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[[[New York Yankees 59FIFTY brown with white built-Cap (7 7 / 8)]]]
Discription : 59FIFTY is the official on field cap of Major League Baseball and Major League Baseball, each player are. With this mod version 59FIFTY you can show your team pride with style.
More review soon.
Buy Here (for discount) New York Yankees Brown with White 59FIFTY Fitted Cap (7 7/8)
[[[Good News [VHS]]]]
Discription :
More review coming soon.
Songs include: GOOD NEWS featuring the Homecoming Friends, GOOD, GOOD NEWS featuring the Gaither Vocal Band, Tim Riley. NARATIVE by Bill Gaither. MY BURDENS HAVE ROLLED AWAY featuring the Homecoming Friends. THAT OLD-TIME RELIGION featuring Tanya Goodman Sykes. TRYING TO GET A GLIMPSE featuring the Cathedrals. NARRATIVE by Ann Downing. YOU CAN LEAN ON ME featuring Babbie Mason. I'M LONGING FOR JESUS TO COME BACK featuring LaBreeska Hemphill, Roger McDuff, John McDuff with Anthony Burger on melodica. THE NINETY AND NINE featuring Donnie Sumner, the Talley Trio. NARRATIVE by Gloria Gaither. I'M FREE featuring Lynda Randle, David Phelps. WHEN HE SET ME FREE featuring Russ Taff. THANK YOU, JESUS featuring Stephen Hill, Lillie Knauls, Jessy Dixon, Babbie Mason, Lynda Randle, Meadowlark Lemon with Buddy Greene on harmonica. LORD, IT'S ME AGAIN (POEM) featuring Jimmie Jones. LORD, FEED YOUR CHILDREN featuring Michael English. NARRATIVE by Meadowlark Lemon. EXCEPT FOR GRACE featuring the Martins. GRACE GREATER THAN OUR SIN featuring the Homecoming Friends. WHAT A MEETING IN THE AIR featuring Rosa Nell Speer Powell, Mary Tom Speer Reid, Ben Speer, Guy Penrod, David Phelps, Vestal Goodman, Jeanne Johnson, LaBreeska Hemphill, Glen Payne, George Younce, Rex Nelon, Ray Dean Reese. Whew, that's long, but it's precisely what's printed on the box. I wrote the entire description because I dislike researching an item and there's no information regarding what's on it, so hope this helps anyone. EXCEPT FOR GRACE by the Martins is probably my all time favorite on this VHS tape.
"GOOD NEWS" is an absolutely wonderful video withover 200 gospel greats, such as the Rambos, Naomi Sego, the Goodmansand the Speers just to name a few, including some new faces, such as Karen Wheaton, Mike Bowling, The Crabb Family, The Greenes, The Perrys and many others. Lynda Randle and David Phelps do a tremendous job on "I'm Free." This video is sure to bless your heart and instill the "good news" back into your heart and your soul.
Buy Here (for discount) Good News [VHS]
The style police are everywhere, even at the school gates. Jess Cartner-Morley finds no respite from fashion on the school run
The jam-smeared, tooth-grindingly repetitive yet endlessly chaotic routine of delivering children to school â€" surely, and this is saying something, one of the least glamorous moments of family life â€" is having a Fashion Moment. Magazine features explaining how to wear the latest trends frequently offer photographs of Elle Macpherson rocking the of-the-moment look while dropping her sons at school â€" this term, it's often a pale blazer over a faux-slouchy, uber-expensive Alexander Wang vest â€" while some of the first sightings of this year's hot Balenciaga patchwork tote were of Claudia Schiffer sporting it on the morning school run. The hot-mummy-on-the-school-run snap is to 2010 what the celebrity baby bump photograph was to 2005.
At this point I should admit that I am entirely unqualified to write about school-run chic. A colleague who lives on the road where my children go to school told me recently that all his neighbours "are really surprised that in real life, you're not glamorous at all". So having been put thus firmly in my place, I canvassed opinion from friends inside and outside the fashion industry, in an attempt to define the rules of engagement that apply to fashion's newest playing field.
In Sebastian Faulks's novel, A Week in December, Sophie Topping, a socially ambitious politician's wife in a fictitious, smart London postcode, is "motivated by a desire to win the competition with all the other wives and mothers of North Park. It was an all-female, all-consuming endeavour . . . The first rule of the competition was not to be seen to be competing; the second rule, so far as Sophie had worked it out, was not to get fat."
School-gate fashion, like maternity wear, is very much an arena in which women dress to impress each other. Just as you would be hard pressed to find a single man with an opinion on whether tunics or wrapdresses are the more chic choice for a third trimester, the school gates remain an overwhelmingly female world. I am, as I think I mentioned, barely fit to comment on this topic, but I have noticed that wearing gym gear to the school run will often attract comment, usually of the self-effacing, "Oh-you're-going-running-aren't-you-good-I'm-so-lazy" ilk â€" even from women who regularly run half-marathons.
There is, it seems, a natural female tendency to compare and contrast, and to find oneself lacking. My friend Annabel Boyde, who recently moved from London to Oxfordshire, says that her west-London school run was "a complete nightmare. Everyone made friends only with other people on their fashion level â€" so if you didn't wear the uniform of Seven jeans and a gilet no one really took any notice of you, except for the other people wearing the wrong clothes and without decent highlights."
At the school gate, as elsewhere, clothes express your tribe, and your status â€" where you fit in, in other words. Another friend, Juliet Kinsman, editor-in-chief of the swish Mr & Mrs Smith hotel guides, finds that "if you look too groomed, you alienate the stay-at-home mums and miss out on the morning-coffee camaraderie. But I definitely get taken more seriously by the nursery staff on days where I'm dressed up for work, so if I've got something to discuss I save it for when I look smart. Like so many things, it's a balancing act for women. Whether you're a politician's wife or going for a job interview, you want to look stylish but not snooty. And it's human nature for other mums to want to be your mate a little bit more when you do look on trend."
My friend Frankie was 37 when her first child started school, "but it was still a little bit like I was the new girl myself and wanted the other cool girls to like me and want to be my friend. I did get to know one mother because I complimented her on her jacket and could identify the label â€" and we still enjoy a fashion chat."
As another friend, a very stylish and high-powered fashion executive, put it to me, "what the dress code does is highlight the divide between stay-at-home mothers and working mothers. It's a visual representation as to who does what â€" high heels versus Converse. But really, who cares? Being a good mum is what matters and those come in all kinds of packages. We should give each other a break."
Wise words. But the fashion police, it seems, are everywhere. This is no media-fanned, Metropolitan obsession. Annabel says of her new, country school run that "I'm not a groomed person by nature, but I wouldn't dream of turning up at the school gates without makeup on and having considered what to wear that morning." Jodie, who lives in a small town well outside the M25, nonetheless categorises her playground cliques thus: "The most obvious is the working Yummy Mummy. She's just that little bit slicker and expensive-looking with a designer court shoe and a 'proper' handbag. Then there's the gym-bunny YM, kitted out in the most recent Stella for Adidas pieces. There is Boho YM, although these days it's less about Uggs and tassled scarves than Isabel Marant suede booties and Edun. And finally there's I'm-not-a-YM-YM, who is really playing it down in boyfit jeans and sweatshirt style tops. But don't be fooled â€" the jeans are Made in Heaven, the top is double-faced cashmere."
Nor is school-gate fashion the territory of the private-school mummy. The school Jodie describes above is in the state sector, but she recently attended an open day for her son's next school, which is fee-paying, "and suddenly, trends were not evident at all. Most of the mothers looked like a 'before' makeover pic â€" old-Jigsaw style floral bias-cut skirts and baggy cardigans."
Final proof of the school run's metamorphosis into 21st-century catwalk comes from the emergence of a new high-fashion look, the Hot 70s Mama. This year, designers and trendsetters seem to be subconsciously channelling the fashions their own mums wore to take them to primary school. This summer's sell-out Stella McCartney button-through dress was strongly reminiscent of Linda McCartney's own late-70s earth-mother wardrobe, while both Katie Holmes and Victoria Beckham â€" two celebrities who make a huge effort to dress up for the paparazzi while out with their children â€" have recently been rocking a high-waisted, flared jean. When a shot of Holmes in these denims, worn with tight-fitting plaid shirt and outsized sunglasses, ran on a fashion blog recently the first three comments were all along the lines of, "My mum had that exact outfit when I was five."
