Coffee over the classics

Random reads I spent some time on this week:

1. Right in your kitchen
Inexpensive yet for optimum health, foods one should eat everyday are leafy greens, whole grains, nuts, yohgurt and onions

2. Red shirts march to US embassy in Bangkok
Sabotage or no sabotage and whether the Thai premier steps down or not, I hope protesters' demands don't escalate to the airport again or my out-of-town trips are soo affected

3. Fashion police at the 2010 Oscars
They point out what's hideous, outrageous, precocious, precious or atrocious. It's entertaining to keep knowing.

4. Salespeople and insurance you don't need
A summary of money-saving tips

5. Out of the Crooked Timber
An academic blog (which is no longer updated but) I visit for its archives

6. Screamy window
Gwrych Castle. A dose of charmingly eerie stuff

7. Workplace attitudes
Avoid toxic co-workers

8. Shooting location tours
Feel what it must have been like. I'm interested in the Anne Shirley, Sound of Music, Harry Potter types (link is a good idea).

9. Children's effort to save their town
I like stories of positive cooperation. When I read "some children lugged sandbags that weighed more than they did" I went on.

10. HIV? Go bananas
BanLec, a banana ingredient was found by scientists to be as potent as two existing anti-HIV drugs

11. Testing a president's power of persuasion
President Obama's persuasion skills got me marking pages that show how he steers the US health care reform.

12. Her Majesty, inventor of the telephone?
A study found that British schoolchildren think Queen Elizabeth invented the telephone, Sir Isaac Newton discovered fire and the first man on the moon is Buzz Lightyear (stats available on the link)

13. Fiennes tackles literary classics
Actor Joseph Fiennes is to read scenes from works of Charles Dickens, and Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility among others, to promote Carte Noir coffee. "I have a great appreciation for a wide range of genres but for me you can't beat the intensity of the classics - and what better way to enjoy them than accompanied by a cup of quality coffee?" enthuses the Hollywood star.

Megan and Janet host Thursday Thirteen.