News

Are we there, yet?

On cable television, the Hallmark Channel offers holiday movies all the way into the middle of January. "We always say, 'Don't let Christmas end on Christmas Day!' " said Pam Slay, a channel vice-president for publicity.

Source: The Washington Post

Happy holidays

Drinking. Two large studies have found that although moderate drinking will not cure colds, it can help keep them at bay, reports The New York Times. One, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in 1993, looked at 391 adults and found that resistance to colds increased with moderate drinking, except in smokers.

Kissing. Scientists have reported the first case of a couple who developed head and neck cancer at the same time, linked to the same relatively rare strain of a virus. They now say they cannot rule out the possibility that the cancer was passed by kissing, reports The Independent on Sunday. "This ... suggests that HPV-16 infection occurred and was transmitted within a short time frame," say the U.S. researchers, whose study appears in the journal Oral Oncology.

Save those balls

In recent years, people have bought into the idea of themed, colour-co-ordinated Christmas decorations that are updated each year, says The London Observer. Two years ago there was a penchant for black trees; last year the cool colour for baubles was silver; this year classic colours are back, although "antique gold" is the new gold and platinum is the new silver. Tinsel is out. "It's people somewhere else in the world or people who have not yet been born who will pay the costs for [disposing of] these things, while we're happily putting up our

decorations," says Stuart Bond, head of research and metrics for the environmental group WWF. "A decoration would last 30 to 50 years if it was looked after and cared for." He adds: "There's a sense of obsolescence, both planned on the part of manufacturers and perceived obsolescence; unless you're keeping

up with the Joneses, you're a

nobody."

Can't live with 'em

A Ukrainian bachelor believed to have been the oldest person in the world has died at 116. Hryhoriy Nestor, a former farm labourer, attributed his long life to the fact that he never married. He loved to get outside and would run barefoot through the grass. He drank vodka in moderation, and his favourite food was simple country fare. Oksana, one of the relations with whom he lived, said: "He didn't find himself a mate because he was a short man and never had money."

Source: Ananova news service Can't live without 'em

"In the Middle Ages," says The Weekend Telegraph, "lovesickness was regarded as a uniquely male disease, marked by sunken eyes, jaundiced skin colour, insomnia, anorexia and depression. It was such an accepted medical condition that men would fake these symptoms to impress women. Remedial therapies ranged from baths, wine and singing to sleeping with prostitutes."

Reverse evolution

Natural selection is only one of several mechanisms working on humans, contends British geneticist Steve Jones, author of The Language of the Genes. Modern life can, in fact, drive degenerative or reverse evolution, in which genes that make us resistant to starvation, or to once life-threatening disease and infections, and even ones that give us good sight and hearing, lose their value and disappear. "Our improvements in public health and survival are going to face us with fresh challenges," he says. "In the past, if you had bad eyesight you might have starved or been eaten by a sabre-toothed tiger."

Source: The Guardian

Unhappy motoring

Recent news from the road:

Irritation. Retiring Formula One champion Michael Schumacher, who was late for a flight out of Gesulz, Bavaria, was so irritated by the driving of his cabbie that he ordered him to slide over, and drove to the airport himself. "The way he shifts gear, the way he overtakes and goes into corners - it's just not normal," said a clearly rattled Tuncer Yilmaz, a Turkish-German taxi driver.

Pique. Peter Pan bus lines is investigating whether one of its drivers on the Boston-New York run held passengers inside his bus for 30 minutes during a layover in Framingham, Mass., as retaliation for a complaint about his driving that one of them had phoned in to the company. The passengers painted a frightening picture, saying the driver taunted them. Neil Bryant, 33, who has three years' experience driving buses, said: "The whole complaint was just taken totally out of context, and the people didn't understand what was really going on." He said he had skipped a previous, optional layover because he was ticked off, and lingered in Framingham to put the bus back on schedule.

Anger. A pedestrian in Athens has been charged with damaging property after he walked over a car that was parked illegally. "I could not get past the vehicle, a four-wheel drive, which had been parked on the pavement so I got angry and just walked over it, slightly denting its hood," said Tasos Pouliasis.

Source: news services

Thought du jour

"I generally had to give in."

- Napoleon, on his relationship with Josephine

mkesterton@globeandmail.com