In fashion, as ever, what goes around comes around. And it's true: mum really does know best.
Challenging climate sceptics is good sport but we're in danger of forgetting the deadly serious matter at hand
Well this becomes more entertaining by the moment. Those who staked so much on the "Amazongate" story, only to see it turn round and bite them, are now digging a hole so deep that they will soon be able to witness a possible climate change scenario at first hand, as they emerge, shovels in hand, in the middle of the Great Victoria Desert.
Here's the story so far. In January the rightwing blogger Richard North claimed that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had "grossly exaggerated the effects of global warming on the Amazon rain forest". In 2007 the Panel had claimed that "up to 40% of the Amazonian forests could react drastically to even a slight reduction in precipitation". Reduced rainfall could rapidly destroy the forests, which would be replaced with ecosystems "such as tropical savannahs."
North asserted that this "seems to be a complete fabrication", though see this update too. His story was picked up by hundreds of other climate change has denied some of them went so far as to say that he destroyed the theory of global warming. In addition, in the conduct of Sunday Times, that its report titled "UN climate panel of criticism from the fictitious forest claims.
Two weeks ago the Sunday Times published a complete retraction. That, you might think, would be the end of the matter. How wrong you would be. Far from accepting that they had made a mistake, the promoters of this story now seem determined to compound it. On Sunday our old friend Christopher Booker asserted that "an exhaustive trawl through all the scientific literature on this subject by my colleague Dr Richard North (who was responsible for uncovering "Amazongate" in the first place), has been unable to find a single study which confirms the specific claim made by the IPCC's 2007 report … all observed evidence indicates that the forest is much more resilient to climate fluctuations than the alarmists would have us believe."
There is no doubt that the IPCC made a mistake. Sourcing its information on the Amazon to a report by the green group WWF rather than the substantial peer-reviewed literature on the subject, was a bizarre and silly thing to do. It is also an issue of such mind-numbing triviality, in view of the fact that the IPCC's 2007 reports extend to several thousand pages and contain tens of thousands of references, that I feel I should apologise for taking up more of your time in pursuing it. But the climate change deniers have made such a big deal of it that it cannot be ignored.
It is also true that nowhere in the scientific literature there are specific statements that "40% of Amazonian forests may respond dramatically even a small decrease in precipitation". This figure was derived from a report by WWF and shouldn 't to be.
But far from "grossly exaggerating" the state of the science in 2007, as North claimed, the IPCC â€" because it referenced the WWF report, not the peer-reviewed literature â€" grossly understated it. The two foremost peer-reviewed papers on the subject at the time of the 2007 report were both published in Theoretical and Applied Climatology. The references are below. They are cited throughout the literature on Amazon dieback.
What do they tell us? That the projection in the IPCC's report falls far, far short of the predicted impacts on the Amazon.
The first paper, by Cox et al, predicts a drop in broadleaf tree cover from approximately 80% of the Amazon region in 2000 to around 28% in 2100 (Figure 6). That is bad enough, involving far more than 40% of the rainforest. But the forest, it says, will not be largely replaced by savannah: "When the forest fraction begins to drop (from about 2040 onwards) C4 grasses initially expand to occupy some of the vacant lands. However, the relentless warming and drying make conditions unfavourable even for this plant functional type, and the Amazon box ends as predominantly baresoil (area fraction >0.5) by 2100."
In other words, the lushest region on earth is projected by this paper to be mostly replaced by desert as a result of global warming (and the consequent reduction in rainfall) this century. I hope I don't have to explain the consequences for biodiversity, the people of the Amazon or climate feedbacks, as the carbon the trees and soil contain is oxidised and released to the atmosphere.
So what does the second paper say? Betts et al go even further. In their model runs: "By the end of the 21st Century, the mean broadleaf tree coverage of Amazonia has reduced from over 80% to less than 10%."
They are slightly more sanguine about the savannah/desert balance. "In approximately half of this area, the trees have been replaced by C4 grass leading to a savanna-like landscape. Elsewhere, even grasses cannot be supported and the conditions become essentially desert-like."
Isn't that reassuring? It is worth noting that both these papers are referenced elsewhere in the IPCC's 2007 report.
They are not alone. One of the runs in a 1999 paper by White, Cannell and Friend, also published in a peer-reviewed journal (see below) shows almost the entire Amazon basin as desert by the 2080s (Figure 2b(ii)).
Compare these projections to Booker's claim that "all observed evidence indicates that the forest is much more resilient to climate fluctuations than the alarmists would have us believe."
Booker ends his piece by maintaining that on "the only occasion" on which I had attempted to expose the misinformation he peddles, I got it wrong and had to apologise to my readers. Yes, I did get one of my claims wrong and I said so as soon as I discovered it. This is where Christopher and I differ: I admit my mistakes, he does not.
But I 'm fascinated by his assertion that it "the only case", where I pulled it out. Or does he have a very short memory or a very selective. To encourage some glimmers of recognition, here are some other cases, when I pointed out his errors:
In 2007 I showed that Booker and North had used cherry-picking to support their claim that speed cameras had impeded the decline of deaths on the roads. They had ignored the latest evidence (which flatly contradicted their claims), misquoted a House of Commons report and changed the date of an article of mine, which had the effect of making their narrative more convincing.
In 2008, I showed how Booker had misquoted scientific papers, engaged in cherry-picking and relied on the word of a man convicted under the Trade Descriptions Act for making false claims about his qualifications to support his contention that white asbestos cement "poses no measurable risk to health".
.
In 2009, I detailed six howling mistakes about climate change in just one of his columns. Last month I lambasted him for falsely claiming that under EU rules you'll be able to bury dead pets only after "pressure cooking them at 130 degrees centigrade for half an hour".
I don't mean to spend my life correcting Booker's mistakes, but the volume of misinformation he has published is mindblowing, and someone has to call him to account. Other journalists, perhaps wisely, don't bother.
All this is good knockabout stuff. But we're in danger of forgetting that it concerns a deadly serious matter: a change in the climatic conditions which have made human civilisation and the current human population possible, and, specifically, the degradation of the most wonderful and beautiful of the world's ecosystems into desert and scrubby grassland. It is hard to overstate the irresponsibility of those who misrepresent the science in order to persuade people that no action needs to be taken.
References:
PM Cox et al, 2004. Amazonian forest dieback under climate-carbon cycle projections for the 21st century. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 78, 137â€"156. DOI 10.1007/s00704-004-0049-4
RA Betts et al, 2004. The role of ecosystem-atmosphere interactions in simulated Amazonian precipitation decrease and forest dieback under global climate warming. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 78, 157â€"175. DOI 10.1007/s00704-004-0050-y
A White, MGR Cannell, AD Friend, 1999. Climate change impacts on ecosystems and the terrestrial carbon sink: a new assessment. Global Environmental Change, 9, S21-S30.
www.monbiot.com
Round things off with Delia's vanilla cream terrine, Nigella's cheesecake in a glass and Marcus Wareing's gin and tonic granite, plus a whole lot more besides including some wine recommendations from Victoria Moore
Nigella Lawson: Cheesecake in a glass
This is the perfect end to a midweek dinner party, the kind you didn't know you were giving until presented with a guest list mid-afternoon. You simply chop strawberries, crush digestive biscuits and whip cream cheese and cream, then layer up quickly in some waiting glasses. Like this, they can stand for about an hour, so you can make them up just before you sit down for supper. If you want to make this in advance â€" and it's a versatile recipe that doesn't need to be made last minute â€" simply leave the glasses in the fridge, layered up with the digestive crumbs and cream cheese mixture and covered with clingfilm. Top with strawberries on serving. Serves four.
200g strawberries(or 1 big punnet)
1 tsp caster sugar
4 digestive biscuits
100g cream cheese, at room temperature
Two tablespoons of powdered sugar
125ml double cream
1 tbsp lemon juice
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
4 small glasses (of about 150ml capacity; I find a small martini glass looks prettiest)
Quarter the strawberries, then cut in half again, to give pretty small dice. Put into a bowl, sprinkle with caster sugar, cover with clingfilm and shake the bowl once or twice.
Leave the berries to macerate while you put the biscuits into a freezer bag and bash with a rolling pin until you have a sandy bag of crumbs.
Measure cheese and powdered sugar in a bowl and whisk by hand. Add cream, lemon juice and vanilla and whisk gently to combine.
