Modifying Category (std) block

I am redesigning my site and using taxonomy for the first time (I like). I want to activate the cateogory block so that users visiting my site have an easy reference to what is on my site. I like the number feature that this offers (eg. Politics (2) ), but I don't like the updated feature that is listed under each (by default), eg.

# Book Review (2)

9 min 23 sec ago

# Politics (2)

9 min 23 sec ago

# Reading List (3)

43 min 4 sec ago

Can someone explain firstly where I can go to change this to just list the category and the number of items?

Also, will this prevent it from then sorting (and resorting) based on when items are added? (The categories are ordered by most recent article, and I would like these to be listed alphabetically.)

I know that I can create a block with this information and manually link these, but I want to use Drupal for one of the many things it does best (and automatically).

Any assistance is appreciated!

Regards
James