The Patent Dragon's Zone of Soul Retraction

In Today's Episode... The Fighting One-Zero-One, the crew of the Phoenix and Mane-of-Night all face new challenges in the latest chapter of

Faenri Vs Dominion.

Media Frenzy Alert...! Oooh, look at the pretty, alarmist graphics! The world is going to burst into flames!!!

Actually, no - it'll take a lot more than a 6-degree rise in temperature to cause the planet to combust. Try something more like the sun becoming a red giant...

The news programmes have been almost orgasmic in their reporting of the latest "tome of damnation" about global warming, just stopping short of wagging fingers at the general public and chanting "we told you so". Yes, global warming is actually happening - we've just been through a January with double-figure temperatures, for feck's sake - and yes, human carbon output is accelerating it, but yet again, I have to ask the same fricking question - how much of this climate change is man-made, and how much is natural? It's not "climate change denial" - it's the kind of question that has to be asked if we are going to address this matter effectively.

And if we're going to "save the planet", we better stop wasting time with "reports" and letting countries off the hook because they're "developing" - how much more "developing" do India and China have to do before they have to accept their responsibility for their pollution? Fusion power stations? Faster than light travel? Transporters? Those two countries are a damn sight more developed than most, having nukes AND operational space programmes!

If they were to "do the right thing", the US would have no choice but to set their own house in order, and what a coup that would be...

And what about the 20% of carbon emissions caused by the burning of the Amazon rainforests? Shouldn't we be invading the relevant countries to prevent this willful wounding of the planet? Of course not - that would be "capitalist imperialism", done "just for the oil"...

If we're going to do anything about this, let's do it. No amount of this "eco-wank", and no more "stealth taxes", is going to earn humanity one more day of survival.

Tomorrow's "the day". No disrespect is intended, but the sooner it's over, the better.

Project News... The next Darkhawk story will commence on Saturday, and is provisionally set to run daily, rather than every two days. There are now two weeks' worth of story "in the can", with maybe another week's worth to go, a fair chunk of which should be dealt with over the next few days, once tomorrow's business is concluded.

Meanwhile... A community-conscious young father is shot by local "vermin" in London, seven months after being stabbed and slashed across the face by similar scum - the latter a crime the police did fuck all about. In fact, the police said that London is so safe now that, for the first time in 25 years, people can leave their doors and windows open again.

Try explaining that to the insurance people when your stuff gets ripped off...

No-one, and I mean no-one, can now defend Tony Blair's wholesale mismanagement of this country, which also now includes a "commission on integration and cohesion" in a truly feeble attempt to discourage members of certain ethnic minority communities from turning to terrorism.

And finally... Pluto's still a planet to me.