Friday's Meanderings

Feeling pretty lousy- been doing a bit of work about the house the past few days and it's playing merry hell with my back. I'm more than a tad spaced out on painkillers right now, so apologies for any nonsensical typing that may follow.

Can't say I'm suprised- the kidnapped lawyer defending Saddam Hussein has turned up dead- shot in the head. I am amazed by all the human rights people claiming that Saddam isn't being treated properly/it's not a fair trial/etc. Are they insane? Is this Bush Derangement Syndrome in action? They can't really be concerned for Saddam Hussein's welfare can they? I don't understand. The Iraqi people should have put him up against a wall and executed him- the media seems to be doing its best to portray him as some sort of maligned person, not the inhuman monster he is. I know that comparing him to Hitler is pretty lame, but would that SOB be getting the same treatment if he were the one on trial now. I am scared to think that if GWB had nailed him the answer would have to be, "yes".

This would have suited me down to the ground (not that my course had a particularly heavy workload)- lectures by podcast. Not recommended all the time but pretty handy for missed lectures or even for making sure that your notes have been taken down properly. I know that I occasionally had trouble catching some of the things my Scottish lecturer had said.

Mel Gibson has donated $1 million to Mexico to help recovery from Hurricane Stan. Hollywood actors and actresses always seem to be complaining about the world's ills- fantastic to hear that some put their money were their mouth is.

This is a pretty interesting list- the 10 most deadly animals in the US.

I must have missed this memo- after only just signing up for 2Mb broadband, it seems that 4Mb and 8Mb connections are now available in the UK. And 24Mb is just "around the corner". That took me all of a month to be rendered obsolete.

As if that isn't fast enough (and let's face it, we'll always want more speed) a helium balloon was recently floated which beamed a sigal to earth at a blistering 1.25Gb per second. The idea is to use it to provide communications in disaster stricken areas or low-cost internet in the developing world. I want one.

Two years on and the "pizza bomb" killing has not yet been solved. This crime is just too bizarre for words. Personally, it seems too incredible that someone would put a bomb collar around their neck willingly, as if they might somehow be involved in the crime, as the FBI seem to be suggesting. If that was the case, why was the bomb live? Oddly, the article tells us that "new information" has surfaced- but there is no evidence to back that claim up- only the assertion by the FBI that the victim was targeted, a claim swiftly refuted by his family who point out that the killers did not know who would be sent when the pizza was ordered.

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of mammoths on islands in Alaska. The bones date from only 5,700 years ago, 2,000 years more recent than any other similar remains. So close and yet so far.