大象传媒

Like the gentleman in yesterday's Popular Elsewhere, I too spoke to 'my' bully about why she'd done it, and she had no recollection either. She can only remember that we didn't get on, not that she regularly reduced me to tears with her actions and words.
Perhaps it's a failing that is common among bullies?
Jennifer, Dundee

My initial reaction to the "Einstein's 23 Biggest Mistakes" headline yesterday's Popular Elsewhere, was "Einstein had 23 children?!" You can tell what kind of family I was raised in.
Khris, Winnipeg, Canada

Regarding this story. If "the teams take turns to win the match," do they bother making the trip if it's their turn to lose? Or is it the taking part that counts?
Louis, Hampshire, UK

Anthony (Thursday's Letters), yes, I did count. And yes, I was disappointed.
K Morrison, Lowestoft

One is real, the others are stuffed toys. Can you spot the real one?
Craig Shepheard, St Albans, UK

Until today I never knew the tension of getting 6/6 correct before going into the final question on quiz of the week. Luckily I held off to finally get 7/7. A good way to start the day.
Matt, Hillingdon

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Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Facebook remembers all the devices you've ever used to log in, and who else has used that same device.

2. Basle - the Swiss city - is pronounced baal in English - but the football club of the same name is BAA-zuhl.
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3. Six times each day, metal thieves make off with copper cables from Britain's rail network.
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4. Koalas bellow.
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5. Victorian housewives made jam from carrots as a stand-in for apricots.
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6. Fifties movie-makers got around the nudity ban by filming in naturist parks for "educational" purposes.
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7. Cave drawing researchers can now tell the age and sex of prehistoric artists.
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8. Julia Roberts once propositioned Happy Monday dancer Bez - according to Sean Ryder's recollections of a night in the Viper Room nightclub.

9. Letters addressed to Kabul have the name and directions - there are few street names and numbers, and no postcodes.
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10. Long-necked plant-eating dinosaurs swallowed their food whole.
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Seen 10 things? . Thanks to Bob Boyd for this week's photo of 10 snapdragon seed pods. "Not a collection of shrunken heads!" he says.

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A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.

. This new word seems perfect to explain a phenomenon a popular Independent article says is on the rise: showing off about something while simultaneously couching it in terms of self deprecation. You'll find a humblebrag on Facebook or Twitter as, the theory goes, in real life when we want to share our achievements we can get away with it with the help of body language. The article has a few choice examples:

If you could ask a US president a question in confidence, what would it be? (Don't be a dummy like me and ask for his tie!)
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Remember when limos were cool? Now they're pretty lame!! Every time I ride in one I feel corny... Glad it's 3:30 am

The obligatory animal story appearing on the most read lists has a little extra today. Well, a mouth, a nose and an eye extra, to be specific. Guardian readers are finding out that a has managed to make it to the grand old age of 12-years-old. And that is as unusual as his face, so has earned him a place in the Guinness Book of Records. Almost as pleasing is his name: Frank and Louie. It's over 150-years-old, but is being touted as a photograph of John Travolta. As a popular Daily Mail story explains, a seller on eBay has an and now is hoping to cash in - surrounded by mutterings of reincarnation. But the Daily Mail warns the picture doesn't come cheap. "The photo is listed at $50,000 or nearest offer, and while it has a large price tag comes with free shipping and gift wrapping." Good luck with that. Farhad Manjoo's fear-fest - that - continues to get Slate readers clicking. Now he's claiming that that most human of tasks - thinking - could also be done by a robot. And the people who should be worried, it seems, are scientists as new discoveries have already made my computers that eluded biophysicists. Manjoo makes no bones about his reservations:

"This should terrify scientists. If robots can now outsmart us, what's left for people to do?"

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Winning entries in the Caption Competition.

The competition is now closed.

This week it's Giant panda cubs asleep in a crib at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, China.

Thanks to all who entered. The prize of a small amount of kudos to the following:

6. Four_legs_good:
At last a set of furry dice fit for a monster truck.

5. K Morrison:
Due to censorship "101 Dalmatians" had to be completely remade for Chinese cinemas.

4. ARoseByAnyOther:
Goldilocks was confused.

3. Rogueslr:
I just had this terrible dream that we were being bought by Cruella de Vil!

2. Cairngorm McWomble:
Said Mrs Polar Bear to Mr Polar Bear: "What do you mean 'am I the father?'"

1. Jack Tatty:
Oh, swimming with the dolphins is so passe these days. We're going to be sleeping with the pandas.

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A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.

