Out of the Loop

It's amazing how quickly you lose touch with what's going on in the world, once you go on holiday - all the more so when you're in a non-English-speaking country. In Venezuela, they at least have English news, though it's limited to CNN and *choke* Fox.

So I missed two weeks of goings-on, including all the Live Earth hoo-ha. Since I've got back and have been hitting the papers, I keep finding other weird stories of note, too. Like these:

- the Starbucks outlet located inside the Forbidden City in Beijing (?!?!?!?) has closed after considerable protest. A long-overdue move, if you ask me - A. stumbled across this cultural monstrosity in person, when he was in China four years ago.

- the British fashion icon Isabella Blow died on 7 May. Tragically, it was later confirmed that she'd committed suicide by drinking weedkiller. :-(

Mad as a hatter, but the world is a duller place without her. RIP Isabella.

- in considerably more cheerful news, it appears almost certain that robber-baron scumbag Conrad Black is going to jail. Which, if it transpires, is proof positive that karma will bite you in the ass, in the end. Woot woot!