We have a tradition here in Kings Cross of inviting interesting people to come and speak to the staff about interesting developments, usually of a digital kind. A little while ago we had a fascinating presentation from the Mind Candy team. One of the presenters, Adrian Hon, has a blog called Mssv which is shorthand for massive apparently. His pieceyesterday on the death of publishers is well worth reading even though he has a few side swipes at Macmillan and even though I disagree with much of what he has to say.

Meanwhile, Pan Macmillan's summer of successes rolls on, with Colm Toibin's Mothers and Sons  winning the Edge Hill Prize for the Short Story 2007 and Jackie Kay  winning the Outstanding Contribution to Literature Award at the Grazia O2 X Awards last week.

More importantly, today is a day to celebrate the release of the wrongly incarcerated and prosecuted nurses in Libya. I am proud that Nature took such a proactive stand on their behalf as described here and that the world of science as a whole stood up for justice.