High jinks at Burlington House.

The dear old Royal Academy has been the source of much amusement lately: president retiring early fed up with constant sniping from the back of the life class, one keeper running a separate account. Actually, given the way the RA operates, this was an extremely good and entirely straight idea but he still had to resign. Then the stupendously innovative exhibitions secretary, Norman Rosenthal, won last year's Alternative Miss World title and the chief executive handed in her notice soon after. No one knows whether this was related to Rosenthal's success but she was certainly fed up with the entire shower. You think of artists as being rather radical and forward looking. Not this lot. Still the institution has a web site at www.rafocus.org.uk/architecture. The interesting thing here, apart from the many interviews with famous architects, is the Forum. Among the rules you have to agree before participating is this: 'you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-orientated, threatening or otherwise violative of any laws. 'I looked up 'violative' on the net and the early search results were either to do with US dictionaries or were references to US Food and Drug Administration warnings. My spellchecker continues to highlight the word as a spelling mistake. Sadly this and the above 'vulgar and threatening' exclusion precluded any active participating but you kinder folk are sure to benefit from moving on the web waters with the minds and words of the great and good on various interesting architectural topics. Seriously. This is a nicely designed site with adjustable type sizes and a pretty clear navigation system. It's a tad wordy though.