Motorists in Saudi Arabia demonstrate a new trend of driving cars using only two wheels

Websites could have to pay exemplary damages if they don't sign up to new regulator, claim opponents of Leveson deal

Bloggers could face high fines for libel under the new Leveson deal with exemplary damages imposed if they don't sign up to the new regulator, it was claimed on Tuesday.

Under clause 29 introduced to the crime and courts bill in the Commons on Monday night, the definition of "relevant" bloggers or websites includes any that generate news material where there is an editorial structure giving someone control over publication.

Bloggers would not be at risk of exemplary damages for comments posted by readers. There is also a schedule that excludes certain publishers such as scientific journals, student publications and not-for-profit community newspapers. Websites are guaranteed exclusion from exemplary damages if they can get on this list.

Kirsty Hughes, the chief executive of Index on Censorship, which campaigns for press freedom around the world, said it was a "sad day" for British democracy. "This will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on everyday people's web use," she said.

She said she feared thousands of websites could fall under the definition of a "relevant publisher" in clause 29.

Hughes said: "Bloggers could find themselves subject to exemplary damages, due to the fact that they were not part of a regulator that was not intended for them in the first place."

Exemplary damages and costs imposed by a court to penalise those who remained outside the regulator could run to hundreds of thousands of pounds, enough to close down smaller publishers.

Harry Cole, who works for the Guido Fawkes political blog, said it would not be joining the regulator and believes that because its servers are based in the US it will be excluded from the exemplary damages clauses.

"I don't see I should join a regulator. This country has had a free press for the last 300 years, that has been irreverent and rude as my website is and holding public officials to account. We as a matter of principle will be opposing any regulator especially one set up and accountable to politicians we write about every day," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Carla Buzasi, the editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post website, told the BBC: "I can't imagine any politician has had this discussion because they have rushed this through so quickly.

"It does worry me to a certain extent. Someone said this is a carrot and stick approach. There doesn't seem to be too much of a carrot here."

The exemplary damages clause was recommended in the Leveson report but has been opposed by newspapers, including the Guardian, which have been given legal advice that it could be contrary to the European convention on human rights, which enshrines the principle of free speech.

Lord Lester, the campaigner for libel reform, warned during the Leveson debate in the House of Lords earlier this year that publications such as Private Eye and local newspapers could face closure as a result of the imposition of exemplary damages.

On Monday night, the editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger said he welcomed cross-party agreement on press regulation, but said: "We retain grave reservations about the proposed legislation on exemplary damages."

Under sustained questioning on Monday night during the Commons debate about the courts bill, which includes the Leveson regulations, the culture secretary, Maria Miller, said the "publisher would have to meet the three tests of whether the publication is publishing news-related material in the course of a business, whether their material is written by a range of authors – this would exclude a one-man band or a single blogger – and whether that material is subject to editorial control".

Miller said the new rules were designed to protect "small-scale bloggers" and to "ensure that the publishers of special interest, hobby and trade titles such as the Angling Times and the wine magazine Decanter are not caught in the regime", but Hello! magazine would be subject to regulation.

She said the "one-man band or a single blogger" would not be affected by the legislation because of the definition of "relevant publisher" in relation to exemplary damages.

Miller said "student and not-for-profit community newspapers" will not be caught under the new rules and that "scientific journals, periodicals and book publishers will also be left outside the definition and therefore not exposed to the exemplary damages and costs regime".

There was also confusion about which magazines would come under the remit of the new regulatory body. Miller said scientific journals would fall outside its scope, but the British Medical Journal, for example, is currently regulated by the Press Complaints Commission.

Sunny Hundal, editor of the Liberal Conspiracy blog, said he didn't see a cause for panic.

"There's a danger we miss the wood for the trees, as bloggers can already face big fines for libel. I'm fairly confident the eventual body will differentiate between Guardian.co.uk and independent bloggers. Trying to regulate the latter, even Leveson admitted in his final report, would be a step too far.

"The key will be to differentiate between huge operations such as Huffington Post and voluntary blogs like Liberal Conspiracy. We should be vigilant but I don't see a cause for panic yet."

Nielsen executive David Gosen responds to Frédéric Filloux's blog backing a site-centric approach using server logs

When it comes to the development and distribution of content, the pace of innovation has been breathtaking. Today, people consume media on multiple platforms and devices and, with the rise of mobile technologies, they do it any time and in any place. So, how should this proliferating and diverse consumption be measured?

Some, such as Frédéric Filloux in his Monday Note post on 20 May, argue that a site-centric approach using server logs is required. At Nielsen, though, we believe this overlooks some of the essential aspects of media measurement in today's world.

Currently, each publisher can only measure its own data. They can understand volume but, while some collect extensive user data through registration, in many cases they know little about their visitors. That's why Nielsen measures people.

Online audiences don't just visit websites in a vacuum – they are real people with real lives and real families and they no longer consume media in a linear way. When Nielsen recruits people for a panel, we do so with their explicit permission, and that allows us to get to know them. We construct panels that statistically represent the census of the region, and this gives us (and our clients) unique context about consumer behaviour across a wide variety of devices – computers, yes, but also televisions, smartphones, tablets, and more.

This measurement of people provides us with a full-market view – something which is missing from site-centric analytics. Data from a single publisher will only ever be one slice of the pie. What Nielsen does is measure all the players in a market, apply a common set of rules, and report the data such that comparisons can be made across sectors and industries. Our clients can feel confident that the whole universe is being reported, both the winners and losers.

And while panel-based sampling is a core methodology, it's not all we do. Depending on the region, we measure online advertising campaigns, smartphone app usage, digital programming, consumer tablet behaviour and, of course, television programme viewing. Right now, we use multiple forms of hybrid methodology that combine panel and census-based measurement to provide insight into all the "hows" and "whys" of a person's media diet. What's more, we continue to develop advanced technologies that deliver innovative capabilities into the marketplace.

Importantly, too, Nielsen is an objective third party. We provide data and insights across many devices and platforms. And, significantly, independent third parties such as the Media Rating Council audit our methodologies.

Gathering, measuring, aggregating and analysing consumer data so that it provides thoughtful and meaningful insights is not easy. It's complex, and becomes more so every day. Doing it well requires significant investment in people, methodology and technology, and it takes experience.

The consumption of media is moving into ever-expanding and evolving technologies. That's why we believe independent, people-based measurement is more indispensable now than ever before.

