This is rubbish. A big man chucks a[n allegedly] fair-dodging scroat off of a train and then it’s him who gets pulled up on an assault charge. The fair-dodger’s case still seems to be under advisement. Something seems a bit backwards there.

So it’s been a while since I blogged anything here. The world has been in financial crisis, the Formula 1 has been won by Vettel again, and I’ve been generally entertaining myself with family life and other things.

Sadly last week we lost our speckled chicken Dopey. I can only hope that she had a good life whilst she was with us, short though it was. The vet reckoned that there was probably some kind of internal problem like a twisted stomach that caused her to prolapse. She’s now gone to the big coup in the sky. RIP Dopey. Our other chickens Korma and Tikka are doing fine and are about to embark on their first winter with us. This should be an interesting prospect, which may well be full of me fretting abou their water freezing. We shall see.

An interesting article on ars technica and BBC news talks about the effect of the Internet on our memories. The essence being that instead of recording actual facts, we’re recording where we might access that information – pointers to facts if you would. I found the opening comments of the article very interesting, as it questioned what do you think of when asked which coutries have flags with only one colour? If you’re thinking of the countries now, I guess you don’t fit into the group. I did fit the pattern – I was thinking “where would I find that out?”. Is it a good or bad thing? I’d think it’s generally good. Yes, it shows how we rely on and expect certain technologies now to solve our problems – but, then, if those same things suddenly disappeared over night, we’d have bigger issues to worry about than which countries have what colour on their flags

Sad news yesterday, as it emerged that Peter Falk, of Columbo fame, has died. He was 83 and had apparently been battling dementia for some years, and was under constant care. It was reported that he’d forgotten about his scruffy police detective character due to the mental illness. He is survived by his wife and 3 daughters. Rest in peace.

So the situation in Japan is still completely crazy. Scant reliable information is coming from the nuclear energy team, leading to confusion as to what the dangers are, and how many people should be evacuating. If you look at some of the aerial photos on the NY times website you can see some of the external damage, which gives a good indication as to why nuclear leaks may be happenig. It seems, though, that the damage has been compounded by other issues, such as generators running out of fuel and objects sticking open – things that might have been avoided. Really, though, you have to admire the people who have stayed behind at the reactor site to fight the issues, because they are really putting themselves on the line. The entire event is really rather extreme.