A stud is no longer the male ideal

A global survey of 28,000 men has debunked many stereotypes about the male ideal of a “man's man”, according to a Canadian-led study.

Masculinity is certainly not the male ideal of a “man's man” or maleness, says the study.

Nor is being a womanizer or a career seeker.

On the contrary, the male ideal of a “man's man” is someone who is honourable, responsible and committed to his partner, says the study.

According to it, most men want to be seen as good fathers and good husbands, not as studs chasing women for sex.

The study which covered eight countries, including the US, Brazil, Germany and Italy, found that for 33 per cent of men viewed being seen as “honourable” as their highest ideal of maleness.

Another 28 percent said being in control of one's life was their ideal of maleness.

A vast majority of them said the topmost male quality was putting love ahead of sex.

Just one percent rated a great sex life as their ideal.

Three percent plumped for career and financial success.

According to Canadian Michael Sand, who led the survey of 27, 839 men across many cultures and age groups in the eight countries, the new study has shattered may stereotypes about maleness.

“Men routinely said that being in good health, having a good family life, having a harmonious relationship with my wife or my partner, is way more important than a successful career, having a nice home, having a satisfying sex life,” he was quoted as saying by a Canadian news agency.

Sand said, “Being seen as honourable - I think men are telling us that how my community views my integrity and my values system is important to me. They're also saying ‘I want to be seen as a good father, a successful partner, far more than I want to be seen as a stud’.”

According to him, all these things “point to the importance- not in keeping with stereotypes- of interpersonal relationships to men, as well as to women of course.”

Sand said the study debunks what beer commercials and Hollywood gossip sheets project men to - chasing babes, fleeing commitment, abandoning their kids, and having trouble staying sober.

“Just as we know all women are not Playboy bunnies, we know all men are not ravening sex fiends interested in the next conquest. These stereotypes- I think we all know they're not real.”

“This is why it's so important to do research- to challenge our assumptions,” said the Canadian researcher.

Lady killer or sexually active tag no longer macho

Most males want to project themselves as honourable, self-reliant and respected, rather than being perceived as attractive, sexually active or as lady killers.

These findings, based on a large international study, busted prevailing myths about male stereotypes, stemming from alleged virility or a macho outlook.

'Many meanings, positive and negative, are attached to the term, 'masculinity',' said Julia Heiman, director of The Kinsey Institute at Indiana University and co-author of this study.

'To ask a large sample of men what comprises their own sense of masculinity is very useful for both the media and for research. These results suggest we should pay attention and ask rather than presume we know.'

The study interviewed more than 27,000 randomly selected males from Germany, US, UK, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Italy and France, with about 16 percent of them admitting erectile problems.

Regardless of age or nationality, the men more frequently ranked good health, harmonious family life and good relationships with their wife or partner as more important to their quality of life than material, self-fulfilling or purely sexual concerns.

There was no significant difference in rankings of masculinity and quality of life characteristics between men who experienced erectile dysfunction and those who did not.

The study, part of the Men's Attitudes to Life Events and Sexuality (MALES) project, aimed to determine characteristics of masculinity and quality of life in men with and without erectile dysfunction, and how those ideas of masculinity might affect seeking help and treatment.

The study was published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Women and property- leading cause of male aggression

It's often said that most women prefer the scrappy male over the nice guy. But have you ever wondered what makes some men more aggressive? Well, it is the fair sex, along with property.

A new study of the mathematics of warfare has revealed that the lust for women and the hunger to acquire property are the two primary reasons for the evolution of belligerence and bravery in men.

In fact, an international team has based its findings on an analysis of the evolutionary forces that shaped the need for males to be belligerent, which raises their probability of trying to conquer neighbours, and of bravery, which increases the probability of succeeding in conquest.

The mathematical analysis of the evolution war by the team, led by Laurent Lehmann and Prof Marc Feldman of Stanford University, focused on small-scale, pre-state societies, for instance hunter-gatherers societies, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported.

The study has shown that the "selective pressure" on genes linked with belligerence and bravery can be substantial even in groups of large size, so that evolution has smiled on the most aggressive and audacious group.

Selective pressure is the extent to which a population of individuals may acquire either a beneficial genetic or cultural trait that gave them advantage and therefore made that group more likely to survive or lost a trait that drives that group to extinction.

According to the researchers, this pressure is driven by the benefits of conquest that also accrue on the relatives of the belligerent and/or brave males within their group, that shows how spoils of war are shared by those who're related.

