the place could benefit from a "multicultural mix-up"

The League is almost invariably described as xenophobic

there have been complaints about cricket in the parks; and, yes, it has been banned, with local police ordered to halt games

"I want to see more Italian kids take it up," he adds. "Cricket can help build links between the Italian and immigrant communities - and help us avoid some of the problems we've seen in the past."

He is a politician - a pragmatist who simply can no longer afford to ignore the demands of his hometown's large south Asian community. And in this case pragmatism - it would seem - might just be the best way to start building a better life for everyone.

So societies that have embraced modernity, have effectively “privatised” religion. Indeed capitalism has been the driving force behind secularism because it required the dismantling of the communalist society.

Replacing the old communalism is heterogeneity and pluralism. These have eroded not only religious monopolies, but their centrality in various societies. The end result of this is a society’s secularisation.

Globalisation, in which western technological and cultural products predominate, is often framed as a form of colonialism.

Ironically, the rise of transnational Islamist terrorism is also a product of globalisation.

As the power of the nation state diminishes, religious ideology’s mobility allows it to permeate shifting borders.

The current face of modernity is therefore ideally suited to –  and an ideal breeding ground for – the creation of suicide terrorist groups.

In order to fortify the in group, moral strictures must become ever more rigorous, while condemnation of transgression must become ever more vociferous – and violent, thus intensifying the demarcation between “good” and “bad”.

terrorism implies a crisis of legitimacy

But can we say that such a crisis of legitimacy applies to transnational terrorists such as al Qaeda?

modernity is an attempt to destroy community and communalism…, all those forces which created identity and authority

such threats to communalism result in feelings of humiliation amongst those who do not benefit from the new order.

humiliation therefore “links the concepts of honor and human rights in an enlightening way, providing a framework both for ideologies and for the transition between them.”

Scott Atran identifies the primacy of honour throughout Arab societies, noting that the Arab perception of being humiliated by outsiders is a prime motivator for suicide attacks.

There emerges from the collective sense of humiliation something of an obligation to demonstrate outrage and embark on actions – even if they have little chance of success – in order to avenge honour. Martyrdom is one such example.

Beit-Hallahmi writes, that under such circumstances, “contemporary martyrdom can be viewed as an uprising against the end of history and the final triumph of liberal capitalism.”

t's the opposite of routine, the opposite of domestic.

Chinese media meanwhile, has called Australia "sino-phobic".

People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services  than how Google ranks them

In the near future we will no longer search for  products and services they will find us via social media

Most people would have you believe that fiction is the result of leisure, and that’s absolutely true. Without an abundance of time (and the worry of fulfilling primary needs like thirst and hunger) there simply is no opportunity to spend the day ‘thinking’ (or the ultimate of leisure activities: ‘thinking about other people’s thinking’)

the production of movies, books, comics, animation, TV and other form of media is all indicative of cultures that can produce more than just laborers and politicians. Africa is beginning to see a great shift towards people who pursue conceptual and intellectual careers, these people with both consume and create the next generation of Africa’s stories

there needs to be a creative revolution in the types of stories that are being told in Africa; how stories are distributed needs a revolution as much as the mediums that they are told with does.

tand up and take back our dignity and our values and our self respect," said Christy. "It's great that we have seen this resurgence in etiquette and manners and self respect

studies has shown that "85 percent of the reason a person gets a job, keeps a job and moves up is related to their people skills.

Manners are the great equalizer and if you have manners you can walk into any business or social situation

junk-food culture

It's more than just actual entertainment. It's all this extraneous mess that people seem to care about now.

What has Ji been charged with? For wanting to protest? For being a regime critic? For seeking to harm China's national image at a time -- the Beijing Olympics -- when preserving its image was paramount?

It also exposes how naïve and deceitful it was for the IOC to have claimed that China would open itself up for the Olympic Games, and that the games would open up China.

In fact, it is so laughable that one could almost presume that the IOC was in league with the government and party leadership in Beijing from the start and consistently kept both eyes tightly shut

They had no case. No crime had been committed, not even a minor offence

make access to digital content an easy and fair game

Hence Apple -- like Amazon -- reserves the right to remotely meddle with your iPhone at any time and without the consent of the user, in order to delete objectionable applications. All with the best of intentions, of course

A shift to tethered applicances also entails a sea change in the regulability of the Internet" (author's emphasis). The "dangers of excess" will no longer come from viruses or hackers anymore, "but from the much more predictable interventions by regulators

We will need to get used to the fact that these "curious technological hybrids" will never fully belong to us -- even if we have paid a lot of money for them.

The Google idea is fantastic. But you can only do so much with text. It's very good for transactions, but it is very poor for brands.

The online economy is about the size of the German economy. And it's based on a default price of zero. Most things online are available in a free form. We have never seen an economy this big with a default price of zero. I realized that we needed an economic model to explain how an economy could be based on "free." And we need to understand the psychology of that. We have the psychology of free, we're drawn to it, but we feel cheated by it. If something used to be paid for and then it becomes free, we think the quality is lower. But if something has always been free, and remains free, we don't think that.

"The media portrayal of a life has almost become like an autopsy."

Let's say you're standing in a library with 20 shelves in front of you and thousands of books." "You could take a picture and you'd immediately know where the book you're looking for is.

estaurant could put menu information inside the tag. When the data is uploaded to Google Maps, it would automatically be displayed next to the image of the restaurant,