Ronald Martinez/Getty Images Sport
The Thunder's Kendrick Perkins is next in line trying to stop the Grizzlies' Zach Randolph.

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty
Against the Spurs, Randolph's basketball was essentially perfect, but his crowd management at the end of Game 5 was premature.

Randolph seems to have kicked a bad habit -- he stopped taking a bunch of lousy shots. Mid-range shots are a legitimate weapon, but taking a lot of them and making only 41 percent of them isn’t a great way to drive an offense. Randolph took more than eight mid-range jumpers per 48 minutes in the four seasons prior to joining the Grizzlies. He used to isolate at the high post and stop the offense, taking about 30 percent of the team’s shots, and making 40 percent or so.

He was trying too hard to be The Man.

Just by cutting down his mid-range jumpers to five per 48 minutes and maintaining or slightly increasing the number of layups he takes, he is getting better shots. He is now taking only about 25 percent of the team’s shots and those are much higher quality shots. He cut out the fat.

The way Randolph is playing is no illusion. Sometimes, players do fool you by putting up cheap points or by scoring a lot and allowing a lot of points on the other end. That is not Randolph right now.

He is generating a remarkable 120 points per 100 possessions and allowing just 101, both far better than the league average of about 106. Randolph’s playoff performance thus far is legitimately among the best in the league.

• Randolph has been as dependable as any NBA player over the course of the playoffs, making his value sky high.
• He has been as undependable as any NBA player off the court for several years, which has dragged his value abysmally low.

Vaio on a budget?

With almost everything apart from netbooks sporting a Core series processor these days, you could be forgiven for thinking Intel didn't make Pentium chips any more. They're still in the lineup though, powering budget laptops like this E Series Vaio from Sony; the Pentium P6200 (and the absence of expensive extras like Blu-ray and USB 3.0) explain how you can get a 15.5-inch Sony laptop for under ?500, but are we talking bargain or bargain basement?

The design certainly belies the pricetag, with a silvery cover that matches the screen surround, speaker bar and the edge of the case (although the base is basic-black plastic). The white isolated keyboard and slightly glittery translucent palm rest look stylish rather than tacky, but the case is plastic rather than metal, so it may show signs of wear.

The keyboard is excellent - far better than you'd expect on a budget system. The keys are a good size with rounded corners, nicely separated from each other with excellent travel and a firm typing feel. The slope of the case gives them a slight rake for comfort and the palm rest lifts your wrists a little. The trackpad is set directly into the palm rest, recessed and with an aggressively textured surface so it's easy to find without looking. The texture keeps the mouse pointer from feeling jumpy even though the trackpad is very responsive, but you can feel the texture a little too much when making gestures; the two-finger rotate and sideways flick gestures works well but pinch to zoom feels a little jumpy and there's no two-finger up and down scroll - instead you can either swipe or spin your finger at the side or base of the trackpad. You need to keep your finger on the rough surface for this to work reliably. There are none of the complex three-finger gestures of other trackpads; as they rarely work well, you won't miss them.

The trackpad is also set rather far to the left of the case, which positions it centrally under the QWERTY keys; they're also set off to the left because of the numeric keypad Sony has squeezed into the 15.5-inch case. That's ideal for Excel and casual gaming (the E series doesn't have the graphics or processor performance for much more than mainstream gaming) but it does mean the spacebar is unusually narrow and the keys you're typing on all the time are pushed a little to the side. Even with a case this large, you can feel a little cramped at times.

Otherwise we like the keyboard layout; the Enter key is double height, backspace and right shift are extra large and there's an inverted-T set of arrow keys nicely separated from the other keys. There are few secondary function keys; just volume, screen brightness, zoom, sleep and a control for swapping to external screens - we did miss play/pause controls for media. You're not going to hit Insert by accident and the Home/Ed and Page Up/Page Down keys are grouped together over the numeric keypad. Above that are the power button plus three dedicated Sony keys, which launch the Vaio Care software, the Vaio Media Gallery and either your browser (if Windows is running) or a fast-boot web browser (if it isn't).

The 1366 x 768 pixel resolution display is nothing out of the ordinary for this screen size but the screen itself is excellent quality; clear and bright with vivid but no over-saturated colours. The Intel HD graphics deliver good quality for mainstream media use, although they won't satisfy gamers. Video quality for streaming 1080p video from YouTube was excellent; crisp details and textures, smooth and fluid movement in panning scenes and good colour and contrast from the Sony LCD panel. Local 720p video was also good, with unusual amounts of detail and smooth playback. The Intel HD graphics also do well with GPU-accelerated software; if you have a hardware-accelerated browser like IE9, HTML5 video plays back at the full 60fps.

The volume from the two speakers in front of the screen is low and the bass is understated rather than noticeable, with some definite distortion on high volume and bass-heavy tracks. However the sound is good with a reasonable amount of detail in the mid-range. There are notebooks with better sound, but not many at this price.

The dual-core Pentium P6200 that keeps the price down won't limit you if you’re doing the usual everyday computing tasks: creating documents in Office, browsing the Web, playing videos and music or image editing. Transcoding video to copy to your smartphone or doing 3D modeling would definitely slow you down compared to a Core i3 processor (the Pentium runs at the same 2.13GHz as the Core i3-330M and has a 3MB smart cache and integrated memory controller but not have the hyperthreading so it can’t run as many commands at once, and both have a slower clock speed than the latest Core i3 models). The 320GB hard drive is a good size but it's a slower 5400rpm drive, but the 4GB of memory helps keep performance good enough for general computing.

Unlike previous generations of E Series models, the EB4E1E has a generous set of ports and connections; both VGA and HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet (as well as Wi-Fi and the Bluetooth missing from earlier models), three USB 2.0 ports and one combination USB/eSATA port (but no USB 3.0 ports), an ExpressCard slot, separate headphone and microphone jacks, both Memory Card and SD card slots and a DVD writer. With the dropped hinge at the back the ports are neatly and conveniently arranged around the other three sides; power and Ethernet at the back where you can leave the cables plugged in out of the way, USB ports towards the front on either side where they're easy to reach and the memory cards slots and headphone connector on the front to make it easy to plug them in and out quickly. That's the kind of attention to detail that makes your life more convenient, but that you don't often find on budget machines. The VGA webcam is strictly bargain basement territory though; grainy video with a rather blue tinge.

At 2.7kg and a fairly compact 370 x 248mm the E Series is portable at a pinch, as long as you're not going far away from a power socket. Even with the lower power Pentium chip the battery life is on the low side for a 15.5-inch notebook (balancing space for a larger batter with the larger screen it needs to power). The battery life estimates are unusually inaccurate, especially if you're doing something that uses GPU acceleration (you can go from thinking you have 45 minutes of battery left to the low battery alert in about 10 minutes). Although battery life in normal use should be a little over 2 hours, we usually managed to run it down in barely an hour with Wi-Fi on, which may be caused by settings in some of the large array of bundled software.

There's a phenomenal amount of software bundled with this Vaio, from the basics (Office Starter, McAfee anti-virus and unusually, Chrome rather than Internet Explorer) to the less common but still useful (Photoshop Elements 8 and Premier Elements 8, Norton Online Backup, Evernote, Skype and BBC iPlayer Desktop - although the software that isn't already free is only trial versions) to blatant advertising (links to eBay, Amazon and the online Sony Store) to an almost overwhelming assortment of Vaio tools that are easiest to launch from the Vaiogate docking strip that pops-up at the top of the screen every time there's a new item in one of your RSS feeds (thankfully you can turn that option off and just use it as an app launcher).

The Vaio control center is useful, letting you turn on advanced trackpad gestures and the sensor that wakes the machine when you open the lid as well as putting it to sleep when you close it (an excellent feature from higher-end Vaios like the handbag-sized P Series); PlayStation users may like the option to use the Vaio as a remote keyboard or an extra screen and you get not one but four different tools for organising, playing and syncing media, including Vaio Media Gallery which shows photos and videos in timelines and arranges your music by mood and genre (from walking, running or meditating to “slow life” or “rainy day”). If you're not seeing the performance or battery life, check how many of these apps and extras you're loading automatically and trim down to just the ones you need.

Verdict:

Budget and Sony laptop aren't phrases you often put in the same sentence, but if you don't want to pay over the odds for basic computing power with a good mix of ports and connectors and you don't need a great deal of battery life, then the E Series could prove good value. It's well built, reliable, moderately stylish but without the extreme stylings of the latest neon-bright Vaio models; in short, useful if not exciting.?

Tags: Laptops Hardware Sony Sony Vaio E series Sony VPC-EB4E1E

Sony Vaio VPC-EB4E1E originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 02 May 2011 08:32:00 +0100

Medvedev set to defy pact with prime minister Vladimir Putin and seek second term, claims prominent politician

President Dmitry Medvedev is pushing to extend his tenure in the Kremlin against the wishes of Russia's powerful prime minister, Vladimir Putin, a senior politician from the country's ruling party has told the Guardian.

Konstantin Zatulin, a prominent MP with United Russia, which dominates parliament and is headed by Putin, said Medvedev's allies were waging a campaign to undermine the prime minister behind a public facade of unity between the two men.

Until recently it was widely assumed that Medvedev would not run in presidential elections next March, so that Putin could return to his old job and serve two more terms to 2024. Most analysts had presumed that Putin would put himself forward while Medvedev would bow out meekly after a single term.

However, Zatulin said in an interview that the president's aides were jockeying to keep him in the Kremlin by eroding Putin's support in parliament. "Medvedev wants to stay, he has broken the agreement and now Putin will have to persuade him to back off," he said.

His words highlight a deepening rift between Russia's ruling duo. Putin has emphasised his credentials as a conservative statist who rejects "liberal experiments", in what analysts interpreted as a bold pitch for the presidency. Medvedev, by contrast, has pushed his image as a tech-savvy moderniser and anti-corruption crusader.

He recently removed top members of government from the boards of state companies such as oil giant Rosneft in favour of independent directors, a move seen as a blow to Putin's "Kremlin Inc" view of the economy.

The split extends to foreign policy, where Medvedev promotes the "resetting" of relations with Washington, while Putin has nurtured his image as a hawk who rejects US unilateralism. When Putin likened western military intervention in Libya to "medieval calls for crusades" last month, the president condemned the phrase a few hours later as "unacceptable".

While Medvedev has no party, Putin leads United Russia, which he uses to exert control over parliament, regional leaders and the bureaucracy. The party has said that Putin is its preferred candidate, and that it will consider supporting Medvedev only if the prime minister does not run.

Medvedev, on the other hand, wields clout through his huge presidential administration, and via influential aides who can manipulate party politics and state media.

Zatulin, the MP, was drawn into the conflict last month when he was removed from his post as deputy chairman of a Duma committee, in what he says was a punishment by Medvedev's political fixers inside United Russia for statements he made in the chamber supporting Putin's "Crusades" comments.

He said that Kremlin aides – including the powerful ideologue, Vladislav Surkov — were also secretly cultivating a minor party, Fair Russia, as a potential vehicle for Medvedev. The party could be given a new leader such as the popular nationalist and representative to Nato, Dmitry Rogozin, and then be boosted with huge administrative support in the run up to parliamentary elections in December, Zatulin said, providing Medvedev a platform for his bid to the presidency three months later.

Zatulin said: "Medvedev has decided to put himself forward [as a presidential candidate]. He feels inspired and he senses a certain support." Asked if Putin and Medvedev might go head to head, the politician replied: "Yes, I think so."

The view that both men will compete is rare, but other observers are also putting their money on Medvedev as the preferred candidate.

The president, a lawyer, took up his post in 2008 after he was endorsed by the outgoing Putin, 58, who had spent eight years in the Kremlin but could not stand for a third consecutive term. Putin, a former KGB officer, then stepped into the prime ministerial role, from which he has appeared to take the lead in Russia's ruling tandem, known collectively to wags as either "PutiMed" or "MedvePut".

Stanislav Belkovsky, a well-connected political commentator said that differences between the pair were "no more than between man and wife". He believes they have already decided together that Medvedev will be the one to go forward.

"For both of them, Medvedev is the best choice for the elections," he said. "The ruling elite have many business interests and they want to legalise their capital abroad. They need to feel at home in New York and London, so nobody points a finger when they walk into the lobby bar at the Lanesborough or the Dorchester.

"Medvedev is seen overseas as western-leaning and liberal so he is better placed than Putin to finish this cynical process."

The choice of candidate will almost certainly determine who becomes Russia's next president. Political forces opposing the Kremlin have been systematically marginalised, so the emergence of a popular competing figure is practically impossible. Putin and Medvedev have respectable, if slipping, popularity ratings which can also be shored up by falsifying election results, a common practice over the past decade.

Yet intrigue remains. On a visit to Sweden last week Putin was asked by journalists whether he intended to run. "It is still too early to tell," he replied. "The time will come, and we will make the appropriate decision. You will like it. You will be satisfied." That response prompted fresh speculation that either Medvedev – seen to be the favoured candidate in Washington and many European capitals – will run, or that both men will go to the polls, in a show of democratic competition.

In another sign of nervousness in the ruling elite last week, Gleb Pavlovsky, a veteran spin doctor and adviser to the presidential administration, had his pass to the Kremlin revoked. Pavlovsky told reporters he was ousted for being too vocal in his support of the president at a time of tension in the tandem, and for saying – in a criticism of Putin – that Medvedev's first term should not become "some recess in one person's endless governance".

In spite of Medvedev's ambitions, many Russians remain convinced that it is Putin who will muscle his way back to the Kremlin. They say that he is desperate to regain the top job, whatever his partner's wishes.

"I'm 80% certain that Putin will be the candidate," said Vladimir Ryzhkov, a leader of Russia's small democratic opposition, in an interview at his basement office in southern Moscow. "These three years he has kept up a pre-election campaign, driving yellow Ladas around the country, kissing snow leopards, firing crossbows at whales, putting out fires. And that's allowed him to remain the most popular politician in the country."

Ryzhkov agreed that Medvedev was agitating to preserve his position, but argued that had only succeeded in firing up his opponents. "His recent behaviour has begun to irritate and frighten the people around Putin," he said, predicting that the prime minister would stand alone.

Zatulin, however, said he was convinced that Medvedev would run for the presidency. Asked if Putin could talk his protege out of competing in the election, he said: "Personally, I don't think so. The point of no return has already been passed."

Reading made it eight games on the spin with a 3-1 home defeat over fellow promotion chasers Leicester City which sees them move within just three points of an automatic promotion place.

Royals boss Brian McDermott said: "Today we had to dig in. Unusually for us we played like the away team. Leicester showed their quality but we hit them on the break for the first and then got the second, which was massive.

"Jimmy Kebe was sensational. He was creative, strong and powerful and did his job for the team as they all do.

"I can't put my finger on the reasons for our run of success. It's a little bit of everything. The players have created a great group environment. I try to do my best for those not playing. An example is Noel Hunt who came back today after being out injured and scored.

"I am not looking at second place in the table I am just looking at our next game at Leeds on Friday night. We are looking to do well there and that's all I am looking at.

"It's a great league and it is all building up to a good climax.

"Leicester's players are all comfortable on the ball, but our hope was good and we waited for opportunities.

"I have never met Sven before and he is a genuinely nice guy. He asked me if I speak Swedish but I have forgotten most of what I know."

Leicester boss Sven-Goran Eriksson was disappointed with his side's finishing against the Royals, while he also expressed concern about the way they defended.

He said: "I am not happy but those who have followed us know what has been our problem all season.

"We create chances more or less every game but don't score the right number of goals for the chances we create, but we concede goals too easily.

"We don't seem to want to be ugly but sometimes you have to be ugly. The two goals we conceded in the first half were too easy at this level.

"Mathematically the play-offs are still there and I am sure we are going to fight as we did today. At half-time it looked very bad but the players tried all 90 minutes which was good.

"I am positive, that's what I will say. We are playing better than our opponents more or less very game but the result of that is too little and sometimes you wonder does it matter that we play good football. We have the possession but don't score goals.

"Reading have a good chance to go up. The back line is very organised and experienced and difficult to break down.

"The big thing with Reading is when they go forward they are big and strong. If they get a chance to counter attack they are very good.

"We are like a motorway, just too open."

The game is about opinions. Make yours heard! Join the tribalfootball.com
nation on Facebook today: Facebook.com/tribalfootball

In a relatively subdued fashion in Australia, and far more dramatically in the US in the last week, the issue of abortion, or rather who determines the dominant ideological position on abortion, has again been the subject of heated debate.

The Republican and Tea Party spin doctors

In the US, the topic of abortion almost brought about a federal government shut down, when Republicans negotiating budget cuts fought for the de-funding of Planned Parenthood, an organisation that provides women’s health services such as cervical cancer screenings, contraception, breast exams, and some 4 million treatments a year for sexually transmitted diseases.

The call for de-funding was justified by Republicans and prominent Tea Party supporters such as Sarah Palin as necessary to prevent taxpayers’ money being used to provide abortions. Palin tweeted that “the country’s going broke, we can’t AFFORD cowboy poetry and subsidised abortion.”

In fact, some 3 per cent of Planned Parenthood’s total services deal with abortion, and that 3 per cent is restricted to terminating pregnancies that are a consequence of rape, incest, and those that are a threat to the mother’s life. The use of federal funds for any other type of abortion is already illegal.

Republican anti-abortion spin reframes Planned Parenthood as a major provider of subsidised abortion, and so determined are conservatives forces to ban the procedure they were prepared to not only close down the government’s ability to financially function, but to deny all other health services provided for poor and low income women by the PP health centres.

The Democrats’ concession of cuts in other areas, and last-minute cold Republican feet as women’s groups organised protests indicating the conservatives could expect a considerable backlash if they held to their position, allowed eleventh-hour stop-gap funding measures to go through. Although the crisis is far from over, Planned Parenthood can for the moment continue to provide services to women who are financially disadvantaged, and abortions to women in the three specified categories.

The domestic battle for ownership of the abortion narrative

Meanwhile in Australia, the always-smouldering abortion debate was re-ignited last week by former Herald Sun journalist Evelyn Tsitas when she criticised anti-abortion campaigner Melinda Tankard-Reist for her belief that abortion causes long-term psychological disturbance that is all too often not acknowledged. Tsitas is also taken to task by a Reist supporter for her opinion that: "Abortion can be an emotional subject, particularly for people who choose to get upset about it. There is a movement taking hold called: 'I'll always regret what I did and want to burn in hell for it’."

Tsitas takes issue with the pro-life position advocated by Reist that every abortion causes irresolvable grief therefore abortion should not be an option. Tsitas rightly points out that for many women abortion can be a great relief and cause little or no distress.

However, she also observes that: “I have no time for the women who can't get over their abortions. They obviously didn't want to have a termination in the first place.”

And when women experience grief after abortion Tsitas claims they do so:

“Because they obviously wanted the baby, but lacked the courage of their convictions and now want to blame others for their regret.”

In other words, it is Tsitas’s opinion that post abortion grief is not legitimate grief because women who experience it are, in her analysis, morally weak.

Tsitas positions herself at the opposite end of the continuum to Tankard-Reist, and neither seems willing to acknowledge that a continuum of emotional reaction to abortion exists in the first place.

What we see from both women are morally prescriptive and conflicting points of view that claim definitive knowledge of the experience of abortion.

While in the US conservative forces conspire to deny a woman’s right to choose abortion, in Australia female commentators fight to take ownership of a woman’s emotions around the issue, and in the process question her moral capacities and worth. In both situations, women’s bodies, hearts and minds are the domain of an ideological and moral struggle for political power.

Get your moralities off our bodies

Without debating either Tsitas or Reist’s point of view, what is remarkable in both cases is the degree to which they are eager and willing to define what women should feel. If women don’t feel prescribed emotions their experiences are invalidated, and they are positioned outside what has been designated the norm. In both cases the authors attempt to control women through marginalisation and exclusion.

This apparent inability to allow that the experience of abortion is complex, varied and highly individual is almost as un-nerving as the threat of Tony’s rosaries on our ovaries again. “This is how you will feel after your abortion and if you don’t you’re mad, bad and probably dangerous,” stated explicitly or implied, is neither helpful nor caring, whether they’re saying you ought to be in deep grief, or happy as a clam.

What we need as women is for everybody to get their moralities off our bodies, whether we’re talking about abortion, sex work, how we dress, body hair or lack of it, lipstick, pole dancing, or anything else you can think of. The intense, unwanted, unrelenting moral and ideological surveillance that is foisted upon women, all too often by other women, implies that there is something inherently wrong with us, and we need to be watched.

It implies that because we are women, we are incapable of self-governance, and we need others (men and women with entrenched ideological and moral positions who therefore know what’s right) to tell us what to do, how to feel and how to look while we’re doing and feeling it.

Whether the instructions are coming from the latest edition of Cosmopolitan or the latest tirade by Christian conservatives doesn’t really matter. All parties involved in female surveillance share a similar zealous commitment to their task. All interested parties position women in a metaphorical panopticon that allows a variety of watchers to indulge their shared taste for obsessive observation and strenuous efforts to normalise, according to their particular lights.

The most valuable thing a woman can do to contest the pervasive insistence of people who make it their life’s work to tell her what to do, is give them the finger in any one of the several eloquent variations available to us, and always, always ask them:

So, where exactly are you coming from, honey?

Tsitas and Reist don’t seem to care about women who have abortions, unless those women feel and act as Tsitas and Reist say they should. Tsitas says she has “no time for” women who grieve after abortions, so her position couldn’t be clearer. Reist goes so far as to claim an entirely unproven link between abortion and breast cancer in her anti-abortion rhetoric, so her position is clear as well: she has no compunction about scaring women silly, if she can’t convince them not to have abortions any other way.

It isn’t women who matter here. It’s ideological and moral positions, and political power. It’s the battle for domination.

We aren’t home safe yet and probably never will be.

It would be naïve to assume that abortion can’t or won’t become a hot political issue in Australia at some time in the future. There are a lot of reasons to fear that it might, including the influence the religious right already holds over federal and state politicians in issues such as gay marriage, school chaplaincies, and exemptions from anti-discrimination legislation in the employment of homosexuals. The pro-choice gains we’ve made are always fragile and subject to political interference. Women’s bodies and minds remain rich ideological and moral battlegrounds.

Religious politicians have brought their beliefs to bear on legislation in Australia. For example, when Tankard-Reist was Catholic Senator Brian Harradine’s bioethics advisor, Harradine used his balance of power in the Senate to ensure that AusAID funding would not be used for family planning education in recipient countries, singling out female reproductive health and rights for special scrutiny in the overseas aid program, and, some allege, contravening the human rights of women in those countries denied access to reproductive education by the effects of his ban. Harradine also succeeded in securing a ban on access for Australian women to the emergency contraceptive drug RU486, without ministerial approval. This ban was overturned through a conscience vote in 2002.

Women in Australia need to be both vigilant and discriminating about who we allow to influence our thinking about abortion and women’s health, and look carefully at where those who seek to influence us are coming from, and their agenda. The first question we should ask is, does this commentator care primarily about women, or is it all about their ideology? It isn’t hard to tell - if it’s the former they’ll allow for a multitude of experiences, if it’s the latter they’ll only countenance the ones they approve of.

Dr Jennifer Wilson is an independent social and political commentator, writer, and consultant psychotherapist. She blogs at No Place for Sheep.

• Read all responses to this article

In a relatively subdued fashion in Australia, and far more dramatically in the US in the last week, the issue of abortion, or rather who determines the dominant ideological position on abortion, has again been the subject of heated debate.

The Republican and Tea Party spin doctors

In the US, the topic of abortion almost brought about a federal government shut down, when Republicans negotiating budget cuts fought for the de-funding of Planned Parenthood, an organisation that provides women’s health services such as cervical cancer screenings, contraception, breast exams, and some 4 million treatments a year for sexually transmitted diseases.

The call for de-funding was justified by Republicans and prominent Tea Party supporters such as Sarah Palin as necessary to prevent taxpayers’ money being used to provide abortions. Palin tweeted that “the country’s going broke, we can’t AFFORD cowboy poetry and subsidised abortion.”

In fact, some 3 per cent of Planned Parenthood’s total services deal with abortion, and that 3 per cent is restricted to terminating pregnancies that are a consequence of rape, incest, and those that are a threat to the mother’s life. The use of federal funds for any other type of abortion is already illegal.

Republican anti-abortion spin reframes Planned Parenthood as a major provider of subsidised abortion, and so determined are conservatives forces to ban the procedure they were prepared to not only close down the government’s ability to financially function, but to deny all other health services provided for poor and low income women by the PP health centres.

The Democrats’ concession of cuts in other areas, and last-minute cold Republican feet as women’s groups organised protests indicating the conservatives could expect a considerable backlash if they held to their position, allowed eleventh-hour stop-gap funding measures to go through. Although the crisis is far from over, Planned Parenthood can for the moment continue to provide services to women who are financially disadvantaged, and abortions to women in the three specified categories.

The domestic battle for ownership of the abortion narrative

Meanwhile in Australia, the always-smouldering abortion debate was re-ignited last week by former Herald Sun journalist Evelyn Tsitas when she criticised anti-abortion campaigner Melinda Tankard-Reist for her belief that abortion causes long-term psychological disturbance that is all too often not acknowledged. Tsitas is also taken to task by a Reist supporter for her opinion that: "Abortion can be an emotional subject, particularly for people who choose to get upset about it. There is a movement taking hold called: 'I'll always regret what I did and want to burn in hell for it’."

Tsitas takes issue with the pro-life position advocated by Reist that every abortion causes irresolvable grief therefore abortion should not be an option. Tsitas rightly points out that for many women abortion can be a great relief and cause little or no distress.

However, she also observes that: “I have no time for the women who can't get over their abortions. They obviously didn't want to have a termination in the first place.”

And when women experience grief after abortion Tsitas claims they do so:

“Because they obviously wanted the baby, but lacked the courage of their convictions and now want to blame others for their regret.”

In other words, it is Tsitas’s opinion that post abortion grief is not legitimate grief because women who experience it are, in her analysis, morally weak.

Tsitas positions herself at the opposite end of the continuum to Tankard-Reist, and neither seems willing to acknowledge that a continuum of emotional reaction to abortion exists in the first place.

What we see from both women are morally prescriptive and conflicting points of view that claim definitive knowledge of the experience of abortion.

While in the US conservative forces conspire to deny a woman’s right to choose abortion, in Australia female commentators fight to take ownership of a woman’s emotions around the issue, and in the process question her moral capacities and worth. In both situations, women’s bodies, hearts and minds are the domain of an ideological and moral struggle for political power.

Get your moralities off our bodies

Without debating either Tsitas or Reist’s point of view, what is remarkable in both cases is the degree to which they are eager and willing to define what women should feel. If women don’t feel prescribed emotions their experiences are invalidated, and they are positioned outside what has been designated the norm. In both cases the authors attempt to control women through marginalisation and exclusion.

This apparent inability to allow that the experience of abortion is complex, varied and highly individual is almost as un-nerving as the threat of Tony’s rosaries on our ovaries again. “This is how you will feel after your abortion and if you don’t you’re mad, bad and probably dangerous,” stated explicitly or implied, is neither helpful nor caring, whether they’re saying you ought to be in deep grief, or happy as a clam.

What we need as women is for everybody to get their moralities off our bodies, whether we’re talking about abortion, sex work, how we dress, body hair or lack of it, lipstick, pole dancing, or anything else you can think of. The intense, unwanted, unrelenting moral and ideological surveillance that is foisted upon women, all too often by other women, implies that there is something inherently wrong with us, and we need to be watched.

It implies that because we are women, we are incapable of self-governance, and we need others (men and women with entrenched ideological and moral positions who therefore know what’s right) to tell us what to do, how to feel and how to look while we’re doing and feeling it.

Whether the instructions are coming from the latest edition of Cosmopolitan or the latest tirade by Christian conservatives doesn’t really matter. All parties involved in female surveillance share a similar zealous commitment to their task. All interested parties position women in a metaphorical panopticon that allows a variety of watchers to indulge their shared taste for obsessive observation and strenuous efforts to normalise, according to their particular lights.

