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John Prescott as Hu/ellboy

Somehow the idea of replacing the head of Hellboy with that of the last Deputy Prime Minister and MP for Kingston upon Hull, John Prescott, amused me. Even the slogan kind of works.

• Polly Toynbee and David Walker: an extract from their new book on the widening gap between rich and poor | Money | The Guardian - "Most dismaying was their lack of empathy and their unwillingness to contemplate other, less luxurious lives. They could not see that the pleasure they derived from possessions, prospects and doing well by their children is universal and that others deserve a share of that, too."
• Hands on: Delicious 2 cleans up social bookmarking - In case you were wondering why a lot of my old posts suddenly reappeared in the RSS feed… First impression: looks nice.
• Objectified: A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit - New film from the people that brought you the documentary "Helvetica." Looks intriguing.

• Wall-E: One giant beep for mankind - "Pixar's films have always outstripped those of Dreamworks – maker of the Shrek series, among others – because they contain universal truths rather than a series of swiftly dated cultural in-jokes."
• How English Is Evolving Into a Language We May Not Even Understand - Is evolution not the natural way forward? An alternate take would be: how do the French think that they can mandate changes in language?
• Big Oil's Iraq deals are the greatest stick-up in history - "Iraq is being forced to sell 75% of its national patrimony to pay the bills for its own illegal invasion and occupation."

• Tuscany, Italy - It's been a long time coming — over a month since I got back — but the complete set of images and commentary from my trip to Tuscany is now online.
• Unintended consequences of the smoking ban - A year ago since the smoking ban arrived here in the UK…
• Bond trailer makes online debut - Really looking forward to this. The last Bond movie was great.

• Review: Charming Wall-E Sweeps Up Trash, Hearts - Seems that being bought by Disney has not cramped Pixars style. Definitely one that I'll see at the cinema.
• Labour fifth as Tories win Henley - When Labour get fewer votes than the BNP in a by-election there is a big problem…
• Legal, British P2P 'by end of year' - Is the music industry finally ready to embrace new distribution models?

• The Dumbing Of America - "The toxic brew of anti-rationalism and ignorance hurts discussions of U.S. public policy on topics from health care to taxation." The article is about the US but it's also increasingly true here. Depressing.
• New Indiana Jones movie is dreadful - Oh dear. Like many people I'll probably still go see it anyway…
• SMS costs more than using Hubble Space Telescope - "Text messaging [is] anywhere from four to 42 times as expensive as talking to the Hubble."