In a recent article in the Washington Post newspaper, an ex-FBI agent identifies body language that indicates approval, disapproval, and danger. He discusses nonverbal communication and its roots, and although he focuses on courtship behavior and the body language of long-term relationships, it makes me ponder if this body language interpretation could be useful at work.

Body language, the author says, is learned from childhood, from parents who interact with us, and the non-spoken language continues throughout our entire lives.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

"The socially adept will learn to read and interpret the signs accurately. Others will make false steps or pay a high price for not being observant," says the author, Joe Navarro, who has written the book, What Every Body Is Saying.

I'm definitely buying this book. It could come in handy, knowing what people are saying without their realizing how much they are communicating in a fleeting expression or a seemingly random gesture.

A spa in Russia has unveiled a statue of an enema that memorializes the age-old technique. To read more about this, click HERE.

The statue features a bronze syringe bulb supported by three angels. It weighs 800 pounds. The director of the spa has announced that the monument is art – not obscenity or kitsch.

Apparently, the spa's locale is known for its mineral springs, which are often used in enemas for spa patrons.

I really have nothing else to add – I've been rendered speechless by this priceless work of art.

Most people have probably already seen the news from a couple weeks ago – four Japanese gangsters received liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center – and one crime boss later donated a large sum of money to the hospital.

An article in the LA Times outlines the full story; it can be read HERE.

Healthcare professionals now anticipate that the news will have a deleterious effect on organ donation. No surprise there!

Of course, the surgeon performing the transplant had no idea that his patient was a notorious criminal; he maintains that he performed the operation in good faith without knowledge of his patient's background – which, he adds, would be inappropriate anyway.

"The UCLA Health System does not make moral judgments about its patients — we treat them based on medical need," says the health system in a press release posted on its Web site. And, the system says, "UCLA's processes for evaluating a patient — both for mental and physical suitability for organ transplants — are the same regardless of whether the individual is a U.S. citizen or a foreign national."

A percentage of organs each year are allotted to foreign nationals, because otherwise, transplant specialists fear they'd lose the pool of donors living in the U.S. but who are not citizens.

The UCLA health system follows policies set by the United Network for Organ Transplantation (UNOS) regarding foreign nationals, and utilizes an established fee schedule for international patients receiving organ transplants. "Individual costs may vary slightly because each patient has unique medical needs," the system says.

But the time period in which the four gangsters received their transplants was also a time when organs were in short supply. There has already been a significant backlash, and the U.S. Senate is now investigating why foreign nationals didn't have to wait in line for an organ like everybody else.