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I have no sympathy

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I almost wet myself laughing at this one:

Things went terribly wrong for a Limerick man who rushed into a bar armed with a sawn-off shotgun seeking out a particular customer but ended up in hospital after customers disarmed him and gave him a “bit of a trimming”.

The gunman was said to be in a stable condition at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital last night after being treated for serious injuries when he was beaten up by customers.

Now, I’m not advocating vigilante justice or anything of the sort, but if you walk into a pub with a shotgun and get the living tar whacked out of you, I’m going to laugh.

Flickr

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You may have noticed my flickr.com account hasn’t been updated to include my Abu Dhabi photos. The site is one of many blocked in the UAE — d’oh.

blocked1.jpg

Adios, Ian

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Ian Paisely is to retire as head of the Northern Ireland executive in May. I wonder if this will allow for a fresher generation to move the peace process further, or if the DUP will become more hardline.

Gary Gygax RIP

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The co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, Gary Gygax, has died aged 69. He had been ill for some time.

Although I never played the pen-and-paper games, one of my earliest enduring memories of computer games is Eye of the Beholder, which was based on the D&D ruleset. Beyond the Beholder, Gygax’s creation (although he had little to do with D&D after 1985) gave rise to one of my favourites, Neverwinter Nights.

One might argue that, without Gygax and Don Kaye, modern fantasy gaming may never have emerged. Their work certainly fired my imagination, and will do so for many years to come.

Planet X

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A Japanese team believes there may be a planet 70% the size of Earth at the far reaches of the solar system. As I still recognise Pluto as a planet, that would make it the 10th.

The researchers at Kobe University in western Japan said calculations using computer simulations led them to conclude it was only a matter of time before the mysterious “Planet X” was found.

“Because of the very cold temperature, its surface would be covered with ice, icy ammonia and methane,” Kobe University professor Tadashi Mukai, the lead researcher, told AFP.

The study by Mukai and researcher Patryk Lykawka will be published in the April issue of the US-based Astronomical Journal.

“The possibility is high that a yet unknown, planet-class celestial body, measuring 30 percent to 70 percent of the Earth’s mass, exists in the outer edges of the solar system,” said a summary of the research released by Kobe University.

“If research is conducted on a wide scale, the planet is likely to be discovered in less than 10 years,” it said.