Captain Jack Sparrow, pirate, casual raconteur and shambolic hero. Darth Vader, sometimes lord, once known as Anakin Skywalker, heavy breather with delusions of grandeur, fancies taking over the universe. Dorothy Gale, little country girl, minds her own business, gets caught up in a storm and ends up in a magical world where she has to beat the Wicked Witch of the West.

These are characters that captivate us, hold our imagination and whisk us away into a fantasy land we can only dream of. They make us laugh, entertain us, give us goose bumps – remember the first time Darth Vader came storming onto the screen, pure menace or what?! – and, once the final reel has stopped rolling, stay with us, like oddball members of our extended families.

Guy Fawkes – and others lest we forget – tried, rather unsuccessfully to blow up the Palace of Westminster in what is now known as the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Revolution of sorts was what they were after – they valued the monarchy, preferring it to be Catholic rather than Protestant. They piled many a barrel of gunpowder underneath the House of Lords and waited. They were unearthed and hunted down and…well, this isn't Horrible Histories. We now ironically celebrate this failure with fireworks and firecrackers. Funny that.

Skegness is a seaside town, real beautiful too, parked up nicely on the Lincolnshire coast in the East Midlands. It gets its, how can we put it, much-mulled over name from; we are led to believe, Danish settlers. One line of thought claims that the name translates as 'beard-shaped headland' or simply the 'bearded one'. It is, regardless of its etymological history, a very distinct sounding name.

This isn't meant to be a derogatory statement – we're not ganging up on Skegness and laughing at it, no, far from it. We're just highlighting the fact that it is, and has been, for a very long time, a point of contention, and by golly, someone has brought it up for public discussion.

Phew. There are roughly seven billion humans occupying planet Earth. Seven billion people of all ages and backgrounds. Seven billion people with funny dress senses and wacky hair. Seven billion people blinking their eyes and yawning. Seven billion people like grains of sand, stars in the sky.

Seven billion people… it is fascinating stuff and our brains struggle to visualise that number. Ten is easy to picture, a hundred too. Even 30,000 can be processed – think of all the fans at a football stadium watching a quality team kick a ball artistically. However, seven billion takes some thinking, but thanks to msnbc.com, we are able to get a general idea of what life is like with so many people in it. It's not seven billion, but an impression of what that means.

Steven Spielberg, a horse and Devon…makes sense doesn't it?

If the pairing of these three, quite distinct, entities appears odd at first, we wouldn't blame you. That said, Spielberg and a horse shouldn't be too hard to figure out given the amount of press his new war movie has been receiving.

War Horse, by the way, is a story about a young Brit who goes on a journey to recover his beloved horse during World War One. It is based on a novel of the same name, which was released way back in 1982. A play adaptation of it has been a runaway success in recent times.

A new high-speed, highly controversial, rail line between London and Birmingham has been given the go-ahead by the government – the green light says yes, yes, yes.

The Department for Transport (DfT) made the announcement today (January 10th) after months of considered thought, debate and consultation. For such a contentious project, one which will have a long-term impact on society and the environment, this was necessary.

In fact, according to Justine Greening, the transport secretary, it was one of the largest consultations the DfT has ever made. An astonishing total of 54,909 responses were received from individuals, businesses and organisations.

Saving is a tough gig, boy do we know it, not least than this time of the year, after the great blowout over Christmas and New Year.

In general, isn't it always the case that whatever month it is, when you're looking at your bank balance, smiling that your outgoings and expenditure have not dented your small pot of cash, that something crops up and diverts your hard-earned money away from your modest stash of savings?