Top of the Pops
As told to Darren Dahl
Dale and Thomas Popcorn Co-founder, Warren Struhl
www.daleandthomas.com
rosie.gurock@daleandthomas.com
Business Type:Food and Beverage
2005 Revenue:$20 million
No. of Employees:250
Four years ago, Warren Struhl turned his daily passion for eating popcorn into a business. Struhl and his partner, Richard Demb, opened up their first retail shop on Manhattan's Upper West Side, which lured in window shoppers with the heavenly smells of fresh popped corn, caramel and chocolate toppings optional. Originally named Popcorn, Indiana, Struhl changed the name of his business two years ago when he brought aboard a new partner, Isaiah Thomas, president and head coach of the New York Knicks.
"My story started in 1989, when I was the vice president of a real estate company in Chicago. That's when I noticed the explosion of desktop publishing and laser printers. Since everyone was just using regular old copy paper to print things on, I saw an opportunity to offer paper specifically designed for these new printers. By 1993, when I sold the business, I had more than 1,000 different kinds of products and more than 1 million customers.
"After that, I started investing in several businesses that were in large industries and focused on underserved or overlooked niches. I was always on the lookout for my next opportunity.
"I've always had a passion for popcorn and I eat it every day. But it wasn't until I met Howard Shultz, the CEO of Starbucks, that I recognized that there was an opportunity to create the first national brand of popcorn in the country. Sure, there's Orville Redenbacher for microwave popcorn, but I wanted to invent something new built around freshly popped corn.
"My partner, Richard Demb, and I learned about this place that claims to be the site of the origin of popcorn -- a town 20 miles southwest of Bloomington, Ind., called Popcorn, with a population of 48. We flew there and met Dale Humphrey, the town's largest landowner and a fourth-generation popcorn grower. He was an inspiration for the history and techniques on how popcorn should be cooked.
"In December 2002, we opened our first Popcorn, Indiana store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan to test it out. Almost immediately, it became a rage in New York City. We had all kinds of people asking if we could ship it somewhere or if they could resell it.
"Two years later I got a call from a guy saying that Isaiah Thomas wanted to meet with me. So I show up at this meeting thinking it could be a joke and Isaiah tells me that he's just as passionate about popcorn as he is about basketball. For him, popcorn is about laughing, smiling, and watching The Green Hornet with his family every week. He asked if he could become a partner and an investor. I said yes. That's when we changed the name to Dale and Thomas to celebrate the names of the world's two most passionate popcorn lovers.
"Today, we're a multi-channel business with more than 250 employees, including two gourmet popcorn chefs and the most advanced popping facility in the country. We have 11 stores around the country and many of them are taking a page out of the Starbucks playbook with a café atmosphere. You can buy a bowl of popcorn, drink some lemonade, talk, and play with a cool deck of cards you can buy at the counter. We also have party facilities so people can have kids' parties.
"At the core, while coffee is a social phenomenon, popcorn is never eaten alone. Our tagline, 'Share some,' reflects that popcorn is the most shareable social food we know of."
Conclusion : the reason why I copied this is to remind myself what makes an entrepreneur think differently as compared to normal people. But in most cases, these people work really hard and passionately for their business. So the main attitudes are ; Passion, hard work, good at what they are doing, enjoy doing it, luck and single minded in wanting to see the business doing well.
Friday, January 05, 2007
Thursday, January 04, 2007
The Sexy, Healthy Scent of a Man
The scent of a man, at least among mice, can reveal the state of his health and determine whether a female gets pregnant, a new study shows.
The research suggests that other animals, perhaps even you, choose mates in part based on the strength of their immune systems.
Previous research had shown mice prefer to breed with mates whose immune-system genes -- which produce chemicals that help the body fight invading cells -- are different from their own. Such selective sex leads to healthier offspring.
The new study shows how the selection occurs.
Researchers at the University of Maryland examined molecules known as peptides that come from the immune system and end up in urine. Each mouse's disease-fighting peptides are unique, like fingerprints. A female records and remembers the scent of a mate's peptides using its vomeronasal organ, inside the nose.
