Picture the scene. You’re sitting in the dentist’s or GP’s waiting room. Uncomfortable plastic chairs. Coffee tables scattered with magazines from eight years ago: “Brad and Angelina: THIS TIME IT’S OVER!” If you’ve ever commented on the poor quality of reading material available in medical waiting rooms, you’re not alone. Three New Zealand researchers even looked into the matter seriously. The key to the mystery? An annoying tendency among patients to slip the most recent publications discretely into their bags... The experiment carried out in a medical practice in Auckland showed significant losses (1.32 newspapers stolen per day) with a clear preference for gossip magazines (which disappear almost 15x faster than traditional newspapers!). The result? You end up with only the trashy magazines from 2012 and an old Sunday supplement left.