The sun has clearly gone to some people's heads and the evidence is as follows.

Mirror columnist Polly Hudson gives us 10 reasons why boy band . One of those reasons is that the teenagers are the ambassadors for Pokemon. It's a compelling argument. Not. Go and lie down in a cool, dark room Ms Hudson.

The fact that in Paris yesterday makes a page lead in the Times and the Daily Telegraph. Who would have thought, Anna Wintour, Salma Hayek and Catherine Deneuve can use their legs. Hold the front page!

The Daily Mail sees fit to tell us that taking part in this year's Strictly Come Dancing has . She now feels "sexier" than ever. She is reported as saying her husband John Jones is "a very happy bunny". Who at the paper ever thought we needed to know that? Clear case of sunstroke.

The Express has an outstanding I-blame-the-parents story. It runs the findings of research (and Paper Monitor uses that word in the loosest possible sense) which has concluded that . But "mums who could only totter also passed this on". Time to call in social services?

Finally, what is it with the giant fish? Every Tom, Dick and Harry seems to be hooking a monster. In the Sun it's the ever caught by a Brit. It weighed in at 17.5 stone (111kg) and was just over eight feet (2.4m) long.

While in the there's a world record halibut. That monster was a whopping 38.5 stone (244kg) and was also just over eight feet (2.4m) long. That catch of the day would serve up 1,000 fillets, just in case you were wondering.

There must be something in the water. Literally.

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An occasional guide to the words and names in the news from Marieke Martin of the 大象传媒 Pronunciation Unit.

Every now and then the third largest city in Switzerland has been the subject of audience correspondence and staff queries to the 大象传媒 Pronunciation Unit. This time it's because of a Twitter debate over a commentator's pronuncation during a Champions League game between Manchester United and FC Basel.

There are four different spellings in popular use - Basilea, Basel, B芒le and Basle - depending on the language and context they are all pronounced differently.

The city of Basle is situated in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, in the border triangle of Switzerland, Germany and France. The original Latin name was Basilea (or Basilia), which has been preserved in Italian and Romansh.

The German spelling is Basel, pronounced BAA-zuhl (-aa as in "father", -uh as "a" in "ago", stressed syllable in upper case).

Given that it is in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, one might expect the English pronunciation to be based on the German but, in fact, the English form is Basle and for the pronunciation we give the established anglicisation baal (-aa as in "father").

This pronunciation is possibly based on the French spelling B芒le, which is also pronounced baal.

So which pronunciation should we use? Our usual recommendation for place names is to recommend the established anglicisation, if one exists.

For instance, recommending bur-LIN (-ur as in "fur") for Berlin (not bair-LEEN) or Munich, pronounced MYOO-nick (-my as in "mute", -oo as in "boot") for the English form of M眉nchen (MUEN-khuhn -ue as in German "f眉nf", -kh as in German "ich").

Here at the Pronunciation Unit, we advise our broadcasters to base the pronunciation of Basel, B芒le or Basle on the spelling they are using. When speaking about the city, people would generally use the English spelling Basle and pronounce it baal (-aa as in "father").

An example of an English-language use of the German spelling is in the context of football.

Our recommendation for the Swiss football club FC Basel 1893 is BAA-zuhl (-aa as in "father", -z as in "zoo").

When we spoke to the press office, the club confirmed that its official name uses the German spelling and pronunciation (BAA-zuhl) and that they preferred that this form be preserved in other languages.

For those who are interested the High German pronunciation is EFF tsay BAA-zuhl AKH-tsayn-drigh-uun(t)-NOYN-tsikh (-ts as in "bits", -z as in "zebra", 1st -kh as in Scottish "loch", -ay as in "day", -igh as in "high", -uu as in "book", -oy as in "boy", 2nd -kh as in German "ich", stressed syllables in upper case).

The pronunciation of place names is rarely as straightforward as one might think. As a native German speaker I can sympathise with foreigners who are met with a giggle when asking for WOR-sess-tuhr-shigh-uhr-SAWSS (-or as in "corn", -sh as in "ship", -igh as in "high", -aw as in "law").

Another example of a place name, which might be confusing, is Oudenaarde in Flemish Belgium. The established anglicisation for this place name is OO-duh-nard (stressed syllable in upper case, -oo as in "boot", -uh as "a" in "ago", -ar as in "bar").

