We bring you entries from the Times Online weblogs. Today, Tim Albone, The Times correspondent in Afghanistan, describes his experience playing a US Special Forces soldier in a Bollywood film:
"I went to bars where the mercenary sorts hung out, I saw a fight, I chewed tobacco and I asked questions, lots of questions. At first they laughed, they told me I was too skinny, that my hair was too long and that I didn’t have the killer look in my eye. They had a point, a very good point, but I was desperate to be in a Bollywood film. I reminded them of Lance, the surfer in Apocalypse Now, he didn’t look like a killer I said. They foolishly relented and they gave me advice, they should have known I was a lost cause."
Read the rest of Bollywood comes to Kabul. The rest of the Times Online weblogs live here.
We point you to entries on the Times Online weblogs. Today, Jane Macartney, The Times bureau chief in Beijing, describes an extraordinary pilgrimage in Tibet:
"I have been back and forth to Tibet, and to those places where ethnic Tibetans live, for about 20 years. But never have I heard of thousand upon thousand of pilgrims converging on a single monastery-cum-temple purely on a rumour that the exiled monk had returned."
Read the rest of Ocean of Wisdom, Ocean of Faithful. The rest of the Times Online weblogs are here.
We bring you entries from the Times Online weblogs. Today Jonathan Clayton, The Times Africa correspondent, casts a sceptical eye over the logic behind G8 pledges to the world's poorest countries:
"Go to any African parliament's car park, and you'll see gleaming rows of new Mercedes or BMWs, or hang around the corridors of the continent's development bodies, like the inaptly named Economic Commission for Africa (never heard of it, mmmm?) in Addis Ababa, and watch the well-rounded figures waddling past in new Armani-style suits, or the latest African robes - always a good ploy to look 'ethnic', you see."
Carry on reading If you want an end to poverty, start at the top. The rest of the Times Online weblogjam is here.
Each day we bring you an entry from the Times Online weblogs, today, Charles Bremner reports that the Zidane debate has reached the highest levels of Parisian conversation:
"True to form, the intellectual classes are weighing in, citing thinkers from Homer to Nietsche to explain the football god's fall from grace. The Marseilles goal-scorer is being depicted as hero of antique tragedy. The prize for excess in this department was easily won by Bernard-Henri Lévy, the most glamorous philosophe of the Left Bank. Zidane, he wrote, is a 'man of providence, a saviour, a titan, a valiant knight, a blue redeeming angel dressed in white, a Dostoevskian sweet man, an icon, demi-god, hero, legend...' (I am not making this up). Zidane, said Lévy, is Homer's Achilles in the war of Troy with his one fatal flaw -- a bad temper."
Carry on reading Zizou is Forgiven. More World Cup and football news here, for the rest of the Times Online weblog world this.
Each day we bring you an entry from the Times Online weblogs. Today Ariel Leve, senior writer for The Sunday Times magazine lays down the law on baby photographs, in fact all e-mailed pictures. Think before you send:
"People love sending photos through e-mail. My friend, Katie, called and asked if I wanted to be on her e-mail list to receive photos of her holiday in the Grand Canyon. Is she high?
'You don't care about seeing them, do you?' She asked.
I told her no, I didn't. I don't care about photos of my own holidays. Why would I care about hers?"
Keep reading Unsolicited Baby Photos. The rest of the Times Online weblog forest is here.
Each day we bring you an entry from a Times Online weblog. Today, Mary Beard, a professor in classics at Cambridge University, finds herself doubting the past on a hot, slippery hill in Rome:
"When you have studied the ancient world almost all your life, you sometimes wonder if it’s all a fantasy. I don’t mean that I nurture delusions that the Colosseum might have been built by moon-men. But I do wonder how much we can really believe of what ancient writers tell us about their world. How good a guide are they to that seductively old-fashioned question: 'What was it really like?'"
Carry on reading How it really was? The rest of the Times Online webloggery is here.
Each day, we bring you an entry from a Times Online weblog. Today Christina Lamb, foreign correspondent for The Sunday Times, compares international rhetoric to life on the ground in Kabul:
"Between £5bn and £10bn in aid has been spent on this country but as I said the other day, it is very hard to see where it has gone. Even in Kabul, most people have no electricity or running water and there are heaps of garbage everywhere. What do exist are things like American-funded Women’s Centres — empty buildings where no women attend — but look impressive on USAID websites."
Carry on reading How to Lose a War. The rest of the Times Online weblog world is here.
Each day we pick an entry from the Times Online weblogs. Here, writing on 2006 And All That, Roger Boyes, The Times Berlin correspondent, wonders at the absent libido of England fans at the World Cup:
"'Englaender just want to gawp,' complained one Frankfurt brothel owner quoted in the German press.
"In Nuremberg, along the Frauentor Red Light district, I saw a solitary young fan stumbling out of a knocking shop, a beatific smile on his face. OK, that was the day before the T&T game but even after the match there wasn't that much going on - many fans flew straight back home, the others were too knackered by booze and sun. So what is going on? Will it be different in Cologne tonight?"
