I decided to take the iPod touch to the gym this evening, and I can safely say that watching some video while pedalling away definitely makes it easier. Mind you, when I say easier, it's all relative - I'm built for comfort. not for speed, as fat lads the world over say ;-)

I found a couple of things I was going to blather on about today, such as Finland declaring that their citizens have a legal right to at least 1Megabit/second broadband by July 2010, and 100Mbps by 2015, which makes Lord Carter's Digital Britain proposals that we should 2Mbps by 2012 seem distinctly lacking in ambition.

Plasma scalpels? Seriously? Let me say that again. PLASMA SCALPELS! Maybe this living in the future thing will catch on after all.

Dear 1960's,
we don't have flying cars, robot maids, food in pill form, or shiny silver lamé jumpsuits yet, and we don't teleport, we travel up and down the country in trains that still flush onto the tracks, but HOLY CRAP WE'VE GOT PLASMA SCALPELS!
Yours,
The year 2009

Now when can I place my order for a lightsaber?

Some researchers have discovered a "magnetic equivalent to electricity" according to a BBC report. Sounds like witchcraft to me. Are those scientists heavier or lighter than a duck?

All of these were blown out of the water tonight though, when I spotted this story about scientists working with poison gas to potentially save lives. Do take the time to go and read the full page, but in a nutshell, a biologist called Mark Roth is experimenting with removing oxygen completely from cells, which prevents the chemical reactions which usually happen with falling oxygen levels. Remove the oxygen completely, and these reactions can't happen. Genius. Utterly utterly brilliant, and I sincerely hope that something comes of this research. If it leads to something that can save the lives of (for example) soldiers, or traffic accident victims, then file Mark Roth under awesome.

And as blown away as I am by that research, I'm not blown away enough not to mention that the HTC Hero has won both phone of the year, and gadget of the year at T3 magazine's annual awards. I'd just like to point out that I made the leap from iPhone to HTC Hero a few weeks ago, so yes, I'm going to use this opportunity to make some form of claim that I know what I'm talking about when it comes to gadgets ;-) (which is why I'm going to play it safe, and say that the next big (little) thing is going to be the mobile broadband MiFi thingies. Little jobbies that hook up to 3G networks, just like USB dongles, but they're self contained, and act as little wifi hotspots, allowing you to connect (usually) up to five devices, such as netbooks, ipod touches etc.).