People

A popular myth is that New York is unfriendly. Mark Malkoff decide to challenge it by attempting to transport himself from the southern tip of Manhattan to its northern end, asking people on the street to carry him along the way.

Finding Mr Right: Melanie, a never-married woman, sends an e-mail at noon to Mark, a divorced dad. She asks about a date the next evening. Around midnight, Mark confirms. But because he waited almost 12 hours, Melanie replies: "I've lost interest."

Robert Crawford, who wrote The Bard: Robert Burns, A Biography, says that Scotland's national poet shares with the best hip-hop artists a genius for rhymes that are completely "liberated from the hegemony of standard English".

Haitian-born R&B star Wyclef Jean has urged fans to donate to relief efforts following the earthquake that struck the Caribbean state. "Your money will help with relief efforts," he wrote on Twitter. "

Iris Robinson, 60, had an affair with a 19-year-old. Coincidentally, the Simon & Garfunkel song "Mrs Robinson" came out in 1968, when Iris Robinson was... 19. It was also the year when the people of Northern Ireland began their religious war.

In New York, the New Year celebration focuses on a crystal ball that descends during the ten-second countdown in Times Square. Meanwhile, Edinburgh hosts a huge Hogmanay event. The party lasts for four days and attracts visitors from around the world.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali teamed up with Dutch film director Theo van Gogh to make Submission, a film about the mistreatment of women in Islam. Van Gogh was murdered on an Amsterdam street in 2004 by an extremist. Hirsi Ali now lives in Washington, DC.

The word "Christmas" means "Christ's Mass". It comes from the Middle English Christemasse and Old English Cristes mæsse. "Cristes" is from the Greek Christos, and "mæsse" is from the Latin missa. "Xmas" is often used as an abbreviation for Christmas.

The agency created a Facebook profile for Gordon Gustavsson, and then uploaded images of IKEA showrooms to his photo album. The next step was to let the world know that the first person to put his or her name on a product in the photos would get it.