"Exposure, during a critical period, to urine odor from another male, will prevent embryo implantation, leading to loss of pregnancy, while exposure to the familiar odor will not," said Frank Zufall of the university's School of Medicine.
Spiking the punch
"We can trick this odor memory and the outcome of the pregnancy-block test by adding peptides to urine," Zufall told LiveScience. "In other words, we can switch an unfamiliar urine odor to a familiar one (and vice versa) by spiking the urine with only a few peptides."
Other studies have shown that vomeronasal organs in many animals detect pheromones and other molecules that pack information on sexual and social status. Pheromones were first discovered in the 1950s to be sex attractants in insects.
"We believe that detection of [immune system] peptides via the nose may be of general significance for social behaviors in all vertebrates," Zufall said.
The study was led by Trese Leinders-Zufall and will be detailed in the Nov. 5 issue of the journal Science.
Picky, picky
Similar peptides exist in human immune systems. But our vomeronasal organ has apparently been rendered defunct by evolution, many scientists believe, though there's some uncertainty about this. In fact the question of how and whether scent affects a woman has been widely debated in recent years.
Since discovering powerful sex pheremones in silkworms decades ago, scientists have been hot to learn whether humans could be similarly stimulated. The investigation has proved frustrating.
"Compared to insects, whose behavior is stereotyped and highly predictable, mammals are independent, ornery, complex creatures," notes writer Maya Pines of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Like any animal, we humans are picky. And that provides a line of investigation.
Stinky T-shirts
In 1996, Claus Wedekind, a zoologist at Bern University in Switzerland, conducted what's become known as the stinky T-shirt study. Wedekind had 44 men each wear a t-shirt for two nights straight, then tested how women reacted to the smelly shirts.
Like mice, women preferred the scent of men whose immune systems were unlike their own. If a man's immune system was similar, a woman tended to describe his T-shirt as smelling like her father or brother.
Since then, companies have developed pheremone-based perfumes and cologns, with promises of increased sexual attraction. Researchers don't agree on their effectiveness.
More research is needed to figure out how and to what extent a woman's nose leads her to sex, and how adept she is at picking a healthy partner.
"We cannot rule out that other parts of the human nose are able to detect the peptides," Frank Zufall said. "We can now ask whether these peptides are present in human secretions such as sweat and saliva, whether they can be detected by the human nose, and if so, whether they have any influence on our own social behavior."
PS - another copied article, also pretty interesting too.
The research suggests that other animals, perhaps even you, choose mates in part based on the strength of their immune systems.
Previous research had shown mice prefer to breed with mates whose immune-system genes -- which produce chemicals that help the body fight invading cells -- are different from their own. Such selective sex leads to healthier offspring.
The new study shows how the selection occurs.
Researchers at the University of Maryland examined molecules known as peptides that come from the immune system and end up in urine. Each mouse's disease-fighting peptides are unique, like fingerprints. A female records and remembers the scent of a mate's peptides using its vomeronasal organ, inside the nose.
"Exposure, during a critical period, to urine odor from another male, will prevent embryo implantation, leading to loss of pregnancy, while exposure to the familiar odor will not," said Frank Zufall of the university's School of Medicine.
Spiking the punch
"We can trick this odor memory and the outcome of the pregnancy-block test by adding peptides to urine," Zufall told LiveScience. "In other words, we can switch an unfamiliar urine odor to a familiar one (and vice versa) by spiking the urine with only a few peptides."
Other studies have shown that vomeronasal organs in many animals detect pheromones and other molecules that pack information on sexual and social status. Pheromones were first discovered in the 1950s to be sex attractants in insects.
"We believe that detection of [immune system] peptides via the nose may be of general significance for social behaviors in all vertebrates," Zufall said.
The study was led by Trese Leinders-Zufall and will be detailed in the Nov. 5 issue of the journal Science.
