juhan.botha: January 2013

Friday, January 25, 2013

Real-life love potion identified

FeaturePics

Researchers found that experimental subjects preferred scents with synthetic compounds that enhanced their own natural odor. They disliked compounds that were associated with another person's scent.

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

Natural body odor plays a more important role in human mate selection than we realize, and now a new study paves the way for manufactured love-potion scents that can help singles improve their chances of finding ideal mates.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, found that people like their own body odor, and gravitate to perfumes that match and enhance that unique smell for themselves and possible mates. This odor is recognized subconsciously, so it's not necessarily the more pungent sweat smells that emerge every so often due to bacteria, consumption of certain foods, and other contributing factors.

When purchasing perfume, "you must be very selective to find a mixture that mimics your (scent) signal, which is determined by a few genes," lead author Manfred Milinski of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, told Discovery News. "People take a long time to find 'their perfume.'"

For the study, Milinski and his team created perfumes with synthetic molecules associated with female student volunteers. The volunteers were asked to shower using a provided soap, apply a different type of perfume to each of their armpits, and wear an untreated cotton T-shirt at night.

When later asked to evaluate each armpit's scent, the participants preferred the one with synthetic compounds that enhanced their own natural odor. They disliked the one treated with molecules associated with another person?s scent.

This is your brain on odors
Brain imaging found that "self" odors activated the right middle front of the brain, a region associated with emotional balance, self-insight and more.

Humans appear to prefer their own smell and amplify that scent for others, particularly potential mates. It's somewhat comparable to lipstick, where women enhance the size, shape and color of their own features.

When selecting mates, we tend to prefer individuals with odors that complement our particular immune-related molecules, according to the researchers.

"The present wisdom of evolutionary biology is that we and other animals reproduce sexually because only in this way can we survive the race with infectious diseases," Milinski said. "This means choosing a partner with complementary immunogenes is the purpose of sexual selection. Probably, in all vertebrates, information about one?s immunogenes is transmitted by smell. Thus odor is extremely important."

Lucking into love potions
For ages, people have selected perfumes, colognes and other scents to enhance their own natural odor. In many cases, individuals probably successfully created "love potions" in this trial-by-error way by subconsciously making the right natural compound matches.

Many of today?s perfumes and colognes, however, are made with manufactured chemical ingredients.

The researchers believe they have overcome that fake perfume problem by synthesizing chemicals that "are identical to the original" chemical structures of natural human body odors. These make possible future love potion fragrances, tailor-designed for individuals.

Men might want to take note: Other research found that female mammals follow their noses to the right mates. Cambridge zoologist Tim Clutton-Brock and Harvard researcher Katherine McAuliffe found that olfactory cues are critical for females seeking mates.

Although humans preen, strut and sometimes sing, birds have evolved more elaborate visual and sound systems for mating, such as complex peacock tails and singing ability among all individuals of some species.

Clutton-Brock and McAuliffe therefore think that many mammals seeking mates rely more upon their ability to sniff out good genetic matches.

More from Discovery News:

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/23/16667339-real-life-love-potion-identified?lite

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House passes 'no budget, no pay' bill, but is it unconstitutional?

The legislation calls off the debt ceiling fight, for now. 'no budget, no pay' also requires both chambers of Congress to pass a budget resolution by April 15, or forgo their salaries until they do. But the 27th Amendment may stand in the way.

By Peter Grier,?Staff writer / January 23, 2013

The House on Wednesday passed its ?no budget, no pay? bill, which suspends the debt ceiling for three months and calls upon both chambers of Congress to pass a budget resolution for fiscal year 2014 by April 15. Under terms of the legislation, if lawmakers miss that deadline their salaries are withheld. That?s where the ?no pay? part of the thing kicks in.

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Sounds like a logical way to pressure members of Congress, doesn?t it? If you don?t produce in the private sector, you can lose both pay and your job, after all. By law, Congress is supposed to pass an annual budget resolution. But the Senate, for its part, hasn?t done so in any of the past three years.