Divide the biscuit crumbs equally between your four glasses, and arrange in the bottom of each one. Spoon the cream cheese mix on top, dividing it equally between the glasses and covering the biscuits.
Divide the sugar-shiny strawberries between the glasses, to give a glossy, red-berried layer on each glass.
To drink: There's so much sugar in here that I think a dessert wine would be overkill â€" go instead for a cleansing fresh mint tea made by dunking a few sprigs of mint in a teapot full of hot water.
Nigella Lawson's next book, Kitchen: Recipes From The Heart Of The Home, is published in September (Chatto & Windus, £26). To pre-order a copy for 19.99, go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
Delia Smith: Vanilla cream terrine with raspberries and blackcurrant coulis
This is one of those oh-so-simple-but-oh-so-good desserts that offers precisely the right background to vivid, rich fruit like blackcurrants. Serves six.
For the terrine
425ml whipping cream
75g caster sugar
7g leaf gelatine (4 sheets, each measuring about 11cm x 7.5cm)
425ml Greek yoghurt
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
For the blackcurrant coulis
225g blackcurrants
75 g caster sugar
For garnish
175 raspberry
Fresh mint leaves
You will also need a plastic box measuring 10cm x 10cm x 10cm, or a 900g loaf tin
Begin by placing the gelatine leaves in cold water and leaving them to soften for five minutes. Meanwhile, place the cream in a saucepan with the sugar and heat gently till the sugar has dissolved (it's important not to overheat the cream). Next squeeze out the excess liquid from the soaked gelatine, add it to the warm cream and whisk everything over the heat for a few seconds. Now remove the cream mixture from the heat.
In a mixing bowl stir the yoghurt and vanilla together, then pour in the gelatine cream mixture. Whisk very thoroughly and pour the whole lot into the plastic box, allow to cool, then cover and chill in the fridge for at least four to six hours, or preferably overnight, until it's set.
Meanwhile, make the blackcurrant coulis by first de-stalking the blackcurrants and then sprinkling them with the sugar in a bowl. Leave to soak for 30 minutes, and then you can either sieve them directly back into the bowl or, to make the sieving easier, process them first, then sieve into the bowl. Taste to check that you have added enough sugar, then pour into a jug and chill until you're ready to serve the terrine.
To serve, turn the terrine out on to a board, first sliding a palette knife around the edges to loosen it, then giving it a hefty shake to turn it out, and cut into six slices. Arrange each slice on a serving plate, spoon a little blackcurrant coulis over the top right-hand corner and the bottom left-hand corner of each one and decorate with the fresh raspberries and mint leaves.
To drink: Brown Brothers Orange & Flora Muscat 2008 (around £6.99 for 375ml, widely available at major supermarkets; 12% abv), from Australia, is sweet but not gloopy with an aromatic, neroli lift.
Recipe adapted from Delia with 'Summer Collection (BBC Books, 1993, £ 12,99).
© Delia Smith 2010. For more Delia recipes go to deliaonline.com.
Delia's Complete How To Cook is published by Ebury at £30. To order a copy for £27 (inc free UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk/bookshopor call 0330 333 6846.
Antonio Carluccio: Mango con sciroppo di limo
Or mango with lime syrup. A very simple recipe with lots of fresh flavour. The best mango to use would be an Alfonso, but their season is all but over now. Never mind: this recipe will be a success whatever type you use. Serves four.
2 large, ripe mangoes
3 limes
100g caster sugar
4 small sprigs mint
To peel the mangoes, cut along the length of the fruit on each side, close to the stone. You'll be left with two rounded bits and the stone. Cut the peel off the rounded bits, cut each half in two and place on a large plate.
To prepare the syrup, cut the rind off the limes, leaving behind any pith, and cut into thin strips. Squeeze the juice from the limes into a small pan and add the sugar. Simmer until the sugar has melted, then boil to reduce by half. Add the rind and simmer until caramelised. Set aside to cool. Pour the cooled lime syrup over the mango halves and decorate with the mint.
To drink: Concha Y Toro Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2006 (£6.05, Tesco; 12% abv) is a fabulous sweet wine from Chile whose floral scent and vivid lime and lemon marmalade notes go especially well with mango.
Antonio Carluccio's latest book is Antonio Carluccio's Simple Cooking (Quadrille, £20). To order a copy for £13.99 (including UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
Anjum Anand: Strawberry and pomegranate shortcakes
Food generally evokes a memory or an emotion. This dessert reminds me of hazy-skied summer days in my parents' garden. We often had family and friends around for lunch at weekends and, weather permitting, it was always a barbecue â€" Indian-inspired, of course. Pudding was always outsourced to me and was normally berry-based, often with some element of cream. This unctuous cake takes me back to a now rather misty memory of contentment and summer. Makes one large cake or six to eight small individual ones.
70g cold butter, cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing
270g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tablespoon baking powder
120g sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
100 ml of cold milk, plus a little extra cake surface
¾ teaspoon vanilla essence
For the filling
60ml water
50g sugar
Juice of 1 orange
1 star anise
½ tsp vanilla essence
400g strawberries, hulled and quartered
Fruit ½ sweet pomegranate (optional)
142G jar of cream
Heat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. Butter and flour an eight-inch, round cake tin (or, if making individual cakes, a baking sheet). Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt, then rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mix looks like fine sand. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, milk and vanilla. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture, pour in the milk and stir, drawing in the flour from the sides. Gather up the dough with your hands and give it the lightest knead, just to bring it together â€" it should need no more than four or five turns. Place in the cake tin and gently pat to even the surface. (Or, if making individual cakes, pat into a square, cut into eight and gently press each piece into a round, then place on the prepared baking sheet.) Brush with milk and bake for 20-25 minutes (or 15-17 for the smaller cakes), until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Once cool, cut in half horizontally with a serrated knife.
Heat the water, sugar, orange juice, star anise and vanilla essence in a medium saucepan, simmer until the sugar has melted, then boil for another few minutes until slightly syrupy. Add the strawberries and cook for two minutes. Turn off the heat, add the pomegranate and leave to cool.
Lightly whip the cream until it forms soft billowing peaks. Remove and discard the star anise, and spoon the strawberries and juices evenly over the base of the cake. Spread the cream over the fruit, top with the upper layer and serve.
To drink: Wine does not come more easy-drinking than Moscato Freisa Vino Spumante NV (£7.99, Marks & Spencer, 6.5% abv), sweet, sparkling and utterly frivolous warm weather has increased from Piedmont.
Anjum Anand's new book, I Love Curry, is published in October by Quadrille.
Raymond Blanc: Peaches poached in white wine and citrus fruits
The perfect dessert when peaches are in season; July and August are the best months. The finest peaches come from France and Italy. White peaches have the very best flavour, and for that there's a small extra price to pay. Preparation: 20 minutes, plus six hours' chilling. Cooking time: 25 minutes. Serves four.
8 ripe but firm peaches (white, if possible)
1 orange
½ lemon
175g caster sugar
500ml water
500ml dry white wine
1 vanilla pod, split open lengthways and seeds removed
8 sprigs fresh mint
Remove stems from the peaches. Cut orange and lemon into small, 3 mm pieces, leaving the crust.
Put the peaches in a large saucepan in a single layer. Add the caster sugar, water, wine, vanilla pod and seeds. Top with the orange and lemon slices. Cut out a round of greaseproof paper the same size as the saucepan and cut a hole in the centre to allow excess steam to escape. Place this directly on top of the peaches.
On a high heat, bring to a boil, then immediately reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cook for about 20 minutes (the flesh of the peaches is very delicate; if subjected to high heat, their texture will be ruined, so cook them very gently). There is an easy way to see if the peaches are cooked: you will notice some tiny bubbles escaping from the point where you removed the stalk; when these bubbles stop coming out, the peach is ready. Turn off the heat and leave to cool in the liquid.
Chop four sprigs of mint, mix into the syrup, and refrigerate for at least six hours and up to 24, to allow an exchange of flavours between the citrus, mint and peaches.
With a slotted spoon, transfer the peaches to a plate and carefully peel off the skins. Place the peaches, orange and lemon slices and vanilla pod in a glass serving bowl and pour over the wine and citrus syrup (if you have too much syrup, freeze it and scrape beautiful frozen flakes of it into glasses to serve as a pre-dessert for a future meal). Arrange the remaining four sprigs of spearmint on top.
