Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

After browsing through a few news articles, it seemed only fitting to go with what was becoming quite a dominant subject: animals and ladybirds. On the animal front, there are apparently wild hamsters that live around Strasbourg, and the French government are failing to look after them. I must admit that I never even knew there were hamsters in the wild, although they’re certainly rare: these ones are the only wild hamsters in Europe. Rather wonderfully, they are called The Great Hamster of Alsace, and they appear to live up to their name, often growing up to 10 inches long. As well as being bigger than their cousins, they are also considered much prettier – but not pretty enough, it seems. The French government are being fined quite heftily, in a move that the European Commission “hope” will convince them to take better care of the creatures in the future.

I can’t help but find the wording of the article amusing. The government are described as being “like a seven-year-old child”, facing punishment after mistreating a pet. But the fine is £14.5 million – which is more than just a slap on the wrist. To “hope” it will be enough to encourage them in the future just doesn’t seem appropriate. I know if I suddenly got charged £15 million for not looking after a hamster or two, I’d be inclined to act – and act quite quickly. Hoping simply wouldn’t come into it.

Contrasting this is a story where the government is looking to kill, rather than preserve. Kill ladybirds, to be precise. Apparently one particular breed is a danger to 1,000 species, so in order to counteract the problem scientists have decided to make them infertile. As a way of getting rid of things, I can’t imagine a much more horrible way than infertility. If giant scientists came along and decided to do that to us, things would not be peachy. It would be a slow, haunting death for any race.

I just thought the contrast was quite interesting…

I thought I would round the weekend out with two more things.

First of all is this. Now, I only clicked on this first story because of the curious wording of the title. “Legless Frogs Mystery Solved” could only have gone two ways, really: drunken frogs, or frogs ambling around without legs. I hadn’t heard of this mysterious case of the legless frogs, so I was quite keen to find out about it.

Unfortunately, it’s the latter. Scientists are beginning to discover why it is, exactly, that so many frogs are being discovered without limbs.

In a complete change of subject, I’ve just seen a video on You Tube that I was quite impressed with: a Michael Jackson, created by inmates. They dance, there’s music, and it’s quite a good show. Especially considering that they only had 10 hours preparation…

Whether it be sad or frightening, for the most part, the stories that have come up over the last few days are stories that people know about. They have probably known about them for a while, and they are probably still reacting to some of the news in their own way. Me rambling on about things now is probably not the best thing to have on the cards.

Instead, I’ll present you with a story or two that is slightly more unusual. It took a bit of digging to discover what is certainly of the “frightening news” camp, all things considered. There is something humorous about it in a way – perhaps it’s the vague air of Team America that hovers over the statement made; but ultimately it is a very real threat that has been voiced – and a threat whose repercussions could be catastrophic. It is never nice to read of such tension when you’re dealing with nuclear weapons…

The article was also quite informative – at least for me, as someone who is not much of a history buff. I never realised that the initial war ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. It wouldn’t come as a big surprise if, among some people over there, there is a feeling that the war never really ended; a feeling that, perhaps, it was just postponed, or placed on hiatus for a little while. Thinking about it like that, then, I would say that “frightening news” is quite an apt category for it.

To finish, then, here is something that’s a little strange to round it off. Whilst there seems to be an abundance of UFO stories in the news recently, here military jets have been seen getting a bit of the action. So did aliens come down and survey our planet for some reason, before drifting eerily up to space? Are the military suspicious? Or, as is the more likely option, is it all just some sort of mundane military procedure? It could have been training, or testing a new piece of technology. Or then again, perhaps not. Who knows?

In the world of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, television is a god; a new god, rising up to challenge the rule of the old Norse ones: television, and with it electricity, and anything that is so idolised and worshipped in today’s society that it could become a being in its own right. A man might be television like Mars, living and walking and breathing, was the god of war. An intriguing and compelling interpretation of today’s society, certainly; a society where video games are blamed for any wrongdoing and television is turning everyone into vegetables.