David Gosen is managing director of digital, Europe, Nielsen

Download a selection of some of the combative MP's greatest political rhetoric – including the classic Galloway v Paxman and Galloway v the US Senate

If you have a long car journey or plane trip coming up and you like the sound of people being harangued in a hoarse Dundee accent then, boy, has iTunes got a treat for you. Download The Best of George Galloway, Vol 1, sit back and enjoy four hours of the Respect bruiser's finest moments, including 2005's smash hit Galloway v Paxman and the epic Galloway v Hitchens, while mouthing along to such vintage lines as: "If you ask that question again, I'm going."

Galloway is the only serving MP with the rhetorical chops to inspire such an odd enterprise. John F Kennedy's assassination prompted the vinyl release of The Presidential Years 1960-1963. Motown's Black Forum imprint released classic speeches by Martin Luther King and Stokely Carmichael. Hardcore Potus buffs can even buy an album of William Howard Taft's 1908 campaign speeches. But I can't imagine there would be many takers for What I Say Is: The Very Best of Ed Miliband. Only Galloway has enough ripe phrasemaking, righteous indignation and old-school showmanship to make anyone even think of charging £7.99 for his performances.

Needless to say, it's still a record of somewhat selective appeal. The compiler's bias is clear from the titles, which include Galloway Savages Fox News and Galloway Tares [sic] Senator a New Arse Senate Hearing. And the whole thing has the slipshod sincerity of a piece of fan art. There is one deeply weird attempt to make music out of Galloway's defence of his expenses on a radio phone-in. It worked for Malcolm X on 1983's hip hop mashup No Sell Out, but then Malcolm didn't open with the words: "Let's go to Kevin in Sale."

With little from the post-Celebrity Big Brother years (hold tight for Vol 2: The Cream of George Galloway), the emphasis is on Galloway's firebreathing anti-war period. His clash with Christopher Hitchens at New York's Baruch University in 2005 is both an intriguing period piece and a study in contrasting polemical styles, if that's your bag.

But despite the light relief of Galloway's spat with Paxman, and one unexpectedly soaring moment when a moon-landing conspiracy theorist inspires him to wax lyrical about the human spirit, the MP's default mode of florid hectoring makes this hard work for all but the most fervent Georgistas. If you can make it through the whole thing in one go then I salute your indefatigability.

Search pioneer reportedly made approach after social network's $1bn offer was rebuffed, in move that could boost its maps app

The travel app company Waze is believed to be the subject of a billion-dollar bidding war between Google and Facebook, in a move apparently aimed at tying its social functions more closely into the rival firms' networks.

A fortnight ago reports suggested that Facebook had bid $1bn for the business, in order to wrap the "social travel" element into its billion-strong social network. But those initial approaches seem to have been rebuffed – and now Google is said to have entered the fray.

Any buyout by Google or Facebook could also have implications for Apple, which buys data from Waze for its much-criticised Maps application on the iPhone and iPad. In January, Waze was said to have been in takeover talks with Apple, for which it is a supplier of some map data. Apple was reported to have been offering about $500m for the company – an amount that was apparently rejected by Waze chief executive Noam Bardin, who was holding out for substantially more.

Now those bids seem to have arrived for the company, which has more than 40 million users, and which has attracted attention in the US for its ability to provide real-time information about traffic. Its social influence was highlighted after Hurricane Sandy, when the White House and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) contacted Waze to ask its users to indicate which petrol stations in New Jersey were short of fuel after the devastating storm so they could be prioritised for deliveries.

Waze, founded in Israel in 2007 but now headquartered in Silicon Valley, provides a free smartphone app which uses GPS sensing when the user is in traffic to determine their speed; by amalgamating it with other Waze users' data, it can generate real-time information about holdups, accidents and other problems. That, in turn, helps to predict optimal routes avoiding congestion or roadblocks. After Hurricane Sandy, the company sells anonymised data sets of maps and traffic to third parties.

For Facebook, Waze would provide a further route into the burgeoning mobile space, where purchased photo-sharing app Instagram for $1bn in April 2012. Buying Waze could give it more opportunities to sell mobile ads, as well as getting better data about its users' movements.

For Google, Waze would help to enhance the social side of its new maps app, which was unveiled at its recent I/O conference earlier this month.

Waze has received a total of $67m of venture capital funding, the most recent a $30m injection in October 2011 which valued it at around $250m,.

Facebook declined to comment. Waze and Google did not return requests for comment.

Next Wednesday sees Bafta hosting a panel discussion on games writing as well as the results of the Thumbstar Games Journalism Prize – we have tickets to give away

With a new generation of games consoles on the way, the industry is going to be under huge scrutiny over the next five months. But are specialist journalists doing enough to really investigate the major publishers and manufacturers? And what are the skills needed to write compelling and revealing long-form features on the games industry?

These are two of the questions set to be tackled at a special Bafta event on Wednesday night. I'll be chairing a discussion on games writing, talking to veteran journalists Jon Hicks (Official Xbox Magazine), Guy Cocker (ex-editor, GameSpot UK), Leigh Alexander (Gamasutra, Edge, Kotaku) and Kieron Gillen (Rock Paper Shotgun) about the challenges facing the games media. The last year has seen some major controversies in gaming journalism, but there are also huge possibilities for the sector. And with the next consoles aiming to take commanding positions in the living room entertainment set-up, it's a pretty important time to be considering how to cover the games industry in general.

On the evening, we'll also be announcing the winners of the Thumbstar Games Journalism prizes, a new award set up by myself and fellow journalist Dan Griliopoulos and supported by mobile publisher Thumbstar, which seeks to discover and celebrate great games writing from around the globe. We asked members of the public to submit their favourite pieces of games journalism from 2012 and then appointed a judging panel of veteran game writers to select a shortlist and three final winners, one of which will claim the overall prize.

It should be an interesting evening then – tickets can be bought at the Bafta site for £5 each, but I have 20 tickets to give away to Guardian readers interested in attending. You just need to go to that site and enter the code GJDEBATE.

The event kicks off at 7pm – really hoping to see as many Gamesblog readers there as possible!

The great modern sandpit will now have to rein it in, tamed by knowledge that the whiff of a suggestion could land you in court

Today I feel like my favourite ever TV character: Lexi Featherston, a filthy eyed, madly gesticulating Sex and the City cameo played by Kristen Johnston, who, at an arse-clenched Upper East Side cocktail do, climbs up onto a window ledge for a smoke, and rants at the Chanel-suited bores: "This used to be the most exciting city in the world. New York is over. O.V.E.R. Over. Whatever happened to fun? I'm so bored I could die." And with one tipsy slip, she falls out the window. Dead.