To drink: What better than a sip of the upbeat, peachy, blissfully low in alcohol sparkle of Moscato d'Asti Gemma 2009 (£6.99, or £5.99 by the mixed case, Oddbins; 5.5% abv).
Raymond Blanc is chef/patron of Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire. His most recent book is A Taste Of My Life (Corgi, £8.99). To order a copy for £7.99 (including UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk/bookshopor call 0330 333 6846.
Dan Lepard: Saffron clotted cream cake
A magnificent tower of light saffron buttercake, rich with clotted cream, layered with lemon curd and topped with clotted cream frosting and more swirls of lemon. The perfect summer party cake.
For the cake
75ml lemon juice
1 pinch saffron large
100g butter, softened
50ml corn or sunflower oil
250g caster sugar
50g cornflour
4 large eggs, separated
150g clotted cream
275g plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
For the icing
50g clotted cream
125g icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
Lemon curd (either a good brand or make your ownSee my recipe below )
Line base and sides of two 20cm round, deep cake banks with non-stick baking paper. Heat lemon juice in a saucepan, add the saffron and leave to infuse heat for 10 minutes. Beat butter, oil, sugar and cornflour until light and fluffy, then beat in egg yolks one by one, then saffron liquid and whipped cream.
Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until stiff, then fold half of them through the butter mix. Sift the flour and baking powder, and gently fold half of this through, too. Repeat with the remaining egg whites and flour, then divide the mixture between the tins and bake at 180C (160C fan-assisted)/350F/gas mark 4 for 35 minutes.
For the icing, beat the clotted cream, icing sugar and vanilla with two to three tablespoons of boiling water until thick and smooth. Slice each cake in two horizontally, then fill and stack with lemon curd. Alternately swirl spoonfuls of the icing over the top of the cake with small teaspoonfuls of lemon curd.
Dan Lepard's easy lemon curd
1 large egg
Finely grated zest of 3 lemons
125ml lemon juice
150g caster sugar
225g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
Have ready a large sieve placed over a clean mixing bowl. In a saucepan, whisk the yolks, whole egg, lemon zest and juice with the sugar until evenly combined, then add the butter. Bring to the first plop of a boil, stirring all the time across the base of the pan to check it isn't sticking, then quickly spoon the mixture into the sieve and press through with the wooden spoon to remove the zest. Cover and leave until cold before using.
To drink: Chateau La Coteaux du Layon Tomaze Rablay 2008 / 9 (£ 13,50, Yapp Brothers; 12.5% abv) from the Loire isn't cloyingly sweet, and it smells of orange blossom and orange zest.
Dan Lepard's Baking With Passion (Quadrille, £12.99) is published next month. To pre-order a copy for £9.99 (including UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
Angela Hartnett: Raspberry trifle
Simple, maybe, but oh so delicious â€" and a British summer wouldn't be the same without trifle, would it?
1 packet trifle sponges
2 measures Disaronno (aka amaretto)
2 punnets fresh raspberries or strawberries
250ml vanilla-flavoured custard
200ml double cream, whipped
50g amaretti biscuits, crushed
Words are flat sponge fingers in a bowl. Pour the liqueur as sponges to absorb it, but not so much that they 're saturated.
Cover the soaked sponge with raspberries, pour over the vanilla custard, top with the whipped double cream and refrigerate for a couple of hours. Just before serving, sprinkle with the crushed amaretti.
To drink: Perhaps a cheeky slug of Disaronno while the bottle is open, but otherwise nothing else needed.
Angela Hartnett is head chef at Murano and York & Albany, both in London, and author of Cucina: Three Generations Of Italian Family Cooking (Ebury, £25). To order a copy for £18.99 (including UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk / bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
Tom Kitchin: Summer berries with cottage cheese cream and almond tuiles
This dish looks great and is simple to make because everything can be prepared in advance. Use any combination of summer berries you can get your hands on. Serves four.
100g red currants
100g blueberries
100g blackberries
100g strawberries
100g raspberries
Fresh mint leaves
Icing sugar, for dusting
For the cottage cheese cream
200ml whipping cream
200g cottage cheese
1 lime, zest and juice
For the almond tuiles
200g caster sugar
50g flour
70g flaked almonds
Juice and zest of 1 orange
70g butter, melted
To make the cottage cheese cream, whip the cream to firm peaks, fold in the cottage cheese, lime zest and juice, and mix. Leave in the fridge until ready to serve.
Make the tuiles a day or two ahead, so they can set. Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Sift together the icing sugar and flour, and mix with the flaked almonds, orange juice and zest, and the melted butter. Line a large baking sheet with parchment. Drop rounded teaspoons of the mixture on to the baking sheet and spread them out with the back of a spoon (wet the spoon with water to prevent the mix sticking) to make circles about 5cm in diameter. Leave some space between each tuile, because they will expand during cooking. You need 16 tuiles in all.
Bake biscuits for six to eight minutes until well golden. Time them carefully: if overcooked, tuiles will be bitter and brittle, and if undercooked, they will be too soft and malleable. While they are still warm, cutting discs desired shape. Leave them alone and chilly.
To assemble the dish, wash the berries well. Hull the strawberries and, if they are on the large side, cut them in half. Spoon a small amount of cottage cheese cream on to each plate, top with one tuile biscuit and arrange a selection of berries on the inside edge of the tuile, leaving room in the middle for more cream. Top with another tuile and repeat. Finish with a tuile on top with a teaspoon of cream in the middle.
To serve, place a few fruits on top as a garnish, add some fresh mint and dust with icing sugar.
To drink: The grapey, floral and sweet Sainsbury'sMuscat de Saint-Jean-de-Minervois (£ 4,48 per 37.5cl; 15% abv) is a steal.
Tom Kitchin is chef/patron of Kitchin in Edinburgh and author of From Nature To Plate (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £30). To order a copy for £22.99 (including UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
Michael Caines: Cherry parfait, poached cherries and cherry mousse with cherry jelly
For the poached cherries
600g fresh cherries, stoned
30ml kirsch
½ lemon, juice
80g caster sugar
1 tsp arrowroot
For the marinated cherries
125g poached cherries (see above), finely chopped
25ml kirsch
For cherry parfait
100g sugar
30 ml of water
6 egg yolks
200g poached cherries (see above)
125g marinated cherries (see above)
½ lemon, juiced
200ml double cream, whipped
8 tempered dark chocolate tubes
For the cherry chocolate mousse
3 egg yolks
75ml stock syrup (see parfait
method, right)
100g griotte cherries, finely chopped (you can buy preserved griotte cherries in a jar â€" strain, and use the liquor in the mousse)
50ml griotte cherry liquor
160g dark chocolate (72% cocoa solids), melted
300ml double cream
For the cherry jelly
1-2 leaves gelatine
150 ml cherry juice (from boiled cherries)
For the poached cherries, put the cherries, kirsch, lemon juice and sugar in a stainless-steel saucepan and bring to a boil over a medium heat. Cook at a gentle simmer for five minutes, until the cherries are soft. Add a drop of water to the arrowroot, then whisk into the pan. Bring back to a boil, remove from the heat, strain off 150ml of juice through a fine sieve (you'll use this for the jelly) and leave the rest to cool down.
After cooling, the individual 125g cherries, finely chop and place in a bowl with the kirsch to steep for 12 hours (you can use the LL 'them into parfait). Weigh another 200 grams of cooked cherries, in the liquidiser and blitz with mashed potatoes (LL you use "is a parfait, too).
To make the parfait, put the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat and cook until it reaches 120C â€" this is your stock syrup. Put the egg yolks in a bowl, pour on the hot syrup, whipping all the time, until the eggs are cold. Add the cherry purée and mix to blend, then add the marinated cherries and lemon juice. Carefully fold in the whipped cream and pour the mixture into the chocolate tubes until they are three-quarters full. Place in the freezer.
To make the mousse, make up some more stock syrup as for the parfait. Put the egg yolks, 25ml of syrup and 15ml of griottes liquor in a bowl, place over a pan of gently simmering water (make sure the water doesn't touch the base or sides of the bowl) and whisk continuously until the mixture thickens, turns frothy and forms a sabayon. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 50ml of stock syrup in a saucepan over a medium heat until it reaches 120C. Place the sabayon in a food mixer and quickly whisk in the warm stock syrup until the mixture is cold. Mix in the chopped griottes and the remaining 50ml of their liquor. Fold in the melted chocolate and double cream, and mix until smooth. Transfer the mousse into moulds and put in the fridge to set for two hours.
