The making of a leader. When your country’s leader gained her working experience at an ambulance chasing law firm it is not surprising that the search for a negotiated compromise dominates the method of government operations.

Fighting for principle with an all-or-nothing approach is a potentially costly business when you don’t get paid if you don’t win at least something. So no surprise really at yesterday’s attempt to find a “solution” to the problem of asylum seekers arriving by boat. Give a little and hope that the other side does the same.

No surprise either that the Gillard bait was not taken. The opponents of yesterday’s plan opposed it primarily because they don’t think it would actually work. They can be awkward things those principles.

Today’s papers and their website readership.

A high stakes poker game. European leaders will tonight begin another round of their interminable talks about how to solve their continent’s economic crisis. The German magazine Der Spiegel presents this summary of what the future possibly holds if the failure to find a solution continues:

The greatest thing since sliced bread? Frozen foam, folks. Reuters reports that the Japanese brewing company Kirin has come out with a soft-serve yogurt-like machine that tops a beer with frozen foam.

Made of pure beer — no ice or water is added — the frozen froth keeps the beer chilled for at least 30 minutes, well over the average of 22 minutes to finish a pint, as a Kirin survey found.

“We thought people won’t spend more than five minutes on a pint of beer but apparently not,” said Kunihiko Kadota, Kirin’s marketing brand manager for the “frozen draft” campaign.

“Women and young drinkers spend much more time to drink it all up, and they like the idea the beer doesn’t get warm towards the end.”

Some news and views noted along the way.