So often, we here of television being portrayed in a negative light. But here is something different. Here, a boy was lost in the wild after being separated from his family, but after watching Bear Grylls on TV, he managed to survive. All the hours spent watching television had bestowed on him a number of tricks: tricks like leaving clues, and following the creek to get to the lake. They helped in his rescue, providing a trail that others could follow. And now, thankfully, he is back home, and returning to some semblance of normality.

There is another feel-good piece of news here, where a boy has appeared in Superman, and indeed has had the entire episode named after him: “The Kid Who Saved Superman.”

And it all happened because he wrote an essay. It’s a story about inspiration, and hope, and strength; a story about all the ingredients that, in real life, combine to make someone a hero. To Hakeem, his teacher is his hero. Not only does that make this a moving story about a student who idolises his teacher, it is a heart-warming example of what can be accomplished if you go to school and work hard. Hakeem himself perhaps said it best: If you go to school and do good, good will come out of it.

Indeed, you might have your own comic book.

Sometimes, I can lack dedication. Sometimes.

When I’m writing, for example; when I set out to do a story, instead of finishing it quickly, I can fall into the habit of taking days to finish it; chipping away at it until it’s complete. Or, similarly, when it comes to graphic design and photo manipulation, often it doesn’t take very long to do the work – so I put it off, sometimes needing constant reminders to get down to doing it. There’s always something else to do.

Sometimes, I can lack dedication.

Dedication, though, is one thing this man does not seem to lack. And as a result, his kitchen now houses a 50 foot hole just so he can get down to a river to fish. So it’s pretty beastly; it’s not just any old hole. In fact, it’s so deep that he had to hire 30 villagers for 6 months in order to get it done. And now he can fish, and he is earning money doing it.

Quite an interesting story, I thought. And quite an interesting demonstration of dedication.

It’s time for Wimbledon again, here in England. And already, the British hopefuls are not doing very well.

You can tell it’s Wimbledon time by the way the sun has come out, fleetingly. And by the looming feeling that it will soon rain, as it always rains. And, of course, by all the people out and about playing tennis, in the yearly ritual. And you can tell it because, once again, the media is rallying behind one British man. Once again, Maybe It Will Be His Time.

Like clockwork, Wimbledon comes, and the tennis craze comes with it. There has been a British tennis player to rally behind for as long as I can remember, and, inevitably, we do. It has been Tim Henman, until quite recently. He was quite good. Not fantastic, like you have to be to win Wimbledon these days – but quite good. And, for year after year, the nation rallied behind him.

But he never won. Because you have to be fantastic to win in this era of tennis. In this era, there is Nadal. In this era, there is Federer, who is scintillating to watch on grass, and quite possibly the best player of all time. And really, when it comes down to it, that leaves just two other people who can hope to challenge them.

A Brit hasn’t won Wimbledon in 73 years, but for the first time, but now the hope around the country doesn’t feel quite so much like a fools hope. In fact, there is a very real sense that Andy Murray can pull this one off. After all, he has beaten Federer and Nadal before, and Nadal is coming into this competition with dodgy knees. And he is ranked third in the world, behind the two of them. So if anybody can do it, presumably it’s him.

And here am I, claiming to be immune to the effects of Wimbledon fever!

Maria Sharapova has presented a prototype dress that can somehow detect when your phone is ringing, and lights up to let you know about it. The article says that you can never hear your phone, when you’re in a pub or bar, but that’s usually because my signal magically disappears when I go into places like that. Is there a real need for a dress to tell you when your phone is ringing? I don’t know. I’d rather save the money, and stick to the vibrate feature.

Something that interests me a bit more than a mobile phone dress is mobile TV, the popularity of which is apparently snowballing at the moment. The march of technology that I was going on about recently is highlighted by both articles, of course, in different ways. I fail to see the point in the phone-reading dress, I can’t deny it’s an incredible feat to be able to accomplish something like that. And at the same time, it’s an incredible feat to be able to watch television on your phone. And there are a lot of mobile TV news pieces here, if you’re interested.

