This article by Robert Fisk will cost you £1 if you read it at the Independent's site. It will cost you nothing if you read it here.

9:36:04 AM    

"It's a white Mitsubishi Canter FH truck - 1995-96 model - a tarpaulin over the back to conceal the thousand kilograms of explosives that killed the Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafik Hariri and 20 others on 14 February." [Independent]

That's all you get (37 words) unless you pay the Independent £1 (around $2). The total length of the article is 338 words. Do people pay this? Robert Fisk may be good, but he's not worth £1/338 words. Not just for a news report.

Sometimes you can find the same reports published elsewhere, after a discreet interval. I make that 380 words for £nil (around $nil).

12:40:57 PM    

I bet they proof-read the site layout a dozen times before they uploaded it.

7:51:21 AM    

Check out this movie of a child's first minutes of life. Watch those little limbs stretching and reaching, the eyes blinking. Some of the video seems a little intrusive to me. Sticking your camera in your new baby's face is not the most subtle way to welcome her to the world. Still, the yawns are impressive. [From Shirokane Times]

8:47:37 PM    

This little fellow does the work of ten typists...I mean, secretaries in our office. Whilst the humanoids play with their iPods and puzzles, this chap just gets on with it.

11:24:01 PM    

"The mothers and sisters of two young men at the centre of Michael Jackson's child molestation case came to his defence on Friday, telling jurors they considered the pop icon beyond reproach and never questioned his practice of sleeping with children." [Reuters]

12:38:41 PM    

"Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Wash away your sins with Pope soap on a rope, guaranteed to cleanse even the grubbiest souls. Coming soon (maybe) is the new range of world leader soaps called dope on a rope featuring the highly talented and articulate President Bush and the nations favourite (sic) Prime Minister Tony Blair." [Alternative Gifts]

8:57:12 PM