Greed takes a rest next year as a nation battered by the recession lowers its expectations and settles for smaller cars, smaller houses and an appreciation of all things local, or so says Richard Watson, a professional adviser on future trends. Watson, a 48-year-old Briton who lives in Sydney, looked into the future for times2 a year ago and proved spot on when he foresaw a year dominated by loathsome bankers, contempt for high-earning CEOs and campaigns to protect local businesses.

Now he sees a sombre 2010 where loneliness and depression become preoccupying issues. Watson argues that prediction is about interpreting and illuminating the present. Some trends, he says, endure, not least the instinct to protect ourselves when we feel threatened and the extreme reaction to this — the rise of right-wing politics.

But as he casts his eye over 2010 it’s not all bad news — here at least we’re celebrating Watson’s belief that we can expect newsprint, magazines, novels and yes, paper, to live on as “slow media” becomes a watchword for 2010.

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E-cigarettes have been declared illegal by the Food and Drug Administration [FDA], their sale has been banned in one state and several countries, PayPal has stopped facilitating their sale, Facebook has reportedly dropped their ads, and now one county was banned their use wherever conventional smoking is prohibited.

Other restrictions and problems are on their way for e-cigarettes, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), who has been behind many of these steps to protect the public from this untested product. A letter from ASH helped trigger this latest restriction, one which will prevent the use of e-cigarettes in any public areas and workplaces where the smoking of conventional tobacco products is now prohibited.

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A family in Saudi Arabia is taking a “genie” to court, accusing it of theft and harassment, reports say.

They accuse the spirit of threatening them, throwing stones and stealing mobile phones, Al Watan newspaper said.

The family have lived in the same house near the city of Medina for 15 years but say they only recently became aware of the spirit. They have now moved out.

A local court is investigating. In Islamic theology, genies are spirits that can harass or possess humans.

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Kingsfall, the Dallas-based rockers who were named the 2009 Famecast Fenoms and the Bandwars winners earlier this year have added another notch to their belts. After a mini-tour of the south west, they appeared at The World Famous Whisky a Go Go on Sunset Blvd., where they played to a packed house of Musexpo delegates from around the world. One of only 28 artists to attend this prestigious event, Kingsfall impressed fans and industry execs alike:

“Kingsfall is a great band and yes they were hot at the Whiskey!” (Bill Davidow – Virlouise Records)

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The music of Sara Tavares is full of ‘sunshine soul’ and “Xinti” (“Feel It”), her new album, is suffused with it. Brimming with Cape Verdean guitar licks, Angolese rhythms and warm Portuguese vocals, Sara never sounded more intense. This is a startling collection, packed with surprises that display how progressively richer and more expansive Sara Tavares’s vocal repertoire has become since her previous album “Balancê”. Her songs are lyrical, sensual and more textured. They are intimate but also wrapped in irresistibly funky rhythms drawn from the Cape Verdean / African diaspora. Themes of love – spiritual and human – embrace philosophical reflections that describe, says Tavares, “the soul taking flight.”
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