Among the more fascinating letters to editors are those from lawyers.

Surely an editor somewhere must have a wall of framed threats from lawyers, which cause either considerable mirth or lots of pain.

"Swedish ambassador goes berserk over Assange,'' read Monday's Wiki-tweet. It rang a bell, as it bounced around the globe, for while most diplomats are polite to the point of somnambulism, my sole encounter with the Swedish ambassador had been distinguished by rage (his). This rage, rooted in WikiLeaks, had itself been Wikileaked.

from politicoz ….

from Crikey …..

'Hacking democracy': a tool to streamline our Right To Know

from Crikey ….

Keane: Bishop and her fierce battle with the English language

Can two of the biggest question in physics be solved with just one theory?

Two of the biggest mysteries in physics - what dark matter is made of and why matter dominates over antimatter - might be solved in one go

Can science fully explain what we mean by the self, identity and human values, or are we just the victims of neuro-scientific hubris? Don't worry, there's no need to choose sides, says Julian Baggini

The self: why science is not enough

Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop has dramatically upped the ante over the AWU affair by claiming Prime Minister Julia Gillard was involved in a breach of the law.

The opposition’s accusation followed Ms Gillard’s seizing of the initiative before question time with her second feisty marathon news conference on the affair in three months.

from Crikey ….

No photos, please: Nauru 'unlike anything ever seen in Australia'

Tony Abbott has access to more focus-group polling than I do, and he's clearly doing something right because he still looks like romping home at the next election. But I really wonder if he is listening to the big message.

The Gillard government might have been rounding out a year of achievement with the Abbott opposition in retreat, but instead goes into the last week of Parliament facing its greatest crisis.

from Crikey …

Keane: deterrence goal locks us onto a path of cruelty

If fuels were drugs, then coal would be heroin. It is to environmental good health what smack is to personal good health. Industrial civilisation has been addicted to coal for centuries, and it’s killing us.

The vision is of an open processing centre, where asylum seekers live in cabins, are free to come and go as they please during daylight hours, and can speak to the media if and when they choose to do so.

But, two months after the first asylum seekers arrived on this tiny dot in the Pacific, the reality is very different to the expectation - and the build-up of frustration and despair among the 387 detainees is palpable.