Jean Seaton, director of the Prize, said: ??We now look forward to the Orwell Prize 2012, igniting further public discussion around politics, political writing and journalism, and celebrating the work which comes closest to Orwell??s ambition, ??to make political writing into an art??.??[Update: since Jack of Kent's post appeared there has been a thorough hunt for a "David Rose" matching the description of the Independent sub with First from Cambridge, expert on climate change etc. It has drawn a complete blank. ]

The LADWP's budget for the program is $60 million this fiscal year. The department plans to use long-term bond financing to pay for an additional $60 million in each of the next two fiscal years to support the program, but it maintains a $40 million limit for new incentive reservations each fiscal year to prevent exceeding its budget.

For a time he received letters from his parents via the Red Cross, then they stopped. I dont remember a specific trauma or upset at being told they had died. Many years later Auerbach found out they had been killed at Auschwitz in 1943. Does he dwell on this or on his early childhood? I never look back. I block out everything and just carry on, he says. But this same person claims, Absolutely bloody everything feeds into my work. Someone can annoy you; the man at the shop corner does not say good morning. It all feeds in.

Outside, the doors to the Smithsonian collection of museums and galleries had been locked. Online, government Twitter accounts, such as a Nasa warning system for potentially cataclysmic approaches from asteroids, fell silent. "We sincerely hope to resume tweets soon," said its final message.

CompareTheCoffin.com is also looking to empower people by giving them full control over their funeral arrangement. Visitors to the site can fill in a series of forms to create their own future funeral plan on the site, in case the worst happens.