"Members of the new federal parliament, expected to come into effect by June 2012, will be nominated by recognised traditional elders assisted by qualified civil society members, none of whom have any political aspirations." So that's all right then.

Interesting visualisation of Twitter updates.

I did not know he had adapted 'Juno and the Paycock' for the big screen.

An excellent collection!

Amazing interactive art project!

Obviously, I believe NASA is worth the money. But it's such a lot of money that it's difficult to explain briefly why it's worth it. Here's what I think: investing in NASA makes us smarter, improves our lives, and increases our capability to overcome technological challenges. Even more important, though, are the intangible benefits of pride, respe…

Great but sobering piece in NRC Handelsblad by Ingrid Robeyns

"Beijing’s ‘New Frontier’ is ground zero for the organ harvesting of political prisoners." - a horrible story.

Anne Travers speaks out.

Statistical analysis of Duma election results shows how artificial United Russia's success was.

Joyce McMillan in the Scotsman on "perhaps the most formidable incumbent politician in Britain, one who had defied the odds to win a stunning electoral victory, largely by offering an optimistic world-view that no other party could match."

1 Author’s own prefaces. 2 Second lines 3 Again and again and again 4 Bicycles 5 Bells 6 Country Houses 7 . . . and housekeepers 8 . . . and cooks and chefs 9 Eggs 10 Aunts 11 . . . and uncles 12 Double-barrelled names 13 Fictional newspapers 14 Hats 15 Disrespectful rhymes 16 Fictional characters with the names of birds 17 . . . with the names of…

"We got a phone call just after seven. Something had happened. A bang. We laughed. My grandmother didn’t."

Alice Welbourn, who has spent her career working to raise the profile of HIV positive women.

I love the internet. I live here. You know at parties how people, if the conversation tends towards the online, will say 'oh, I prefer real human interaction to all this Twitter nonsense'? I stare at them in horror and go 'are you *insane*?! Twitter *is* real human interaction, turned up to the maximum!

The 11.36 from Paddington to Gerrards Cross is designed to be as inconvenient for passengers as possible. Why?

So far, most of the eulogies of Christopher have come from men, and there’s a reason for that. He moved in a masculine world, and for someone who prided himself on his wide-ranging interests, he had virtually no interest in women’s writing or women’s lives or perspectives.

How much do you know about the British way of life????

June 13th, 1990, was a historic day for weather forecasting in Germany. For the very first time, the weather map on the Tagesschau showed the newly reunited country’s international borders.

...and another one bites the dust, as Smirnov comes third in his bid for election; Moscow having dumped him rather publicly.

Mugabe, Gaddafi and Kim Jong-Il together at last!

Kim Jong-il, the enigmatic North Korean leader, died on a train at 8:30 a.m. Saturday in his country. Forty-eight hours later, officials in South Korea still did not know anything about it - to say nothing of Washington...

I stopped giving in-class final exams a few years ago. It was a light-bulb moment, brought on by a student who needed a disability accommodation... I asked myself why I was offering in-class final exams in the first place.

1. The USA is already a functional oligarchy. 2. It's impossible to be elected to high office without so much money that anyone in high office is, by definition, part of the 0.1% 3. Public austerity is a great cover for the expropriation of wealth by the rich 4. Starving poor people with guns and nothing to lose scare the rich 5. Worse, the poor h…

There is no formal legal means in Texas to confess to a crime for which someone else has been convicted. "I guess you can contact whatever law enforcement agency handled the case," says Lubbock District Attorney Matt Powell. That, of course, is precisely what Johnson did when he copied his petition to the district attorney in 1995. "Here you've go…

"to make the case that Amazon is anti-union barely approaches relevance. Most companies are anti-union, that's not important right now. What made Amazon unique was the way in which it was."

More detail on dubious journalistic practice in Belfast.

Journalist trolls popular Northern Ireland political website.