This is an interesting read about a new holiday fad that first publicly surfaced on Seinfeld! (I used to flatter myself by thinking I had seen it all on that show; this one passed me by).

A NYT magazine article probes the thesis that blogs are transforming the lines between the public and private, and that "off the record" for even the most intimate part of the human experience -- peoples' sex lives -- can't be assumed.

OTOH, could it ever have been assumed? Did gossip start with blogs? :)

BBC correspondent Humphrey Hawksley visits Lancaster, Ohio and finds the battle for America could be one between moderate and extreme Christians -- a mirror image of what's happening in the Islamic world.

Some excerpts:

From CTV.ca: An Italian tourist on a flight from Sydney to Vienna caused a security alert when he sent a cell phone message to his wife claiming his plane had been hijacked by terrorists, the Australian government said Sunday.