It's good to see, according to the polls anyway, that amid all the innuendo Kiwis are not forgetting the small matter of Labour's election spending rort.

Stephen gives big ups to Leader of the Opposition, David Farrar, in this and other threads. He also notes comments by people using their real names tend to be a bit more thoughtful and constructive than those from the anonymous legions. He also likes the Milton Friedman choir video on Teenage Pundit's site here.

Kicker Chris recommends artist David Hockney on "Why I paint instead of just picking up a camera". Also Tim Haillay of The Kraken reminding us how funny Graham Rawle's Lost Consonants series is ('the collected woks of William Shakespeare', indeed). Check out the wickedly illustrated series here.

And, via Arts & Letters Daily, Susan J. Douglas warns drones who may be "slogging away in archives, tracking down people to interview, checking their facts and struggling to develop fresh ideas about how to see the world and new arguments about history, culture and society" that their work is fair game for plagiarists.

Mark likes this profile of Killers frontman Brandon Flowers and this on David Sharp, the man who died on Mt Everest in May as 40 others passed him by. He also note the news for drinkers just keeps getting better.

From me, this interview with writer Richard Ford, more insights into Jack Profumo's affair, this time from his son, one to watch in Daniel Mendelsohn's The Lost ( more here) and an unflattering portrait of Dick Cheney, serial screwup.

Ciao.