The most valuable thing a woman can do to contest the pervasive insistence of people who make it their life’s work to tell her what to do, is give them the finger in any one of the several eloquent variations available to us, and always, always ask them:

So, where exactly are you coming from, honey?

Tsitas and Reist don’t seem to care about women who have abortions, unless those women feel and act as Tsitas and Reist say they should. Tsitas says she has “no time for” women who grieve after abortions, so her position couldn’t be clearer. Reist goes so far as to claim an entirely unproven link between abortion and breast cancer in her anti-abortion rhetoric, so her position is clear as well: she has no compunction about scaring women silly, if she can’t convince them not to have abortions any other way.

It isn’t women who matter here. It’s ideological and moral positions, and political power. It’s the battle for domination.

We aren’t home safe yet and probably never will be.

It would be naïve to assume that abortion can’t or won’t become a hot political issue in Australia at some time in the future. There are a lot of reasons to fear that it might, including the influence the religious right already holds over federal and state politicians in issues such as gay marriage, school chaplaincies, and exemptions from anti-discrimination legislation in the employment of homosexuals. The pro-choice gains we’ve made are always fragile and subject to political interference. Women’s bodies and minds remain rich ideological and moral battlegrounds.

Religious politicians have brought their beliefs to bear on legislation in Australia. For example, when Tankard-Reist was Catholic Senator Brian Harradine’s bioethics advisor, Harradine used his balance of power in the Senate to ensure that AusAID funding would not be used for family planning education in recipient countries, singling out female reproductive health and rights for special scrutiny in the overseas aid program, and, some allege, contravening the human rights of women in those countries denied access to reproductive education by the effects of his ban. Harradine also succeeded in securing a ban on access for Australian women to the emergency contraceptive drug RU486, without ministerial approval. This ban was overturned through a conscience vote in 2002.

Women in Australia need to be both vigilant and discriminating about who we allow to influence our thinking about abortion and women’s health, and look carefully at where those who seek to influence us are coming from, and their agenda. The first question we should ask is, does this commentator care primarily about women, or is it all about their ideology? It isn’t hard to tell - if it’s the former they’ll allow for a multitude of experiences, if it’s the latter they’ll only countenance the ones they approve of.

Dr Jennifer Wilson is an independent social and political commentator, writer, and consultant psychotherapist. She blogs at No Place for Sheep.

• Read all responses to this article

Sensational Sense superphone?

The HTC Sensation is a phone about numbers: except for sidestepping the “world’s thinnest” competition, it smacks down a heavy spec sheet: 1.2GHz processor, dual-core, 8-megapixel camera, 1080p video recording, 4.3-inches, 960 x 540 pixels. About the only number that isn’t big is the internal memory, but with high capacity microSD cards being so cheap, do you really care??

Let’s be honest, we walked away from Mobile World Congress where HTC announced a run of devices, a little disappointed. The HTC fan base was disappointed too, we know, you told us. But we always knew that the Desire HD would be updated and we suspected that it would have a slightly longer active lifespan that the 7 or 8 months it will be in circulation before the HTC Sensation touches down.

We were at the UK launch of the HTC’s new Android superphone and had the chance to play around with it and explore some of the features on offer. Of course, this isn’t a definitive review, but we felt there was enough to say about the HTC Sensation to put pen to paper, or rather finger to keyboard.

The HTC Sensation doesn’t feel as big as it perhaps should. Measuring 126.1 x 65.4 x 11.3mm it is longer but narrower than the HTC Desire HD. It may only be a few millimetres, but it’s noticeable. This is down to the true 16:9 display, making the device slightly longer than average. It weighs in at 148g, noticeably lighter than the Desire HD. As a result it almost instantly makes the Desire HD seem somewhat antiquated: the HTC Sensation feels fast and dynamic and fit to battle off rivals.

The design will be familiar to fans of HTC devices: the unibody element is actually only the back cover, but it wraps around the sides of the device to come up and meet the screen. In effect, the screen has the entire phone stuck to the back of it and the metal body covers it all over. The familiar plastic patches contain contacts for various aerials, thereby avoiding the sort of Antennagate? issues that plagued Apple with the iPhone 4 launch. The final result is a phone that appears not to have any joins on it, so it shouts premium handset from the off.

The display is bright, vibrant and sharp thanks to that chart-topping higher resolution. It does bump up the resolution slightly over the Android average. It's a Super-LCD display and the displays haven't been fantastic on recent HTC devices, so this is a point we'd like to examine in more detail in the future. The subtle curved edges do add interest however and it's a nice touch.

Not only does the HTC Sensation offer the latest version of Android 2.3.3, but it also comes with Sense 3.0. The look, feel and features are essentially the same as previous versions of HTC Sense, but there have been a number of tweaks that continue to refine HTC’s Android skin.

One of the biggest changes in terms of user interface is the lock screen. We’ve seen features creeping onto the lock screen to add functionality and we were impressed when we saw various options on the INQ Cloud Touch back in February. HTC, of course, have taken it a step further. Not only do you get the option to unlock the phone direct to an app, but you have a choice of four that you can define. Rooting through the lock screen settings, you can select an icon to change and it takes you through to a standard app list - you can’t unlock direct to a contact or shortcut, but you can open up the camera, emails, phone, games or whatever else. Note that if you PIN lock your phone, you’ll still be presented with that before you reach your app of choice.

But wait, there’s more. The background isn’t just a lock screen wallpaper - no, they’re live. You can choose from a number of options, the most notable seem to be weather and Friend Stream - from which you can grab passing messages and drag them into the ring to open them up directly. Of course, live lock screens may have an impact on battery life, but they do look stunning.?

The second notable addition to Sense 3.0 is HTC Watch, the movie service born out of HTC’s deal with Saffron Digital. The arrival of HTC Watch is more significant than it might seem because up till now Android hasn’t had a movie service to rival the Apple iTunes experience. With music coming from Amazon MP3 and Movies from Watch, HTC have closed the entertainment loop within their devices.

We haven’t spent much time with HTC Watch, but playing with the app it seemed simple enough with new content being featured. We don’t know exactly what the final resolution will be or how well they’ll output via the HDMI adaptor, but we know that you won’t be able to stream them over DLNA because of DRM. We’ll have to have a close examination when we get the phone in for a full review in May.

One of the other headline media features is the new camera setup. The HTC Sensation arrives with a front-facing camera for all the video calling you may or may not be doing, but around the back is an 8-megapixel sensor. As well as offering up high-resolution stills, the HTC Sensation’s camera will now capture Full HD video, thanks to the power afforded by the 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM 8260 chipset. This rivals the LG Optimus 2X that we’ve seen previously. HTC have also added an app to help you trim your video do to just the essential parts - you simply drag the sliders in and cut it down to size.

In our quick play with the camera we found a number of settings - with an abundance of video resolution options and touch focusing in both stills and video. A new instant capture feature is supposed to do away with shutterlag, but we couldn’t really evaluate this in the restricted conditions. We recorded some Full HD footage but were unable to get it off the device. We did take a couple of still shots from inside the press demo area, but it would be unfair to comment on quality if the devices weren’t final software.

The iconic HTC homepage carousel also now rolls around to the start again if you reach the end - previously you’d be swiping side-to-side and back again, now you just keep going and you get back to the start. That might be useful for widget fans cutting about the place, but there is another neat feature which is if you start scrolling really fast it starts to spin. It looks fancy but is probably of no real practical value outside of novelty.

From what we’ve seen so far the HTC Sensation is blisteringly fast and very smooth in operation. Apps opened and closed slickly enough, but these were demo devices and that’s no indication of how the phone will behave once out in the wild. It has the specs to suggest it will be hugely powerful and we’re hoping that the 1520mAh battery will at least get through most of the day. We can’t judge that from what we’ve seen so far and we’re sure that there is still some degree of optimisation to be done from HTC’s end before we arrive at the device software that will hit the shelves.

Verdict:

The HTC Sensation has the spec sheet to make it competitive with the other headline handsets arriving this year and it looks to be the most fully featured and powerful delivery of HTC Sense so far. The Sense experience is a comprehensive reworking of Android and HTC have evolved it to cover pretty much every aspect of entertainment and connected social networking on the move. Some parts of Sense do look a little unloved, like the native Peep Twitter app for example. With Android having evolved hugely since the early days of HTC Sense, the challenge from rival devices that offer a lighter take on Android can’t be doubted.

However, for HTC fans wanting a powerful phone, this is the device you’ve been waiting for. It looks and feels great, the Sense experience appears very slick and we can’t wait to get our hands on it for a full review.

There are just a few final niggling points. Why didn’t HTC announce this at Mobile World Congress and then trickle out their other handsets? We’re sure that the Desire S, Wildfire S and Incredible S could have all waited in the wings. Is HTC’s Android portfolio too expansive? Is the HTC Sensation going to eclipse the likes of the Desire S and the Incredible S and swat them aside?

And why is it named after a brand of Walkers crisps?

?

Tags: Phones Mobile phones HTC HTC Sensation Android Android 2.3 First look

First Look: HTC Sensation originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 20:12:30 +0100

"Frank West is back in the game." - Frank West

Back when it was still known as Blue Castle Games, the Vancouver-based studios shipped Dead Rising 2 less than a year ago. Now that it's been fully integrated into the Capcom family (and known as Capcom Vancouver), its next title is… Dead Rising 2. Well, sort of...

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is a fresh take on the tale that detailed events of an outbreak in the fictional Vegas-like Fortune City. But "Off the Record" takes the story and turns it on its head with a "what if?" scenario that features the original Dead Rising protagonist, photojournalist Frank West, as the game's central hero. 

With an old face as the new hero, Off the Record (which will ship as a physical product, not downloadable content) looks like it'll be a completely new spin on last year's undead-slaughterpalooza.

Dead Rising 2: Off The Record (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom Vancouver
Release date: Fall

"Originally, the plan was that we were going to do a 'Director's Cut' of Dead Rising 2," explains Off the Record executive producer, Jason Leigh. "Capcom has a long history of successful 'Director's Cuts," especially with the Resident Evil series, and we wanted to bring that treatment to the Dead Rising franchise."

But when Dead Rising 2 was first announced, something strange happened, says Leigh. Fans of the franchise were excited for its return, and the development team was confident players would click with the game's strong new hero, Chuck Greene. But the feedback was clear. Many felt that something was missing. That "something" was Frank West, as fans asked, "Why did you take our hero away?"

"What this did for us and for this product was to create an incredibly interesting opportunity," he explains. "What if, instead of doing a director's cut, what if we re-invisioned the outbreak in Fortune City with Frank West as the hero. What would that do to missions? What would that do to story? What would that do to the gameplay, bringing him back with his camera?"

As it turns out, quite a bit. 

Following the events of Dead Rising, West becomes somewhat of a celebrity, having survived the zombie outbreak incident in Willimette, Colorado. He writes a successful book and even gets his own talk show. But like many "flash in the pan" celebrities, he squanders his opportunities and soon finds that his fifteen minutes are up. 

Desperate to get back on top, or at the very least earn some scratch, West is offered an opportunity that he hopes will things around. The producer of Terror is Reality -- an American Gladiators-style zombie-killing television show -- invite him to appear as a special guest. Down on his luck and thinking things couldn't get any worse, he heads to Fortune City to get back in the spotlight. He'll soon learn that, yes, things can get worse. 

The opening moments of Off the Record parallel that of Dead Rising 2 in one way and one way only -- it starts off with the hero participating in a Terror is Reality event. But from the jump, things are noticeably different. 

"TK has a very special surprise for you," announces flamboyant Terror is Reality host Tyrone King to a shouting mob of rabid fans. "He is the original zombie killer himself. The one, the only… Frank West!"

West, dressed in an embarrassingly tight wrestling singlet, rises up from an elevator where he's dropped off at the entrance of an MMA-style octagon. Fireworks explode as he enters the ring, at first alone, but quickly joined by a group of bloodthirsty ghouls wearing Labrador masks. The bell rings, and the action begins. 

With a two minute timer displayed on top of the screen, the goal here is to earn cash for killing as many zombies as possible within the set limit. West immediately begins to fight off the horde, throwing beefy punches and combos, knocking zombies heads off as he fight for his life and cash. It's obvious that, from the start, he's a bit more of a bruiser than Greene was -- he's dropping creatures with running bulldog moves, suplexes, and even a spinning lariat. 

Weapons -- a staple of the Dead Rising universe -- are dropped into the ring before long. West devastates his attackers with everything from a chair to a largely ineffective foam finger. Soon, the gates on the ring fall, and he's swamped by the undead from all sides, using everything he has at his disposal to snuff out anything that moves. Four posts sitting around the ring also offer charming ways to take out the ghouls. Standing on one sets in motion a collection of blades that you can then toss zombies into for bonus points. Another triggers flames that burn any living dead still in the ring to a crispy pile of bones and dead flesh. 

When the dust clears and Frank is declared victorious, he doesn't feel like much of a winner. His self-respect is in the gutter, and he just wants to take his money and get out of Fortune City as soon as he can. Things don't go quite as planned, when he runs across Terror is Reality host TK and a young stoner planning something suspicious. His instincts as a reporter immediately kick in. 

The camera, as always, is around West's neck and here's where we see it come into play. He quietly watches from scaffolding as a devious discussion unfolds, and an equally mysterious set of packages are exchanged. Pulling up the camera, the game shifts to the familiar first-person lens mode, and West snaps a picture. As fans of the original Dead Rising would expect, he earns "Prestige Points" (or PP, the game's experience currency) for the photo documentation.

If you missed the photo system in Dead Rising 2 (it's like Pokémon Snap with zombies!), you're in for a treat with Off the Record. It's back, and it's almost exactly how you remember it. 

Frank finds a pile of stuffed unicorn heads on sticks and earns additional PP for finding something humorous in the world. There's a poster advertising Fortune City's family fun restaurant, "Jugg's Bar and Grill," on the wall; snapping a photo of this earns you bonus PP in the "Erotic" category. 

When Frank is inevitably discovered snooping by TK's goons, he's forced to fight back, taking out the three suited monkeys with a series of melee attacks. Soon, everything goes to hell -- zombies get loose, the infection breaks out in Fortune City, and Frank soon as to fight for his life. The demo ends in a fashion that's typical to Dead Rising games: the hero pushes through throngs of zombies -- watching survivors who simply can't be saved dying by their hands -- in an effort to survive. 

A good reporter (he's covered wars, you know), he takes pictures along the way. He captures images of the chaos, earning "Horror" and "Brutality" category photos along the way. Frank's not without a sense of humor, though. In one instance, he grabs a zombie from behind and essentially "photo bombs" his own image, snapping a photo of him grinning next to a zombie before he throws her aside. 

Off the Record isn't just changed in terms of adding photography to the mix. The entire world has been transformed to reflect our new story. Posters of Chuck Green promoting his appearance on Terror is Reality are now covered with advertisements of Frank doing the same, for example. 

But because Frank is the center of attention here, that doesn't mean Greene is out of the picture. While Capcom isn't ready to explain how Greene will fit in, there were obvious hints strewn about the demo. When Frank enters the backstage green room, he spies an empty backpack and a portable gaming system lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Fans of Dead Rising 2 will immediately notice it as belonging to Katy, Green's infected daughter. Greene will also be playable as the second character in Off the Record's co-op mode, although how that fits into the story is unclear. 

Listening to fans and critics was key in helping the team build Off the Record, we're told. The save system, for example, has been further improved for the new title. A checkpoint system has been incorporated, which will have the game save progress after major story points, after fighting off the game's psychopath sub-bosses and upon loading into a new area. Speaking of load times, we're told these have been reduced; the idea that Dead Rising fans might spend fewer seconds looking at load screen is certainly welcome. 

There's more in store, although Capcom is obviously keeping some information close to its chest before the game's release later this year. We know that Frank, infected by the zombie virus as part of the Dead Rising canon, will need to find and use Zombrex at regular intervals. We also know there will be an entirely new area/zone that Capcom will only say is "not a casino and not a mall." Combo weapons will also make a return, along with a slew of new weapons previously unseen in the series.

There's also an entirely new game mode, and -- shocker! -- Capcom isn't talking about it yet. 

"The one thing that I can say about the new mode is that it's big," says Leigh. "I think it's the biggest addition to the game, and it's something that [Dead Rising] fans have been asking for since Dead Rising 1."

Also not being talked about yet: pricing. But as Leigh points out, this is a full disc-based game and not downloadable content. It's also, he says, "bigger game than Dead Rising 2." With that in mind, it's going to be "appropriately priced"; take that how you will. 

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is slated for a release this fall for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. We'll be seeing more, including some of the game's mysterious new components, at E3 in June. 

The HTC Sensation is official, and it’s a beast of a smartphone. Freshly announced at HTC’s London event today, the Sensation slots in at the top of the company’s range complete with a high-resolution qHD display and speedy 1.2GHz dual-core processor. Check out our hands-on report after the cut.

There’s a lot to like about the HTC Sensation. While it has the same screen size as the HTC Desire HD, it’s narrower and thinner and, thanks to more distinctly curved edges, feels far more slender in the hand. The bright, clear S-LCD screen also packs in more pixels: 540 x 960 rather than the by-now traditional 480 x 800 of WVGA. It adds up to crisper graphics and smoother text, and makes a significant difference to webpages in full-screen view. HTC has given the edges of the Gorilla Glass display a slight concave finish, serving double-duty to keep the screen off the table if placed face-down, as well as to form a physical lip for your finger to slide up against while scrolling.

The Sensation is one of HTC’s first handsets with a dual-core processor – the HTC EVO 3D has the same 1.2GHz Qualcomm MSM 8260 chipset – and the speed shows in page transitions and how the smartphone handles the increasingly graphically-heavy Sense interface. There are now 3D effects between homescreen pane transitions (spin the homescreen fast enough and the perspective pulls back to show the full carousel in action) with a sprinkling of extra detail for the eagle-eyed: as you rotate the pane with HTC’s familiar oversized clock widget, for instance, you can see the round end of the clock barrel mechanism. Pointless, perhaps, from a functionality standpoint, but evidence of HTC’s joined up thinking with Sense.

The unibody design skirts the line between solid heft and lightweight convenience, and is creak free; that’s helped by the fact that the back panel and edges are one solid piece, into which the screen section slots. The microSD card slot (though not the SIM slot) can be accessed without removing the battery. Ports and controls are limited to power/lock on the top, next to a 3.5mm headphone socket, and a volume rocker and microUSB port with MHL HDMI support on the side; there’s no dedicated camera shortcut key.

HTC doesn’t plan on bundling the MHL HDMI dongle in the box with the Sensation, at least initially; like with the iPad 2′s media adapter, it will be sold separately. In fact, there should be two dongles on offer, one drawing power from the Sensation itself, and another with a separate USB input for externally powering (and recharging the phone) the whole setup. The Sensation will support full screen mirroring, not just video output via HDMI, so everything on-screen will be replicated on your HDTV or projector; it’s capable of 1080p Full HD output.

What users will most likely be pumping out via HDMI is content rented or purchased from HTC Watch, the company’s new media store. Initially offering movies and TV shows – with the possibility of music videos in future, HTC tells us – pricing is yet to be finalized but from what we saw on demo devices the UK pricing looks to be around £0.99 for rentals and £1.99 for purchases. HTC is aiming to preload several trailers and perhaps even a full movie on the Sensation out of the box.

Although the app works well – there are various My Library views including a basic list, separate TV and movies, and full details of content (including user-submitted reviews and the ability to share links to titles through the usual array of Android sharing options) – there are still limitations, primarily around DRM. Up to five HTC devices can be registered to a single account at any one time (you can add/remove one device within a 30 day period) so you could watch purchased movies on, say, your Sensation and your Flyer tablet; however, you can’t transfer the purchases/rentals over to your PC or Mac. There’s also no automatic content sync or bookmarking between devices; if you want a movie on each device you have to trigger a download each time, and there’s no facility to start watching on, say, the Flyer and then pick up where you left off on the Sensation. HTC tells us that’s something they’re working on for the next release of the HTC Watch app.

What won’t be present, unlike on the Flyer, is the OnLive streaming gaming app. In Europe that’s primarily because HTC is yet to finalize the relevant licensing deals, though the Sensation should be capable of running the system on a hardware basis, at least. The company does plan to introduce OnLive to phones, though it will be limited to the top tier of devices (both for brand positioning purposes and because of the minimum hardware specifications demanded).

There’s also no sign of the custom HTC video chat app demonstrated at MWC 2011, which the company tells us is because it still hasn’t managed to gain carrier approval as yet. Carriers are wary of the data load, it seems, though the Sensation’s front-facing camera can still be used with Skype and other video calling apps available in the Android Market. Right now, though, there’s no timescale for the HTC app’s release.

The new Sense works well and, despite the animations and glossy finish, moves slickly on the dual-core CPU. There are various tweaks all through the system; HTC’s Mail app, for instance, now offers optional previews of body text – a choice of 2,3 or 5 lines, along with the sender and the subject line – and the video app now supports clip trimming. Connect to a WiFi network which requires in-browser validation (such as hotel or café landing pages, which demand you click an agreement button before you can get online) and the Sensation will warn you about it. You still get access to the HTC Hub and download store, together with HTC’s own mapping system (with support for offline navigation), and the Mirror app – to use the front-facing camera so as to turn the Sensation into a very expensive pocket mirror – is present just as on the Desire S.

Despite the higher-resolution display, apps scale well. We installed the SlashGear Android app and it worked with no problems on the qHD panel. The online suite of HTCSense.com services will also work as usual. Still, it’s a shame HTC didn’t increase the number of homescreen widget slots available: the traditional 4 x 4 grid seems unnecessarily sparse on a screen of this size and pixel-density.

Nonetheless, it’s hard to escape how polished and complete the HTC Sensation is, and how well it slots into the flagship spot in HTC’s line-up. Fast, handsome and ticking all the key boxes on the spec-sheet, it’s a hugely appealing phone with the potential to take on Samsung’s Galaxy S II and Motorola’s ATRIX 4G. We’ll save final judgement for the full review, but even now it’s clear to see that HTC stands a good chance of retaking the top spot in Android smartphones.

We’re uploading hands-on video with the HTC Sensation, and will add it in as soon as it’s ready!

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

• HTC Sensation video leaks show new Sense launcher [Video]
• HTC Sensation gets premature Vodafone announcement
• Vodafone: Data revenue exceeds SMS for first time
• It’s HTC Sensation / HTC Pyramid day!
• HTC Pyramid to launch as HTC Sensation?

Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, iDevice Apps

New iPhone, iPod touch and iPad product announcements for April 8, 2011:

New iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps

• Bacciz LLC has announced its interactive book applications for kids. The applications, called Rapunzel 3D and Goldilocks and the Three Bears 3D, are Bacciz’s newest interactive storybook applications. Specifically developed for the iPad and iPhone, the applications include groundbreaking 3D images and animation, multiple language narrations, 3 story endings, 3 music tracks, and highly customized options aimed at engaging children from ages 4+.
• Frontier Design Group has introduced BeatStudio 1.0, their new music app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. BeatStudio is designed to let anyone build percussion tracks, with an intuitive interface that’s easy and natural for beginners, yet flexible and powerful enough to accommodate experienced players. BeatStudio offers a fast, easy, & fun way to create drum and percussion tracks that frees the player from the constraints of fixed-length patterns, promoting experimentation and improvisation.
• WEBST Consulting has introduced Word Search Plus 1.0, their new word game for iOS. This enhanced word search game offer players an effectively infinite playing experience, access to definitions, and the ability to look up the origins and historical contexts of words they find as well. The app includes an immense word bank, and because new games are created at random players are certain that they’ll never play the same exact puzzle more than once.
• Mediakitchen has introduced Ball Frenzy 1.0, their new extremely addictive game for iOS devices. Ball Frenzy combines elements of popular ball games such as marbles, pool and bowling. The concept is simple - knock all of your opponents balls off the pitch before they knock off all of your balls. Ball Frenzy is easy to play but difficult to complete. With a simple one finger control and no complex rules, this game is easy to pick up and start playing immediately.
• Hitesh Patel has announced Splat It! 1.01 for iOS, his puzzle game that challenges players to carom a “cue ball” off walls and blocks, splattering all the blue balls on the table. Featuring four stages and 60 levels of play, each level is a unique puzzle that must be completed to go on. The game requires patience and skill to place and shoot the “cue ball” so that it will run over the blue balls using the minimum number of shots and bounces, gaining the maximum score.
• Touch Apps has introduced Monster Blaster 1.0, their new monster packed match’em-up game for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. Monster Blaster combines a timeless classic, adds a truckload of angry monsters and some highly flammable power-ups to create the perfect balance between fun and challenge. Monster Blaster features tons of explosions with hours of challenging, strategic and zany gameplay, offering stunning visuals, and a soundtrack to blow you away.
• Vito Technology has dedicated a new version of astronomy guide Star Walk to the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight. Augmented Reality is now available for iPad 2 and lets you just point-and-display the sky in real time to explore the wonders of stargazing. Version 5.2 also features a calendar of celestial events, true-to-life sky view, extended search mode, and more. The release of this version is accompanied by a short time price drop.
• Soluble Apps has released MailShot 1.30, an update to its groundbreaking email solution for iOS devices. MailShot is a unique app which allows iPhone and iPad users to email groups of up to 50 people from within their favourite apps just by selecting a single contact from their address book. These contacts can be used to easily email groups of family or friends, classes, work or sports teams. This unique approach integrates seamlessly with the iPhone mail system.
• Brandon Abbott has introduced Great Hair 1.0 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Loaded with over 20 of the most iconic hairstyles of our time, Great Hair lets you see what you and your friends would look like with hairstylings of a Pop Star, Talk Show Host, Actress, and many more. Choose from existing photos or take your own with the camera. Touch zoom and rotate to perfectly position each hairstyle. Save photos to library, email to friends, or post directly to Facebook.
• Bjorn Fogelberg has introduced PLOP Master 1.0, his first game for iPhone and iPod touch. In this colorful game you touch three red dots at a time to keep the energy meter in check. The farther away these “plops” are from each other when you touch them, the more energy will be gained as they join together. Offering fun and addictive gameplay, PLOP Master features an unlimited number of levels with beautiful graphics with lots of happy colors.
• Thumbstar Games has signed a deal to publish games developed by FaceTec Ltd. Their latest iPhone app, Crazy Fool 1.0 allows you to create and send your own crazy fool personalized image using your camera or images stored on your phone. The app uses patented facial recognition and image processing technology which enables large scale automated facial personalization.
• Xform Computing, Inc., has announced the addition of the Google Chrome browser and support for Java to their AlwaysOnPC product for iPad, iPhone and Android. Chrome has rocketed up in popularity on PC and Mac computers due to it’s speedy performance, great synchronization features and its Web Store. Chrome is not available on most mobile devices. Features that people are familiar with on their computer can now be accessed in a similar way on AlwaysOnPC via their mobile phone or tablet with the app.
• Wil’s Apps, LLC has released Pling Pong 2 v0.1 for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users. This is a new game where users must slide a plong into stationary plings to turn them off. If a plong hits a pling that is already off, it turns back on again. To win, all plings must be off. It takes plenty of playing to perfect the plong flings and players get lots of practice going through nine worlds and ninety-nine rounds. To celebrate the launch, Pling Plong 2 is being offered for only 99 cents.
• Revel Mob LLP has released Where M I 1.0 for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users. Just in time for marathon season, Revel Mob has launched a real-time tracking app that will let supportive friends and family stay abreast of a runner’s location. The app is super easy to use and tracking permission codes can be sent to people individually or in groups. Unlike some GPS positioning programs, no account creation is necessary to use Where M I.
• Interweave has announced the launch of a new free Beading Daily app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. With this new app, Beading Daily delivers its valued digital content, which had existed solely on its website, to the mobile platform and to beaders around the globe.
• GAMEVIL has announced Chalk n’ Talk for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Chalk n’ Talk brings players all over the world together in an real-time online social drawing and word-guessing game. Players will race against the clock to sketch and guess a given word, while earning points that can be spent on customizing brushes and canvases or even gifted to friends. Artwork that users are especially fond of can be submitted to the world gallery to be rated for accolades. By connecting to GAMEVIL Live from the game, players can grow their network of friends to enjoy the experience together—automated matchmaking presents an endless roster of new challengers or private rooms can be created to chat and play with close friends.
• Home Revivals LLC has announced the release of iScape 1.2 an iOS app to assist both novice and professional landscape designers. This newly updated app will allow you to see your landscape options before the work begins, and, more importantly, before the money is spent. Simply take a picture and start designing your dream landscape today. iScape is very user-friendly; even kids have fun using it and taking part in designing their new yard.
• Neon Play has delivered a stunning new game mode in Paper Glider 2.0, the latest update to the App Store’s ten billionth download. Super Boost is a new game mode that enables players to use power-ups to assist the glider in flying even further. Customization is also now possible with a total of 12 different glider skins. These new features have been made possible by the implementation of TapJoy and their in-game coin currency.

