• David Kipen, organizer of community reading scheme the Big Read, pledged to eat To Kill a Mockingbird if the residents of Kelley’s Island in Ohio failed to read the novel. Fortunately, everyone involved finished the book, and Kipen was not forced to eat Lee’s words. • Several hours after being diagnosed with swine flu, 12-year-old Phoebe Wyburd began receiving threatening text messages, one of which read: “You will die.” Fortunately, Phoebe is steadily recovering and has been dosed with Tamiflu. • Doctors may have found a new way to treat the extreme nausea and vomiting that effects many women during pregnancy. • After 1,000 years of being visible only to masculine eyes, the treasures of orthodox enclave Mount Athos will be opened to women at the Petit Palais in Paris. • Oh. god. This is probably the most awful thing you will read all day: as part of the sexual cleansing of Iraq, gay men are being subjected to a particularly cruel form of torture in which their anuses are glued shut and diarrhea is induced. • Conservative opponents of Obama’s scheduled address at Notre Dame have commissioned an abortion plane, that flies over the campus bearing the message “Abortion is terror.” Classy! • German artist Gunther von Hagens is being criticized over one of his recent works, which depicts two corpses having sex. The exhibit, titled “Cycle of Life,” opens tomorrow in Berlin. • Chanel, a 21-year-old dachshund, is set to celebrate her birthday (with her owners) at a party in New York. Chanel is believed to be the oldest dog alive – she is 147 in dog years. • Good news for puking moms: severity of morning sickness is believed to be linked to high IQ in offspring. The same hormones that induce nausea may also be responsible for aiding in the child’s development, doctors say. • A Swedish couple are in the process of appealing a court ruling that barred them from naming their son “Q”. The court said that they may be willing to consider “Q:u” as an alternative. • A five-year-old hippo in Israel died today while being castrated by a medical team. • New research indicates that chlamydia may play a role in the development of a certain type of arthritis. • Jane Orobator, mother to Samantha, has been publicly begging for the release of her daughter. Samantha Orobator was jailed last August on charges of drug smuggling. Jane says she has not heard any news of her daughter’s trial, and is unable to afford a lawyer. Clare Algar, a lawyer from charity group Reprieve, says they are hoping for a speedy trial. •