Picky, picky
Similar peptides exist in human immune systems. But our vomeronasal organ has apparently been rendered defunct by evolution, many scientists believe, though there's some uncertainty about this. In fact the question of how and whether scent affects a woman has been widely debated in recent years.
Since discovering powerful sex pheremones in silkworms decades ago, scientists have been hot to learn whether humans could be similarly stimulated. The investigation has proved frustrating.
"Compared to insects, whose behavior is stereotyped and highly predictable, mammals are independent, ornery, complex creatures," notes writer Maya Pines of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Like any animal, we humans are picky. And that provides a line of investigation.
Stinky T-shirts
In 1996, Claus Wedekind, a zoologist at Bern University in Switzerland, conducted what's become known as the stinky T-shirt study. Wedekind had 44 men each wear a t-shirt for two nights straight, then tested how women reacted to the smelly shirts.
Like mice, women preferred the scent of men whose immune systems were unlike their own. If a man's immune system was similar, a woman tended to describe his T-shirt as smelling like her father or brother.
Since then, companies have developed pheremone-based perfumes and cologns, with promises of increased sexual attraction. Researchers don't agree on their effectiveness.
More research is needed to figure out how and to what extent a woman's nose leads her to sex, and how adept she is at picking a healthy partner.
"We cannot rule out that other parts of the human nose are able to detect the peptides," Frank Zufall said. "We can now ask whether these peptides are present in human secretions such as sweat and saliva, whether they can be detected by the human nose, and if so, whether they have any influence on our own social behavior."
PS - another copied article, also pretty interesting too.
When a Woman Smells Best
The scent of a woman is more attractive at certain times of the month, suggests a new study that had men sniffing women's armpit odor.
"We were interested whether armpit odor changes across menstrual cycle," said study author Jan Havlieek of the Department of Anthropology at Charles University, Prague. "To test this, we asked a group of women to wear cotton pads in their armpits for 24 hours."
The women didn't wear perfumes, use deodorants, eat spicy or smelly foods, smoke, drink alcohol or use hormonal contraceptives such as the pill. Body odor was collected during three phases: menstrual (at the beginning); follicular (between the first day of menstruation and the onset of ovulation); and luteal (the fertile stage).
"The fresh pads were subsequently rated for their attractiveness and intensity by a group of 42 men," Havlieek told LiveScience.
The most attractive smells, men said, were from the time between the first day of menstruation and ovulation.
The cycle
The typically 28-day menstrual cycle involves the physiological changes that occur in a woman to prepare for a possibility of pregnancy. It is controlled by the reproductive hormone system.
A cycle is divided into four parts and starts on the first day of menstruation, which is the shedding of tissue and blood from the womb. In the follicular phase, a dominant ovarian follicle—which is a sack that contains the ova, or egg—grows, becoming ready to ovulate. The mature egg is then released in the phase known as ovulation around day 12. The cycle ends with the fertile phase.
Although many men would tell you they're always in the mood, Havlieek and colleagues discovered that men find odors during the follicular phase the most attractive and least intense. On the other hand, the highest intensity smells, corresponding to the lowest attractiveness for men, were found during the time of menstrual bleeding.
"Traditionally it's believed that ovulation in human female is concealed and there are no changes in attractiveness across the cycle," Havlieek said.
The study is detailed in the January issue of the journal Ethology.
Further sniffing
Two other studies by different research teams came to similar conclusions. But those investigationsused T-shirts for odor sampling, "making it difficult to pinpoint the source of the smell," said Havlieek, whose team restricted sampling to armpits only.
Finally, the attractiveness of women's faces also changes during the month.
Havlieek's team found that facial images of women in the follicular phase—when the dominant ovarian follicle is getting ready to ovulate—are considered more attractive as compared to images taken in the luteal or fertile phase of the cycle.
The researchers hope to find out which chemical compounds are responsible for the odor changes across a woman's menstrual cycle.