New apps for iPad only

• Odd Magazine is a fashion magazine that offers an interactive experience with over 300 pages of content that takes great advantage of the iPad’s capabilities. The issue includes over 20 photoshoots, 12 movies, interactive slideshows, tons of animations, music/audio and even 3D models you can spin around 360 degrees.
• Applaud Limited has released the iPad version of its popular iPhone game Repeeto. Repeeto is an addictive and fun memory game based on the Simon electronic game which is widely considered to be the electronic game that ushered in the computer game era. Buttons disappear down the wormhole to reappear somewhere else on the screen. Keeping track of not only the pattern but where the buttons are on the screen makes Repeeto a far more challenging game.
• Internet Design Zone has launched a new iPad app: Lovepedia for iPad 1.0. Lovepedia for iPad gives advice, tips, dos and don’ts, etc., in the matters of love, dating, relationships and breakups. It is aimed at making the reader far better in love relationships. One may think that love advice is available in many sites on the net, then why this app? The reasons are interactive interface, engaging content, wonderful visual experience, one app for all advice.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

The voice was familiar, but Shona couldn't quite place it. She opened her eyes to a familiar face as well, but found she still could not attach it to a name.

"Are ye all right, lassie? Can I gets ye a cup o' something … er … ah … well, does ye needs anything?"

Shona wondered at the obvious hesitancy of the question as she sat up and looked around. Angus MacNab and Lany Mosgofian were hovering over her like a couple of mother hens. They were in a medium sized room all of white. Just four walls and the odd white cot she found herself on. It was the only piece of furniture to be found. No wonder Angus was hesitant in his offer. Where would he get a cup of anything?

"What happened to me?" She asked.

Lany let go a heavy sigh. "You were brought here after passing through the … ah … gates … I guess we could call them, and Jaireth brought you here to wait for Dallan with us."

"Dallan!" She immediately tried to rise.

Angus gently pushed her down. "Nay, lass. Best ye waits until ye get some o' yer strength back." He reached into a small knap sack he had draped over one shoulder. It was adorned in the same odd markings that had covered the blankets which covered the Muiraran's mounts. What ever they were. At this point Shona had no idea.

"Here," he began as he pulled out an apple and gave it to her. "Eats up. I have a feeling ye'll be needing yer strength." He pulled his lower lip between his teeth a few times. Shona recognized the action. The man was nervous.

Lany caught the concern in her eyes. "Don't worry. Dallan will be along shortly. Eat what you can."

Shona stared at the shiny red apple in her hand, a flash of Snow White and the poisoned apple handed to her by a dangerous foe engulfed her briefly. A subtle reminder they were still quite possibly in danger. "Thank you." Was all she said before she took a much needed bite.

"When Jaireth brought you through the, ah …" Lany waved a hand in the air, trying for the right word. "Oh living stars, we'll just stick with calling them gates, you passed out."

Shona chewed a little faster, and swallowed. "What gates?"

Angus shifted his feet about a bit. "Tis the entrances into the city here. I've been through several times, but never through the ones used today."

Shona stopped chewing, swallowed, and stared at Angus. "What is wrong with the gates?"

"D'ye remember anything, lass? D'ye remember passing through the wall o' rock?"

Shona almost choked. "Wall of rock?"

"Aye." Angus confirmed as he and Lany now peered at her intently as they waited for her answer.

She thought hard a moment as she tried to remember what had happened. She and Jaireth and been speeding along across a flat plain, she did remember seeing some sort of high wall of rock ahead. Like the wall of a plateau one might see in the desert. But the wall was not the red rock of Arizona like she'd seen in books at the library. No, this was grey and sharp looking, with streaks of black in it. Rather bleak and foreboding against the bright sunshine and dusty flatness of the plains over which they rode. But then the thing flying above them had screamed that horrible scream, and she in her terror had screamed right along with it.

"Oh dear." She said.

Lany peered at her more intently.

She merely looked at him, and then to Angus whose eyes were as round as saucers. "I remember heading straight for a wall of rock. Jaireth, he … covered me with his body, just before we …" she looked at the two men, puzzled. "Just before we hit it?"

"Aye." Angus again confirmed as he pulled a cloth handkerchief from his coat pocket and swiped it across his brow.

Shona shook her head as if to clear it. "We rode through a wall of rock?"

Lany shrugged. "As far as we can figure. We're not any more sure of it than you are. We were hoping you could tell us something else other than what we already know."

Shona again thought back. "I remember it becoming suddenly very cold, then nothing. I woke up here." She looked around again. "Where are we?"

"Some sort of waiting room or holding area." Lany answered.

Angus snorted. "Try a holding cell, laddie. I've been left in one o' these before. Have ye not noticed there are no doors?"

"Angus, how can I not notice?" Lany chastised.

The apple forgotten, Shona stood and looked around the room. It was perfectly square and a bright white color. What was interesting was the fact there were no visible lights in the room, yet what light there was was of an unusual soft brilliance. And the men were right. There were no doors, windows, or even a seam in the walls, ceiling, or floor. Sterile was the word she would use to describe their surroundings. Sterile and with no escape. So how did they get there? She threw the silent question at Lany who saw it coming in her raised brows.

"We don't know how we got here either. The two of us woke up not long before you did."

"I see." She walked to the nearest wall and touched it. It seemed to quiver slightly in response.

Angus backed up a step. "Best not touch anything, lass. We dinna ken what might happen!"

A slight humming noise permeated the room, as if it soaked through the walls and into the space around them. All three suddenly realized the room had changed with the noise. Shona gasped. The room had gotten bigger.

Lany looked around nervously. "That was certainly interesting." He swallowed hard. "Shona, do us a favor and don't touch the wall again."

She shrugged in helplessness, her heart suddenly aching with hunger. Her knees weak, she slumped to the floor.

"Lassie!" Angus rushed to her as did Lany.

"Your quick attendance to my daughter is most appreciated, gentlemen."

Shona, Lany and Angus all stared at the sudden appearance of Jaireth Shamaelon and the several guards who followed him into the room. An open corridor of white was behind them. But where had it come from?

Shona struggled to her feet with the help of Lany and Angus. "Where is Dallan?" She demanded.

Jaireth offered her a face full of compassion. "Did you honestly think I would let any harm come to him, daughter?"

Shona was taken aback at the question. What had she thought he would do? Especially after the stunt he'd pulled on the journey here. Where ever here was. "I do not know at this point. Where is he?"

Jaireth simply looked at her, and then moved to the side.

Dallan's still form was held up by a Muiraran guard on either side of him. They had obviously dragged the Scot down the corridor and into the room.

"Ewwww, it's not going to be pretty when he wakes up." Lany mumbled under his breath.

Shona pushed past her father to get to Dallan. Jaireth's lips formed into a tight line at the action, but he said nothing.

She knelt next to her husband as the guards gently lowered him face first onto the floor. One of them smiled at her before he turned the big Scot onto his back. "He'll be all right, your highness. Do not worry."

Shona looked at him, ignoring how he'd addressed her, and nodded her thanks.

The two guards stood and joined Jaireth along with the others whom had entered. Belatedly Shona sensed another person and turned to stare at the tall, cloaked Muiraran Melvale, who stood behind her in the corridor's entrance. She didn't quite know how she knew it was him. She just did. He must have taken in her expression as he bowed slightly before her. He then casually stepped over Dallan's unconscious form and entered the room.

"Melvale," Jaireth began. "You know what to do for my daughter and our guests. See to their needs will you?"

Melvale merely bowed slightly to the Muiraran Ruler then turned to his charges. Lany and Angus both stared blankly back.

Jaireth smirked slightly before he and the guards left them. Shona started as the room again quivered and hummed as before. The corridor suddenly disappeared and only the wall remained. She quickly looked to Lany and Angus, who looked just as shocked as she did. All three of them slowly turned their attention back to Melvale, who merely stood and said nothing.

Dallan groaned.

Shona repositioned herself and cradled his head in her arms. "Dallan?"

His eyes slowly opened. He blinked a few times before consciousness and recognition dawned. He reached up to Shona and cupped her face with a large hand. "Weel, Flower, this is different, is it no?"

She held the hand closer to her face and smiled. To touch him was bliss. To hear his voice, heaven. She now knew he was all right. "I do not think you fainted as I did. But then, we are not sure of a lot of things right now." She tried to smile at him. "Such as how we got here."

"Och, aye." Dallan said as he pushed him self up to a sitting position, gave Lany and Angus a curt nod, then leapt to his feet pulling Shona up with him. He staggered somewhat and grabbed Shona for balance until he could right himself. He was shaken. Very much so. It had been one wild ride to get here. And in more ways than one. Ways he wasn't ready to share with anyone just yet, lest they think he'd become addled in the brain. But where was here?

She supported him as best she could. "I felt the same way when I woke up too."

He straightened. "Saints," he began as he took in their surroundings. "What's happened and where are we?" Dallan shifted his gaze to the hooded Muiraran who stood nearby. "Well?" Dallan cocked his head slightly before a quirky smile formed on his lips. "Melvale?" What other Muiraran could it be? The arrogant stance was a dead give away.

The ever cloaked Melvale shifted his position and began to move along the wall behind him. The rest of them shifted naturally with him. Soon the four were lined up in front of him, all of them realizing what they'd just done. Angus, Lany, Shona, and Dallan all stood and waited as their tall host now stood as if he were looking down his nose at them. Bloody hard to tell though, Dallan thought, what with the hood he wore to cover his face.

He briefly wondered if dear Melvale didn't have some hideous deformity he was forced to hide and moved a little closer to Shona. Just in case. He didn't want her frightened.

Melvale took note of the slight action. "Hmmmm." came out in a rather sing-songy way. Beginning on a higher note and dropping in pitch slightly. Dallan narrowed his gaze and waited. He tensed as Melvale suddenly put his hands on either side of the hood he wore. All four sets of eyes widened, knowing what was coming.

Angus groaned and nodded knowingly to himself. "Here we go." He mumbled flatly.

Lany glanced slightly in his direction but didn't move at the odd statement as Melvale just as suddenly threw back the hooded cowl he wore.

Shona actually gasped. "Oh!"

Dallan and Lany on the other hand stood in silence, their mouths dropped completely open. Angus just groaned aloud again and rolled his eyes in annoyance.

Melvale stood in all his splendid glory. And splendid it was too. Even Dallan had to admit that. The creature standing before them was magnificent. He'd even go so far as to describe Melvale as beautiful. His face seemed as if it had been chiseled to perfection, his mouth as equally well formed as it pulled up slightly into a satisfied smile. The Muiraran man's eyes were of a steel grey, hard and intelligent. Very intelligent, Dallan noticed, and framed by inquisitive dark brows that were in sharp contrast to his hair. Beautiful hair of thick white silver tresses which cascaded down his back and over his shoulders. Dallan had to admit it. The man was breath taking. He quickly moved closer to Shona and put an arm around her small frame, pulled her close, then glared accordingly at the god-like looking specimen standing before them.

Melvale turned his body ever so slightly, raised one hand to shoulder level, his thumb and middle finger tips touching, pinkie finger out. Dallan wondered if it were some sort of Muiraran greeting. But then when Melvale didn't move further, he realized it was just a natural posture for the man. A slight tremor of familiarity and revulsion raced up Dallan's spine. He'd been around Melvale's kind before in France in his own time. But that couldn't be. Could it? Melvale couldn't possibly be a ….

"Welllllll" escaped Melvale in the same sing-songy manner as before though much louder this time.

Melvale, thought Dallan, most certainly could be.

"You all look as if you were expecting something else, hmmmm?"

Saints! He was! A dandy, a fop! Dallan had run into enough of them in France to know one when he saw one. He had to control himself to keep his mouth from curving up into a smile.

Melvale sauntered over to Angus. "Wellllllll Angus! How long has it been?" His words came out overly punctuated and still all over the octave scale as he poked at the aged Scotsman.

Angus could only groan in response.

Melvale tapped Angus on the forehead. "I know someone who's just dying to see you! AH HA!" His last two words burst from him rather than emerge a light laugh. His whole body moved with the sounds.

Dallan's tell tale twitch began its dance, but not in annoyance or irritation. Rather, it was with the effort it took to hold him self together and not fall into complete hysterics at the man's mannerism.

Melvale moved to Lany next. "And you Lord Councilor." He exclaimed as he poked Lany playfully in the chest. "First time to be allowed into the main city? Hmmmm? HA! Ohhhhhhhhhhh but what fun you'll have and the sights you'll see! I bet the missus will be sooooo jealous when she finds out." Melvale suddenly straightened as he turned from him, his face and voice flat as he made to move down the line. "If you're ever allowed to leave that is."

Lany stiffened at the statement.

Melvale froze. He took one step backwards. Two, and put himself directly in front of Lany again. He stared hard at the new Lord Councilor, his eyes narrowed to two, dark grey slits. "Hmmmmm …."

Dallan watched as Lany began to sweat. One droplet slowly trickled its way down his temple as Melvale continued to examine him.

Lany cleared his throat. "You have no right to keep us here as prisoners."

Melvale's eyes popped wide open at the statement. "HA!" he exclaimed then shoved at Lany in a playful gesture. "Oh stab me! Prisoners? Prisoners you say?" his voice bounced around from one octave to another, causing Lany to grimace almost as if in pain. Dallan thought he might be in the same uncomfortable position he was. That of trying not to laugh at the foppish mannerisms of the pretty dote.

But suddenly Lany wasn't laughing, if he'd had been that is, silently or otherwise, as Melvale's entire expression changed to one of near malice. He leaned into Lany's face and got nose to nose with him. "Hmmmm." Melvale's head tilted slowly from one side to the other as if he was reading the Lord Councilor, examining his very core. And perhaps, Dallan thought. He was.

Melvale leaned to Lany's ear, and though the words he spoke were whispered, Dallan heard them all the same. "Secrets, eh?" Melvale then moved away from Lany, a smug look on his overly handsome face, and approached Shona.

Shona leaned into Dallan and he tightened his hold on her to bring her even closer to his side. Melvale totally ignored the action and instead looked Shona right in the eye, his manner now that of servant as he bowed before her. "Your highness." He stood erect again and looked at her with what Dallan thought was compassion. "I am at your disposal. Anything you want, anything you need, anything, OH!"

Shona jumped.

Melvale's mouth formed a perfect "O" as he slapped both his hands to the sides of his face. He then pointed an accusing finger at her. "What is that awful thing you're wearing, your highness? Why it's utterly loathsome!" he made a great show of his disdain for the drawing of 'Tweety' which adorned her tee shirt as he threw his head to one side and brought the back of his hand to his brow in an obvious show of dramatics. At least Dallan hoped it was just dramatics. The man couldn't possibly be that far over the edge of … well, foppishness?

Shona looked blankly at him a moment, both brows raised, then began to blink a few times. She tried to push back a laugh as her body tensed against Dallan. But after a brief second, she looked from first Dallan, then to Lany in silent question. Finally, as if she could stand it no longer, she simply blurted out. "Gay?"

There was dead silence for the briefest of moments before Lany lost it. Dallan hadn't heard such high pitched cackles since the day of the "Kitty incident" which had nearly destroyed Angus's weapons shop. Angus himself was shaking in silent laughter, as if not quite able to let his own suppressed cackles fly.

Melvale stood completely erect, once again his voice flat. "I say your highness, are you referring to the twentieth century term which would dictate my choice of a mate to be one of my own gender?"

Shona, knowing her foot was in her mouth, could only shrug and nod before speaking. "I am so sorry. I just did not realize that there might be such things here. I…"

"Think nothing of it, your highness." He quickly interjected. "No offense taken." He moved down the line and stood in front of Dallan. He then made a show of looking the new Time Master up and down like he was a piece of candy to be rolled about on the tongue and savored. Slowly.

Dallan's free hand balled into a fist.

Lany and Angus immediately put some distance between the Scot and themselves. If he was going to take a swing at Melvale, they didn't want to deter him in any way.

"Ohhhhh come now, you big brute. Stop looking at me like that. Do you really think that if I was in such a state I'd even consider you?" He turned to Shona. "Not when there is such beauty to be had. Ohhhhhh just look at you, your highness. You've grown into a true treasure!" He clapped both hands in front of him. "And I can't WAIT to dress you!"

Dallan scowled. "That's it!" He let his balled fist fly.

Melvale ducked gracefully and dodged the blow. "There's no need for violence, Time Master!"

Dallan seethed. "Stay away from my wife ye bloody … ye …" Saints! What does one call a thing like him?

"Oh STAB me! You mean to say you can't come up with a proper insult on the fly?" Melvale broke into complete hysterics, his laughter bounced around a musical scale like a symphony trying to sound bad.

Dallan lunged.

Melvale quickly stepped aside to spin out of Dallan's grasp. Lany and Angus grabbed Shona and jumped onto the cot with her to get her out of the way.

"Oh stop you big smelly brute! DO calm yourself!" Melvale screamed as he ran around the perimeter of the room, Dallan in hot pursuit.

Lany, Angus, and Shona stood atop the cot in amazement as the mighty Time Master of Muirara chased the screaming Melvale in circles around the room. "Stop! Desist!" the Muiraran screamed after the fourth lap before he finally stopped and turned. Dallan plowed right into him and almost toppled them both over, but Melvale stood firm. "Really, if you insist upon taking your pent up anger issues out on someone, why not take them out on Kwaku? After all, you've got plenty to settle with him but no real argument of any substance here with me. All I merely intended was to gown and bejewel your wife properly as is befit her station. Not to do to her what you were obviously thinking, you BIG OAF!" Melvale poured out.

Dallan stood still as he took in the words of Melvale's quick yet calmly voiced entreaties, and could only stare back. Saints, was this fop of a braggart for real?

Melvale stood his ground and looked down his nose at Dallan. "Apologize."

Dallan shook himself. "What?!" Ye want me to give you a bloody apology?"

"Of course I do, you big smelly brute!" Melvale huffed.

"For what, I might ask?"

"Insulting me," Melvale began as he held up one finger. "Attacking me!" he held up a second finger. "Insinuating I would do dire, not to mention nasty things, to her highness!" Three fingers. "And …"

"Shut up!" Dallan hissed. "And, and … get us out o' here!" he added as an almost after thought.

Melvale turned to Shona. "I dare say, your highness, but is he always in such a bad mood?" He asked as he shoved his way past Dallan to stand before the cot where Lany, Angus, and Shona were still perched.

Shona stood speechless on the cot, her growing hunger drowning out the hilarity of the situation. She wondered if there were other Muirarans like Melvale to be found. She shook her head and sent a pleading look to Dallan.

"Out o' the way!" Dallan pushed Melvale aside and took Shona into his arms.

"Welllllll! You don't have to be so brutish about everything, Time Master!" Was Melvale's retort.

Dallan shot Melvale a warning glare before turning his attention to Shona. "She needs to feed." He stated more to himself than anyone else.

Lany now looked to Melvale. "You'd best see to our needs then as Jaireth told you."

. Melvale huffed as he turned to the wall opposite the one he, Jaireth and the others had entered. "You humans are so impatient. Always rushing here, running there." He shot them all an annoyed look. "Well don't just stand there you ninny twits! Bring her highness along and follow me!"

And with that, Melvale walked through the wall in front of him, and disappeared.

Here's what our Chatterbox community of avid gamers talked about at the end of March. Caution: contains fantasised celebrity imprisonment and bad tourist attractions.

Which two celebrities would you most like to be stuck in a small cell with? This and many other video game questions were asked – and sometimes almost answered – by our community of electronic entertainment veterans in the week of March 21-25.

If you want to find out what else the Chatterbox fraternity got up to in the closing days of last month, you have very much come to an adequate place.

Monday

First?

Of course I am. There's no one else here. I win.

Books. Films. Games. The news. The weekend. Airports. Meats. Racial profiling. Beer boasting. Jesus. Tennis. Kevin Costner. Finger nails. America!

That appears to be little more than a string of random words or statements, seemingly unrelated, with an exclamation mark at the end for emphasis. Seeing it written down like that, it doesn't really work. Still, we're too far in now. And those really are the things that everyone talked about, in roughly the order they talked about them, so I'm not sure what else you expect me to do here.

A big morning of sports chat focused mostly on a revitalised Irish rugby team, who just the previous Saturday had dismantled a hugely disappointing England side in Dublin. Dreams of an historic first ever Grand Slam for the red rose shattered. Men against boys, someone said. The chat turned to Blood Bowl soon enough, the sport for people not cut out to play real sports (and me, of course). The blog's own 'Blood Bowel' league was piloting a fairly new approach to online competition, where no one actually plays any games, and all matches are decided by a complex (and secretive) set of mathematical formulae, developed by Blood Bowl 'Boss of Bosses' Henry Pootle. The field was narrowed, and there was all to play for. Or not play for, or whatever.

Sometime around lunch, the font on the blog seemed to change. But had it really? Well, yes. I'd accidently hit a button on my keyboard that made everything appear bigger. It's still massive. I have literally no idea what I pressed or how to fix it. Anyway, that's not the point. Although larger in sheer size, the overall quality of the chat remained much the same as before (i.e. awesome). A discussion of the Comic Relief live television broadcast from the previous Friday didn't last long, with the consensus being that it was all a bit depressing for a block on the schedule traditionally reserved for light entertainment. For the record, I personally thought Frank Bruno was superb. Newcomer LukeTs then popped in to say hello, and attempted to spark an intelligent paid-for debate about the future of gaming, a debate he envisioned lasting at least… four days. This place would be perfect for that, I thought, but I didn't have the balls to speak up for the kid. It's one of my biggest regrets.

The afternoon drew to a close with some talk about sitcoms featuring predominently African American casts, and about all the dancing and the sexualised subtext and everything. It was what I'd imagine film school to be like, but with better arguments, and probably more girls. Someone posted all the lyrics from the theme song to 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air', and that sort of ruined it. I just went home after that.

Quotes of the day

"In retrospect the third movie is probably the weakest, it's really forgettable"
R042, a man who clearly doesn't get the 'K-9' trilogy at all.

"Idle hands make light work of the brooth."
HateMale. I don't actually know what this means. I just thought it was a good sentence.

Mouesday

A bit of a departure for the Chatterbox as "Lazy" Keith Stuart forgot about Tuesday until lunchtime, meaning that today's is Mouesday's. Clearly 'journalism' for the Guardian Technology section involves not setting the alarm on your fruit phone.

Mouesday began with further news of the Blood Bowl League quarter finals omni-shambles, with the only games played featuring both the players who are on different continents to the rest of us. Recriminations and apologies were forthcoming, along with arrangements made. Brilliantly one of the quarter finalists, RustyJames, was drunk by midday – "I'm f**ked. I'm on holiday, not at work." We look forward to tonight's result!

Homefront continued to split opinion, although tales of the MP experience were generally positive. Annual bonuses were hoving into view for some bloggers, with some getting more than others.

There was a lot of love for Virtual Tennis today. Uncle3en had fallen, and fallen hard:

"I'll be honest, I saw Worv, Treble and StiLt playing Top Spin on Sunday afternoon after talking about it Friday. No one was playing KZ. Bit bored, so headed to HMV. Living in town is dangerous sometimes. Usually these purchases are a mistake. This, so far, has been a great success. Stayed up 'til 1am playing career last night. On a Monday? 'Sake. Hooked. Lovely stuff. Online with career player? Oh my."

Talk of the hideous player faces you can create, and making female players "grunt" for you tells you all you need to know about the type of people enjoying this.

The afternoon descended into a lot of impenetrable PC upgrade chat, most of it acronym-riddled jargon-filled nonsense although doubtless a useful resource if you live alone. Or with your mum and dad in your twenties. Luckily the day was saved by Warhammer 40K blog rearing its ugly head. Wait, no.

Quote of the Day

"Cunning gets an extra £20 for every time he pedantically corrects someone in the office. I heard he's buying a yacht this year."
Limni reveals that bonus structure in full

Wednesday

Do we only like games we are good at? Apparently not. Most bloggers seemed to get a rude awakening as to the limits of their talents with the advent of online gaming. However good you think you are, there's always someone harder, better, faster, stronger, it seems. Intrav3nus still seems relatively fresh to it all judging by her post: "I commandeered the Xbox and played some Bayonetta. Very enjoyable, although I found myself flailing and doing things without being quite sure how I did it. Am currently stuck trying to get through a wall." We all started somewhere...

Someone with some genuine ethereal ability at Pro Evolution Soccer is Goody84. He swooped in to castigate late runners as usual, but he also had a special announcement: "PES community 1 hit 1300 games last night. Plus 400 in the overspill community 2. I think it should be in the top 20 of the world now." That's a massive achievement, congratulations to everyone involved.

Makar27 had been idly fantasising his way through the morning: "I was tinking earlier about which two people I would like to be stuck in a room with. And when I say room, I mean like a really small cell... measuring say 3ft by 3ft." Predictably enough this quickly transformed into bloggers listing two individuals they would attempt to have sex with simultaneously. If you have a genuine desire to find out who fuels the flame of desire for the nation's geeks then you will have to go back to source.

The chaste, and to be honest bewildering, choice of R042 deserves special mention though: "Sue Perkins and Konnie Huq. Untowardness aside, the conversation would probably be good." Whether or not timthemonkey has 'met' Summer Glau was a bone of contention a little later on. The dictionary backs him up, but most agreed that anyone paying to have their picture taken at some convention, while they awkwardly pose next to, and paw at, some jailbait starlet is not really 'meeting' someone. It's hardly the foundation on which lasting and productive relationships are built.

ImperfectRex especially wasn't impressed, he pointed out the disparity of emotional investment on the opposing sides of such an encounter, and brilliantly illustrated that it's mostly oddballs who attend these kind of events. Sorbical and DrStatham were abuzz with news about bees and the dangers they face from the Varroa destructor; which is some sort of mite apparently. Do we have a couple of Apiarists in our midst? The chatterbox truly is the font of all knowledge at times. Game Over Wednesday.

Thursday

Thursday? Blood Bowl, Anchorman, quoting.

Beyond this: the power of love ... A 51 year old with an 18 year old girl. Pregnancy. Boom. This is life. Scamander posted his own intrigue. Viagra and dementia. But not his own.

One man mooted an unused blog topic. Worst tourist attractions.

A shabby haunted house.
A lawnmowing tribute
The Imperial War Museum ('No actual war ...')

Piip experienced some trying house beefs, bouncing the chat into 'bad housemates'. It soon became clear the Chatterbox was actually full of 'bad housemates', and that the rest of the world just tolerated them.

Fantomex self-aggrandised, a lot, and as 'Chubby blog' ambled into view the day closed, much like any other.

Quote of the day

"They all pan the Bee's tech advice and then come crawling back with tails between their legs. 'It's not the hard disk after all,' they say. It's always the same."
BeardOfBees auditions for the next series of The I.T Crowd

Friday

The end of the week is upon us and it's a day for reflection on the week's successes and failures. Today saw the release of the new 3DS and the iPad 2. Milkncheese followed some of the early morning coverage on BBC Breakfast. "It was like two-year-olds trying to describe the Budget to an Inuit. Confused and pointless."

The caring familial nature of the blog was revealed early on as Discobox enquired as to health of Weecooper following his revelation the previous day that he's a MAS (Middle Age Shredder). Apparently all is well as wee has "A Good Touch for a big man".

The morning progressed in its usual eclectic fashion covering such diverse topics as cereal blog, coffee passed through the intestines of small mammals, nut/seed/kernelblog, diceblog and Disney singstar with a helping of quantum mechanics/physics/theory? (It's all beyond me to be honest) for good measure. Then SuperSmashIn waded in with the dilemma of the day. "Bacon or Sausage? If you could only ever have one of these for the rest of your life, which would you choose." A divisive question which is probably best summed up by HateMale: "It's like asking me which of my two nieces I'd shoot if I was forced to by a crazed gunman."

As the morning turned to lunchtime and lunchtime to afternoon, golf was high on the agenda (A blog first?). Several bloggers seem keen on spoiling perfectly good walks and offered a variety of playing, club and fashion tips. Catzilla offered Limni some crucial fashion advice: "Jeans? T-shirts? This, quite frankly, is an outrage! To participate in Golf, one must look the part. If you turned up at my golf club in that attire, you will either be escorted off the premises or handed a plunger and told to get busy in the staff toilets."

The afternoon progressed with the disparagement of those who use well known text abbreviations and advertising catchphrases in everyday conversation. Simian pondered whether this could be grounds for a 'separation'. "Missus Sim says simples, and even does the squeek thing after... i accept I'm going to have to have her put down, cunning could I borrow a spot under your patio?"

As the afternoon wound down the chat bounced around more than... something very bouncy. Blog pitfighting, archaeology, Time Team and Tony Robinson, wistful memories of youthful fitness and plans for the weekend.

Quote of the day

"I'd probably be surprisingly normal if it hadn't been for all of that."
Cunning reflects on his time spent posting on the chatterbox.

End game

Join the official Gamesblog spotify list and share your own favourite tunes. Last addition – 'Sleepyhead' by Passion Pit

Check the Gamesblog wiki for everyone's game tags and more!

This week's 'Best of' was written by McBegbie, Fantomex, RustyJames, CrispyCrumb and HereComesTreble. It was edited by, 'a very special guest editor who shall remain nameless.'

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!', but 'That's funny...'"
Isaac Asimov

Filed under: News

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

This open letter could have been laced with much more personal anger, if not for the fact that I bled out my hormones, and that you are someone my dear friend still care aplenty for.

Trust me, seeing a friend of mine in this much pain, I could have swayed this letter to be filled with so much bias-ness that my seething rage would bite you hard, but what’s the point of this, when you probably will wriggle your way out with all the slime in your hair gel, like you always do.

From your cruel, insensitive jibes at my friend, I am not sure if this letter would even get across to you in the way I wish it would without you getting overly defensive with your ego blindsiding you.

I can only extend as much civility to you in the hope that you could do the same to your wife, the mother of your child, a friend I have immense respect and care towards. This graciousness, is something I have learnt from her, especially how she has handled the abyss of grief you have created for her in the past one and half months.

The past is not what is important, never mind that you had cheated just when she was pregnant with someone from your property agency, and decided to go ahead and marry you when you were gifted with the forgiveness of a big-hearted woman.

Yes, that was perhaps the pitfall of many women, to believe that a man could change for the better, for the sake of their children, and maybe to believe that they are indeed special, don’t we already know that?

Hurhur, I should know that very well personally.

Don’t you already know that, having the first hand experience when the bombshell dropped that your parents were getting a divorce because of your dad’s infidelity, and that your mum could no longer bear the pain and suffering to be emotionally tormented by such a man?

It is just a pity you decided to take after, and be that very same person who hurt your mum.

S told me, how it was perhaps the hurt from your past that you never did recover from, that you needed that validation.

Is that why you have unwittingly taken after a trait you resented deep down inside you, I don’t know, or maybe, do you blame your mum for what happened, that you try to test it out on the women around you, proving that flow of forgiveness and credits of love would never run out, and that it would have been possible for her to stay on for the sake of the family?

When S got in touch with me, she was helpless, and she was in so much pain, and yet she was a picture of stoic calm, still asking herself if it would be possible to forgive, and try to forget, and taking it as a phase that you would eventually grow out of.

She knew it was her choice, and that it was perhaps her initial forgiveness that might have spur your rampant ego that you would once again get away with it, unscathed, scotfree, and maybe it’s time she realises that the institute of marriage is something you have no respect for, and you have chosen to head to the other extreme, the wrong one I might add, with the chance you were given.

Feel free to correct me, it all started on the day when you didn’t return home, and insisted that you did.

Pardon me as I need to contain my chuckles, but as naive and stupid we may appear to be sometimes, but do you think any woman would NOT even realise when their partners didn’t return home?

Especially when the signs were there since December, but something she thought nothing of because you always had work as excuses.

It was until your excuses ran out that you decided to spin a lie that you slept in your BWM convertible cos it was too far for you to return home. And the lies didn’t stop from that day onwards. The flip was too abrupt, too incredulous, and anyone reading this right now could tell you too.

Even if she wanted to believe you, how could she?

And then, you decided it was okay to be more high profile, and all the public make out sessions with your mistress, you didn’t even care or be bothered who saw you, or if words spread.

When you could deny no more, the most incredible retort came from you when you got all riled up and defensive.

You expected S to accept your affairs, and that you would come back to her to be a husband, and a father.

Is that really the kind of role model you want to set for your 8 month-old boy, and that you would treat his mother this way, devoting your time and attention on someone else when he was barely 3 months old?

You told her to suck it up, and you may justify it was just a fling and a moment of folly, but you did not stop when you were found out.

You chose the defensive way out, because you reckon she would once again forgive and forget, and buy everything you say.

Like how you want to work things out, and that it is your ‘destiny’ that the 2 of you would be together.

You were not repentant, on the contrary, you became more blatant as it was out in the open, and you jabbed your finger in her face to blame her for whatever that happened.

Didn’t you say she doesn’t dress up as she used to, didn’t you think she was becoming old and haggard, didn’t you say it was her bloody fault that she couldn’t keep her husband, didn’t you say it was her who made you do it, cos she was not good enough and words to the extent that she was useless as a wife?

“It’s your fault you couldn’t keep your husband what. WIN ME BACK LAH!” you sneered.

It isn’t a competition she is in, and even if Yeena is keen on winning, it doesn’t mean S has to be in some sort of warped competition just to put you on some pedestal you don’t belong on.

This was how you treated my friend, a friend who has looks, the grace, can have any man she deserves just by being herself (and she chose you), a successful career, brains and a big, big heart for all the grace she extended to you despite so many years of heartache.

You asked her to leave her job so she could help out with your property business, and she gladly left behind the years of career she had built for herself. As she was serving her notice, you left her in the lurch, leaving her jobless, and theoretically husbandless.

But with her son being her priority, I saw how she drew strength, and put all her focus on just loving him, while coping all the pain you brought upon her.

She was apprehensive of what’s the next step to go, but she knew, despite days of convincing herself, she saw that it would just be the beginning of how you take her forgiveness for granted, and that Yeena isn’t the first, and certainly isn’t gonna be the last.

She wanted to leave, but you wouldn’t let her go, insisting you can work things out.

But how do you expect to work things out when the first thing you after you left your home is to rent a place and have Yeena over for your trysts (though she looks different without make up over supper, but it is hard not to recognise faces that hurt our friends), and on the other hand, constantly badgering S to move in with you so you could work things out into the rented place you are treating like a budget hotel?

How do you really expect her to live with this, pretend she doesn’t know, pretend she didn’t hear all the things people tell her, and even she wanted to work things out, you obviously were just paying lip service and mean nothing you said.

The mindgames you started playing tire her out. Swinging from the sensitive man you played out to be, to a defensive, egomaniac man with all the cruel words when you didn’t manage to sway her your way. The games that all guilty men play.

When the soft tactics don’t work, the hard way would, isn’t that what you think?

Let me tell you, it only kills. Not her esteem like you wish you did, so that she would have so much fear of losing you, because she could only think lowly of herself the way you wanted her to, but kill her hopes of you ever repenting, and act like a real, responsible man who made a mistake would.

You taunted her, again and again, just so you could gain the upperhand. Why are you piling on hurt after hurt on someone who stood by you and showered you with nothing but love?

And yet, you refuse to set her free, when she wanted to set you free to be who you want to be. What is that for? To upkeep the family man image that how you have it all in front of your partners and clients in your property business?

What’s the point of dropping by every single day to convince her you can work things out, when after you left, it was another woman you ran to?

I don’t know. Many people wanted to find excuses for you, for that you are her husband, and it is a marriage with a young child involved, nobody would want to see it end. But with all the things you did, you said, we could see our friend suffer no more.

I have to concede, you play a very clever game there. Going to Taiwan for business trip and arranged for Yeena to join you.

Yeena could even keep up with a very cool pretense when she went into your office and asked “Eh, Desmond not here today huh?” when she knew full well where you were, and that she was joining you that very evening.

People in your agency are not stupid, they are only downplaying it and feigning ignorance for they were afraid of the mud you bring along with you into the company, but they still talk. And what Yeena did wasn’t quite wise on hindsight, cos it just makes her look as deceitful.

I have friends in property business, and the mortgage business (in OCBC too, no less), and oh yes they talk. They are afraid of implications, not because they are stupid nor that they are condoning what you are doing.

You lost the respect of your peers once, and seeing that how you are a division director in your company, proud of your achievements and all, and teaching your teams about integrity, motivational factors, so what? It’s a downright mockery of all you sales people paint such a picture, when you know full well it was just talks and nothing you adhere by. Is it worth losing all the dwindling respect people have for you just because you want to push the limit of how far you can get away with it?

Where’s the credibility in all that training you preach to those who look up to you?

I asked S if she wanted to give you a chance, and I know deep down inside her, she wants to believe in the good of you. She told me how you are good at making people feel special, and she believed you fooled Yeena the same way. She didn’t even blame her, and thought that you realising your mistake, you would make a choice.

But alas, the choices you made, make it hard for us friends to see S swallowing all the humiliation you threw her way.

How could we let our friend be in such a destructive marriage, and be around such a spiteful, immature man who cares nothing for her emotional well-being.

Be reasonable, and think, is it really fair to say it is her fault, even if it means at the expense of humbling yourself and admitting you are in the wrong? Is it even fair to trample her self worth when she was dealing with the hurt of your betrayal?

Her strength came through this time round, because she knows she just have to be a better mother to your child, and that’s all she cares.

And that’s why she wanted your lies no more.

Your words kill everytime. Like when she questioned you about your trip to Taiwan with Yeena just as you moved out, and just as S left her job, you could tell her it was none of her freaking business who you went Taiwan with.

She’s your wife, it’s her business, and you can’t be that selfish anymore.

What’s the point of playing a doting father on your facebook, posting clips of your son, and flashing all the purchases you put on credit, when it was all nothing but a facade?

So what you are a top property agent in a platinum division of a reputable agency when people are doubting your credibility and responsibility, and what’s the point of letting you earning all that commission when you spent that money on woman who probably is charmed by all that material stuff you could afford, and not for who you really are?

S asked for a separation, and you brushed her off and said you would not go there, and you have no wish of granting her the freedom you so should her given her.

If she is really as bad as the venomous words you spat into her face, then why don’t you just agree to the separation she begged you for?

Granted, if you are really seriously and heavily invested in Yeena, then, this is the chance for you to grab it and run with you, and you could put 3 adults and a child out of the misery at once. I would give you my blessing, and I believe it would be a relief for S as well not to be going through the emotional coaster of broken, empty promises.

It is painful, to hear your promises, and your soothing assurances, and then within hours, you turn defensive and showed no trace of remorse, and you give hope, and you take them away.

You could prevent the hurt to your child by dragging this out till he is old enough to understand, like your parents didn’t.

If you are seriously into Yeena, and is willing to give up your family for her, then there’s nothing I can say, then do it, but don’t prolong the misery for everyone involved. Affairs of the heart are complicated, but you can’t expect to have the best of all worlds.

If you think your marriage was a wrong choice and want to justify that you truly feel for this woman, then just let our friend go.

But when S asked for alimony for the expenses of the child as she left her job, your taunts really make me doubt if you truly feel for this woman, or she is just another object to stroke that ego.

“Sorry, I have no money. I have no time to work cos I am too busy having affairs so no money lah!“. I might add your spanking new watch says otherwise.

No money can bring other woman overseas?

That smirk and sneer in your voice when you boasted, “I don’t need money to bed a woman, you know?”

Any excuses I tried to find for you, I couldn’t muster anymore. You really expect S to come crawling to you at the drop of a hat, just because you know the exact buttons to push?

I plead you, to let her go. If she is willing to leave you be and free of the commitment of being a husband to screw all the random women out there who are willing to drop their panties at your snap of fingers because they truly feel for you, or just because they can get business from you, then at least let her be free of the hurt you are bringing her, so she can lead a better life without you, and that she can find her self again.

Are you not tired putting up all these charades? How long more you want to torment her? She’s not a puppet.

I hope you look at the big picture, I am not expecting you to feel an instant remorse, or try to appease your wife, or try to win her back, cos all we think is the best for her, is for you to be out of her life.

I am writing this, because she is now away taking a break from all these heartache overseas, and I do not wish you hassling her the way you did with all sweet nothings and empty promises, only to break her heart again and again with actions that say otherwise.

You know she is heading overseas, and yet you couldn’t be bothered, maybe you are busy with work, or maybe just blatantly enjoying the freedom you assume she bestowed you.

A good woman might be there waiting for you once, twice, or more, but there can be a time a limit is reached and when you realise that, it is all too late.

You are a leader in your company, I really have my sympathies to those led by you, and I certainly do not hope they follow your examples.

***

As for you Yeena…

I am going to disregard what the property industry people say about you flirting your way to get business… and how your SMU peers verified that you are someone who is competitive and can’t take losing, and you are all set out to win, to prove that you have it in you.

For me, I believe women have it in them to be unscrupulous, but I also believe women who would disregard everything to pursue how they feel for a man, for love. I try to believe despite whatever said about you that you are the latter.

You are a smart lady, I am sure, your academic record in SMU proved that. Desmond is someone who is charming, and could make a woman feel really special. And all the material stuff may seem alluring to an impressionable young lady like you.

I have made mistakes in my life I am not proud of. I have heard things promised and seemed damn real but weren’t.

I have thought certain sacrifices were rightly made for what I believed I felt.

I am not sure at the end of it if it was eventually worth it.

He could have painted a picture with you, but it doesn’t mean he wouldn’t paint it with any other woman, maybe you already know it, and maybe you don’t. Maybe you already know where you stand, maybe you don’t.

I am not saying you have to think about the little baby boy you played with when you guys hang out together during business gathering.. because it is utterly broken to pieces that there simply isn’t any point for them to work things out.

You knew what you were getting yourself into, maybe he said he has no more feelings for S, and give him time, I have heard such said to my friends before, and their waits never turned in their favours.

He might have given you hope saying how he doesn’t love her, and he doesn’t even sleep with her (if you really have to know, they only stopped sleeping together when she found out) anymore, and has no intention of working things out with her.

I don’t know what he said, because he sure is a good sales person, and with the assurances and the way he manipulated S to give him another chance while still sleeping with you…

But if you are just wanting that sense of victory, then go ahead and claim it, cos no one is fighting with you (I don’t know if there is any other, but who knows if he is seeing someone else but claiming he is home visiting his family, or having dinner with his peers/family cos you wouldn’t even doubt him) and maybe only himself and you would think that there is a point of “winning” him like a trophy. If it is for the work, then I believe your abilities of achieving in your career go beyond that and you don’t have to resort to this.

Whatever it is, I just hope you know what you are getting yourself into. What he says may seem real, and only time can prove it to you, and even a longer time, before he takes you with granted and coming up with endless cover ups to cloud your judgment.

Take him and claim your victory if you so want, and if it is for real, and that he is in it for real, then get him to cut S’s suffering short, so you guys can start whatever you guys want, with no one have shit say in what you do.

Whatever you feel, justify whatever way you want, because affairs of the heart, is not what outsiders like us could really judge, can we? I wish you guys the best.

At the end of the day, my friend’s emotional and physical welfare is what I truly care about, and I wish you guys can set her free, which I believe you guys can.

In fact if I were to be a little selfish, I would beg you to keep him tight, the last thing I want is that when he loses his harbour in you, he would run back to S and tighten his noose around her like he is already doing.

***

I could have written more of what had transpired, but then it is equally emotionally draining on my part to sit through the abuse a dear friend had to sit through, and not that you would believe as he would probably boo-boo everything I gotta say down to a ruse set up by S.

I remember visiting S and as she tended to her baby, her mum chatted to me. I could see the pain in her eyes, and yet the determined way she would support her child through all these. It was the conversation that truly touched me.

I don’t know if I would be punching the guy who does this to my daughter, but her understanding.. and her views, make me realise how lucky Desmond is to have these people in his life.

This post has nothing to do with S, but after seeing how her hopes are destroyed again and again, and her voice went unheard, I just hope, something magical would happen for her and her baby.

And no, the something magical is not a change of heart in Desmond because there is nothing we friends wish for, but for S to be freed of his chains. He could have valid reasons for all that self validations, but it isn’t something she or their baby should burden for the rest of their lives.

Regards,

Ting

We know that many smartphones these days as well as GPS navigation systems offer some kind of voice-activated control system to a certain extent, but who would have thought that the average USB-powered fan, which isn’t even a fancy gadget in its own right, is able to come with voice control capabilities as well? Known as the monoDO from Synnex, this USB powered fan which measures 135mm in diameter will let you turn it on or off, while choosing the speed at which it will spin, through a little bit of “investment” with your saliva and movement of lips without having to literally lift a finger. Available in black and white colors, it shouldn’t cost more than $30 a pop if you are going to import one Stateside.

Synnex USB powered fan has voice control function, By Ubergizmo. Top Stories : iPad 2 Review, Atrix Review,

It sounds like chaos theory: a fringe extremist religious leader in the Florida boondocks holds a trial of the Quran for its role in inspiring the 9/11, condemns it to death and has someone else execute it by burning - and on the other side of the world, angry Muslims, possibly incited by sermons of hatred, storm a "foreigners" compound and in the words of the UN spokesman on BBC TV last night, "hunt down" and kill seven of them. Who would have thought that something like this could be possible following the Nazis' auto-da-fé in the Berlin of 1933 were they set the works of Jewish, Marxist and pacifist - in short "un-German" - writers like Heinrich Mann, Erich Maria Remarque, Kurt Tucholsky, Erich Kästner, Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx alight.[[BREAK]]

What makes people in Afghanistan so angry that they would attack random foreigners, UN personnel who have nothing at all to do with that fringe pastor's act?

First, we have to consider that most Afghans are very religious. Burning their holy book is really the biggest provocation one could think off. Pastor Jones, who - in his way - seems to be very religious, too, must have understood this when he staged his mock trial provocation.

Second, when demonstrations are organized in Afghanistan, it is easy for anyone under the current circumstances to take advantage, infiltrate and direct them where they want them to go. It does not mean that the protest and subsequent bloodshed is necessarily the work of the Taliban. Indeed, the Taliban have rejected any involvement in the killings, whilst at the same time praising the killers. But given their record of atrocities, they are an easy scapegoat. The statements of some Afghan officials which pointed to Taliban involvement in yesterday's incidents - both the governors of Kandahar and Balkh - seem to be examples of this kind of finger pointing. But it is still too early to draw any conclusions as to who the demonstrators who stormed the compound were.

One reason it is so easy to manipulate genuine outpourings of popular anger here is due to Afghanistan's general atmosphere at the moment. We see a polarization beyond the immediate armed parties in this conflict - the diverse foreign and insurgent forces - also impacting the civilian population. There is a lot of anger after years in which Western military operations have caused an accumulation of civilian casualties. Afghans are tired of the repeated initial denials, then admission that something may have gone wrong and then apologies. Paying compensation might be a nice gesture, but it cannot bring anyone back to life.

Moreover, over the past weeks such cases have appeared to be unusually frequent: three cases in Kunar province alone, more in Helmand and probably a number that went unreported. Then came the pictures of the "Kill Team," U.S. soldiers at Forward Operating Base Ramrod in Helmand province, who seem to have conspired to kill totally innocent passers-by, some of the perpetrators driven by feelings of hatred, revenge and prejudice against Afghans in general. Although those involved surely represent only a tiny faction of soldiers deployed here (and let us not forget that they are currently to be tried, and one participant has already pled guilty and been sentenced to prison) I cannot help but assuming that this is what war does to young, inexperienced people that have not been exposed to other cultures before and are thrown in the middle of a conflict they do not understand with people they do not understand. But I have experienced categorization of all Afghans as potential enemies amongst European, more experienced and well-educated officers as well.

This categorization of "the others" is matched by radical preachers in Afghan mosques who lump together any "foreigners" and "kafirs" (unbelievers), regardless of what they actually might believe in - whether father, son and holy ghost; Shiva, Parvati et al, as is likely in the case of the killed Nepali guards at the UN compound; or "just" the value of humanitarian work abroad. I am personally getting increasingly tired of these terms. Yes, I am a "kafir" and a foreigner - but I am also pretty different from many others in the category which has been assigned to me.

Outrageous acts have been committed, both on the Afghan and "foreign" side, yet responsibility does not rest with whole groups or categories of people, but instead with individuals. I wish that Pastor Jones and some of the imams in Mazar and Kandahar would look up whether their books have something to say about individual responsibility.

I also understand that a lot of Afghans are just sick and tired of all the internationals in their country, from special operations soldiers to Afghanistan analysts, none of whom they are convinced have really changed their lives for the better at all. But while the anger of everyone involved in this sad story is understandable, the manipulation of this anger is not. And it should not exempt anyone from facing his or her responsibilities.

The Afghan police have arrested some of the demonstrators involved in the violence in the Mazar - and I hope that they did not just randomly pick up people (which would further spin the cycle of harm done to innocents, a cycle which creates lot of the anger). And since Pastor Jones' provocation, which if not deemed to have directly incited violence seems to be protected by the First Amendment, we still hope that, despite his public denials of incitement, his dreams will be visited by the pictures of the slain of Mazar and, after today, Kandahar.

Thomas Ruttig is the co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, where a version of this post was originally published. He speaks Pashtu and Dari. 

Will it be India fulfilling its destiny or Sri Lanka spoiling the party? That is the question being posed heading into Saturday's 2011 Cricket World Cup final.

A tournament that has had plenty of highlights and breathed new life into the fifty-over format of the game reaches its climax following the semi-finals that saw Sri Lanka first overcome plucky New Zealand, and then India defeat their great sporting rivals Pakistan, not without a scare or two along the way

The final sees the first all-Asian final as two of three co-hosts (Bangladesh being the other) meeting in the final, and on paper, and for the most part performances over the tournament, the two strongest sides contesting it. Both sides bat deep, armed with explosive hitters throughout the order, whilst the bowling attacks are varied, possessing quality with both pace and spin.

Throughout the tournament India have made explosive starts. The partnership of Sachin Tendulkar, and particularly Virender Sehwag at the top of the order have ensured fast starts, but often these have not resulted in the type of totals they should have done and they have paid the price along the way (a defeat and a tie against South Africa and England in the group stages) whilst their total of 261 against Pakistan was considered short of what they should have posted. 

Sri Lanka have at times slipped under the radar, but they too have talent in abundance and batsman who are not afraid to take risks. Opener Tillakaratne Dilshan is the tournaments leading batsman with 464 runs and the tempo he sets early often shapes the Sri Lankan innings, evidenced by the way he destroyed England in the quarter-finals.

Spin has dominated in the tournament so far, an area both sides are strong in but two pace bowlers, India's Zaheer Khan and Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga will be key. Both are used at the start of the innings, but also utilised during the power plays. Khan has taken 19 wickets in the tournament but his economy rate of just 4.68 is as important, whilst Malinga has taken 11 wickets with his unorthodox approach and has accounted for many top batsman.

Team wise, the useful all-rounder Angelo Matthews misses out for Sri Lanka with a thigh injury and his loss will disrupt the balance of their side, whilst India will likely have to replace bowler Ashish Nehra who has a damaged finger, prompting a re-think of their bowling strategy, and they may decide to call up an additional spinner after opting for Nehra in their semi-final game. Interestingly, both captains are wicket-keepers and whilst Kumar Sangakkara is a relaxed figure out in the middle, it is the equally cool MS Dhoni who will have the pressure and weight of an expectant nation squarely on his shoulders.

The pressure of course will be on India, with expectations high since it was announced the tournament would be staged on the sub-continent. The fact that the final is in Mumbai lends even greater weight to it and the country will be brought to a standstill tomorrow with an estimated audience of over one billion expected to see the game.

The game will also feature two of the modern greats going head to head in what will be their final appearances in a World Cup. It will be Muttiah Muralitharan's final game for Sri Lanka. Perhaps not the bowler he once was, he is still a fearsome prospect and his overs in partnership with Ajantha Mendis could well set the tone for the Indian innings. Despite controversies surrounding his bowling action over the years, Muralitharan remains one of the most respected and well liked players of his generation, and with well over 1,000 victims to his name possesses records that may never be broken and he needs just three to overhaul Glenn McGrath for the all-time World Cup record.

All eyes though will be on Sachin Tendulkar though; the hometown boy who stands just one short of a century of hundred's for India in all comptetitions. Whilst there were hopes he would achieve this against Pakistan (eventually being dismissed on 85), what better way for him to grace a final by reaching that landmark figure. For all the dominance Muralitharan enjoys with the ball, Tendulkar is blazing records with the bat that when he retires will have similar status to some of those owned by Wayne Gretzky in the NHL.

Both sides have won the tournament once before: India when they shocked the West Indies back in 1983 (they also lost to Australia in 2003) and Sri Lanka in 1996, announcing themselves onto the world stage in the process.

India and Sri Lanka have match winners in abundance with both bat and ball and the game is virtually impossible to call. In terms of overall head to head record, India hold the advantage (67 wins to 50) and many observers feel that home advantage could be the key in determining the outcome and if true, will be the signal for the mother of all parties. 

India will hold a slight edge when they take on an equally determined Sri Lanka in the World Cup summit clash at the refurbished Wankhede stadium here tomorrow.

Though there is little to choose between the two teams, India will fancy their chances of putting it across the islanders as they are playing at home and are peaking at the right time after a rather patchy beginning to their campaign.

Armed with the wishes of millions of passionate fans and a never-say-die spirit, India are just one win away from crowning themselves the ODI world champions after almost 28 years as they clash with Sri Lanka in the first all-Asian cricket World Cup summit showdown.

More than two decades after their incredible World Cup triumph at the historic Lord's, India find themselves on the threshold of probably their biggest cricketing moment as they brace up for a nerve-wracking battle for supremacy.

A billion Indian hearts will also be beating for Sachin Tendulkar as India bid for their second World Cup title.

Tendulkar returns to his home turf at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai with determination to add the only silverware missing from the collection of the most celebrated cricketer of the modern era.

The Indian star, who turns 38 next month, holds almost all the coveted batting records, but his individual brilliance could not win the ultimate prize in a team sport like cricket.

In five previous appearances in cricket's showpiece event, Tendulkar helped India reach the semifinal at home in 1996 and finish runners-up to Australia in 2003 in South Africa.

Playing in his sixth and possibly last World Cup, a record he shares with Pakistan's great Javed Miandad, Tendulkar has led from the front to lift India into the final.

