Quiet Nights

So over the weekend Hunter S. Thompson put a gun in his mouth and fired it, rather predictably killing himself in the process.

"Iran must not have a nuclear weapon," Bush has said. "For the sake of security and peace, they must not have a nuclear weapon."

A Scottish blind man turned on his Guide Dog, biting her and kicking her into a road.

I've spent my morning picking from a small tub of dodgy olives, listening to music, drinking coffee, and laboriously making my way through the job websites and emailing recruitment agencies to let them know I'm legal again.

I have a new first-cousin-once-removed. Welcome to the world, Archie. Some of the best bits don't make the headlines.

My sister Jemma is doing extremely well in her Psychology degree.

My parents are wrestling with AOL and BT as the pioneers of broadband internet in my home town of Ventnor, Isle of Wight, England.

I am twenty-five years and four and a half months old, living in New York City, New York State, USA. I am drinking coffee, deciding against another olive, and looking for work.

Madhya Pradesh's annual bhooton kah mela, or Ghost Exorcism Fair, is well underway in India. That's a novel one.

Pope John Paul il Secondo has popped back into hospital with a relapse of that troublesome influenza.

Hunter S. Thompson wants his remains fired out of a cannon. I assume he'll be cremated first, otherwise that could be dangerous, not to say potentially quite messy.

These olives really are a bit too tangy.

There was a tsunami which hit South-East Asia just after Christmas in 2004 and killed a lot of people and the relief and aid efforts are still struggling to cope.

An earthquake hit southern Iran on Tuesday morning - it was 6.4 on the Richter Scale, which is pretty powerful as earthquakes go, and it took the lives of 500 Iranians and has affected the lives over 30,000 more.

I'm probably going to go out for a walk this afternoon if it's not snowing too hard.

This post was brought to you with my deep and personal thanks to the BBC, The Kansas City Star, Google, CNN and the Pakistani Daily Times for their news coverage, and to freshdirect.com for the olives.