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Bookish: UNDER A
CABIN FEVER MOON (5#) -

A supposedly sluggish Publishing Industry is impatiently waiting for Dan Brown's next novel, which is "purported to be about freemasonry and the Founding Fathers," reports Jeffrey A Trachtenberg at the WSJ.

+ They're already getting a big hunk of a new Stephen King novel for January, but they've still got ants in their pants!

# The Mighty Wurlitzer by Hugh Wilford is ostensibly about those front groups that were engaged in the cultural aspects of the Cold War, including the Encounter "scandal." But toward the end, there may be vague hints of Black Helicopters looming just over the horizon. Reviewed by Gabriel Schoenfeld at the WSJ.

# Otto Penzler says he liked
Craig Holden's new mystery novel
Matala which he briefly reviews here.

# Random House's paperback imprint
Arrow is reissuing 42 PG Wodehouse
comic novels in new covers starting in May.

# Alan Taylor interviews
literary critic James Wood.

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SoFlo: SURFIN' AROUND (4#) -

# Palm Beach: "Keller shot his fifth ex-wife - Keil's sister - Rosemarie Keller, in the neck in November 2003, 11 days after a divorce decree had given her half of his many millions of dollars in assets. He shot Keil twice in the same incident, before Keil managed to wrest the gun from him." [pbp]

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# Morning Brew - Sonja reports a new trend
in Rio: stealing hair that can be made into wigs.

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# Creative Loafing has reincarnated their Sarasota Blog, now known as The 941, with some new bloggers who seem to be infusing it with some new energy.

* * * * *
# A new Cuban-American blog
by Maria Estorino has more of a cultural focus.

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:
DESANGUINATION DEATH
IN PERUGIA update -

A witness has come forward to say that he observed Amanda Knox with Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede on the evening of Oct 31st. Moreover, he asserts, that Knox threatened him with a knife.

:: The Daily Mail ::

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BUMMED OUT IN BALTIMORE -

Where the News ain't what it used to be -

On Sunday, David Simon wrote a piece at the Washington Post called:"Does the News Matter To Anyone Anymore?" In it he describes the decline of many American newspapers and his feelings about it.

Now, Jack Shafer at Slate writes a response.

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Press and Media:
MUTATING NEWSPAPERS (2#) -

# "Editors are losing custody
of their papers." --Ken Doctor

+ Ken, they haven't had custody since they got rid of paper boys and turned their newspapers into unwieldy little wagons loaded with junk mail. That horse left the barn
long ago.

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# What is Crosscut?

"Based in Seattle, Crosscut is a guide to local and Northwest news, a place to report and discuss local news, and a platform for new tools to convey local news. The journalism of regular citizens appears alongside that of professionals."

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Bookish: LIT CHATTER (2#) -

# Who should be the next Miss Marple?

Whether we like it or not, there's a TV production company in the UK which fully intends to thrust another portrayal on us... and, in all likelihood, she'll eventually drift over here to this side of The Pond on PBS.

"Twee & Twinkle" will not be received with enthusiasm by readers at The UK Guardian, or so they resolutely claim.

# And now for something completely different: A notable, though brief, exploration of new edge speculative fiction as a form of social analysis. Take a glance for as-yet undiscovered works.

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DAVOS '08 (3#) -

# Prez Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan opened the World Economic Forum with a speech warning that "the whole world could suffer from the 'wildfire' of terrorism engulfing his region." [AP]

# More details at ::Reuters::

# Jeff Jarvis is at Davos and ::Blogging::

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Bookish:
A HAUNTED KEY and more (2#) -

Stephen King's latest novel take place
in Florida - doesn't everything these days?

Duma Key, supposedly one of the Florida Keys, is where his protagonist goes to recuperate from an accident. The island has some sort of Southern Gothic magical ambiance. The book (almost 600pp) doesn't start featuring eery devices until its final section, and then, whammo! - "a ghost ship, zombies in chains, an evil spirit and a wilderness where weird, lethal creatures lurk or hover." Even though this book is being released mid-winter, it looks like it could turn out to be a popular Beach Read over the following summer.

Duma Key by Stephen King
:: Reviewed by John Dugdale, Times ::

* * * * * * * * * *
:: An extract from JG Ballard's soon-to-be-published memoirs in which he describes some of his life in Shanghai as a young boy.

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OUT THERE . . . SOMEWHERE (3#) -

# General Dell Daily from Tampa, who is now the counterterrorism head at the State Dept, says he is uncomfortable with the paucity of information that sometimes comes out of Pakistan's NWFP. +Well, it's a tough area for reporters to cover; they do the best they can. [Lardner AP]

# Pakistan's popular Geo TV News went back on air yesterday, but had to sign a government code of conduct. [Brummitt AP]

# Backgrounder on The Bin Laden Boyz - get out your opera program and take notes... if you're at all interested. [MSNBC]

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:
IN THE WAR AGAINST
CYBER TERRORISM -

The UK Government has embarked on a new initiative to counteract cyber terrorism. Al-Qaeda has "regrouped" largely through internet use, this article contends, and there are estimates of about 5,000 websites involved.

:: By Ash Smyth - TFP ::

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QUERYING MUSTAFAH HEADROOM -

So far, no answers . . .

But what did you expect from a CGI Avatar?

Al Qaeda's media production company, A'Sahab, announced in December that they would entertain questions which they would then answer "as soon as possible."

AP reporter Lee Keath has been keeping track of the questions submitted before the cutoff deadline on Jan 16th and gives us some idea of what was submitted.

:: An interesting and worthwhile read.

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Hot Spot:
GAZA CITY BLACKOUT (3#) -

Very dramatic photos have emerged from Gaza City which show residents there by candlelight. They claim they are being deprived of their electric lights by Israel.

But the electrical workers union and their shop steward at the power station in Ashkelon tell a different story:

:: "We're supplying electricity while under fire."

*Despite the blackout in Gaza City, southern and central Gaza - which receive electricity from Israel and Egypt directly - were not affected by the shutdown.*

*Gaza blackout blamed on Israel*

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AMW: THE FORT MYERS EIGHT -

I don't usually watch America's Most Wanted, but I happened to catch it last night when John Walsh presented this case, featuring a creepy visit to the location where the skeletal remains were found, the lead forensic pathologist, a forensic dentist, and some remodeling of the victims.

"Months after detectives recovered a cache of bones from eight men in a wooded area of Fort Myers, Fla., authorities have officially ruled the case a homicide. Cops continue to try to find out who the men are, and whether a serial killer is behind the gruesome mystery."

If you've been following this case, but missed the program, you might want to check out the material Walsh left online about it.

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