His 464 runs in the tournament are just three less than Sri Lankan Tillakaratne Dilshan's 467, and he goes into the title clash one century away from recording an unprecedented 100 international centuries.

Tendulkar's lucky 85 in Wednesday's semi-final against Pakistan, when he was dropped four times and survived close leg-before and stumping decisions, suggests he was destined to play the final.

"It will be a fantastic occasion," Tendulkar said of the match in his home city. "We will focus on the job in hand and try to get the job done."

Both India and Sri Lanka, who have played against each other frequently in recent times, have won the coveted trophy once each and will leave no stone unturned to regain the Cup.

Both the teams have some injury concerns ahead of the grand finale which will be high on emotions for a variety of reasons.

The match will be the last outing for India's highly respected coach Gary Kirsten who has transformed the team into world-beaters as also Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss, who is set to resign after the World Cup.

It will also be a swan song match for Muttiah Muralitharan, who is racing against time to recover from a knee injury.

The home team has suffered a jolt ahead of the game with Ashish Nehra, who bowled well in the high-voltage semi-final clash against Pakistan in Mohali, being virtually ruled out because of a finger injury.

Similarly, Sri Lanka have injury concerns over Muralitharan and have replaced all-rounder Angelo Matthews with Suraj Randiv. Veteran left-arm medium pacer Chaminda Vaas has been called in as cover for Muralitharan.

The hosts are also grappling with a selection dilemma ahead of the summit showdown which will be watched by millions of fans in both the cricket-crazy nations.

The Indians misread the Mohali track and opted for an additional seamer in Nehra at the expense of spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who did a decent job in the two matches he had played.

The Mohali pitch assisted the slow bowlers more though the three Indian pacers - Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel and Nehra - bowled well.

The Indians are peaking at the right time, having prevailed over defending champions Australia in the quarters and arch-rivals Pakistan in the semi-final but it remains to be seen whether they can pull it off when it matters the most.

Captain Dhoni has warned his teammates not to get distracted by the excessive hype surrounding their World Cup campaign and just focus on the job at hand.

"There will be plenty of things happening around us, but what is important is not to get distracted. We all know what our jobs are as professional cricketers so we will stick to that and try to play good cricket," Dhoni said.

"The Sri Lankans have a good side and they have done really well in the tournament. We have to play good cricket to beat them. We have to be at our best," he added.

Both the teams appear to be well-balanced on paper though the islanders certainly have a more potent bowling attack, particularly with the presence of spin wizard Muralitharan who will be keen to make an impression in his swansong game.

Although the Indians have a formidable batting line-up and most of them are quite adept in dealing with spin, Muralitharan is a wily customer and will find a way to put pressure on the batsmen if he takes the field tomorrow.

The home team will look to Tendulkar and the flamboyant Virender Sehwag to provide a rollicking start and set the platform for the middle-order to take India to a decent total at the Wankhede stadium track which is expected to suit the batsmen.

Sehwag, who started with a brilliant 175 against Bangladesh, has not really fired after that knock though he has rattled up quick-fire 30s and 40s. India need him to be at his brutal best to take the game away from the Lankans.

India have the depth in their batting but they need to ensure that they do not collapse in the batting powerplay as they had done against South Africa and the West Indies. They, however, made the powerplay count in the last game against Pakistan.

Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina have enough talent and skill to put runs on the board. Dhoni has been struggling with the bat and will be hoping to make a contribution in the final of the showpiece event.

Yuvraj, who is having a dream World Cup and has already won a record four man-of-the-match awards, will have a key role to play since he is the player in form both with the bat and ball.

The Sri Lankans, on the other hand, have a settled look to their squad and definitely have the resources to spoil India's party.

Their top batsmen - Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Upul Tharanga and Mahela Jayawardene - have all been among the runs.

"It means a lot to us. This is what we planned for over two years. We missed a great opportunity in 2007 when we reached the finals and again we have got a great opportunity tomorrow," Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara said.

"We will be preparing for the finals. We do not have to get carried away. We are in the finals and that is great and we need to keep our heads down and keep in mind that there is a lot of work left to be done. It is the biggest day of our lives," he added.

The eventual winners of the flagship event of the game would be richer by three million dollars, while the runners-up would take home 1.5 million dollars out of the total prize pool of 12.52 million dollars.

Sri Lanka have played four one-dayers at this venue, including a league match in this tournament against New Zealand. Out of those four, they have won two and lost two.

Sri Lanka and India had beaten each other once in their first two encounters at the ground in 1986-87 and 1996-97.

In two other non-India games, the Lankans were beaten by the West Indies in 1993, while they defeated New Zealand earlier this month.

Sri Lanka have prevailed in recent one-dayers against India, winning six of the 10 matches played last year in Dhaka, Harare, Bulawayo and Dambulla.

But India have won five of seven matches against the Islanders on home soil over the last five years.

India will be playing at the refurbished 33,000-capacity Wankhede stadium for the first time, while Sri Lanka know what awaits them having beaten New Zealand by 112 runs in a league match at the ground on March 18.

Teams:

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Ravichandran Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Munaf Patel.

Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakkara (Capt), Mahela Jayawardene, Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Silva, Chamara Kapugedera, Thisara Perera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga,

Dilhara Fernando, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis, Rangana Herath, Suraj Randiv.

Umpires: Simon Taufel (AUS) and Aleem Dar (PAK)

TV Umpire: Ian Gould (ENG)

Match Referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL)

NNN

One of the features that had me so excited about the Nintendo 3DS was the announced Virtual Console that is going to be added with the Nintendo eShop.  They even announced Super Mario Land and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening!  Unfortunately, the eShop wasn't ready last Sunday when the system launched.  Nintendo has finally told us when we will be able to purchase these downloadable titles, and on top of that, have told us what games will be available on launch day.  Oh, did I mention they will all be 3D enhanced titles?  Check the release after the jump.

NINTENDO'S ESHOP COMING TO THE 3DS MAY 26 WITH 13 LAUNCH TITLES

REDMOND, Wash., March 31, 2011 - At last year's E3, we announced that the Virtual Console™ service would be making its way to the 3DS™, and it would be featuring a selection of games from classic Nintendo systems like the Game Boy™ and Game Boy™ Color.  

At this year's Game Developer's Conference, we proudly announced the addition of games from the Game Gear™ and TurboGrafx-16™ to the 3DS Virtual Console line-up.

Today, in honor of Major League Baseball's Opening Day (Go Mariners!), we are proud to announce our "starting lineup".  These games will not only be available on May 26, the day that the Nintendo eShop opens on the 3DS, but all of them will be remastered in stunning 3D!

Game Boy Titles:

Alleyway™: Interstellar ping-pong with a deadly energy ball! Your spaceship is at the gate of the Alleyway. Use your vessel to repel the energy ball. Atomize space grids with your return shots. Destroy the entire field and move on to even more challenging targets! You're in command in the Alleyway - in 3D!

Quarth™: Warning! QUARTH is the blockbuster puzzle challenge guaranteed to knock your socks and your block off at a maddening, mind-numbing pace. With a mortifying rain of bionic block patterns descending upon you, you race back and forth in your powerful Blockbuster ship obliterating the blocks before they blow you to kingdom come. Your incentive to stay alive is the points you rake in for every block you wipe out. And if you chalk up enough points to qualify, you'll charge into bonus games where it's you against the clock and the unstoppable blocks of QUARTH. So, ace, if you think you've got the steady hands of a brain surgeon, the sharp eye of an eagle, and the steely nerves of a Hollywood stuntman, power up QUARTH. And see if you can outlast the blockbusting action - in 3D!

Tetris™: The Soviet Game Sensation! Beams, boxes, zig-zags and L-shaped blocks drop down a narrow passage.  Feel your pulse quicken as you spin, shift and align the shapes for a perfect fit. It's Challenging and demands split second decision - in 3D! 

Super Mario Land™: Join Mario in a world of strange creatures! Ancient ruins, giant crabs, Koopa Troopas, flying stone heads and hungry sharks await you in this brand new world of adventure. Travel over land, in the air, and underwater. Mario runs, jumps and bounces his way to fortune and glory on his mission to save the Princess! A beautiful kingdom on ancient ruins, tempestuous waters, and brand new challenges makes Super Mario Land the best ever - in 3D!

Daedalian Opus™: The ancient land of Daedalus is governed by symmetry and time. It is a land where your progress will be severely tested by the challenge of myriad shapes and blocks. It will take the art of Daedalus and the power of your mind to solve the confounding riddles of the blocks. To be beaten is ordinary, to achieve victory is an art - in 3D!

Game Boy Color Titles:

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX™: Journey to Koholint Island in beautiful color! Link's latest challenge is set on the mysterious Koholint Island a place where dreams and reality collide. As a castaway, Link must find a way to escape from the island and return to his beloved homeland of Hyrule. This will not be an easy task. One creature, a talking Owl, may know the solution to Link's dilemma, but first Link must tackle eight dungeons full of treacherous monsters and tricky traps. His goal: find the eight Instruments of the Sirens and awaken the omipotent Wind Fish which rules the island - in 3D!  

Mario Golf™: Forget buying expensive golf gear--Mario brings the game to you. Mario Golf features four complete 18-hole courses, 11 golfers, and precise play control. Create your own golfer and build up his or her experience and skill levels by competing in various tournaments and head-to-head matches. The more you play, the stronger and more accurate your golfer becomes. There are many different modes of play in Mario Golf, including a wide variety of minigames designed to challenge even the most level-headed swingers - in 3D!

Conker's Pocket Tales™: It's Conker's birthday, and someone crashed his party!  The Evil Acorn has stolen all of Conker's presents and kidnapped his best chipmunk friend, Berri.  Now you must take on the role of the bushy-tailed hero, pursuing your nemesis throughout 6 visually-stunning worlds to rescue Berri and save your birthday from complete disaster - in 3D!

Resident Evil Gaiden™: Experience a brand new chapter in Capcom's classic horror survival series: Resident Evil. Now a desperate fight for survival takes place aboard a luxury cruise-liner overflowing with a host of deadly zombies. There is no escape. As S.T.A.R.S. operative Barry Burton, it's up to you to save Leon Kennedy, rescue a young survivor named Lucia and disable a deadly Bio-Organic Weapon. With countless traps to avoid, rooms to explore, puzzles to solve and mysteries to uncover, each lurking horror survived will take you closer to the source of the Resident Evil. Survival is your only option - in 3D!

Game Gear Titles:

Columns™: It will challenge your mind, not just your trigger finger!  Drift back in time to ancient Phoenicia and challenge yourself with Columns, an addictive game played by Middle Eastern merchants centuries ago - in 3D!

Shinobi™: Shinobi. It's Japanese for stealth, the perfect description of a Master Ninja. And that's exactly what you are! Armed with throwing stars and finely-honed battle skills, you must defeat the Ring of Five. Fight your way past mercenaries and karate thugs. Take out the meanest martial artists and rescue hostages. But these dangers pale in comparison to your ultimate challenge: A fight to the death against five evil Ninja Assassins whose mastery of the deadly ancient arts may well surpass your own - in 3D!

TurboGrafx-16 Titles:

Bonk's Adventure™: Bonk yourself out in this head-buttin', head splittin' adventure. As Bonk the Caveman, user your head against Kongo Zolla, Tractorhead and the wackiest array of prehistoric foes ever seen. Be sure to eat your meat-and-vegetables as you power-up to battle Evil King Drool himself. It's a real head-banger - in 3D!

Splatterhouse™: Alone on a stormy night...enter, if you dare, the unspeakable horror of SPLATTERHOUSE! Hideous ghouls and demented demons leap from every corner in a relentless nightmare of terror. Who's that with a saw? Look out for that axe! Just don't lose your head, as shock after gruesome shock assaults your senses. Your only hope...unleash the monster within yourself and fight back in the grisly mayhem of SPLATTERHOUSE - in 3D!

 

So this is some strangeness: Fred Savage, Christian Slater and Jimmie Johnson, together at last. Ah, Hollywood. Anyway, rock a caption to this one; do some homework if you need to so you can get some good "Pump Up The Volume" and "Wonder Years" references going. Go!

After the jump, Danica Patrick auditions for the Globetrotters.

Yeah, uh...you guys have some filthy minds, you know that? We could only use about one-tenth of what you wrote. Anyway, here we go:

Robb:
"Change the name to the Danica Patrick Go Daddy Globetrotters and I'll make a few appearances per year."

Rob Hutton:
If I drop this it's your fault.

Diaz:
"He just spins hard — he's spun hard every time I've been around him and it seems like overkill. If your finger is good you'll spin the ball, if your finger isn't, you'll not be able to spin and that's just a lot of being a circus clown."

Max and the Magic Marker is a platforming/ puzzle game starring a boy whose drawing of a monster comes to life and starts making trouble in other pieces of artwork. Theoretically, Max could draw a ten-headed dragon to take care of the problem. Or, were he a little older, he could forget about the monster, draw several scantily-clad ladies, and throw a sexy party for everybody in the Land of Chalk Drawings. But Max is a responsible boy, so he immediately plunges into his drawing and chases after the monster, armed only with the marker that gave birth to the creature.

Max and the Magic Marker was initially released for the PC, Mac, and WiiWare before it made its mark (ha!) on iOS. The iPhone is a suitable place for Max's adventure, which combines platforming action with the player's artistic talents (or lack thereof). Can't jump high enough to reach the top of a ledge? Draw yourself a nice set of stairs using your finger. Watch out, because the marker has a finite supply of ink, and refills aren't always plentiful.

The game's levels are broken up into bite-sized experiences. Each level has a number of collectables, plus a landscape-related challenge that must be surmounted before you can reach the exit. You solve each problem by running, jumping, grabbing, and drawing. If you reach a gap, for instance, you can run and take a reeeeal long jump-- or you can draw yourself a nice bridge and travel in style.

Other roadblocks will trip you up as well: Enemies prowl (try drawing something heavy above their heads), rainstorms can wash you out (draw a protective enclosure around yourself that you can also push along), and tires spin over bottomless pits (draw a board, jump on quick, and go along for a ride). If you reach the end of a level, you move on to the next. You can even earn stars for a job well done.

Max and the Magic Marker is fun to tinker with, but it's not especially impressive when stacked up next to the likes of Drawn to Life or Super Scribblenauts. Your finite ink supply is part of the problem: It leaves you little room to work creatively. Even if you feel like going all-out and drawing the Brooklyn Bridge where a line across a pit will do just fine, more often than not, you're going to have to settle for the line.

There's also the frustrating consequences that come with death. If you screw up, you start a level all over again. The levels in Max and the Magic Marker are pretty small, so at first, starting over seems of little consequence. But in a level that's heavy with tasks and stuffed with objects that must be negotiated around, a slip-up at the very end can be teeth-gnashingly infuriating-- especially since re-loading a level takes some time.

But Max and the Magic Marker still has heaps of charm, especially in its graphics. The simple blob-like enemies that populate many levels are adorable despite their simplicity, and the little buggers are smart. If you try to squash them with a drawn object, they'll whip out a hard hat and cover their heads if you don't draw the item high enough to gain the necessary momentum.

Max and the Magic Marker isn't the first title of its kind, nor is it the best. Still, if you're a fan of touch-screen artwork and creative puzzle solving, you'll find it considerably more fun than taking a crayon to a copy of Hamburgler's French Fry Adventure.

If you’re like me, you’re a man of many gadgets. We love to research the latest and greatest hunting items out there, but if you take a walk down the turkey call isle in your local sporting goods store you can be over whelmed by the selection available. There is diaphragm calls, one reed, two reeds, two and a half reeds, split reeds, and more reed options than you can even think of. That’s just diaphragm calls, not to mention pot calls… do you use slate, glass, or aluminum? Then there is box calls, push button calls, owl calls, crow calls, gobble shakers, well I think you get the point.
 With so many calls out on the market where do you start? If you’re a beginner to the sport of turkey hunting or even a seasoned veteran, figuring out what type of turkey calls you need, can make any one’s head spin. After staring at all the different options you soon start to look like an owl on a branch, big eyed and your head turning all the way around just trying to make a decision on what to buy.
 In this article we will cover majority of the calls on the market today and what each call brings to the table for your turkey calling arsenal. We will also cover the sure fire turkey calls that you won’t want to leave home without.
 When heading to the turkey woods you want a wide variety of calls at your disposal. Just like people, every turkey has their own sounding voice. One day a big old long beard my like the sounds of an old raspy hen, or the next day he may like a higher pitch sounding hen. Day to day the preference of a long beard may change, by having a good selection of calls allows you to try and match you’re calling to his preference.  Weather can also determine what calls to use. If it’s raining cats and dogs, you may want to leave your “non- water proof” calls in your turkey vest. Basically the more of a variety of calls you have means the better the odds are that you can match your calling to the long beards preference and to the weather conditions.

Having several diffrent call options increase your odds at giving that long beard the sound he likes.

Diaphragm Calls
 Diaphragm calls may be one of the hardest calls to learn how to use, however are the most versatile, cheapest, water proof, and leave you absolutely hands free when calling. These calls are small, and light weight taking up very little room in your turkey vest. When looking at how many reeds or what reed style to get depends on personal preference. To start with your single reed and double reed diaphragms are higher pitched and are much clearer sounding calls.  The more reeds you get the raspier the call. If you are first starting out learning how to use a diaphragm call I recommend that you try a double reed call. They seem to be easier to get noise out of and are the easiest to get the tone to break. The tone break is that sound of “yeeee-yuuup” of the yelp. Going from that high first note and breaking to the second note is easiest with a double reed call.
We love to use the diaphragm call to “cut” with. Cutting is a form of aggressive hen calls that work great at getting that long beard all fired up. For a good cutting call we prefer a two and a half reed or more call. Also multiple reeds with a half reed combination give you a good raspy sounding call. By utilizing a diaphragm call allows you a hands free operation, which is crucial when that turkey is with in eye sight of you and you need to make those last light calls to seal the deal. Also when it’s raining out you never have to worry about your mouth call not working.
Friction Calls 
 Pot calls are a for sure call that you never want to leave home without. They are very versatile and easy to use. These calls are the bread and butter of my turkey calling arsenal. I love to seal the deal with an old long beard by purring on my pot call. My favorite pot call is has a slate surface. When I know that long beard is thinking about coming my way, I let out some soft subtle purrs and clucks on my slate call and just set it down. Those last subtle calls followed by silence are often more than he can take and soon he is on his way in. I prefer slate over aluminum because slate seems to provide much more friction on the surface giving that call a good tone, but that is just my personal preference. I also prefer glass over aluminum. My primary pot call I use first is a slate and the one I use second if I’m not getting the response I am looking for from slate is glass.
The negative to pot calls much like most friction calls are that they are not water proof and under rainy days they may not work, which is also why you want to carry more than one turkey call with you. However the pot call’s pluses outweigh the negatives. They are a great close in soft subtle call when you need to tone it down, and they also can be loud and aggressive when you want to crank it up. Another reason you want a pot call in your vest is that you can take one call and change the tone by using different strikers. It’s much cheaper to buy several strikers than it is to buy several pot calls, making your calling arsenal much more rounded.
Box calls are another friction call that you want in your turkey vest. These calls are a great long distance call. What I mean by this is that they are piercing and loud, they work great under windy conditions. When the wind is blowing it can often drown out most other calls, but the box call’s loud piercing yelps and cutting pierces its way through the wind. They can also be a good close in call. With a soft drag of the box’s lid you can make soft purrs and just of soft tap of the lid can make beautiful clucks.
When choosing a box call you get what you pay for. There are some box calls out on the market that are sweet sounding however they can run as high as one hundred dollars. Now I’m not saying buy something cheap, nor am I saying you need to break the bank. The key is to try them like any other call, before you buy one. There are also water proof or water resistance box calls now out on the market, allowing you use when most other friction calls fail.

Box calls can be loud and reach out to that old long beard in strong winds

Push button calls are a great call for the beginner and seasoned veteran. I bought one last year that my five year old uses. She can make perfect yelps and cutting on it, so yes it is so easy a child can use it. Another reason you will like push button calls are that there is little movement when calling on them, just a slight movement of the finger is all that is needed. You can also get a special mount to locate the call on the end of your gun or even attach it to the handle of your bow. This call is also a great close in call much like the pot call.
Locator Calls
I always carry several locator calls with me at all times. A standard must have locator calls are the crow and an owl call. Just like with hen calls, turkeys may prefer one pitch or tone over another. The same is true with locator calls. One turkey may gobble his head off at a crow call and another turkey may gobble at a palliated wood pecker call. The key is to have a variety, so if one doesn’t work try another to try and spark a response. A thing that is common with locator calls is that they are loud. They need to reach out and hit that long beards ear drum.  For this reason when it comes to an owl call I prefer a reed call that utilizes back pressure to make your hoots. The reed calls seem to produce more volume and are also able to be toned down for when you’re working your way in on him.
Another great locator call is a coyote howler. These calls are very loud and very piercing. The only time you may want to use a coyote howler is at night when you are trying to “put birds to bed”. You don’t want a turkey thinking there is a coyote walking around by his tree in the morning. However don’t let this shy you away from utilizing this call in the evening. I locate more birds with the coyote howler than I do with my owl call. The key to locating birds is variety and don’t limit your ability with just one call. At a minimum you will want a crow and an owl call; however I strongly suggest several others also such as a palliated wood pecker call and a coyote howler.

 
Reed owl calls produce much louder hoots to spark a shock gobble.

Specialty Calls
Specialty calls can be anything from a wing bone call to a tube call. These are calls that you may want to also add to your vest. If you are hunting public land or birds that are called to a lot, these calls may be the secret that you have been looking for. If all spring long birds keep hearing everything from fiction calls to mouth calls you may want to try a wing bone call. It is a call that has its own unique sound that they may not have heard before.
Calling Scenario
Here is a typical scenario of a day’s hunt showing you the importance of having a variety of calls. It’s the evening before the next morning hunt. Todd Fletcher and I find ourselves standing at a high location off of a ridge. I reach for my owl call to start off with to locate a roosted tom. After several attempts on the owl call we had no such luck. I then reach into my vest and pull out a coyote howler. With on loud howl on the call I wait for a reply. Soon the sweet sound of gobble sounds back. With a sweet “Yes” We take off in the direction of the old limb hanger. As we close the distance I let out an owl hoot to keep him gobbling as we pin point his exact location. Once we pinpoint his location, I then back out and formulate a plan for tomorrow morning’s hunt.
As the morning sun begins to rise and the song birds begin to sing, I pullout my owl call. With several soft hoots, the old tom gobbles back. I then continue to close the distance getting even closer than I did the night before. Once set up I pull out my slate call and make some soft tree yelps and purrs. As soon as he answers me I set my calls down, the ball is in his court and I won’t make any more calls until he flies down from the roost. It isn’t long and soon he flies down, but my dreams suddenly fade as I learn he has several hens with him. As they yelp back and forth, I pull out my diaphragm call and start “letting them have it!” with aggressive yelps and cuts I agitate the old boss hen, hopping to bring her in to my set up with the old long beard in tow. As I’m cutting on the diaphragm call, I’m also purring and cutting on my push button call, hoping to sound like several hens fighting. As the morning goes on the hens begin to quiet down and the gobbling stops. With no turkeys around, we stand up and stretch our already cramping legs.
 As the morning continues we begin cutting and running. As the wind begins to pick up we switch over to a box call, yelping and cutting aggressively. With no response we move on until we hit a hot gobbler. It isn’t long and we strike a gobble. We take off for the nearest cover quickly setting up. I then let out a yelp on my diaphragm call. With no response I wait a minute then purr on my slate call, the old long beard answers right back seventy five yards closer than when we first heard him gobble.
Soon we see him strutting about seventy yards out. I then let out a soft purr and cluck with my diaphragm call being sure not to make any movement. With just a little reassurance calling the old long beard struts on in. I added this scenario to give you a better understanding in the use of calls and why it is important to have a variety at your disposal throughout the day in the turkey woods.
Conclusion
When it comes to calling turkeys the key is variety. You don’t want to limit yourself, you want to have options. If one call is not working you want to be able to switch it up and try another. Another reason to have a variety is that with a mouth call, and a friction call allows you to sound like several hens, making that old long beard think that he has more than one hen to call his if he comes in.
Another point I cannot stress enough is to try it before you buy it. You don’t go and buy a car until you test drive it. The same is with turkey calls. Of course you don’t want to be sharing diaphragm calls, but most retail stores have friction calls out of the package for you to try out and see if you like how they sound. Here is a list of calls that I carry in my turkey vest. One thing to remember is that calls are like vehicles, one guy might like trucks and one may like cars. These calls are my personal preference as to what I like to use, but it is a good starting point for you to start your own turkey calling arsenal.
Diaphragm calls: H.S. Strut Cutter 2.5, Primos Piggy Back Deadly Double and True Double.
Pot Calls: H.S. Strut Lil’ Deuce Slate, H.S. Strut Triple Glass.
Box Calls: Primos Heart Breaker, Primos Lil’ Heart Breaker.
Push Button Calls: Quaker Boy Inc. Cyclone Push-Pin Yelper.
Locator calls: Primos Power Crow Call, H.S. Strut Palmer Hoot Tube (owl), H.S. Strut coyote howler, Knight & Hale pileated wood pecker call.
Again this is my personal turkey calling arsenal, you don’t need all these calls, but the key is to have a variety at your disposal.

Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, iDevice Apps

New iPhone, iPod touch and iPad product announcements for March 28, 2011:

New iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps

• Trans Planet Pte Ltd has announced Hotel - 1.0.1 for iPhone and iPod touch.  Hotel - allow travelers to search, browse and book from millions of hotel rooms while on the go. Hotel - brings up all the nearby hotels with current room availability, rates, photos and even the location of these hotels on an interactive google map. Hotel - app also make it really easy to search by city name, post code, distance to landmarks and more or to filter by hotel name.
• Terry Weissman has announced that his innovative 3D game, Ball Pit 2.0, is now available for free. Ball Pit is best played standing up, so you can easily spin around to see everything that happens around you. Your iPhone 4 or 4th generation iPod touch acts as a window between you and the world of Ball Pit. Version 2.0 builds on the game’s popularity by improving game play, with the addition of a thrust button, power-ups, Game Center integration, and more.
• iAdventureGame has announced West Wing Escape 1.0 for iOS devices. West Wing Escape takes the actual layout of the West Wing and turns it into a graphic comic adventure. Starting out in the Presidential Oval Office, the player must avoid the guards and solve the puzzles while figuring out an escape plan. An all-original adventure designed specifically for touch screen devices, the game implements a graphic novel/comic book presentation style, offering map based movement with simple target selection.
• Camila has announced a discount on its popular Sushi & Maki application for a limited time only. Sushi expert Kenji Takeda shows how easy and fun it is to prepare traditional sushi and maki at home. Sushi & Maki provides clear, practical instructions and beautiful photographs to show iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users every step of the recipes. The app includes everything one needs to know to prepare an impressive variety of sushi to serve family and friends.
• Mutant Games has introduced Mutant Mix Vol 1, their first pack bundle for iPhone and iPod touch. Soccer Fever is a bundle of two games in one, including Champion Striker and Go! Go! Soccer. Play as a Striker, flicking the ball to kick, or as the Goalkeeper, tilting the iPhone to move the gloves. Guide a footballer tilting your device right and left to avoid rivals coming from everywhere. Both games feature OpenFeint support. You can even submit your scores to Facebook and Twitter.
• Yehonatan Douek has released iPan: Flip Master 1.0. This fun and addictive game turns any iOS Device into an egg-flipping pan that takes your motor and flipping skills to the edge. The chicken will drop many types of eggs, which the user should flip at the right timing and plate. Both surprising and full of fun elements, iPan features excellent graphics and very catchy music that gets harder as you play - to a point where it is almost impossible.
• Fidel Lainez has released VideoFix 2.0, an update to his popular video processing app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. VideoFix allows anyone to process their videos, improving the image quality or applying effects. With six different highly configurable filters, the possibilities are endless. With this release, VideoFix adds support for additional video resolutions, improves the performance and expands the different filters with new configuration options.
• SugarSync, Inc., has announced it has updated its popular SugarSync for iOS app. The new app provides iPhone, iPad/iPad 2, and iPod Touch users with even greater access, control and sharing of files and folders, enabling increased productivity by allowing users to do many tasks that before could only be done on computers.
• Strava has announced its first mobile application for the iPhone. The Strava iPhone app, free and available now on iTunes, is the first fitness app to analyze a cyclist’s data, sending comparative results on climbs and sprints back to the user on their iPhone. GPS use by avid athletes is projected to grow by over 10 million people over the next five years and much of this growth will come from the use of smart phones as GPS recording devices. However, until today, current GPS-based offerings for both motivation and entertainment have failed to meet the unique needs of avid athletes who want more than simple route maps and summary stats. The Strava iPhone app changes the game by delivering comparative results on a rider’s performance back to the app.
• Apple iOS device owners can now access and listen to their Facebook news feed via Friends Aloud, created by VoiZapp, Inc.  It is the first iOS app to bring optimized state of the art text-to-speech technology to Facebook on all iOS devices.
• Viaden Mobile has introduced Smart Alarm Clock: sleep cycles & noise recording—an app that not only helps users optimize their sleep but also never lets them down in the morning. Most people do not even imagine what poor sleep may result in. Up-to-date technologies allowed Viaden Mobile to combat the problem in a science-backed and effective way. Finding a solution to the problem of sleep disorders, wasn’t an easy task.
• eGottlieb Solutions has released the new app Pimp Your Face using state-of-the-art technology to detect faces in your photos and then puts totally wacky hats, hair, eyes, glasses, mouths and beards on them for hilarious, ridiculous faces. All of the face parts can be resized and rotated into the perfect position. With crazy hats and hair turn yourself into Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, Captain Sparrow, an astronaut, a viking, a vampire and many, many more.
• Ongoz Games has launched Circus Pain, their latest iOS title into the App Store. The game, available for iPhone and iPad, showcases Igor, a human cannon ball whose tricks and stunts are not only death-defying but a must-see spectacle. Utilizing superb trajectory-based technology, the user must adjust and angle the cannon and its power strength in order for Igor to land on the safety net. Miss the net and hear the yelps and whimpers from Igor as plummets to the ground. Users earn points for total pain, suffering and damage caused. Circus Pain will have Igor jump through hoops -literally- and dodge obstacles along the way.