PS-well....this was also copied, no wonder some women have a nice smell while at other times, they may not smell as good. At least now.....I understand better and not becoz they didn't bath hahaha.
"We were interested whether armpit odor changes across menstrual cycle," said study author Jan Havlieek of the Department of Anthropology at Charles University, Prague. "To test this, we asked a group of women to wear cotton pads in their armpits for 24 hours."
The women didn't wear perfumes, use deodorants, eat spicy or smelly foods, smoke, drink alcohol or use hormonal contraceptives such as the pill. Body odor was collected during three phases: menstrual (at the beginning); follicular (between the first day of menstruation and the onset of ovulation); and luteal (the fertile stage).
"The fresh pads were subsequently rated for their attractiveness and intensity by a group of 42 men," Havlieek told LiveScience.
The most attractive smells, men said, were from the time between the first day of menstruation and ovulation.
The cycle
The typically 28-day menstrual cycle involves the physiological changes that occur in a woman to prepare for a possibility of pregnancy. It is controlled by the reproductive hormone system.
A cycle is divided into four parts and starts on the first day of menstruation, which is the shedding of tissue and blood from the womb. In the follicular phase, a dominant ovarian follicle—which is a sack that contains the ova, or egg—grows, becoming ready to ovulate. The mature egg is then released in the phase known as ovulation around day 12. The cycle ends with the fertile phase.
Although many men would tell you they're always in the mood, Havlieek and colleagues discovered that men find odors during the follicular phase the most attractive and least intense. On the other hand, the highest intensity smells, corresponding to the lowest attractiveness for men, were found during the time of menstrual bleeding.
"Traditionally it's believed that ovulation in human female is concealed and there are no changes in attractiveness across the cycle," Havlieek said.
The study is detailed in the January issue of the journal Ethology.
Further sniffing
Two other studies by different research teams came to similar conclusions. But those investigationsused T-shirts for odor sampling, "making it difficult to pinpoint the source of the smell," said Havlieek, whose team restricted sampling to armpits only.
Finally, the attractiveness of women's faces also changes during the month.
Havlieek's team found that facial images of women in the follicular phase—when the dominant ovarian follicle is getting ready to ovulate—are considered more attractive as compared to images taken in the luteal or fertile phase of the cycle.
The researchers hope to find out which chemical compounds are responsible for the odor changes across a woman's menstrual cycle.
PS-well....this was also copied, no wonder some women have a nice smell while at other times, they may not smell as good. At least now.....I understand better and not becoz they didn't bath hahaha.
Mating Game: The Really Wild Kingdom
When it comes to mating, wild animals make their own rules. From lionesses of East Africa that mate with many males before ovulating and committing their eggs, to male walruses that joust for several female partners, the animal kingdom is full of swingers.
In some human societies, sexual behavior akin to these animals would be shunned. Do these animals just not care what "society" thinks about their promiscuous behavior? Even the most domestic of animals, dogs, don't bat an eye before sniffing a fellow canine's butt or humping an owner's leg.
"Just about every animal is quite promiscuous," said Diana Fisher, a behavioral ecologist at the Australian National University.
Though such free animal love might appear light-hearted, survival and passing on genes are serious business in the animal world.
Animal "personal ads" would reveal a conflict between males and females. Males want to mate with as many females as possible with the goal of fertilizing the most eggs. Females are a little more selective, preferring to hook up with the best males to fertilize their eggs.
One end result is polygyny—the most common mating strategy in the animal kingdom—in which males compete for access to a harem of breeding females. Sexual selection tends to favor adaptations that enhance reproductive success, including a large body size to boost success in pre-mating combat between males, and high sperm counts to up the chances of successful fertilization.
Rather than investing limited resources in inflating their bodies, females typically have a more conservative growth strategy and allocate more into the production and provisioning of offspring. By waiting on the sidelines during male-male jousting, the female can mate with the strongest male.
Animal Sex: No Stinking Rules
"Males fight it out and the best fighters get large harems of females," Tim Clutton-Brock, an animal ecologist at the University of Cambridge, told LiveScience. "If you just take the winner, you've got the best male. You don't need to sit back and choose carefully between males."
