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Women prefer men with stubble for love, sex and marriage

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:36:42 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Women prefer men with stubble for love, sex and marriage

Stubble is the way to win a woman’s heart, a study has shown. Researchers found that women are more attracted to men with stubbly chins than those with clean-shaven faces or full beards.

Women participating in the research rated men with stubble as tough, mature, aggressive, dominant and masculine - and as the best romantic partners, either for a fling or a long-term relationships.

The findings of the experiment, carried out on British women aged 18 to 44, could explain the appeal of actors such as George Clooney and Brad Pitt who cultivate their unshaven look.

The explanation for the preference is not clear, but experts in human evolution say that that facial hair may be a signal of aggression because it boosts the apparent size of the lower jaw, emphasising the teeth as weapons.

Tags: psychology, entertainment, statistics, human selection

Americ's Shrinking Groceries

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:10:34 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

America's Shrinking Groceries

American supermarkets are epics of excess: it often seems like every item in the store comes in a "Jumbo" size or has "Bonus!" splashed across the label. But is it possible that the amount of food Americans are buying is, in fact... shrinking? Well, yes. Soaring commodity and fuel prices are driving up costs for manufacturers; faced with a choice between raising prices (which consumers would surely notice) or quietly putting fewer ounces in the bag, carton or cup (which they generally don't) manufacturers are choosing the latter. This month, Kellogg's started shipping Apple Jacks, Cocoa Krispies, Corn Pops, Froot Loops and Honey Smacks containing an average of 2.4 fewer ounces per box.

Tags: groceries, food, america, energy, cost, inflation, prices

Start at any age

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:08:17 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.boston.com

Start at any age

Demand rises for bike riding lessons for adults

SOMERVILLE - Michael Lamb is a 44-year-old history teacher with a quiet smile and unusual courage. He's learning, finally, how to ride a bicycle - despite being nearly four decades older than the usual beginner. His goal is modest: ride well enough to accompany his two young children on local bike paths.

"The older you get," he says, "you feel a little strange asking for help."

But Lamb is hardly alone. Gas prices hovering above $4 per gallon have led to the busiest season so far for the woman known as Boston's Bike Whisperer, Susan McLucas, a 59-year-old chronic smiler with a reputation for teaching even the most fearful and frustrated adults to balance on two wheels. Enrollment in Bicycle Riding for Beginners, offered through the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, has nearly doubled since 2006. And demand for one-on-one lessons is on the rise as well.

Tags: bicycling, learning, teaching, bicyclce

Microsoft seeks next big idea in Cambridge

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:06:54 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.boston.com

Microsoft seeks next big idea in Cambridge

CAMBRIDGE - Microsoft Corp. is reinventing itself, and it's looking to One Memorial Drive for a dose of innovation.

That will be the home of Microsoft's Boston Concept Development Center, a first-of-its-kind research unit that's assembling dozens of engineers and designers and sniffing out technologies with the aim of incubating new Internet businesses within the company.

The center, more than 3,000 miles from Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Wash., is part of a bid to recapture the software company's cachet in a new technology era increasingly dominated by competitors such as Google Inc. and Apple Inc.

The stakes are high for Microsoft and the Boston area. Boston software legend Ray Ozzie replaced Bill Gates as Microsoft's chief software architect in 2006. Ozzie has been pushing for a transition from the desktop software that accounts for the bulk of its revenue to the Internet services that are the wave of the future.

Tags: microsoft, mit, boston, concept center, ideas, reinvent, business

Helping runners stay on right track

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:05:46 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.boston.com

Helping runners stay on right track

Watertown firm aiding Adidas in US rollout of Web-coaching system

Adidas is betting that runners of all shapes, sizes, and speeds will benefit from having a coach that fits in the pocket of their running shorts.

"If you tell it your goal is to fit into the jeans you wore two years ago within six months, this product will help you get there," said Brian Gillespie, head of strategic design for Molecular Inc.

The Watertown company has been instrumental in helping the athletic apparel and gear company roll out the website component of its new miCoach system, a cellphone made for runners in conjunction with the electronics maker Samsung. Released this year in the United Kingdom and Germany, it will be available in Spain and France within six months.

