• Sad news: Lorene Rogers, former president of the University of Texas and possibly the first woman to lead a public university in America, died January 11th, at the age of 94. • Plastic surgery is on the rise in Britain, with boob jobs, abdominoplasy and "designer vaginas" leading the way. Ugh. • And this is not as gender specific as one would think: the number of "moob" jobs (reducing the amount of a man's breast tissue) has increased by 44% in the past year. • New research shows that the color red makes men feel "more amorous." •  Bromance among chimps? New study shows that male bonding is an important part of the adult chimpanzee life. • The rate of infant deaths due to suffocation or strangulation has quadrupled in the past twenty years in the US. Doctors recommend that parents avoid this tragedy by not bed-sharing and keeping cribs free of clutter. • India is struggling with a horrifically high maternal death rate, with as many as 450 deaths per 100,000 live births. Women in lower castes are the worst sufferers, since they are frequently denied access to even basic health care. • America's largest retirement community, The Villages in Florida, is reportedly a "widower's paradise," with female-to-male ratio at 10 to 1. Workers say there is a big black market for Viagra. • New data shows that the number of repeat abortions among British teens has risen 70% since 1991. Experts speculate that the rise in binge drinking could be partially to blame. • A research group in the UK is investigating whether consuming caffeine during pregnancy could lead to rise in the baby's risk for developing leukemia in childhood. • Although Americans are no happier than we were in the 1970's, the happiness gap (the gap between those who report being happiest and those who are the least) has significantly narrowed. • There are two weird stories today about giant baked goods: 1. A team of 55 Mexican cooks baked the world's largest cheesecake. 2. A sticky rice roll weighing more than a ton has been made in Vietnam to raise money for the poor. • And in other strange food news, the "delicacies of the Antarctic" (seal brain, penguins eggs), are off the menu at Antarctic bases, replaced by dried onion and split pea soup. • "Ladettes" (young women emulating their male peers) are responsible for an upswing in female crime, experts say. • The Martha Graham Dance Company is launching an internet-based global dance competition this year. The winning footage will be shown at the company's New York season in May. • Villagers in a small town in India recently married a young girl to a stray dog in a religious ritual. Fortunately, there do not seem to be any lasting effects of the ritual, and the girl is free to marry later in life if she so chooses. • Amphetamines have been found in illegal diet pills from South America. • A mother from Texas who allegedly abused her three daughters will not be prosecuted. The mother, suffering from Munchhausen's syndrome, brought her children to many different doctors, which apparently makes it difficult to prosecute the case. • A 41-year-old British woman will become the first to give birth after using a new IVF technique that screens eggs for abnormal chromosomes. • 

Uh oh, the Splenda-philes are thinking. But here's the catch: the study was funded by the Sugar Association, aka "the lobbying group for the natural-sugar industry and a chief competitor to and legal adversary of Splenda," the Times reports. Curious! This isn't the first time a much-beloved by and marketed-to women product has come under scrutiny. Below, some beverages, drugs, and makeup that turned out to be less than female-friendly.

Tab: While Tab is still on the market, it had to change its formula several times, and still has a cancerous taint about it. First, because it used a combination of cyclamate and saccharine, which was shown to cause bladder cancer in rats and created malformed chicks. So Tab was reformulated with saccharine alone…until Congress required Tab to put a warning label on its products that said "may cause cervical cancer" in the early 80s. This enforced labeling was repealed in 2000, but today, Tab, which contains a combination of saccharine and aspartame, flies mainly under the radar but for a few outspoken enthusiasts.

Makeup: Earlier this year, the state of Minnesota banned mercury from mascara, eyeliner, and skin-lightening creams. Federal law allows up to 65 parts per million of mercury in these products, but apparently those hard frozen asses up in MN won't let that fly. "Mercury does cause neurological damage to people even in tiny quantities," Minnesota State Senator John Marty told CBS News. Also, remember all those lipsticks found to have lead in them earlier this year? Watch your faces ladies!

Pills: Until they were banned in 1979, many, many women were basically using amphetamines as diet aides. Other weight loss drugs that were totally dangerous and eventually banned by the FDA include Dinitrophenol and Fen-Phen. Even more famous was Thalidomide, which was meant to control pregnancy symptoms like morning sickness, but actually contributed to many, many birth defects.

See, Splenda doesn't seem so bad now, right? Destroyed stomach enzymes, here we come!

New Salvo in Splenda Skirmish [NYT]
The Bitter Truth About a Sweetener Scare [WSJ via Junk Science]
Tab Scare [New Yorker]
Minnesota Bans Adding Mercury To Cosmetics [CBS News]

Earlier: Is Your Lipstick Poisoning You?

Cosmo takes a squint at the buzz surrounding chocolate diet pills this month.

Yup, you read that right: chocolate diet pills. The theory behind the Euphoric Chocolate Diet Pills is that they trigger the good feeling you get when you munch on the brown stuff, which will make you more likely to stick to your diet because you're happy. Yeah, right. And they also contain a green tea extract that allegedly speeds up fat burning.

So it's basically the miracle we've all been looking for, right? Eat tons of chocolate and actually lose weight.

Not so fast. Cosmo's diet Guru Brigid McKevith is here to harsh your chocoholic buzz:

"Not enough research has been done to confirm that any of these ingredients will actually help you lose weight. Having a cup of green tea and a small bar of dark chocolate will provide the same so-called weight loss ingredients, not too many calories, and is cheaper and way more enjoyable than popping pills."

We'd say that depends on the pills you're popping, Doc. But we get the message. Sadly.