“Why are you still alive?” is the question doctors ask Ozzy Osbourne, the hard-rock singer and reality-TV star, who says he is now clean and sober after a lifetime of almost unimaginably bad habits.

A severe but underappreciated American drug problem (sometimes deadly and often expensive) is patients’ failure to take prescribed medications — even to save their own lives (such as with anti-coagulants or cholesterol-regulating statins). In recent pilot programs, according to a June New York Times.

In the midst of World Cup fever, readers might have missed Germany’s win over host Barbados in June for the Woz Challenge Cup, following an eight-team polo tournament with players not on horses but Segways.

Recurring Theme: Once again, the larger question in a “swindling psychic” case is not how Portland, Ore., “psychic” Cathy Stevens managed to separate Mr. Drakar Druella, 42, from his $150,000 (which she needed, to cure Druella’s “negative energy”).

Cutting-Edge Products: A Portland, Ore., inventor recently began offering a colorful patch designed to cover the area just below a dog’s tail. The “Rear Gear” is featured on the handmade-crafts’ site, Etsy.com. Tyrone Henry and Fermin Esson, of Opa Locka, Fla.

American families from certain Asian and African cultures continue to ritually “circumcise” their young daughters, though the practice is illegal in the U.S. and most of the world.