“The mystery behind Agatha Christie’s enduring popularity may have been solved by three leading universities collaborating on a study of more than 80 of her crime novels.

Despite her worldwide sales of two billion, critics such as the crime writer P D James pan her writing style and “cardboard cut-out” characters. But the study by neuro-linguists at the universities of London, Birmingham and Warwick shows that she peppered her prose with phrases that act as a trigger to raise levels of serotonin and endorphins, the chemical messengers in the brain that induce pleasure and satisfaction.” – (Sunday Times of London)

“For most, it’s a choice of the men’s room or the women’s. A Brazilian city is trying to give an option to those who don’t fit easily into either category.” (ABC News)

French row over charity pork soup: “A charity run by an extreme-right group in the south of France has caused anger by serving the homeless only pork soup, which Jews and Muslims do not eat.” (BBC)

“Many people are asking why the administration chose to break the law in an arena where following it has been made very easy. The secret court administering government activities undertaken in compliance with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is extraordinarily obliging: according to the annual FISA reports filed by the Justice Department, the court received 18,749 requests for authorization of physical searches, electronic surveillance or some combination of the two between January of 1979, when the law took effect, and December 31 of 2004, the end of the most recent reporting period (the 2005 report will be available in March or April of next year). Of those, the court has rejected a total of four requests, or roughly .o2%; in at least one instance, the court actually authorized activities the government hadn’t requested.

…One has to wonder what was in those four applications that were denied, and in several others that were withdrawn from consideration before the court could rule on them. Regardless, the four slaps in the Bush administration’s collective face amounted to about .07% of the more than 5,600 applications submitted between 2001-2004; not a bad success rate although not, apparently, good enough to satisfy this collection of steroidal scofflaws. But why?

Three possible explanations come to mind, singly or in combination. One is that the surveillance is on a scale that makes applying for court approval impractical… The second is that the administration are allergic to oversight of even the mildest sort… The third is that the administration is a collection of thugs who are using the NSA’s eavesdropping capacity for political purposes, spying on people no court in the universe would sanction as targets… ” (BTC News)

“What I’m proposing is this: Go into your word processors right now, and type out the word “IMPEACH.” Go ahead, use caps. Center it. Bold it. Make it 72 point. Turn the page to landscape if you like, and make it bigger.

You’ve got a sign. Print it out. Xerox it. Put it up on a lamp post. On a supermarket bulletin board. Inside a newspaper vending machine. Anywhere.

You’ve joined the movement.

How does it feel? Want more? Would you be willing to spend a little money on it?

Pick up a pack of Avery labels down at the office supply store. Print out a page worth of stickers that say the same thing. IMPEACH.

Not impeach Bush. Not impeach Cheney. Not Chimpeach. Just IMPEACH.” (Liberal Street Fighter via Medley)

Upcoming.org is “a collaborative event calendar, completely driven by people like you. Enter in the events you’re attending, comment on events entered by others, and syndicate event listings to your own weblog.

As Upcoming.org learns more about the events you enjoy, it will suggest new events you never would have heard about.”

“Even a much-hyped giant gorilla, a geisha and a schoolboy magician have not been able to create a happy ending at the US box office, as Hollywood ends its most disappointing year in nearly two decades.” (HuffPo)

“U.S. President George Bush decided to skip seeking warrants for international wiretaps because the court was challenging him at an unprecedented rate.

A review of Justice Department reports to Congress by Hearst newspapers shows the 26-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court modified more wiretap requests from the Bush administration than the four previous presidential administrations combined.” (Science Daily)

“The Palestinian mastermind of the Munich Olympics attack in which 11 Israeli athletes died said on Tuesday he had no regrets and that

Steven Spielberg’s new film about the incident would not deliver reconciliation.

The Hollywood director has called Munich, which dramatises the 1972 raid and Israel’s reprisals against members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), his ‘prayer for peace.’

Mohammed Daoud planned the Munich attack on behalf of PLO splinter group Black September, but did not take part and does not feature in the film. He voiced outrage at not being consulted for the thriller and accused Spielberg of pandering to the Jewish state.” (Yahoo! News)