Will government cuts grind the country bus to a halt? Next, ministers are cutting a fuel-tax rebate, given to both commercial and supported services, by 20 per cent: an even bigger reduction is due in Wales. And finally, they have changed how they calculate reimbursement to companies for carrying pensioners with bus passes. In all, the transport committee reckons, these measures could slash the industry's revenue by more than £200 million. The worst impact will be in the countryside, but even in big metropolitan areas outside London - predicts the Passenger Transport Executive Group - the mileage of bus routes, and the numbers of people travelling them, will both decline by some 20 per cent by 2014, while fares will rise by 24 per cent in real terms. This is beginning to get into Beeching territory: after his 1963 report, the rail network was slashed by a third in 11 years. As it is, a Campaign for Better Transport report concludes, the cuts "could tip services into a spiral of decline from which they will struggle to recover. In some areas, entire bus networks could be left in tatters. Vulnerable people across the UK who rely on buses for essential journeys could be left stranded. That's already beginning to be the case. Despite little national media attention, local papers are full of reports of the old being isolated in villages, unable even to get to hospital, of people losing transport to work and of young people unable to socialise. The Peterlee Mail, for example, tells of a woman who has had to reduce the number of visits to her elderly father. The East Grinstead Courier talks to a couple considering leaving their home of 50 years. And the Western Daily Press carries a sad little poem from a 74-year-old facing the loss of his four-mile trips to Wellington: "No more trips to Welli/and on to Wivey./Nothing more to say/along the lovely way/to our happy family of friends/as the 9 beautifully takes bend after bend." Jobseekers are finding it even harder to get accessible work, young people to get to school or college. Local economies suffer from reduced trade: the average bus user spends some £4,000 on shopping trips annually. And resorting to cars or taxis increases carbon emissions. Ministers hope that community-run minibuses and other transport schemes will take over - and have provided £10 million to kickstart the project - but the transport committee concluded that these were unlikely to replace more than "a small fraction" of withdrawn services. The Government also last month announced a £50 million fund to improve urban public transport by encouraging greater co-operation among operators and local authorities, but its scope is limited and the crisis is worst in the countryside. You could say the buses are being treated as a Cinderella service, but that would be wrong; in this case coaches are being turned into pumpkins. While the Government is understandably hopeful that big infrastructure projects will transform Britain, its first duty must be to ensure that its policies do not leave today's citizens stranded. Popcorn - the snack of choice for a peckish ancient Peruvian It was a small matter of six and a half millennia before the opening of the first cinema in 1895, but ancient Peruvians were known to snack on popcorn as a treat. Digs at two prehistoric mounds on the country's arid northern coast have found popped cobs and kernels, dating from about 4,700 BC. The archaeologists who made the discovery - announced on Wednesday, the eve of National Popcorn Day in the US, and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - conclude that popcorn did not become "a primary food staple in the local diet" for about another 2,000 years, suggesting that it was initially consumed as a delicacy. Americans now wolf the stuff down in vast amounts, getting through some 140 pints on average every year. But they have been fond of it since before the arrival of Christopher Columbus, who found it being not just eaten but worn in necklaces and head-dresses. Popular in the US since the late 19th century, it took off during the Second World War when sugar - and therefore sweets - was rationed. The ancient Peruvians had to forgo the anticipatory rattle as the corn pops in a pot - the discovery predates their use of ceramic pottery - and probably got their thrills from holding an entire cob on a stick close to the fire. But one key question remains unanswered. Did they prefer it salted or sweet? India spells out the truth on mobile phone radiation levels An official inquiry 12 years ago recommended that the widely varying levels of radiation given off by mobile phones should be displayed when they were sold. Successive governments have failed to implement this recommendation. But now India may be beating us to it. New guidelines laid down by the country's official Telecom Engineering Centre suggest that the levels should be shown on each handset. And this week, the Delhi government moved to ensure that they are prominently displayed. It's scarcely a radical suggestion. The British committee was chaired by Sir William Stewart, a former government chief scientist, and contained several of the experts who have been most sceptical about radiation dangers from handsets. Since its report, the evidence that mobile phones can cause cancer after long-term use has strengthened. Last summer the World Health Organisation classified them as a "possible carcinogen." The mobile-phone industry has long vigorously fought such an apparently reasonable step - which may be one reason why our pliant governments have neglected to take it - and has already declared its opposition to the Indian plans. When San Francisco proposed a similar measure some years ago, the industry both called in the lawyers and announced that it would stop holding its lucrative annual exhibition, bringing some 68,000 people to the city. What, one wonders, does it have to hide?