I’ve always loved National Geographic; it has to be one of the finest things to look at if you’re the kind of person who grew up running about in the garden chasing frogs when your friends were playing kiss chase and all manner of non-nerdy things.

It’s not just National Geographic who are reporting on all the amazingly weird and wonderful things our little planet has to offer though. BBC News–yes, weird has gone main-stream–often surprises me by coming out with all kinds of odd things.

Yes! It’s a Giant Salamander! And not just a giant one—at 1.7 meters there’s no other word for it—but a really, really elderly one too, which has more than a passing resemblance to a maths teacher I used to know but who will not be mentioned here.

Seeing all these wonderful stories puts a huge smile upon my face; It’s a lot better than another depressing take about the credit crunch mess, isn’t it?

There’s only one problem with this picture of course; whenever any scientist comes across a five eyed octopus with rotating talons, or a three winged eagle—don’t ask me how that would work but you never know, do you?—capable of talking Cockney, they tend to grab them and stuff them in a hole somewhere and investigate the hell out of them. I have a problem with this, like I do with animals being kept in captivity and starved of all the things that make them, them, but that problem is at odds with my fascination. So what’s the answer? I am yet to find it. But what keeps coming back to me is this: all the evolution might actually be a danger after all, and so maybe it’s good that some of these freakish animals be taken in and give a place to stay? I can’t see the three-winged eagle doing much other than flying around in circles.

Last thing guys, I have just realized that I have been staring at my computer screen for the last couple of hours and am really tired of my Battlestar Galactica Wallpaper, I think it is time for a revision, these and more updates coming soon!