Topics of interest: Week ending Jan. 14

Anger management on State
Chicago Tribune
Linda Piepho will become manager of the Macy's store on State Street in February. One of her challenges will be to work through the initially underestimated anger and sentimentality lingering among Chicagoans still steamed about last fall's name change from Marshall Field's. ... That anger may have contributed to holiday sales declines at the store of as much as 11 percent, one analyst said.

Going green: Saving planet starts with small steps
Chicago Tribune
Here are 10 things you can do in the new year to do your part for the environment, including some "go green" tips from www.StopGlobalWarming.org.

Abe Lincoln museum draws its millionth visitor
Chicago Tribune
Just 21 months after opening, the Springfield museum honoring the life of the 16th president welcomed its millionth visitor on Saturday.

In coffee-loving U.S., tea sees surge in sales
Chicago Tribune
Tea in America once meant a bag of Lipton floating in a cup. Green tea was a fringe product and white tea unheard of. All of this has changed, including the shape of the lowly tea bag, as U.S. tea sales are expected to grow to $10 billion by 2010 from $6 billion in 2005, according to the World Tea Expo, a trade show.

Always Revealing, Human Skin Is an Anthropologist’s Map
New York Times
For more than a decade, Dr. Jablonski has been trying to get her arms around a ubiquitous and yet mysterious topic: the biology, evolution and social function of human skin. The results of her studies have been published by the University of California Press as “Skin: A Natural History.”

Foreign-adoption boom is ending
Chicago Tribune
After tripling over the past 15 years, the number of foreign children adopted by Americans dropped sharply in 2006. The consequences could be profound for the ever-growing numbers of Americans interested in adopting abroad. Already, the hopes of some have been quashed by tightened eligibility rules in China.

You've got to laugh
BBC
Forget salary, location, prospects - happiness is the new weapon in the drive to recruit the best and brightest new workers.

How spicy foods can kill cancers
BBC
Scientists have discovered the key to the ability of spicy foods to kill cancer cells.

Vesuvius escape plan 'insufficient'
BBC
Vesuvius is the most heavily monitored volcano in the world. Within 20km (12 miles) of its crater live almost three million people - and every one of them, say the geologists, is at risk.

Pillars of Creation Toppled By Stellar Blast
Space.com via Yahoo
They helped open the public's eyes to the wonders of space when they were first photographed in 1995, but a new study suggests the famous Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula might have already been toppled long ago, and that what the Hubble Space Telescope actually captured was their ghost image.

Man's wallet returned after 62 years
Associated Press via Yahoo
Ray Heilwagen has his wallet back, 62 years after he lost it in France during World War II. Late last year, Heilwagen received a call from Stephen Breitenstein of Palatine, Ill. "He said, 'Did you lose a billfold?' and I remembered I did," Heilwagen told the Hannibal Courier-Post. "Then he said, 'I found it and will send it to you.' "I could hardly believe it."