I don't have anything to wear !

Oh, yeh? Many women are 'periodic excessive buyers', according to Jean Chatzky, the author of book Make Money, Not excuses. Although women's income are less then men, they spend more. In 2005, full-time full year female works earned 23% less than male workers, but single women spent $1,069 on clothing and services vs. $832 spent by single men. By some estimates, 12% -15% of American women are so called 'excessive buyers'.

Condoms too big for Indian men ?

A recent survey found that 60% of Indian men have penises which are between 3 and 5 centimetres shorter than international standards used in condom manufacture.

This is not a laughing matter. About 1 in every 5 times a condom is used in India it either falls off or tears, an extremely high failure rate; and Indian already has the highest number of HIV infections of any nation.

The healing power of the music

Listening to music has already been shown to promote a number of positive health benefits. For example, previous research found listening to 45 minutes of soft music before going to bed can improve sleep by more than 1/3. A recent study revealed that music can help reduce chronic pain by more than 20% and can alleviate depression by up to 25%.

The math of life (3)

Internship = Shitwork + College Credit

Rumor = Distance/Truth

Office Workers = Ants - 4 Legs - 2 Feelers

'Similarity breeds connection' start with new-born

Common sense tell us 'similarity breeds connection'. There is inexorable tendency for human beings to link up one in ways that confirm rather than test our existence. A recent study showed that human have developed this tendency in very early stage - just 3 month old.

Researcher studied infants from three groups: white babies raised among white people; black infants similarly raised among their own people; and black babies raised in a mixed black-and-white environment. Then researchers analyzed whether the babies spent more time looking at the white or black human faces in the testing environment. It has been long believed that longer gazes at one face indicate preference for it.

It turned out that white babies raised in white environments spent an average of 63% more time looking at white faces, and black babies spent 23% more time looking at faces from their own race than the other. Black babies raised in mixed-race environments spent roughly equal amounts of time looking at both types.

So much for "opposites attract".

Are female teacher better for girls ?

Are female teachers better for girls? or male teachers better for boys? One interesting (may be controversial ) study say the answer is yes. According to the author, Thomas S. Dee (an economist at Swarthmore College), “Learning from a teacher of the opposite gender has a detrimental effect on students, My best estimate is that it lowers test scores for both boys and girls by approximately 4% of a standard deviation and has even larger effects on various measures of student engagement".

I am just glad that the 4% is not a big number (if it is confirmed by other studies). Be reminded that about 80% of teachers in U.S. public schools are women currently - the same likely to be true, more or less, for other countries.

Dee said he also discovered that a teacher's gender influenced attitudes towards student behavior: Female teachers were more likely to see boys as disruptive, and male teachers were more likely to see girls as inattentive.

Santa Claus is coming to town

What are you smoking (or eating) ?

A public policy report says marijuana has become America's biggest cash crop. Estimated market value: $36 billion per year. By comparison, the United States produced an average of $23.3 billion worth of corn annually from 2003 to 2005, $17.6 billion worth of soybeans, $12.2 billion worth of hay, $11.1 billion worth of vegetables and $7.4 billion worth of wheat.

Poor people in rich neighborhoods have higher death rates

Are people living in a high socioeconomic status neighborhood all well off? It turned out that when poor people living in a rich neighborhood, their risk of death increase. According to a study spanning 17 years, 1.9% of low socioeconomic status women who lived in wealthier neighborhoods had died of heart disease, compared with 1.1% of women from poorer neighborhoods. (the trend was the same in men, but less dramatic). That is 73% increase on the death rate.

The reason? 1) cost of living in an rich neighborhood could leave poor people with little income to spend on health care and healthy food; 2) poor people get reminded every day that they're at the bottom of the social ladder. This psychological and social discrepancy have an negative effect on a person's health.

How much does peer pressure do to us ?

