The Pope's Little Helper

The British warmed a little to Pope Benedict last week, but by contrast they fell madly in love with his private secretary, Georg Ganswein. Even the Daily Telegraph has been drooling, offering pictures of gorgeous Georg where one would normally expect to see buxom sixth formers from a posh Catholic girls' school.

To lighten the load for all those who find Benedict a reactionary old hypocrite, or as Christopher Hitchens said in New York last week "an overdressed little ponce", an acquaintance tells me that Msg Ganswein's forename has been remodelled by friends as "gay.org"...

Mobile Maasai

After a long gap I get a call from Juma. He has been back on the mainland for a while. His father, an important Maasai elder, has been very sick but thankfully seems to be on the mend. Adding to the stresses of being a 21st century warrior and herdsman, the rains have failed this year. This means Juma has to take his and his father's cows further and further from the village to graze.

As Juma explains there is an upside. He gets to go far enough to find a patch of ultra rural Tanzania that gets a mobile signal. His village has none.  Now I wonder - is there a project for a terribly clever eco-geographer mapping Maasai grazing patterns against the footprints of East Africa's mobile networks? Is the place he is calling me from today over-grazed because of its Vodacom signal? As I have blogged before the Maasai hold most of the modern world in complete disdain but mobile phones...that's another matter. 

Tea Party Victory

After Christine O'Donnell's shock win in the Delaware primary last night Republicans move to an anti-masturbation stance ...they should be careful, there are a lot of wankers out there.