How Biased Media Can Brainwash You, Afghan cash starts going to China

Sir Richard Francis Burton ( 1821 - 1890 ) famously posed as a Muslim dervish to perform the haj. Getty Images

How Biased Media Can Brainwash You By Melinda Burns - A new study reveals that even savvy media consumers are affected by biased coverage.

THE BEAR'S LAIR : Which big country will default first? - No leading economy has defaulted on its debt since the 1930s, yet conceivably that could be the fate of the United States, Britain and Japan, an indication of the wrong-headedness of policies taken to address the downturn. The world should hope that the urge for fiscal responsibility hits London, Washington and Tokyo pretty soon. - Martin Hutchinson

Oil floats high on easy money - Conspiracy theorists need only look at the number of tankers berthed over the horizon from Singapore to find support for the notion that speculators are helping to drive up the cost of oil. Media pundits favor the "China demand fits all" approach. Reality seekers in the United States should delve a bit deeper, and look a bit closer to home. - Julian Delasantellis

Afghan cash starts going to China - Metallurgical Corp of China has started work on developing the vast Afghan copper deposits at Aynak, south of Kabul. That is good news for the hundreds of Chinese workers at the site, protected by Afghan and US forces. Critics say it is not such good news for the country, despite the millions of dollars that will go to the Afghan treasury. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider

Revolution in a Box - It's not Twitter or Facebook that's reinventing the planet. Eighty years after the first commercial broadcast crackled to life, television still rules our world. And let's hear it for the growing legions of couch potatoes: All those soap operas might be the ticket to a better future after all.

Richard Burton travelled the globe, charted its cultures – and sometimes infiltrated them with disguises. Kanishk Tharoor reads a novelisation of the explorer’s life.The Collector of Worlds Iliya Troyanov (translated from German by William Hobson) Faber and Faber Dh54

[too bad all his papers were thrown in a bonfire by his wide when died ~~t]