Doh!

I think my favourite story from the news last week is this one in which we hear of a wife who posed on-line as a 14-year-old schoolgirl in an effort to catch her paedophile husband attempting to pursuade real 14-year-old schoolgirls to have sex with him. It seems that David Roberts would spend hours alone in his study with his computer. His wife became suspicious when an instant message from him to a young girl appeared on the screen while he wasn't there. She decided to log on to the same site as a kinky schoolgirl and was treated to hot webcam action direct from the next room it seems.

If I'd been the wife in this situation I suspect I'd have simply burst into the study brandishing the bread knife. If she'd also had the foresight to record all the hot webcam action and text chat, I'm guessing he'd stop doing it. Let's face it, that would be emabarrassing wouldn't it; caught displaying yourself on web cam to 14-year-old girls, by your own wife - Doh!

As it turns out the wife was so emabrrassed that she alerted the authorities rather than confront her husband directly. The police found child porn on the computer, and he got busted. He didn't realise that it was his wife that shopped him until some time later when the police told him it seems. He thought he'd been caught when his downloads had been traced. You almost feel sorry for him. Actually, no you don't, but you know what I mean. He was lucky enough to escape jail and is now going through a divorce.

I like to read about scientific research soemtimes. I'm particularly interested in absolutely pointless research by academics that conclude the bleeding obvious. And a nice example turned up today. It seems that "experts at the Glasgow Science Centre" have been researching why Friday 13th is considered to be unlucky. And their conclusion seems to be that it's because Friday is the unluckiest day of the week, and 13 is an unlucky number. Amazing, I wonder how much money went into that research grant. They also concluded that umbrellas that are stored wet can spontaneously combust, whcih often happens to me, and that walking undera ladder may be unlucky because a window cleaner's bucket may tip over you. Amazing stuff!