To study how blood ties shape warfare, the research team came up with an idealised mathematical model consisting of an infinite number of groups, each with a finite number of adult males and of adult females. The researchers have pointed out that "hunter-gatherer societies are well-known to have often raided neighbouring groups from whom they appropriated territory, and women".

They assumed random movements, and warfare, between the groups, and worked out how each group would have children as a result of the influence of genes linked with belligerence and bravery.

10 tips to lure a woman

So, you are finding it hard to land a date? Well, Sydney writer Sam de Brito's new book, 'Building a Better Bloke' might just help.

Brito has admitted that he has had his share of dud dates - partly because his past approach to dating involved getting drunk.

But now, he has made a few adjustments when it comes to luring the opposite sex. And he has urged other Aussie men to do the same in his new book.

"I'm not trying to teach men how to be a pick-up artist or a stud, I want to show men how to build self-esteem, build a life for themselves - which in turn will attract women," the Courier Mail quoted Brito, as saying.

According to the 39-year-old, his generation has lost the art of communicating with women.
"Aussie guys have fallen through the cracks. We like to think of Australian men as bold and confident and a lot of them aren't," he says.

He said that for some, the biggest fear in life is approaching and striking up a conversation with a woman.

In this case, he has suggested practice and a sense of humour is the key.

The catchphrase of his book is: "Find a life and you'll find love".

"The biggest thing is not to look cool, but to have a life with lots of interests. Become involved in your life, look after yourself, and you're primed to meet someone," he says.

He said that good manners and keeping clean are also important.

"Be a gentleman. Respect yourself. Even if you're funny and charming, you're not going to get far with a woman if you smell," he says.

Besides clean sheets and clean fingernails, 'Building a Better Bloke' also reminds men of the simple things, like holding a door open for women.

De Brito's 10 tips to lure a woman:
1. Stay healthy
2. Don't abuse alcohol or drugs
3. Have a job that means something to you
4. Be busy with your own activities
5. Be well groomed and clean
6. Have a sense of humour
7. Talk to women as individuals, not as a gender
8. Be a gentleman
9. Don't mix with loser friends
10. Have a clean bedroom, clean sheets - and a lamp to create romantic lighting.

Computers to become zillion times faster

The fastest quantum computer bit or the qubit has been shown to be zillions of times faster than the conventional bit, potentially making computers that much faster.

Scientists used lasers to create an initialised quantum state of this solid-state qubit at rates of about a gigahertz, or a billion times per second.

A conventional bit can be a 0 or a 1 but a qubit can be both at the same time. Until now, scientists couldn't stabilise that duality.

Because of their ability to represent multiple states simultaneously, quantum computers could theoretically make calculations dramatically faster and with much smaller computers.

Consequently, they could vastly improve computer security.

Duncan Steel, a physics professor, doctoral student Xiaodong Xu and their colleagues used lasers to trap the spin of one electron confined in a single semiconductor quantum dot. A quantum dot is like a transistor in a conventional computer.

'We are the first to show that you can do this to a single electron in a self-assembled quantum dot,' Steel said. 'If you're going to do quantum computing, you have to be able to work with one electron at a time.'

The scientists trapped the spin in a dark state where they can arbitrarily adjust the amount of 0 and 1 the qubit represents. They call this state 'dark' because it does not absorb light. In other words, the light does not destabilise the qubit.

Spin is an intrinsic property of the electron which Steel compares with magnetic poles. Electrons are said to have spin up or down. In quantum computing, the up and down directions represent the 0s and 1s of conventional computing.

Steel's approach to developing a quantum computer is to use ultrafast lasers to manipulate arrays of semiconductor quantum dots, each containing one electron. Quantum logic gates are formed by quantum mechanical interactions between the dots.

Previously in Steel's lab, researchers have used a laser to produce an electron in a state representative of a 1 or a 0 and a small amount of the other state. Now, using two laser frequencies, they have trapped it as a 0 and a 1 at the same time, and they can adjust the amount of each.

'The National Security Agency has said that based on our present technology, we have about a 20-year window of security,' Steel said.

'That means if we sent up a satellite today, it would take somebody about 20 years to crack the code. Quantum computers will let you develop a code that would be impossible to crack with a conventional computer.'

These findings are scheduled for publication in Nature Physics and are available in the online edition.

Women have higher Emotional Intelligence than men

Women have higher emotional intelligence than men Women have higher emotional intelligence than men. That is why they perform better in several areas of social interaction and have a higher sense of well-being and satisfaction. These facts have been revealed by a study.

