Wonderfully clear version of the twitter panto, pulled together on the fly by a wonderful person. Narrator in pink, cast in blue, backchannel behind you… [link]

I've got a Sony eReader — and I've quickly eaten through the free "classics" that come with it and a number of CC licensed works. Rather than buy books I've start on this site — there are 22,303 eBooks available and all free. [link]

Religion,’ Marx wrote, ‘is indeed the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself or has already lost himself again … It is the fantastic realisation of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality.

‘The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions.”

The parallels with Second Life are plentiful. Sure, at one level, this virtual reality world is harmless fun, no different in principle from any other form of the escapism in which all of us sometimes indulge.

Unlike religion, Second Life isn’t even accompanied a more or less intellectually rigorous belief system with the ability to inspire both the better and the baser human instincts. These days, it looks like even alienation has to be dumbed down for mass consumption. [link]

Rory rightly dismisses a press release that uses an ’survey’ and twists the results so as to appear newsworthy. “So, while I’ll admit that I’ve occasionally fallen for this kind of stunt in the past, I’m going to resist it this time. But don’t be surprised if you pick up a paper this week and read “Secrets of the Granny Gamers.”" [link]

It's worth reading what Momus has to say on most subjects, and this includes lots of PG Tips Chimps videos too. [link]

Stupidly long blog post about what I did when I went to Pisa last week. It's difficult to write about another country without decending into 'mad foriegners' mode. [link]

Free downloads of some of Mark’s TV lecture series. The man may only really do one joke (”see this thing of historical or political importance, it’s a bit like when you lose your shoes isn’t it?”), but he does it with panache and is possibly the only person who I find myself never disagreeing with. Apart from cricket, he likes cricket. [link]

Propper Red Dwarf geekery. [link]

If you're gratefl for nothing else in this world, give thanks that the UK doesn't have the personality cult thing going on for Estate Agents. British ones are bad enough, with their BHS suits, Wella hair products and small red cars - but at least we dont' have to deal with these: [link]

Everyone thinks it's going to be hair surrounding bat symbol, but it's the other way round. Photos and instructions should you want to do likewise. [link]