Dave Davies

Food scientist Massimo Marcone travels the world's remotest corners to investigate bizarre food "delicacies" — cheese infested with squirming maggots, coffee brewed from coffee beans extracted from the feces of a cat-like creature, salad oil made from nuts excreted by goats, and so on.

Marcone teaches food science at the University of Guelph, in Ontario. His new book is In Bad Taste? The Adventures and Science Behind Food Delicacies

German writer and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's movie, The Lives of Others, has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Donnersmarck writes that his film is "a human drama about the ability of human beings to do the right thing, no matter how far they have gone down the wrong path."

Writer Jon Mooallem wrote "Designer-Dog Fights," a story in the New York Times Magazine about the breeders who breed dogs to create a canine with a particular mix of behavioral and physical characteristics.