Tags: web coach, running, nike, adidas, pedometer

Mysterious Bee Disorder Could Sting at the Supermarket

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:40:16 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: Anyone see the Bee Movie?

Clip Source: www.ens-newswire.com

Mysterious Bee Disorder Could Sting at the Supermarket

WASHINGTON, DC, June 27, 2008 (ENS) – Honeybees are vanishing at alarming rates across the United States and researchers are struggling to pinpoint the exact cause of the decline, experts told a Congressional panel Thursday.

U.S. beekeepers have lost a record 36 percent of their colonies this year, about twice the amount lost during a typical winter, and they warn that the mysterious disorder afflicting the bees could have serious environmental and economic consequences.

"This is more than just a beekeeping problem," said David Mendes, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation. "There is something in the environment that is making our bees sick."

"Bees are as important to our crops as the water and sunshine," said North Carolina farmer Robert Edwards, who said the lack of bees has forced him to cut his cucumber crop in half. "No bees, no crops."

Tags: bees, honey bees, disappearance, hoves

Burrowing muskrat causes levee to fail in Missouri

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 03:06:29 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: "The furry rodent dug a hole through the earthen levee in this eastern Missouri community, allowing water to penetrate the floodwall, which failed shortly before dawn."

Clip Source: ap.google.com

Burrowing muskrat causes levee to fail in Missouri

WINFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A heroic effort by hundreds of townspeople, volunteers and National Guardsmen to hold back the Mississippi River failed Friday — undone by a burrowing muskrat.

The furry rodent dug a hole through the earthen levee in this eastern Missouri community, allowing water to penetrate the floodwall, which failed shortly before dawn.

"It's so disappointing," said Linda Wilmesherr as she peered through binoculars at water pouring through a gap that appeared to be 30 feet wide. "With all the guns in this county, couldn't we kill a muskrat?"

But within hours, defiant residents were mounting a new defense — a quickly constructed 4-foot-tall sandbag levee to protect 100 homes in the floodwaters' path.

Tags: missouri, flooding, levee, nature

San Francisco to vote on naming sewer after George Bush

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:30:44 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: They really should consider naming it the Cheney-Bush Sewage Plant, since the honor should be bestowed on both.

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

San Francisco to vote on naming sewer after George Bush

Some presidents get carved into Mt Rushmore; others have airports, motorways, and even entire cities named in their honour. But when George Bush leaves office, his most visible memorial may be a mouldering patch of human effluent.

In November, alongside casting their ballot for the next president, the people of San Francisco will also vote on a measure to rename one of the city's largest sewage works the George W Bush Sewage Plant, to provide a "fitting monument" to the outgoing commander-in-chief's achievements.

Activists from the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco, a mischievously-named group behind the move, will ask supporters to participate in a "synchronised flush".

Tags: seawge, bush, cheney, san francisco, sewage plant, bush administration

Exclusive: No ice at the North Pole

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:26:27 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: So if you have a small container with lots of water and lots of ice and the ice melts....what happens to all the extra water and where does it go?

WaterWorld anyone?

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

Exclusive: No ice at the North Pole

Polar scientists reveal dramatic new evidence of climate change

By Steve Connor, Science Editor

It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.

The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer.

"From the viewpoint of science, the North Pole is just another point on the globe, but symbolically it is hugely important. There is supposed to be ice at the North Pole, not open water," said Mark Serreze of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.

Tags: polar ice caps, northpole, ice, metling, arctic sea

Stephen Hawking's explosive new theory

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:49:22 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Stephen Hawking's explosive new theory

Prof Stephen Hawking has come up with a new idea to explain why the Big Bang of creation led to the vast cosmos that we can see today.

Astronomers can deduce that the early universe expanded at a mind-boggling rate because regions separated by vast distances have similar background temperatures.

They have proposed a process of rapid expansion of neighbouring regions, with similar cosmic properties, to explain this growth spurt which they call inflation.

But that left a deeper mystery: why did inflation occur in the first place?

Now New Scientist reports that an answer has been proposed by Prof Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University, working with Prof Thomas Hertog of the Astroparticle and Cosmology Laboratory in Paris.

