Oh dear. The Mexican ambassador to the UK has written a bitter complaint to the BBC. But it’s not the Beeb’s correspondents south of the Rio Grande who’ve  driven His Excellency Señor Icaza up the wall. It was the BBC’s money-making V8 machine, Top Gear. Once again, the three lads have crossed that oft-dim offence line. Difficult to believe it coming from The Daily Maverick, but we ask of Top Gear: What’s the point of offence if offending is the point? By SIPHO HLONGWANE

Of all the models in the Land Rover fleet, the Range Rover Sport has been the most surprising success. Long before BMW launched the X6, the Range Rover Sport offered buyers an unusual mix of on-road performance, off-road prowess and uncompromising luxury. And as the sales figures prove, the Sport is a very popular choice – as long as you have the dosh. But what happens if you retire the V8 turbodiesel, and replace it with a V6 turbodiesel? By DEON SCHOEMAN.

Edward Norton’s not your typical Hollywood movie star, which is probably why, together with Shauna Robertson and two smart brothers called Robert and Jeffro Wolfe, he’s helped create Crowdrise, not your average solution to fundraising. Part social networking, part crowdsourcing, part gaming and a whole lot of fun, Crowdrise could change the way people contribute to charitable causes. By MANDY DE WAAL.

For real? We couldn’t believe it either. After posting a short piece in December 2009 about Men’s Health magazine plagiarising its own covers – a piece that was then the most popular in The Daily Maverick’s history – we saw recently that the editor responsible had been caught plagiarising his own writers. What’s more, his bosses still love him. By KEVIN BLOOM.

China’s engine, the vast and growing city of Shanghai, just posted an astonishing 9.9% year-on-year annual growth for 2010. This was, however, slower than the national average for the third consecutive year. Far from being a calamity, it suggests that the tip of the Chinese economic spear is maturing into a developed post-industrial city.

While most of us have only just vacuumed the beach sand out of the 4x4’s carpets and are trying to remember why we do what we do for a living (instead of surfing professionally, or crafting award-winning viognier in the Cape Winelands), the first major motor show of the year has already come and gone. The North American International Auto Show gave visitors a taste of things to come. But frankly, the menu could have been tastier. By DEON SCHOEMAN.

In two weeks, the 44th iteration of the National Football League’s Super Bowl - earth’s richest and most successful sports league - will take place, and very few in southern Africa will give a damn. The Greatest Show on Earth: A lament. By RICHARD POPLAK.

The Maandagshoek mine tragedy that saw two boys drown in a water pit at AttaClay Mine follows years of antagonism, protests and violence between the community and mining bosses. Community leaders say miners have wantonly exploited locals while getting rich. They now want AttaClay to take responsibility for the deaths of Kgwete and Maimela. By MANDY DE WAAL.

Oh, what tangled webs Cricket South Africa weaves. Its president Mtutuzeli Nyoka is being primed for the guillotine and claims he doesn’t know why. Accusations of lies and deceit are flying between him and CEO Gerald Majola. But this is about provinces, the CSA and the power play. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

Eric Cantona, the most Gallic of Gallic footballers, has been sorely missed by the faithful. On Wednesday New York Cosmos finally brought him back into the fold, appointing him as director of soccer. Since hanging up his boots in 1997 there have been many pretenders, but true fans will know there will only ever be one King Cantona. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

The last time a wedding of this size happened between a content and connectivity company, the result was AOL-Time Warner. Remember how well that went? Maybe the FCC doesn’t, because they’ve just approved a merger between Comcast and NBC Universal, and the brand-new media company will rival Disney for the title of world’s largest. By KEVIN BLOOM.

The eastern and western halves of the US became “tied” together thanks to the railroads. And the railroads were stitched across the continent thanks in large part to thousands of Chinese labourers, among others. Now China’s President Hu Jintao is officially visiting that country to forge new ties – and gain critically important respect. By J BROOKS SPECTOR

A former high-ranking Swiss banker handed over two CDs he says contain information of tax dodging by more than 2,000 “high-net worth individuals” and corporations to WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange on Monday. If WikiLeaks publishes the information, it will be signalling a return to its original whistleblowing ethos. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

Imagine if advertising legend David Ogilvy was enlisted to help guide the people who created the Internet and the tools used to navigate it? The result may have been advertising technology that doesn’t grate consumers quite as much. Disruption advertising predominates online and it’s a sweet relief to find innovators like AdKeeper focus on trying to fix what’s broken. By MANDY DE WAAL.

Whenever and wherever the global economic rockstar Joseph Stiglitz talks, people listen. And when this eminent member of Ebrahim Patel's advisory panel held a public lecture in Pretoria on Monday, many were looking for clues to what will be next for South Africa. By STEPHEN GROOTES.