Human males must decide how much energy to put into weightlifting, for instance, to woo women, and how much they should focus on a career, which would benefit a family.
For polygynous horned beetles, the same trade-off exists between allocating resources to developing mate-winning weaponry in the form of horns and having more sperm to increase fertilization. In one study, when researchers cut off the beetles' horns, the pupa reacted by developing larger testes, supporting a theory known as resource allocation trade-off.
Females in charge
For females, the drawbacks of sex with lots of partners include an increased probability of inbreeding, higher chances of predation, more risk of catching disease and physical injury or exhaustion from the frequent sex.
Even so, in some species, females "wear the pants." Called polyandry, by mating with multiple males, a mom can produce healthier offspring, and in some species, ensure devotion and help in child-raising by many fathers.
In a study of a mouse-like marsupial, scientists found that by sleeping around, females had a better chance of finding males with good-quality sperm and high sperm counts [video]. "So that means that females that mate with lots of males get more of their offspring sired by the good-quality males that increase the baby survival," Fisher told LiveScience, referring to the mouse-like marsupials.
In a lab study, researchers found that female guppies mating with four different males gave birth to 73 percent more young than their monogamous sisters. Plus, the young were more skilled at swimming in tandem with another fish and jetting out of trouble.
But strict polyandry, where one female guards a group of male mates, is rare. "The benefit for the female is quite clear, because if you have four husbands and you lay them each a clutch of eggs and they sit on it, you're doing much better than if you have one husband and you lay one clutch of eggs," Clutton-Brock said. "What's harder to explain is what the benefit to the male is."
Deciding factors
As with humans, animal mating often relies on a careful dance in which males and females develop ways of getting what they want without going too far and ending up empty handed.
The female Australian hanging fly will allow males that provide larger nuptial gifts to copulate longer, and in turn transfer more sperm, skewing paternity. Males providing insufficient gifts get flung off by the female before insemination is complete.
A study of 14 water-strider species found that species in which males had flat stomachs and powerful forelimbs for clutching lovers mated more frequently than species where females were in charge—those with spines protruding from their back ends. When the females had the upper hand, mating occurred about twice a day compared with 20 times a day in the male-dominating species.
PS - this too...was copied, now we know that the mating game is not for just the human kind but for all animals' big and small. Hahaha...power!
In some human societies, sexual behavior akin to these animals would be shunned. Do these animals just not care what "society" thinks about their promiscuous behavior? Even the most domestic of animals, dogs, don't bat an eye before sniffing a fellow canine's butt or humping an owner's leg.
"Just about every animal is quite promiscuous," said Diana Fisher, a behavioral ecologist at the Australian National University.
Though such free animal love might appear light-hearted, survival and passing on genes are serious business in the animal world.
Animal "personal ads" would reveal a conflict between males and females. Males want to mate with as many females as possible with the goal of fertilizing the most eggs. Females are a little more selective, preferring to hook up with the best males to fertilize their eggs.
One end result is polygyny—the most common mating strategy in the animal kingdom—in which males compete for access to a harem of breeding females. Sexual selection tends to favor adaptations that enhance reproductive success, including a large body size to boost success in pre-mating combat between males, and high sperm counts to up the chances of successful fertilization.
Rather than investing limited resources in inflating their bodies, females typically have a more conservative growth strategy and allocate more into the production and provisioning of offspring. By waiting on the sidelines during male-male jousting, the female can mate with the strongest male.
Animal Sex: No Stinking Rules
"Males fight it out and the best fighters get large harems of females," Tim Clutton-Brock, an animal ecologist at the University of Cambridge, told LiveScience. "If you just take the winner, you've got the best male. You don't need to sit back and choose carefully between males."
Human males must decide how much energy to put into weightlifting, for instance, to woo women, and how much they should focus on a career, which would benefit a family.