People behave differently under the peer pressure. When our classmate, co-worker or spouse is particularly hard-working, dishonest or lazy, how do we behave? In a scarily detailed experiment, the productivity of supermarket worker were measured in the lens of 'Peer Effect'. In a supermarket, "a quick worker will tend to lighten the burden on their colleagues. That might encourage them to slack off, or it might encourage them to work harder". Research find that workers working close to someone who is 10% quicker (than average) will raise their own productivity by 1.7%.

Can you believe this ?

Many men don't know how to use condoms; when paired with ill-fitting condoms during sex, this lead to high levels of erection loss, scientists report. Many grown men apparently are not confident in their ability dress themselves—and they don't necessarily fit comfortably, so men often lose their erections while preparing for safe sex, the researchers say. Rather than risk repeated failure, these men may ditch condoms for a high-performance, high-risk sexual encounter. Kinsey Institute fellow Cynthia Graham surveyed 278 men at an sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinic and found that 37% had lost an erection while applying a condom at least once. 40% of those men reported ditching the condoms before they had finished intercourse, in contrast to about 20% of those who didn't have erectile issues.

What will happen in the next hour ?

Calculated from the US government Census data, on average, in any given hour on any given day, the following changes are likely occurring in US:

• There are 203 marriages and 109 divorces.
• 4,900 Americans move, and 7,100 change jobs.
• There are 160 DUI arrests, 5 traffic fatalities, and over 2,000 auto insurance claims paid.

Source: Quality Planning Corp.

How narcissistic are celebrities ?

We all have guessed that celebrities are more narcissistic than average people, but how narcissistic are they ? Tough question to answer though, since celebrities are typically shielded by public-relations people and managers who rejects requests for things like peronality questionnaires.

Recently, Drew Pinsky, the University of Southern California psychiatry professor, also an insider to many celebrities, found that on average, celebrities are about 17% higher than the general public — with females ranking significantly higher than males. Interestingly, celebrities with the most skill (musicians) were the least narcissistic; those with no skill (reality-show stars) were off the narcissism charts. Drew Pinsky also found people with narcissistic tendencies seem to be attracted to the entertainment industry rather than the industry creating narcissists.

Numbers of the day

1)the average American gets 2 - 4 colds a year;
2)today the average American woman weighs 163 lbs;
(eliminate 1 soda a day, and you can drop 13 lbs in a year)
4) up to 27% of people include pets in their wills.

Source: RD, Jan, 2007.

Healthier numbers

(1)

Again and again, researchers find alcohol in moderation may extend life span. The latest - drinking a moderate amount of alcohol — up to four drinks per day in men and two drinks per day in women — reduces the risk of death from any cause by roughly 18%.

(2)

Over the past several decades chicken (white meat) consumption has gone up, red meat isn't going anywhere or falling down somewhat. Sign of healthier times. (below, click it to see bigger picture)

Sources:http://www.ers.usda.gov/

Less help for mother

In today's society, most (if not all) working mother do the "2nd shift" at home after work. To make the matter worse, they get less help at home. Here is an interesting (but sad) research addressing the decline in Co-residential female support for the mothers of young children. Using national census data for the period 1880 to 2000, the research found that in the late 19th century, nearly 50% of mothers with young children lived with another female (daughter, sister, mother)who might help carry the load. By the end of the 20th century, the figure was down to about 20%. This decline has been caused by other female attending school or employed outside the home.

The math of life (2)

Compassion = What if that were me ? / I'm glad that's not me

Ignorance = It / What I know about it

Dog = Cat + Loyalty

Men put off going to ER during big games

David Jerrard, a emergency physician, looked at hospital emergency room visits around 800 regular season college and pro football, baseball and basketball games in Maryland. He found that male emergency room attendance increases by 50% after the conclusion of a football game. Also, 30-40% more men check into emergency rooms after a baseball game ends than during the innings. Men stay home instead of seeking treatment for everything from chest pains to a cut finger. Jerrard warns, "Men should not risk their health by putting off going to the emergency room because they want to see the final results of a football game. It could be the last game they ever see."

