Another chapter in the rise of the e-book21 May 2012

Waterstones’ embracing of the Kindle is hugely significant – but don’t write off paper and ink For all the talk about the rise of e-books, 92 out of every 100 books sold in this country are still made of wood-pulp and glue. The future may be co...

Mehdi Hasan: liar leaves job21 May 2012

The New Statesman has today parted company with Mehdi Hasan as its senior editor, politics. Mehdi is an effective polemicist, increasingly beloved of BBC discussion programmes – but the job needed more reporting scruples than he possessed, and ...

Weary Serbia is paying the price of its own, and Europe's, mistakes21 May 2012

Over in faraway Chicago Europe's leaders stagger from one summit to another, united only in the existential despair of not knowing what to do about the eurozone's problems. A bright-eyed aide rushes in: "Guess what!? Some former crony of Milosevic ha...

Twitter row reveals the trouble with Pakistan21 May 2012

If ever there was a metaphor for Pakistan's woes it was yesterday's farcical Twitter blackout. An affront to religious or cultural sensitivities prompted a knee-jerk ban on Twitter, which was feebly implemented and ridiculed by thousands of users ...

Lockerbie bomber Megrahi proved how well-brought up people can still commit atrocities21 May 2012

I have written before about how people in public roles who seem perfectly human and reasonable can behave psychopathically in the right social and cultural context, and when the moment demands it. I would like to revisit this idea in the light of t...

Inside Rafael Nadal's Incredible Statistics On Clay - Tennis-X.com (blog)30 Apr 2012

Inside Rafael Nadal's Incredible Statistics On ClayTennis-X.com (blog)Anyhow, i would argue that the last 3-5 years women's tennis seems absent without a true great IMHO. The truth is I am not even a Nadal fan. In fact, I want him to lose each time he plays. I am a big Federer fan and each time Nadal wins, ...and more »