Bullying

Children can be cruel. Bullying in schools across the globe is endemic. However, it is often the parents of the victims that provide the catalyst. If parents give their offspring a stupid name, what outcome do they expect when their child interacts with their peers at school? When Mr & Mrs Peacock named their son Drew, there was only ever going to be one result. It amazes me that the name Adolf still frequents books of children's names.

When Toby Flood first got picked for the England rugby team, I had my concerns. Toby is not the hardest of names. I find it difficult to believe there has ever been a school bully called Toby. It is high unlikely that a Toby ever stole your dinner money. at least the Welsh rugby player Toby Falatau had the sense to change his name to Taulupe. Not the name I would have chosen, but nevertheless a big step in the right direction.

The Vikings had the right idea. Vikings earned their names through great trials and deeds, rather than just settling for their birth name. Eric Bloodaxe and Thorfinn Skullsplitter did terribly well. Not so Harald Finehair!

Toxoplasma Gondii

14% of Beluga Whales in the Western Arctic are infected with the parasite Toxoplasma Gondii. The surprising thing about this statistic is that Toxoplasma Gondii is a parasite most commonly found in cats. So how did this happen? I accept the fact that flooding has brought species together that would not usually share the same environment. Worcestershire, for example, now has a seal called Keith enjoying a winter break in the flood waters of the river Severn. However, I don't think it has been getting  jiggy with the local animal life.

Perhaps scientists have spotted an opening for new designer pets more suited to are climatic changes. I'm not a big fan of tampering with nature, but a can see an obvious advantage. Whenever a new popular product comes on the market, there is always someone trying to make a quick buck by producing a cheaper version. Our Chav population could soon be thinned out by crayon eating window lickers trying to cross pitbulls with crocodiles. However, on the negative side, nobody beats the Nazis when it comes to mad eugenics. Who knows what they would come up with?

Going back to the subject in hand, Toxoplasma Gondii has been known to cause blindness in the host, according to the BBC. Wouldn't blind whales be a danger to shipping?

More Flooding

Once again our nation is under water. The flood defences proved inadequate. Roads are cut off and many house have been abandoned.

To add insult to injury, the country is now being battered by gale force winds, bringing down power lines and trees. However, on the bright side, the abundance of available falling wood is providing a useful resource for raft building.

Close Encounters

If we ever make contact with an alien species, it will be the greatest event in our history. Despite numerous reported sightings, testimonies of abductions, film footage and photographs, there still remains no firm evidence that we have ever had any genuine contact with extraterrestrials. 

This isn't to say that we won't at some point in our future actually make contact. However, if contact was to be made, it would probably involve them coming to us, rather than us travelling to them. Our technology is no way near sophisticated enough for us to travel the required distances to take us to potentially habitable planets. Alien technology might provide the necessary nohow. 

There still remains the possibility that they have already made the journey. If this is the case, then the obvious question that needs to be asked is why they have not made confirmed contact and attempted to communicate with us. Whilst scientists theorise an answer to this question, claiming that we are mere primitive barbarians in comparison to them and they are just playing with us in the same manner as a child would an ants' nest, I have an alternative theory.

If you consider are early attempts to conquer space, and even some of the more recent launches from new countries joining the space race, they often involved sending rockets up containing animals. These space craft frequently fail to return to Earth. Consequently, space is littered with space capsules containing the decaying remains of animals. Should any alien species encounter one of these whilst journeying to our planet, they would no doubt open it up and perform a few tests on the contents. The assumption could easily be made that either dogs or monkeys are the dominant species on our planet. Hence any contact would reap little reward for them. They would probably just dump the contents of their space toilet and set course for home.