No Surprise Here!

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Insight China magazine asked 3,376 Chinese people who they trusted most.

Is it any surprise that more people thought that prostitutes were more trustworthy than politicians?
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Mickey Is Descended From Grey Wolves?

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I wrote earlier this morning about Mickey, our little Yorkshire terrier who is usually a quiet little soul except when it comes to taking a walk when he turns into a yapping, dancing, twisting, impatient little menace that has to be seen and heard to be believed.

My wife often reminds people startled by Mickey’s impatience when it comes to ‘walkies’ time that it has to be remembered that he is descended from the grey wolf, and a recent study by an international group of researchers has confirmed that it is so.

To challenge the theory that the domestic dog originated in East Asia, researchers analysed blood samples from 318 dogs in Egypt, Uganda and Namibia and found that the genetic diversity among African village dogs is just as diverse as that of East Asian dogs. It seems that all the dogs sampled in the study had grey wolf DNA so the theory that all dogs are ultimately descended from Eurasian wolves may still be valid.

We must bear that in mind when we are about to take Mickey for a walk. He may have fewer choppers than before but, believe me, he still has enough left in his little mouth to make an impact on your hands when he is getting impatient to be taken out for a walk!
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Mickey Don’t Stink Any More!

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Our little Yorkie, Mickey, has just had three teeth out and the rest of them cleaned and scaled. Why? Because his breath smelt like a farmyard in high summer!

We were congratulating ourselves on the absence of stink in the house when my attention was drawn to the latest news about would-be astronauts competing for next year’s space launch by China. What has the one got to do with the other, you might ask.

It’s simply because the Chinese space authority has, among other things, decided to ban anyone from the programme with body odours, dental caries, ringworm (ringworm?) or bad breath.

Very sensible people the Chinese!
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Hands Off The Haggis, Sassenachs!

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A historian has claimed that haggis, the national dish of Scotland, is an English invention. What tosh!

Catherine Brown bases her findings on a reference to haggis in an English cookery book published in 1615, whereas the first written reference to it in Scotland was by Robert Burns in 1747.

So what? Who is to say that the Sassenach author didn’t just take the recipe from a Scottish book that no longer survives or that it was a recipe handed down from his Scottish forebears? You may as well say that the Isle of Skye was English because Johnson and Boswell published details of their visit there in 1773!

James McSween, the premier haggis maker in Edinburgh has got it right when he says, ‘I didn't hear of Shakespeare writing a poem about it!
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How Sad!

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Among all the stories of death and disaster in the Sunday papers was a reference to a Marchwood man who slaughtered his cockerel following complaints by neighbours to the New Forest Council who issued him with a Noise Abatement Order with a possible £5,000 fine if he ignored it.

The story struck me for two reasons. Firstly, because I lived in Marchwood for a time and much enjoyed the peace and quiet of the village and its proximity to the New Forest which I used to explore early in the mornings. And secondly because it was a reminder that, in reality, it is us that encroach upon the animal world; it is they who were here first.

You read these stories regularly in the papers and they usually involve the impact that rural things have on the ever-encroaching affairs of people. Church bells, rung for centuries for example, have to be silenced because they disturb the sleep of folk who have built houses close to them. Boarding kennels that were once isolated and are now a noise nuisance to the estates that have been built on top of them. Killer roads which are driven across the age-old invisible paths of badgers and deer. There are many such stories.

And roosters doing their natural thing and, sadly, destined to have their necks wrung because of it.
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Hacked Off

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Suppose an American hacked into the computer system of the MoD or MI5 and caused half a million pound’s worth of damage. Would the British public support the government if it sought the extradition and trial of the young man concerned.? Very probably.

Why then is there so much fuss over the American government’s bid to extradite Gary McKinnon who is said to have hacked into 97 US computer systems, including those of the US Navy and NASA, causing $800,000 worth of damage? Is it because he is said to have Asperger's syndrome and/or because he faces up to 70 years in jail if convicted?

As it happens, though the High Court has rejected an appeal against the decision of the Home Secretary to allow Mr McKinnon’s deportation, the appeal process will doubtless keep the man safe for some time to come.

The case brings to mind the 1983 movie ‘War Games’, starring Matthew Broderick, whose character hacked into the US military’s central computer system and so started off a war game which threatened to initiate a real thermonuclear war. In the end, of course, he managed to stop the game and so avert disaster.

Perhaps the Americans should pay Mr McKinnon to show them exactly how he managed to hack into their computers and so make them a little safer from such attacks?
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Let’s Have A Scandal!

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The woman at the heart of the sex scandal surrounding the Italian prime minister alleges that she was offered a seat in the European Parliament, though the plan was dropped after the PMs wife complained.

Perhaps she might have a better chance in this country. Such a controversy would make a change from endless arguments about the economy, MPs expenses and heaven knows what else besides!
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