Sins of our underestimation

We can build ocean-spanning ships; aircraft that skim the border of space; and trains that travel faster than World War II warplanes, but nature, and her fury continue to evade our devious hands.

As pictures trickled in of the MV Explorer, slowly sinking into the icy waters around the Antarctic, the message was clear, nature is not going to give up her controlling-stake in our planet. Not without taking a few of us with her anyway.

In that sense, the passengers of the Explorer were lucky: all 90 of them survived. But the writing is on the wall, as cyclones buffet Bangladesh, hurricanes lash the man-made coasts of North America and earthquakes and volcanoes batter the cursed islands of Indonesia.

If we, however, delude ourselves into thinking that by building bigger, faster and stronger vessels for our ignorance, we will be able to tame — nay control — nature’s indignation at her rape...we are in for a surprise.

We will not only suffer the fate of Icarus, but the next ‘Explorer’ that impales itself on nature's icy limbs may be carrying far more than 90 people. And this time they may not be so lucky.

More guns please, we’re American

SAN MARCOS, Texas: Now, I honestly believe that Americans are a much-maligned people, and have had the pleasure of meeting more than my fair share of cerebral ‘Yanks’. So why oh why, do they — every now and then — have to give the Associated Press these little nuggets, that just portray them as idiotic morons.

Get this: “Mike Guzman and thousands of other students say the best way to prevent campus bloodshed is more guns.”

Is this guy for real? For heaven’s sake he’s an economics major. Give him a gun and you might as well give your wife your credit card...because, baby, your life’s over.

According to the AP, Guzman, who studies as Texas State University in San Marcos, is among 8,000 students nationwide who have joined the nonpartisan Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, arguing that students and faculty already licensed to carry concealed weapons should be allowed to pack heat along with their textbooks.

Picture this.

Professor: So Mr Guzman. Can you explain to the rest of the class the tenets of Disaster Capitalism?

Guzman: Errr...no.

P: Mr Guzman, I demand an answer.

G: I demand not to be asked.

P: That’s it, you’re suspended.

G: Suspend this, motherfucker! (Guzman whips out gun, misses the Professor and kills classmate instead. Classmate’s boyfriend, peeved, pulls out his piece and shoots at Guzman, only to kill the janitor mopping the corridor. Soon everyone’s whipping everything out and the Gunfight at the OK Corral, suddenly, looks like a Disney flick).

Tapped at 14, Spears ain’t no virgin

London: That lying bitch! (OK I’m not as upset as that sounds), but surely Britney Spears could have come clean about her virginity.

According to the wires, Britney, who had famously vowed that she would wait till marriage to have sex, lost her virginity when she was 14, her former laywer said.

In an interview with a magazine, Eric Ervin claimed that Spears first had sex with her boyfriend of three years. He also said that Spears' virgin image was a "PR blitz" and that she and Justin Timberlake were intimate from the beginning, thesun.co.uk reports.

Some famous virgins. Seriously

• Hans Christian Anderson
• James Barrie
• Lewis Carroll
• Emily Dickenson
• Ed Gein
• Edgar Hoover
• Immanuel Kant
• Soren Kierkegard
• Sir isaac Newton
• Nikolai Tesla