Finally, in the jelly. Mitigating the gelatin in cold water. Meanwhile, heat the cherry juice in a saucepan over medium heat. When gelatin is soft, squeeze out excess water and add the gelatin leaves juice dissolved, stirring to help this process. After the dissolution of the spoon of the mixture on top of the mousse, then put the form back in the refrigerator to set the jelly.
To serve, top up the frozen parfait-filled chocolate tubes with the remaining poached cherries and serve with the mousse alongside.
To drink: They use fresh cherries to make Bacchus Kriek (£2.61, Morrisons, Tesco; 5.8% abv), a sweetish, dirty ruby coloured beer that looks beautiful in champagne flutes or small tumblers.
Michael Caines is executive chef at Gidleigh Park in Chagford, Devon, and ABodethroughout the country.
Marcus Wareing: Gin and tonic granite
The perfect summer treat â€" ice-cold, refreshing and mind-numbingly good (quite literally, if you eat too much of it). Makes around a litre.
100ml water
200g caster or granulated sugar
250ml good gin (Bombay Sapphire or Beefeater)
Juice of 2 lemons
500ml tonic water
Heat the water with the sugar until the latter dissolves. Add all the remaining ingredients to the pan, stir, then pour into a freezer container and freeze. After an hour, take it out, give it a quick whisk and return to the freezer. Repeat after the second hour.
Before serving, scrape the granite all over with a fork to break it up â€" this will give it a softer texture. Serve as a pre-dessert (a few crystallised violet petals scattered on top are a nice touch) or as a grown-up's slushy for a hot day.
Marcus Wareing is head chef of Marcus Wareing at Berkeley . His latest book is Nutmeg And Custard (Bantam Press, £25). To order a copy for £19.99 (including UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
Lorraine Pascale: Watermelon and stem ginger juice
A very, very refreshing alternative to traditional lemonade.
¼ watermelon, rind and
seeds removed
Zest and juice of 2 limes
2 pieces stem ginger
Stem ginger syrup, to taste
Vodka (optional)
Ice Cubes
Fresh mint, to finish
4 ice-cold glasses
Blend the watermelon, limes and ginger to a liquid, then press through a sieve. Add the syrup from the stem ginger jar to taste (I have a sweet tooth, so used almost all of it). Divide the juice between the glasses, add a splash of vodka, if using, and finish with ice cubes and mint.
Lorraine Pascal runs cake shop Ella's Bakehouse. Her first book, Lorraine Bakes, is out next year (HarperCollins, £20).
Through detailed observations of Tanzanian apes, Jane Goodall revolutionised our knowledge of chimpanzee behaviour
Fifty years ago, a slender young Englishwoman was walking through a rainforest reserve at Gombe, in Tanzania, when she came across a dark figure hunched over a termite nest. A large male chimpanzee was foraging for food. So she stopped and watched the animal through her binoculars as he carefully took a twig, bent it, stripped it of its leaves, and finally stuck it into the nest. Then he began to spoon termites into his mouth.
Thus Jane Goodall made one of the most important scientific observations of modern times in that remote African rainforest. She witnessed a creature, other than a human, in the act not just of using a tool but of making one. "It was hard for me to believe," she recalls. "At that time, it was thought that humans, and only humans, used and made tools. I had been told from school onwards that the best definition of a human being was man the tool-maker â€" yet I had just watched a chimp tool-maker in action. I remember that day as vividly as if it was yesterday."
Goodall's subsequent observations found that not only did Pan troglodytes â€" the chimpanzee â€" make and use tools but that our nearest evolutionary cousins embraced, hugged, and kissed each other. They experienced adolescence, developed powerful mother-and-child bonds, and used political chicanery to get what they wanted. They also made war, wiping out members of their own species with almost genocidal brutality on one occasion that was observed by Goodall.
This work has held up a mirror, albeit a blurred one, to our own species, suggesting that a great many of our behaviours, once thought to be uniquely human, may have been inherited from the common ancestors that Homo sapienstogether with chimpanzees 6000000 years ago. Therefore, we have a lot to celebrate 50 years since its inception, Goodall Gombe walks. These celebrations began yesterday at the Berlin Film Festival premiere of the documentary with Lorenz Knauer 'on Goodall, Jane's Journey â€" which includes a walk-on part for Angelina Jolie â€" and will continue throughout the year.
A friend took a job in Kenya, and Goodall decided to join her, working as a waitress to raise funds for her trip. In Nairobi, Goodall was introduced to Louis Leakey, the scientist whose fossil discoveries had finally proved mankind's roots were African, not Asian, as had previously been supposed.
At this time, Leakey was looking for someone to study chimpanzees in the wild and to find evidence of shared ancestry between humans and the great apes. Previous studies of primates had been confined to captive animals but Leakey believed, presciently, that much more could be learned by studying them in the wild. More to the point, Goodall would make a perfect observer, he believed, coming â€" as she did â€" "with a mind uncluttered and unbiased by theory", a point that is acknowledged by Goodall.
Their friendship survived the incident and Goodall went off to Gombe to study her chimpanzees, while Leakey selected two other female researchers, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas, to study gorillas and orangutans. Galdikas, like Goodall, is still going strong. The fate of Fossey, played by Sigourney Weaver in the film Gorillas in the MistMust have been a gloomy, however. Fossey was murdered in 1985 after an attempt to punish the local population after the incident, in which several beloved gorillas were killed.
"Dian was a tragic figure," says Goodall. "She was very, very tall, statuesque and really, really wanted to get married. She would say to people, 'Do you know a man who is six foot five and loves gorillas?' So she got a little bitter later on when I got married and Birute got married and she didn't. And she wasn't diplomatic. She tackled poachers by chasing them and did things that I would not have been brave enough to have done. Sometimes she was very stupid. But she brought the plight of the gorillas to everyone's attention."
The violent death of Dian Fossey contrasts with Goodall's relatively peaceful time in Tanzania, although her life at Gombe â€" on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, north of Kigoma â€" certainly did not lack incident. "I arrived with my mother because the local authorities were adamant that a young English girl could not live on her own in the bush without a European escort," she says.
In fact, this ruling may not have been an altogether bad thing because the Belgian Congo had just erupted into civil war and Kigoma was filled with refuges. "There was nowhere to go so we had to put up our tent in a prison camp. They said that was the safest place for us and wouldn't let us go to Gombe for several weeks."
Eventually the two women (plus a cook) made it to the reserve and Goodall began the tricky business of getting Gombe's chimps to accept her. "I remember my first day, looking up from the shore to the forest, hearing the apes and the birds, and smelling the plants, and thinking this is very, very unreal," she says. "Then I started walking through the forest and as soon as a chimp saw me, it would run away."
After a few weeks one male, who she named David Greybeard because of his white-tufted chin, let her approach him â€" tempted by the odd banana â€" and allowed her to observe him as he foraged for food. (It was David Greybeard who Goodall later watched making that leafy tool to obtain termites.) More and more troop members followed suit and Goodall was eventually allowed to observe their behaviour almost as if she was a chimpanzee herself.
Slowly she built up a picture of chimp life in all its domestic detail: the grooming, the food-sharing, the status wrangles, and the fights. Goodall gave her chimps names â€" David Greybeard, Flint, Goliath, Passion, Frodo and Fifi â€" much to the irritation of academics.
At this time scientists were particularly sensitive about giving human attributes to animals. Anthropomorphism was simply not on, they told Goodall when, in the early 60s, she took a PhD at Cambridge at the insistence of Leakey â€" who was desperate for his protege to gain academic respectability. "These people were trying to make ethology a hard science," Goodall recalls. "So they objected â€" quite unpleasantly â€" to me naming my subjects and for suggesting that they had personalities, minds and feelings. I didn't care. I didn't want to become a professor or get tenure or teach or anything. All I wanted to do was get a degree because Louis Leakey said I needed one, which was right, and once I succeeded I could get back to the field."
In any case, Goodall (who got her PhD in 1965) believes it is simple nonsense to say that animals, particularly chimpanzees which are so closely related to humans, do not have personalities. "You cannot share your life with a dog, as I had done in Bournemouth, or a cat, and not know perfectly well that animals have personalities and minds and feelings. You know it and I think every single one of those scientists knew it too but because they couldn't prove it, they wouldn't talk about it. But I did talk about it. In a way, my dog Rusty gave me the courage of my convictions."
