I was on line toggling between Facebook and Twitter late on Thursday evening when this electronic fog of hearsay and "that can't be true" gossip appeared.

It was like there had been a disturbance in the neighbourhood in the early hours of the morning and everyone had been jolted awake.

Lights flickering on in scattered houses, windows cautiously opened; uncertainty. Whispered conversations, rumours, then counter rumours. More lights coming on, more people out of their houses. The swirling rumours becoming a rumble of fact. And then the astonishment, it's really true. Really true.

Michael Jackson is dead.