"From today I will no longer be reading any articles, whether online or in the paper, published by The Sun, The News of the World or The Daily Mail."

Really bad news as Amazon buys The Book Depository. I'm finding eBay a better and better source for my books.

When it first came up in 2005, only Sweden voted against; when the renewal process began in February this year, five states refused to support it; that number has now risen to seven. And it still has to clear the European Parliament.

At one point, driving through a toll plaza, I figured I’d ask the toll-taker whether I was going the right way. I pulled out the iPad and said, “Is this the right road for Valladolid?” Jibbigo transcribed, “Is this the right road for liability?” and Sultry Voice said, “Es este el camino correcto para el obligatorio?” The toll-taker looked at me li…

Conservative commentator David Frum: "...the case against same-sex marriage has been tested against reality. The case has not passed its test."

Speaks for itself really!

Young love in New Jersey in the 1960s.

How the owners of EVE Online are losing the confidence of their customer base.

Not a very big one - less than 20m -but very close - less than 13000 km!

'A simple, classic T-shirt always says "I'm here to have fun." Unless of course it actually says "Doctor Who."'

in under-17s Canada v England match, equalising scores in 87th minute - amazing goal! (The 2-2 draw apparently gave Canada its first-ever point at the tournament and ended a 13-game losing streak that goes back to 1987. It also marked the first goal scored by a goalkeeper in any FIFA 11-a-side finals competition. Qullan Roberts, the scoring goalie…

Abigail Nussbaum likes the TV version a lot more than the book.

'Barry Humphries, meanwhile, is known primarily to the world as Dame Edna Everage, and he's set to play the Goblin King in The Hobbit. Jackson says, "We're looking forward to seeing him invest the Goblin King with the delicate sensitivity and emotional depth this character deserves."' In other news, Benedict Cumberbatch to play Smaug the dragon.

"PMQ is, in my oipinion, representative of all that is bad in British democracy. It does none of what its defenders claim it does, and does much to reduce the significance of what is going on to a silly game of points-scoring and debating-chamber rhetoric. It's something loved by political junkies and hated by people who wish politicians would spe…

'The world is a hostile, alienating place. Power has been concentrated in the hands of often unaccountable elites; backed by covert insitutions. That much is as arguable as the words, “The sun is hot.” From there it’s just a matter of how altruistic they are – and, considering the decades of conflict and exploitation we’ve experienced, you wouldn’…

This is awful news.

Extra-special segments from around the Seven Kingdoms include… Nymeria’s Incredible Journey: Arya Stark’s lost direwolf (guest voice: Fran Drescher) befriends and eventually eats three other abandoned pets on a desperate journey back to her home at Winterfell in this animated odyssey that will warm your heart until it inevitably ends in tragedy. A…

'Victor was surprisingly pissed that I’d “wasted money” on an enormous chicken, because apparently he couldn’t appreciate the hysterical value of a 5 foot chicken ringing the doorbell.  Then I said, “Well, at least it’s not towels” and apparently that was the wrong thing to say because that’s when Victor screamed and stormed off, but I knew he was…

David Rennie, as ever, speaks sense about Greece and the Euro.

Great philosophy, summarised (as reported by Communicator)

"Anyone who has acted as an interpreter - as I have - anyone who has played a tiny part in the corridors of political power - knows that what people say to you in your language isn’t always what they say or even think among themselves in theirs. I don’t need to tell you that we Brits in the large know almost nothing of the real Germany of today. A…

Too tired to read this so bookmarking it for tomorrow.

Too tired to read this so bookmarking it for tomorrow.

Too tired to read this so bookmarking it for tomorrow.

Good question.

Be afraid of the next big solar storm!

More on the colossal expense of a technology that doesn't work defending against a threat that doesn't exist.

David Moles shares my astonishment, and the astonishment of all right-thinking people, at the award of a Nebula for Best Novelette to Eric James Stone's 'That Leviathan, Which Thou Hast Made', a story which "contained no science worth speaking of. There was very little fiction in it either, if fiction is the narrative of imagination; whatever imag…