WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING

Where to start, and this is only what readily comes to mind at the end of this week :


Bulgaria, I am told by a Bulgarian,, has recently had two earthquakes not far from the capital, Sofia. they were about 5.6 and 4.5 on the Richter scale;


Bulgaria, a bus with Israeli holidaymakers is sabotaged by a bomber, people are dead and severely injured.


Syria; what is looking more and more like civil war, continues to wage, killing and maiming many innocent people in its train. 

Afghanistan is still unsettled and people are hurt and people die.


Aurora, Colorado, USA. A Gunman fires a gun at people in a cinema at a late night film show.  Twelve people are said to be dead.

A father and his three children are found dead in a wood in Southern England. No one else is being sought for the deaths.

An Avalanche on Mont Blanc took the lives of nine people last week, fourteen others were injured at the time  Another two deaths are reported this week on the France-Italy Border of the mountain.


The recession continues to make headlines in particular, how it affects European nations and what it means in terms of austerity here at home in the U.K. The Chinese and American economies come in for  some scrutiny too.


A  Metropolitan policeman caught on video assaulting a newspaper seller on his way home, (who was not in, and had not been in the midst of a demonstration nearby) who collapsed and died close to the site of the assault,  is found not guilty of killing the man. Information indicating  nine previous complaints about the police officer's  behaviour, was not offered to the Court by the employing police authority.


The security of the Olympic games venues in Britain has been creating headlines because the contracted out services could not be achieved by the company, G4S, holding the contract.  The Armed Services and Police will fill the breach.  In Scotland, the police will take the lead role in providing security at the Football venues.

Trains In The Central Belt of Scotland are derailed through the affects of excessive rain. Passengers and staff are okay.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of recent news, it is, however, a lot to absorb.

DE-BUGGING MYTHS

Well now, if you didn't know before, you do now, trains have been bugged and de-bugged. How has this miracle come about?

The Guardian newspaper Bad Science editor, was attracted by the numbers of the train bugs that were meant to be in  existence, so, he set about investigating the stories. A firm who unblock drains, kill bugs and so on, he discovered, simulated with a computer model, the perfect growing conditions for bugs to live in trains. You have to understand that there were no people on the modelled train, the train had a constant and stable temperature, not possible with an everyday train in use. The model 'grew' its bugs beautifully.

Somehow, the modelling exercise became 'common currency': trains carried thousands of bugs ripe for attaching themselves to passengers. It was wonderful stuff, and the name of the firm, which will remain anonymous in this post, got great free publicity in the media and alternative medias.

However the intrepid reporter had difficulty getting the truth of the matter out of the company, which, when it was uncovered, did no-one involved any favours. There appears to be rather too much storytelling, like the boy who cried "wolf"!