Sime says

Every fortnight I’m in the poo at the zoo – not out of favour with anyone, just involved in a sanitary act of kindness as I go about my duties as a volunteer keeper. There’s definitely an art to ‘spot picking’, the term used for removing fresh and not so fresh excreta from an area heavily laden with wood chips. The trick is to gently encourage the spherical little terds onto your shovel without bringing bits of bark along for the ride. And don't think once on board, the little green balls will stay put. Like Maltesers rolling down the aisle and marbles responding to a call to “scatter”, roo poo has a mind of its own. Obviously traumatized at the thought of leaving their buddies in various composted forms behind, the bits of bog race down the face of the shovel, hit the lip and become momentarily airborne before landing and scurrying off back under cover in the heavily wooded area. I’m surely serving my penance for the days when I shot kangaroos on farms during my teenage...

His life ended in a drain pipe and some would say there is no better place for an autocrat of his ilk to be flushed from this world. But as I stepped out from my shower and heard the news of Gaddafi’s demise, I couldn't help but pity the man who made wearing a safari suit, sunnies and a turban together, almost fashionable. Whilst he never made it onto the front cover of Vogue, the graphic footage of a feeble, frail and bloodied man moments before death revealed the sad state of humankind.  There is no defending Gaddafi’s arrogant grab for power, subjugation of minorities, dismantling of state institutions, involvement in the Lockerbie disaster, weapons trading, massacres and more. These were ugly blights and Libyans, at least in the short term, are better off without him. But whether the world is or will be a “better place” with his removal is yet to be revealed. One only has to look at the state of Iraq and Egypt to see that chaos reigns amidst the power vacuums. I have...