?With the passage of this bill today it?s pretty clear that we?re sending a message to the Democrat-controlled Senate: it?s time to do your job,? said House Speaker John Boehner after the legislation?s passage.

But there is one minor problem here: It is quite possible that the ?no pay? part of the bill is unconstitutional.

Why is that? Because of the 27th?Amendment to the Constitution, that?s why. (Submitted to the states in 1789, this amendment was not ratified until 1992, which is an interesting story unto itself.)

Congressional pay is the 27th?s subject. Among other things, it says, ?No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of the Representatives shall have intervened.?

The main point of that wording is to keep lawmakers from voting themselves a fat pay raise and pocketing the cash ASAP. If they did that, they would at least have to face the voters once prior to buying those Bahamian condos. So it?s a check on congressional largesse.

But some constitutional law experts say that the law, as drawn up, works in reverse as well. They point out that taking money out of congressional pockets counts is ?varying? just as much as putting money in would be.

Thus, the no pay provision of the bill ?is (almost certainly) blatantly unconstitutional,? Michael Foomkin, a professor at University of Miami School of Law, on his Discourse.net blog.

If the House had passed this a few days ago, prior to the beginning of the new Congress, that would be OK. But now it can?t take effect until after the 2014 midterms, according to this analysis.

This is not simply a liberal?s way of looking at the wording, either. The conservative group American Majority Action issued a statement on Jan. 18 calling the legislation unconstitutional.

Not surprisingly, House Republican leaders saw this mini-flap coming. They have attempted to defuse it by simply inserting language within the bill stating that the bill passes muster. Section 2 of the legislation says this: ?In order to ensure that this section is carried out in a manner that shall not vary the compensation of Senators or Representatives in violation of the twenty-seventy article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the payroll administrator of a House of Congress shall release for payments to Members of that House of Congress any amounts remaining in any escrow account under this section on the last day of the One Hundred Thirteenth Congress.?

In other words, it isn?t really a ?no pay? bill. It?s a ?delayed pay? bill. Even if the Senate doesn?t pass a budget, senators would get their full pay at the end of the session.

Not that most of them need it, since they?re pretty rich as a rule, right?

So it all comes down to the meaning of ?vary.? Some experts say the language is clever and passes muster. ?I suspect this passes Constitutional scrutiny,? writes Jordan Ragusa, associate professor of political science at the College of Charleston, at the Rule 22 congressional politics blog.

Others point out that money has a time value, and delayed payments are in essence smaller. Plus, it?s possible there are members of Congress who live paycheck to paycheck and need the money.

And ?vary,? on the surface, seems to mean ... well, changing the pattern of. Which would seem to cover what?s happening.

In light of this, ?the proposal would thus be unconstitutional,? writes Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, on his Volokh Conspiracy blog.

Of course, in the real world this is probably a moot point. What member of Congress is going to sue to get their pay under these circumstances? This is especially true given that 86 House Democrats voted for the bill, as President Obama?s party sees the legislation as a white flag on the part of the GOP, something that allows Congress to skirt the debt limit issue and move on to other fiscal arguments.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/6cGypIlfdrA/House-passes-no-budget-no-pay-bill-but-is-it-unconstitutional

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Are Female Soldiers Coming to Video Games? ? Forbes | Bowden ...

Are Female Soldiers Coming to Video Games? ? Forbes | Bowden Gaming 17 visitors online now
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Saturday, January 5, 2013

Tips To Help Market Your Business Online - Empower Network ...

So, you are finally ready to try Website marketing for yourself. Many businesses have generated a lot of success from this form of advertising. Of course, with so much information available, it can be hard to know how to get started! Do not worry, affiliate marketing suggestions are here! Some of the tips you need to get organized to be a successful marketer on the Internet are listed below.

Giving customers the opportunity to sign up for your Ezine is a highly effective online marketing technique, especially if you know how to create an Ezine that helps you build a relationship with your subscribers. You can show your personality by adding photos of you along with your family and staff. Anecdotes about your life, at work or at home, may amuse your readers and build a relationship. Having a good subject line will encourage them to read the ezine.

