Shane Warne doffs his hat after Australia won the final Ashes Test at Sydney. (AFP)

Saddam Hussein’s end has catapulted him to the forefront of the virtual world. Following his hanging on December 30, the former Iraqi dictator’s name has emerged as one of the most searched terms on the Internet.

Eatbees (http://www.eatbees.com/blog) writes: “The way Saddam died left me feeling sorry for him. I never thought I would feel this way for a man who once killed political rival Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr by pounding nails into his skull. Maybe Saddam didn’t deserve to die ‘nicely’ based on how he treated his fellow Iraqis, but two wrongs don’t make a right.”

The blogger quotes a report in The New York Times as saying “Saddam Hussein never bowed his head, until his neck snapped”. He also recalls a conversation with a friend who described the hanging as “vengeance, not justice — even if justice would have given the same result”.

A view mirrored by Joe Conason (http://www.joeconason.com) who feels the hanging was “Saddam’s kind of justice, but in America’s name”.

Jim Maceda (http://onthescene.msnbc.com/baghdad) has compared the hanging with the execution of other dictators such as Ceausescu and Mussolini. “Nikolai Ceausescu and his wife were lined up next to a wall — hands tied — and shot... The gory close-ups of the fallen couple were as vivid as the blood on the fresh December snow. Mussolini and his mistress were not only shot — without a trial — by a mob in the last days of World War II, but were hung — upside down — from lamp posts.”

A still from Star Wars Episode III

Danny (http://www. newsdissector.com/ blog) quotes a poem the former Iraqi President wrote in jail after being sentenced to death: “Unbind your soul/It is my soul mate and you are my soul’s beloved/No house could have sheltered my heart as you have/The enemies forced strangers into our sea/And he who serves them will be made to weep/Here we unveil our chests to the wolves/And will not tremble before the beast.” These are said to be Saddam’s last written words.

The virtual farewell to Shane Warne is, of course, on a very different note. Mike (http://www. flintoffsashes.com), an England supporter, felt “stone cold terror in the pit of (his) stomach every time Warne came on to bowl”. He writes fondly of Ian Healy and Adam Gilchrist calling out “Bowled Shane” from behind the stumps for 14 years.

Kartikey (http://cricketingview.blogspot.com) mentions an incident in the leg spinner’s last Test at Sydney: “As Warne hammered England to all corners of the ground, Paul Collingwood got testy and began to let Warne in on his honest opinion about things, to which Warne, amongst other things told him, “You got an MBE [Member of the Order of the British Empire] for making 7 at the Oval in 2005!”

Jamie Parkins (http:// jamieparkins.blogspot.com) writes: “‘Never give up, absolutely never give up,’ Warne said and he was hundred per cent true to his word. The man, and this is hard to say as an English cricket fan, is an absolute legend... up there with Jordan, Pele and Armstrong.”

In the same vein, Richard Bailey (http://baileyblog spot.blogspot.com) writes: “Warne is the first sportsman whose career and mastery I watched as it happened and who will still be talked about in 100 years. He is my Pele, my Mohammad Ali, my Bradman.”

The year-end also saw a flurry of top lists, online. Popularmechanics.com has compiled one on the best special effects scenes in Hollywood films based on votes by industry insiders. The