In my opinion, when men are watching a football game, they are just too focused to feel the pain.

Could web pornography prevent rape ?

For few sexually frustrated, bitter, power-hungry males, common sense tells us web pornography may acting as a substitute for rape. Indeed, according to a new study by Clemson University economist Todd Kendall, increased access to pornography is associated with a decrease in instances of rape. By looking at the growth of internet usage around the country and comparing it with crime statistics, Kendall found that at 10% increase in web use correlates with a 7.3% decrease in reports of rape. Kendall notes that there is no similar association between web access and other violent crimes. He also points out that the effect of internet access on sexual crime has been most pronounced in 15 to 19-year-old boys.

Want to live to 100? This may depend on Mom

A team at the University of Chicago found that people born to women younger than 25 were about 2 times more likely to live for a century or longer than people born to older mothers.

The study of 198 centenarians born in the United States from 1890-1893 found that first-born children were more likely to live to 100 than later-born siblings. After further analysis, the researchers concluded that this longevity advantage among first-born children was largely linked to the fact that they were born when their mothers were in their teens or early 20s.

Just a FYI - according to the Census Bureau, between 1990 and 2000, the number of centenarians in the United States increased from 37,000 to 55,000. Women are 3 to 5 times more likely than men to reach 100 years.

Half of the sky

• According to a 2003 survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 1/3 of wives earn more than their husbands.
  
• According to a study by the Families and Work Institute, a nonpartisan research organization in New York, women overall bring in 43% of household incomes.

Source link

Single adult is the most common US household type

See below. 1 is not the loneliest number.

Eating slowly may promote weight loss

A new study on a group of women provides the scientific proof that if you eat slowly, you will eat less, and therefore you will control your weight. When eating quickly, the women group took in an average of 646 calories in 9 minutes. But when they slowed down, they consumed 579 calories in 29 minutes, and enjoy the meal more. Win-Win situation.

She looks just like her father

According to a study presented at the 2005 Human Behavior & Evolution Society conference, subconsciously, women claim that their babies look like Dad in order to reassure the father that the kid really is his. The researchers corralled 69 families with 83 children and asked the parents to rate how much their kids looked like themselves versus the other parent. 100% of the mothers of newborns said the babies looked more like their partner, but only 83% of fathers agreed. Unrelated judges said the kid looked most like dad a mere 40% of the time. It's easy to see how women might benefit evolutionarily from convincing their partners that they should invest in rearing the child. But must the men continue to trust these deceptive vixens?

People bear an uncanny resemblance to their dogs

In one study, researchers studied 355 dog owners in Ohio, about half of whom owned a high-risk breed such as a pit bull, and found that 100% of people who owned a vicious dog had at least 1 run-in with the law (even if it was only a traffic citation). 30% of those who owned a high-risk dog and had failed to register it had felt the wrath of the law at least 5 times, whereas only 1% of owners of gentle, licensed dogs were 5-time convicts. The researchers say their results show that owning a socially deviant dog is itself a marker of social deviance.

Taller men and slimmer women have better chances of finding a date

Ever wonder why Snow White found Prince Charming so attractive ? May be because he is tall.

A new study out of the University of Essex shows that for every 1 inch of height a man has on his rivals, the number of women who want to go out with him increases by 5%.

In addition to discovering that ladies like tall men, the researchers found that dudes dig smart chicks: Women with a college degree bested their less educated counterparts. Thin women also did better than the clinically overweight. Both sexes preferred youthful partners, and non-smokers generally stuck to other non-smokers, showing that people prefer rosy cheeks and rosy lungs. Most significantly, the researchers said, a man's success was dependent upon how he stacked up against the others in his speed dating group; a 5'9 man in a group of 5'6 guys did as well as a 6'2 man in a group of 5'11 guys