When I did the cash for mobile job on my old phone and upgraded to a new one, getting TV on the phone became a real possibility, and it’s something I’ve been quite tempted by recently. I was told just the other day that an application has been released for BBC’s Ilayer, so a myriad of different TV shows would be available to watch. A good internet connection would be required to stream the videos, though, and it might be too much for 3G to handle. If that’s the case, if it will take a wireless connection to even play them, then there’s not much point in doing it: I may as well just use the television at home.

Today was spent in Norwich, and I only got back at eight in the evening. A long day. And when I got back I realised I had missed a text message from a friend. He asked if I wanted to see The Hangover, at 8.45. I said yes. So the day became even longer; but it was certainly a lot of fun. I think part of what made it such an appealing and funny movie is that I see certain similarities between the characters from the film and the characters in my life. The wild night that the four friends have in Las Vegas is something to aspire to, I think, or at least there is a mentality a bit like that around here. It’s all about the memories, as they say. There is this notion that you should get smashed; that if you can’t remember your night, chances are you had a good one. But yes, it was a good film.

Earlier in the day, I had a nice surprise in the form of a large wad of tickets and coupons being posted through the door, offering discounts and special deals for what looks like pretty much everything. Free stuff is always good. I only looked at it briefly, but it looks like it allows me to buy books and dvd’s at discounted prices. Or buy Panasonic cordless phones, and save 25% if I order online – that sort of thing. It was a nice surprise, to be sure.

Now, for the rest of the day, I think I’ll just work on a little bit of graphic design stuff. I have been asked to make a new website for my American football team, because the current one looks a little on the bland side, so it’s going to be my job to try and sharpen it up. I’m thinking something simple, and to the point. Something like the Highland Telecom website, or even the god Checker website – which is a very informative site on all things myth, and well worth a look.

I’m not sure how it came about, but today, my friends and I were talking about the lottery. Probably, it was one of those instances where you’re lounging and talking for so long that the topics run dry, and change, and change again. Perhaps something about the lottery came on the television.

The news has certainly been filled with lottery stories recently. Here is one such example: someone has won despite not even buying a ticket. Quite nice, I would imagine.

We were debating what we would do with the money, if we were ever lucky enough to win. The jackpots are so huge these days that I can honestly say I don’t really know what I would spend it on. It would be important to me to take care of my parents, that much I do know. I would happily sort their mortgage out, and would be tempted to get my dad the sports car he’s always wanted, that sort of thing. Apart from that, I would just bask in the joy of not being in any debt, I think. Maybe put a fair bit of it in something like one of these high interest savings accounts, and then you could just live off the interest.

That’s not to say I’d be as laid back with it as these two, who are content to live in their parent’s home despite winning over £2 million. But I would be quite relaxed; it would just be nice not to have to worry about anything.

In this, the modern age, the age of the internet and governments who are happy to lay down cables across the country to ensure that people out in the lesser populated areas can have access to the internet, I find it quite a wonderful thing that there are places out there that are still hidden, untouched, and buried away from prying eyes.

There is a very interesting piece here telling of a discovery of one such place: the tomb of an Aztec ruler has been discovered in the wake of an earthquake. And outside the grave site, a statue of the goddess of the Earth is one of the more prominent findings, suggesting that it is quite a significant site indeed.

In addition to this, and somewhat similarly, there is a prehistoric ceremonial complex that has been discovered near Stonehenge in England – but apparently it is thousands of years older than the famous site. It was discovered by English Heritage, flying overhead in a routine survey, who noticed a series of crop circles. These, in turn, lead to a 6,000 year old tomb complex; a form of architecture that is considered to be the earliest known in the country. Which is quite something, when you think about it.

Presumably these crop circles have been there before, even if they aren’t there all the time. It’s just staggering to think that this has sat undiscovered for so long. And it makes me wonder – what else is out there, hidden from sight?