You’ve all heard those stories about people selling swamp land and so on …

Well rather than sell some sucker a bridge, a California man - Steven Ferguson - made off with $5 million dollars when he sold off a waste treatment plant in New Jersey.

the smooth talker promised huge returns on the investments that his soon to be victims thought was going to be a waste treatment plant.

He has since been sentenced to 11 years in prison and ordered to pay $6 million in fines.

I think that just about everyone I know has a piece of artwork in their home. Whether it’s a painting, or print that’s touched them in some way, or one which they purchased to enhance the look of the room that they placed the artwork in, it’s there.

If you appreciate original artwork you might want to take a moment and visit www.BeautifulRealArt.com. All of the artwork that they sell is original.

As I browsed through the site I discovered that each piece of artwork sold is one of a kind. If you are interested in a photograph there’s a statement in the description that says that no prints will be made of the photograph. If you are collecting art as an investment it’s always nice to know that there are no other copies in any form.

There is a wide selection of artistic styles to choose from including still life, abstract, floral, landscape, wildlife, expressionist, fantasy, modern, contemporary, impressionist, digital and real mixed media artwork. You’ll find oil, acrylic, and water color paintings, as well as drawings, photographs, sculptures in metal, stone and wood, and pottery.

I was quite pleased with the quality of the artwork being sold. There’s some beautiful paintings and photographs that I know my wife would just love for us to get for our own home.

If you know someone who enjoys original artwork you might consider purchasing a gift certificate to give to your friend or loved one for their birthday or another special occasion. It would be a unique gift for someone who truly appreciates fine art.

All of the artwork for sale at Beautiful Real Art has been purchased from the original artist. You deal directly with Beautiful Artwork when making a purchase. If you do decide to make a purchase I’m sure you’ll be please to know that the company is offering free 2-day express shipping on all purchases.

I think it’s important that everyone try to plan for their future - whether it’s making investments now so that you’ll be in a better place 10 years from now, or putting money into solid investments with the plan of having a secure retirement. I must admit that I haven’t put as much thought into investments as I should have by this stage of my life. That’s not to say that we don’t have any investments though as my wife has been pretty good about investing in our future.

One of the reasons that I’m discussing this today is because I’ve just visited Global Futures exchange. They have a wide range of products and services, one of them is their forex trading account through eGobalFX.

What I like about the Forex trading accounts is that there are no commissions and no exchange fees. They also offer flexible contract size and flexible leverage. If you have any questions about how to get started please email GlobalFutures@GlobalFutures.com and they’ll show you how to get started with as little two hundred and fifty dollars.

They offer live 24/7 customer support and have an arsenal of tools that will help make investments that will yield a postive ROI. Of course, There is risk of loss trading Futures, options and forex but with the assistance of their customer support team you can make fairly safe stock exchange investments that will increase your chances of making money rather than losing it.

I must look into this company, and making investments in the exchanges in general, as it really is time to begin investing our money and hopefully getting a good return on it. We need to plan for our retirement, the sooner we get started the better and I think getting a forex account might just help.

The newest self improving form of torture -

In October, health officials in China again warned citizens against the increasingly popular but seriously painful leg-stretching Ilizarov procedure. The procedure is believed to add as much as a couple of inches to a person’s height and stature.

The patient’s leg is deliberately broken and affixed to a rack, with the leg stretched slightly every day so that the bones fuse together to cover the separated space, lengthening the leg. One 33-year-old, 5-foot-tall woman in 2002, aiming for four more inches said “I’ll have a better job and a better husband. It’s a long-term investment.”

I think I’ve heard of procedures similar to this being used for people who are born with on leg shorter than the other, but never to purely gain inches in height.