This week in my B&C blog: Why book lovers said the sky is falling on reading after an NEA report last week, and why they were wrong. Also: resistance to historic preservation in Laos (pictured at left), Iowa City as a literary haven, Microsoft patents the human body as a data processor (seriously, sadly), Mesopotamia's status as earliest civilization questioned, the latest surge of solar storms, video screens may be coming to gravestones, dinosaurs' fleas, and more ... LINK/ARCHIVE