as Rebecca MacKinnon, Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Centre points out in her blog, such a move would only highlight the extent censorship in China .

"If they [the Chinese government] are smart they will just leave the situation as is and stop drawing media attention to their censorship practices," she writes.

"The longer this high profile fracas goes on, the greater Chinese Internet users awareness will be about the lengths to which their government goes to blinker their knowledge of the world." If China was to take that course of action, users would then have to wait and see what impact it would have on other Google services such as Gmail, Google maps and music downloads.

Many analysts believe that China, which has a history of backing down in the face of angry internet users, would not risk the wrath of hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of users by blocking access to those services.

However at the moment nothing is impossible. The ball is now in China's court; as Sergey Brin so correctly observed, "The story's not over yet."
---By Peter Foster in Beijing

Facebook ousts Google in US popularity

Facebook has become the most visited website in the United States as millions of people turn to the social networking site to play online games.

The social networking site has seen phenomenal growth around the world and for the first time surpassed Google.com for a whole week in the US last week, according to the web analytics firm Hitwise.

The milestone indicates how important a gateway to the web social networks, in particular Facebook, are becoming.

Facebook has more than 400 million regular users worldwide, about half of whom visit the site every day to check their updates, post photos and, increasingly, play online social games.

The growing popularity of simple games such as FarmVille, which has more than 83 million players worldwide, has breathed added life into social networks and hold out the prospect of huge profits for Facebook and companies such as Zynga and Playfish as gamers use real money to buy virtual goods inside the games.

Google reacted to the threat of Facebook by launching its own social network within its Gmail service last month. But Google Buzz has got to a rocky start as users complained about privacy concerns.

Google's earlier attempt in 2004 at a social network called Orkut has only ever been really popular in Brazil.

Hitwise said that the market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185 per cent last week as compared with the same week in 2009, while visits to Google.com increased 9 per cent during the same timeframe.

Facebook’s home page saw 7.07 per cent of traffic and Google’s 7.03 per cent. Together Facebook.com and Google.com accounted for 14 per cent of all US Internet visits last week, Hitwise said.

Facebook.com has been the most visited US website before: it reached the No 1 spot on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day as well as on the weekend of March 6 and 7. But last week is the most sustained lead it has attained.

In the UK, Facebook still lags some distance behind Google, partly because Google's market share of internet search is so much greater. Google.co.uk had 9.34 per cent of visits while Facebook had 6.01 per cent.

The Hitwise figures do not include searches carried out in a box in a browser toolbar and do not cover visits to other Google websites for services such as Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps.

Taking all these Google properties into account, the internet search company is still way out in front, accounting for 11.03 per cent of US website visits last week with Yahoo! properties second.

The US accounts for only 30 per cent of Facebook's global users. The company is continuing its policy of expansion overseas and is opening its first office in India to help it to tap the increasing popularity of social networking in the country

The office will be located in the southern city of Hyderabad and work along similar lines to other operation centres in the United States and Ireland, with online advertising and support teams

Facebook's director of global online operations, Don Faul, wrote on the firm's blog: "In India alone, we've seen rapid growth and now have more than eight million people there actively connecting on Facebook."

The Top 5 games on Facebook

1: FarmVille

With over 83 million monthly users, the developer Zynga’s build your own farm simulation game is a genuine Facebook phenomenon. Players pay for seeds, animals and interior décor in both virtual and real currencies. Virtual currency is generated by trading crops with other players, while new additions can be purchased with real money or virtual currency.

2: Birthday Cards

Not strictly a game, but an application with 47 million users that organises all your friends’ birthdays, prompts you with reminders and allows you to send free or paid for cards, and gifts. Developed by RockYou!

3: Café World

Another world-building application from Zynga which, like FarmVille, puts you in charge of a business which you can expand or allow to go bankrupt. 30.6 million users per month.

4: Texas HoldEm Poker

Zynga again, with a traditional poker game where chips are purched for real money, though considerably less than in the real world. 26.8 million users.

5: Happy Aquarium

Yet another heavy-maintenance creature-associated game, this time with fish. Developed by CrowdStar, it has 26.1 million users per month.

Figures accurate as of end February 2010. Source: insidesocialgames.com

Sunday 21 March 2010

How to stay safe on a gap year

Peter Slowe, founder of Projects Abroad

“If you’re taking a trip on your own for the first time, it’s important to be aware. People are in danger of being mugged at tourist venues or being conned out of their money.

"My advice: always travel in a group (especially if you’re a younger gapper), always check your insurance (expensive insurance does not necessarily mean better insurance), and always make sure you do some research before you go – such as whether you need a mosquito net, what medicines you might need or the appropriate dress code for the country you’re visiting.”

Ian French, father of Georgia French who died in Peru, and founder of GapAid

“The most common dangers facing gap year travellers are usually quite minor – losing your passport, money, airline tickets, mobile phone or iPod. Then there are the more dangerous risks – of robbery, rape, or even kidnapping. You hear of people being marched to cash machines to empty their bank accounts.

"A gapper in a developing country is like a walking advert for ‘get rich quick’. You’ve got a watch, a mobile phone, a credit card and some money, and that is often more than some of the people in that country earn in a year. Secondly, it’s all about preparation.

"If you simply turn up somewhere you are going to have a problem. Do you know what language they speak? Do you know what the weather is going to be like? Have you sorted out accommodation? Checking these really basic things will make your trip a much better experience.”

Marcus Watts, founder of Gapforce

“As a gap year organisation we find some of the biggest problems are medical (for instance, going to a doctor where they are possibly using dodgy needles) but it’s also important that people are prepared for what they’re actually going to be doing. It’s amazing some of the complaints we get – we have actually had people complaining that the sun is too hot or the sand is too sandy!

"It’s all about getting people emotionally prepared for their trip. My main advice would be to treat wherever you are overseas as you would the UK. You wouldn’t get in a car with someone in the UK, so don’t do it there just because it’s a smiley chap from Fiji who lives on a desert island.

"And don’t leave your wallet on the bar just because it’s a nice little African place and everyone’s being friendly.”

Madeleine Wright, a student who recently spent three months in Ghana on a volunteer project

“My personal experience of getting ill while I was volunteering in Ghana made me realise how important caring for your health is when you’re living somewhere with a completely different climate and eating food you’re not used to.

"Always drink enough water (but never tap water unless you’re sure it is safe to do so) and don’t drink too much alcohol – you’re in unfamiliar territory and you need to be extra vigilant.

"From a safety perspective, always go out in groups and make sure you tell at least one person where you are headed.”
--By Katie Evans