Here’s a quote from a story in today’s Independent talking about the problems experienced by satirists in Putin’s Russia. It’s an interesting read – and one sentence in particular stood out.

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Just spotted this lovely story on the BBC News website: a Swiss amateur parachutist has made a successful descent using a replica of a parachute designed more than 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci. And there’s a video of the jump too so you can see the design – quite different from a modern [...]

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This is definitely my top pick for headline of the day. From the New York Times, it appeals to me because of its Charlie and the Chocolate Factory connotations. I’m not so sure the story itself is nearly as interesting, but we can dream for a little while: Candy Maker Reported Near Deal for Chewing [...]

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Here’s something to ponder in those long, quiet hours before Doctor Who is on. I’m reading an excellent book at the moment called The Many-Coloured Land by Julian May.

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I am informed that the phenomenon of goats in a tree is completely real and genuine and that there is no production company slightly off-camera in the following video clip putting the goats in the trees then filming them coming down again.

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Bloody hell, this one takes some beating. Note particularly the remark of the judge when faced with an apparent no-show by the defendant.

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Kudos to this guy for persevering with his goal in the face of what must be considerable discouragement. Here’s hoping he has more successes in the future.

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It transpires that Robbie Williams has been spending the time he’s taking out from his recording career exploring a very serious interest in the paranormal. And, when he decided to go to a conference in Nevada on alien abduction, who on earth else would he call up to accompany him but Jon Ronson? Here’s Ronson’s [...]

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Prince Charles and his offspring (real and presumed) really do make you believe increasingly in republicanism, don’t they?

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Here’s an incredible tale from The New York Times – an orchestra falling foul of European health and safety legislation on noise. I knew that sitting in front of the brass section could be a hazard, but it turns out to be vastly more complex than that.

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Today’s Wikitionary’s Word of the Day, which I found very pleasing.

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Have just found out about the crystal skull phemomenon, for the first time, after learning that it’s going to be the central plot in the new Indiana Jones movie.

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Where are the limits of humour? And how to solve the perennially vexed question of good taste versus free speech – the one that caused the creators of Jerry Springer: The Opera such trouble? These are questions raised after a union representing Tube drivers announced it was planning to picket the premiere of a film that makes a joke of people falling under trains.

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Here’s an interesting report from BBC News for everyone thoroughly sick of getting fake lottery notifications in their email inbox, involving the arrest of no less than 87 Nigerians.

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Is this a failure to render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s? Or maybe just the latest manifestation of compensation culture, or heavy-handed Eurocracy?

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This, from The Telegraph is not actually funny at all, it’s an extremely sad story. But it’s another example of how things happen in real life that are way, way stranger than any fiction plot.

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Incredible pictures from the New York Times this morning show the city’s unwanted Redbird subway cars being towed off the coast of Delaware where they will be dumped into the Atlantic Ocean to form an artificial reef.

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A glorious story from The Telegraph about six Maasai tribesmen running the London Marathon in order to raise the funds to provide their village with clean water. Quite clear what they’ll be doing with said water – boiling it up, of course.

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An amazing ‘stranger than fiction’ spy tale from the Washington Post.

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Have you ever sat on a commuter train or a congested motorway longing for someone to invent a real-life teleportation device? Or maybe you’ve spotted someone you longed to avoid and wished devoutly you could become invisible? Well, according to a piece in today’s Guardian, such innovations might be closer than we suspect.

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