With so much literary content available for free online, it's a relief when someone cherry-picks the things worth reading Robert Louis Stevenson's early years, as described by his mother, is among the highlights of the Public Domain Review. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images When the Tolstoy museum in Moscow put out a call for proofreaders to help turn the...
The Public Domain Review demonstrates the power of digital curation
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Early voting in constitutional amendment election nearly double
Fort Worth — Nearly twice as many voters have cast ballots early for the Nov. 5 constitutional amendment election than in recent years and theres still one day left to go. More than 224,000 Texans had cast votes by midweek, compared with about 116,000 at the same point in 2011 and around 125,000 in 2009, according to voter tallies from the states 15 largest counties. In early voting, its approaching doubling, Texas Secretary of State John Steen said Thursday during a visit to the Tarrant County Elections Center. That may be due to attention being paid to the states new Voter ID law,...
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http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/11/02/5300503/voter-id-law-snags-former-house.html
Former House Speaker Jim Wright was denied a voter ID card Saturday at a Texas Department of Public Safety office. Nobody was ugly to us, but they insisted that they wouldnt give me an ID, Wright said. The legendary Texas political figure says that he has worked things out with DPS and that he will get a state-issued personal identification card in time for him to vote Tuesday in the state and local elections. But after the difficulty he had this weekend getting a proper ID card, Wright, 90, expressed concern that such problems could deter others from voting and stifle turnout. After spending much of his life fighting to make it easier to vote, the Democratic Party icon...
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Full force of cuts hits community services
Vulnerable clients are being put at risk and frontline staff forced to take multiple jobs, a Unison survey finds Mel Clarke runs Community Bus, which provides play facilities. As a result of cuts, she now has to spend a lot of her time fundraising. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt Mel Clarke, is a community development worker in a converted double-decker bus providing mobile play facilities for children in rural areas around Bath and north-east Somerset. Established over 20 years ago, most of the Community Bus's £75,000 running costs were covered by local government grants from Sure Start and children's centres. Now, the charity only receives £35,000 lottery funding and £20,000 from the local...
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What will £350,000 buy you in the UK property market?
With the country's...
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England women eager to reap benefits of rugby division against France
Saturday's first autumn international is first chance to judge if Gary Street's radical masterplan for the World Cup is on track Maggie Alphonsi returns to the England side against France after 20-month injury layoff. Photograph: Phil Cole/Getty Images On the face of it the England women's rugby team have had a terrible year. Losing the Six Nations for the first time in seven years, beaten 3-0 in the series against New Zealand and dumped out of the Sevens World Cup in the quarter-finals. But delve deeper and you will find an England squad brimming with confidence. Are they deluded? No, it's just part of their coach, Gary Street's, masterplan to lift the World Cup in France next summer. "From...
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Communication is about more than just nicely arranged words
In week three of Anna Codrea-Rado's German classes, she learns the numbers and has a revelation about the power of words Learning how to take down phone numbers in German revealed a lot about words this week. Photograph: H. Armstrong Roberts/Corbis This week was a lot better than last. Thanks mainly to the overwhelming number of responses I had on my last post. It's really inspiring to feel like I have a lot of supporters out there, spurring on my linguistic success. You will be pleased to hear that this week, I didn't cheat on my homework. I didn't quite achieve my goal of setting aside a lot of time to work on...
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'Local people know their countries, and are best-placed to tell their own stories'
David Hoffman, co-founder of Internews, talks about media's role in development and the merits and challenges of supporting independent journalism in developing countries David Hoffman: "local people need to be supported to develop their own news programmes". Photograph: Bob Strong/REUTERS You have dedicated most of your career to promoting independent news media around the world. How did you get into news in the first place? I was national director of the peace movement from 1979 to 1980 in the US, when there was a real threat of nuclear war with Soviet Union. As I pulled together different peace groups, I realised that this particular threat required a different kind of response to most...