Create a PR page which you business could use as a possible marketing strategy. Include content that online magazines or newspapers may want to publish. This can be a very effective, yet simple, strategy to give your business higher visibility to potential customers.

You will want to include a customer testimonial page on your site. People like to read what others are saying about any product, and they like knowing what experience someone else has had with it. This will make them feel more at ease with doing business with you.

Think about your service or product, and how good the quality actually is. You can market on the Internet until the cows come home, but if your product is inferior, it won?t do you any good. Providing a superior product at a competitive price helps ensure increased sales.

Try your hand at mobile marketing. Offer customers the chance to sign up for texts alerting them to sales, product launches, or other happenings on your site. It?s a really good and new way to advertise online with your own Online marketing campaign.

In your ad, use the word ?limited?. Individuals purchase online as they are exhausted by the merchandise their area stores are offering. Online consumers seek unique products different from what they are used to seeing. Customers will feel that ?limited edition? products are special, and will be more likely to buy them.

Think about what people are complaining about in your niche. How can this be? This is a great way to find common problems that need solutions. When you have narrowed down potential solutions, you have a list of potential businesses, products or services at your finger tips. Using this technique may help you to find a market niche, and it may yield the perfect mission statement as an added bonus.

You must know your competition if you are to succeed with an online business. Compare the web pages of your competitors to garner ideas on things that may work for you too. When you notice lacking services on other websites, you should make sure these services are emphasized on your site in order to stand out from the crowd.

To be successful with Web marketing, you need to have a nice website. You need to create an original design, organize your site so it is easy to navigate and write quality content every week. Just remember that the website?s appeal to your visitors can make them stay or go away.

Don?t you feel better after looking at this advice. It was a ton of info, but now you are equipped to do the best in the Internet marketing world. Additionally, you can come back here to read the tips again if you forget or aren?t clear about something.

Incorporating your ads for products and services in powerful locations on the Internet is a smart move for your Internet marketing plan. Google AdSense can help you do this. These companies offer a lot of marketing for your advertising dollar.

Source: http://www.empowernetwork.com/sidneyg/blog/tips-to-help-market-your-business-online/

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MTV's New Show: 'Jersey Shore' Meets 'Honey Boo Boo'?

Are you still grieving the demise of MTV's Jersey Shore? Well, buck up, because the network has a brand new show for you!

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/mtvs-new-show-jersey-shore-meets-honey-boo-boo/1-a-512556?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Amtvs-new-show-jersey-shore-meets-honey-boo-boo-512556

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Friday, January 4, 2013

Soldier suicides outpaced combat deaths in 2012

By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

More soldiers took their own lives than died in combat during 2012, new Department of Defense?figures show. The Army's suicide rate has climbed by 9 percent since the military branch launched its suicide-prevention campaign in 2009.

Through November, 177 active-duty soldiers had committed suicide compared to 165 during all of 2011 and 156 in 2010. In all of 2012, 176 soldiers were killed in action -- all?while serving in?Operation Enduring Freedom, according to DOD.

Army suicides have increased by at least 54 percent since 2007 when there were 115 ? a number the Washington Post then called "an all-time record."?An Army spokesman said Wednesday it is?uncertain if 177 marks a new annual high (with December numbers still to come), or if suicides have ever outpaced combat deaths in a single year, because the Army has not always tracked suicides.

Some Army families who recently lost members to suicide criticize the branch for failing to aggressively shake a culture in which soldiers believe they'll be deemed weak and denied promotion if they seek mental health aid. They also blame Army leaders for focusing more heavily on weeding out ?emotionally troubled soldiers to artificially suppress the branch's suicide stats versus embracing and helping members who are exhibiting clear signs of trouble.

Furthermore, in September, two U.S. lawmakers pressured the Pentagon to immediately use unspent money specifically appropriated to the agency to help slow the suicides within the military. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, also pushed for increased anti-suicide funding for the Department of Defense in 2013.

