Lovely tribute to the Brigadier.

Nicholas Courtney obituary, with videos.

"Belinda, I just can’t understand how something so small can be so impressive.” “Well, Mark, *you* would know about that."

Classification of young American females according to Brian Wilson. (The Beach Boy, not the North Down politician.)

Tribute to the Brigadier, to commemorate the late great Nicholas Courtney

Analysis of Libya from September 2009 by the late great Fred Halliday.

"You want a better Ireland. Of course you do. We don't. We want one that we can be in charge of." Also, wigs.

The strategy behind is clear. The right wing of the Conservatives believe that Cameron threw away victory at the last election, and if the coalition collapses, the right will take over, with a pledge for a referendum on EU membership and win the next election.Because of this, honest and rigorous political debate loses out to deception and deceit.

I'm sure that if you're interested you've already seen this story of how Peter Davison got from London to this week's Gallifrey convention in California. But it is rather glorious.

The mind boggles. Sure, USIP is not immune from criticism, but this is sheer intellectual vandalism.

"The very move towards more representative governance will raise huge popular hopes of socio-economic improvement, many of which will be impossible to fulfil. In addition, we see few (if any) circumstances in which an Israeli government of any conceivable stripe would seriously entertain a just settlement for the Palestinians."

"our legislators seem to have no understanding of the principles of the rule of law and democracy that require that minorities should have judicial protection against the will of the majority as expressed through the legislature."

"They have the country half destroyed, and I think if they got in for another term they would totally destroy it!"

HËNJ

'Can you believe that "in Hosni Mubarak's Egypt," private wealth translates into great political power and vice-versa?  What is it like, wonders the curious and concerned [New York] Times reader, to live in a country like that?  No wonder there's an uprising.'

"The Ring of Steel", free with tomorrow's Observer, was one of the best Who audios I listened to last year. And I have been eagerly anticipating "The Hounds of Artemis", free with today's Guardian.

This week's "Métro, Tram and Bus strike in Brussels was provoked by… a Métro driver punching a customer. Seriously."

When the TARDIS materializes in a familiar junkyard in the 1960s, the Doctor and Steven are soon embroiled in a mystery in the City of London. Who are the mysterious bowler-hatted businessmen with their deadly umbrellas? And what secret is young Oliver Harper desperately trying to conceal? Contracts have been signed. A deal is in place. And the Do…

Many years ago, the vast space parasite Axos attempted to suck the planet Earth of its energy. Now it’s all but forgotten – a dried-up husk, marooned in orbit, still stuck in the time loop it was placed in by Earth’s defender, the Doctor.  Forgotten, that is, except by space tourism billionaire Campbell Irons – who’s hatched a plan to solve the wo…

The freedom enjoyed by EU citizens to live and work in each others' countries is a unique liberty. It is the basis around which European governments have tried to build a single border, a compensatory system of co-operation between police, judges and immigration officers and a common refugee policy. But hardening attitudes towards immigration in m…

I have covered this issue previously, but it is a good summary of the story of the fake Obama birth certificates.

large pluralities of the public in the surveyed Mediterranean countries of France, Italy, and Spain see increasing development aid to poorer countries as the most effective policy to reduce irregular immigration, more so than increasing national border controls... It’s time for the rest of Europe to listen to those on the front lines.

"The case concerns a child who was born in Denmark having, as well as his parents, only German nationality. The child was registered in Denmark – in accordance with Danish law – under the compound surname Grunkin-Paul combining the name of his father (Grunkin) and the name of his mother (Paul), who did not use a common married name. After moving t…

If the case that The Huffington Post were making to its bloggers were a little more frank, along the lines of the following: "Sure, we’d love for you to post here. And there’s the chance that your post could do very well. But odds are that only a few hundred people will see it, and we’ll be lucky to sell enough ads on it to afford a slice of pizza…

Professor Miller said that such a reform would do no more than to bring the UK into line with countries including Canada, Australia, France, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and many others. He added that the UK Government could and should have resolved this issue several years ago. In being allowed by the European Court of Human Rights a further…

What I do know is that a society that makes a virtue of illiberal behaviour will treat its citizens illiberally; a culture that demands injustice in the name of common sense will perpetrate injustices.  I know that a citizenry that puts all of its faith in infantile concepts like force and "common sense" will receive plenty of the former and littl…

Martin Freeman as Bilbo, and the dwarves including James Nesbitt, give a press conference.

First of three fascinating posts about helium, this one explaining why it is a scarce and non-renewable resource.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the US Federal Government has been hosting a fire sale of a rare and nonrenewable resource—Everything must go!  No price too low!  We'll entertain any offer!—for the past 15 years.