Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

Basking sharks are now breeding in the waters in Scotland, according to this piece. It describes, quite nicely, how the sharks swim nose-to-tail during courting, and makes it all sound very pleasant and wonderful – but the fact is these are sharks in our waters, and that’s an idea I’m not hugely fond of. In fact, as much as I’m intrigued and interested by the piece, for in a way it is quite nice – in another, it is quite scary.

I watched Jaws when I was younger, as I’m sure lots of people did, but ever since, I’ve had a thing about going out into the sea. The sort of thing where I just don’t really do it. Even though I know it’s very, very unlikely that there will be a shark in the sea, right there where I am, right when I am swimming, it’s the thought that it could happen that puts me off.

And until now, I have always had the slight consolation that there probably aren’t sharks in our waters. But now it’s more probable that there are absolutely tonnes of them!

If it’s true that fish have table manners (which, in itself, is a bit more of an appealing idea than sharks swimming around in the sea near me), then maybe that trend extends all the way to their flesh eating, gigantic brothers of the ocean.

Then again maybe not. Call me a wuss, but I’ll just have to avoid swimming in the sea for a while, I think.

Nothing can ever happen these days and just be observed or regarded as phenomena – it must happen for a reason. So when sheep start shrinking in Scotland, there must be a reason for it. When you’re searching around for a scapegoat, what better than global warming?

Yes, the sheep are apparently shrinking because of global warming. Now, when it comes to the global warming debate, I tend to favour the arguments that suggest that there isn’t really such thing. It’s true that the media is presenting us with a very one sided argument.

The article is written quite confusedly as well. It argues that the changes are because of climate change – but then describes those changes as one might describe natural selection. And after all, if a small goat survives, and passes on its small genes to further generations, is it not a form of natural selection?

Yes, it seems quite ludicrous to blame shrinking sheep on global warming.