The original Twitterer  Bill Nighy interview for The Boat That Rocked He's a maniacal texter who doesn't own a computer and has a profound fear of daylight and shorts. Is Bill Nighy, star of Richard Curtis's The Boat That Rocked, just another oddball actor, or one of the last great British eccentrics? Judge for yourself.   By Nigel Farndale
Last Updated: 4:58PM GMT 25 Mar 2009 He's one distracted man, Bill Nighy. 'Just… need… to… finish… 'The sentence trails off as his crooked fingers move over the buttons on his phone. Texting is an obsession of his, he says (distractedly), because he doesn't use email, having… no… um… computer. Friends and colleagues of his receive dozens a day, apparently – pithy observations, apercus, updates about his daily goings-on. He invented the concept of twitter long before it had an official name. Another of his obsessions is going on in his head, and in mine – Bob Dylan. Though we are upstairs in the green room of someone else's photography studio, it is his music we are listening to. He always has his own with him and it is nearly always Dylan. The actor listens to the singer every day.   Related Articles Pop music, actually Dylan, indeed, is the soundtrack to his life and has been since he first heard him in the early Sixties. This either shows a wilful lack of imagination, or an impressive streak of loyalty, I can't decide which. What I do know is that when I correctly identify the album, a fairly obscure one from the late Seventies called Slow Train Coming, my stock rises instantly. 'Oh,' he says, looking up from his text. 'You know your Dylan.' Bill Nighy is a tall and spidery 59-year-old in thick-rimmed, Eric…

   Boston Globe
Kennedy dead at 77              NY Times
Edward Kennedy, Senate Stalwart, Dies                 Washington Post
Colleagues, Friends Mourn Senate 'Patriarch'
                LA Times  
Edward Kennedy, 'liberal lion of Senate,' dies         The Times of London
'Heartbroken' Obama leads tributes to Ted Kennedy         

 China hits back at US over internet censorshipHillary Clinton's call for Beijing to investigate Google cyber-attack claims could damage bilateral relations, China warnsTania Branigan in Beijing and agencies guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 January 2010 Article history A man finds information about the Dalai Lama on Google China. The search engine's claims of a Chinese-originated cyber attack have sparked the current war of words between Washington and Beijing. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images US calls for greater internet freedom could damage bilateral ties, China warned today as it hit back at Hillary Clinton's critical speech.The US secretary of state yesterday portrayed tackling censorship as a new priority for American foreign policy and called on Beijing to conduct a full and open investigation of Google's claims of a China-originated cyber attack targeting the emails of human rights activists."The US has criticised China's policies to administer the internet and insinuated that China restricts internet freedom," said foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu, in a statement published on the ministry's website. "This runs contrary to the facts and is harmful to China-US relations."We urge the United States to respect the facts and cease using so-called internet freedom to make groundless accusations against China."A commentary on the English language Global Times website, which is state-run, hit out at the "information imperalism" of the west.Another piece on the China Daily website, also in English, was titled: Internet – New shot in the arm for US hegemony.Reuters reported that critical articles had appeared in other Chinese media but were…

 Google boss: 50% of ads will go onlineAs business leaders gather ahead of the internet giant's Zeitgeist conference, Nikesh Arora speculates about the next 'big wave' in digital advertising  Nikesh Arora believes that the move online is a global trend  The amount of global advertising revenue spent online will increase by up to 50pc in the next five years, according to Nikesh Arora, Google's president of global sales and one of the most influential executives at the technology company.In a bullish interview ahead of the US company's annual Zeitgeist conference at The Grove, Hertfordshire, starting this evening, Mr Arora said the move online by consumers was the "major trend" that all companies had to understand.He also warned that many businesses were being left behind by the speed of change and that the $450bn (£309bn) advertising industry did not "fully understand" how to use the technological changes to their advantage."People are shifting their spending dollars more and more to the online world – whether it be direct marketing, or advertising, or branding. And that follows industrial marketing logic which is that you have to go where the eyeballs are, where the customers are."The next big wave will be consumers consuming more and more video on the web, and you will see more and more brand advertising and display advertising move to the web. "I personally expect in the next five to eight years 30pc to 50pc of advertising will be digital."That is a bold claim, but in the UK it is already over 20pc. In the US it is over 10pc. This video wave is going to tip the balance."Mr Arora will be hosting Zeitgeist, a conference which looks at the main trends in business. Speakers include Marcus Agius, chairman of Barclays; Dennis Turner, chief economist, HSBC; Howard Schultz, chairman…

  From The Times of London
April 20, 2009Snoring can seriously damage your sex lifeNot to mention your health, explains our resident doctor - sleep apnoea can lead to heart attacks or stroke