In 1964 Goodall married wildlife photographer Baron Hugo van Lawick â€" becoming Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall. Three years later, the couple had a son, Hugo, who was raised at Gombe where he known simply as "Grub". The presence of lots of chimpanzee mothers had a considerable influence on the way Goodall raised Hugo.
Goodall contrasts the behaviour of Flo, a good mother, with that of Passion, a poor one. "It was a common sight to see Passion walking along followed by a whimpering infant who was frantically trying to catch up and climb aboard her for transport," Goodall records in her book In the shadow of man . Conversely, a child Flo 'Fifi noticeably confident teenagers Goodall States, "its relaxed behavior with her elders, stemming from the fact that she enjoyed particularly friendly relationship with her mother".
Fifi's strong start in life was to have profound effects. She too became a good mother and produced many grandchildren for Flo while Passion had relatively few. There is reproductive advantage in good motherhood, in other words.
Being a patient, playful, protective mother is largely common sense, adds Goodall, who is scornful of child-rearing books that suggest otherwise. "Do you pick up a crying baby or do you leave it to cry?" she asks. "Let's just say I picked my baby up when he cried." Gina Ford, please take note.
Van Lawick and Goodall divorced and she later married Derek Bryceson, then director of Tanzania's national parks. His subsequent death in 1978, of cancer, left her devastated.
Around this time, Goodall noted a split was taking place among Gombe's chimpanzees. Eventually, two groups were created â€" a new, relatively small troop set up in the south, leaving the northern part under the control of the original Gombe population. "Once the original community realised they were the stronger of the two groups, and that there were still more of them than the others, they went for the split-off group," says Goodall.
"There were gang attacks of extraordinary brutality. The male chimps pounded and pounded their victims and left them to die of awful injuries. They did things to their fellow chimps that they would never do within a community but which they do when they are trying to kill a prey animal." It was the equivalent, in our own species, of dehumanising the enemy, a frequent prelude to an atrocity.
"The war was a disaster," says Goodall. "It was awful, not just for the chimps but for me. I thought they were like us but nicer. It was a real shock to see what they did to each other. That is why it was so dreadful."
The parallels between Homo sapiens and Pan troglodytes are deep and numerous, we now know â€" thanks to Goodall. Equally, there are the crucial differences that divide our species. "The most important one is straightforward," says Goodall. "We have language and they do not. Chimps communicate by embracing, patting, looking â€" all these things. And they have lots of sounds. But they cannot sit and discuss. They cannot teach about things that are not present, as far as we know."
And this takes us to the heart of Goodall's discoveries about the nature of the chimpanzee and its implications for our understanding of our nature. Language and discussion develop the intellect, she argues. "The brain of a chimp and the brain of a human are not that different anatomically. But we started to talk to each other and that drove the brain â€" because there were more and more things that we could do with it.
"Chimps can do all sorts of things we thought that only we could do â€" like tool-making and abstraction and generalisation. They can learn a language â€" sign language and they can use the signs. But when you think of our intellects, even the brightest chimp looks like a very small child."
Clearly, we have learned a great deal not just about our evolutionary cousins but about ourselves thanks to the work that Goodall began at Gombe 50 years ago and to the other chimp observation projects that have been set up in the wake of her study. The tragedy is that many of these programmes are now threatened by the current catastrophic decline in population of the chimpanzee across Africa. One hundred years ago, there were two million of them. Today there are less than 200,000, with habitat destruction and bushmeat trade being responsible for the loss of increasing numbers.
Many populations are now poised at the edge of eradication â€" taking with them our chance to learn about their unique cultures, for chimps vary from place to place in the manner in which they catch termites or baboons, a knowledge that is passed down from adult to child.
The implications for science and for our understanding of ourselves are profound, as Stephen Jay Gould makes clear in his introduction to the revised edition of Goodall's In the Shadow of Man. "We can never know, by studying ourselves alone, whether important aspects of our mental capacities reflect an ancestral evolutionary heritage or new features evolved or socially acquired by our lineage. Chimpanzees are the best natural experiment we will ever have for exploring this central question."
Yet at the present rate that the habitat of these wonderful creatures is being destroyed, that great natural experiment is likely to be brought to an abrupt end only a few decades after Goodall began her work. Hence her efforts to raise awareness of their plight and her involvement in a range of international projects â€" including Roots & Shoots, her environmental youth programme â€" which are aimed at protecting African habitats and chimpanzee homelands.
"At the end of the day, I still think we can do it," she says. "Everywhere I go there are young people with shining eyes wanting to tell Dr Jane what they are doing to make the world better. You have to be hopeful."
• Post your thoughts on the world championship so far, or by e-mail me
s • Read Daniel Taylor 'report of Spain 1-0 Portugal
• Paul Hayward on England's failed foreign coach experiment
• Look back at how yesterday's live blog unfolded
• Explore the Fans' Network: read what the world is saying
5.35pm:Well, that 's today. Just time for a quick summary:
• Nigeria have suspended their team for two years following their first-round exit.
• Germany's Thomas Müller reckons England were not mentally prepared to face Germany
• Elano will miss Brazil's quarter-final with Holland
• And on the blog, Jonathan Wilson has written a fascinating piece on Ghana and the country's football heritage
Make sure you head back here tomorrow for the start of the quarter-finals.
5.25pm: Uruguay's preparations for their quarter-final showdown with Ghana include the world's biggest pre-match BBQ.
4:39 pm: Denied a kick at the 1966 World Cup during their truly great years, Ghana are now aiming to put the rest of Africa to shame, Writes Jonathan Wilson.
3.55pm: Thoughtful, dispassionate, outsider's perspective on England's World Cup exit from Tom Humphries of The Irish Times. Thanks to reader Catsunstein for the link.
So what will England do? Change the tip of the pyramid and sack Fabio Capello, or examine the entire structure which lies underneath and see if it could serve Capello better?
Interestingly, England may have come to a crossroads with this World Cup. Most polls being run in the thoughtful end of the English newspaper market had football followers voting to retain Capello. Undoubtedly he made mistakes before and in South Africa, but he draws from the shallow end of a quite unhealthy football pool. English football has failed Fabio more than Fabio has failed English football.
Imagine, for instance, that you are Sam Hutchinson. Nobody has heard of you but you are in your late teens and quite a talented defender. Been with Chelsea since you were a nipper. England Under-19s, England Under-21s. All good. A few injury problems over the last year or two but you are still part of the cream of the crop.
Nineteen years old and you have made just a couple of first team appearances. So should you be picking out your Ferarri? Should you be alerting MTV that they might want to be featuring your crib in a year or so? Will you place an ad in the personal columns of Wag Weekly ?
Column continues
3:15 pm: Fasten your anoraks - a fascinating stat wings it's way in from South Africa from Sean Ingle, via reader Craig Stewart: "We know there's no English players left in the World Cup," writes Craig. "But I wondered how many players who play in the self-and much-proclaimed and multinational World's Greatest Football League, the Andy Gray/Richard Keys Sky Carling Barclaycard Premier League have reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup."
Uruguay: 0/23
Ghana: 4/23
Germany: 0/23 (all 23 play in Germany)
Argentina:4 / 23 (incl. 1 in the league last season)
Netherlands: 5/23
Brazil: 1/23
Paraguay: 2/23
Spain: 3/23 (all others play in Spain)
Total number of players remainining in tournament who play in Premier League: 19/184, not even a full squad's-worth. And that includes players who are not first picks, plus the likes of Huerelho Gomez and Pepe Reina who have not and will not play a single minute of the WC unless an injury befalls Brazil/Spain's first-choice keeper.
Craig signs off saying: "I know - it's the climate/travel/ball/altitude/gruelling season." [BG]
2:54 pm: A little early afternoon treat from the folks who've been monitoring our player ratings. Here are the top 10 best and worst performances as rated by you lot - our readers. And here, if you're looking for a more detailed study, is the comprehensive list of every player's rating in every game so far. PB
2.31pm:Here sa 'creative take on lower results, why England in South Africa, Germany' Thomas Mueller:
England have so many top stars in their squad that they will always be part and parcel of the international football scene. But there are so many 'alpha males'. It is difficult to have so many 'alpha males' and have them row in the same direction. You don't only need only chiefs, you also need a few Indians. You need people who are ready and willing to do the hard work. It may be a problem with England that players are simply not mentally prepared to go that extra mile for their team-mates.
