Just watched a short item on Channel 4 about a chap who has invented an underwater bicycle and complains that nobody in the UK will take him seriously.

News bulletins this morning are reporting that President Bush was briefly unconscious yesterday. Question: how did they know?

The American media have been dumbstruck since September 11 as they struggle (so far unsuccessfully) to strike a critical, detached note without alienating a public that currently sees everything in black and white. (They are also astonishingly complacent about how well they are doing. ) This may be one reason why the Guardian web site has taken a huge number of hits from the US ever since the September attacks: they had a suspicion that their newspapers and TV stations were not giving them the full story. There is, however, one exception to this: Andrew Sullivan’s website. But then , he’s a Brit who just happens to work in the US.

My column on the copy-protected CD is here. Have already had a message from a reader saying that “Natalie Imbruglia’s White Lillies Island, released late last year, is the most notable of a growing number of CDs to have copy protection . Purchasers of the CD kicked up such a fuss that BMG records offered free replacements”.