What I've been reading about ...

- Who knew Scotland was so diverse? I've never been to Scotland so all I know of it comes from movies like Highlander and Braveheart ;) The photo above is of the Italian Chapel ... a highly ornate Catholic chapel on Lamb Holm in the Orkney Islands. It was built by Italian prisoners of war during World War II, who were housed on the previously uninhabited island while they constructed the Churchill Barriers to the east of Scapa Flow. Only the concrete foundations of the other buildings of the prisoner-of-war camp survive.

- Pick your doomsday: 9 end-of-the-world theories that will haunt your dreams. With Ebola in the news, scenario # 2: Pandemic is starting to look more scarily possible ... W.H.O. Weighing Emergency Decree on Ebola

- Has anyone read The Magic Mountain? I remember thinking about trying it when I was taking German in college: I liked the word for magic - zauber - and wanted to investigate stuff like Die Zauberflöte :) What made me think of it was an article at Thinking Faith - The Magic Mountain' by Thomas Mann

- China :( They're not only destroying the elephants - A World Without Elephants? Blame China - but also dolphins - China's appetite for fish bladders may send porpoise to brink of extinction

- 10 best books of August: the Monitor's picks