Many people are going on holiday without taking out adequate travel insurance, according to a study by Nationwide. One in three (35%) of those questioned do not always take out travel insurance when they go on holiday, so would not be fully covered in the event of any cancellation, medical emergency or theft of personal belongings.

When asked what precautions are taken for keeping valuables, such as currency and passports, safe while on holiday, many admitted to not always using a safety deposit box, instead preferring to store them: On their person (36%) In a suitcase (12%) In a drawer (9%) On the bedside table (2%) Over half (54%) of those questioned holiday more than once a year, yet only 30% of holidaymakers opt for annual travel insurance, preferring to take out single trip policies each time they go away. Nationwide’s insurance director, Robin Bailey, said: “It is astounding that people are prepared to take such a gamble when travelling abroad. You never know what’s around the corner and for that reason it is vital that you have adequate travel insurance in place.

The Pearl South Pacific Resort in Fiji has dropped its Garden Room rates from around $335 to $115 a night - and children under the age of 12, sharing the room with their parents, stay for free. The resort is on the ocean-front, about 45 minutes from Suva. Activities include diving in the Beqa Lagoon, an 18-hole championship golf course, surfing at Frigates Passage, deep sea fishing, white water rafting and mountain biking. The Arts Village and Cultural Centre is close-by. Go camping in Wanaka for seven nights and snaffle a ticket to some great New Zealand singers’ concerts - ranging from Dave Dobbyn and The Feelers to Anika Moa and Elemeno P. The seven-night camping pass and tickets for three concerts held on December 29 and 31 and January 2 costs $225 a person. Other bands performing are The Black Seeds, Super Groove, Atlas and Th’ Dudes. The deal is on offer until sold out.

Anyone who has studied physics (the science of the laws of nature) knows how daunting the task is of learning the philosophical and mathematical formalisms needed to fully comprehend, express, and apply natural laws. Complicating this situation is the fact that some of these laws are still “under construction”-being debated by the scientific community. Moreover, today we have two fundamental approaches to studying the natural world (quantum theory and Einsteinian physics), built from completely different basic assumptions (Sachs 1988). Fortunately, in the macroscopic (”real”) world, the subject of this article, physics has revealed to us definite rules by which nature always operates-rules for establishing what is physically possible and for eliminating the impossible.

We have confidence in these laws because with all the observations and experiments that have been (and continue to be) performed, no exception to them has yet come to light; that is, they constitute the best explanation of the natural world available to us today. At this point, one could ask: Why do these laws exist in the first place? The answer to this question is beyond the reach of science; all we know is that we can identify natural laws, observe them in action, and use them to explain and predict natural phenomena. This is what Einstein meant with his famous statement, “To me, the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible” (my emphasis).Arguably the most fundamental of these laws is one due to Einstein himself, though it isn’t a law about the behavior of nature but, rather, a law about natural laws themselves.

Home goods retailer Williams-Sonoma Inc reported a decline in its holiday same-store sales on Tuesday and gave a weak outlook for the current quarter and upcoming fiscal year, sending its shares down 15 percent in premarket trade. The owner of the Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn and West Elm chains said sales at stores open at least a year fell 0.4 percent in the nine weeks ended Dec. 30, hurt by weak demand for home furnishings. Net revenue for the period rose to $1.02 billion from $977.8 million a year earlier, but the increase was less than expected. Williams-Sonoma, which said the weakness has continued into January, cut its outlook for its fourth quarter, which ends on Feb. 3.

It now expects earnings of $1.11 to $1.14 per share on revenue of $1.36 billion to $1.39 billion. Analysts on average were expecting $1.20 per share on revenue of $1.39 billion, according to Reuters Estimates, based on the company’s prior forecast for earnings of $1.19 to $1.25 per share on revenue of $1.39 billion to $1.42 billion. For the next fiscal year, the company said it expected net earnings per share to decline at a mid-to-high single-digit percentage rate, with net revenue flat to down in the low single digits.

Arranging your holiday through a reputable internet site should be straightforward. You make your booking, pay your money, and then wait for your tickets to arrive. But what if they don’t appear? Recently, readers from the West Midlands contacted me to ask for urgent help. They had booked a cruise in Florida through an internet company called Fast Track Holidays, but, in mid-November, six days before they were due to leave, they had received no documents, no tickets, no schedule and no information about where they should go to board the ship once they’d arrived in the US.

The company had told the couple that their holiday departure date had been brought forward four days from November 23 to November 19, and although they received no explanation for this alteration, they had agreed to this change without complaint. However, confirmation of the new arrangements also failed to materialize. When they telephoned Fast Track Holidays, the company blamed the tour operator which was supplying the cruise holiday. The couple was told that the operator had not sent the tickets in time, so they’d have to pick them up at Manchester airport on the day of travel.

The news that another company was involved came as a surprise. Not only did they feel anxious about picking up the tickets so close to their flight, but they said that they still weren’t entirely sure where the documents should be collected in the airport - or even which airline they were booked to fly with.