This replayed in my mind the moment I read the miserable news that the high court has ruled that Sally Bercow's nudge-nudge tweet ("Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *innocent face*) is libelous. Mr Justice Tugendhat decreed that the now infamous message falsely implied that the claimant was a paedophile who was guilty of sexually abusing boys living in care.

Thus, from May 24 2013, Twitter's cheeky impulsiveness must be replaced with caution. Told off, it will become a no-smoking pub, a meat-free sausage, a city without any sex. Fun has fallen out of a 10th-story window. Splat.

Of course, because the ramifications of this ruling have yet to sink in, Twitter playfulness was still thrashing and twitching this morning. "Why is Sally Bercow trending? *libel face*", joked about 78 people in tandem. I love them all.

But in future, everyone had better put their innuendos, their spirit, their mischievousness – the very things that keep Cameron's Britain from becoming entirely unbearable – in a safe marked, "KEEP OUT UNTIL MY HEART STOPS".

Yes, we have had court overreactions to social media before. The so-called Twitter joke trial in particular was a fine example of using a blowtorch to dry nail varnish. At least that tweet was direct and explicit – a threat, albeit in jest – to blow up Robin Hood airport. And the two Bristolians yanked out of their beds in the small hours this morning were arrested on suspicion of "inciting racial or religious hatred" – a crime that is surely worthy of investigation.

Did Bercow's seven measly words imply something? Possibly. Possibly not. Was she responsible for the initial and gravely erroneous linking of Lord McAlpine to childhood sexual abuse? No she was not.

Had it not been for the final two words her question would be deemed innocent. But by actually writing the word "innocent", Tugendhat was able to judge her stage directions to be the opposite, as the English are known for their sarcasm. And so an ever-decreasing spiral of irony ensues, the bottom of which is not only a death knell for social media sarcasm but a joylessness so profound I may have to watch endless mpegs of babies laughing at absolutely nothing to fend off clinical depression.

The inference of sarcasm from the refreshingly rebellious wife of the Speaker could only be drawn in the full knowledge that Britons run on such humour like midwesterns do corn oil. As a British homosexual I can scarcely get dressed of a morning without at least one innuendo. That Twitter – a universe of mucking about, the great 21st-century sandpit – will now have to rein it in, tamed by the knowledge that even a possible teeny-tiny suggestion could land you in court, is more sobering than 85 espressos from a coffee chain that doesn't pay corporation tax.

Sally Bercow may have agreed to pay a settlement to Lord McAlpine, but the high court has ensured the British tweeting public will be paying in fun, irony and innuendo forever.

Latest IT problem for banking group sees customers getting error message when logging on through apps

Around two million NatWest, RBS and Ulster Bank customers found themselves unable to access their accounts via mobile apps for several hours on Friday in the latest in a series of glitches to hit the group's IT systems.

Problems were experienced by customers trying to use all three brands' apps across a range of platforms, who reported error messages when they tried to log in to check balances or arrange payments ahead of the bank holiday weekend. Some said they were being told that the app needed an internet connection to work, even though there was one in place.

The apps went wrong at 7.15am, with the group's user help Twitter accounts acknowledging that there were problems at 8am. By 1pm, RBS said that service via the apps was back to normal. A bank spokesman said the majority of customers had been unable to access the apps for less than two hours, with Android and BlackBerry customers the first to see the service returned.

He said RBS was looking into what had gone wrong, but that it was unlikely to have been caused by the volume of traffic to the apps, which cope with huge numbers of hits every morning.

The bank had similar problems with the app at the end of March, and has had a string of technical issues with other parts of its banking IT, including the meltdown in July 2012 which left some customers without proper access to their accounts for several weeks.

The consumer group Which? said customers would be seeking reassurance that their money was accessible and safe at all times. "These frequent glitches continue to raise questions about how robust and reliable banks' IT systems are," a spokesman added.

The problems came as RBS tries to persuade customers to use more mobile banking services and prepares to cut 1,400 jobs from its high-street banking arm. The NatWest homepage is dominated by an advert for its Pay Your Contacts service, where customers can use the app to transfer money to friends' and family members' mobile phone numbers.

Twitter users are learning what a dangerous weapon they have at their fingertips, as Sally Bercow's 46-character tweet shows

The Speaker's wife has learned the hard way that while her husband and his fellow MPs make the law, it is the judges who interpret and apply it.

The outcome of Lord McAlpine's libel case against Sally Bercow is likely to have provided her with an expensive lesson on the British constitution.

While it's possible that she was represented on a no win, no fee basis by her solicitors Carter-Ruck and the two barristers who appeared for her at the high court earlier in the month, she will certainly have to pay Lord McAlpine's legal fees unless she was fortunate enough to have obtained insurance.

We know that Bercow, above arriving at court, had made two offers of compensation that were rejected by McAlpine. So it's clear that the undisclosed, agreed damages were higher than she had hoped.

The only issue Mr Justice Tugendhat was asked to decide was the meaning of Bercow's tweet – which took a mere 46 keystrokes. People unfamiliar with modern social media may not have understood her question – "Why is Lord McAlpine trending?" Nor would they have known why she typed the words *innocent face* between asterisks. But, as the judge said, Twitter users would.

As Tugendhat helpfully explained, "innocent face" was to be read as a stage direction. Readers were to imagine that they could see an expression of innocence on Bercow's face. But what did that expression mean?

Bercow claimed it was a deadpan look. She had simply noticed in all innocence that McAlpine's name was circulating widely on Twitter – "trending", as it's called – and was hoping someone would tell her why. However, McAlpine argued Bercow was using irony – that "innocent face" was meant to be read as the opposite of its literal meaning.

The judge decided the reasonable reader would understand Bercow's words as insincere and ironical."There is no sensible reason for including those words in the tweet if they are to be taken as meaning that the defendant simply wants to know the answer to a factual question," he explained.

What reason was Bercow suggesting for the fact that McAlpine's name was trending? Tugendhat said readers would infer that she had provided the last piece in the jigsaw: she was saying McAlpine fitted the description of a leading Conservative politician who had been wrongly accused by the BBC of child abuse.

So the tweet – just seven words and some punctuation – meant McAlpine was a paedophile who was guilty of sexually abusing boys in his care. But it was accepted by Bercow and by the man who had made the original complaint to the BBC, as well as by the public at large, that McAlpine was entirely innocent of the abuse that had been committed at care homes in Wales. The tweet was seriously defamatory and Bercow was left without a defence to the libel action brought by McAlpine.