The Flemish pronunciation is actually closer to OW-duh-nar-duh (-ow as in "now"). So you'd be forgiven for thinking that this is the French pronunciation, but actually the French spelling is Audenarde, pronounced closer to oh-duh-NARD (-oh as in "no"). The English pronunciation appears to be based on the French pronunciation of the Flemish spelling.

The key is to have a clear understanding of the context in which a pronunciation is to be used and to be aware of any cultural, political or language-related considerations.

To download the 大象传媒 Pronunciation Unit's guide to text spelling, click here.

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A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.

Albert Einstein's theory - and a central tenant of physics - that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light has been called in to question recently by the discovery of neutrinos that can do just that. So a popular Discover magazine article goes all out to see . Among them were mistakes in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth proofs of E=mc2. A is gripping Daily Mail readers. Last week a whale was discovered in marshes on the north bank of the River Humber in Yorkshire. The paper says it is not known why the whale was there but it was after an exceptionally high equinox tide. It's thought that after being stranded it suffocated. A story about a ticking off from a surprising corner is getting Guardian readers clicking. The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in his UN general assembly speech last week, blamed the 9/11 attacks on the US government. But now, the Guardian says, , reportedly calling the claims ridiculous. The Guardian says the magazine says Iran was trying to steal their thunder for the attacks. Fantasies about a day of reckoning with a school bully have become real in a popular Salon article. In the piece . So you would expect a high drama confrontation. But, frustratingly for Almond, is that his school bully didn't seem to remember any of it. He says sorry anyway.

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Re: this story - in a study of twenty people, a 4% difference is hardly revelatory. It's pretty much just a margin of error.
Gordon, Leeds

Where did you get the photo used in this story? The middle ages? Do any hospitals still remove babies from mothers and swaddle them in nurseries? Really?
Tattooed Mummy, Sussex

Did Joanna Lumley really say "I love what people might call mutton-dressed-as-lamb shops". Quote of the day. Or might it have been "lamb chops"? People of a certain age sometimes have difficulty with their teefs.
David Dee, Matola Mozambique

I doubt if Speedo will be adding this adaptation to their range of "".
Matt, Hove

Having been out of the country for 16 days, I came back having heard virtually no news. When I did the 7 Days quiz for 23 Sept I scored a perfect 7, for the first time. Ergo, not knowing any news improves my answers!
Adrian, London, UK

Did anyone else count the pandas in thecaption competition photo? Were you also slight disappointed there weren't 10?
Anthony, Freising, Germany

It's 12.39 and I'm going out now, if you do use the panda picture for CapCom can you put me down for "Tevez effect goes viral". Thanks. Mwah. Though being devious you probably won't now.
Vicky, East London

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A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.

Summer's last gasp is like a sunny Bank Holiday and A-level results day rolled into one for the newspapers.

• Leaping blondes? Check.
• Vest tops? Check - and a smattering of bikinis too.
• Beach scenes? Check.
• Use of the words "barbecue" and "BBQ"? Check and check.
• Hotter than [insert name of holiday destination here] headline? Check again.

Guess which papers illustrate the heatwave with large photos of the same shorts-clad lovely sunning herself amid the moored punts in Cambridge? Why yes, the Daily Telegraph and the Times (bikinis = a little too non-U).

Metro adds a disgruntled toddler with a melting 99 to the mix, and compares the forecast highs of 28C not only Caribbean hotspot Nassau - 27C - but Alice Springs - 25C. (The fact that it is late winter/early spring in Australia seems to have slipped Metro's mind.)

The Sun has a photo of a brunette in her smalls, perched on a narrow, sunlit ledge five storeys up.

The Daily Mail has photos of the same sunseeker, but is more interested in .

"It is supposed to be autumn but it feels like summer - after a summer that felt more like winter. And if that's confusing you, you're not alone.
Plants have become so perplexed by the unseasonably warm weather that they are convinced it's spring - and are blooming for a second time."

Repeat bloomers include rhododendron and ornamental quince, primulas and auriculas. Is this common? No, gardening guru expert Bob Flowerdew, of the 大象传媒's Gardener's Question Time, tells the paper:

"'With some of the more hardy primula you can get a nice flush in the autumn but it is unusual. It has been a cool, wet summer and the flowers probably think they're in a second spring,' [he said]."

