IN PLACE OF SUBSTANCE...

...here are some links:

1. "The role he seems most fitted to play – glowering just off centre stage, plotting behind the scenes – brought with it the rich, heady jouissance of resentment. Brown could relish this jouissance only while his official goal was thwarted". Be careful what you wish for - it may come true. K-Punk on Gordon Brown.

2. "Lookin’ at him, what got me hot was thinkin’ how excited he was, lookin’ back at me. Not his body, but how he wanted mine." Darling Vicarage on Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls.

3. “I cannot understand how some ambassadors dedicate themselves to politics, and not diplomacy, in our country. That is not called cooperation. That is called conspiracy." Nikolas Kozloff on America's distaste for democracy, secession in Bolivia, and its precedent in early 20th century Venezuela.

4. An awesome, awful slideshow of the Chilean volcano Chaiten erupting.