The law of defamation is well known to those who write for a living. One hopes Twitter users are beginning to learn what a powerful and potentially dangerous weapon they have at their fingertips. A tweet is more like a broadcast than an email and is subject to the law of libel in the same way. It was Bercow herself who drew the obvious conclusion: "Today's ruling should be seen as a warning to all social media users."

Past scandals, bad photos, critical comments: the internet has a long memory. As the EU considers the 'right to be forgotten', we investigate the growing business of online reputation management – and learn how you can airbrush your own past

A few weeks ago, I Googled a pub to find out where it was. I clicked on the map that came up, for a larger view of the surrounding area. To the left of the map, under the pub's address and phone number, was a single quotation from a customer. "I had to wait 40 minutes for my chips!" it said.

The pub, which is part of a large chain, clearly had a problem: a bad review – a complaint, really – was the first thing that greeted potential customers, some of whom, like me, only wanted directions. Had I not arranged to meet people there, I might have looked for another pub. I don't want to wait 40 minutes for my chips.

This 21st-century problem now has its own solution: online reputation management. Businesses and brands are increasingly seeking the services of companies that specialise in tidying up search engine results. The effect of a terrible review, a critical blog, an unflattering link or a rant from a disgruntled ex-employee sitting in one of the top 10 Google spots can be devastating for a business as click-through rates plummet. Obviously some companies have the online reputation they deserve, but an unjustified, malicious or obsolete complaint may linger for years, blighting every new query.

However, the future of online reputation management seems to lie not just with rescuing brands, but with individuals. In the wake of the 2008 Wall Street crash, it was reported that prominent bankers were paying retainers of up to $10,000 a month to keep their search results clean. Reputations.com, which claims to have more than a million clients in more than 100 countries, charges a starting price of £1,200 to repair the online reputations of individuals. In his book The New Digital Age, Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, predicts that in the future, employing the services of an "identity manager" to maintain one's online presence will be "the new normal for the prominent and those who aspire to be prominent".

So that's exactly what I've done. My identity manager for the day is Simon Wadsworth, managing director of Igniyte, a UK online reputation management company with offices in Leeds and London. We are sitting at a boardroom table with a bright pink top, looking at Wadsworth's laptop. He is about to type my name into Google, and I'm getting ready to pretend to be surprised by what he shows me, as if I'd never done it myself.

The idea of offering online reputation management was first presented to Wadsworth, a digital marketing consultant, 18 months ago by a client, a financial services company whose name brought up "four or five different bad blogs" when people searched for it. "They said, 'What can you do about it?'" Wadsworth says. "I just went and sat in a darkened room and thought about how, if I was going to do this, I would go about doing it. From that point onwards, we spent the best part of nine months learning how to do that one job."

Online reputation management now accounts for 95% of his business. Initially, he worked exclusively with firms and brands, but these days 60-70% of Wadsworth's clients are individuals. "I did not anticipate that," he says.

His customers range from "senior execs in household name companies" to medical professionals, actors, presenters, politicians and beyond. "I'm not exaggerating when I say I've had phone calls from people as they've left prison," he says. "There's a fine line with that. I don't know if I can define the line, but we do turn down people quite regularly, because of the nature of what they've done."

For the most part, it's not people you would necessarily have heard of. One client is a former NHS professional who was implicated in an expenses scandal and is looking to move on with his life. The matter was settled four years ago, but it still comes up in searches. Another is an actor who wanted some pictures from when she was younger removed from the web. Confidentially is an essential part of the job. "Would the individuals that we have on our books want their friends, family, relations, work colleagues or industry to know that we're trying to fix issues for them?" Wadsworth asks. "I don't think so."

An online reputation is notoriously prone to the tarnish of outdated or contentious information, of the sort which is now the subject of proposed EU rules concerning the so-called "right to be forgotten". Google's search algorithms can make stuff seem more current or valid or relevant than it is. Memories and newsprint fade, but decades-old allegations are often among the first things to appear when a name is searched. If the law can't help you, an online reputation manager may be your only option.

For companies and individuals alike, the ultimate goal is much the same: a clean page one. Most people never look beyond the first page of a Google search – 94% of all clicks go to a top 10 result – so pushing negative results down the list until they fall on page two or three is the strategy. A business or brand, Wadsworth says, should be looking to "own the assets that are on that first page". In other words, most of the content linking from the top 10 results should be stuff generated by the company itself. Coca-Cola can manage this – its main site, partner sites, customer sites and Facebook pages dominate – but a company such as Monsanto has a harder time: news reports and organic protest sites feature prominently.

For the individual, owning page one isn't really an option, or even desirable. And while the idea of shifting unfavourable content down the list sounds simple, it's far from easy.

"If Joe Bloggs sat in his bedroom in Pittsburgh decides that he doesn't like Tim Dowling's article," Wadsworth says, "I can't control him going on there and saying, 'Yes, but he writes these terrible articles and he's unfunny and da-da-da-da." (My mind automatically fills in the da-das with appropriate insults.) It is possible to get a malicious blog post removed if it's defamatory, or if it violates the terms and conditions of the host site, but taking issue with criticism – legitimate or otherwise – risks making matters worse. "I have a particular client who's got a blogger in Belgium," Wadsworth says. "Every time we try to do something, he's tripling his efforts to make sure the negative stuff stays on page one."

By way of demonstrating how he might begin an audit with a new client, he turns to his laptop and types in my name. A few suggestions – "tim dowling guardian" is one – immediately present themselves in a drop-down box. "People come to us to fix that as well," he says. "If the second suggestion down is 'tim dowling scam artist', you're in trouble before they've even looked at page one."

How would you go about fixing that?

"The reason it appears in the drop-down in the first place is based on the number of searches performed for that phrase. So we do searches to effect those moves: 'tim dowling journalist'; 'tim dowling nice guy'…"

Is online reputation management just gaming the system to give someone a clean slate they haven't earned? The system, Wadsworth says, is already inherently unfair, often providing a platform for unsubstantiated gripes or preserving complaints about problems that have long since been addressed. One angry employee can wreak havoc online. "I would like to see us more as the defender," he says. "But you can push that point only so far, because clearly some of the things we do are covering up."

My page one is, as I am fully aware, fairly clean. Guardian website pages claim the number one and two spots. Then there's a Wikipedia entry, followed by my Twitter feed and links referring to other Tim Dowlings – an attorney, an Austin-based realtor, the head of North American structuring at Deutsche Bank AG – whose reputations are not my problem. As neutral placeholders in the top 10, they're more of an asset than a nuisance. In the fourth spot are a string of Google images I'd dearly like to push to page two, but I posed for all of them, so I shouldn't complain. Wadsworth tells me of a prospective client whose highest-ranking image was his prison mugshot.

