“... street?’ ‘Why not?’ her dad said. ‘What’s wrong with that?’ A dress’s best destiny may be to hear it’s the most interesting at a party, but there is also the whoosh of casting a spell over yourself: the woman who bought a wedding gown when single and put it in a chest ‘had found something that would be perfect for an occasion that might ...”

“... All we get by way of analysis is: ‘The grievances upon which propagandists can draw may be real or perceived, although clearly none of them justify terrorism.’ The year 2010 was just as bad, with 13,000 fatalities from ‘over 11,500 terrorist attacks … the vast majority … still carried out by al-Qaida and associated terrorist groups’ in ...”

“... gallery-going set about David Shrigley’s Brain Activity exhibition at the Hayward (until 13 May). People who value the power of art to shock far too highly ever to be shocked by it themselves, have nevertheless been somewhat put out, complaining that Shrigley, who is best known as a cartoonist, should have been given a solo show in such a prominent ...”

“... concentric circles around him. His proposals to reduce the social ‘safety net’ for the unlucky may be seen as drawing a convenient but contortedly wrong lesson from his own life. Ryan learned his anti-government ideology from an intoxicated early exposure to the writings of Ayn Rand.* It is now clear that Rand has been the most influential thinker in ...”

“... and shadow, how does it behave in different lighting conditions? So the end of Kodachrome may be regretted as an abrupt extinction of techniques, practices and knowledge. Digital cameras are quite different, binding together the optics and mechanical elements of analogue cameras with a light-sensitive array which, alongside elaborate software ...”

“... to horizon-occluding features. The observatory has been long in the making – a website says it may be open to the public next year; photographs suggest that, like Walter De Maria’s lightning field in New Mexico and Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, it will become one of those places of pilgrimage, which for one practical reason or another are very ...”

“... overstated: the buildings are too big, the fires and lava flows too bright. The paint in both may have depicted the might of rough nature, but Martin’s is garish. It is as though he was preparing a travel agent’s advertisement: ‘Join Heaven and Hell Tours for the thrill of a ...”

“... prophesied. We moan how rapidly life runs away when violent death sweeps towns like this aside. May it prove false what I’m about to say and brand liar rightly on the poet’s brow when he predicts Rome too will die one day. The ploughman striking sparks with his shoved plough says: ‘See that rubble? Them heaps used to be Napoli, once famous but not ...”

“... making phone calls, surfing the web. What has become clear is that, however much information may be being gathered by whatever agencies, it’s very hard reliably to connect it to individuals. For one thing, a name – which is all you need to give when buying a plane ticket – is a very bad way of identifying people, not just because it can be ...”

“... would be higher: this year abstention rose to more than 55 per cent in the second round. That may be because the recent cantonals, unusually, weren’t held in tandem with other polls (regionals or municipals). In any case, the local repercussions – the ones that are supposed to count – mean less to the commentators than the big picture. In their ...”

“... trillion – a ‘moderate estimate’ – and ‘the meter is still ticking.’ Britain may have been spared Bush’s ‘policy of fiscal profligacy’, but the increased oil bill alone will cost it more than £3 billion by 2010. The hardest figure to establish is the cost to Iraq. It doesn’t help that the country is governed – if that is the ...”

“... of emergency in November. ‘Under Indian and Pakistani laws,’ Wajid wrote in the Journalist in May, ‘foreign media companies must broadcast through a local outlet. The BBC’s deal with its partner station in Pakistan, Mast FM 103, could make its broadcasts of BBC bulletins subject to PEMRA’s regulatory standards.’ They could, in other words, be ...”

“... Only her fingers are caught up in an area of abstraction: bright red, yellow and green blocks that may not be fingers at all, but something she is wearing. In the Eliot portrait of 1938, two hangings on the wall behind him give a taste of Lewis in a less objective mood. In 1938, the Royal Academy refused to hang the picture. They had spotted phallic references ...”

“... trundling about its surface. The latest is a Nasa lander called Phoenix, resident on Mars since 25 May, which is currently chugging around the north polar region looking for water and evidence of habitability. This is impressive, given how hard it is to get to Mars. A total of 20 probes, Russian, Japanese, American and European, have crashed on their way to ...”

“... between public road and private apron. One should have guessed. The fashion for outdoor eating may wither in winter, but the perceived width of pavements has permanently narrowed. Negotiations between different users result in a proliferation of signs, marks, barriers and labels. They disturb the appearance of streets, which look best when they are ...”