One Of Those Rivers

Well, let's see. What's on the agenda this week?

Aside from removing huge amounts of detritus from our house, the main mission has been remembering to get up early in the morning. Luckily junior is helping by waking up even earlier than normal, thus removing the need for an alarm thus far.

So what nonsense has the world of science given us today? Oh, look. Showers might be bad for your health. It would seem that bacteria builds up in shower heads, and the rise in lung conditions is because fewer people are having baths.

I'm sorry, but this is madness. No one ever died from taking their toaster into the shower, did they? And if baths are so healthy, what about the fact that all the bacteria that you've just washed off gets swilled around and just ends up somewhere else?

In other news, Matt's cartoon in the Telegraph is a telling little indictment of the world that is being created around us. As is this. I'm not entirely sure at what point everyone suddenly lost the "innocent until proven guilty" tag. I know this is because of the Ian Huntly case, and it is admirable that we should want to avoid such tragedy ever happening again.

But if these kinds of people are going to carry out these kinds of acts, then they will find ways of avoiding the system, that's how they operate. Ian Huntly worked as a caretaker because he knew he was under the radar. Likewise priests, scoutmasters, music teachers. If you are now extending this to the parent who takes the kids football practice, where will it end? "No I'm sorry, Mrs Jones, little Johnny can't come to school today. It seems my friend hasn't had her checks done yet, so can't take anyone else's kids in." Ridiculous.

The other problem is that all these processes and checks are carried out by people. Humans are flawed. They forget stuff. They skim-read, miss tick-boxes, and assume that someone else is dealing with it. The blame culture that we've been saddled with means that no one wants to be to blame, yet everyone needs to blame someone.

Right. Off my Soapbox now. Enjoy the below.