and snacks. In an open shed next door was a very tame blue rock thrush. It allowed prolonged and very close inspection. Was it very tired or just very confident amongst people?

Desert lark

Otherwise birds on the road trip were scarce. The only two birds which did keep popping up with any regularity were white crowned wheatear and desert lark.

White crowned wheatear

Even an area with a dam and a small bit of water could only add palestine sunbird, blackstart and a solitary stonechat.

Palestine sunbird

Near-by we added little green bee-eater to the afternoon's list.

Little green bee-eater

As it got dark we investigated a brand new road in the area signposted as montane road.We can't remember the road being showed on google earth during our pre-trip research - that's how new itPrivacy advocates, journalists and a representative from GCHQ squared off in a debate on surveillance in Cambridge today.

The heavyweight exchange of ideas between Cambridge security engineering professor Ross Anderson and Ian Levy, technical director of the National Cyber Security Centre, the assurance arm of GCHQ, took place to mark the anniversary of the foundation of the FIPR think tank1.

Professor Anderson opened a panel discussion titled "Crypto wars: the control of interception and surveillance" by arguing that the concept of key escrow – which technologists defeated in the 1990s – was back but since "most IP traffic was encrypted it's all about your phone". He also said that one of the main issues with government-developed surveillance tools is that they aren't being applied to fight cybercrime, a particular problem