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We’re on day two of November, and despite daylight savings time, you may already be behind. That is, if you’re a writer. November is chock full of writing-themed challenges, most of which involve writing at breakneck speeds.

You may already be familiar with National Novel Writing Month, a challenge to the writing community to write 50,000 words by the close of the month. It’s “thirty days and nights of literary abandon!” and Twitter is already alight with tweets from novelists cranking away.

In response to NaNoWriMo, a group has declared November to be National Blog Posting Month as well. The challenge here? Post one time daily for the entire month of November. According to Twitter, the challenge is being met.

So, whether you’re interested in writing a novel or just getting your blog back in shape, you’ve got options. But, you better get cracking, the month is already 2 days old. So, here are some ideas to help get the creative juices flowing:

Thinking negatively can boost your memory, study finds

“Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, cooperation, and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking paying greater attention to the external world,” Forgas wrote.

You could go so many directions with this. First, it’s an interesting story to dissect based on the headline. The actual study offered some interesting details on the benefits of both positive and negative thinking, but then again, “Balancing positive and negative thinking boosts memory and creativity equally, study finds” is not a very compelling headline.

World’s largest cruise ship squeezes under Danish bridge

The 20 story tall ship, The Oasis of the Seas narrowly cleared the Great Belt Fixed Link while departing on it’s maiden voyage. This is really good news, and passengers should revel in this for a while. After all, the cruise is headed to Florida, which means it’s all downhill from here.

Honor Sandwich day — Vote for the Greatest Sandwich in America

Go meta! Use November’s tribute to writing to pay tribute to another November dedication — sandwiches! November 3rd is the home of the oft-overlooked Sandwich Day. The good folks over at lemondrop have compiled a list of 16 sandwiches for their readers to vote on. A friend of mine has a published poem titled, “Ode to the Sandwich” which you can find in his book, The Date Fruit Elegies. Paying tribute to the art of food while making social commentary is possible, people!

Surprise! Cost cutting boosts Ford’s profits to almost $1bn in 2nd quarter

In a total shocker, Ford has announced nearly $1 billion in profit during the 2nd quarter. The company is crediting cost cutting, but did cash for clunkers play a part?

Obama warns more job losses coming

On a sour note, President Obama has warned of more job losses looming in the future. I’m not sure about you, but now might be a good time to take advantage of November’s writing-centric themes. Just think, this could lead to selling your novel, or open the door to the next breakthrough blog that takes the Internet by storm.

We’re taking the challenge, and I’m going to get things rolling on my own personal blog as well. We’ll see how that goes.

So, what are you waiting for? Start writing! And be sure to share your work in the Creative Writing group on Current.com.

1. Cuba rocks to huge peace concert
   

   Havana has hosted the biggest open-air concert since the 1959 revolution, featuring some 15 top Latin American, Spanish and Cuban performers.

   An estimated one million people – many wearing white – attended the free event in Revolution Square, Havana.

   Colombian singer Juanes, who organized the Peace without Borders concert, received death threats from Miami-based critics of the Cuban regime.

   But he had the support from 20 high-profile jailed dissidents inside Cuba.

2. Air America: Republican revives racist Obama-as-monkey campaign themeAccording to a post over on the Air America blog, former Minority Whip Roy Blunt crossed the line, sharing an anecdote at a Values Voter Summit on Friday, in which President Obama is ultimately compared to a monkey. It feels like we’ve gone over this at least once or twice before. Anyway, here’s what he had to say:
   

   “Almost from the day the first ball was hit on this golf course something happened they didn’t anticipate: monkeys would come running out of the jungle and then grab the golf balls. And if it was in the fairway, they might throw it in the rough. And if it was in the rough, they might throw it — they might throw it back at you! And I can point to great and long detail about how many things they tried to eliminate the monkey problem, but they never got it done.

   So finally for this golf course and this golf course only, they passed a rule and the rule was, you have to play the ball where the monkey throws it. And that is the rule in Washington all the time.”

3. Parents sue Wal-Mart after children taken away over bath time photos
   

   “Our family is very open and comfortable. We don’t want our children to feel inhibited in their own house,” A.J. Demaree said. “If they want to run around in their underwear, if they want to go run and grab an old Halloween costume and throw that on and run around the house, or if they want to run around the house naked and play around, that’s what we encourage.”

   The police and Child Protective Services saw it very differently.

   The three children, ages 1½, 4 and 5 at the time the pictures were taken, were removed from the home and placed into the care of Child Protective Services. It would be a month before A.J. and Lisa could regain custody of them.

   From the Demarees perspective, the damage was already done.

   “We went on a central registry of sex offenders. Our names went on that registry,” Lisa said.

4. Atheists in America are the most widely mistrusted groupOver on Psychology Today, Gad Saad Ph.D digs into a recent article published in the American Sociological Review in which atheists favored poorly in the “trust” department.
   

   In a recent article published in the American Sociological Review, Penny Edgell, Joseph Gerteis, and Douglas Hartmann reported their findings, on how atheists are perceived, based on data from a national survey. To the question, “This group does not at all agree with my vision of American society,” ten groups were listed as options: religious groups (Muslims, conservative Christians, Jews), racial groups (Hispanics, Asian Americans, African Americans, and White Americans), homosexuals, recent immigrants, and atheists. By far, the most “detested” group were the atheists. To the question, “I would disapprove if my child wanted to marry a member of this group,” eight of the latter groups were included (homosexuals and recent immigrants were excluded). Again, the least desired group were the atheists. This might be one of the saddest scientific findings that I have ever read.

5. Scandinavia steps up the fight against female genital mutilation
   

   “When she was 11, a Swedish-born girl was taken on vacation to her mother’s native Somalia. The mother wanted to “make her daughter clean” and paid a man to cut off her daughter’s clitoris and labia while two women held her down. Afterward, the girl was stitched to her urethra. No anesthesia was used.”

   Vanguard’s Mariana van Zeller has covered the practices of female genital cutting in Africa before, specifically in Sierra Leone while on assignment. If you haven’t had the chance to see her report, give it a view:

Vanguard’s Mariana van Zeller on Female Genital Cutting