Chad Orzel weighs in: "I could rant at some length about all the things that are awful about this story about Mormons proselytizing to aliens who live in the Sun, but life is just too short, you know?"

Locus pulls together comments on the story from elsewhere, and attracts some additional comments from Martin Lewis (whose hilarious dissection of the story is so far only available on Twitter).

Abigail puts her finger on it: "What's wrong with "Leviathan" isn't just that it's badly written and that all its characters seem to have been created either to spout talking points [...] or act as straw men [...].  Worse than these is the fact that it's not a story so much as a thought experiment that posits a situation in which none of the negat…

My own very modest contribution to the debate: "Written from the heart, just not very well."

"Study finds that deal is not cost-effective and that agreement could break international law."

How to run things badly.

"The EU has paid too high a price to support its fishing fleet," said the 112-page report for the EU Commission.

I know Ciarán Toland vaguely, from email conversations many years ago; I know Diana Wallis rather better. I like them both very much as people. But on this one Ciarán was right and Diana, of course doing her job, was wrong, and I'm glad that the ECJ found for Ciarán.

The first anniversary of the coalition government has been and gone, and – like its members, no doubt – we have no clear idea of what its future will be. The various elections that accompanied the anniversary didn’t help. By general consent the Lib Dems had most to worry about after . . .

Money quote: "Without a vigorous restatement of the principles of humanitarianism, humanitarian action will remain in a state of crisis and continue to be a selective tool for the powerful and hence fail in its global mission of protecting and restoring the dignity of human life."

Camilla rides up a mountain to raise funds for Alzheimer's research. She's done it now, but I think is still accepting donations.

Various interesting points, including: "There is no Cold War, and the War on Terror is not as effective as the Cold War was in solidifying elites against change."

Noted for future reference.

Dissecting demands for an EU referendum.

The problem with the dash—as you may have noticed!—is that it discourages truly efficient writing. It also—and this might be its worst sin—disrupts the flow of a sentence. Don't you find it annoying—and you can tell me if you do, I won't be hurt—when a writer inserts a thought into the midst of another one that's not yet complete?

On reading your ex-husband's memoir: "I believe the description of himself, me, and of our marriage, to be a fiction. It is a pity he has neither the good taste, nor the talent, to present it as such."

Like me, Abigail picks "The Things", though with much less enthusiasm.

Brilliant. And for once the background music is not too annoying.

...the Saharawi have no ties whatsoever to al Qaeda or terrorism. [The] claim that Saharawi are fighting for Gadhafi are equally baseless.

Q: Do you like being autistic?A: Yes. Q: What do you think about autism?A: I think it’s sort of a good thing.

Looking at the memorials to the conflict in the Big Apple, including one very obvious one not usually put in that category.

By someone who knew him much better than me: "I think Garret lived such a mentally sharp and active life for so long – still writing his regular economics column in the Irish Times to the end – because he was just so curious and endlessly interested in and enjoying the people around him."

"He was *my* taoiseach."

"The majority of men are in no persuasion bigots; they are not willing to sacrifice on every vain imagination that superstition or enthusiasm holds forth, or that even zeal and piety recommend, the certain possession of their temporal happiness ... "If anything can tend to revive and keep [fanaticism] up, it is to keep alive the passions of men by…

The disruption caused by Queen Elizabeth II to one Dublin family's life.

Making the obvious point there there is absolutely no public interest in exposing the love life of a footballer, no matter how famous.

A lefty, but convincing, perspective on why Ignatieff failed so dismally.

Support for Scottish independence: 29% in Scotland pro, 58% against 41% in England and Wales pro, 40% against!!!

A Hebrew cartoonist looks at logistical problems facing Superman in London.

"First of all there needs to be some honesty from Ashton, ideally presented in a set-piece speech. She needs to publicly acknowledge that there are very major challenges to overcome in European Foreign Policy. "Second, Ashton needs to ask for a pause of at least 6 months during which her focus must uniquely be on the administrative side of the fun…