?The Pentagon hasn?t spent the money that it has for suicide prevention for this year ? and that money wasn?t nearly enough money to reach all the soldiers who need help. Now we are hearing about bureaucratic technicalities at the Pentagon that are preventing them from acting. This is unconscionable,? Rep. McDermott said. ?The Pentagon is funded to help soldiers and needs to do much more on the epidemic of suicides." ?

But the Department of Defense contends that anti-suicide programs installed throughout the armed services soon will curb military suicides ??and that such initiatives already have helped douse?mental-health stigmas.

"We have seen several programs that we are optimistic are going to start making a dent in this issue," said Jackie Garrick, acting director of the DOD suicide prevention office.?"We?ve asked all of the services to use the same messaging, the same talking points. So the Army, included in that, is trying to adapt and promote those same messages because we realize that this is an across-the-board problem."

The Army could not provide a suicide-prevention officer to comment, but an Army spokeswoman did forward NBC News a link to the ?Army Suicide Prevention Program.?

Within that initiative, soldiers are taught to ?Ask, Care, and Escort? any Army buddy who mentions considering suicide, to usher them to behavioral-health provider, chaplain, or a primary-care provider, and to ?never leave your friend alone." The U.S. military also installed?a prevention ?lifeline:? 1-800-273-TALK.

What's more, soldiers are assured that seeking mental-health counseling will not harm their chances at gaining a security clearance. And on that website, a?videoshows Sgt. Maj. Raymond F. Chandler III, the Army's top non-commissioned officer, speaking to other NCOs: ?Know your soldiers. Know the resources available to them when they are in crisis ... Encourage your soldiers to seek help ... Seeking help is a sign of courage.?

The anti-suicide strategy was rolled out in April 2009 by Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli.

In July 2010, the Army released a report that sought to explain its suicide epidemic. Some Army families were?irked by one of the key findings: Loosened recruitment and retention standards ? due to the furious pace of repeated deployments???had allowed more than 47,000 people to remain in the Army despite histories of substance abuse, misdemeanor crime or ?serious misconduct.?

Chiarelli further frustrated?many Army families who had lost members to suicide when, amid the release of that same report, he added: ?I think it?s fair to say in some instances it would be a soldier that?s possibly married, couple of kids, lost his job, no health care insurance, possibly a single parent.? Those types of soldiers, he added, are ?coming in the Army to start all over again, and we see this high rate of suicide.?

Two days before Charielli?s comments, 28-year-old Army soldier Brandon Barrett showed up at his parents' home in Tucson, Ariz. The family believed he was on leave following a brutal, year-long deployment in Afghanistan?with the 5th Stryker Brigade during which he saw several buddies killed or wounded by bombs and did some killing himself.

During that visit, Barrett?s family thought his Army experience seemed to be helping him to mature, recalls his brother, Shane Barrett, a detective with the Tucson Police Department.

In August, Brandon Barrett left his parents? home and drove ? for unknown reasons???to Salt Lake City where he donned his combat fatigues, boots and helmet, grabbed his AR-15 rifle, went to a hotel and told an employee to call the police. As he waited for the officers, Barrett paced the hotel parking lot as if he was on patrol, a hotel video showed.?A police officer arrived. Barrett shot him in the leg. The officer returned fire and killed Barrett with a bullet to the head. His family believes Barrett intended to commit ?suicide by cop,? his brother acknowledged.?

Courtesy Barrett family

Brandon Barrett confided to a chaplain within his unit, the Barrett family learned since his death, revealing that his year of combat in Afghanistan had left him depressed and anxious.

?He?d been home for nearly a month,? Shane Barrett told NBC News. ?We had no contact from anybody in the Army until my brother?s incident. And then, after the fact, it was: ?Your brother was AWOL (absent without leave).? Really? We didn?t know that.

?If a guy goes AWOL, the Army is supposed to notify the family immediately. We never received phone calls, letters. We were blindsided. At the police department where I work, they ran all kinds of record checks on him. But they found absolutely nothing (about an AWOL report).