Wadsworth returns to the search box and types a "u" after "tim dowling". The first suggestion in the drop-down box is "tim dowling unfunny". We stare at it in silence for a moment.

"Have you seen this?" he asks.

I have. The number one spot for that search is a link to a 2009 Mumsnet discussion entitled "Tim Dowling, for example, is a twat." I have only myself to blame for its existence. I stumbled across that sentence online, wrote about finding it and inadvertently spawned a thread with 484 posts. At some point my wife signed up to Mumsnet to commiserate with my detractors. Dark times.

Wadsworth says I made a classic mistake, creating a forum over which I have no control. "You opened up an arena for people to debate whether or not you were funny." And a twat.

The other results confirm that when it comes to the search results for "tim dowling unfunny", I do not exactly own page one. But that may not necessarily be a problem. The negative stuff is out there, but is anyone looking for it? "People almost become obsessed about Googling their own name," Wadsworth says. No comment.

Logging into Google's adwords tool – the one businesses use to determine what keyword searches to target with advertising – he shows me that, on average, the search term "tim dowling" is typed into Google in excess of 3,600 times a month. But the search "tim dowling unfunny" is executed globally fewer than 10 times a month. It barely registers. Something shameful occurs to me.

"That's probably just me searching," I say.

"Yeah," he says. "That'll be you. And I'll have added a couple this morning."

I am lucky, he tells me. The way Google's search algorithm favours established and authoritative sites means my Guardian profile page will probably retain its number one spot. But this means that for his clients, a damaging newspaper article can be all but impossible to shift to page two. Consumer sites such as moneysavingexpert.com and TripAdvisor are also stubborn.

For businesses, the solution is to create positive – or even neutral – content to overwhelm the negative. "What we don't do is post false reviews on behalf of the company," Wadsworth says, "because it's a game you're never going to win." Straightforward, genuine, usable content is preferable – he encourages companies to set up a separate jobs portal for recruitment, for example – but even so, the change tends to be glacial. And while it can take many months to get the negative stuff off Google's front page, its arrival can happen overnight.

"We've got a global alcoholic drinks brand that posted an ad on Facebook for one hour and ended up with three completely full pages of bad stuff on Google." He reckons it will take a year to sort out, and having seen the pages in question, I agree.

For an individual, there are a few simple things one can do to maintain a healthy online reputation, and I am apparently doing none of them. I should be colonising page one by joining big networking sites such as LinkedIn. I could sign up for a DIY reputation-management service such as BrandYourself. I should have online profiles lodged with professional listings sites. I should have my own website, my own blog, and I should post on them until they rank in the top 10.

When I get home, I don't do any of those things. Instead, I sign up for Google adwords, and start working my way through the alphabet. "tim dowling arsehole": no searches! "tim dowling bastard": no searches! When I'm done, I'm going to go back to the search box and type "tim dowling nice guy" until my fingers bleed. It's the future.  

Almost £100m written off by BBC as digital archive project is scrapped to avoid 'throwing good money after bad'

The BBC has suspended its chief technology officer and admitted wasting nearly £100m on a five-year project intended to make the corporation "tapeless", saying that to continue with the project would be "throwing good money after bad".

The Digital Media Initiative (DMI) was supposed to create a production system linked to the BBC's huge broadcasting archive, but flaws in the system peaked in April when instead of streamlining access to old video footage, it caused chaos following Margaret Thatcher's death.

Video editors were unable to access archive footage to use in news reports via computers in New Broadcasting House in central London. Instead they were forced to ferry tapes there by taxi and tube from the archive storage facility in Perivale, north-west London.

In an email to all BBC staff on Friday, director-general Tony Hall said he was halting DMI and admitted: "We have a responsibility to spend licence-fee payers' money as if it was our own and I'm sorry to say we did not do that here."

One insider called the DMI project "the axis of awful", while another source said: "The scale of the project was too big and it got out of hand."

John Linwood, the BBC's chief technology officer who was responsible for the running of the project, has temporarily been replaced by BBC News head of technology Peter Coles. Linwood was appointed in 2009 from Yahoo and had formerly worked at Microsoft. He receives a £287,000 salary and was one of four of the organisation's top managers to receive a bonus last year – in his case amounting to £70,000.

BBC Trust member Anthony Fry said the project had "generated little or no assets" for the corporation. In a letter to Margaret Hodge MP, who chairs the public accounts committee, which investigated the project, he said: "This is because much of the software and hardware which has been developed could only be used by the BBC if the project were completed, a course of action which, due to technological difficulties and changes to business needs, would be, I fear, equivalent to throwing good money after bad."

DMI has cost £98.4m, and was meant to bring £95.4m of benefits to the organisation by making all the corporation's raw and edited video footage available to staff for re-editing and output. In 2007, when the project was conceived, making a single TV programme could require 70 individual video-handling processes; DMI was meant to halve that.

An independent review by PricewaterhouseCoopers will investigate what went wrong in the project management, control and governance. Some problems were significant: after just 24 months, the project was 21 months behind schedule.

Hall said off-the-shelf tools were now available that could do the same job "that simply didn't exist five years ago", and that all the assets from the project are being written off. The BBC declined to specify which editing tools Hall was referring to. Avid's Pro Tools and Apple's Final Cut Pro software are popular with other professional sound and video editors, but both have been available for more than a decade.

Only DMI's "Fabric archive database", first rolled out in 2012 to help staff search and request access to tapes and other media, will be retained – although even that is understood also to have been criticised by users as slower than existing libraries with tape copies, and was the system that failed calamitously after Thatcher's death.

Rob Wilson, the Conservative MP for Reading East, said: "The BBC spent well over £100m experimenting with a system that it appears was highly unlikely to work. It is a disaster for the BBC but a bigger disaster for the licence fee payer."

The BBC initially awarded a £79m contract to Siemens in February 2008 without open competition, a Public Accounts Select Committee report noted in April 2011, but no technology was delivered and it was terminated in July 2009. The BBC then brought the project inhouse, clawing back £27.5m from Siemens – but was still unable to bring costs under control, and did not deliver the software required.

The PAC in 2011 noted that instead of saving £17.9m, the DMI had cost it a net £38.2m. It expected that the DMI would be delivered by summer – but that deadline slipped, and the forecast benefits slipped to an overall cost to the corporation.