Read the rest of Flagging Libido and explore our voluminous World Cup coverage, including live commentary on all the games. England vs. Sweden kicks off at 8pm.
Each day, we choose an entry from a Times Online weblog. Here Jonathan Clayton, The Times Africa correspondent, says inflation and corruption can't beat jokes and text messags in Zimbabwe:
"One of the greatest gifts modern technology has brought to Africa is an end to censorship. Old dinosaurs like Mugabe hate it. They can’t control emails and SMSing like they can rig elections or seize offending publications at airports. Mobile telephony has done more to empower poor Africans than years of wasted development aid."
Read the rest of You Have to Laugh. For more news from Zimbabwe, try Jan Raath's piece today on expensive traffic in Harare. The rest of the Times Online weblogs are here.
Each day we pick an entry to a Times Online weblog. Today, Christina Lamb, The Sunday Times foreign affairs correspondent, describes an Afghan production of Love's Labours Lost:
"Watching a Shakespeare play in Dari is really the last thing you need after 36 hours with no sleep, particularly if, like me, you have never got beyond the greeting stage. After two flights and a drive through the desert in between, organised by the travel tyrants to make sure I got no sleep and missed England’s first World Cup match, I had gone straight from Kabul airport into a series of interviews in the baking midday heat of the Old City. So when my friend Rory with whom I was staying, informed me he was hosting a performance of Love’s Labours Lost in Dari that evening, I must admit my heart sank."
Keep reading Love's Labours Lost in a Kabul Fort. The rest of the Times Online weblog stable is here.
Each day we recommend a Times Online weblog entry. Today, Irwin Stelzer, The Sunday Times US columnist, urges us to see United 93, Paul Greengrass's film about the September 11 attacks:
"The reason I wish more people in Britain would see this film is because it would (no, might) make them agree with Tony Blair and George W. Bush that the West is engaged in an existential battle to preserve its values of freedom and respect for human life from a wide-ranging, fanatically religious, Muslim enemy that believes it is serving God by cutting the throats of innocent people, beheading them, and crashing planes into office blocks in which ordinary citizens are trying to make decent livings for their families."
Carry on reading The Message of United 93. The rest of the Times Online weblogs are here.
On our 2006-and-all-that weblog, Simon Barnes, The Times chief sports writer, explains his desire to see an African side lift the World Cup:
"Africa has produced great players, but has yet to produce a great team: certainly not a World Cup winning team. And this is strange, because football is the game of the poor and Africa has more poor people than most places. And they play football all right. Do you know the first luxury of humankind? If you have food, and you have shelter, then you are ready for the first luxury: and that is play."
For more, read on here. For the rest of the Times Online weblog spread, here.
Rose Wild, Times Online comment editor, idles through today's postings:
Will our World Cup team get to the match? Not if the sat nav lady has anything to do with it; back in Japan after reporting the Java earthquake, Richard Lloyd Parry fears it may be dwarfed by a massive volcano eruption; Alex Wade says he'd bring back the death penalty for the baby rapists; Ruth Gledhill wonders why the Epispopal Church is selling books on witchcraft, and Mary Beard takes herself to the back of the queue for an audience with royalty
What's fresh on the Times Online weblogs:
Charles Bremner delves into the latest scandal to engulf Prince Albert; Richard Lloyd Parry on Japan's foreign service abroad - or lack of it; Leo Lewis waits for Murakami's mauling; the Law Weblog discusses the national insurance fiasco; Jane Macartney on China’s “Little Emperors” and, as ever, keep in the know about all the shenanigans in the Big Brother house
In Times Online weblogs:
William Rees-Mogg says there is a dangerous gap between governments and the people where the European Union Constitution is concerned; Peter Stothard on the linen-suit-and-polished-belt brigade at the Eric Clapton gig; Chris Ayres on why Madonna is too hot for America; Big Brother watch - Sezer's imperial reign is about to come to a bloody and violent end; Leo Lewis says Japan is in denial over its demographic problem Christina Lamb reports some good news from South Africa
Charles Bremner on a crack-pot French idea to levy a tax on emails and text messages; Big Brother watch - the knives are out for Little Miss Perfect; Michael Smith is left speechless by the MoD; Jane Macartney on a tough week for Chinese film makers; Ruth Gledhill on the Pope's visit to Auschwitz and John Harlow says American TV is taking us back to Sunday School.
