This somehow catches at the heart.

"While forcefully denouncing Dodik for his talk of independence referendums the international community have been almost utterly silent not only about the anti-Dayton nature of almost every speech made by Silajdzic since before 2000 but also the fact that Dodik’s response has been just that: a response."

“Obi-Wan never says, ‘I love you, Anakin’. The line is ‘You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you!’.”

"...why don’t people at the 90th percentile of the income distribution feel particularly rich? The answer is simple: because any Americans who are richer than this cohort are so *much* richer."

the extraordinary rise (and fall) of Gowrie Creek, washing away cars which had appeared to be securely parked

"It can't be an important book without the n-word."

"...female contributors, female bloggers, women who dare stand up and speak out are singled out for particularly vicious attacks all over the net. These comments range from the dismissive to the downright threatening. They are designed to undermine our confidence, make us doubt ourselves, to intimidate us and scare us. They are designed to exclude…

"The first fifteen months after the death of my boyfriend." Very moving piece. "His evangelical Christian parents saw it differently and chose to exclude me from his obituary and memorial service. It was a deep cut but it has healed. They barely knew him, let alone me."

More from Maggie (and a colleague)

My friend Maggie Fick reports.

'I will not identify the minister unless he chooses to put up his hand. However I should clarify two points. Firstly, the reference to Tokaji wine was intended to give a sense of the flow of time and of argument over an extended conversation, not to imply that the minister's tongue was loosened by the flowing alcohol. My interlocutor was sober; wh…

'Over a long dinner assisted by the expertise of the specially-appointed “EU presidency sommelier” one minister first claimed the media law was no different from other European countries. He later admitted that it was, indeed, more stringent than similar laws elsewhere. “You have to understand, this is central Europe, where there is anti-Semitism …

"The reactions to WikiLeaks share one abiding characteristic, so obvious that it can easily be overlooked, namely an unwillingness to address with any sophistication or seriousness the complex and everchanging world that the US -- and all of us -- must now deal with. The prevailing and lazy assumption is implied but all too clear: that the foreign…

Looking at the question objectively, I think we'd have to agree that the female breast, however interesting in situ, would make for a singularly misshapen champagne glass. But you know how it is with these male fantasies.

Speculation on past and future other Doctors, including Rowan Atkinson (who turns 55 on 7 January).

"FPTP fails on its own terms"

"Conspiracy theories are often used to justify political actions. This is especially true in Russia where the 1990s are regularly portrayed as the decade when the West set out deliberately to 'weaken and humiliate' Russia... But when it comes to western motives and policy, there is one problem with the Putin and Karaganov line of argument. It just…

God, I used to dream about that sort of thing when I was ten!

The problems of the recent Supreme Court ruling

"While I can smile at the intentions here, the method turns my stomach to the point of vomiting...the word "nigger" is a fact of American history and the current cultural fabric and every attempt to run away from the problem of its existence only buttresses the negative forces of ignorance powering it."

"The Doctor’s story (my story, our story, we lifelong companions, We Who Watched From Behind Sofas, who waited without realizing in suburban bedrooms in 1983 to hear a certain sound in the yard, ready to run out into the dark) has always been the story of Smart over Strong."

"So as Estonia enters the new year, it adopts a new currency. In fact, given the horrors of Estonian history over the past century, it is the ninth time that Estonia has been forced to change its money: 1910: Tsarist Roubles, 1916: Occupation Marks, 1918: Estonian Marks, 1928: Estonian Kroon, 1940: Soviet Rouble, 1941: Occupation Marks, 1944: Sovi…

Review of Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá. "I have not read such delightful, convincing, and readable science writing since the dearly lamented Stephen Jay Gould. This book is funny, absorbing, clear-eyed, and deeply anti-patriarchal in a way that feels incidental to the facts rather t…

"Dear Hugo nominators: please do not nominate Connie Willis's Blackout/All Clear as a single work."

Graham Sleight on the Ninth Doctor: "Eccleston and the Ninth Doctor may now be remembered for their refusals, but refusals can sometimes be the bravest thing to do."

"I think Twitter encourages us to coarsen our points of view, and I don’t think that’s good for conversation."

Steve on Eight

Tansy on the Eighth Doctor