PC, PS3 & Xbox 360; Koch Media; £34.99-£39.50

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Starting where Metro 2033 left off – Earth a blackened husk, humanity eking out its survival in Moscow's metro system – this retains the original's gloriously gloomy interiors and environmental storytelling, letting overheard conversations and shattered scenery deliver much of the plot. Hearty, atmospheric and nerve racking when you're lost, down to your last gasmask filter and being attacked by the game's large, aggressive bestiary, Last Light is thrilling, with persuasively acted characters and authentically Slavic sense of ingrained melancholy.

3DS; Nintendo; £8.99

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Guide a miniature robotic Mario, Princess Peach, Donkey Kong or – Mario's main squeeze in the original Donkey Kong – Pauline to each level's exit by dragging and dropping pieces of pipe. It's a modern twist on ancient favourite, Pipemania, and while it starts with a gentleness that's almost patronising, its puzzles quickly acquire the power to bend minds, adding bombs, magic tiles, pivoting corners, springs, catapults, warp pipes and conveyer belts. Four modes and 180 individual puzzles along with Nintendo's usual lofty production values make for a compelling challenge.

Xbox 360, PS3, PC & Wii U; Capcom; £32.99-£34.53

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Revelations is an extended remake of last year's handheld game, which adds HD textures, new bits of plot, and appearances from series stalwarts Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield. It draws heavily on Resident Evil's golden era with wood panelling that could be from the original game and a selection of familiar monsters to kill. Sadly, the action feels wooden too, while the dialogue and voice acting are so startlingly poor you wonder whether it's meant to be a parody. "This is not good," notes Jill in a tone of voice suggesting she's found an out-of-date yogurt in the fridge, rather than been assaulted by a seven-foot mutant with a flailing, blood-sucking proboscis for a face.

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D | Fast & Furious: Showdown | Call Of Juarez: Gunslinger | IL-2 Sturmovik: The Ultimate Edition | Worms Collection

Games currently doing the rounds include Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (3DS) in which Nintendo's corpulent simian mascot deals with surprisingly harsh punishment in a stereoscopic remake of his 2010 outing; Fast & Furious: Showdown (Xbox, PS3, PC, 3DS) lets you undertake a global set of car-destroying challenges either solo or as part of a team; Call Of Juarez: Gunslinger (Xbox, PS3, PC) shoots first and skips the questions, back in the Wild West after the series' awful sojourn into contemporary Mexico; IL-2 Sturmovik: The Ultimate Edition (PC) assembles all the game's downloadable content in a comprehensive tour of the second world war's Pacific aerial campaigns; and Worms Collection (Xbox, PS3) demonstrates its publisher's unswerving belief that there's still an unmet need for versions of a game that has hardly changed since its inception 20 years ago.

The author takes our Twitter-based challenge to come up with a story in 140 characters or fewer

"Wouldn't it be cool if everyone obeyed us?" "Let's tell people there's a scary mindreading dude in the sky who says we should be in charge"

• The Wall, by William Sutcliffe, is published by Bloomsbury at £12.99.

Can someone else scan your contactless card through your pocket … we ask the experts what's true and what's not

The reports of contactless charging errors on buses and in stores will have left some people nervous – and have prompted a flurry of theories about what's wrong with the technology and how you can protect yourself. But are people just peddling scare stories? We rounded up some comments attached to one of this week's Guardian articles and put them to two experts: Dave Birch of Consult Hyperion, which provides consultancy into electronic transactions, and Mark Austin, head of contactless at Visa Europe.

There have been stories of people edging up behind you in a bar or a bus queue and reading your card

DB: I am not aware of any reputably -sourced incident of this ever happening.

If you weren't arrested for waving your phone around people's arses on the tube, it's pointless anyway, because you can't use the data to do anything.

MA: If you have the right technical knowledge, then it's theoretically possible to get a reader to do this.

However, the only information that could be extracted is what is easily available on the front of a card, which is not enough to make a payment.

Any NFC (near field communication) enabled phone can be used to read a contactless card – through your pocket and wallet or purse... True?

DB: Yes, but the question is: what is it reading? I just asked one of the guys in my office to read his Barclaycard using one of these apps, and all it gets you is the card number and expiry date which, frankly, you could read when I use the card in a shop anyway.

MA: A suitably skilled person could build an app to read a card, but they would only be able to take the information from the front – not the three-digit code on the back and not the pin – that's not enough to make a payment.

Is it worth using a metal shield/case to keep your contactless card, to avoid any problems?

DB: I don't bother, although we've tested them and they do work.

MA: No. Contactless is a secure technology and the chances of fraud are incredibly low. We do not consider it necessary for consumers to protect themselves in this way.

Can you disable the "aerial" running round the inside of a contactless chip and pin card by, for example, using a hole punch to break the aerial?

DB: Yes.

MA: I haven't tried it myself but in theory, yes – though it can damage the card for chip and pin transactions and we wouldn't recommend it.

Is there a risk you could end up unwittingly paying for items being bought by the person next to you?

DB: You would have to put your card within 7cm of the reader next to you. Is it theoretically possible? Yes. Is it a realistic risk? No.

MA: No. Cards have to be within about 5cm of the reader in order to make a contactless payment.

'Kia can't just call it a coupe, they have to commit more atrocities against language'

How do you turn a cee'd into a pro_cee'd? Take away two doors. No, it wasn't supposed to be a joke. I was just explaining the difference, OK? This is just the coupe version. But because it's Kia, they can't simply call it a c'eed coupe – they have to commit further atrocities against language (having already inserted that apostrophe) by adding a prefix and an underscore. And – cleverly (they probably thought) – it kind of makes a new word: pro_cee'd, proceed, meaning move forward, which is sending out the right messages about the direction the car is going, both philosophically and on the road (unless it's reversing, of course, or stuck in traffic, or parked).

The choice of prefixes was limited. Maybe they considered suc_cee'd, which also sends positive messages, but suc is a bit like suck, which is rude (whereas pro means in favour of and professional). And ex_cee'd? Hmmm, hints of overindulgence – not good for a budget, eco-friendly car. Or em_cee'd? Only good for former DJs. And that's it, I think. Anyway, it's obviously an abomination of a name.