But, says the Guardian, the non-starter of a summer - and the current mini-heatwave - is and the upcoming World Championships.

"The Campaign for Real Conkers said August's wet weather had swelled the fruit on horse chestnuts and the mini-heatwave was finishing the job."

Which will also make this the first autumn in - oooo, YEARS! - that the papers have not been filled with dire warnings from said campaigners about the state of the nation's conker stocks.

And finally, Paper Monitor - being an old softie at heart - was much taken with of baby pandas taking a group nap (except for one cheeky little fella - see him peeking about?).

So taken with it, in fact, that one has been lobbying Caption Completion to use it this week. Will Cap Comp turn out to be as much of a softie as your humble correspondent?

UPDATE 1300 BST: That'll be a yes, then.

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Has the iPod turned us all into anti-social people? No, society did that. Especially the way that we're all packed like sardines onto poorly-maintained public transport, no wonder our primal urge is to grab any opportunity for some hint of personal space and privacy.
Duncan Corps

Has the iPod turned us all into anti-social people? Ner, I've always been antisocial. I've never needed headphones to do it either.
Ian Oliver

If they have not taught the poor thing to converse in 50 years perhaps it deserves a break! Oh, that was ConSERVation, sorry.
Susan, Newcastle

The newborn gorilla story is lovely, but what age other than a 'baby' gorilla would be born?
Simon, Cranfield, UK

In the interests of transatlantic comparable measurement (Tuesday's Letters): 1 Washington Monument = 3 Nelson's Column. (I'm sure the grammarians out there will tell me if it should have been "3 Nelson's Columns")
Ray Lashley (Guardian of Monitor Weights and Measures since 2005), Colchester, UK

Is it officially "Quirky Unit of Measurement Month"? So far, the Washington Monument has been used as a unit of measurement (Tuesday's Letters) and the weight of steel used in the Westfield Shopping Centre has been calculated to be the equivalent of . Now, surely the ultimate. According to the weight of a 21ft chocolate bar equates to 51 Arnold Schwarzeneggers. Sigh! Surely one is quite enough?
Fi, Gloucestershire, UK

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While readers on many sites, , are catching up on the farmer who asked singer Rihanna to leave her farm after she got topless for a video shoot, Daily Mail readers are clicking on another cleavage controversy. It claims that a out on her picture on the parliament's website. This was spotted by a blogger doing an image search who noticed the thumbnail of the picture was different.

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Guardian readers are also drawn to a story of toplessness but this time with a side portion of vegan burger. The paper reports the is to open in Oregon. "Treating women like meat and eating it often go together" the article goes. But it says using women's bodies to promote animal welfare has become more and more common place - culminating in The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) is launching its own .xxx website.

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New Yorker readers prefer to click on . As a writer of the US version of The Office, all she really wants to do is write a romantic comedy feature film. But this doesn't mean she is impressed with the genre.
"I regard romantic comedies as a subgenre of sci-fi, in which the world operates according to different rules than my regular human world," she says. One of the rules is that female characters in films bare no resemblance to real life. Among the stereotypes that spring up with peculiar regularity are the beautiful klutz, an alarming amount of women who work in art galleries and the 42-year-old mother of the 30-year-old male lead.

The answer to the question, , turns out to be a village called Winkleigh. A popular Channel 4 News article reports the research by savings provider Family Investments. The Devon Village came out on top because it has low crime figures, salaries are well above the national average (拢37,566 compared to a national average of 拢24,170), it has a successful local primary school and cheap housing.

It goes by the name Cornficker and, according to NPR's most read article, . So what is Cornficker? It's a computer worm which, the article says, can control your computer without your intentions and could be in as many as 12 million computers already. But beyond that, it's a mystery - no-one knows who controls it or why.

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A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.

Let's have a warm Paper Monitor welcome for Rory Weal, the 16-year-old star of this year's Labour Party Conference. Hands together now.

Why? Turn to page seven of the Daily Mail and you will see that he's well and truly arrived - with his . You can't miss the piece, it's under the headline: "The child star of the Labour conference and the truth behind his 'life of poverty'."

Rory wowed the audience on Monday with a speech in which he spoke of the trauma of losing his family home. Which one, asks the Mail.