GR
2.10pm: Is it ridiculous to think that the absence of a player who couldn't cut it at Manchester City might do serious harm to Brazil's chances against Holland? Elano will miss Friday's game with an ankle injury. PB
1.55pm: Conversely, over in the Spanish camp it's warm hugs and pats on the back all-round - even for the struggling Fernando Torres. "The only blame you can pin on him in the opening stages [of the World Cup] is that he hasn't scored," chirruped Torres's fellow striker David Villa today. "His desire to be with the team has been spectacular." PB
1.38pm:Enough for the failure of England to '(well, for this post anyway), then' s time to talk about the shortcomings of Portugal 's. Or at least heard that Ricardo Carvalho can say about them . "I think you need more offensively," grumbled Carvalho, spotting a flaw that no others had observed about a team that failed to score in three out of four World Cup games. "We defended well but you have to create more chances to score." PB
1.25pm: Liban Saleh has weighed in with his thoughts on the Roy Hodgson discussion:
The problem I have isn't with the manager. In fact, I've never really had a problem with any of the last three managers. I've always had, however, a major problem with the players. After every faliure, we hear reports of unrest amongst the players due to the managers methods. Are they so stubborn, so stupid, that they cannot adapt to a managers way of doing things? If that is the case, then Roy Hodgson will have as much success as McLaren, Capello, Eriksson and Keegan.
It is well known that Hodgson drills his teams relentlessly (much like a lot of European managers in fact). Fulham players were initially irritated by this, but came around to his methods when they started winning games.
How long would England players put up with Hodgson's methods before he too is undermined by a bunch of overpaid, mollycoddled players who have their own special way of doing things at their various clubs? I would wager not very long at all.
For someone like John Terry (John Terry!) to criticise the way Capello runs his training sessions is astonishing. Capello, a man who has worked with Baresi and Maldini, two of the greatest defenders of all time, being questioned by a man like Terry is the reason why every England manager will fail.
1pm: This isn't strictly World Cup-related, as it's a story about England players, but we'll mention it here anyway.
A soccer skills showcase featuring Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard, due to take place at London's 02 Arena on 17 July, has been postponed after one of the organisers claimed the English pair had withdrawn, on the grounds they felt it would be "inappropriate" to subject the paying public to the sight of them apologetically clanking footballs off their shins and into the Thames while trying to perform a few keepy-uppies or play a game of head tennis.
Cesc FÃ bregas, Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba and David Villa were also slated to appear at the "gladatroial skills-based challenge", which has been postponed until next year (not that you'd know it from looking at this website), when the organisers hope the dust has settled and people might have forgotten about ... y'know.
12.49pm: More from Sean in South Africa, who appears to have badgered some poor unfortunate Brazilian into doing a spot of translation for him.
The big news from the Brazil press conference is that Elano is very unlikely to be fit to face Holland on Friday. José Luiz Runco, Brazil's national team
doctor, says his "bone bruise" is not good.
12.28pm: This from Malte Dahlgrün via email:
Yoga Lion gives a press conference live on German television, and he 's made some pretty interesting comments about the set pieces (which he is known,
neglected in training due to time constraints) a few minutes ago. There was a little affectionate joke about England there too. Check it out, if you have a transcription and translation ...
12.12pm: It's not technically a World Cup story, but it would surely be remiss of us not to mention here that the Spain winger David Silva has agreed to join Manchester City on a four-year deal. Moving is still subject to health, which he only once to take the tournament, Spain 'end. PB
11:57 am: We've had an update from Sean:
Arrived at the brazil media conference with a minute to spare ... However, unlike every presser I've been to so far, there's no nifty headphone device on hand that provides translations in three different languages. Given my lack of portuguese this is going to be tricky ...
11.42am: Sven-Goran Eriksson may be a good four years removed from the England job, but that doesn't mean he's ready to stop fretting about the Premier League's lack of a winter break. "England is the only country in Europe without a break and when it comes to these big tournaments they are suffering for it," wibbled Eriksson, who also denied that Fulham had approached him about becoming Roy Hodgson's successor. PB
11.25am:Morning people, Paolo Bandini here. Myself, Gregg Rowley, and Barry Glendenning will be filled with Sean 's mind today. Above all, this SA ", a lengthy letter from David Wall, which can provoke a reaction:
If rumours of Hodgson's appointment at Liverpool are true, might this turn out to be more beneficial for England than even if he had been made the national manager? Over the past 10-15 years many players have underperformed when turning out for England, but arguably Liverpool players have shown the greatest difference between form for club and country. Aside from Michael Owen I can't think of any of their players who have consistently matched or exceeded his club form for England. I'm thinking of Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Redknapp (admittedly perhaps hindered by a lack of consistent selection), following the trend set by Barnes before them.
In each case it's particularly galling considering how great they have been for the club. Contrast this with the standard produced (relatively consistently) by people like Gary Neville, John Terry (before this competition), Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole, David Beckham, Wayne Rooney (especially in qualifying for this World Cup and at Euro 2004), Peter Crouch, and even far less talented players like Darius Vassell who played better for England than he ever did for Villa (and Theo Walcott might fall in a similar category if you listen to some Arsenal fans).
It's only my speculation but one plausible explanation for this discrepancy might be that the Liverpool players (as a group) lack tactical flexibility and discipline - they don't get to play the Liverpool way at international level and are able to operate well in a different system. How often have we heard this of Gerrard in particular? If this is right so far (admittedly, quite a hypothesis) then Hodgson's appointment might help England by introducing a tactical sophistication and rigour into the training methods of the club that was otherwise lacking.
Over the past couple of years much of training at Fulham has been dedicated to working on team shape and movement - something that was noted many times in their run to the Europa League final. Even supposed flair players like Damien Duff were able to perform a variety of roles for the team. He'll also have more influence over Liverpool's players than could be had by a national team manager in the limited time he has with his squad. Assuming Liverpool thrive again after this season's blip, and continue to produce good players who superficially seem good selections for England, then if Hodgson does at Liverpool what he did at Fulham this can only be good for both that club and for the country.
11:05 am: Speaking of Brazil, that's it for me for now as I'm off to their press conference, which is due to take place in 40 minutes or so. It's going to be another mad dash across Johannesburg ... Thanks for all your posts and emails - and for now it's over to my colleagues in London. Best, Sean
10.55am:Here 's announcement in the Brazilian newspaper, lamenting the defeat of ... after Brazil won .
10:46 am: This tweet from my erstwhile colleague Paul Kelso sums up the mood among journalists in South Africa
Weird. No football. Hacks, pundits and officials wander like the undead around sandton. #worldcup
10.37am:In today 's Guardian , however, Paul Hayward is much less convinced of Capello's attributes. Indeed he thinks "England's experiment with the mass importation of foreign expertise has run its course."
Since the publishing market for England player memoirs collapsed after 2006 we may not have to wait for the Christmas books avalanche to start hearing this squad's gripes about dull food and pidgin English. But several senior members of Capello's doomed South Africa expedition are known to be appalled by his rigid adherence to a 4-4-2 formation that looked prehistoric against Germany and by the monastic ethos of the training camp.
...
Löw's tactical conquest of Capello was so crushing that it negated many of the reasons for hiring a foreign manager in the first place. If the minimum return on ostracising English coaches is winning important matches, the splurge (£6m a year for Capello and an unspecified sum for his adjutants) is without purpose. If it is parochial to think World Cup football is by definition the players, coaches and supporters of one nation against those of another then Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Holland are all deluded never to have dialled international rescue.
10.27am:C. There 'Good Matt Dickinson today' s Times , arguing why Fabio Capello hasn't lost the dressing room. He's particularly scathing about "the famous investigative reporter" Alan Shearer, who claimed earlier this week that 'it looked to me as if the England players did not want to play for him' before adding 'only those who were there know the real problems and can tell the truth about what went on.'
Which is the point, surely. Speaking to those on the inside would be helpful before making sweeping, and damning, judgments. If he had, Shearer might have found out all sorts of things, such as, rather than being locked "in a boot camp and let out only on match days", the players were allowed more than half a dozen family afternoons or games of golf beyond the walls of the notorious Stalag Capello.
As Capello's future is debated by the Football Association, with board members grasping for reasons to back or sack him, there is enough conflicting evidence around England's World Cup campaign without this sort of misinformation. Yes, there were problems within the dressing room during the World Cup and Graham Taylor, the former England manager working for the BBC, picked up on it earlier than most. But the idea that these problems can be categorised as "lost the dressing room" is plain misleading.