The car? Well, my girlfriend is quite happy (she's never very happy) in the front. But my brother and my son in the back are less content. There's enough leg room, but my brother feels claustrophobic because of the small rear windows, which don't open. (What does he expect? It's a bloody coupe – sorry, pro.) He's into design, and he's sniffy about this one, calls it "dishonest". By which he means it's trying to look all sleek and sporty, which it isn't, so why not make it nicer for the passengers? My son doesn't know the word "dishonest". Actually, at the time of writing, he knows only one word: car (good boy), pronounced "caaaaar". His favourite thing in the whole world is to ride around in the back of a caaaaar, spotting more caaaaars. But he can't see them from this one. The small, high rear windows are to blame, so he's cross, too.

And me, driving? I've got loads of buttons to play with – things, like cruise control, you normally find on more expensive cars. I'm feeling smug about my fuel economy and emissions, and the money I'm saving (not to mention the planet). Plus there's Kia's amazing seven-year warranty. But it's not the most engaging or fun ride. The diesel engine is strong enough, but this isn't a dynamic driving experience: if I was having a really good time, I wouldn't mind having two grumpy boys in the back. But the pro_cee'd is not the VW Scirocco, or even the Vauxhall Astra GTC, it would like – and is pretending – to be. Dishonest, you might say, in so far as dishonesty can be attributed to a caaaaar.

Kia pro_cee'd 1.6 CRDi S ISG

Price £18,595
Top spee'd 121mph
Acceleration 0-60mph in 11.5 seconds
Combined fuel consumption 74.3mpg
CO2 emissions 100g/km
Eco rating 8/10
Cool rating 4/10

Indiana Pacers defeat Miami Heat 97-93 in NBA Eastern Conference finals Game Two to tie series 1-1

Indiana Pacers 97-93 Miami Heat
Series tied 1-1

For the second straight game in the Eastern Conference finals, LeBron James and Paul George played a personal game of anything you can do, I can do better. But this time it was the Indiana Pacers who beat the Miami Heat.

The closing seconds of the third quarter were a microcosm of the James-George tussle. First George shimmied to break past James into the paint for a dunk that also drew a foul from Chris Birdman Andersen and a further point. James immediately responded with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from well outside the line.

But after James' triumph in Game One, this time the Heat superstar stumbled in the final stretch, conceding a crucial turnover with Miami's last meaningful possession of the game. At the end of the fourth quarter James twice coughed up possession to David West as the Heat tried to recover a 4-point deficit.

James scored 36 points, on 14-of-20 field goal shooting, plus 8 rebounds. George replied with 22 points, 9-16 field goals, plus 6 assists.

It was George who found stronger support, with all the Indiana starters reaching double figures: Roy Hibbert, so controversially off the court for the final play of Game One, led the Pacers with 29 points and 10 rebounds, George Hill added 18 points, West 13 points and Lance Stephenson 10 points. For the Heat, Chris Bosh scored 17 points and Dwyane Wade 14.

After the overtime disappointment of Game One, the Pacers found more ways to use their size advantage, winning the rebound battle 39-32. Indiana also got the better of the 3-pointers, shooting 42% to 32%.

Indiana led for most of the first half-hour, and by as much as 13 points shortly before half-time.

This was only Miami's fourth defeat in their last 50 games. Indiana need three more in the next five games. The series will now go to Indianapolis on Sunday tied at 1-1 and with the Heat having conceded home-court advantage.

This week, I tell you about these books: The World's Rarest Birds by Erik Hirschfeld, Andy Swash and Robert Still; The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett; The Uses of Pessimism & the Danger of False Hope by Roger Scruton; A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvvette Edwards; and The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley.

Below the jump, I mention the books that I received recently in the mail or purchased somewhere. These are the books that I may review in more depth later, either here or in print somewhere in the world.

When I get new books, I like to share them with people. Unfortunately, you are all so far away, so I cannot host a book party in my crib where you can look then over, so I'll do the next best thing. I'll host a book party on my blog each Friday of the week when I either purchase books or when they arrive in the mail. In this New Book Party, I will try to be your eyes by presenting my quick "first impression" -- almost as if we are browsing the stacks in a bookstore -- and I'll also provide relevant videos and links so you can get a copy of your own.

I have been traveling recently so I've got a backlog of books that have arrived in my absence. (The postman delivered them to several of my neighbours, so I am still hunting down these books so I can share them with you!) I also purchased a large stack of paperbacks whilst visiting London recently, so I've many many titles to share with you in the upcoming weeks!

Books that arrived this week:

The World's Rarest Birds by Erik Hirschfeld, Andy Swash and Robert Still [Princeton University Press, 2013; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US]
In-depth description: This illustrated book vividly depicts the most endangered birds in the world and provides the latest information on the threats each species faces and the measures being taken to save them. Today, 571 bird species are classified as critically endangered or endangered, and a further four now exist only in captivity. This landmark book features stunning photographs of 500 of these species -- the results of a prestigious international photographic competition organized specifically for this book. It also showcases paintings by acclaimed wildlife artist Tomasz Cofta of the 75 species for which no photos are known to exist.
The World's Rarest Birds has introductory chapters that explain the threats to birds, the ways threat categories are applied, and the distinction between threat and rarity. The book is divided into seven regional sections -- Europe and the Middle East; Africa and Madagascar; Asia; Australasia; Oceanic Islands; North America, Central America, and the Caribbean; and South America. Each section includes an illustrated directory to the bird species under threat there, and gives a concise description of distribution, status, population, key threats, and conservation needs. This one-of-a-kind book also provides coverage of 62 data-deficient species.
My first impression: This gorgeous oversized hardcover is a roll-call of the world's endangered birds, listed by region. I'd like to say this book is a "stunning achievement" (because it is) but is it "stunning" to have to publish something like this, a giant, resplendent compendium that serves as a perverse sort of tribute to humanity's incredible ability to ravage absolutely everything in its path?
That said, anyone who loves birds will learn a lot from this sobering reference that documents the variety of endangered birds and the tragic thoroughness and destructive reach of man"kind".