According to the paper his family owned many homes that were valued at an estimated 拢2.25m before they were repossessed. Now they live in a 拢300,000 house in Kent. The paper says:

"The schoolboy tugged at delegates' heartstrings with a tale of his home being repossessed and the family having 'nothing, no money, no savings', and only the benefits system to fall back on. But Labour leader Ed Miliband may be surprised to know he was not so hard-up after all."

As if that wasn't bad enough he now goes to a grammar school, after leaving his private school because his parents could no longer afford the fees. As the Mail kindly points out:

"The Labour Party has traditionally opposed all selective schools, including grammar schools, because it believes they are elitist."

It says Rory is now "placed under the protection of two Labour minders" who are fending off the media and ensuring he doesn't go "off message".

Ahh, just 48-hours into his political career and Rory is probably already feeling like a weary veteran.

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Au contraire, Basil (Monday's letters): nothing about that story is great. Writing a long list of words and fragments of words that Shakespeare used, interspersed with garbage, isn't nearly the same thing as writing out his complete works. (Indeed, it's only eight steps beyond writing out a long list of letters that Shakespeare used.) Did Hamlet say, "O be or not/ something/ leep, perch/ summation"? Did Henry V rally his troops by telling them that, "My brother/ is call'd th/ emember wi/ th no stoma/ ch outward"? Does Richard III exclaim, "seahorse!/ seahorse!"? Not in the versions I read...
David Richerby, Liverpool, UK

I understand Colin's confusion (Monday's letters) but presumably the writer of the story, being in Cambridge, didn't want to clarify his prose with an Oxford comma.
Andrew, Cambridge, UK

Rare snail found after 110 years in Fife. First thing he asked was had his telegram from the Queen arrived.
Jennyt, NY Brit

I think Steve from Edinburgh (Monday's letters) means that he does not choose to boil an egg (ie he won't), not that he is physically and/or mentally unable to do so (ie he can't). I hope his senior honours is not in english, philosophy or politics.
John Whapshott, Westbury, England

Why is the ability to boil an egg the baseline for cooking ability? I don't eat boiled eggs so would have to look up some instructions, but can poach one perfectly!
KTvS, Plymouth

So it would seem that the perfect recipe for an antisocial garden is some leylandii and an iPod?
Ruaraidh, Wirral, UK

I'm in agreement with this farmer, in that I had previously never heard of Rihanna either. I differ with him on one point though - had she "stripped down for a video" in my field, my reaction would not have been to ask her to "cover up".
John Bratby, Southampton

I have recently returned from the US, where I discovered a new unit of measurement - the Washington Monument. They used it to demonstrate the depth of the Chilean mine, for example.
Heather, Jersey

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Telegraph readers are catching up on the latest from the attempted evictions of travellers at Dale Farm. The paper reveals that . However, according to the paper, he is in fact Dr Jonathan Oppenheim - one of the world鈥檚 leading physicists. The paper has fun with his change of roles:

鈥淗e has been focusing his forensic mind on something some people consider equally complex: Britain鈥檚 planning laws.鈥�

The Daily Mail鈥檚 most read story tells the tale of 鈥溾��. This tale of poverty after long term unemployment isn鈥檛 about feeding the children but about affording their pony lessons and cricket trips. But, she says, others go further to conceal losing a job:

鈥淪ome friends of ours were terrified of traumatising their children if they admitted that Daddy didn鈥檛 have a job any more. So each morning he鈥檇 dress in a suit and head for the station, take a train to London and spend the day in a library.鈥�

Many, , are clicking on news of the British merchant ship off the coast of Ireland which has reportedly been found with 拢175m worth of goods on it. Meanwhile, another two ships sunk in the same year, 1941, off the Australian coast. A popular NPR article claims finding the shipwrecks, in the end, . While others had assumed German survivors were lying, psychologists found their accounts of where ships were just reflected bad memories. Many charts of data later, and the ship was identified 2.7 nautical miles away from psychologists鈥� predictions.

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Much debate has been around about taxing the rich, after the very rich Warren Buffett argued he is taxed less than his employees. But in a popular Washington Post article John Steele Gordon argues the tax is that millionaires aren鈥檛 even that rich. After all, only billionaires are on the Forbes rich list nowadays.

read the rest of this entry

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A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.

The letters page of the Times has long been known as the establishment's notice board, but recent evidence suggests that it has transmogrified into more of parish newsletter.

