"Courage is contagious. If you demonstrate that individuals can leak something and go on to live a good life, it’s tremendously incentivizing to people."

- Julian Assange (Wikileaks)

This is one of my favourite Never Mind the Buzzcocks scenes.

Most magazines are full of Kate Middleton. Some of those are trying to copy her elegant yet youthful style. Well...whatever, they've forgotten William - who looks slick most, if not all, of the time (it's quite easy when you can get your clothes cut by some of the best tailors in the world). Esquire's given us a breakdown on how to achieve this, and it's not cheap. I would never substitute a Gieves & Hawkes suit with a Paul Smith though, and if you pay a full £360 for Church shoes you're a mug.

"Men at some time are masters of their fates:

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,

but in ourselves, that we are underlings"

- Cassius in Julius Caesar (Quote Act I, Scene II)

So snow is on its way to London, having touched much of the North and West overnight. No doubt this will cripple the transport networks and make most pavements into temporary ice rinks, but at least everything looks amazing in a dazzling blanket.

Cool pic

It is now completely clear that the next England manager should be Harry Redknapp whenever Fabio Capello leaves the post. It would be ludicrous if he would never get the opportunity to manage the country - his country - given his superb experience and proven record for how he gets the most out of players.

That said, the English FA have nearly always made a 'safe' choice, giving the job to somebody who won't rock the boat. Unfortunately that rules out some of the best managers there are, and have ever been (Clough, Redknapp...and perhaps outlandishly...Mourinho?). I have no doubt that given the opportunity after 2012, perhaps after he has taken Tottenham as far as he can, Harry would take it with both hands.

This is all frivolous speculation, but important to get it in early.

People Are Awesome

Twitter can be totally bizarre and at the same time fascinating. Especially when you look at the interaction between politicians on it. I've just seen Sally Bercow and Nadine Dorries tweet each other as if they were teenagers after they met in Westminster - all splashed out in the screen in front of me. During Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday, the PM attacked the Labour policy of using spin doctors like Alistair Campbell during their 13 year reign, only for Alistair to instantly release a flurry of defensives from twitter while the PM was still at the despatch box having the debate (I know because I happened to be checking both at the time).

It is such a great tool for spin, reaction and counter-reaction that for anyone interested in politics not to be signed up is a massive loss. Incidentally, one of my favourite 'people' to follow is EyeSpyMP, who update their followers whenever a topical/popular/unpopular/hilarous MP is seen out and about, chiefly in London.

This is quite geeky, but I thought this picture from the International Space Station was pretty cool. Obviously it was taken over Italy.

As I've posted before - slick. I'm not going to lie, I'm reasonably happy about this engagement. Unhappy that she's off the market, but it's finally a piece of good news in a pretty depressing world.

Berlusconi Watch

I can't actually believe this. It's real.

It's perfectly acceptable to like Take That. There are some people who will like them in an ironic sense, clinging on to their youth or liking them 'because their girlfriend likes them' and it's a laugh. Not me. I drop dead serious like Take That, especially now, as they're men not boys. I love Gary Barlow and his constant battle with his collapsing metabolism, and Mark Owen's faux-philosophical views that were cemented when his solo career flopped and he took up semi-professional football. I love the way Howard and Jason have evolved from little more than backing singers and the whole band struggled with the dance moves when I saw them on their come-back tour in 2005. Their new songs are superb, if only over-used at award ceremonies as walk on music...but that's because it's good old fashioned popular music that makes people feel good. There's nothing wrong with that.

Bin the excuses, they're awesome.

You Do Something To Me

One of my favourite songs performed live, by the original Paul Weller with Adele.

First casualty of the house move: I haven't re-directed my Esquire subscription. DAMN! I thought I'd remembered everything...looks like I'll have to buy the awful newsstand version like the rest of society. Sickening.