鈥淎lmost always it has been assumed that things that correlate with happiness are the causes of happiness, but it could be just the opposite.鈥�
Ed Diener of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on research showing that happiness might lead to success, not the other way around (The Guardian, London, 19 December)
鈥淚t was reasonably foreseeable by a reasonably prudent man that, if he smoked, he risked damaging his health.鈥�
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A landmark decision by English high court judge Stanley Burnton, who reduced the compensation awarded for a man鈥檚 early death on the grounds that smoking, as well as asbestos in his work environment, had contributed to his death (The Times, London, 17 December)
鈥淭he girls we spoke to see Barbie torture as a legitimate play activity.鈥�
Agnes Nairn of the University of Bath, UK, on research showing that girls are mutilating their Barbie dolls as a show of rejection of consumer society (The Daily Telegraph, London, 19 December)
鈥淚f this works, even in some people, we would never recommend people stop using condoms.鈥�
Jeff Klausner of the San Francisco Department of Public Health on some gay men鈥檚 practice of using the anti-HIV drug tenofovir as a prophylactic before engaging in unprotected sex (Los Angeles Times, 19 December)
鈥淔or anyone who has wondered how global warming and reduced sea ice will affect polar bears, the answer is simple 鈥� they die.鈥�
Richard Steiner at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, on the finding that polar bears are drowning as they swim ever farther between melting ice sheets (The Wall Street Journal, 14 December)