Standard dating advice has been to get one's self out there -- you know, take a course. But in New York, it seems most of those taking courses and whatnot are single women.

From the BBC:

Iraq faces the distinct possibility of collapse and fragmentation, UK foreign policy think tank Chatham House says.

Its report says the Iraqi government is now largely powerless and irrelevant in many parts of the country.

It warns there is not one war but many local civil wars, and urges a major change in US and British strategy, such as consulting Iraq's neighbours more.  ...

The UK Foreign Office, responding to the Chatham House report, stated that security conditions, although "grim" in places, varied across Iraq.

"Most insurgent attacks remain concentrated in just four of Iraq's 18 provinces, containing less than 42% of the population," a Foreign Office spokesman told the Press Association news agency.

Here's the report, entitled Accepting Realities in Iraq.

The Toronto Star looks at why one can only eat hot dogs and sausages from carts on the mean streets of Canada's greatest city of professional sports under-achievers.

Samantha Bee did a savagely funny bit tonight about "News I'd Like to (you know)" for The Daily Show.

By that, she meant the new crop of hotties reporting for the various "24-hours" (cable news networks). When Jonno said that the competitiveness of cable TV news requires some attractiveness in the packaging, Bee said: "This isn't just attractiveness. This is News I'd Like To F@#K."

"I'll admit it. I'm human. I'm a NILF hunter. And the 24-hour news networks are my Serengetti," she said.

"For me, it's what kind of NILF am I in the mood for. Do I want CNN, with its fresh-faced yet supple anchors-next-toor, the kind of NILF you'd take home to mother? Or MSNBC's dirty-over-30 anchors -- with just a hint of salsa? Or maybe you're down with some hardcore Fox News NILFs? They're the Hustler of news networks. These sick fem-dom bitches will report anything."

The BBC's Alan Johnston will mark the mid-point of his 40s in the custody of some radical Islamists somewhere in Gaza.

More in this BBC story. Here's some comments from colleagues and others at the BBC's The Editors blog.