“... the movie keep wondering where God is and why he isn’t doing more to help them. God’s answers may not reach the questioners but we definitely get them, transmitted through an epigraph from the Book of Job (‘Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?’), a sequence of graphics (lots of lava, oceans, shots of the edges of the earth taken ...”

“... the possibility that people simply match their tone and word choice to that of their peers.’ It may not control for it, but the researchers argue that their results aren’t ‘a simple case of mimicry’ because of the ‘cross-emotional encouragement effect’: i.e. ‘reducing negative posts led to an increase in positive posts’ and vice ...”

“... shabby universe reeking of the small screen and a low budget. But then what else would we want? It may be that this all seems so authentic only in the light of the gloss and spaciousness of the new film; but even so, the seediness works, as does the leisurely pace of the series, and I found myself wondering whether television as a medium, a set of small square ...”

“... Three former students interviewed for the PBS documentary College Inc., first broadcast in May last year, were handed nursing diplomas without having set foot in a hospital. A student talked into studying for a doctorate in psychology discovered when it was time to ‘graduate’ that her cybercollege only ‘aspired’ to the accreditation needed to ...”

“... crime that has shocked the whole of Germany’), a story about the star of a TV dance show who may have a new lover, as well as a ‘quote of the day’ from Lorca (‘Wasting time is a terrible thing’). There is no mention of the eurozone crisis on the front page, or anywhere else in the paper, except for the two items on page two. The biggest domestic ...”

“... commanders, traders and amateur sleuths collected objects and relics from the area: signs of what may have become of the lost men. Handkerchiefs, soap, sponges, slippers, combs, forks and spoons were all brought back. One of the ships sent out after Franklin, the HMS Resolute, itself became trapped in the ice. Timbers from its hull were later retrieved and a ...”

“... are not thought of as criminals but as resourceful men taking a wild stand against the system. It may not be right, but the tendency to admire old men for still having a go is stronger, at least in Britain, than the wish to lock them up and throw away the key. In this age of tabloid Draculas, a band of pensioners who want to steal £60 million are treated ...”

“... but also make us wonder whether guessing is what we should be engaged in. The questions the plots may or may not answer are not the same as the ones that keep bobbing up in the narrative gaps or on the margins. The act of lying or withholding the truth, for example, is almost always part of the story, but what sort of act ...”

“... in Benghazi against Ansar al-Sharia – the group accused of the attack on the US Consulate – may seem to offer hope, but it will take a lot more than one popular protest against one Islamist militia to rescue Libya from this catastrophic condition. Obama made a calamitous wrong call in endorsing the Nato intervention in March 2011. His defence secretary ...”

“... of the Belgian painter’s work at Bozar, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (until 8 May) – Tuymans based the painting on a photograph taken by a surveillance camera.*The process, Rugoff explains, is one of ‘translating this covert picture of a closed, members only area.’ That sounds familiar. Commentaries on contemporary art often ...”

“... is barely hinted at in the briefing documents, but the implication is that the metaphor repository may provide the clue to understanding the hidden aims of different factions where some dispute is involved. What would it tell us if it turned out that encoded in the very language of the Iranian people is the concept that LIFE IS A BLAST? Unfortunately, it ...”

“... the Home Office of any suspicious proposed marriages, where one party is a non-EU national who may be marrying for immigration purposes. Unlike colleges and marriage registrars, landlords and health professionals are legally obliged merely to deny jobs and services to the undocumented, not to denounce them. Many, however, ...”

“... Mannix and his fixing of whatever looks as if it might get out of hand, although this possibility may get us close to an answer. Perhaps the target is the memory of a fixable world – fixable on film in hyperbolic Technicolor ways, and fixable off-screen by money and cunning. The film’s finest sequence may complicate ...”

“... a young man they accidentally killed in a preceding film). Both are reasonable positions, and we may, according to our own politics, think either is confirmed or denied by the bomb explosion that hits the UN session in Vienna where the accords are being signed. But nobody looks for another solution, and the film just rides out the deadlock. Things get ...”

“... The​ BBC’s Royal Charter is up for renewal. On 12 May the government published a White Paper, A BBC for the Future: A Broadcaster of Distinction, setting out its proposals. A draft of the new charter will be published and debated in Parliament and the final version will come into effect at the beginning of next year ...”