The study, conducted by Kuwait University psychology professor Othman Al-Khudher and colleague Huda Al-Fadhli, found that women perform better in many related areas than their male counterparts.

Rather than prove a cause and effect relationship between emotional intelligence and overall performance, the study managed to prove a relation between the two, the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reports.

According to the study, the brain's limbic system is bigger in women than in men, which suggests an explanation of higher evolvement to do with management of and acting upon emotionally charged intelligence and data.

The limbic system is a set of brain structures that support a variety of functions, including emotion, behaviour and long-term memory. The term limbic comes from the word Latin word limbus, which means border or belt.

Other parameters affected by this relationship include type and strength of character, strength and scope of an individual's social relationships and interaction within and beyond the family setting, physical and psychological health, academic and professional success, and the balance between the demands of home and office.

A similar study had shown that women have significantly higher degrees of emotional perception and sensitivity than men. The new study examined 109 male and 108 female students at the university.

Top Colleges That Make You Rich

According to a recent study compiled by PayScale.com reveals that Big Green grads are in the money. Graduates of Dartmouth College finished on top of the list with a median compensation of $134,000, edging out alumni of Princeton University who finished second with a median comp of $131,000. While many rankings look at what newly minted college graduates are making, we ranked the schools based on the pay of alumni with 10 to 20 years of work experience. After all, it is not how you start but how you finish. "Starting salaries do not tell you a whole lot, but there is a real divergence in dollar terms as you go over the course of a career," says Al Lee, director of quantitative analysis at PayScale.com. Looking at the pay of alumni with less than five years of work experience, Dartmouth trails 18 other colleges with an average paycheck of $58,000, although most top schools are bunched closely together. The two outliers are Stanford University with median pay of $70,400 and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where recent grads earn $72,200 thanks to lucrative engineering jobs secured straight out of school.

Top employers for Dartmouth's 2008 graduating class include Bain, Goldman Sachs and McKinsey, which are almost all high-paying posts. Yet two other big employers of recent grads fall on the other end of the pay scale: Teach for America and the Peace Corps. Both organizations are focused on helping the less fortunate and require two-year commitments. So how do Dartmouth grads, many starting at nonprofits, leapfrog their peers when it comes to compensation as they gain more experience? "Dartmouth produces well-rounded people who can move into senior-level positions easily," says Monica Wilson, associate director of career services at the school. Another important factor in the success of Dartmouth grads is an extremely tight and loyal alumni network. Dartmouth is located in tiny Hanover, N.H., and is the smallest of the Ivy League schools with 4,100 undergrad students enrolled. Yet the alumni network is extremely impressive and stretches from Daniel Webster to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson during its 239 year history. Other prominent grads include General Electric head Jeffrey Immelt, eBay chief John Donahoe and former IBM boss Louis Gerstner. In order to compile the ranking of colleges, we turned to PayScale.com, an online compensation comparison tool. PayScale's database includes real-time salary data culled from 13 million unique compensation profiles. PayScale allows users to compare their salary online to other people with similar individual and job characteristics.

Here only those schools were included which have more than 1,000 people enrolled. The median salary figures are only for full-time employees and exclude anyone that went on to receive a graduate degree. Salary numbers include bonuses, commissions and profit sharing but not equity compensation.

University of California at Berkeley, happened to be the only public college to appear on the list of top 20 schools and it was ranked 12th with a median salary of $112,000. A separate ranking of public schools shows eight California schools in the top 20. The University of California system is one of the best in the country and has 220,000 students spread across 10 campuses. However, the California schools and those schools on the East Coast get a significant boost in our rankings because they are largely placing people in careers in big coastal cities like New York and San Francisco where salaries tend to be higher.

Overall, Dartmouth students at mid-career (10 to 20 years experience) finished above any other school. Yet when it comes to the top earners from each school, Yale University grads just nipped out those from Dartmouth. The highest-paid 10% of Yale alums earn more than $326,000 compared to $321,000 for Dartmouth's best paid. The third and fourth ranked schools by this measure were fellow Ivy members Harvard University and University of Pennsylvania. The fifth- ranked and first non-Ivy school among the top earners was Colgate University located in Hamilton, N.Y., where the highest-paid graduates earn $265,000.

Wilson says that recruiters visiting Dartmouth tell her that Dartmouth doesn't have as strong a business background as some of its competitors but that students can always learn the business. What they do like, she adds: "The ability to think outside the box and adapt as easily as Dartmouth students do is what puts them ahead."

US woman flies off to Australia to have sex with a 15 year old web pal

An American woman who flew to Australia to have sex with a 15-year-old boy she met on the Internet has pleaded guilty to child sex offences.