Conrad Black, everyone’s favourite dodgy media baron, has just dodged another legal bullet. After enjoying a short prison stint for a host of fraud charges, Baron Black of Crossharbour (no, that is not a Harry Potter character) has recoated himself in Teflon, and slinked free once more from Lady Justice’s grasp. And who, one wonders, is this Tweeting FakeConradBlack fellow? By RICHARD POPLAK.

Alfa Romeo is one of the motoring world’s most famous brands: An automotive legend steeped in a history stretching back more than a century. But while the Milanese marque is associated with beautifully styled, evocative machines delivering stirring dynamics, the sales figures paint a less appealing picture. Indeed, to survive, Alfa needs to attract more customers. The all-new Giulietta promises to do just that – but will it deliver? By DEON SCHOEMAN.

After rebuffing takeover bids from Yahoo and Google, the “collective-buying” company Groupon is expanding internationally by buying up local rivals. The recent takeovers were in India, Israel and South Africa. We chatted to Daniel Guasco, one of the founders of Twangoo, the local company Groupon has acquired, about the takeover and what it means. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

As we’ve said before this is the year the economy takes centre stage. It’s jobs, jobs, jobs. This week, starting on Wednesday, the ANC’s NEC meets to unpack the issue. While we doubt all 80 members read this proudly capitalist website, we thought we’d propose some real-life solutions. By STEPHEN GROOTES.

Apple unveiled its new Mac App Store on Thursday, finally bringing the kind of ease iPhone and iPad users have enjoyed to the Mac. By creating a safe haven amid the Internet’s “Wild West” environment, Steve Jobs has ensured you will check in any time you want and never want to leave. The Internet just got a lot less scary for your mum. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

Eskom has resolved not to return to the dark days of 2008, and chief executive Brian Dames has said load-shedding is out. But given the disruption to the parastatal's summer maintenance programme, things are looking awfully tight round about, well, now. And if everyone doesn't play nice, voluntary user management may just turn involuntary. By THERESA MALLINSON.

On Tuesday, the US Court of Appeals handed down a ruling which will make it very unprofitable for US citizens to be caught smuggling fish from foreign seas into the USA. While all the right noises about “overharvesting” were made by the judges, the ruling unfortunately doesn’t make thievery on our high seas any more difficult. If you avoid smuggling the illicit goods into the USA, that is. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

A $500-million buy-in by Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies into Facebook now values the social networking giant at $50 billion. Goldman Sachs’ methods to sell the non-listed stock to its top private clients is bound to attract interest from the SEC, perhaps even forcing a Facebook IPO, but the big question is: How can Facebook be worth $50 billion? By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

It was a year of troubles, from presidents in and presidents out to terrorists in Spain, Iraq and Russia. But it was the catastrophe of the Southeast Asian tsunami that capped a bad year in especially devastating style. Oh, and George W Bush was elected for his second, and thankfully, last term. By BRANKO BRKIC.

It was a year of war: The war dance was short and the US attack on Iraq was swift and precise. Saddam Hussein's Iraq was no match for the American war machine. But once they broke Iraq, Bush, Rumsfeld and others didn't really know what to do with it. By BRANKO BRKIC.

Controversial businessman Sandile Majali, one of the co-accused in the Kalahari Resources hijacking case, was found dead in his Sandton hotel room on Sunday afternoon. So far, information surrounding his death, and the probable cause thereof, is somewhat scarce. It was initially suggested that he died of natural causes, although police are now awaiting the results of tests on medication found in his hotel room. Majali was just 48 years old. By THERESA MALLINSON.

Africa's first man in the space may have been the big news around here, but the clouds of war in Afghanistan were still on the horizon when the world became aware that another, even bigger, war was being planned by the Bush administration. The year 2002 will one day be seen as a year-long clumsy dance in a prelude to a historical mistake.

It started as a mildly to seriously annoying year, with installment of George W Bush as US President (because his dad happened to have appointed the majority of Supreme Court judges) and ended in fear of looming war between civilisations. What a crazy year 2001 turned out to be. By BRANKO BRKIC.

When John Perlman was presenter of the AM Live show on SAfm, it was one of the most hard-hitting and influential radio programmes in the country. His famous run-in with the broadcaster’s politburo left him weary of political games, so he founded an NGO. Now the one-time cynic is a full-time believer. 

Was 2010 a watershed year for South Africa’s advertising industry? Did the global recession cause marketing budgets to implode? Did the World Cup bring benefits only to brands directly involved in the event?  As we head into 2011, are ad agencies in clover or in crisis? By ANDY RICE.