New apps for iPad only

• Dyerware has announced a recent update of feedHopper RSS Reader for the iPad. Created specifically for the iPad, feedHopper allows users the opportunity to view their favorite RSS feeds, as well as Twitter, Podcasts, and Web pages through a single polished iPad-centric platform. The newly updated fourth version of this app expands its functionality to include a “Reading Mode” option when viewing RSS feeds to format them for easier viewing.
• iGotIt Games has announced Colorflys 1.0, their new game creation for iPad. Swoop your finger around the butterflies to catch them in groups of like colors. Be careful nothing gets in your path, such as other colors or types of butterflies or even the dreaded bumblebee, as these will cause your capture to fail. Built exclusively for iPad, Colorflys features 60 awesome levels that take you through 3 different environments with Facebook and Twitter integration.
• What do you get when you mix a pair of adventurous twins, a mischievous cat and a globe with magic powers? A whole lot of fun with Alice & Andy in the Universe of Wonders. This educational iPad app lets us join the twins Alice and Andy and their cat Jo on an unforgettable journey around the world. Using a magic globe and the special words “really wish”, follow them as they explore above and below the Earth, meeting lots of new friends on the way. To celebrate the arrival of the iPad2, the developers are now offering Alice & Andy for only $3.99 for one month.

New accessories

• TrendyDigital Design has announced their release of protective cases for the Apple iPad 2: the WaterGuard series, the PadGear Folio Case series and the Dimension series. The WaterGuard enable iPad 2 owners to use the devices while they are in proximity to aqueous environments without fear of damaging their devices. The PadGear and Dimension series, on the other hand, provides ideal portable solutions for iPad2 owner’s daily interaction with their favorite gadgets.
• Vogel’s has announced the world-wide launch of the new patented RingO universal tablet mounting system for iPad 2, iPad, and Galaxy Tab, with new versions for additional tablets available at a later date.  The RingO system allows users to mount their tablet onto virtually any surface: wall, car, tile, boat, to enjoy watching movies, reading the latest news, or using any app, hands free.
• Griffin Technology, Inc., in collaboration with Threadless, released their largest-ever collection of Griffin + Threadless cases for iPhone 4. With ten new designs, it’s a motherload of awesome, and it’s now available. The Griffin + Threadless case for iPhone 4 is a slim, one-piece polycarbonate shell, perfect for deflecting dirt, dust, and dreariness. Each case features original art from the Threadless community, including (left to right from the top): Communist Party, Disc Jockey, Frozen Leviathan, In the Eye of the Aperture, Killer Mix II, Technicolour Rex, The Horde, Under the Sunset, Untitled Impossible, and When Pandas Attack.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Clicking the "Test drive now" button launches a copy of this app on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), a web service that provides on-demand compute capacity in the cloud for developers. When you click on the simulated phone using your mouse, we send those inputs over the Internet to the app running on Amazon EC2 - just like your mobile device would send a finger tap to the app. Our servers then send the video and audio output from the app back to your computer. All this happens in real time, allowing you to explore the features of the app as if it were running on your mobile device.

Gallery: Amazon Appstore Test Drive hands-on

Amazon.com lets you play with an Android virtual machine, try apps before you buy them originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Mar 2011 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hoodwinked by Kevin Pietersen and a series average of just 16, but can Australia really afford to discard their captain?

Ricky Ponting is riding out of town wearing a black hat and a bruised ego, victim of his own stretched impatience and a devilish piece of gamesmanship by Kevin Pietersen. While he looks to have survived this week's passing ignominy, his latest tangle with authority is sorely mistimed, bookending a career that started in a rage and is winding down in echoes of past misdemeanours.

A player of his standing would expect to be remembered not for the pop-eyed and ill-considered rant he unleashed on the umpire Aleem Dar on day two, or even for the skittish innings that brought his participation in the fourth Test to an ugly end not long after tea on day three. Still, it would be a brave man to gamble Ponting will not respond with something heroic in the fifth Test in Sydney. And Punter is a brave man.

• Interactive guide to all the Ashes venues
• Sign up now for our weekly email The Spin
• How to stay awake during the Tests
• Follow our daily blog throughout the Ashes
• The latest news and comment on our Ashes site

It emerged last night, meanwhile, that it was Pietersen who tricked the Australian captain into his high-octane monologue at Dar after kidding him he had nicked the ball from Ryan Harris - when he knew he hadn't - that set off the Decision Referral System row on Monday. Whether it was a nod or a wink, KP put one over on Ponting.

Then, further and falsely emboldened to believe that the white hot-spot mark on Pietersen's bat was evidence of a genuine dismissal - when, clearly, it was nowhere near where the ball had innocently passed the bat - Ponting argued so vehemently with Dar and his colleague Tony Hill that it subsequently cost him a $5,400 (£3500) fine and a caution for Level 1 dissent.

More damagingly, it inspired almost universal criticism from former colleagues and fans across Australia; in five minutes of televised rage, Ponting went from keeper of the national cricket team's honour to TV villain du jour.

Ian Chappell, no stranger to curt words when captain of a team now fondly remembered as the first of the ugly Australians, wanted him suspended. Other greats, from Bill Lawry to Andrew Flintoff, poured on various degrees of scorn. A poll of fans on the Australian Broadcasting Commission's website was running 3-1 yesterday for him to be stood down.

Ponting, still nursing a cracked little finger on his left hand, thus went into bat on day three trying against all odds to rescue more than a cricket match. He was fighting for his standing as one of the finest batsmen of the modern game, and perhaps claw back some of his lost dignity.

As the determined Tasmanian crossed that 70-yard expanse of green to the wicket, it seemed he might more appropriately have made the journey in a tumbril. Yet, as fickle sporting crowds are inclined to do, the 68,733 voyeurs who had come to see the kill rose to greet him with a mixture of affectionate boos from the Barmy Army and weirdly emotional cheering from his own supporters. The full, uncertain chorus filled a ground on which he averages 62 in Tests and where he had hopes of one last major contribution. But he did not look at ease.

He fidgeted and was turned square by the moving ball, a pale imitation of the player who has graced Test cricket for 15 years with more than 12,000 runs and 39 centuries. The last of that extraordinary collection of players - Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, the Waughs, Gillespie, Langer et al - he suddenly looked all of his 36 years and the tattered green cap was not so much an emblem of defiance now, as a remnant of past glory.

Ponting's personal involvement ended with an inside edge on to his stumps after tea that barely nudged his series average above the mid teens (take out his 51 in the dead second innings in Brisbane, and his average is nine) and left his team at the mercy of a rampant Tim Bresnan and rejuvenated Graeme Swann.

But the selectors, surely, cannot drop him; Michael Clarke, his prematurely anointed understudy, is as woefully out of form, and Pup's one-day captaincy, as well as his celebrity lifestyle choices, have been inept. Besides, there is nobody else.

Ponting will survive this Ashes campaign, then hope that memories fade. He has made it known to friends he is desperate for one last trip to England, even if as just a player. They indulged the more politically astute Steve Waugh with a farewell home tour. Will they do the same for Ponting? That will be a serious test of their loyalty to a man who is on his way to losing his third Ashes series.

Even if Ponting is coming towards the end of a career garlanded in gold but tinged with a few regrets, it needs at least some perspective to dilute the vitriol that his intemperate behaviour has inspired this week.

He once was, indeed, a larrikin and there will always be some of that indefinable quality in him. But he is a fighter for his corner, too. They go hand in hand. He has been simultaneously encouraged and indulged by his cricketing culture, on the one hand lauded for his toughness, yet knocked down for his indiscretions. That is not an excuse, just an explanation.

And what of the wily Pietersen? What an unexpected wheeze it was. Justified? In the context of the modern game, it fits a pattern. You would not find many of his opponents complaining loudly. The etiquette has changed, and not so dramatically as some moralists would have you think.

Because of its carefully embroidered history and a dearth of probity elsewhere in the sporting universe, cricket has long had the reputation as the last outpost of fair play, a tenuous notion that has been stress-tested to breaking point in this Test and many others in recent years.

These are the rules by which Pointing plays, and Pietersen too. To pretend otherwise is to ignore the evidence before our eyes every time the poor umpire is implored to "go upstairs".

• Australia captain in heated confrontation with Aleem Dar
• Ponting fined 40% of his match fee

Ricky Ponting's distinguished Test career is in danger of ending ignominiously after the pressure of impending Ashes failure caused him to become embroiled in a heated confrontation with the umpire Aleem Dar.

Ponting was fiercely criticised by a gang of former Australian Test captains and was fined 40% of his match fee following his his vehement protests when Kevin Pietersen survived an appeal for a catch at the wicket.

• Interactive guide to all the Ashes venues
• Sign up now for our weekly email The Spin
• How to stay awake during the Tests
• Follow our daily blog throughout the Ashes
• The latest news and comment on our Ashes site

The available technology suggested the decision was correct but Ponting jabbed his finger in Dar's direction before moving on to continue the debate with square-leg umpire Tony Hill. The ICC could have banned Ponting from the Sydney Test had they found him guilty of a Level Two breach of their code, but instead docked him 40% of his match fee after deeming him guilty of a Level One charge of dissent.

The article of the code Ponting contravened refers to "arguing or entering into a prolonged discussion with the umpire about his decision", a charge the Australia captain admitted to.

As such the match referee, Ranjan Madugalle, was able to set the penalty without the need for a full hearing.Explaining his decision, Madugalle said: "Ricky's actions as captain of his country were unacceptable. A captain is expected to set the example and not get involved in a prolonged discussion with the on-field umpires and question their decision.

"While pleading guilty to the charge, Ricky understood that the discussion went on far too long. He apologised for his action and stated that he has nothing but respect for the umpires and his on-field actions were not intended to show disrespect to Aleem Dar or Tony Hill."

Under-pressure Ponting accepted his punishment. He said: "I entered into discussion with the umpires about the detail of the decision having viewed replays being shown on the big screen. I accept the discussion went on for too long and I understand the reasons for the dissent charge handed down by the ICC this evening.

"I was simply trying to seek clarification from the umpires regarding how the decision had been made after being referred to the third umpire. However, I would be unhappy if anyone thought I was being disrespectful towards the umpires as this wasn't my intention."

Ponting's outburst against Dar caused outrage among former Australian captains. Ian Chappell, who led Australia in 30 Tests in the early 1970s, was most scathing, calling for Ponting to be suspended.

Chappell, who, ironically some credit with introducing sledging to Australian cricket, said: "If I was adjudicating I'd think a suspension would be in order as the ICC have to get tough about this sort of thing. It's not the first time he has done that but it may be the last."

Chappell called for Ponting to be sacked as Australia's captain barely a week ago, immediately after they levelled the Test series with victory in the third Test at the Waca, saying that "in an attempt to prove his critics wrong, Ponting has become impatient for success."

Ponting has been called before the ICC three times in the past four years on dissent charges and had been fined on all three occasions. Two of the charges were regarded as a Level 1 offence – "showing dissent at an umpire's decision by actions or words" – but he also escaped with a fine for a Level 2 offence – "serious dissent" – which potentially carries a one-match suspension.

Ponting's desperation was evident as he complained lengthily and vociferously to when Pietersen survived an appeal for a catch at the wicket off the Australian quick Ryan Harris. The Australians were adamant that the Umpire Decision Review System showed that Pietersen had nicked it, but the third umpire Marius Erasmus upheld Dar's "not out" decision.

Numerous replays and the use of Hotspot thermal-imaging technology, failed to show an inside edge. The not-out decision shocked the Australians, who had watched replays on the MCG's two giant video screens and were mistakenly convinced that they seen a Hotspot mark. The mark, in reality, was at the bottom of the bat, much lower than the trajectory of the ball, and was thought to have been caused by either by Pietersen's bat brushing his pad or even by him tapping the bat on the ground shortly before delivery.

About seven minutes later, Snickometer supported Erasmus' decision, but by then Ponting had finally cracked under the strain, gesticulating angrily. He is averaging 15.5 in the series, is playing in this Test with a broken little finger and is danger of becoming only the second Australian captain to lose three Ashes series' against England, as well as the first to lose an Ashes series in Australia for more than 20 years.

Ponting, as captain, had a right to intervene and politely ask the umpire for information, but his prolonged complaints appalled many former Australian captains, many of whom sit in judgment in the Channel 9 commentary box.

Bill Lawry, who led Australia in 25 Tests, railed that Ponting's dissent was "unacceptable," and Mark Taylor, the captain in an all-conquering era in the late 1990s, also observed that he should be called before the match referee.

Dar, the ICC's umpire of the year in the past two years, and outstanding in this Ashes series, remained impeccably calm, seemingly explaining that the Hotspot mark had not been caused by the ball before bringing a largely one-way conversation to a close by walking calmly to square leg for the start of the next over. Ponting then continued his argument, first with Pietersen and then with the other on-field umpire, Tony Hill.

As boos rang out from a 67,149 crowd, Barmy Army supporters chanted: "You'll be sacked in the morning." Even the ECB's official Twitter feed was critical. @ECB_Cricket said: "Ponting did not take kindly to that review going against Australia and had a lengthy argument with Aleem Dar. Disappointing to see."

Barely a year ago, the English umpire Mark Benson walked out of the Adelaide Test because he could not cope with the stress of the UDRS system, then in its infancy. Ponting had expressed his mistrust of the system and had demanded meetings with the umpires, Benson included, to express his misgivings. He described the meetings as "helpful."

Initially, only the Australian wicketkeeper, Brad Haddin, had imagined that Pietersen had edged the ball and Ponting had called for a referral on that basis. With England 259-2 at the time, a lead of 161, he could feel the Ashes slipping away. His day worsened when he imagined that he had run out Jonathan Trott, on 46, from deep midwicket, but television replays showed that the batsman had made his ground by a single frame. After tea Matt Prior, on five, was given out caught behind off Mitchell Johnson, but he was spared when Dar asked for a replay and Johnson was shown to have overstepped.

Trott finished the day on 141 not out, and Prior 75 not out as they stretched their sixth-wicket stand to 158. England, at 444-5, led by 346 with three days remaining. Ponting was bereft.

It’s awards week here at the Gab, we’ve got Festivus up with the Sleestack and Gabby’s handed out to those who more than deserve recognition. Now it’s time to pass out a few Tool awards for the select few that went way beyond the call of duty letting everyone know the whole world revolves around them, and this year we’ve been blessed with plenty of candidates to choose from. Let me start with the runner’s up before we hand out the Platinum Plunger for Tool of the Year.

Golden Commode Award: This year we proved out the theory that the worse fans in sports come from the great Philadelphia area. At a Phillies-Washington game earlier this season, Captain Michael Vangelo and his two daughters aged 16 and 11 were being taunted by a group of unruly fans, and when his 16 year old asked the men to stop swearing things got out of hand even more. Vangelo went to complain to security and the group was ejected, but two other fans seated nearby continued to harass them by spitting on the 11 year old and spilling beer on their back. Matthew Clemmens who also was unruly at one point in the game went to the seats behind the family, positioned himself just so, stuck his finger down his throat and puked all over the kids. The father immediately began to defend his kids and when other fans nearby saw what was going on they too jumped in and tuned up Clemmens. Clemmens was arrested on array of charges but there was a good outcome, a fan close to where the kids were sitting had caught a foul ball and went over and gave it to Vangelo’s 11 year old daughter. He must have been a Nationals fan. For Mr. Clemmens we have a lifetime supply of Emetrol for nausea and this Golden Commode for those times when you just have to purge!

Golden Screwgun Award: This year we saw that the ability to play some defense can and will bring you riches, but there’s one problem, if you pay that player in advance you’ll have a hard time getting him to earn it. For Albert Haynesworth this rings true, he cashed a $21 million check in April then refused to play in the defense scheme that newly hired coach Mike Shanahan was implementing. Obviously switching from one defense to another warrants hold-outs, lack of participation and going on the record telling your GM you won’t communicate with your “boss”. Who does this fucking guy really think he is? There’s a lot of blame to go around in Washington and if I chose too I could more than likely nominate Dan Snyder for a couple of Tool awards as well, but what Haynesworth did was tip an entire team upside down and got paid to do it, and paid very well, that is until he got suspended the last four weeks of the season. The Redskins have undoubtedly opened the door to rid themselves of this douche, but before he jams out of DC we’d like to hand him the Golden Screw Gun Award for putting the screws to the Washington Redskins and for taking being an overpaid slouch to a whole new level!

Tool of the Year: After checking in on the Festivus awards I see that this guy has already taken home some hardware. This TOOL has even trumped Brett Favre when it comes to ego, and who here at the Gab ever thought that was possible? From his LOOK AT MEEEEE talc tossing, his Twitter updates telling us how great it is to be him or his long awaited “Decision” that the World Wide Leader in Spin counted down on a specially created web page with clock, this guy has shown he’ll do whatever he can to win a championship except one thing, really earn it. Instead this Self-Anointed “King” who has no ring, connived and planned an exit from Cleveland, pissing off an entire city where he not only played his entire pro career, but high school ball as well, having come from nearby Akron. He did it in one now infamous sentence…”I’m taking my talents to South Beach”. When he finally uttered these words he had bored millions with self-importance and all the while never mentioned the city that had held this Tool close to their bosom. It almost seemed like he had just gone pro, Cleveland was a distant memory, but that was evident after he tore his game jersey off as he exited the court in Boston, where just a few minutes prior he wandered around the court giving up on his team and any chance of a comeback, falling to the Celtics again and heading home to do whoever it is he does in the offseason, perhaps a Kardashian, but not his baby mama.

It’s this type of behavior we’ve come to expect from this self-promoting douche bag, he’s not about team, he’s only about Team LeBron, that’s it. He may have manipulated everyone into thinking he has heart but in reality he has streets named after him – One Way. This TOOL hasn’t won dick yet on the court but he has won numerous TOTW awards in the past 51 weeks, so what better way to close out the year but to hand him the one award he truly has earned…the Tool of the Year Award; Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you LeBron “LOOK AT MEEEEEEEE” James! Congratulations LJ, now bend over so I can insert the Platinum Plunger by Binford right where it belongs.

Congratulations to all our LOSERS, err Winners!

It’s awards week here at the Gab, we’ve got Festivus up with the Sleestack and Gabby’s handed out to those who more than deserve recognition. Now it’s time to pass out a few Tool awards for the select few that went way beyond the call of duty letting everyone know the whole world revolves around them, and this year we’ve been blessed with plenty of candidates to choose from. Let me start with the runner’s up before we hand out the Platinum Plunger for Tool of the Year.

Golden Commode Award: This year we proved out the theory that the worse fans in sports come from the great Philadelphia area. At a Phillies-Washington game earlier this season, Captain Michael Vangelo and his two daughters aged 16 and 11 were being taunted by a group of unruly fans, and when his 16 year old asked the men to stop swearing things got out of hand even more. Vangelo went to complain to security and the group was ejected, but two other fans seated nearby continued to harass them by spitting on the 11 year old and spilling beer on their back. Matthew Clemmens who also was unruly at one point in the game went to the seats behind the family, positioned himself just so, stuck his finger down his throat and puked all over the kids. The father immediately began to defend his kids and when other fans nearby saw what was going on they too jumped in and tuned up Clemmens. Clemmens was arrested on array of charges but there was a good outcome, a fan close to where the kids were sitting had caught a foul ball and went over and gave it to Vangelo’s 11 year old daughter. He must have been a Nationals fan. For Mr. Clemmens we have a lifetime supply of Emetrol for nausea and this Golden Commode for those times when you just have to purge!

Golden Screwgun Award: This year we saw that the ability to play some defense can and will bring you riches, but there’s one problem, if you pay that player in advance you’ll have a hard time getting him to earn it. For Albert Haynesworth this rings true, he cashed a $21 million check in April then refused to play in the defense scheme that newly hired coach Mike Shanahan was implementing. Obviously switching from one defense to another warrants hold-outs, lack of participation and going on the record telling your GM you won’t communicate with your “boss”. Who does this fucking guy really think he is? There’s a lot of blame to go around in Washington and if I chose too I could more than likely nominate Dan Snyder for a couple of Tool awards as well, but what Haynesworth did was tip an entire team upside down and got paid to do it, and paid very well, that is until he got suspended the last four weeks of the season. The Redskins have undoubtedly opened the door to rid themselves of this douche, but before he jams out of DC we’d like to hand him the Golden Screw Gun Award for putting the screws to the Washington Redskins and for taking being an overpaid slouch to a whole new level!

Tool of the Year: After checking in on the Festivus awards I see that this guy has really already taken home some hardware. This TOOL has even trumped Brett Favre when it comes to ego, and who here at the Gab ever thought that was possible? From his LOOK AT MEEEEE talc tossing, his Twitter updates telling us how great it is to be him or his long awaited “Decision” that the World Wide Leader in Spin counted down on a specially created web page with clock, this guy has shown he’ll do whatever he can to win a championship except one thing, really earn it. Instead this Self-Anointed “King” who has no ring, connived and planned an exit from Cleveland, pissing off an entire city where he not only played his entire pro career, but high school as well, having come from nearby Akron. He did it in one now infamous sentence…”I’m taking my talents to South Beach”. When he finally uttered these words he had bored millions with self-importance and all the while never mentioned the city that had held this Tool close to their bosom. It almost seemed like he had just gone pro, Cleveland was a distant memory, but that was evident after he tore his game jersey off as he exited the court in Boston, where just a few minutes prior he wandered around the court giving up on his team and any chance of a comeback, falling to the Celtics again and heading home to do whoever it is he does in the offseason, perhaps a Kardashian, but not his baby mama.

It’s this type of behavior we’ve come to expect from this self-promoting douche bag, he’s not about team, he’s only about Team LeBron, that’s it. He may have manipulated everyone into thinking he has heart but in reality he has streets named after him – One Way. This TOOL hasn’t won dick yet on the court but he has won numerous TOTW awards in the past 51 weeks, so what better way to close out the year but to hand him the one award he truly has earned…the Tool of the Year Award; Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you LeBron “LOOK AT MEEEEEEEE” James! Congratulations LJ, now bend over so I can insert the Platinum Plunger by Binford right where it belongs.

Congratulations to all our LOSERS, err Winners!

• 'Ricky has been an amazing leader, a wonderful player'
• Around 25,000 Australia fans walk out of MCG early

Australia began the Boxing Day Test hoping for the largest Test crowd in history, but instead they were treated to one of the largest mass walk-outs. Australia are not the sort of team to abandon hopes of retaining the Ashes after one day of a Test, and Ricky Ponting is certainly not that sort of cricketer, but as the Melbourne public left the ground in their thousand, they made it abundantly clear that they believed this was a series all over bar the sledging.

Almost an hour before the close, about 25,000 in a crowd of more than 84,000 had taken a view and headed for the exits. Some of those who remained would have headed for the exits had they not been too drunk to find them. The quickest way to sober them up would have been to tell them the score: Australia 98 all out, England 157 for nought.

It was a chilly evening, and England's control with ball and bat was unrelenting, but with the series still standing at 1-1 the extent of Australian disillusionment was remarkable. The MCG might have achieved that record Test crowd, beating the 90,800 who watched Australia face West Indies in 1961, only for about 12,000 reserved seats for Melbourne CC members, AFL members and corporates, to remain unused. The Melbourne club has promised to review its ticket policy.

For the captain Ponting, it was a thoroughly depressing day, his prospects of becoming only the second Australia captain to lose three Ashes series now a distinct possibility, his potential retirement from Test cricket openly discussed. A large group had travelled over from Mowbray CC, his childhood club in Launceston, Tasmania, a trip planned months ago in the belief that they might witness him regain the Ashes. Instead, they may have been paying homage for almost the final time.

Michael Clarke, the vice-captain and heir apparent, is now required to issue supportive Ponting statements at regular intervals. This was his latest, a further denial that, at 36, Ponting's future is now in doubt.

"I don't think it is in doubt at all," he said. "Ricky has been an amazing leader, a wonderful player for a long time. His record in international cricket speaks for itself. He has copped a fair bit of criticism of late and no doubt he would like to be scoring more runs, as a lot of us would be, but there is no doubt that Ricky should be the captain for Australia and he should be the No3 batter for Australia.

"Runs are around the corner for him. Every single player in that dressing room supports him. He is too good a player not to turn it around. Hopefully in the second innings he can score one of those big double hundreds he has scored before."

The MCG pitch started damp, the skies were overcast; onerous conditions for a captain batting with a broken little finger of his bottom hand. When Chris Tremlett unleashed an excellent delivery to have him caught at second slip for 10, his Ashes record in this series limped to 93 runs at an average of 15.5. It is Mike Hussey's wicket that England now crave, not that of Ponting, who is second perhaps only to Bradman among Australian batsmen and that is a situation that few would have imagined at the start of the series.

Clarke told it roughly as it was: a bad toss to lose, followed by poor technique against the moving ball as all 10 Australian wickets fell in the close-catching cordon, six to the wicketkeeper, Matt Prior, who collected the thin edges so easily that he did not have to dive once.

"England won the toss which was a pretty good start to the day. They bowled very well and it was perfect conditions for Jimmy Anderson," Clarke said. "We have to focus on getting better in these type of conditions. Our shot selection wasn't great. We played some poor shots.

"We obviously didn't show enough discipline. We knew after losing the toss that we had to be disciplined with our short selection and we had to leave the ball well and we just didn't do that well enough. But there are four days to go and it's a long Test match. We know we are good enough to turn it around."

After Perth, Australia had dubbed their quartet of fast bowlers "the wolf pack," and had believed their own publicity so much that they once again left out the left-arm spinner, Michael Beer, and relied entirely on Steve Smith's tyro leg-spin. Ponting calls Beer "the best spin bowler in Australia," but does not want him anywhere near his team.

