Nick Jordan

NewsBiscuit: Refugees from Congo Civil War ‘more angry about Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand’. Nothing I’ve seen or heard puts the current furore over Ross and Brand into perspective better than this. The prank was stupid and they should have known better but there are more important things happening in the world. Besides, the sheer quantity of coverage of this has become deeply irritating, at least to me. Can we forget this and go and solve some real problems now? It’s not as if there aren’t plenty of them.

The New Order: When reading is a crime. I heard about this a little while ago, but this article provides a good summary of the situation. If anything is a good indication that something is wrong in this country, it’s this. I’m quite appalled at the authorities’ treatment of someone who clearly poses no threat and obtained material in order to further perfectly legitimate ends.

The Phoenix has landed safely on Mars. To pull off such a complex and difficult thing is a real triumph. Even in the unlikely event that it discovers nothing new it will have provided valuable information on how to land probes on other bodies in space, and for that alone it’s worth it. I suspect, however, that we’re going to start learning a whole lot of new and fascinating things about Mars. I can’t wait.

Email spam celebrates its 30th anniversary today. Oh joy. Perhaps we should celebrate the occasion by hunting down those responsible and stringing them up with Cat 5 cable.

Council bids to run post offices. This strikes me as a good solution to a problem which, while it clearly shouldn’t exist at all, does need to be dealt with. In essence, if you can’t be bothered to read the article, Essex County Council is proposing that it takes over the running of post offices that are due to be closed. It would be great to see such important services able to continue and the possibility of combining them with local authority services is very interesting and potentially useful.

Of course, I’m not generally in favour of closing post offices at all but I rather think that it’s going to happen no matter what I or others want, so anything that comes along that helps has to be worth considering.

Pink Floyd star’s plan to aid homeless hits brick wall. Is it just me or does it seem crazy that a scheme for helping London’s many homeless should fail in such a dismal and stupid manner? Especially when it has worked so well in New York? Ridiculous. I’m appalled.

Motorway shut after biker murder. This is truly shocking. My heartfelt condolences to his friends and family. A tragic waste of a life.

Music site Last.fm bought by CBS. I’m a big fan of Last.fm, and I most sincerely hope that it’s not ruined by this deal. I shall reserve judgement until things have had a chance to settle down there.

McLaren deny anti-Hamilton bias. I must admit that I felt a little aggrieved on behalf of Lewis Hamilton immediately after the race, but now that I’ve had a chance to think about it I find myself in agreement with Ron Dennis. The drivers are, first and foremost, part of the team and the team has to come first.

Monaco is unlike the other places where the drivers compete and requires a unique approach. There’s no point in losing one or both of your cars from the race unnecessarily. As things stand now, both Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton have a good crack at the title and there are plenty of races to come. It should be interesting.