'There are plenty of good, valid arguments against the current western military action in Libya... But I do wish opponents of the action would stop resorting to the bone-headed type of argumentation that runs "Why aren't they bombing the crap out of Bahrain/Saudi Arabia/Syria/Yemen/Côte d'Ivoire?"'

When the student asks you to write their essay for them, part 1.

When the student asks you to write their essay for them, part 2.

Charles Butler took Diana Wynne Jones for a balloon ride in 2005.

My old friend Ivan Krastev on Turkey and the EU: "Until yesterday, the common-sense judgment of the EU-Turkey relationship could be summarised as “unpromising but stable”. The process of never-ending negotiations has seemed more closely to fit Germany’s dream endgame of “privileged partnership” than any other on offer, persuading Europeans that th…

My good friend Nathalie Tocci: "The revolts in the Arab world have demonstrated the weakness of EU policy towards the region, particularly of what such policy had evolved into in recent years, through its lopsided emphasis on economic cooperation and migration management at the expense of democracy and sustainable development."

Use of 'OMG' in 1917!

"The crisis at Fukushima has converted me to the cause of nuclear power."

What on Earth is one of the major post-war writers in any genre doing writing a Doctor Who tie-in? And, from the other side, why on Earth is a brand as closely managed as Doctor Who putting itself in the hands of someone as ferociously revisionist as Moorcock? Funnily enough, the book itself provides one answer to both those questions: this is whe…

The key medieval astronomical instrument.

Journalist meets the next generation of lobbyists

"I like how old [Peter Davison] seems - very Hartnellish, and yet he is not. Hartnell. Nor old."

"I like this one! It has got the best hat in all of Doctor Who! "

"...my major source of entertainment came from your face for the duration of the story. That was a picture."

I find Rilstone's white on black blog almost unreadable but his prose well worth the effort, as with this skewering of Melanie Philips.

Ryanair is not named here. But anyone considering flying Ryanair should watch this.

The longest-lived actor to have appeared in Who - he was about 94.

Unfortunately the ludicrous article by France's Minister for Europe defending current arrangements is behind the European Voice paywall, but this sums up the arguments.

Hooray! Fantastic for us fans of late-70s Who, Lalla Ward, Louise Jameson and John Leeson together again. Though I recommend starting with the first Gallifrey series and working through to this new release.

Competition to create an ad that says No to Violence against Women. Competition is open to all citizens and residents of the 48 European countries. Voting is open to everyone.

Hooray!

On being a parent.

Great advice for doctoral students.

Why τ beats π.

:Why is Barnes and Noble performing well as a business while Borders has filed for bankruptcy? What is so different about how they are run? This is a question that many of us at Borders asked ourselves frequently and I think the answer is not a simple one. As someone who has given this a tremendous amount of thought and was Director of Merchandise…

Review of a book on the life of the most famous person to come from Loughbrickland. (Or, well, near Loughbrickland. Near-ish, anyway.)

"Now, of course, the fellows producing this model are physicists and they are not directly familiar with the socio-political factors that can strengthen or weaken a language, though they did attempt to factor some of these into their results. Their model nevertheless produced some interesting findings. They reckoned that there are three factors th…