Philobiblon

I think you could say online shopping has come of age:

A total of 24 million UK consumers shopped online last year, spending an average of £816 each during the year and £208 over the Christmas period. Sales peaked in the week starting December 5, when £653 million was spent online.

I heard a speaker on Today saying this was 10 per cent of total spend.

Well I do my bit – I’d reckon 90 per cent plus of what I spend is online.

I was thinking about the environmental effects of this – has anyone seen any analysis? It has to greatly cut journeys of consumers to the shops, and mean at least one less journey (from warehouse to shop). It also, presumably, cuts impulse buys and hence consumption. And eBay means that many things are “recycled”.

Then a small piece of good news out of Malaysia – a senator has got himself into trouble by divorcing his wife by text:

The prosecuting sharia officer, Mohamad Yusof Sulaiman, had asked for a heavier sentence, saying it would better highlight the seriousness of the offence.
“Cases such as this are happening often these days,” he said.
“Even [non-government organisations] have been critical of Islamic laws lately, especially on matrimonial matters which are said to favour certain parties.”