Rumor is (and it is just rumor) that episode 3 has been renamed Half Life 3 and will be longer than half life 2 and the two episodes. In this scenario I think the time taken is justified.

The greens support an ETS AND mining tax and have the numbers to pass them. They're going through.

Yeah, so its javascript engine is 10% faster than chromes. After a few minutes of using it I've still gone back to chrome as the browser in general is still teeth-grindingly sluggish! Maybe if your used to using ie or current firefox it feels like an improvement. To me however this blisteringly fast firefox 3.1 alpha is slower than the pope in a tar pit with asthma!