The Wall Street Journal, in an editorial on the changing nature of cruise-ship offerings: "'Geek cruises' offer seminars in Web site design. Flocks of quilters travel together and exchange tips on batting. Ships set sail packed with Harley enthusiasts - and their bikes - or ladies seeking prolonged exposure to the Chippendales. Naturally, there still are people who want only to lie quietly in a deck chair. But be warned: One complaint . . . tells of a honeymoon couple who mistakenly booked a who-done-it cruise, where passengers race around the ship trying to solve a 'murder' after getting clues and strange phone calls in their cabins."

XXX

Investor's Business Daily, in an editorial regarding the prospect of a reversal of a Senate-imposed ban on drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: "So what will we get should crews move into the shred of ANWR reserved for energy production? As much as 1 million barrels of oil a day, trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and some easing of our dependency on foreign oil. Too bad it will be a half-decade before the crude hits the market as refined gasoline at the pump. Had ANWR been opened to development five years ago, that gas already would be here and we wouldn't be sweating quite so much about energy prices' toll on the economy."

XXX

Harvard history professor Niall Ferguson: "Much of the money that has poured into poor countries since the 1950s has simply leaked back out - often to bank accounts in Switzerland - as corrupt rulers have stashed their ill-gotten gains abroad. One recent study of 30 sub-Saharan African countries calculated that total capital export for the period 1970-1996 was in the region of $187 billion, which, when accrued interest is added, implies that Africa's ruling elites had private overseas assets equivalent to 145 percent of the public debts their countries owed. . . . A similar story can be told for aid payments, a large proportion of which are simply stolen. Which brings us to the fundamental problem of African politics: corruption."

XXX

Boston Globe reporter Michael Kranish, in a June 7 news story about the release of John Kerry's college grades, addressed the assumption held in some circles that Kerry is smarter than George Bush. This belief had been summarized in an August column in which former New York Times editor Howell Raines wrote "Does anyone in America doubt that Kerry has a higher IQ than Bush? I'm sure the candidates' SATs and college transcripts would put Kerry far ahead." Here's what Kranish has to say: "During last year's presidential campaign, Kerry was the candidate often portrayed as intellectual and complex, while Bush was the populist who mangled his sentences. But newly released records show that Bush and Kerry had a virtually identical grade average at Yale University four decades ago."