Chatter: What we're hearing

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Need to know: After spending $53 billion for relief and reconstruction in Iraq since 2003, the U.S. is concerned that Iraqis won’t be able to maintain the facilities once the Americans have left.

Want to know: Two fingers and a tooth removed from Galileo Galilei's corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century and given up for lost have been found again. The items were removed by enthusiastic admirers from the astronomer's body in 1737, 95 years after his death, while his corpse was being moved from a storage place to a monumental tomb.

Dull but important: Colombia will not be provoked into armed conflict with Venezuela despite the neighboring country's aggressive rhetoric and its dynamiting of two cross-border pedestrian bridges, Colombia's defense minister said.

Just because: A Paris croissant addict learns the secrets of baking the buttery, crusty treats: We flattened the dough, placed a huge square of butter in it, then folded the dough around the butter like an envelope.

Wacky: Hundreds of private emails and documents allegedly exchanged between some of the world's leading climate scientists during the past 13 years have been stolen by hackers and leaked online. Climate change sceptics allege they provide "smoking gun" evidence that some of the climatologists colluded in manipulating data to support the view that climate change is real.

http://www.globalpost.com/notebook/general/091120/chatter-what-were-hearing-0