Monday, February 2, 2009

WEB BOHEMIAN (Monday, February 2, 2009)
(1)- TSK, TSK, TSK -- Wetlands, by Charlotte Roche, was first published in Germany last year and became the only German book to top Amazon's worldwide best-seller list. The book sparked an international bidding war and has provoked debate over whether Roche can call herself a feminist yet write porn.

(2)- MOST WIRED -- In case you need more evidence that Seattle loves its Internet, Forbes Magazine just named the Emerald City the most broadband-connected city in the country. Seattle ranked behind Atlanta last year, but caught up due to higher broadband usage and a generous supply of wi-fi hot spots, according to the magazine.

(3)- MILITARY MIDWIFERY -- The military has more than 70 midwives, according to military health officials. These registered nurses do much of the same work as gynecologists and obstetricians — providing prenatal care, performing women’s wellness exams, administering birth control and delivering some of the thousands of babies born in military facilities each year.

(4)- BIODIESEL CONGEALS -- Biodiesel congeals at low temperatures, as the transit director for the Summit Stage bus service in the Colorado mountains says. He stopped using biodiesel in the winter after one of his buses fueled by a biodiesel blend, stalled on the interstate in the middle of a frigid winter night. Now a similar problem has hit Minnesota school buses.

(5)- WEIRD PENGUIN -- Keepers at a British zoo said a resident penguin with a fear of water has become a hit with curious park visitors. Staff at Blackbrook Zoological Park in Leek, England, say 11-year-old the Humbolt penguin developed a phobia of water because he was born a runt and had problems with losing feathers too quickly, making the water too cold for his comfort.

(6)- SUSPECT GOAT DETAINED -- Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery. Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

(7)- RETURN THAT BOOK -- An Independence woman who police say failed to return a library book has been arrested. Thirty-nine-year-old Shelly Koontz was arrested Thursday night on a fifth-degree theft charge. She is accused of keeping ``The Freedom Writers Diary,” which she checked out from the Jesup Public Library in April 2008.

(8)- WHAT'S WRONG WITH PENMANSHIP? -- When I stumbled on an article about how learning handwriting in school is being replaced by keyboarding instruction, my first reaction was the predictable horror of someone who spent large portions of her youth mastering Palmer Method under the tutelage of the nuns. Keyboarding? Who even knew that was a verb? No more Palmer Method?

(9)- GOOD OLDE EDGAR -- 2009 marks the bicentennial of Edgar Allan Poe, arguably the most famed and influential writer in American history. Not only does his work entirely limn the culture, but he also created no fewer than two genres of popular fiction — mystery and modern horror — almost single-handedly. Virtually anyone in the U.S. can recite his poetry.

POLITICAL COMMENTARY

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