Love blossoms at book clubs: "Book discussion clubs are becoming the new dating agencies as single people shun bars and nightclubs in favour of the 'latte literati'."

Basics of Space Flight: "This is a training module designed primarily to help JPL operations people identify the range of concepts associated with deep space missions and grasp the relationships these concepts exhibit for space flight. It also enjoys growing popularity among high school and college students, as well as faculty and people everywhere who are interested in interplanetary space flight."

Millions mark Saddam Hussein's birthday: "Millions of Iraqis were estimated to have gathered across Iraq on Sunday in celebration of President Saddam Hussein's 65th birthday."

NY Times: "The Bush administration, in developing a potential approach for toppling President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, is concentrating its attention on a major air campaign and ground invasion, with initial estimates contemplating the use of 70,000 to 250,000 troops."

Corporate tribalism: "Capito didn't blink when I pointed out that Nike pays Michael Jordan a reported $25 million a year to lend his name to the company's gear. The company pays millions more to place its swooshes on billboards and in the media, and in big-budget Hollywood movies. And yet Capito spends hundreds of his own hard-earned dollars to serve as a walking billboard for the company."

Condit keeps low profile: "Gary Condit's congressional fade-out is unfolding more bitterly than most."

Yiddish Words Found in English: "She looks very ferklempt."

Socio-Political Themes in The Smurfs: "The Smurf Village itself is a perfect model of a socialist commune or collective. It is self-reliant, and the land is not owned by individuals, but by the entire collective of all the Smurfs, if the word 'owned' is even appropriate."

US activists demand lawyers for chimps: "Campaigners say this would let activists act as legal guardians for the chimps, potentially lodging law suits against researchers and animal entertainers."

Mushroom Cloud License Plates Bomb in Nevada: "'Nevada being Nevada, this is a unique subject,' said Rick Bibbero, 55, a real estate agent in Minden who won $500 with his design for the license tag. 'You wouldn't find California trying to memorialize something like this, but this is our past,' said Bibbero, who said he's neither for nor against the federal government's plan to entomb 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste beneath a volcanic ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas."