The curious case of the talking dead

There's an art to arranging one's things to look pleasing, rather than cluttered and claustrophobia-inducing. Yet, too much order can appear contrived and create a visual sense of unease. So how does one get the balance right?

Bath have confirmed fly-half Olly Barkley will be out for the remainder of the season after breaking his leg in two places on Saturday.

The Fall are the most reliable band in the world, but also the most unpredictable. Musically, you can count on the band sounding pretty much the same as it did the last time you saw them, be it months ago or decades. But what keeps drawing fans back, year after year, is not reliability, it's the raw edge of uncertainty, that rarest of rock'n'roll commodities, which seems to fill a need in our increasingly ordered, commodified lives. And no frontman, not even Iggy Pop, has made as much a virtue of uncertainty as Mark E Smith.

It's not that the sort of people who play fantasy games are embarrassed by their hobby, you understand, just that they want to protect their privacy like everyone else. World of Warcraft's online players are up in arms after Blizzard Entertainment, the company that created the game, said that fans would henceforth have to use their real names on its discussion forums. One angry poster has complained that a new girlfriend (he wishes) might come across his "closet gamer habit" by Googling his real name.

Two blistering line-ups of home-run all-stars and the greatest pitchers in the game – the Yankees v Phillies showdown promises to be a classic World Series

A self-confessed swindler dubbed "King Con" fought back tears today as he blamed his life of crime on childhood abuse.

Can New York's baseball aristocrats deliver a World Series following a record outlay that leaves even European football's big spenders in the shade?

A boosted version of the XF that's sure to silence last year's critics

A former City lawyer who claims that the sexual abuse he suffered at a Catholic boys' school stopped him from fulfilling his potential and led him to have a breakdown nearly 30 years later has launched a £5m compensation claim.

Alex Rodriguez's admission this week that he took drugs has stunned a game sick of scandal, writes Rupert Cornwell

There is no suggestion," said numerous newspapers and gossip websites yesterday, "that Madonna has to date had a physical relationship with Alex Rodriguez."

New Wallaby coach masterminds second defeat in a row for men from his homeland

Rebecca Armstrong meets the style guru who fell for a guinea pig, the burlesque performer who loves to show off her favourite asset, the art critic who can't resist a rescue dog ... and the actor who knows all about animals behaving badly