the world keeps turning

and yet more surprises come to light...

Today's gem is that Microsoft, that dearly beloved supplier of so many aspects of modern life, have agreed a takeover of Skype. What does that mean? Well, price rises, unreliable software with lots of fancy features nobody asked for, network outages and poor performance - perhaps. I suppose it could have been worse - Skype could have been taken over by AOL.

Then I hear that Sony's playstation network has been more damaged by the hacking recently than had been suspected - and it won't be back for a while longer. I'm not affected but millions are.

The least surprising news is that the AV referendum in the UK was struck down by a 2 to 1 majority. I mean - did anyone really expect the Tories to back the idea when it was likely to reduce their chances of a majority? So a badly explained change to our voting system got rejected by the voters....some of whom were just following what The Times and the Daily Mail and the Prime Minister told them to do - in a phrase "don't think, just vote No".

And of course a lot of voters blamed the Lib Dems for cuts to public services that both major parties agreed were inevitable...wonderful. If in doubt, kick the one least likely to matter. I have little idea why so many hate the Lib Dems; OK, so they promised things in their election documents - it was the Lib Dems for crying out loud! Why did you believe them? For decades, they have had the luxury of spouting policies they know will never come to pass. Yes, their ideas span things we'd like to see happen, but no-one seriously could have expected them to happen.

Welcome to the real world.