Bill is here. The remnant of Hurricane Bill is currently passing across the coast of Scotland on its way to Norway bringing wet and windy weather to the the rainforests of Darkest Wiltshire. Actually it's not too bad. I did get caught in a shower yesterday - an occupational hazard of living in Britain - but that left me slightly damp, not soaked. Compared to what's going on in the big wide world, my encounter with a few raindrops means nothing...

The news is full of the usual tragedy and strife that makes current events such interesting viewing if somewhat shocking and depressing on occaision. Headlines reveal a great deal. Ted Kennedy taking the secret of Chappaquiddick to his grave, a doctor arrested on homicide charges over Michael Jacksons untimely demise, a sharp rise in jobless British households, a five year old child shot dead with an air rifle in Wiltshire, crowds of football hooligans fighting each other at Upton Park in London, a young lady so upset about her exam results that she stabbed her boyfriend to death, another man stabbed after answering a hoax advert, thugs attack a ninety year old woman, and even James May's attempt to create the longest toy train journey ever was disrupted by vandals nicking track sections or short circuiting the bits left behind with coins.

Not so long ago a christian woman was trying to make a hard sell of her religion. I've no doubt she had some ulterior motive to improve her sects headcount at services - perhaps I'm a little cynical? - but at one point she asked me in an attempt to pierce my spiritualist armour "Don't you think human beings are special?"

Personally, I think all too often Human Beings are bad news.

Good News of the Week

Sometimes you have to wonder at the mentality of television program makers. Take Big Brother for instance. Take a dozen assorted wierdo's and hopeless cases, put them in a socially isolated house, and watch every single thing they do, for entertainment.

Why on earth would any sensible, well adjusted, fulfilled human being waste their time as a fly on the wall to these people? To some extent it's marketing of course, but the problem with that is once the novelty wears off viewers lose interest, and they have done exactly that. So much disinterest in fact that Big Brother is to be axed. Good news at last.