For the past two days, correspondence has been dominated by reaction to remarks by comedian Rowan Atkinson - famed for his humorous portrayal of vicars - that many Church of England clergy are guilty of "smugness", "arrogance" and "conceitedness".

are especially illuminating.

"It is possible that I know more Anglican clergy than Rowan Atkinson," huffs George Pulman QC, of Wadhurst, East Sussex. "I am the Chancellor of the Diocese of Chelmsford and I have worked in churches in East Sussex."

The vast majority of clerics, he insists, are kind, tolerant, impressive individuals to whom terms like "smugness", "arrogance" and "conceitedness" do not apply.

However, The Rev William Hogg of Radlett, Herts, concedes that "the Church of England as a national institution (not to mention other churches) can come across as excessively pompous, legalistic and hung up about things that do not matter to the wider community".

Judge not lest ye be judged. For Paper Monitor's money, however, the best contribution to the debate comes from The Rev Justin Dodd of London W5:

"Sir, Rowan Atkinson's condemnation of clergy is both sad and bemusing. Sad because he is no doubt right in pointing out that certain clerics are indeed 'extraordinarily presumptuous about the significance of their position in society'. Bemusing in that this complaint is frequently levelled at actors."

Ouch.

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Thank goodness for that - I always travel with my lift!
Colin, Up North

What's the name given to the pleasurable sensation of finding yourself published on the letters page having forgotten you'd even written anything? Hurrahmnesia?
Ian, Bristol

Everything about this story is great, but especially the caption "Monkeys: More interested in throwing faeces than writing sonnets".
Basil Long, Nottingham

I'd like to point out that I was one of the 14% of freshers who three years ago. I'm probably one of the (same) 14% of Senior Honours undergrads who still can't boil an egg. Did I mention that eggs make me sick?
Steve, Edinburgh

In this article 'He says he tattooed his own eyeballs. The whites of his eyes are now jet-black. "It didn't hurt that much."' Might not have hurt him, but it turned my stomach (or am I just being a wimp!)
Tom, Croydon, UK

Re quant trading: Quants are poles used to push punts along. I'm guessing the mathematicians are all Oxbridge graduates.
Sarah, Woking

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A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.
In Vanity Fair's most read article .
The newspaper mogul was jailed in on charges of looting his company, Hollinger International, in 2007. Since his fortunes have has shrunk to $80m. To which he says:

"I can live on $80-million... At least I think I can."

Guardian readers are also clicking on a story of post-prison life. But this time it is actor for just over three months for downloading indecent images of children. Among very serious talk of the reluctance of people to employ him is this:

"You talk to people in prison, and you listen to them talking, and you think... he should be locked up! Oh yeah, he is."

Farhad Manjoo does a good job at reading his popular Slate article. For they shouldn't feel so secure spending their time surfing the web at work. He says computers are getting better at processing and understanding language and at approximating human problem-solving skills. This, he says, is putting some professions in peril. Doctors, lawyers, pharmacists and scientists should watch out, he warns. But the insecurity spreads to his own career as well:

"I got to see a room-size pill-dispensing robot, machines that can find cervical cancer on pap-smear slides, and even servers than can write news stories. As someone who likes his job (and his paycheck), what I saw terrified me."

Daily Mail readers are finding out what over the last two years has revealed. Her opinions on many things may be a mystery, but Hardman says at a recent private lunch, her view on safety was, "as ever, rooted in practicality," when she said "I'm not afraid of being killed, I just don't want to be maimed."

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A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.

Remember that feeling you had when you were a child and you opened a birthday card from a favoured aunt. That feeling after a crisp banknote fluttered out of the card, you snatching at it as it fell to earth.

Now imagine the opposite of that feeling. That's what Paper Monitor gets when it opens a newspaper and a pull-out comes forth. There's a small pile of them on the desk.

Who could resist the lure of the Indy's recent Sustainable Cities pull-out? Or last week's Daily Telegraph pull-out Careers in Defence.

Paper Monitor's particular favourite is those country profile pull-outs. Last week the Guardian had one all about Malta. Sample line: "It may be the smallest country in the EU, but Malta is by no means the smallest player on the international stage."

No, well, that honour probably goes to Tuvalu or somewhere like that.

Today's offering came out of the Times. It's called "Raconteur on" and this edition is "Equestrian Times".

Obviously these supplements are more welcome than the catalogues and adverts featuring septuagenarian celebrities punting life insurance.

But still, Paper Monitor can't totally work out why they exist.

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