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‘He'll sit next to you on the train typing frantically for six hours while shouting into his phone. He is more successful than you; suck it up, underlings.' Photograph: Guardian
Middle-class asbos: what behaviour warrants one? | Bella Mackie | Comment is free
Welcome to Toytown: what life is like in new-build Britain | Society
They are selling new houses in Cambourne, Cambridgeshire: two-, three- and four-beds with names such as the Flatford, the Langdale and the Belbury.
Flatpack or flexible? Oscar Niemeyer's schools could have lessons for the UK | Art and design
A Niemeyer CIEP (Integrated Centre of Public Education) in Tijuca, Rio.
Winners in sport, with the exception of football, tend to have a more expensive education. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters "It's for everyone" was the message highlighted in the Olympics opening ceremony. Not quite. Even in the middle of an international sporting festival, where nothing but raw talent should count, you can't get away from the British class system. On the most conservative estimates, nearly a quarter of this year's Team GB (excluding those schooled abroad) were educated at fee-charging schools, attended by only 7% of the total child population.
Aside from football, sport in Britain is still a game for the elite | Peter Wilby | Comment is free
FOR all the scrutiny journalists heap upon others, it is remarkable how little attention we pay to our own craft. But it is difficult, and downright awkward, to criticise one's colleagues. And the whipper-snapper down the hall who cannot string two sentences together may be your boss one day. So the most forthright criticism of the press is often performed by outsiders. One of those external critics is Barack Obama.
Press criticism: The balance trap
Olympic VIPs take fast lane leaving patients at risk | Sport | The Observer
The Olympic stadium will be accessed by VIPs in 'Games lanes' - but they are likely to worsen traffic congestion. Photograph: ODA/Getty Images Europe Sick and vulnerable NHS patients will be left stranded in ambulances in traffic jams while dignitaries and sponsors race past in a fleet of expensive cars on specially designated lanes during the Olympics, healthcare providers fear. Games organisers have been accused of risking people's health by banning the routine use by ambulances of the "Games lanes" introduced to ensure that VIPs can travel quickly to events.
I live in Haringey, an as-yet-ungentrified part of North London, and there’s a small park near me with a very curious chair in it. The park isn’t much – just a strip of lawn passing by a basketball court and a small playground for toddlers. Sprouting like mushrooms here and there are chairs like this one.
A lonely chair in North London: how urban skeuomorphs speak volumes about the city – SciencePunk
9-Year-Old Who Changed School Lunches Silenced By Politicians | Wired Science
[Updated: June 15, 2012. Read to the end for developments!] For the past two months, one of my favorite reads has been Never Seconds , a blog started by 9-year-old Martha Payne of western Scotland to document the unappealing, non-nutritious lunches she was being served in her public primary school. Payne, whose mother is a doctor and father has a small farming property, started blogging in early May and went viral in days. She had a million viewers within a few weeks and 2 million this morning; was written up in Time , the Telegraph , the Daily Mail , and a number of food blogs; and got support from TV cheflebrity Jamie Oliver, whose series “ Jamie’s School Dinners ” kicked off school-food reform in England. Well, goodbye to all that.
David McCullough at Wellesley Commencement: ‘You Are Not Special’ (Video)
Dr. Wong, Dr. Keough, Mrs. Novogroski, Ms.The real meaning of the Jubilee
Life without the Queen: A cleaner on the Buckingham Palace balcony. Photo: Getty Images Everybody agrees that the Queen is essential to life in modern Britain. Without the Queen stamps would be empty, and we’d have endless arguments about what to put on them. Without the Queen hospitals could not be opened, a politician would be head of state, and nobody would know the meaning of the phrase annus horribilis . As the only sexually-mature Briton the Queen is responsible for producing all our young, and once the ravages of the Coalition have done for the last worker-Brit, she will sprout majestic wings and fly away to populate a new island.
Queen confirms government's web surveillance plans
The government will go ahead with its controversial web surveillance plans , according the Queen's speech in Parliament on 9 May The Queen said: "My government intends to bring forward measures to maintain the ability of the law enforcement and intelligence agencies to access vital communications data." This refers to the Communications Capabilities Development Programme , a friendly title given to scary plans to order ISPs and phone networks to store data relating to their customers' communications and allow intelligence agencies to monitor them in real time if they are suspected of being involved in crime or terrorism. These new powers would be introduced under the Communications Data Bill.Le physicien Adlène Hicheur , qui travaillait au Cern près de Genève, a été condamné vendredi 4 mai à 5 ans de prison, dont un avec sursis, par le tribunal correctionnel de Paris qui le reconnait coupable d’avoir préparé un attentat terroriste en France via des conversations sur internet avec un responsable supposé d’Aqmi, l’organisation djihadiste basée en Algérie. En détention provisoire depuis son arrestation en octobre 2009 à son domicile familial à Vienne (Isère), le physicien français âgé de 35 ans n’a pas nié ces échanges de mail mais dénonce une enquête «malhonnête» et des «inexactitudes». Il s’estime jugé sur des opinions et non sur des actes.