My friend Stephen recently posted this animation of Detective Mittens, the Crime-solving Cat. Detective Mittens isn't the only animated cat to wow You Tube audiences, however...
I love Simon's Cat by Simon Tofield. It's a fabulous series of animations by someone who has clearly observed his cat very closely. If you've ever had a cat, you will appreciate how accurate these are!
The latest animation is below, and he now has his own website too! If you've not come across him before, go check him out - he's fabulous!
A year ago, the British Athletics team returned from the Olympics with its tail between its legs. Our athletes contributed just 1 gold and 3 other medals to our haul - a performance that was seen as lacklustre, falling short of a target of five medals and paling next to stunning Cycling, Rowing and Swimming performances.
Last weekend the World Athletics Championships in Berlin came to an end. At the beginning of the week a certain amount of cynicism about our prospects would have been understandable. Our target was 5 medals again, but how would we fair in the real world? Well, the answer was surprisingly well - a six medal haul (2 each of Gold, Silver and Bronze) - was our best result in 10 years...
As always, there were highs and lows - some disappointments and some unexpected (at least for the casual follower) successes. I've already made mention in this column of Jessica Ennis and Phillips Idowu in this column - but I make no apologies for mentioning them again!
After missing the Beijing games, Jessica Ennis became the latest in a distinguished line of British Multi-Eventers - Mary Peters, Daley Thompson, Denise Lewis, Dean Macey, Kelly Sotherton - to reach the top of her sport, and the first to win the World Championship Heptathlon Gold for Britain.
Phillips Idowu's career began in the shade of the World Record holder Jonathan Edwards and last year he got Silver in Beijing. This year he managed a Personal Best and Gold.
Although the ultimate measure of success is the number of medals won, sometimes I feel we do not recognise those athletes who achieve season and lifetime bests in the pursuit of the goal. This is a theme addressed in this blog by the BBC's Tom Fordyce. It's also appropriate in this regard to mention Greg Rutherford who came fifth in the long jump final but had set a new British Record in the qualifying rounds.
Back in the medal table, however, our next medalist was Jenny Meadows who ran a great 800 metres to claim bronze with a personal best and the third fastest time by a British woman ever. Another bronze came courtesy of the Men's 4x100m behind the Caribbean powerhouses of Jamaica (including, of course, Usain Bolt) and Trinidad and Tobago.
Our final medals came on the last day; Lisa Dobriskey gained a silver in the 1500 metres after the second placed athlete was disqualified and our 4 x 400m squad went one better than the sprint relay team and took the second place.
So there you have it - the British Roll of Honour. We may have missed out on medals from Christine Ohuruogu and Paula Radcliffe. There may have been other athletes who under-performed. But the team as a whole produced a sterling effort to beat expectations as they begin the long road to London 2012.
Although I have already blogged today, I couldn't not mention Usain Bolt's latest achievement. Follow the link to see the full 19.19 seconds it took him to cover 200 metres:
P.S. I should make mention of Phillips Idowu's gold in the triple jump and Jenny Meadows' 800 metre bronze. I hope to blog on the Brits' performance overall at the end of the games.
Who would want to be Kenny MacAskill? The Scottish Justice Secretary must have wished he had the wisdom of Solomon at his disposal in the decision he had to take this week: Should the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing be released from prison on compassionate grounds?
It's an issue which arouses strong feelings, and one on which I'm sure you will have an opinion. Whether it's a compelling belief that he should remain in jail for life or that the original conviction was unsound, views can be very polarised.
Well, there are a number of conspiracy theories which suggest that the initial focus on Iran as the suspected source of the bomb was conveniently dropped as relations thawed. Libya, it is said, was more convenient nation on which to place the blame.
While al-Megrahi was convicted in a Scottish court, and had had one appeal declined, there are many who feel that the evidence against him was mostly circumstantial and the case far from watertight.
The decision to release him, however, had to be divorced from these concerns. As things stand, he is a convicted man - and a Justice Minister cannot by himself overturn the decision of the courts. If these were the grounds for release, the appeals process should have been left to run its course.
There are those who suggest the decision is political, or that it is influenced by the amount of oil reserves in Libya, and the prospects for BP and Shell to develop them. They suggest that the recent meeting between Lord Mandelson and the son of Colonel Gaddafi. I may be being naive but I don't sense these factors did play a part. Not least because the SNP government in Edinburgh would be unlikely to respond well to pressure from Labour in Westminster.
So what does it come down to? Why should we release a man convicted of 270 murders? What makes it appropriate to show compassion to someone convicted of a compassionless crime?
I believe it's simply this: "Treat others as you would wish to be treated".
True Justice is about society setting rules and standards - and then meeting them itself. Yes, people should be tried and convicted when they transgress the boundaries of what is acceptable. Yes they should serve a sentence and repay a debt to society.
But when the boot is on the other foot and a terminally ill man is dying thousand of miles from home and family, how do we choose to respond. Do we vindictively insist he remains where he is? Or do we meet the higher standards we set ourselves, the standards which we feel set us apart from the offenders and respond with compassion to them and - importantly - their families?
On balance, I feel Kenny MacAskill has made the correct decision. Perhaps prisoner transfer would have been preferable, but various previous commitments appear to have ruled this out. Perhaps it could have been handled better, and his presentation and subsequent interviews been more eloquent. However it was handled, he has made a courageous decision on behalf of us all, and one which most of us would shrink from taking responsibility for.
