»» Don’t lose it
You don’t lose your cool when a customer says “No.” So don’t lose your cool when somebody cuts you off on the road. You’ll live longer. Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., found links between anger or other strong emotions and future arrhythmias and sudden cardiac arrests. Researchers studied 62 patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators and enlarged hearts. They sought to discover whether T-wave alternans, which monitor electrical instability in the heart induced by anger, would predict future ventricular arrhythmias. The short answer? They did. Those in the group with more anger-induced electrical instability were more likely to experience arrhythmias one year after the study than those in the control group.

»» China’s electric-car gamble
China is hoping to be one of the leading producers of hybrid and all-electric vehicles within three years, according to a report in The New York Times. The directive radiates from the very top of the Chinese government, and seems to be the country’s way of making a virtue of a liability. Lagging far behind the United States, Japan and other countries in the development of gasoline-powered vehicles, China is simply skipping to the next technology. Aided by a combination of research subsidies and tax credits, China intends to raise its annual production capacity to 500,000 hybrid or all-electric cars and buses by the end of 2011, from 2,100 in 2008. By comparison, Japan and South Korea are expected to produce 1.1 million hybrids or all-electric vehicles by then, while North America is expected to produce 267,000.

»» Extended warranty is still good
Your service contract - or extended warranty - is viable even if the dealer you bought the car from goes out of business, according to the Service Contract Industry Council. That’s because service contracts are covered by the car manufacturer. In most cases, repair service is transferable to another dealership. Car owners rely on extended warranties to kick in after the manufacturer’s limited warranty expires, usually after three years or 36,000 miles. The Service Contract Industry Council (www.go-scic.com) is a trade association whose member companies collectively offer approximately 80 percent of the service contracts sold in the United States for cars, home and consumer goods.

»» The wrong exit
Exit 4B of the Cross Bronx Expressway in New York has the dubious distinction of being the worst intersection in America, according to traffic-tracking firm Inrix (www.inrix.com). Drivers who pass through this interchange between the Cross Bronx and the Bronx River Parkway encounter a stretch of road that is congested an average of 94 hours every week. In fact, three or America’s four worst bottlenecks are interchanges on the seven-mile length of the expressway. The worst roadway of all? Chicago’s Kennedy Expressway, which claims 13 of the country’s top 100 worst intersections.

»» Endangered species
Now that Volkswagen has announced it will revert to the Golf nameplate for the Rabbit, the number of cars named after animals continues to dwindle. You’ve still got the Impala (Chevrolet) and Mustang (Ford), but what’s “in” now are names and numbers that suggest they were cooked up by a computer, according to a recent article in The New York Times. What’s happening, according to one observer, is that car companies are using nondescript names to throw emphasis on the brand (e.g., Cadillac) rather than the particular model. So, instead of former Cadillac names such as El Dorado and Seville , we have the CTS and STS. One design historian traces animal names back to the Stutz Bearcat of the 1920s. However, the historian, Russell Flinchum, confesses he isn’t sure what a bearcat actually is.

»» Safety first
Just one vehicle from General Motors - Saab’s 9-3 sedan - made it to Forbes.com’s list of the safest cars of 2009. Ford and Chrysler missed the list altogether. To generate the list, Forbes used crash-test and rollover data from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Among the safest vehicles were Acura RL, Acura TL, Saab 9-3, Subaru Impreza, Subaru Legacy, Honda CR-V, Honda Odyssey and Honda Pilot.

»» Watch out
Meanwhile, the Chevrolet Trailblazer SUV, Kia Rio small sedan and the Ford Ranger pickup were among the lowest-scoring vehicles based on safety, according to Forbes.com. Forbes used crash results from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and rollover ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to compile the list. Forbes cautions readers that there’s no single type of vehicle to avoid, based on its list. Small cars, SUVs and even trucks appear on it. What’s more, Forbes cautions drivers that avoiding purchasing any car on the list could be a “rush to judgment.” “Along with taking these ratings into consideration, consumers should think about where they live and what kind of driving they do, as that will determine what kind of car will suit them best.” That said, here are some of the most dangerous vehicles of 2009: Chevrolet Aveo, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Dodge Nitro, Ford Ranger, Hummer H3, Hyundai Accent, Kia Rio , Nissan Frontier and Suzuki Equator.