Orwa Nyrabia in Syria is a chilling reminder of the cultural repression that goes on under Assad, alongside everything else we’ve read about in the last year. Rather than try to paraphrase Lawrence Wright in the New Yorker here’s his short piece on Nyrabia’s disappearance.

as I’ve never seen it before. This is worth it for the unforgettable closing shot.

and you’ll miss it, but here I am on the NBC Today programme talking about, would you believe it, English Eccentrics. Here’s the full clip. The highlight for me is undoubtedly Professor Elemental. He’s going to be huge.

interesting hearing and reading the reaction to the Olympics Opening Ceremony out here in the States – this in the NYTimes is one of my favourites – not least for the number times the word ‘eccentric’ has popped up. If it was a display of patriotism, here was patriotism at its silliest and most self-deprecating. At the same time it didn’t feel forced. This was not look-at-me-I’m-mad-ism. All those rough edges felt authentic, which is perhaps why any Brits hiding behind their sofas when it began for fear that it would be a three-hour-long cringefest came out of it feeling strangely proud.

The next day I overheard an American here in Washington sum it all up. He was asked how the ceremony was. ‘It wasn’t Beijing,’ he said. ‘It was quirky and a bit nuts. But it was good. It was British, you know.’

And in case you’d forgotten just how different it was, here’s Beijing:

is a fascinating website, one that I’ve only just heard about, an online archive of political posters made during the Lebanese Civil War. Here’s one of my favourites.