Watercooler Stories

Sting made headlines years ago when he said he and his wife, Trudi Styler, made love for up to eight hours at a time using techniques from tantric sex.

Now he admits he may have exaggerated or "sexed up" his lovelife.

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In an interview with the British television network ITV, the rock star says he was drinking one night with singer Bob Geldof when he came up with the eight-hour figure to impress Geldof.

"I think I mentioned to Bob I could make love for eight hours," Sting says. "What I didn't say was that this included four hours of begging and then dinner and a movie."

'BIG BROTHER AFRICA' BIG HIT, CONTROVERSIAL

"Big Brother Africa," the latest version of the reality television show, has a strong following and an estimated 30 million viewers in Africa.

However, some politicians and religious leaders don't like it all. They don't like the kissing or the "shower hour" described as dangerously close to pornography, the New York Times reports.

The Rev. Timothy Skeins, of the Church of Jesus Christ, has prayed publicly for 31-year-old Gaetano Kaggwa, a Ugandan, to be voted off to spare children from watching him roll around under the covers with a housemate, the Times says.

FEW KNOW WHAT CAUSES GLOBAL WARMING

Those who live in poorer developing countries don't know much about the causes of global warming, but neither do those in developing countries.

"I find this quite remarkable," says study author Steven R. Brechin, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"In essence, we are equally ignorant about the causes of global climatic change. Citizens of poor countries have a pretty good excuse, but what is ours?"

The study, in the International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, says 26 percent of the citizens in Mexico surveyed in 2001 correctly identified burning fossil fuels as the primary cause of global warming while only 15 percent in the United States did. Only Japan and France polled lower.

SUBURBAN LIFE MAY BE BAD FOR HEALTH

Americans' four-wheel lives contribute to obesity, hypertension, coronary disease, diabetes, asthma -- even mental disorders like anxiety and depression, the New York Times reports.

Richard J. Jackson, director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, says suburban life's impact on human health should be addressed.

Jackson believes there are persuasive, if yet circumstantial, links between the suburbs and certain physical and mental diseases, the Times says.

If so, the building of larger and larger suburbs might be viewed as a colossal mistake, he says.