Walkings welcome

US 'hate groups' boosted by Obama

Really? President Obama is boosting 'hate groups'? Ridiculous link to an important article.

globally, from Russia to Asia

Some men were apparently kept at Guantanamo just for owning one of the world's most common watches. To quote the BBC:


The [Casio] F-91W [watch] instantly proved popular, not least because it was cheap and reliable. The company does not release sales figures for the watch, but says it was - and still is - a "huge seller" all over the world.


"It sells globally, from Russia to Asia," says Tim Gould, head of marketing at Casio UK. "It has consistently remained popular because it is functional, affordable and accurate. It's as simple as that."

...more than punctuation.

Doesn't it?

The French (don't) have a word for it

Jeremy Paxman: "A truly comparable word for 'privacy' simply does not exist in French or Italian, yet in England it is one of the country's informing principles."

1. Guess what: French is not lacking a word for 'privacy'; in fact there are two: l'intimité and le privé.

2. Even if there wasn't a close match in French for our word 'privacy', that wouldn't mean that the concept of privacy was lacking. Italians sometimes prefer to use the English word, speaking, for example, of "la mia privacy", but that says more about how they see us than about their own habits.

Not the Madras branch of Currys

Spot the (spelling) mistake.

that which annoys me

Carol Ann Wilson is 30% right: where there's a comma, only "which" is possible. However, where there's no comma, both "that" and "which" are correct: "The report which I sent last week will be of some help." is a fine sentence. Ignore any guide which tells you otherwise.