On August 6, Barbara Case pleaded guilty to performing oral sex and having sexual intercourse with a child under 16 after police caught her with the Bendigo teen who had been reported missing by his parents.

The 36-year-old flew from her Virginian home to Australia where she performed sex acts with the teenager between May 16 and 27 after befriending him on the web, the Herald Sun reported.

Case was arrested in May, three days after the boy was reported missing. He was with her when she was arrested, reports News.Com.Au

Her lawyer told court Bendigo Bendigo Magistrates Court that the relationship was still going on. She was remanded in custody to appear at the County Court on August 18.

Forget Dieting - here is a magical pill to maintain your sexy figure

Have you been starving yourself in a bid to fight that extra flab? Well, you can now forget the painful exertion, for a group of researchers have invented a pill that allows dieters to return to normal eating without putting on weight.

The inventors also claim that the pill, a dietary supplement called alpha lipoic acid and widely sold in health food shops, also slows ageing, which is a known effect of low-calorie diets.

However, the finding has triggered a dispute between two of the scientists who carried out the research, conducted in rats, over whether it can be applied to humans.

Malcolm Goyns, director of Immorgene Concepts, a scientific research company in Stockton-on-Tees, who led the research, said he was sufficiently convinced to follow the approach himself.

Evidence from the tropical Okinawan islands in Japan's extreme southwest, which has the highest proportion of centenarians in the world, demonstrated the life-prolonging effects of calorie restriction, he said.

Their traditional diet is high in vegetables and fish and low in fat, but they also have a cultural habit known as hara hachi bu - or "eat until you are 80 per cent full".

This is based on the notion that it takes the stomach's stretch receptors 20 minutes to tell the brain how full it really is, preventing overeating - and Okinawans are among the leanest and fittest people in Japan as a result.

"While calorie restriction diets are followed as a matter of course in communities like Okinawa, the diet can be difficult to follow for most people. Our discovery indicates that by following a calorie restriction diet for six months and then taking alpha-lipoic acid while eating normally, the same life extension effects will be experienced," the Independent quoted Dr Goyns, as saying.

He added: "Simply adding the supplement to the diet has no effect. It seems that alpha-lipoic acid fools the body into behaving as if it was still on whatever diet it was following before the supplement was added. We found there was an anti-obesity effect as well.

"Although weight does rise when you come off the restricted diet, if you take alpha-lipoic acid, even though you are eating normally again you still have a reduced weight."

The study, published in Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, was carried out by Dr Goyns with colleagues from the University of Liverpool.

The researchers investigated the effect of alpha-lipoic acid when given to rats on normal and low calorie diets.

Experiments have shown that curbing the amount of food rats eat can extend their lives by 25 to 40 per cent.

However, anti-ageing benefits are lost when the rats return to a normal diet. In the study, researchers found the benefits of the low calorie diet were extended by giving the rats the supplement when they returned to normal eating.

Brian Merry of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Liverpool, who carried out the study, said: "If you put the animals on to a restricted diet they would normally go on to an extended survival trajectory. When they were switched to a normal diet, this compound seemed to lock them into the benefits of their pre-existing diet.

6 Fastest Motorbikes on Earth

Are you a fan on blockbuster Mad Max? If your answer is yes, then obviously the following few pages will be a treat for you.

And if you have not been initiated to the Mad Max movies, even then you would love to feast your eyes on some of the fastest mobikes on earth.

Here are the Six Fastest Motorbikes on this Planet called Earth. (click on the bike name for more details about it)

1. Dodge Tomahawk

2. Suzuki Hayabusa

3. Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird

4. Kawasaki Ninja ZX-11/ZZ-R1100

5. BMW K 1200 S, 174 mph

6. BUB Enterprises Streamliner

Fastest Motorbikes- Dodge Tomahawk

Dodge Tomahawk, 350 mph (560 km/h)

The Dodge Tomahawk is a Viper V-10 based motorcycle-- a 500 horsepower engine with four wheels.

The two front wheels and two rear wheels, make it look like a motorised quadricycle rather than a typical motorcycle.

According to official specifications 0-60 mph times have been estimated at 1.75 seconds, with a top speed of 350 mph. But there are also reports that the top speed is 676 km/h (about 420 mph).

Chrysler sold nine replicas through Neiman Marcus, for up to $555,000 each. The motorcycles cannot be legally driven on public roads.

The unusual vehicle was launched at the 2003 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan.

