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Soundbites

“Although children are encouraged to watch what they eat, many seem to eat what they watch.â€

Jean Wiecha of the Harvard School of Public Health, on how children consume an extra 167 calories for every hour of TV they watch per day – most of it in snacks featured in TV ads (Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, vol 160, p 436)

“Most people don’t cook with it, they just touch their food with it. If you don’t know what you are doing it could blow your head off.â€

Aktar Miha of the Indis Bangladeshi restaurant in Bournemouth, UK, on the world’s hottest chilli, which is 876,000 on the Scoville heat scale, compared with a mere 2500 for Tabasco sauce (The Daily Telegraph, London, 1 April)

“The other part of the couple may not be consenting to the erection. The assumption is the woman will be happy if the fellow arrives with one.â€

Sociologist John Gagnon of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, part of a panel discussing “The Future of Sex†at a summit near Santa Fe, New Mexico. The panel says cyber-sex and drugs that enhance sexual activity may be a recipe for a more socially inept, violent culture (AFP, 2 April)

“He eventually developed severe panic attacks, recurrent anxiety, depression and muscle rigidity.â€

Researchers reporting on Mr A, who is thought to have taken 40,000 ecstasy pills in his life, more than any other person yet recorded (BBC online, 4 April)

“The arrangement cannot guarantee that Australian uranium will not end up in a weapons programme in a totalitarian dictatorship.â€

Tasmania senator Christine Milne criticising the Australian government’s decision to sell uranium to China (ABC online, 3 April)