Fergie praises Scholes and Giggs

He said they will probably last at the club longer than him
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml;jsessionid=GF1UNX3NXANGTQFIQMFCFF4AVCBQYIV0?xml=/sport/2008/01/25/sfnfer125.xml
Only he knows that, but he is right to praise them as they are both still magnificent players and both are still amongst the first names to be pencilled into that first eleven. It's a shame about Gary Neville's injury nightmare over the last couple of seasons, because i always imagined he would last until his mid thirties as well. That would have been three one club players from that class of 92 at United playing well into their thirties, that may well never happen again .

Steve Bruce has a go at the dearth of domestic talent coming through the academies
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/w/wigan_athletic/7208649.stm
I am not sure that the argument about kids playing with their PC's instead of playing on the streets holds up. Just look at the rewards on offer for any kid who makes it as a professional footballer nowadays. I know IT work is a well paid job but it doesn't begin to compare with what's on offer to modern day premiership players. I think the standard of coaching is obviously where the vast majority of problems lie.

Hicks and Gillet strengthen their grip at Anfield
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/7203724.stm
good, let the turmoil continue, where are their stars and stripes flags now.


The world's financial system is just one badly run casino really isn't it. Now a rogue French trader loses his bank £3.7 million.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jan/25/banking.france
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/jeremy-warner-in-davos-socgen-fraud-deepens-crisisb-773935.html


The wikipedia entry of a man who was deeply unfashionable for the last 30 years of his life, if i believed in an afterlife i think he would be quietly smiling away and shaking his head at current events.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kenneth_Galbraith

Italy looks like it is going to take one giant step backwards
http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,2246606,00.html
As bad as Blair and now Brown have been Berlusconi is in an entirely different league.

Artificial life creeps a little bit nearer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jan/25/genetics.science
I don't have a problem with this research, though that in that picture Venter looks like some mad evil genius. Maybe we should be worried?

I have always liked Nick Broomfield's documentaries as entertainment, but i thought the last one where he changed tack completely to make a docu drama about the Chinese cockle pickers was probably the best thing he has done. So his next project about the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians by Us marines looks like another must watch piece of television.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-and-tv/features/nick-broomfield-how-the-filmmaker-recreated-one-of-the-most-notorious-incidents-in-the-iraq-war-771014.html

A funny piece from Richard Herring on the demon drink
http://www.newstatesman.com/200801250001
I'm totally with him on preferring teetotalers to moderate drinkers, i really cannot just drink a couple and then stop. I'd sooner not have a drink at all than that, it just doesn't feel right.