Thumb down: Shocking study » A Brigham Young University study has concluded that "restrained eating" is a key to losing weight. Imagine that. Now, we don't claim to be dieticians, but it does seem obvious to us laypeople that limiting the types and amounts of food you eat is not only a key, but the key to reaching and maintaining a healthy weight. Sure, it seems that when you can't have something, you want it all the more. That's where "restraint" comes in, it seems to us. But there are other researchers who say restraint doesn't work. Maybe we should call it "self-discipline" instead. Whatever you call it, its opposite -- unrestrained eating -- just doesn't seem the way to go.

Thumb up: Worse than bad » Americans are rightly worried about a lot of things: rising unemployment, failing banks and businesses, shrunken retirement accounts, global warming. But there is one thing that could rid us of those worries in a matter of hours. Yellowstone National Park, the world's largest active volcanic caldera -- the depression left by a "supervolcano" -- has been shaken more than 250 times over the past week by earthquakes, including one that registered 3.9 on the Richter scale. The most recent cataclysmic eruption that helped create the 1,750-square-mile caldera happened 640,000 years ago and left ash over much of North America. A whole lot of ash. In fact, it left Wyoming, Montana and Idaho looking like a lunar wasteland. And we all know that what lies beneath the park now is still gurgling. Is another eruption likely? Very likely, even certain, but probably not anytime soon, scientists say. But, in comparison to what Mother Nature can do, our little man-made crises seem, well, not really so bad.

Thumb up: Extinguished » Utah's new ban on smoking in private clubs and bars is good health policy that will protect employees and nonsmoking patrons from disease caused by secondhand tobacco smoke. Given our druthers, we would have kept a limited number of state licenses available for smoking clubs, but we understand the rationale for an outright ban. What we don't understand is why the law was scheduled to take effect at midnight on New Year's Eve. We're just glad we're not club owners who had to tell patrons they could no longer light up after singing "Auld Lang Syne."