There’s a good piece in The Guardian today from Andrew Brown on how bloggers and newspaper sites can encourage the sort of comments that others might actually enjoy reading. “It is like gardening, he says, “a constant watch against pests and the bindweed of organised stupidity.”

Maybe Marks and Spencer, which is going to start charging customers for plastic bags, could teach publishers a thing or two about avoiding waste.
  I’ve already remarked on how I received four copies (now five) of one particular book. This morning the travel desk received three copies of China: A portrait of the people, place [...]

As the Spanish celebrate Javier Bardem’s receipt of an Oscar for his role in No Country for Old Men, confirmation has come that Spain itself is often no country in which to be a woman, young or old.
   Anyone who reads Spanish newspapers or websites regularly cannot help but be struck by the number of [...]

Before I went to Cuba, everyone told me I was lucky to be getting in while Castro was still alive and before everything changed. That was in 1996.  He’s not dead yet and no one’s sure whether we’re about to see a historic change or just a handover. Now’s the time to go, all the [...]

Newspapers should be careful which products they choose as promotional giveaways. Around Victoria station in London today, there were signs saying “FREE MOUTHWASH WITH YOUR EVENING STANDARD”. Does it leave that bad a taste?

I’ve used a few online dictionaries while doing Spanish, but lingro.com, which I came across today, is one of the most useful I’ve seen yet. On others, you enter a word at a time, and have to keep switching between the piece of prose you are reading and the web page that has the dictionary. [...]

There are passengers who always manage to stretch their legs or get to the loo just before the captain says “We’re in for a spot of turbulence — please fasten your seatbelts.” How do they know it’s coming?
  If they’re flying with United Airlines, they’re probably tuning into Channel 9. According to a story in [...]