10.21am: By the way, I'm finding it slightly bizarre that my five-year-old piece on why football fans are idiotsThis is the third most read article on guardian.co.uk / football. Most strange.
10.14am: Incidentally I've only ever had a sit-down interview with Gary Neville once, back in my Total Sport days not long after United had won the Treble. He was - as he comes across - intelligent, opinionated and feisty. He got the wrong end of the stick with one question I asked him about fitness levels, and you could almost see the anger rise into his shoulders. He was some player in his prime - underrated I think as these things go - and I liked him as a bloke. English football needs more of his ilk.
10:06 am: In today's Times, Gary Neville's calls it absolutely right about England and Capello (Here's the Guardian story for those of you who don't want to register):
"England are out of the World Cup and, surprise, surprise, we are talking about sacking the manager. If that was a reaction I expected from some fans and pundits, I was disappointed â€" although not exactly shocked â€" to hear wavering coming out of the FA.
"Two weeks to decide Fabio Capello's future, says Adrian Bevington, the Club England managing director. This is the same Club England [whatever that is] that trumpeted so proudly 28 days ago that it had taken the release clause out of the manager's contract.
\\ "One minute these guys are talking about Capello world-class, now they must decide two weeks if he is the man for them in the end. What are they waiting for - to see what 's in the newspapers? Where is the spine? Now You can understand why I was with my arguments F. down years. "
"It [the FA] has to stick by Capello. I do not agree with all his decisions, from squad selection to formation, but nor do I buy the idea that he merits the sack. It is easy for Alan Shearer to say the players haven't performed for him, but is that all one man's fault? I'd put three of Germany's four goals down to individuals. Whatever anyone says about systems â€" and I was surprised Capello didn't try 4-5-1 â€" these were errors from experienced players."
"We have to question how good we truly are. Better than we performed in this World Cup, for sure, but have we overestimated our strengths on the basis of our strong record in the Champions League? Possibly. The success of Manchester United and Chelsea cannot be a reliable guide to the merits of the England team, given the number of top-class players from overseas."
Someone sign this man up as a pundit, please.
9.58am: Incidentally, I was chatting to my Guardian colleagues Owen Gibson and Richard Williams last night and the consenus is that Fabio Capello is now more likely to stay than leave. With Roy Hodgson probably off to Liverpool and Harry Redknapp a no-no in the eyes of many FA board members there isn't an obvious replacement ... and then there's the eye-watering pay-off the FA would have to give Capello too.
9.52am: Meanwhile Guardian sport's art director has emailed this link from Bild.de, adding: "Wait until you hear the guy 1 minute into the video".
9.44am: On Twitter, guardian.co.uk's Spanish correspondent Sid Lowe asks a pertinent question:
This RvPersie and Sneijder thing .... are the Dutch going to self-combust again?
I haven't spent any time with the Holland camp, but earlier in the tournament a couple of Dutch journalists I spoke to were very optimistic about the mood among the players. The squad is staying in Sandton, Johannesburg - urbanville rather than the grim sameness that, say, England had squirreled away in Rustenberg - and their squad is often seen walking around the streets and immersing themselves in city life. But, with Brazil looming, they needed this row like a hole in the head.
9.37am: Meanwhile below the line, lots of you are asking why having two extra goalline assistants wasn't used during this World Cup. The answer? Probably because it was largely deemed to be a failure. As the BBC reported earlier this year:
World players' union Fifpro polled the captains of the 48 clubs who competed in the Europa League group stages. Of the 31 players who responded, 70% saw no improvement in decision-making during the trial but 90% want to see goal-line technology ...
Uefa's extra referees experiment has also proved unpopular with some managers, including Everton's David Moyes and Fulham's Roy Hodgson. Moyes hit out at the trial after Louis Saha was sent off for raising his hands to an AEK Athens player during his side's 4-0 win in September. The Scot said it was "amazing" that not one of the five officials spotted that Saha had been fouled first. In October, Hodgson was dismayed that the presence of extra officials did not prevent referee Paul Allaerts sending off the wrong player in Fulham's 1-1 draw with Roma.
9.30am:Tom Lutz was reading British tabloids this morning. It turns out that the Sun is very displeased with the conduct of England players 's . Again.
Every morning this column wakes up and asks itself what Ashley Cole has done wrong today. And the answer usually arrives three seconds later when the nation's tabloids slap down on the pavement outside its cardboard box. And it usually involves texts.
Today Ashley Cole has got himself in trouble over texts. Here's the Sun:
"Flop Ashley Cole sent a disgraceful message to pals days before flying out to the World Cup â€" snarling: 'I hate England and the f***ing people!'"
The fencing people? We hate the fencing people too, Ashley. With their foils and their sabres and their épées. Particularly their épées. Anyway, there's more ...
9.20am: It seems charges have been dropped against Pavlos Joseph after he was arrested at Cape Town international airport on Monday.
9.10am: So, the quarter-finals will be:
Germany v Argentina
Ghana v Uruguay
Brazil v Holland
Spain v Paraguay
Predictions? At this point, I 'm quite happy with my Spanish to victory and David Villa to be the main goalscorer bets ... but the bookmakers do Brazil baby-bath warm favorites.
9.00am: I've been fortunate with the matches I've been assigned to report on, but yesterday I was at Paraguay v Japan ... which wasn't quiteas pompous as Slovenia V Algeria, but it was still very poor. Here 's the beginning of my game
report:
As Oscar Cardozo began his run-up for what turned out to be Paraguay's winning penalty, Japan's players knelt together on the halfway line, hardly daring to look. And as the ball rolled into the left-hand corner of the net, some heads dropped to the floor, their World Cup hopes decapitated.
Meanwhile 20 yards away, those in red and white began a long and tearful victory charge towards Cardozo, whose nerveless penalty settled a highly nervy encounter. Paraguay scored all five of their spot-kicks, while only Yuichi Komano, who smashed his shot against the bar, missed for Japan. By such margins are games decided.
"There was fear and tension," the Paraguay coach, Gerardo Martino, said. "Everyone knows it is unfair to settle a game like this. But when you win the tension is released and so many things go through your mind. That was the reason for the tears."
Meanwhile Danny Taylor was in to see Spain deservedly set a quarter-final game against Paraguay by squeezing past Portugal:
Spain's record in the World Cup has been a source of embarrassment for longer than they will care to remember but, for this esteemed old football nation, there is now the chance to venture into new territory. They won this match with another demonstration of David Villa's qualities inside the penalty area and if they can beat Paraguay on Saturday they will have reached the semi-finals for the first time.
Villa's fourth goal of this World Cup came 63 minutes into an evening in which their football was not at their most sublime but sophisticated enough to reveal themselves as a side of class and achievement and expose the gulf with their opponents. Portugal did not show enough wit and adventure to make it the classic that had been hoped for and Carlos Queiroz's team did not go out of the competition with great dignity.
In the final moments Ricardo Costa earned a red card for a flailing arm into the face of Joan Capdevila and, as Cristiano Ronaldo sloped off the pitch after the final whistle, he registered his disapproval about being followed by a cameraman by spitting near enough for it to be seen as deliberate. Later, when asked for his thoughts on why Portugal had gone out of the competition, he replied pointedly: "Ask Queiroz."
8.50am:Nevertheless, we shouldn 't get involved in these 3 meals a day in attacking football. While South Africa 2010 was 123 goals in 56 games - an average of 2.19 games. It 's still lower than the World Cup in history, Italia 90, is considered the nadir of the majority of people, while on average 2.21.
8.40am: At least the two-day break gives us all time to draw breath, and reflect on a decent round of last 16 matches. The eight games brought 22 goals and plenty of attacking football, something that hasn't been the norm in the knockout stages of recent World Cups. In Korea/Japan 2002, for instance, there were 25 goals from 15 knockout games (excluding the irrelevent third-placed play-off), while in Germany 2006 there was just 26 goals in 15 knockout matches (again excluding the third-place play-off).
Welcome to day 20 of guardian.co.uk's daily live World Cup blog, wherever you are in the world ... We're making a slightly later start today because after 56 matches in 19 days, there's no live football. But I'll still be here throughout the day with news, predictions, pontifications, colour from our team in South Africa, plus lots of pointing outwards; to your comments below the line, to the best things we've seen on the web and to various World Cup
randomania.