Tags: stephen hawking, science, cosmos, bing bang

Supreme Court says Americans have right to guns

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:45:57 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Supreme Court says Americans have right to guns

WASHINGTON - Americans can keep guns at home for self-defense, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday in the justices' first-ever pronouncement on the meaning of gun rights under the Second Amendment.

The court's 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia's ban on handguns. The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most federal firearms restrictions intact.

The Constitution does not permit "the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home," Scalia said. The court also struck down Washington's requirement that firearms be equipped with trigger locks or kept disassembled, but left intact the licensing of guns.

Scalia noted that the handgun is Americans' preferred weapon of self-defense in part because "it can be pointed at a burglar with one hand while the other hand dials the police."

Tags: handgun, shotgun, supreme court, constitution

Workplaces to see more spats over after-hours

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:57:39 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Workplaces to see more spats over after-hours

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Should an employee get paid for reading a BlackBerry at the dinner table, sending an office e-mail or posting a job-related blog at home?

A spat at ABC News over paying writers to check their BlackBerries on their own time recently raised the issue, and such a dispute marks the leading edge of a deluge of unresolved and potentially heated cases to come in the United States, experts say.

The growing technical ability to work remotely, combined the growth of work-related legal disputes, is raising "lots of smaller-scope issues of this kind," said John Thompson, an expert in wage and hour law at Fisher & Phillips in Atlanta.

"We've never seen anything like it. Just the question of what is work and what isn't is a practically endless question," he said. "It is going to drive to the surface all kinds of issues that nobody's ever thought of before."

Tags: work, after-hours, billable, work day

James Dobson accuses Obama of `distorting' Bible

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:42:53 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: Obama is correct on this. Dobson and Minnery are basically slamming those who do not acknowledge the New Testament - where Obama is at least acknowledging the Old and New.
What irritates me about religion are those that think their version is the absolute truth (Dobbs/Minnery as an example) since they are no different then the radical Islamic groups.

Clip Source: ap.google.com

"Even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools?" Obama said. "Would we go with James Dobson's or Al Sharpton's?" referring to the civil rights leader.

Dobson took aim at examples Obama cited in asking which Biblical passages should guide public policy — chapters like Leviticus, which Obama said suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an abomination, or Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, "a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application."

"Folks haven't been reading their Bibles," Obama said.

Dobson and Minnery accused Obama of wrongly equating Old Testament texts and dietary codes that no longer apply to Jesus' teachings in the New Testament.

Tags: obama, relugon, politics, christianity, bible

The Get Out Clause, Manchester stars of CCTV

Thu, 29 May 2008 03:45:10 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Many people are uncomfortable with the march of the surveillance state – but a Manchester band has used it to their advantage.

Unable to afford a proper camera crew and equipment, The Get Out Clause, an unsigned band from the city, decided to make use of the cameras seen all over British streets.

The Get Out Clause, Manchester stars of CCTV

Many people are uncomfortable with the march of the surveillance state – but a Manchester band has used it to their advantage.

[Video]

Unable to afford a proper camera crew and equipment, The Get Out Clause, an unsigned band from the city, decided to make use of the cameras seen all over British streets.

With an estimated 13 million CCTV cameras in Britain, suitable locations were not hard to come by.

Tags: cctv, bands, entertainment

Woman strips after wolf whistle

Mon, 26 May 2008 16:47:50 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: uk.reuters.com

Woman strips after wolf whistle

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Road workers in a small New Zealand town got their wish granted when a woman stripped saying she was fed up with their wolf-whistles.

The Israeli tourist was about to use an ATM in the main street of Kerikeri, in the far north of the country, when the men whistled, the New Zealand Press Association reported.

She calmly stripped off, used the cash machine, before getting dressed and walking away.

The woman told police she didn't take too kindly to the whistling from the men repairing the road.

"She said she had thought 'bugger them, I'll show them what I've got'," Police Sergeant Peter Masters told NZPA.

"She gave the explanation that she had been ... pestered by New Zealand men. She's not an unattractive looking lady," Masters said.

"She was taken back to the police station and spoken to and told that was inappropriate in New Zealand."

(Reporting by Adrian Bathgate; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Tags: woman, strip, whistle, new zealand