strange matter

Most action and suspense novels tend to rely on unpleasantness (e.g. irksome if not outright evil antagonists, violence, annoying political melodrama, potential for tragedy, etc.) as their basis. Which makes sense; stories about characters overcoming great adversity do tend to be the most fun to read.

But I was wondering if there are any books out there that provide the same kind of excitement without the usual unpleasantness? Where the anticipation comes from the potential for a positive reward (or friendly competition) rather than negative consequences (or frustrating conflicts)?

Is it ever stated how old Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are when they first meet?

Is there a label for someone who follows a mostly vegetarian diet (i.e. who buys and cooks only vegetarian foods), but who does on occasion eat meat products when they know that otherwise they will go to waste (e.g. a friend not finishing everything on their plate at a restaurant)?

A major character sees hallucinations that tell him things. And these things are always true, but they are also almost always things he already knew but forgot or things he could have figured out himself given a bit more time. Except for a couple of occasions when he has no idea where he could have got the information.

He never finds out for sure if this is just his brain being weird or if there is something magical/supernatural going on (the story is set in the real world, so magic isn't supposed to exist), and the reader is supposed to be left wondering.

So... I'm not sure it can be labelled as fantasy when maybe it's not fantasy at all, and I thought it might be magic realism at first but then I read that in magic realism the magic bit is just accepted, whereas this character definitely questions it. Ideas?

What do you call someone who is aware of and willing to acknowledge their faults with neither shame nor pride?

E.g. Admitting that they are being a hypocrite instead of defending themselves or providing rationalizations, and doing so in a more or less neutral manner - without shame/humbleness or defensiveness/pride.

It's not a wedding ring, is it? An engagement ring, then? Something else?

I'm currently receiving the EI benefit and have been invited to an EI information session. The letter states that I will be asked for extra information about my EI claim there, but does not specify what information that is. Am I supposed to prepare or bring anything along other than my identification?

I recently bought a new Areca Palm, and I noticed that it has these small, elongated black spots on the stems (they can be scratched off as a black powder). It looks healthy otherwise, but I never kept a plant before, so... can anyone confirm whether this is normal? And if not, what it is and how I can get rid of it?

Here's a picture, though the quality is pretty bad:

http://i40.tinypic.com/21lpt.jpg

Already read and loved:

The Count of Monte Cristo

The Master & Margarita

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

Catch-22

Already read (or at least tried reading) and didn't like:

The Brothers Karamazov

Siddhartha

Don Quixote

Recommendations please?

Anyone know?

Does anyone know of any songs (relatively recent, I think) the lyrics of which include something along those lines?

Can anyone link me to any research papers showing the negative consequences of adopting a vegetarian/vegan diet? (That omnivores live longer and/or are healthier, or that a vegetarian diet is beneficial for some people but not others.) Real research only please - no anecdotal evidence/individual interviews/blog entries.

Note: I'm a vegetarian myself, and I saw the metastudy which concluded that health-conscious vegetarians tend to have fewer heart problems than health-conscious omnivores (while being about as healthy in all other areas). I can't find any negative studies, but I wonder if that's only because vegetarian groups tend to put more effort into presenting evidence supporting their lifestyle because they are a minority, whereas omnivores don't even think about the issue.

Bit of a long shot, but does anyone here know of any songs mentioning Galileo Galilei (other than Bohemian Rhapsody)? I remember hearing the one I'm looking for as a kid in Israel, so it might be in hebrew rather than english, but it was such a long time ago that I'm really not sure.

Is it normal to get really irritable and easily angered during the first few days of my period? It doesn't count as PMS when it's during-menstrual rather than pre-menstrual, does it?

I just started this week, and did 15 minutes of intervalling (plus 5 minutes cool-down) every morning, but knowing myself I really can't depend on my motivation to last. So.

My goal is relatively humble, I think. I'm not looking to lose weight or gain muscle or run a marathon. I just want to be able to keep up a decent speed (say, 8-ish miles/hour) for 15 minutes without dropping dead. At the moment I can barely manage 5 minutes at 5.5 miles/hour.

That said, if I did the 15 minute interval sessions just on Saturday and Sunday, am I likely to reach my goal within a few months? Or would going only twice a week on consecutive days be more or less useless?

Or are all plant diseases caused by members of the other eukaryotic kingdoms (anything other than plantae)?

I want to start jogging in the mornings, and I figure that as long as I stop snoozing I can get in 20-30 minutes without losing any time. But I am incapable of taking short showers, so I'd have to go to work without one.

I (and all of my classmates) never showered after phys ed in school. And I would always wait a few hours before showering back when I used to go to the gym, and I don't think I smelled bad after the sweat dried off, but still... do you suppose that would be totally gross?

Are there any research papers out there showing that a) vegetarians who do not take DHA supplements get less than the recommended amount of DHA, AND b) this has a negative effect on their health?

Do you get charged a transaction fee if you you use a debit (bank) card to pay for something in a store?

I'm testing the transfer of just over 200 records from one information system to another. How many records do I need to look through and find no errors with to be sure that there are no more than 5-10 errors altogether in the whole population? What formula can I use?