"If we had won the toss that would have been the last thing we would have been speaking about," Clarke said. "That was the decision that the selectors and Punter wanted and the team supports it 100%."

Punter's punts are not working out. Neither of the two young batsmen brought in to freshen up the Australian dressing room, Phil Hughes and Smith, have the requisite technique in such conditions. Smith has supposedly been encouraged to tell jokes in the dressing room. Perhaps he should ask Ricky if he has heard the one about the disappearing crowd.

It was a year in which game-changing developments in social media competed with a new political turf wars over the 'squeezed middle'. Here a team of Observer writers and experts chart the concepts, trends and buzzwords that defined the last year and are likely to shape the next one

1 The new politics is, in fact, the old politics

Then there was the pre-election pledge to vote against any rise in tuition fees. Six months later Clegg was pushing a policy to triple them.

These shifts were damaging not just because they were old-fashioned U-turns but because they fatally undermined the party's raison d'etre – its commitment to deliver a new, honest politics. A vote for the Lib Dems, Clegg had said, would be "a vote that counts".

It was all part of his broader attempt to promote the merits of voting reform – the Lib Dems' core policy. Fair votes through proportional representation would mean that everyone's vote would matter and everyone's voice would be heard.

Floating the idea of "new politics" and calling for an end to the duopoly of the "old parties" made Clegg more popular than Churchill for a while. But it is dangerous to take the moral high ground in politics.

A mid-December poll for the News of the World found 61% of respondents saying that they didn't trust Clegg, compared to 24% in April. In a few months, he had gone from being one of the most trusted politicians to one of the least trusted.

To many, the "new politics" had begun to feel very much like old politics – if not rather worse, as angry protests hit the streets and chants rang out about promises broken.

Toby Helm, political editor

2 Kanye West is pop's top innovator

The contrast with this year could scarcely be greater, with the rapper's fifth album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, voted the best of 2010 by publications including Time magazine, Rolling Stone, Billboard and Spin, as well as by influential music website Pitchfork.

Dazzlingly inventive, the album lived up to the expectations that West himself had placed on it: breaking with conventional practice, he eschewed print interviews but turned up at the offices of Facebook and Twitter to rap early versions of his songs to staff there. West, pictured left, then tweeted his followers, hilariously, with his thoughts on everything from Persian rugs to the merits of Leonard Bernstein.

This week's latest aphorism? "Black is the new black."

Caspar Llewellyn Smith

3 A finger bone made us rethink the Tree of Life

Crucially, the Denisova hominid was the first to be identified from its DNA alone, its structure indicating that modern humans and the unknown cave dweller shared a common ancestor a million years ago. By contrast, humans and Neanderthals – a separate species of human that became extinct 40,000 years ago – shared a common ancestor only 450,000 years ago.

The uncovering of the new species is particularly intriguing because it follows the discovery, in 2004, of Homo floresiensis – the Hobbit folk of Flores, in the East Indies. Members of the latter species of tiny cavemen were still living 13,000 years ago.

This means that in the very recent past there were at least four different human beings in existence: Neanderthals, Denisova hominids, Hobbit folk, and, of course, Homo sapiens. The notion that human evolution progressed in a simple, single line, from ape to human, is simply wrong. Our species has continued to experiment and create different forms throughout its existence – with Homo sapiens only recently emerging as the winner.

Robin McKie, science editor

4 WikiLeaks suggested that secrets are no more

Chief among them seems to be the fact that even the best resourced and most confidential of organisations can no longer rely on a properly secure intelligence network. What once could be stamped "top secret" and locked away in a filing cabinet now becomes digitised and potentially accessible to any number of people with a keyboard and a broadband connection. Diplomats, politicians and business leaders around the world will no doubt overnight become more circumspect about expressing any for-your-eyes-only opinion.

The phrase "citizen journalism" often attaches itself to WikLeaks, as if this was a new phenomenon, but journalism has always relied on leaks and tipoffs and secrets from the wider public. What the internet, and its communities of information gatherers, allows is for this to be done on a more epic and anonymous scale. In this new world, as Julian Assange has acknowledged by using trusted news organisations to reveal the secrets, the process of editing and sifting and contextualising stories becomes more crucial than ever.

If WikiLeaks represents one version of future transparency, recent events have also revealed how those with information to protect will begin to shape the argument against that transparency. Assange was originally scrupulous in trying to avoid his medium becoming the message: it was the information that was important, not the individual or organisation that brought it to the public domain. As the bizarre circus around Assange now proves, however, news generally refuses to be depersonalised. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the particular extradition case, there will always be interests that will move to undermine and destroy the messenger, even as they lose control of the message.

Tim Adams

5 Billionaires can be highly generous

One result was that Buffett and Gates went public in June with what they called the Giving Pledge, an appeal to the conscience of their fellow billionaires that now was the time to donate half their wealth to solving some of the world's problems. So far, 40 have signed up. Buffett had set the ball rolling by pledging 99% of his $70bn (£45.5bn) fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

You can see how the Giving Pledge is developing at givingpledge.org and read letters from, among others, Michael Bloomberg, Paul Allen, Ted Turner and George Lucas. Bloomberg writes: "The reality of great wealth is that you can't spend it and you can't take it with you. For decades, I've been committed to giving away the vast majority of my wealth to causes that I'm passionate about. And so I am enthusiastically taking the Giving Pledge, and nearly all of my net worth will be given away in the years ahead."

Sceptics say charity and aid never transformed societies. Gates and Buffett, though, point to the fact that in a few short years of their targeted health policies they have eradicated polio from all but three countries; they now have their sights on malaria. You can only hope the Giving Pledge proves contagious.

Tim Adams

6 Great fiction can still make a huge impact

Not everyone was so bowled over: one leading US magazine described the book as a "576-page monument to insignificance", while novelists Jennifer Weiner and Jodi Picoult complained on Twitter about white male authors getting all the attention. By the time Freedom reached Britain, in late September, its momentum was irresistible; not even the small matter of an error-strewn first print run could derail it.

It all helped to turn Franzen into the most talked-about writer of 2010 – and Freedom the best, or most overrated, novel of the year, decade, or perhaps the century.

William Skidelsky, books editor

7 German foreign policy is no longer about atonement

Chancellor Angela Merkel had little choice but to bail out the single currency – Germany had as much to lose as any member if it collapsed – but the debate revealed a change in self-image. Germany has traditionally seen integration with neighbours not only as a question of economic advantage but of moral urgency. It was a duty to atone for the sins of Nazism.

Time has weakened the taboo. Germany wants to behave like every other country, and not be embarrassed to promote its national interest. During the boom, it was well served by the euro. But broke members can quickly become a drag. Germany, meanwhile, feels a certain pious resentment for having run a budget surplus, staying sober at the financial party while everyone else got drunk. Now it's closing time, the other euro members come pestering Berlin for lifts home.

Sorry, no money for petrol either. Merkel sits testily behind the wheel, but patience is running thin. In the future, Germany cannot be relied upon as Europe's designated driver.

Rafael Behr, chief leader writer

8 Students are leading the way in social protest

It began with a march that saw 50,000 students, lecturers, schoolchildren, anarchists and more pour on to the streets of London in protest at the prospect of tuition fees being almost trebled to £9,000 a year. For years, students had been dismissed as apathetic, but here they were leading the way. A peaceful march turned violent, with protesters breaking into the Conservative headquarters at Millbank. Soon recriminations were flying. But one thing was clear: the events of 10 November tapped into a mood in the country and triggered the start of a youth movement that would keep going, a great force unleashed by a response to a policy about fees that came alongside the largest cuts to public services in a generation. From then on the students – and other young people – kept on coming, from organised marches in Westminster to impromptu rallies elsewhere.

Some events were dominated by anarchists and the far left, but often it was the students themselves leading the way, unmasked and angry. The passion of the young, it seems, had not gone away – it was just waiting to be reignited.

Anushka Asthana, policy editor

9 Bond vigilantes are new masters of the universe

The "vigilantes", however, are not evil speculators or millionaire investors, but professionals in London, Frankfurt and Zurich who want their money back. They press countries to slash ballooning deficits as they fear that after the spending extravaganza seen in Britain, Spain, Greece and Ireland over the past decade, these sovereign nations may not be able to pay them back.

The prime ministers of Britain, Spain and Greece had to succumb to the new masters as the year progressed, even if that caused riots on the streets.

Elena Moya

10 Many of us live in the squeezed middle

People earning much less – the majority – have been pushed by the recession to live on narrow margins indeed. Many were kept afloat in the boom by low interest rates, low inflation and easy access to credit. Their insecurity in a chilly economic climate emerged this year as perhaps the most important force shaping British politics.

"We must understand," Ed Miliband wrote, "why, despite all that was achieved over the last decade, so many people who work hard and want to get on came to feel squeezed."

As political rhetoric "the squeezed middle" is a felicitous phrase, but the concept is baggy. The political class that touts its empathy has no real experience of meagre wages and unemployment. Media portrayals of what is "middle class" often depict an elite tier, which persuades itself it is "average" by enviously eyeing the opulence of footballers and bankers.

Meanwhile, VAT goes up at the start of next year. Inflation is rising and with it the prospect of higher interest rates and mortgage arrears. Ever more people will be caught in the middle.

Rafael Behr

11 The iPad promised to transform publishing

Apps, they discovered, might only dress content up in a different way, but with some clever customisation consumers perceive enough value to pay for it. After giving away content for years in the name of audience building, and then charging pennies for tentative iPhone apps, the iPad demonstrated that publishers could charge anything up to £4.99, resulting in digital, at last, paying something like the same as print.

Even Rupert Murdoch made no attempt to disguise his enthusiasm for what he described as a "game-changing device". News Corp has reportedly been working with Apple on "The Daily", a dedicated iPad newspaper to be launched in January – complete with video and 3D content.

But publishers are unwise to rely too heavily on the iPad for salvation. An expensive and niche device, it can only supplement rather than replace the desktop screen. Publishers still need to find a way to make the internet pay – and on a platform that doesn't involve handing a 30% cut to Apple with every sale.

Jemima Kiss

12 Super salmon could help feed the world

Robin McKie

13 Deepwater drilling is a complex business

The disaster caused an underwater rupture that left oil gushing into the ocean for almost three months. Just how much oil polluted the water is still fiercely debated – the US government says it was five million barrels' worth. BP, which is obliged to pay a fine of at least $1,100 per barrel spilled, insists the true figure was 20% to 50% lower. Either way, it was an enormous quantity, scarring delicate wetland wildernesses and suspending the livelihoods of thousands along America's coast.

The spill prompted the Obama administration to impose an embargo on deepwater drilling as engineers struggled to understand how several failsafe mechanisms had failed – including a sophisticated blowout preventer intended to slam shut the pipe.

Initially, BP alone was blamed by the White House. More recently, investigators have suggested Britain's biggest company shared responsibility with two US subcontractors – Transocean, which owned the rig, and Halliburton, accused of botching a cement job intended to seal the well. For BP and the rest of the oil industry, the consequences of a human and environmental tragedy will reverberate for years to come.

Andrew Clark, business editor

14 Kinect allows us all to play

With Kinect, gaming is all about breaking down the barrier between you and your TV. In the future, we'll get games where we become virtual actors, talking to on-screen characters. But for now, the sheer delight of moving your arms and seeing an on-screen character mimic the motion is enough. It could be that advanced motion control is to games what the introduction of sound was to movies; a major gear shift. Certainly we learned what the Wii hinted at – that everyone can play.

Keith Stuart

15 Facebook sought to outgoogle Google

The subject of David Fincher's film The Social Network this year, Zuckerberg now strikes terror into the hearts of his commercial rivals. Google clearly views Apple and Facebook, rather than Microsoft, as the enemy – certainly in terms of the advertising that generates 97% of Google's revenues, $22.89bn (£14.87bn) for 2009.

Social media is the one key area where Google has largely failed, and Facebook has proved there is money to be made. More worrying for Google, Facebook is also having some success in convincing consumers that the best way to navigate the web is through the opinions and recommendations of a network of friends and contacts.

Facebook is rapidly translating that behaviour into advertising revenue, delivering personalised, cost-effective targeting. Estimates put Facebook's revenues at $2bn for 2010.

The last straw for Google may prove to be a draining away of talent. Facebook is fast siphoning off the best engineers. With around a tenth of Google's 23,300-strong employees, Facebook is smaller, lighter and crucially faster. And with Facebook "almost guaranteed" to reach a billion users, according to Zuckerberg, Google will have to get used to sharing the limelight.

Jemima Kiss

17 China is chasing the US for global supremacy

Two years ago, with the global financial system on the brink of meltdown, the world's leading powers managed to co-ordinate their response at summits of the G20 group of nations. In 2010, that co-operative spirit died. The main reason was an epic rivalry between China and the US – the G2. In August, China edged past Japan to take second place behind the US in the league of large economies, with gross domestic product of around $1.3 trillion.

But the new superpower's growth relies on pumping cheap exports into consumer markets abroad. Battered by recession, US manufacturers see subsidised Chinese exports as tools of economic aggression. In November, a G20 summit resulted in a tepid agreement by all nations to try to "resist protectionist measures". That was code for an uneasy truce between Washington and Beijing – but neither is in any doubt that the race for supremacy is now on.

Rafael Behr

18 Bankers still like, and get, their bonuses

Big bonuses will be paid out again for 2010. Wall Street was forecast to pay out the second-highest level of bonuses on record, by the state comptroller of New York, Thomas DiNapoli, while in the City of London a healthy bonus season was also expected.

In a world where public spending is being axed, jobs cut almost every day and wages being frozen, financiers continue to party on. Their lives have changed a bit. New European rules mean that no more than 20% of bonuses might be given in cash with the rest in shares and spread out for a few years. The Irish government halted the Christmas plans for bankers at Allied Irish Banks. Embattled Irish finance minister Brian Lenihan refused to hand over bailout cash to AIB if the bank went ahead with €40m (£34m) of bonus payments to 2,400 staff. So something did change – in Ireland at least.

Jill Treanor, deputy city editor

19 Craig Venter created artificial life (or not)

Earth's dwindling number of species got an unexpected boost in May when scientists announced they had created the first synthetic life form. The $40m project was led by Craig Venter, the US geneticist, right, and involved creating an organism, which at its core had an entirely synthetic genome constructed from laboratory chemicals. "It's a living species now, part of our planet's inventory of life," said Venter, who claims such bacteria could one day be used to make biofuels, soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and even make vaccines.

However, the British biologist and Nobel prize winner Sir John Sulston said the result was "clever and pretty" but not artificial life. "This is just an attempt to monopolise, through the patenting system, essentially all the tools for genomic manipulation," Sulston said. "These tools should be in the public domain. Monopolistic control of this kind would be bad for science, bad for consumers and bad for business, because it removes the element of competition."

Robin McKie

20 American politics is almost broken

Today's US government is almost completely gridlocked – and astonishingly vulnerable to vested interests. President Obama and Congress cannot get to grips with the scale of the budget deficit, nor the need to contain the threat of a new financial crisis. Corporations write the law. The public realm is hollowed out, and most public institutions, from education to the transport infrastructure, are decaying – there seems little hope of turning the tide.

Reason is close to impossible with the Tea Party. And adherence to common values is disintegrating. The American centre is crumbling, and with it economic, social and political power.

Will Hutton

When Robin Pemberton uttered those four words last year in January, a lot of people were curious as to how the drivers would react. Most thought it would equal some emotions being shown, but at the end of the year, it went beyond just a little bit of emotion.

It was easily seen that Kyle Busch would be the poster boy for it, via some of his antics in the past. These antics have some fans not liking Busch for who he is.

A simple poll of the fans easily shows that one of the drivers that seems to be on everybody’s list is Kyle Busch. In asking a group of fans as to why, you quickly get the sense it has to do with attitude and actions like the above.

“He just gives off this vibe that he is better then everybody else and it’s all about him,” Evan Towle said. “Sort of like a young Tony Stewart used to be. Tony used to get on my nerves when he first started in NASCAR, but now he has matured and I like him.”

“I tend to agree with a lot of the way Kyle Busch acts,” Kyle Sedan said. “Sometimes it’s rather annoying.”

“Arrogant attitude, expects respect on the track but doesn’t give it back, whines about others when he is doing the same thing, fake,” one fan commented.

“His attitude,” Cathy Gamble Costigan simply puts it.

If you take his attitude out of the equation, then a lot of people seem to have respect for him.

“I am, personally, a Tony Stewart fan, but for Kyle, love him or hate him, he is a damn good driver,” Mike Hearty said. “Race wins don’t lie.”

“I do really like his support/involvement and commitment to short-track racing.” Sedan added.

A lot of people have been debating that he needs to change, which has come with mixed reactions.

Towle says, “We don’t need him, as the sport is doing fine without his babyish acts.”

In some ways, there are certain things that Busch has to become better at, such as some of the things that we saw this past weekend.

However overall, the sport needs somebody like Busch. His actions do spruce things up and add something different to the sport, and are needed to invoke discussion and rivalry. If everybody was the same cut, wouldn’t it get boring after a while?

As Mike Hearty and Kyle Sedan both say, it adds to the sport.

“I personally love Kyle’s attitude myself,” Hearty said. “NASCAR is entertainment and Kyle entertains in any way he can. Each sport needs a standout person the fans can have a choice to love or hate and he is the one. I do believe, though, when he matures more, his attitude will die down. I think he is young, a star and living in the moment right now.”

“People either 'love him' or 'love to hate him',” Sedan says. “So he most definitely adds to the sport, and it is good for it.”

This year was no exception as he added his own version of "Have at it Boys" to each of the divisions.

Sprint Cup Series All-Star Race with Denny Hamlin

After teammate Denny Hamlin took the air off the back of Busch's car during the Sprint All-Star Race, Busch wasn't too pleased at all as he called Hamlin out on it.

"Somebody better keep me from Denny Hamlin after this race!" Busch yelled on the radio. "I had this race won. It was won.”

Busch then drove the car to the garage area, parking directly in front of Hamlin's hauler. He went inside and waited till Hamlin got there, where they had a discussion with car owner Joe Gibbs in the middle.

“Kyle had a run to the outside and with me moving up and getting real tight, it then took some air away from the front of his car and he slid up into the wall. It’s tough for me,” Hamlin told Speed. “We talked about it and basically Kyle was just frustrated; he felt like he had a really good car. Me, I just came from the back with no practice and got back to the front where we needed to be and I felt like if I gave up the lead right there then I was going to give up the win.

“I don’t think Kyle would do anything different if he was in my situation. It’s just when you’re the leader, my feeling is that you’ve got the whole race track. If a guy is to the outside. then that’s when you need to hold your line.”

Nationwide Series Food City 250 Bristol Race with Brad Keselowski

As the Nationwide race was getting closer to ending, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski were battling hard for the lead. After contact from Keselowski caused Busch to hit the wall, Busch drove back up to Keselowski's bumper, spinning him.

"I raced him, raced him, raced him, I don't know, 12-15 laps? I thought I had him cleared up the back and I moved up in front of him and instead of him doing an [Dale] Earnhardt crossover, he decided to just run into the back of me and put me in the fence," Busch said.

"That's Brad Keselowski. So I went down into the next corner and I dumped him. He does it to everybody else, why can't I do it to him?"

Busch won the race while Keselowski ended up 14th.

"He did a good job, almost cleared me and took it for granted that I would lift to let him in line and I didn't," Keselowski said. "That's his right. We're going to go to work on beating him next week, and the week after and every other week."

In his victory celebration, he changed it up by mocking somebody crying like a baby instead of his bow to go along with the reaction of the fans.

Truck Series Built Ford Tough 225 at Kentucky and Championship Battle with Todd Bodine

Early in the race, it was set in stone that it would come down to a battle between Todd Bodine and Kyle Busch. On lap 82 while battling for the lead, Busch took the air off of Bodine's truck causing him to spin. Though this ended up helping Bodine as with the unscheduled pit stop and resulting strategy, he came out as the winner while Busch finished seventh.

"Our misfortune turned out to be a fortune," Bodine said in victory lane. "I'd like to thank Kyle Busch for driving dirty, sucking me down and getting me spun out. That (stop) gave me enough gas. He doesn't cut anybody a break. He drives that way in every division in every race."

Upon hearing the comments, Busch interrupted Bodine's victory celebration to display his displeasure.

"He (Busch) doesn't have to drive like that to win; but he does," Bodine said. "NASCAR won't do anything about it. He was mad because I called him out on it."

This confrontation at Kentucky promoted a long, hard battle for the Owner's Championship between Germain Racing (Todd Bodine's team) and Kyle Busch Motorsports.

Martinsville was no exception to their battle as they fought hard side-by-side, and at one point, Bodine was accused of trying to fool Busch on a restart.

"If they think I was trying to do a slow restart to fool Kyle Busch, they are wrong," Bodine said on the radio at that time. "I just didn't get a good restart. Message delivered—I'll work on it."

In the end, it was KBM coming out on top.

The Complete Texas Weekend

On Friday, Kyle Busch won the Camping World Truck Series race to take over the owner's points championship standings for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

On Saturday, Busch finished second to Carl Edwards in the Nationwide Series race, though was unhappy about it as he thought Edwards jumped the start.

“Does it f—- matter?” Busch said afterwards. “Race is over, guy’s in Victory Lane.”

On Sunday, Busch stirred up controversy again, following repairs that he had to make on pit road after a wreck.

Under caution, Busch sped off pit road to try to beat the pace car and stay on the lead lap. He caught up, but NASCAR penalized him one lap for speeding.

Busch then went on a rant on the radio against NASCAR and showed the officials the middle finger on pit road, which incurred a penalty of two laps for driver misconduct.

"I'm the only one who will stand up to 'em, and they're gonna show me how far I can stand up," Busch said on the radio after the penalty. He then added that it was freedom of speech, going against the constitutional rights of everybody.

NASCAR penalized Busch $25,000 and putting him on probation until December 31st for "actions dentimental to the sport of stock car racing".

Busch released the following statement following the announcement...

“I accept NASCAR’s penalty and realize what I did during Sunday’s race at Texas was inappropriate.

“Even in my relatively short time here in NASCAR, it’s pretty obvious to everyone that I wear my emotions on my sleeve. Sometimes that passion has allowed me to find that little something extra I needed to win, and other times it’s made me cross the line. Sunday at Texas was one of those days.

 “I lost my cool, plain and simple. It’s not acceptable, and I know that. I apologize to NASCAR, its fans, all the partners who support Joe Gibbs Racing, and all the people who work so hard to give me a race car that’s capable of winning races every week. All of those people deserve better from me, and I owe it to them to keep my emotions in check.”

Busch had other key incidents this year, including an argument with Jeff Burton. Though with them all, he just kept being himself and holding his part in the "Have at it Boys" policy.

During the next couple of weeks, I will reflect upon these incidents as we look back at what all broke loose in 2010.  

But the groundsman has suggested the MCG will be a totally different hunting ground

They now call them "the wolf pack". They are the symbol of Australia's cricket renaissance. And no matter how much logic suggests that they should be split up for the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, they are howling for their right to hunt once more.

Shane Watson growled in excitement when Australia's quartet of fast bowlers gathered together for a huddle at nets ahead of the Boxing Day Test. "There they are – the wolf pack," he roared approvingly.

Mitchell Johnson has become the alpha wolf, and after his nine wickets at the Waca he now must permanently bare teeth – and tattoos. Alongside him stand Ryan Harris, the once-lame wolf who has made a remarkable recovery to ensure that he is not thrown out of the pack due to age and infirmity, Ben Hilfenhaus, a wolf of great stamina, best when the wind is against him, and Peter Siddle, a wolf who boasts about how much he howls, a Victorian and so the local favourite whatever his limitations.

Watson is the omega wolf, important to the pack but the submissive one: ears back, head down, tail between the legs. He is now as lowly ranked as the fifth pace bowler and was not called on during Australia's trouncing of England in the third Test. His captain, Ricky Ponting, suggested he might "bowl a few tight overs".

• Interactive guide to all the Ashes venues
• Sign up now for our weekly email The Spin
• How to stay awake during the Tests
• Follow our daily blog throughout the Ashes
• The latest news and comment on our Ashes site

Australia are in a quandary. They won their first Test in six attempts at the Waca when the wolf pack was in full cry, but the MCG is a totally different hunting ground. Even Cameron Hodgkins, the MCG curator, suggested that the pack might go hungry. There again, so might everyone. Even the groundsman makes the MCG's drop-in pitches sound inordinately dull.

"I would think on the Waca's worst day that they would still be faster and bouncier than anything we normally turn out," Hodgkins said. "The MCG has never really been accused of being fast and bouncy, it's more a wicket that offers a little bit up front and is quite flat towards the end of the match.

"Being a drop-in wicket it has not broken up to aid spin late in the match, so while it might suit fast bowlers early on with seam movement, it does little to encourage spinners later in the game. Most of the turn we've had has been on day one, something I would describe as damp turn."

All logic suggests that Australia should play a frontline spinner and give Michael Beer his debut in his home state of Victoria after only eight first-class matches. But Beer was the rejected, third-ranked spinner for Victoria, who never played a first-class game at the MCG. For him to walk on to the MCG for his Test debut in front of 90,000 people is surely unimaginable.

Ponting becomes more confident by the hour that he will play despite suffering a broken little finger of his left hand in Perth. His heart is set on four fast bowlers. "We've got to pick the best four bowlers for these conditions and the opposition we're playing," he said. "I thought the way the quicks operated last week they all complemented each other really well and played the way I wanted them to play. It's only a few months ago we went into a series against Pakistan with Steve Smith as our specialist spinner, so it's not as if we'll be left high and dry if we don't play Beer.

"There is no doubt that Australian teams throughout history have played better when they're on the edge, been aggressive and had good body language. More importantly, you're always looking to take the game forward when you're that way rather than expecting something to change for you."

Andrew Strauss is expected to lead the same damaged men into the fourth Test on Boxing Day in front of a record crowd

So we come to the climax. First Australia, then emphatically England and, just as emphatically, Australia once more. This series has tottered this way and that like a Christmas Eve drunk on his way home. On Sunday 90,000 people will journey to the MCG to see what may well prove to be the defining match. The forecast for the match is set fair but not so for the Sydney Test in the new year. It may well be that whoever comes off better in Melbourne will take the spoils.

Simplistic it may be, and clichéd, to say that the defeat in Perth was a jolt to the system, a wake-up call for the England players, but in any sport it never pays to go through the victory speech before the deed is done. There are no two more grounded individuals than the Andys, Flower and Strauss, but ultimately cricketers have to think for themselves and some players may have got a little ahead of the game. For this match normal service will be resumed.

The consistency that makes champions, and that Flower sees as his biggest challenge, has yet to materialise but rarely do England have two bad games in a row. Australia may be cock-a-hoop after their overwhelming win at the Waca but they understand well enough the potential for a backlash.

For the past few days the centre of attention has been the pitch prepared by Cameron Hodgkins. It suited some to find conspiracy in the fact that what would normally be his first-choice pitch was being discarded in favour of another. Australian groundsmen, the curators as they are called here, are fiercely independent, however, their reputations dependent on the quality of the surface they produce.

The inclement weather that has blighted Melbourne for months so hampered preparation that it was a logical expedient and plain commonsense to prepare several surfaces and then see which one was best developing. Hodgkins had decided on his pitch before the Perth Test began and all the intelligence is that, accordingly, it will play as does a Melbourne Test pitch generally: help for the new ball, off the seam largely, and then little beyond some reverse swing. Early losses can be rectified in later sessions.

Neither side has arrived in Melbourne with any certainty as to what its starting XI will be. England will certainly not be panicked into making wholesale changes and may not make any at all. Central to this is Steven Finn, who is the leading wicket-taker in the series but who also has tended to leak runs at an alarming rate at times – around a run a ball in Perth. With only three seamers, and the reluctant use of Graeme Swann, Strauss was unable to maintain the sort of control that Ben Hilfenhaus, unselfishly, was able to offer Ricky Ponting. So there is sure to be debate.

