Bill Gates may lose out to Steve Jobs in the coolness department, but if the Gates Foundation can eradicate malaria in Africa, do you think the Nobel committee will award the prize to the creator of the MacBook Air?

Chris Guillebeau

I have respect for broadsheet journalists because they haven’t succumbed to degrading themselves, to writing pidgin English with all these terrible colloquialisms, the phrasing of which is just, like, embarrassing.

- Peaches Geldof

This idea — that excellence at a complex task requires a critical, minimum level of practice — surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is a magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours.

This extract from Malcolm Gladwell’s next book, Outliers investigates what it takes to become the best. In short, it appears to be talent, drive, time, practice — and a massive amount of luck.

The previous evening, my wife had presented me with one of her quarterly assessments of my progress as a human being, and the results were, as they so often are, disappointing.

Tim Dowling makes me read his whole column out loud, Saturday after Saturday. I suspect his wife may be the most amazing/terrifying human being known to mankind.

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. 

— Anais Nin

Did pink rabbit, the much-loved toy left behind in Berlin, exist? “Oh yes. It’s eyes came out because my brother played with it. Bastard!”

- Judith Kerr, creator of The Tiger Who Came to Tea and the highly influential Mog books, turns out to be awesome.

Ordinary Icelanders are no more responsible for the risk-seeking businessmen who happen to hold our passport than the people of north London are responsible for the destructive behaviour of the talented Amy Winehouse.

- Professor Eirikur Bergmann Einarsson on Britain’s use of terrorism laws to claw back the money invested in collapsed Icelandic bank, Icesave.

“The vibe is, we can’t play without headbands,” he enthuses. “We keep popping down to Claire’s Accessories to find slightly more elaborate ones.”

- Justin Hawkins, formerly lead singer of The Darkness, about to release the first single from his new band, Hot Leg.