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religion

keep the faith

amsterdam - Religion plays an important role in avoiding depression, says researcher Arjam Braam at Amsterdam's Free University. He questioned more than 3,000 people in the Netherlands and found those who were raised Christian but later abandon their church are more likely to be depressed than those who remained faithful. He expected the survey to show that elderly Reformed Christians, in particular, would be more heavy hearted and therefore more given to depression. But his own research proved these views to be false.

GEOGRAPHY

'We're over here'

OCONOMOWOC LAKE, WIS. - A computer glitch left the sleepy town of Oconomowoc Lake, Wis., off 2 million highway maps. The village of 505 people is just east of much larger Oconomowoc and 30 miles west of Milwaukee. State prisoners are using stickers and stamps to put the town back on state maps.

SCIENCE

Spotlight on ice

MADISON, WIS. - Scientists say they will shine a laser from space in 2001 onto Antarctic and Greenland to learn more about melting of massive ice sheets that could drastically alter ocean levels. The satellite ICESAT will sweep into near-polar orbit for three to five years to monitor layers that together contain 77 percent of the earth's fresh water and 99 percent of its glacier ice. Researchers hope to better understand the West Antarctic sheet, which dumps huge amounts of ice into the ocean every year.