Quotes Doctor Who (specifically "The Happiness Patrol"). Really.

Alan Renwick's analysis of the Alternative Vote as an electoral system.

Kate Nepveu has finished re-reading The Lord of the Rings.

Oxfordian madness and Adam Roberts.

Wesley Osam looks at Richard III and Josephine Tey.

Long but profound analysis by Who author Jonathan Blum.

...those bizarre arguments tend to be made by professional politicians who really don’t like the increased choice that AV gives to voters. Every argument they make against AV seems to have at its heart the point that “You the voter should not be allowed think or do that”. Voters, on the other hand, voting under an AV system, think “I really like h…

A British diplomat visits Majuro.

Pavol Demeš visits Chernobyl, 25 years on.

Chad Orzel reacts to my Hugos post with a confession of his own.

Conrad Halling reacts to my Hugo post (and has some complaints about Livejournal).

"The No-To-AV campaign leaflet is quite the most hateful document I have ever read, and I speak as one who has made a special study of the works of Dave Sim, and once read the Daily Express every day for a month."

David Tennant's tribute to Elisabeth Sladen

The report places considerable emphasis on the importance of achieving a more sustainable approach to security, energy, agriculture, and the environment. Again, it is important to stress that this narrative was penned by senior military thinkers, not the Sierra Club. The simple fact is that any clear-eyed analysis pretty quickly comes to the same …

Big list of tributes - the ones that caught my eye listed separately.

BBC / Russell T Davies tribute

Iain Coleman's tribute

Lynne Thomas' tribute.

The Doctors' tributes.

"I can get out my iron and tackle the pile of shirts that’s been waiting. It’s one of my favourite activities and one of my very few accomplishments."

Millennium Elephant's tribute.

I don't expect my colleague to share all my beliefs about how to weigh the political equality of citizens against the freedom of billionaires to spend their money on politics. But I do think that if we don't agree that rich people have more political power than poor people and that they use that power to pursue their economic interests, then we've…

Encountering JRRT, but in a different way.

Curing procrastination.

"it is my great regret to inform you that Atlas Shrugged: Part I is neither good nor good-bad, but bad-bad-bad-bad. I dreamed, not of sesame chicken, but of my own swift and merciful death, and that of the director, not necessarily in that order."

Baby penguin being tickled. OMG teh cutez!

The headline slightly exaggerates - she was basically doing work experience with her MEP. And I'm aware of at least one professional interpreter at the European Parliament with a serious visual impairment - an Irish bloke who sometimes gets the same train as me - and would not be surprised if there are many others. But in any case it's a nice stor…

Hugh Grant, journalist, taped conversation - not in the order you might expect.

Many translated versions of the maps from The Hobbit.