Boring photos kill Obama

A great many photos in the news are very boring. We almost don't notice how boring they are, we are so used to them.

A colourful seductive church in southern Germany offers Polly Toynbee and George Monbiot a lesson

The church of the fourteen helpers, in Bavaria, was built about two hundred and fifty years ago. But - strange as it might sound - the ideas that led to its construction are more important than ever.

Kiev is in flames and I don't care

Ukraine is sliding into anarchy. The President, Viktor Yanukovych, was planning to build closer ties with the European Union.

Who are we and what do we want?

The Philosopher's Mail is a new news organisation, based in bureaux in London, NYC and Melbourne, run and staffed entirely by philosophers.

Best not to spend too long on all this

We want you to keep reading, but we also know there are times you should stop. The news is the best distraction ever invented.

Eating seven portions of fruit and vegetables a day will kill you

In 'health news' the media takes on a very different project.

Art saves Chinese shoeshine boy from life as a statistic

Yuan Zhouming makes a meagre living polishing people's shoes twelve hours a day on the streets of Wenzhou, a large city in south-east China.

Urgent breaking news from Athens

What is news? A standard definition might go: 'news' is something that people don't know about, that matters a lot - and that has happened just now.

Harry Styles toasts the launch of the Philosophers' Mail at London party what this is all about

Stars from the worlds of show business and fashion attended a party in London's West End the other night to celebrate the launch of the Philosophers' Mail, the only global news outlet manned entirely by philosophers.

New scandal at the BBC: News found not to be biased enough

A new scandal at the BBC has come to light. It isn't to do with abuse of staff, swollen salaries, or sloppy editorial standards.

Not as much news as previously thought

It feels like there is always an infinite amount of news, so much is happening in the world every day. A newspaper could be 1,000 pages long and hardly scratch the surface.

Why we don't allow comments

The ability to post comments at the end of on-line news stories has revealed something unusual about our fellow citizens.