More details about this fastest motorbike are as following:
• Manufacturer - Dodge
• Production (concept vehicle)
• Engine 10-cylinder 90-degree V-type
• Top speed 350 miles per hour (560 km/h)
• Power 500 bhp (373 kW) @ 5600 rpm (45 kW/L)
• Seat height 29 inches
• Weight 1,500 pounds
• Fuel capacity 3.25 gallons

Fastest Motorbikes- Suzuki Hayabusa

Suzuki Hayabusa, 248 mph (397 km/h)

The name Hayabusa translates directly from the Japanese as Pergerine Falcon, the bird commonly attributed of achieving speeds of over 200 mph (322 km/h) and predator of the common blackbird.

The name is a subtle reference to Honda's competing Hawk models.

When introduced in 1999, it overtook the Honda CBR1100XX Super Blackbird as the fastest production motorcycle.

The first generation of the Hayabusa was called the GSX1300R and was powered by a 1299 cc (79.2 cu in) inline-4 liquid-cooled engine.

The bike made famous in India by the bollywood movie Dhoom will officially be launched in the country in September.

Although boasting of a top speed of 397 km per hour as per recorded figures, the bike that will come to India will have a speed limit of 299 km per hour and will sport a price tag of Rs 11 lakh (1.1 million).

In the US, the 2008 model will boast a price tag of $11,999.

Few more details are as following:
• Manufacturer - Suzuki
• Also called - GSX1300R, 'Busa', 'Bus'
• Production - 1999 - present
• Class - Hyper sport

Fastest Motorbikes- Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird

Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird, 190mph (310km/h)

Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird was the world's fastest production motorcycle, after ripping the title away from the legendary Kawasaki ZX-11.

Production of the Blackbird began in 1996 and halted in late 2007. The Blackbird was last imported to North America in 2003.

Few more details are as following:
• Manufacturer - Honda
• Predecessor CBR1000F Hurricane
• Class - Hyper sport
• Engine Type: 1137cc liquid-cooled inline four-cylinder
• Ignition: Computer-controlled digital with three-dimensional mapping
• Power 114 kW (153 hp) @ 10,000 rpm
• Seat height 810 mm
• Weight 227 kg (500 lbs)
• Fuel capacity 23 liter (including the 4 liter reserve)

Fastest Motorbikes- Kawasaki Ninja ZX-11/ZZ-R1100

Kawasaki Ninja ZX-11/ZZ-R1100, 176 mph (283km/h)

The Kawasaki Ninja ZX-11/ZZ-R1100 was produced from 1990-2001. It was marketed as the ZX-11 Ninja in North America and the ZZ-R1100 in the rest of the world.

This bike held the crown of The World's Fastest Production Bike for close to a decade with a record top speed of 283 km/h (176 mph).

When the bike was introduced in 1990, the nearest production bike top speed was 16 km/h (10 mph) slower and it belonged to the ZX-10, the bike that Kawasaki was replacing with the ZX-11.

More details are as following:
• Manufacturer - Kawasaki
• Predecessor - Kawasaki ZX-10
• Successor - ZZ-R1200/ZX-12R
• Class - Sport Tourer
• Engine - 1052 cc 4-stroke, 4-cylinder, DOHC, liquid-cooled
• Power - 108 kW (147 PS) @ 10,500 rpm
• Transmission - 6 speed

Fastest Motorbikes- BMW K 1200 S

BMW K 1200 S, 174 mph (280 km/h)

With enough raw power to shock even the most seasoned adrenaline junky, the K 1200 S hurls you from a dead stop to sixty mph in just 2.8 seconds.

On 25 September 2004, BMW globally launched a radically redesigned K Series motorcycle, the K 1200 S, containing an all new in-line four-cylinder, liquid-cooled engine featuring 123 kW (165 hp).

After the launch of K 1200 S, BMW unveiled the K 1200 R naked roadster, and the K 1200 GT sport tourer.

Fastest Motorbikes- BUB Enterprises Streamliner

Wondering what this craft that resembles a rocket doing over here? Well this weird looking vehicle held the title of 'the world's fastest motorbike' in 2006.

Chris Carr, 7-time AMA Grand National Champion, piloted the BUB Enterprises Streamliner to a record 350.884 MPH at the 2006 International Motorcycle Speed Trials held at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah September 7.

Christened 'Seven' by owner Dennis Manning (it being the seventh streamliner Manning has designed in 40 odd years), the fastest motorcycle in the world features a purpose-designed and engineered V-Four cylinder turbo charged 16 valve liquid cooled double overhead cam motor.