Miserable, and a little disturbed.

Today it rained. It's better than snow although now it's dark the rain has turned to snow again.

It was that half-hearted misty rain. Not proper rain, the sort you can justify putting a hat on for. No, it was just constant drip-drip-drip of fine, soft rain that gradually permeates everything until you're soaked before you realise it. Miserable rain.

So I cheered myself up by buying a camera. Well, there's no point lugging around the 'proper' cameras when it's like this. I bought a small digital, but with 10 megapixels so it can produce decent pictures. It fits in a pocket. I could have dug out an old camera but that just didn't seem right.

On another note, I was outside in the drizzle, scowling around a cigar today. I rent a little lab sometimes in a local university. Currently I'm working on an alternative type of motion detector but more of that another time.

This time, a couple of forensic science students joined me in smoker's purgatory. They were too cheerful for my liking. Their conversation disturbed me a lot.

Apparently, they've been told 'stick with the evidence markers'. What this means is that once they reach a conclusion, they have to stay with it. Even if they realise it's wrong, they can't change it.

I don't mind admitting to being horrified by this, and more so by the casual and cheery way they discussed it. So if I'm ever dragged into court for something I didn't do because forensic evidence points to me, then even if the forensic officer realises they've made a mistake, they've been taught not to admit it.

It gives the illusion of infallibility, something most scientists try to achieve but with dire consequences in this case. The perfect record of the forensics office must be upheld even if an innocent man goes to jail--and even if the forensics guys know he's innocent!

The students accepted this with casual ease, which worried me. What the hell are we producing here? Another Inquisition?