Just what did Osama bin Laden's signature say to you? To me, it looked just like you'd expect the faxed handwriting of a terrorist mastermind in a hurry to look like, but I could be wrong. To Erik Rees of the British Institute of Graphologists, who was consulted by the Times, the smudgy scrawl suggested that Bin Laden was "not a happy man", with "a deep feeling in him that he has bitten off more than he can chew". The round bit ("graphologists call this a cocoon") in the middle showed a need for "self-protection". In a roundish sort of cave, perhaps? Meanwhile, the "three leading figures" from the British Academy of Graphology, consulted by the Daily Telegraph, used a different, "ancient" technique to diagnose Bin Laden as "a rebellious individualist" with "an above-average libido". Impressive as this is (particularly as none of the graphologists appears to have been Arabists), if these two leading broadsheets intend to persist with this unconventional form of character analysis, it might be an idea if, next time, they extract their graphologists' opinions before revealing the author's identity. Otherwise, people might get the idea that graphology is something more than a voguish species of divination, as useless and as about as tasteless as would be casting Bin Laden's horoscope.  The arrival of graphologists on our horror-dominated front pages may not be as gruesome as the popular hots for Nostradamus, but it's close - uncomfortably close.