The worlds of videogaming and science were equally stunned this week, when news broke of the disappearance of one of the former's most precious artefacts from the premises of Finnish developer Rovio. At this stage it's unknown whether the loss was the result of theft of accident, but in either event the consequences for gamers are likely to be serious.

That's because Rovio – producers of the iconic multiplatform mega-hit Angry Birds – have somehow contrived to lose the Magic Equation.

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This has been quite an unsettling week, one way and another.

(A troubling scene from Creatures & Castles, free today.)

When men reach a certain age, things that used to be taken for granted can become difficult, and in some cases even medically worrisome.

But that's more information than I required, thanks.

If you don't want to know the unexpected, tragic but ultimately life-affirming and deeply moving storyline of Zookeeper DX Touch Edition (which is revealed on completing Normal mode), look away now.

(By which we mean, "don't click on that picture".)

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I'm pretty old. I also have a lot of spare time, and those two facts mean I think about stuff a lot. Far too much, in fact, because in my experience the more you understand about the world the less happy you are – Christ knows how Stephen Hawking even gets up in the morning. (Oh, right. Sorry.)

Eventually, unless you're some sort of superbeing, you come to a plateau of experience where nothing much surprises you any more, and every new horror doesn't shock, just wearily reaffirms what you already knew in your heart about the ugliness of the human condition.

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Come on. It must have been one of you, or someone you know, and it's time to own up. Because until we deal with this serious issue and reach some sort of closure, Jobs is going to keep taking it out on the rest of us.

There's simply no other remotely plausible explanation for the staggering hostility – no, make that absolute naked loathing - with which Apple continues to treat the hundreds of millions of customers who've made it so rich.

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As the growing horror that is the coalition government unfolds more hideously every day, the British people could easily be forgiven for harbouring a sense of complete and utter hopelessness.

The choices presented to them in May 2010 already amounted to little more than three slightly different shades of the same colour. But the moment when even any manufactured pretence at significant difference between the policies offered by the three major parties evaporated – the minute Nick Clegg got behind his Deputy Prime Minister desk – it became impossible to maintain the delusion that Britain remains a democracy in any meaningful sense any more.

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I tuned in to BBC3 last night hoping to watch some hot rock'n'roll action from the Reading Festival, but even though there was nothing in the Sky EPG about a programme change, the coverage seemed to have been replaced by a live set from fat middle-aged Canadian comedian Glenn Wool.

OR HAD IT? I just can't tell.

(Left: Glenn Wool. Right: Guns'n'Roses.)

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