Finn's virtue is his wicket-taking capacity and there is some mitigation for his figures in Perth, where two lengths were demanded: bouncer and full length. That he was driven too frequently was a direct function of his bouncer, which was not sufficiently short or potent to force the main players, Shane Watson and Mike Hussey, on to the back foot, and which was pulled mercilessly. His full length was no different from that exploited so well by Ryan Harris in particular but, in being allowed to play it from in front of the crease rather than pinned back as England's batsmen were, Watson and Hussey were able to pick him off. When he did go short, he was pulled.

It could, and will, be argued that, if Finn is strong enough (and Flower insists he is), he should play. Certainly, in trying to rough him up, Australians are letting him know he is a concern for them. Already, with the selection of Chris Tremlett in Perth, Strauss and Flower have shown fearlessness when they might have gone for dependability.

The same might apply here. It is feasible, on a pitch that will not have the same high-octane quality as that at the Waca, that Tim Bresnan would do a steady holding job and leave the strike bowling to Jimmy Anderson and Tremlett. It is also feasible that they could take a bolder decision and go for Ajmal Shahzad, who is the most adept reverse-swinger and showed in Hobart that he can bowl effectively to left-handers. The most radical thing, though, would be to show faith in Finn. Often the best decisions are those that would please the opposition least. Finn, the Australians know, can damage them.

Beyond that England could swap Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell in the order but will not. There is a very good chance that this game and the one in Sydney will be Collingwood's last Test matches and that, by the summer – on his own initiative but probably with gentle encouragement – he will have retired from Tests to concentrate on the shorter forms. Simply knowing that the end is in sight may for now be stimulus for this most cussed of cricketers to produce something when it is needed, not just by the team but by himself.

His absence is not an option for Eoin Morgan has much to learn about Test match batting and will get the chance next summer. Collingwood's catching is so potent, not least to Swann, that it is worth runs in itself. Were he not to be there at slip for Swann, it is Anderson who has been earmarked and groomed to take on the role.

Meanwhile despite their win, Australia have more fundamental selection problems. Of course Ponting will play, even with a cracked little finger. But they must now decide whether to continue with the winning format from Perth, which – given it is 52 years since they won an MCG Test with four seamers (and even then had Richie Benaud's leg spin) and have never in 102 matches over 135 years not had a frontline spinner there – would represent a massive deviation from historical precedent. If not, they must play a spinner of no international and little first-class experience in place either of the bowler who lent them control in Perth or of the one who took a hat-trick in Brisbane. An educated guess, on the back of their win, would be for an unchanged XI.

Mitchell Johnson? Australian momentum? England's talisman has no fears ahead of the Boxing Day Test

Kevin Pietersen is cricket's high roller and the stakes could not be higher when a potential world-record Test crowd of more than 90,000 floods into the MCG on Boxing Day. When the stakes are high, Pietersen raises them with a gleam in his eye – and he has placed the lot on Mitchell Johnson.

Johnson went from world cricketer of the year to figure of fun and then took nine wickets to win the third Test for Australia in Perth with a display of fast, left-arm inswing bowling that left England in disarray. No problem, says Pietersen, England are ready for him.

• Interactive guide to all the Ashes venues
• Sign up now for our weekly email The Spin
• How to stay awake during the Tests
• Follow our daily blog throughout the Ashes
• The latest news and comment on our Ashes site

"It was just a week to forget, and now it's 1-1 going to Melbourne," Pietersen said. "If we'd been offered that at the start of the tour, I'm sure we'd have said: 'OK, let's get going.' We lost the Perth Test within half an hour: five for 20. I can promise you right now, I have no worries about momentum or anything.

"Why not? Because I know I didn't prepare for a swinging ball as much as Mitchell Johnson swung the ball. I didn't realise he could swing it back as much as he did. And none of our batters did. He's a fantastic cricketer. He's been world cricketer of the year. And I've never faced him swinging the ball back into me.

"When I did face him in the second innings and I lined myself up, I felt totally fine against him. We just didn't line him up properly. He's allowed to do that. He's a world-class bowler and he had a wonderful game of cricket. He caught us by surprise. We lost five for 20 and when you lose five for 20 you lose a Test match. Simple."

The MCG will adopt Pietersen as the pantomime villain in the Melbourne Test, an accolade given to few: Jardine, Boycott, Brearley, Botham, all in their own way representatives of the dangerous Pom. The boos will carry across the Melbourne suburbs almost to the Mornington Peninsula. You can taste his excitement.

He is approaching the Boxing Day Test in particularly edgy mood. He had not one but two mobiles by his side, and when one messaged him midway through a sentence he turned both over, instantly, as if battling an addiction. If Pietersen is resisting a tweet then something important must be building. And there were still four days to go to the Test.

"Nervous energy is always good as a sportsman. It's a great feeling. If you're not nervous then you're taking things for granted. You shouldn't be doing your job. With nerves you just want to do well. This Test is one of those where you just look at it and think: can't wait."

Pietersen thinks Johnson will not swing it as much as at the Waca. It is a fair bet because by his own admission he has never swung it as much in his life. A stiff breeze blew across the Waca and his wrist was in decent shape. Pietersen says that England's bowling coach has talked down the chance of a repeat. (The batting coach, Graham Gooch, incidentally, has gone home. Make sense of that it you can. You just can't get the staff to work Christmas.)

"According to David Saker, it doesn't swing as much at the MCG, but I'm going to prepare as though he's going to swing it," Pietersen said. "I hold my hands up and say I didn't prepare for that and I felt really, really dudded. I have to line myself up better in my stance and think he can swing it. It's a mental adjustment."

Johnson versus Pietersen has become the No1 Ashes sideshow. You have to be quite earnest not to be vaguely intrigued about the context of the entirely frivolous story about Pietersen offering Johnson his phone number. A sledge that went wrong? A display of international friendship from a player who likes to ally himself with the best? Pietersen, to his immense credit, cringes, then provides an answer. "Things that happen on the field should stay on the field," he said. "You guys love feeding him lines and he chats. I'm not talking. I was just seeing if I could be his friend. We play this game to make friends. Next question."

He insisted that talk of an Ashes sledging war is a nonsense, a relief to those observers who had imagined that they were going deaf. "The English take is that we didn't hear anything or see anything differently to what normally happens in a Test match," he said. "Having played against Warne and McGrath, the sledging here is nonexistent. You haven't seen any huge battles on the field or any proper abuse. No one's said anything to me after they bowled a ball to me.

"I don't feel intimidated by the Australians. We understand that they are very vulnerable – there are a lot of areas in their team that are very vulnerable. And we just need to do what we do and wipe the slate clean and forget Perth. Think about Adelaide – think about how well we did there, and how well we did in Brisbane. We're absolutely fine."

Pietersen thinks Australia's captain, Ricky Ponting, will play with a broken little finger. "I've played in a series with a finger broken. It's not a huge drama. You just numb it so you don't feel the pain. It's obviously dead. Ricky Ponting might bat without gloves, he's so tough."

Pietersen has an ego, Pietersen gushes, Pietersen messes up at the most inappropriate time. Everybody has heard the charges. But there was something impressive about a man who would politely and amusingly answer questions about just why he drove a yellow Lamborghini down the Great Ocean Road after England's win in the second Test in Adelaide and got nicked for speeding. If this is an ego, it is a happy and unabashed one, and better for that.

"I got offered the opportunity to drive a yellow car and as any 30-year-old man would do, I said 'yep'. And I went for a drive and unfortunately got caught 5-6mph over the speed limit, which I'm not proud about, but I wasn't reckless at all. I thought the speed limit was 110kph. To be honest, I hardly even had my foot on the accelerator. I was being overtaken by trucks. Can you imagine that?"

He was asked if he had got carried away by his double hundred in Adelaide. His answer was piercingly honest. "I have a fancy car at home. I live in a lovely house. I didn't sell my Ferrari when I got nought, or didn't sell anything else when I did badly over the last 18 months. Why should that affect what I do? If you look at my tweets to Warney, I was always driving that car whether I got 0 or 220. You guys read too much into things. Just let me be. I'm just enjoying my life. We have such amazing lives – just let us live."

There are times when whatever your philosophy of life you are tempted to run with Pietersen. At those times, as a cricketer, he can be at his most prolific. England's coach, Andy Flower, never misses a chance to challenge him to be the man. If he swings the Melbourne Test England's way, his reputation will be forever assured. The rest will just be gossip.

"I just think we've got a wonderful opportunity to do something that hasn't been done for 25 years," he said. "I think that's driving us all on to do something amazing. We only have to win one more Test match, or draw the next two, and we'll have done that little thing that's amazing."

Amazing is what KP wants to be. Amazing is what we may or may not be about to witness.

• Australia paceman says he plays better when sledging
• Spat with Matt Prior at Perth was 'good fun', Siddle says

Peter Siddle, Australia's hat-trick hero during the first Ashes Test at Brisbane and an integral part of the new pace quartet at the Waca, was unapologetic about his tirade at Matt Prior after dismissing the England wicketkeeper in that third Test and described sledging as "good fun" enjoyed by both the Ashes rivals.

• Interactive guide to all the Ashes venues
• Sign up now for our weekly email The Spin
• How to stay awake during the Tests
• Follow our daily blog throughout the Ashes
• The latest news and comment on our Ashes site

Siddle tore into Prior after bowling him for 12, prompting the wicketkeeper to fire back a few choice words of his own before trudging off the field. Prior revealed his anger in his newspaper column yesterday: "There are not many boxing matches when a guy knocks someone out and then kicks him when him while he's on the floor," he wrote.

But Siddle described the episode as "part of the game".

"It's always going to be there, we fight hard in the field and the emotions come out. It's always around and no doubt going to be around in the future as well," he said. "I think that's part of my game anyway. When I play my best that's what I'm doing anyway. Sometimes it comes off and sometimes it doesn't, in this case it has.

"It's just both teams going hard at it. It's good fun out there – they're at us, we're at them and it makes the game a bit more lively and no doubt the spectators like to see it.

"I enjoy having some fun with the batters and it's just the way I like to play my cricket, so if it helps the other boys get the job done, I'm happy to do it."

Australia's selectors are likely to persist with the four-man pace attack at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where the wicket is expected to favour their seamers.

Only the captain, Ricky Ponting, remains a doubt after breaking his little finger at Perth. But Siddle was bullish about Ponting's recovery and expects the Tasmanian to be fit.

"It's looking good, he's come over here confident, and he said he's holding the bat fine and all that type of thing," Siddle said. "It doesn't matter how sore you are or how injured you are I don't think you ever want to miss a Boxing Day Test, so I think everyone will definitely be 100% fit for this one."

• All our Ashes coverage
• Catch up with the Ashes daily blog
• Please comment or leave links below or email or on Twitter

KP on Mitch

"England will cope with Mitchell Johnson's swing," says Kevin Pietersen.

And on the Perth verbals, Pietersen says:

I haven't seen or heard anything different to anything that's happened in the first two Test matches let alone last year in England. There's not really any big chirpers or big sledgers. It's just England versus Australia, it's an Ashes series. Blokes get a bit of red mist occasionally. It's historic, it's huge, but there's nothing that's been overboard and if things go overboard, match referees deal with stuff like that.

Team updates (in case you missed them late yesterday)

Dependable Tim Bresnan to lead England fightback, reports David Hopps.

Parson Hopps on Ponting's injury fears and Khawaja's call up:

Mike Selvey on Mitch: "Hurricane Johnson may already have blown his worst. Without the wind to assist him at the MCG, Mitchell Johnson may not pose the threat to England that he did in Perth"

Andy Wilson reports: "MCG pitch won't be like Perth, say English groundsmen."

The Spin: Ashes humble pie the starter as series heads for its main course, says Andy Bull.

Sign up for Andy's weekly cricket email here.

A message from the ICC

The International Cricket Council's corporate communications manager Chris Hurst has been in touch with a couple of suggestions that you may like:

Use this predictor to work out how the Test rankings will be affected by this series (and the one going on in South Africa). I'm presuming that it will continue to work for future series too.

Also, to celebrate 40 years of ODIs, the ICC has a poll for the greatest one day XI ever.

Having looked at the voting options, there are some great players there, but there are going to be precious few England players in that team.

Maybe that's right, but England have been to almost as many finals as any other team (it's just that we've always lost. I was there at the MCG in '92).

AIX's Ashes

Our Aussie regular Aussieinexcelsis posted some great links yesterday. In case you didn't read them here they are:

KP is discussed by the SMH and it includes this great line: "Once Pietersen's days on the field are finished, a career as a tattooist beckons. Such is his relentless ability to get under the skin."

Watson has a bit to say on Anderson in the SMH. To my mind the pair of them act like schoolboys at times; the former a true meathead and the latter is the mean kid up the back who raises an eyebrow as he looks you in the eye and flattens the matchstick replica of a pyramid.

If you'd like a dose of Atherton then he's in the Australian and he says: Australia has a technically suspect opener, an out-of-form No 3 with a broken finger, an out-of-form No 4, a No 6 who is too high in the order and a tail that folds at the merest nudge.

Prior was a bit hurt by Siddle's sledging by his own account via Fox Sports. There is also a video there with Viscous Sid calling Beer a "youngster".

Ashes updates

All the latest Guardian news, views and comment on the Ashes 2010-11 can be found here.

Updates

This blog aims to keep you up to date with all the latest Ashes developments, linking to Guardian stories and blogs, but also to the best of the world wide web.

Please comment and/or leave links to other interesting Ashes coverage below the line. Or email steve.busfield@guardian.co.uk.

You can also keep up to date via Twitter.

• Ponting will not bat in nets until Friday due to finger injury
• Khawaja placed on standby but Australia downplay move

Australia's fears that Ricky Ponting could miss the Boxing Day Test have intensified, with the selectors calling up the prolific New South Wales batsman Usman Khawaja as cover while they monitor Ponting's anticipated recovery from a fractured finger suffered during their victory in the third Test in Perth.

The fear across Australia that Ponting might not make it will probably turn out to be more of a phobia, irrational and persistent. To add to the likes of rhytiphobia (fear of wrinkles) can now be added Rickyphobia, which is especially prevalent in Melbourne around Christmas with the Ashes at stake.

• Interactive guide to all the Ashes venues
• Sign up now for our weekly email The Spin
• How to stay awake during the Tests
• Follow our daily blog throughout the Ashes
• The latest news and comment on our Ashes site

The statement from the chairman of selectors, Andrew Hilditch, an Adelaide solicitor, possessed a lawyerly certainty that Ponting would play. "While the national selection panel are confident that Ricky Ponting will be available for the Boxing Day Test, through an abundance of caution we have named Usman Khawaja as the standby player," he said.

Ponting will not bat in the nets until Friday but with the Ashes level at 1-1 with two to play, and his own career heading for its culmination, he would expect total loyalty from the selectors if he insists on his right to play with the help of painkilling injections.

A fracture on the top of his left little finger should not restrict his ability to bat, although it will necessitate him abandoning his usual fielding position at second slip for fear of further injury. But Australia is in panic, and Hilditch's "abundance of caution" barely reached the end of the street. Instead, there was an abundance of panic at the thought that Michael Clarke, a vice‑captain who stirs the loyalty of the dressing room less easily than Ponting, might make his Test captaincy debut for the last two Tests of the series.

Both batsmen have had unproductive Ashes series. Ponting has managed only 83 runs at an average of 16.60, while Clarke has made 115 runs at an average of 23.

Khawaja, who also acted as cover when Clarke was stricken by back trouble ahead of the first Test at The Gabba, could not have been called up in more understated fashion. He was deliberately included more than 24 hours after a 12-strong squad was announced, and then only after a roll call of former Australian cricketers had predicted that Ponting would definitely play.

Justin Langer, Australia's batting coach and former opening batsman, said: "I would be amazed if Ricky doesn't play in this Test – he is that tough physically and mentally. At one-all, Boxing Day Test, a chance to win the Ashes, he will definitely be there," Langer said. "His injury might work in his favour. Rather than working too much and doing batting beforehand, this might be the breather he wanted."

The inclusion of Khawaja, a Pakistanborn left-hander who averages 75 in the Sheffield Shield this season, was praised by the former Australian bowler Stuart Clark. "It was a no-brainer," he said. "He's by far and away the best young batsman in the country at the moment."

• Uncapped Khawaja called up due to Ponting's fractured finger
• Selectors still confident Ponting will be fit for Boxing Day Test

Australia have named Usman Khawaja as a standby player in their squad for the fourth Ashes Test as the captain, Ricky Ponting, races to recover from a fractured finger. Ponting suffered the injury when he parried a catch during the third Test in Perth.

• Interactive guide to all the Ashes venues
• Sign up now for our weekly email The Spin
• How to stay awake during the Tests
• Follow our daily blog throughout the Ashes
• The latest news and comment on our Ashes site

The uncapped Khawaja has been in outstanding form in this season's Sheffield Shield, leading the run-scoring charts with 598 at an average of 74.75. And the Pakistan-born left-hander insists he is ready if called upon by his adopted country to replace Ponting. "I've said this before, I think I was ready when I was six years old," he said. "I think everyone's ready to play for Australia."

The former national team opener Justin Langer, though, shares Hilditch's confidence that Ponting will be out on the field when the action gets under way at the MCG. "I would be amazed if Ricky doesn't play in this Test, he is that tough physically and mentally," Langer told today's Sydney Morning Herald. "At one-all, Boxing Day Test, a chance to win the Ashes, he will definitely be there."

The Lions have soaked in their 23-20 win over the Buccaneers, their first victory away from home since 2007, but now have turned to a more pressing issue. QB Drew Stanton, who led the charge Sunday, suffered a left shoulder injury and departed the locker room Sunday with his arm in a sling. Backup Shaun Hill, meanwhile, is coming back from a broken right index finger, and de facto starter Matthew Stafford still has an injured right shoulder. Head coach Jim Schwartz did not say Monday whom his starting QB would be in Week 16, which is nothing new this season, as he has been quiet about his QB plans for most of the season consistently.

The PFW Spin

Hill likely would have had to come in had Stanton not finished on Sunday, and all indications are that Hill is not far from returning. This could be his week.

But what about Stafford? The thinking now is that he can't play Sunday, and there might not be a lot to gain by keeping him off injured reserve unless the team thinks something can be gained by playing Stafford against the Vikings in Week 17.

It's looking like Stanton, who has won two games in the past week, won't play if the shoulder injury is of any severity. But he has gone a long way toward convincing the staff he's a more-than-capable No. 3 QB going forward.

They just have to hope that Hill can play Sunday and continue the momentum gained against the Packers and Buccaneers, two teams fighting for their playoff lives.

In order to build a winning culture, head coach Jim Schwartz knows he must keep winning and not just mail it in to play for improved draft position. That's what the team has done in the recent past at times, and look where that has gotten the Lions.

This England team's problem in Perth was a mental issue rather than a technical one – it was a complacency issue

When I was England's coach, one of the biggest difficulties I had was making sure the team kept their foot to the pedal. Strange as it seems, the occasions when I used to get most nervous about how well England would perform followed on from their best wins. So often, in my early years in charge, they would veer from highs to lows in the space of a match or two. One good result and then, bang, the team would crash. This England side have the same problem. We saw it at Headingley in 2009, at Johannesburg in 2010, and now we have seen it at Perth.

• Interactive guide to all the Ashes venues
• Sign up now for our weekly email The Spin
• How to stay awake during the Tests
• Follow our daily blog throughout the Ashes
• The latest news and comment on our Ashes site

Australia played well, and Mike Hussey in particular deserves huge credit. His was a display of true Aussie grit. But which team made the bigger turnaround in that match? Was it Australia? They only made 268 and 309. You are not going to win too many Tests with that kind of score in the first innings. Or was it England? They collapsed twice in the space of under 100 overs. For me the answer is obvious. They lost because they were not able to repeat the ruthlessness they showed in the first two Tests. We have known for a long time that England can capsize when they are batting. And not just on faster, bouncier pitches like the ones we saw at Perth and Johannesburg.

The key period of the match was the hour before lunch on the second day, when Mitchell Johnson took four wickets for seven runs in four overs. Johnson's work with Troy Cooley has obviously paid off. He started to swing the ball back in to the right-handed batsmen. But England's middle-order should have had the technique to be able to cope. They face swing bowling all the time in England, and it is often said that one of the reasons their batting averages tend to be lower than those of other Test nations is that they play their home games in conditions that offer bowlers seam and swing.

During his spell late on the first day Johnson was moving the ball away from the two left-handers, Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook. As soon as England spotted that, word should have gone around the dressing room: "Hold on boys, this is what he is doing with the ball." The team should have immediately started thinking about how to adjust. But they did not seem to be able to switch to plan B. Instead they got stuck like rabbits in headlights.

This was a mental failure more than a technical one. It was a complacency issue. Which is not to say that they were so naive they that took victory for granted. But after winning so well in the second Test they were not able to stay sharp for the third. They needed to keep their finger on the pulse for every single moment of this match. They did it in Adelaide but not in Perth.

As I say, this is a familiar problem. I used to wonder if England suffered from a "cup final" mentality. They were under such pressure from the media that players would celebrate victories as though they were cup final wins. Do that and it becomes very difficult to isolate the next match from what has come before it. You have to make sure you are entirely focussed on replicating the approach that won you that game in the first place.

A great example of a team who did this well were the All Blacks under Sean Fitzpatrick in the 1990s. If they were playing a top team and they won a penalty in the first 15 minutes, they would put it through the posts. If they won three penalties in the first 15 minutes, they would put them all through the posts. If they were playing a weaker team the next week, they would do exactly the same thing.

Other sides would take those three points in a match against New Zealand but if they found themselves in the same scenario against a weaker team they would suddenly decide to kick for the corner or try to run the ball. That inconsistency meant they might win one week, but they would only scrape home the next.

For two years, between early 2004 and late 2005, the England team got it right. They were almost unbeatable. Michael Vaughan made sure that the team's mind-set stayed the same no matter who we played. But we had a lot of self-driven characters in that side. It is not an easy thing to instil in a team. There is only so much the management can do. They can help provide the glue, but they still need to have the right parts in place.

Yesterday WikiLeaks did an amazing thing and released a classified State Department cable that dealt, in part, with me and my film, 'Sicko.'

It is a stunning look at the Orwellian nature of how bureaucrats for the State spin their lies and try to recreate reality (I assume to placate their bosses and tell them what they want to hear).

The date is January 31, 2008. It is just days after 'Sicko' has been nominated for an Oscar as Best Documentary. This must have sent someone reeling in Bush's State Department (his Treasury Department had already notified me they were investigating what laws I might have broken in taking three 9/11 first responders to Cuba to get them the health care they had been denied in the United States).

Former health insurance executive Wendell Potter recently revealed that the insurance industry -- which had decided to spend millions to go after me and, if necessary, "push Michael Moore off a cliff" -- had begun working with anti-Castro Cubans in Miami in order to have them speak out and smear my film.

So, on January 31, 2008, a State Department official stationed in Havana took a made up story and sent it back to his HQ in Washington. Here's what they concocted:

XXXXXXXXXXXX stated that Cuban authorities have banned Michael Moore's documentary, "Sicko," as being subversive. Although the film's intent is to discredit the U.S. healthcare system by highlighting the excellence of the Cuban system, he said the regime knows the film is a myth and does not want to risk a popular backlash by showing to Cubans facilities that are clearly not available to the vast majority of them.

Sounds convincing, eh?! There's only one problem -- 'Sicko' had just been playing in Cuban theaters. Then the entire nation of Cuba was shown the film on national television on April 25, 2008! The Cubans embraced the film so much so it became one of those rare American movies that received a theatrical distribution in Cuba. I personally ensured that a 35mm print got to the Film Institute in Havana. Screenings of 'Sicko' were set up in towns all across the country.

But the secret cable said Cubans were banned from seeing my movie. Hmmm.

We also know from another secret U.S. document that "the disenchantment of the masses [in Cuba] has spread through all the provinces," and that "all of Oriente Province is seething with hate" for the Castro regime. There's a huge active underground rebellion, and "workers there readily give all the support they can," with everyone involved in "subtle sabotage" against the government. Morale is terrible throughout all the branches of the armed forces, and in the event of war the army "will not fight." Wow -- this cable is hot!

Of course, this secret U.S. cable is from March 31, 1961, three weeks before Cuba kicked our asses at the Bay of Pigs.

The U.S. government has been passing around these "secret" documents to itself for the past fifty years, explaining in painstaking detail how horrible things are in Cuba and how Cubans are quietly aching for us to come back and take over. I don't know why we write these cables, I guess it just makes us feel better about ourselves. (Anyone curious can find an entire museum of U.S. wish fulfillment cables on the website of the National Security Archive.)

So what do you do with about a false "secret" cable, especially one that involves you and your movie? Well, you wait for a responsible newspaper to investigate and shout what it discovers from the rooftops.

But yesterday WikiLeaks gave the 'Sicko' Cuba cable to the media -- and what did they do with it? They ran it as if it were true! Here's the headline in the Guardian:

WikiLeaks: Cuba banned Sicko for depicting 'mythical' healthcare system

Authorities feared footage of gleaming hospital in Michael Moore's Oscar-nominated film would provoke a popular backlash

And not one scintilla of digging to see if Cuba had actually banned the movie! In fact, just the opposite. The right wing press started to have a field day reporting a lie (Andy Levy of Fox -- twice -- Reason Magazine, Spectator and Hot Air, plus a slew of blogs). Sadly, even BoingBoing and my friends at the Nation wrote about it without skepticism. So here you have WikiLeaks, who have put themselves on the line to find and release these cables to the press -- and traditional journalists are once again just too lazy to lift a finger, point and click their mouse to log into Nexis or search via Google, and look to see if Cuba really did "ban the film." Had just ONE reporter done that, here's they would have found:

June 16, 2007 Saturday 1:41 AM GMT [that's 7 months before the false cable]

HEADLINE: Cuban health minister says Moore's 'Sicko' shows 'human values' of communist system

BYLINE: By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: HAVANA

Cuba's health minister Jose Ramon Balaguer said Friday that American filmmaker Michael Moore's documentary 'Sicko' highlights the human values of the island's communist-run government... "There can be no doubt this documentary by a personality like Mr. Michael Moore helps promote the profoundly human principles of Cuban society."

Or, how 'bout this little April 25, 2008 notice from CubaSi.Cu (translation by Google):

Sicko premiere in Cuba
25/04/2008

The documentary Sicko, the U.S. filmmaker Michael Moore, which deals about the deplorable state of American health care system will be released today at 5:50 pm, for the space Cubavision Roundtable and the Education Channel.

Then there's this from Juventudrebelde.cu (translation by Google). Or this Cuban editorial (translation by Google). There's even a long clip of the Cuba section of 'Sicko' on the homepage of Media Roundtable on the CubaSi.cu website!

OK, so we know the media is lazy and sucks most of the time. But the bigger issue here is how our government seemed to be colluding with the health insurance industry to destroy a film that might have a hand in bringing about what the Cubans already have in their poverty-ridden third world country: free, universal health care. And because they have it and we don't, Cuba has a better infant mortality rate than we do, their life expectancy is just 7 months shorter than ours, and, according to the WHO, they rank just two places behind the richest country on earth in terms of the quality of their health care.

That's the story, mainstream media and right-wing haters.

Now that you've been presented with the facts, what are you going to do about it? Are you gonna attack me for having my movie played on Cuban state television? Or are you gonna attack me for not having my movie played on Cuban state television?

You have to choose one, it can't be both.

And since the facts show that the movie played on state TV and in theaters, I think you're better off attacking me for having my films played in Cuba.

¡Viva WikiLeaks!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/viva-wikileaks-sicko-was_b_798586.ht...

• added by: ras_menelik  
• 13 comments