?My mother has always believed he was declared AWOL after the fact just so the Army could get him off the rolls and not have his suicide count against the Army,? Shane Barrett said. ?To just discard him, like he never existed, is just wrong. And there?s no paper trail, no nothing to back up the AWOL claim.?

The Barrett family later learned that Brandon had confided to a chaplain within his unit, revealing that his year of combat in Afghanistan had left him depressed and anxious. And possibly mulling suicide.

?From talking to a couple of other guys in his unit, he didn?t want to come forward (to seek mental-health help) because you?d be red-flagged. It would be your exit out of the Army,? Shane Barrett said. ?The guys in the Army are just flat-out afraid to come forward.?

At the Department of Defense, anti-suicide chief Garrick was asked if the Army is indeed clinging to a culture of ?suck it up" and handle your own problems,? as some Army families contend.

Andrew P Johnson / The News Herald via AP file

In an Oct. 10, 2012 photo, MaKayla Merritt holds her brother William Busbee's uniform with her mother Libby Busbee, right, and sister Tiffany Merrit in the family's living room in Panama City, Fla. U.S. Army Spc. William Busbee committed suicide in March of 2012. Busbee is one of 177 Army suicides in 2012 -- more than the number of soldiers killed in combat for the year.

?No, I think all of the services have done a pretty good job of trying to get a message out. The Army ... they?ve done the 'shoulder-to-shoulder,' (approach, and have said) ?no soldier stands alone.' That?s been some of their messaging, now going back a while,? Garrick said.

?The Secretary of Defense (Leon Panetta), this past year,?issued a statement talking about how our service members are our most valuable resource and that we need to do everything we can to take care of our people. So we?re doing everything we can to prevent suicides in the military, recognizing that it?s a complex and urgent problem.?

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/03/16309351-the-enemy-within-soldier-suicides-outpaced-combat-deaths-in-2012?lite

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K-12 Aid Faces Uncertain Future, Despite 'Fiscal Cliff' Deal

This from Politics K-12:

Education programs will be spared the prospect of the largest across-the-board cuts in history, but only temporarily, under a bill to avert much of the so-called "fiscal cliff," overwhelmingly approved by Congress on Tuesday.
The measure, which passed the U.S. Senate 89-8 early Tuesday morning and the U.S. House 257-167 Tuesday night, will delay the trigger cuts known as "sequestration," which have been set to hit just about every government agency?including the U.S. Department of Education?on Jan. 2. Under the deal, the cuts will be postponed until March, giving federal lawmakers time to craft a broader budget agreement. The deal was worked out at the 11th hour by Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Senate minority leader.
In the House, where approval seemed touch-and-go most of Tuesday, nearly every Democrat voted for the bill, while 85 Republicans supported it. Sixteen Democrats, and 151 Republicans voted against the measure.
To help pay for the postponement of the trigger cuts?which would slice 8.2 percent from a wide range of programs, including K-12 education?lawmakers have agreed to $12 billion in revenue increases, plus $12 billion in spending cuts, including $6 billion from domestic programs, according to published reports. It's unclear how, and whether, those cuts would affect education spending.
The deal essentially sets up yet another major fiscal fight later on this year. Congress will need to come up with new legislation to cope with sequestration by March. That could involve a fresh round of domestic-spending cuts, which, in turn, could put education programs on the chopping block.
Plus, the federal government is operating on a temporary budget, called a continuing resolution, which expires at the end of March. Lawmakers will have to figure out a final budget for fiscal year 2013, which began back on Oct. 1, or face the prospect of a government shutdown.
To top it all off, the nation has hit the federal debt ceiling yet again, meaning that the government will need new legislation to be allowed to borrow more money?and keep agencies and programs in business. A measure to deal with that issue will also need to be approved in the next couple of months.
Education advocates fear the result may well be more chaos, since it was the last deal to raise the debt ceiling, back in August of 2011, that put sequestration in place to begin with. Republicans have said they do not want to raise the debt ceiling without reducing spending.
All this adds up to a lot of continued uncertainty for school districts and their advocates...