BlinkDash

MLBSan Diego and the New York Mets have splashed the cash. But the Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves are superbly run clubs The new rule changes are …A mixed bag. I’m already on record as being for the pitch clock. As someone who loved watching how hitters approached the shift, however, it feels like a strategic element has been removed for no good reason. HF I dig them. Faster games! New strategies!

Spain This article is more than 9 years oldResearchers discover new genus of giant tortoiseThis article is more than 9 years oldTitanochelon was 2 metres long and roamed the ‘streets of Madrid’ between 20m and 2m years ago, study findsThese days it is dominated by shops and throngs of people. But millions of years ago, Madrid’s Gran Via belonged to herds of 2-metre-long tortoises. That’s the conclusion of a study published by Spanish and Greek researchers in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Autobiography and memoirReviewAn evocative account of 1970s cultural life in the Japanese capitalThe writer, historian and recently appointed editor of the New York Review of Books, Ian Buruma, “grew up with two cultures”. His father was a lapsed Dutch Protestant and his mother British, from an Anglo-German Jewish family: “My destiny was to be half in, half out – of almost anything.” He dreamed of escaping from the safe and dull cocoon of his upper-middle-class childhood in The Hague, and the opportunity to study in Tokyo on a scholarship provided the perfect way out.

Crime fictionReviewAdam Mars-Jones reviews Single & Single by John le Carré Hodder £16.99, pp336There have been a dozen books since The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, and still John le Carré seems like a butterfly escaped from the chrysalis of the genre novel but afraid to spread his wings, more than half regretting the old constricted certainties. His new novel, Single & Single, is lightly researched and well plotted, but a little sombre for those who want escapist action, and a little formulaic for more demanding readers.

Guardian Print ShopBuy a classic sport photograph: Pelé is lifted skywards by adoring fansThe latest in a Guardian Print Shop series featuring classic sports images. This week’s picture shows the legendary Brazilian footballer Pelé being mobbed by fans after winning the 1970 World Cup View image in fullscreenThe swirling frenzy around Pelé at the end of the World Cup final in 1970 made for this wonderfully dynamic picture. Notice all the photographers scrabbling for the perfect shot, the ecstatic man in the striped shirt confronting the topless hero, and even the big sombrero popping into frame on the right – it’s a scene rich with eccentric characters revelling in a moment of footballing history.

Jenni Hermoso at Spain’s training camp in Madrid with her Guardian Footballer of The Year award. Photograph: David Aliaga/RFEFIn the moment of her greatest triumph, Spain’s World Cup winner became the focal point of football’s battle against misogyny by Suzanne WrackThe Guardian Footballer of the Year is an award given to a player who has done something remarkable, whether by overcoming adversity, helping others or setting a sporting example by acting with exceptional honesty.

Life and styleLet there be lightPolly Harvey has blazed a trail in women’s rock, and was instrumental in dragging it back into the mainstream. But the pressures of fame have taken their toll. Now back from that ‘dark time’, a new album sees the singer in a different, almost optimistic mood It has never been music to potter around the house to, or to sip cocktails to, or to wake up to on a bright Sunday morning: Polly Jean Harvey's music has always been reserved for those long, dark nights of the soul - guaranteed to make us feel much worse, but somehow better at the same time.

Nigella LawsonWas Nigella Lawson’s beach burkini a defence against the Australian sun, or a subversive political statement? Earlier this week, a British woman in Australia wore a full head-to-toe black suit, complete with hoodie, to go swimming. Perhaps she thought what she wore on the beach was her own business. How wrong could she be. Wind forward a couple of days and there were already more than 100,000 items on a Google search under Nigella and burkini; the image had been beautifully subverted in a Times cartoon on the op-ed page (it was Nick Clegg's turn to be burkini-ed as he frolicked in the surf with Cameron), and dozens of shots of her unusual swimwear were in newspapers and on websites attracting thousands of hits.

The Séamas O’Reilly columnParents and parenting This article is more than 3 years oldThe true meaning of ‘kissmiss’This article is more than 3 years oldSéamas O’Reilly’Tis the season for a new set of words – and learning new and old traditions We’ve spent much of December thinking our son has gotten the Christmas bug, but we also wonder if we’re just trying to convince ourselves. His interest in anything we try to force is usually quite limited, but something as complex and specific as Christmas is all the harder.