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Rock Hill ceremony honors veterans
ROCK HILL — Two-year-old Isabelle Wright marched in place Friday morning at Rock Hills Glencairn Garden, mimicking the steps of members of a junior ROTC high school honor guard presenting the American flag and the flags of all five military branches. She clapped and danced as a speaker system sounded each branchs song. Her grandfather, Steve Forsythe, was proud to show Isabelle a Veterans Day ceremony. He was proud to be there, he said, to honor all veterans whether theyd been in combat or not. Veterans such as his father, who served in the Navy during World...
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Tourists fall foul of London congestion charge – and their car hire company
The car rental was £99 and they have now paid double that for just driving past Buckingham Palace to wave to the Queen Accidentally driving into London's congestion charge area resulted in a series of demands for two American tourists. Photograph: Daniel Berehulak/Getty We were tourists in London in July and...
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Sony gives out poor signals over repair of DVD player
My Sony DVD RDR player was wrecked by an automatic download – but Sony's customer care doesn't want to know Sony's European headquarters in Berlin. Photograph: Jon Hicks/Corbis Our Sony DVD RDR player was working perfectly until we came back from a break to find it downloading an upgrade that rendered it incapable of receiving a signal. The Sony website...
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O2 won't refund me for extra two tickets
I wanted four tickets for Girls Aloud at 02 – but my credit card has been billed for six Brazilian tourist found he had extra tickets to Girls Aloud – and O2 didn't want to know. Photograph: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images In March I bought four tickets in two...
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Tim Disney obituary
Tim Disney in the early 1970s. He discovered the blues as a teenager in Nottingham and taught himself to play the harmonica My husband, Tim Disney, who has died of a brain tumour aged 65, was a talented singer, songwriter and blues harmonica player. As the musician Dave Sidebottom recalls, he had "that rare ability to produce sounds...
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Trading up, trading down - in pictures
On the lookout for a...
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Expedia promised a full airline ticket refund – but never delivered
Expedia simply says 'The airline doesn't want to pay' even though we had insurance against cancellation Cancellation travel insurance should cover illness. Photograph: Lee Sang-Hak for the Guardian In June I booked a £230...
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Heard the one about how the web put the spark back into feminism?
A few weeks ago, a writer by the name of Mark Judge published a piece on the American political website the Daily Caller titled "The angry ladies of Jezebel", a blast at the successful women's website, known for its irreverent, in-your-face and unapologetically feminist sensibility. Judge, whose own website is inflammatory, rightwing and often misogynist, lamented a "rage" that he deemed "indicative of a serious cultural problem". He did, however, concede that the just-released title The Book of Jezebel was "very funny" at times, an implicit, if inadvertent, acknowledgment that feminism and humour go hand in hand. Of course, I'm biased. As the founding editor of Jezebel and the creator of...
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Google's misleading 'driver's licence' link lost me £80
Renewing a passport or driving licence can entail hefty fees when your Google search leads to a paid-for link Cashing in …. websites that look official can incur hefty unnecessary charges for a renewing a passport or driving licence. Photograph: Arthur Turner for the Guardian My partner did a Google search for "replacement drivers licence" and clicked the top link. He paid £80 and ordered his licence. The following morning I received a confirmation email and discovered that, instead of the DVLA, he had used a website called drivinglicence.uk.com. This company offers to check the paperwork prior to...
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Short ebooks: don't let one bad experience ruin a literary phenomenon
Penelope Lively's recent short ebook for Penguin drew criticism for its brevity – but readers should not be put off the genre as a whole Penelope Lively: Amazon users expressed their disappointment at the brevity of her ebook Abroad. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe "Overpriced", "ridiculous", I feel cheated". Amazon reviewers haven't been wholly positive about a digital...
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50 voices: what does social enterprise mean to you?
We've asked 50 people to tell us what social enterprise means to them. We will be...
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Kiran Bedi
Reacting to the chaos...
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