The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett [Bloomsbury Press, 2010; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK/kindle UK; Amazon US/kindle US]
In-depth description: It is a well-established fact that in rich societies the poor have shorter lives and suffer more from almost every social problem. The Spirit Level, based on thirty years of research, takes this truth a step further. One common factor links the healthiest and happiest societies: the degree of equality among their members. Further, more unequal societies are bad for everyone within them -- the rich and middle class as well as the poor.
The remarkable data assembled in The Spirit Level exposes stark differences, not only among the nations of the first world but even within America's fifty states. Almost every modern social problem -- poor health, violence, lack of community life, teen pregnancy, mental illness -- is more likely to occur in a less-equal society.
Renowned researchers Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett lay bare the contradictions between material success and social failure in the developed world. But they do not merely tell us what's wrong. They offer a way toward a new political outlook, shifting from self-interested consumerism to a friendlier, more sustainable society.
My first impression: I flipped through this book, attracted by the many graphs and other scientific data (as well as by the often-amusing cartoons) before randomly stopping to read chapter five, "Mental health and drug use". Divided into short sections with appropriate subtitles, this chapter explores the for both adults and children in the UK and the USA. One thing that stood out for me is that the authors correctly note that "although people with mental illness sometimes have changes in the levels of certain chemicals in their brains, nobody has shown that these are causes of depression rather than changes caused by depression." [p. 65]
Throughout the book, the authors cite a number of interesting studies in both humans and animals that both mental illness and illegal drugs use are closely tied to income/status inequality in developed nations. I would like to believe that this book, which presents a thorough, thoughtful and convincing argument that increased income inequality is damaging to everyone in society (not just those on the low end of the totem pole), will motivate the richest and most powerful to address this issue, but the next book, The Uses of Pessimism, has already convinced me that, well, those in power just don't care.

In this video, the authors talk about their book:

[Video link.]

The Uses of Pessimism & the Danger of False Hope by Roger Scruton [Oxford University Press, 2013; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US]
In-depth description: Optimism is fundamental to the human spirit and has sparked innovation across the centuries, but does it have a dark side? Renowned philosopher and author Roger Scruton argues that unchecked optimism can be dangerous -- and that real happiness hinges on a healthy pessimism that recognizes the limitations of human beings.
The Uses of Pessimism is a far-reaching yet concise assessment of how pessimism can compensate for the fallacies generic to the optimistic mind-set and enable us to live with our own imperfection. Spanning from ancient Greece to the current economic crisis, the book persuasively concludes that optimists and idealists have courted disaster by overlooking the hard truths of human nature and by adopting naïve expectations about what can be changed. Scruton demonstrates how many optimism-fueled advances, from the railway to the Internet, reflect a careless pursuit of mastery that is at odds with -- and often undermines -- the limited happiness that is the best we can obtain. He urges us to see pessimism not as dark and fatalistic, but as a hopeful point-of-view that favors a balanced appraisal of society and human nature as opposed to utopian wishful thinking. Ultimately, pessimism helps focus our energies on the one reform we can truly master: bettering ourselves.
In the rigorous but lively style that is his trademark, Scruton throws down the gauntlet to readers, challenging everyone to reevaluate their assumptions about the meaning of pessimism. The Uses of Pessimism breaks down the fallacies surrounding the optimist's perpetually sunny worldview, offering a voice of wisdom with which to rein in hopes that might otherwise ruin us.
My first impression: At first glance, did anyone (besides me) think that the upside-down ice cream cone on the cover was a shark fin?
This small paperback is a serious book that requires a lot of thought. The author examines how mindless hope is actually a dangerous deception and how pessimism is necessary to restore balance and wisdom to society. The author mainly argues against unscrupulous optimists who, rather than helping others as they strive to improve themselves, instead believe that a new social system is required before people to finally achieve success in life. Although I've never been accused of being an optimist, I think this book requires a careful reading and a chapter-by-chapter dissection with friends over beers.

A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvvette Edwards [Oneworld Publications, 2011; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK/kindle UK; Amazon US/kindle US]
In-depth description: For fourteen years Jinx has been haunted by the brutal murder of her mother. Crushed by the weight of loss and guilt, she is unable to move on from the memories of her childhood that are poisoning her life and all her relationships. The sudden arrival of Lemon, an old friend of her mother's, changes everything. He wants to talk about that night and he won t leave until she's shared her story -- her whole story. Over the course of one searing weekend they strip away the layers of the past to lay bare a family drama full of jealousy and tragic betrayal. Fuelled by Lemon's sumptuous cooking and intoxicating story-telling the intensity mounts and dark secrets are uncovered. But as Jinx's life threatens to fall apart for a second time, she finally begins to believe that redemption may be within her grasp. Blending true East London spirit with a heady Caribbean spice, Edwards has crafted a novel of breathtaking elegance, announcing a fierce new talent in British fiction.
My first impression: I randomly opened this book to chapter six and noticed several things; first, I was confused (as is to be expected when randomly reading chapters in a novel) and I was intensely curious to read more. I love good literature and this novel is quite promising; strong characters and interesting prose combined with an artist's eye for detail.

In this video, the author discusses her book:

[Video link.]

Children's Books:

The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley [Oxford University Press, 2013; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK/kindle UK; Amazon US/kindle US]
In-depth description: The Water-Babies (1863) is one of the strangest and most powerful children's books ever published. Written by an Anglican clergyman with an insatiable love of science, the story combines an uplifting moral about redemption with a crash course in evolutionary theory, and has an imaginative exuberance equalled only by Lewis Carroll.
Young Tom is a chimney-sweeper's boy who one day falls into a river and drowns, only to be transformed into a water-baby. Through his encounters with friendly fish, curious lobsters, and characters such as Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby, he sloughs off his selfish nature and earns his just reward. Tom's comic adventures are constantly interrupted by Kingsley's sideswipes at contemporary issues such as child labour and the British education system, and they offer a rich satiric take on the great scientific debates of the day. The story's linguistic and narrative oddities make it an unclassifiable fantasy that is both a naturalist's handbook and an aquatic Pilgrim's Progress, and its vibrant symbolism also reveals some of Kingsley's more private obsessions regarding cleanliness and sanitation reform.
This new edition reprints the original complete text and illustrations, and includes a lively introduction and notes that reveal the full richness of this bizarre but compelling fairy tale.
My first impression: Wow, what an engaging story; powerfully imagined and lyrically -- almost poetically -- written! I've scheduled part of my weekend to reading this book in one sitting since a quick skim of this book tells me that it will gently insinuate itself into my thoughts and not let go until I've read the very last page!

In this video, we learn a little about this (children's?) book:

[Video link.]

What book(s) are you reading? How far are you along in the book? What do you think of it so far? Do you think your book is worth recommending to others?

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GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist and freelance science writer who writes about the interface between evolution, ethology and ecology, especially in birds. She also has a deep passion for good books, especially good science books, which she reviews with some regularity. GrrlScientist was invited to be a judge to help select the shortlist for the 2013 Royal Society's Young People's Science Book Award. You can follow Grrlscientist's work on facebook, G\+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and of course, on twitter: @GrrlScientist

Scientists who worked with the Nobel prize-winning pioneer discuss his legacy alongside footage and previously unseen interviews