Rose Wild, Times Online Comment Editor, gives us what for from the weblogs:
All tears and tonsils - Chris Ayres watched the cliff-hanging denouement of American Idol; classical hanky-panky? Peter Stothard subjects Hesiod's octopus to some penile revisionism while Mary Beard spots lipstick traces on the bust of Antinous; is the TV Line of Beauty better than the book? Tell our Books group; and enjoy the Chelsea Flower Show without getting wet with Jane Owen's insider view
Rose Wild, Times Online Comment Editor, presents the highlights from today's webloggers:
Was the Archbishop too tough on the Beckhams' partying? William Rees-Mogg thinks so; Christina Lamb finds herself under fire at a lunch in Johannesburg; Charles Bremner on the newspaper that airbrushed Chirac out of the picture; Richard Lloyd Parry thinks the Tokyo dancers should wear their swastikas with pride, and you can join in Ruth Gledhill's big book giveaway
Rose Wild, Times Online Comment Editor, marches us around today's weblogs:
Peter Stothard reports from Naples on why Europe needs a good long siesta; Jane Macartney watches Premier Wen Jiabao take lessons in pressing the flesh from Chancellor Merkel; Charles Bremner says if you want to know why the French are going off sex, cherchez les femmes; Mary Beard is pleasantly astonished by Rome's newest museum, Richard Lloyd Parry reels from Tokyo's brand new medieval art treasure, and Jane Owen has all the inside news on the Chelsea Flower Show
Rose Wild, Times Online Comment Editor, tells us who is blogging what:
Exclusive news from Mick Smith on the timing of troop withdrawals from Iraq, and a hot tip from Pele on his World Cup predictions reaches Tina Gaudoin in The Times fashion department; Dominic Rushe has a warning for people taking transatlantic flights to surrender themselves to US justice; the Law weblog revisits the hosepipe ban and predicts unpleasantness for the next-door snitches, and the Big Brother bloggers are on round-the-clock duty, watching so you don't have to
Rose Wild, Times Online comment editor, shows us around the weblogs:
Number-plate spotting in Beijing: Jane Macartney notes the arrival of status symbol motoring; drinking in the atmosphere of Herculaneum, Peter Stothard wonders why Virgil has no wine named after him; as le corbeau comes clean, Charles Bremner examines a peculiarly Gallic vice; Ruth Gledhill has her first encounter with the liturgy of Jesus the Mother; John Harlow says May is the cruellest month in American TV, and the Big Brother bloggers are watching so you don't have to.
Who's blogging what? Rose Wild, Times Online Comment Editor, lets us know:
Tougher laws? Gary Slapper says Blair still needs to be "tough on the causes of crime"; Richard Lloyd Parry records the bizarre spread of housemaids on Tokyo streets; Peter Stothard sees some merits in a derided 4th century poet; Ruth Gledhill hosts the debate on Roman Catholicism and discrimination against gays; Michelle Henery looks at the Aids infection rate in African Americans, and Jane Owen explains why English landscape gardening is undervalued in its own country.
Rose Wild, Times Online Comment Editor, guides us through today's entries:
Mick Smith gives us news from Baghdad of imminent troop withdrawals; David Aaronovitch wants you to nominate your heroes; Jane Macartney has a Chinese lesson in lawnmowing; Leo Lewis predicts a bull market as Aston Martin sales thrive in Tokyo; Mary Beard debunks some popular myths about Roman Britain, and Charles Bremner stokes the debate on the flaw at the heart of the European Union.
Rose Wild, Times Online Comment Editor, has been rifling through the weblogs, where...
Richard Lloyd Parry takes on the most important question facing East Asia: is Japan lurching to the right? Jane Macartney has the latest news on China's "hairy boy"; James Collard looks at the gay appeal of the Armed Forces in photography; John Harlow issues a challenge: please nominate the worst movie ever made, and the Law weblog is disturbed by the GlaxoSmithKline injunction.
Rose Wild, the Times Online comment editor tells us what's in the weblogs this afternoon:
Leo Lewis says the wheels have flown off Prime Minister Koizumi's wagon; Gerard Baker weighs up the pros and cons of the US talking to Iran; Jane Macartney welcomes a rare drop of rain in Beijing, which wouldn't suit the parishioners of Old Buckenham, Norfolk, who are selling a hole in their church roof on e-Bay, according to Ruth Gledhill; keep track of developments on The Apprentice with the Enterprise weblog, while the Law weblog finds a case of office hanky panky that makes John Prescott look tame; and the News desk invites you to nominate your picture of the day.
Today's taster from the Times Online weblogs, chosen by Rose Wild, Comment Editor:
William Rees-Mogg puts the case for a prime ministerial fixed term; Ruth Gledhill reveals the Church of England's Da Vinci Code quiz; Charles Bremner says the message in Paris is celebrate Europe, or else; Peter Stothard answers the question of why the French don't play cricket; the Law weblog discusses "Trotspurs" chances of getting damages, and Chris Ayres reports on Sony's PS3 launch at the E3 video games conference in Los Angeles
Rose Wild, Times Online's Comment Editor, with an update from the weblogs: Christina Lamb describes a cupcake crisis at a Notting Hill children's party and Margaret Beckett's prospects with Robert Mugabe; the Enterprise weblog enters the final countdown in The Apprentice; Peter Stothard talks us through a 1,600-year-old literary feud; Charles Bremner on his near miss with a flying Essex Man; Michelle Henery explains black vote and the BNP, and Ruth Gledhill on the likelihood of schism in the Anglican community.
Rose Wild, Times Online's Comment Editor, tells us what's on the weblogs this afternoon: David Aaronovitch gives us reasons to be worried (and what is the opposite of marmalade?); Ruth Gledhill apologises for preaching (in Westminster Abbey); Ariel Leve is mistaken for a Tom Cruise fan; Michael Parsons explains why so many huge TVs end up in the garden shed, and the Law weblog finds a loophole in the hosepipe ban...
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