Sun, 10 Sep 2000 23:20:00

The Moscow Times reports that Putin stole the last presidential election with millions of altered ballots, switched tallies and fake voters.

The pope performed an exorcism last week.

Tale of woe of the week: Lord Palmer, who can no longer afford to have his silver balustrade polished, is asking for volunteers. He'll supply the sandwiches and wine.

Scientists at the Wellcome Centre for Cognitive Neurology (I think I remember that correctly and if I don't, they could probably explain why) have finally answered the question Why can't you tickle yourself? The answer is that you know it's coming, and the cerebellum is designed to focus not on what you're doing but what potential predators might be doing. And you can tickle yourself: they've invented a robot that you cna use, but only if there is a sufficient (and I think random) gap in time between pushing the button and the tickling.