For polygynous horned beetles, the same trade-off exists between allocating resources to developing mate-winning weaponry in the form of horns and having more sperm to increase fertilization. In one study, when researchers cut off the beetles' horns, the pupa reacted by developing larger testes, supporting a theory known as resource allocation trade-off.
Females in charge
For females, the drawbacks of sex with lots of partners include an increased probability of inbreeding, higher chances of predation, more risk of catching disease and physical injury or exhaustion from the frequent sex.
Even so, in some species, females "wear the pants." Called polyandry, by mating with multiple males, a mom can produce healthier offspring, and in some species, ensure devotion and help in child-raising by many fathers.
In a study of a mouse-like marsupial, scientists found that by sleeping around, females had a better chance of finding males with good-quality sperm and high sperm counts [video]. "So that means that females that mate with lots of males get more of their offspring sired by the good-quality males that increase the baby survival," Fisher told LiveScience, referring to the mouse-like marsupials.
In a lab study, researchers found that female guppies mating with four different males gave birth to 73 percent more young than their monogamous sisters. Plus, the young were more skilled at swimming in tandem with another fish and jetting out of trouble.
But strict polyandry, where one female guards a group of male mates, is rare. "The benefit for the female is quite clear, because if you have four husbands and you lay them each a clutch of eggs and they sit on it, you're doing much better than if you have one husband and you lay one clutch of eggs," Clutton-Brock said. "What's harder to explain is what the benefit to the male is."
Deciding factors
As with humans, animal mating often relies on a careful dance in which males and females develop ways of getting what they want without going too far and ending up empty handed.
The female Australian hanging fly will allow males that provide larger nuptial gifts to copulate longer, and in turn transfer more sperm, skewing paternity. Males providing insufficient gifts get flung off by the female before insemination is complete.
A study of 14 water-strider species found that species in which males had flat stomachs and powerful forelimbs for clutching lovers mated more frequently than species where females were in charge—those with spines protruding from their back ends. When the females had the upper hand, mating occurred about twice a day compared with 20 times a day in the male-dominating species.
PS - this too...was copied, now we know that the mating game is not for just the human kind but for all animals' big and small. Hahaha...power!
How Women Pick Mates vs. Flings
Science might be able to explain our fascination with Brad Pitt's chiseled jaw and George Clooney's smoldering eyes.
Women seem to judge potential mates by how masculine their features are, new research shows. Men with square jaws and well-defined brow ridges are seen as good short-term partners, while those with more feminine traits such as a rounder face and fuller lips are perceived as better long-term mates.
In the study, 854 male and female subjects viewed a series of male head shots that had been digitally altered to exaggerate or minimize masculine traits. The participants then answered questions about how they expected the men in the photos to behave.
Overwhelmingly, participants said those with more masculine features were likely to be risky and competitive and also more apt to fight, challenge bosses, cheat on spouses and put less effort into parenting. Those with more feminine faces were seen as good parents and husbands, hard workers and emotionally supportive mates [compare examples].
Despite all the negative attributes, when asked who they would choose for a short-term relationship, women still selected the more masculine looking men. Brad and George then would be picks for a brief romance, if not the long haul.
Makes sense
The study, detailed in the December issue of the journal Personal Relationships, reached conclusions similar to research published earlier last year in Britain.
The new study's author, Daniel Kruger at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health, said that from an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense women would view more masculine-looking men as potential flings and less masculine-looking ones as long-term partners.
The key, he said, is testosterone, the hormone responsible for development of masculine facial features and other secondary sexual characteristics.
Testosterone is necessary for development, but can also have detrimental health effects. It has been shown, for example, to interfere with the body's immune response, so men who are able to maintain high levels of the hormone are typically strong and healthy—traits women would want to pass on to their progeny.
Increased testosterone has also been linked to male cheating and violence in relationships, so while these men might produce high quality offspring, they don't always make great parents or faithful mates, Kruger says.
The study suggests women could be equipped to use seemingly superficial characteristics "as a cue to pick up on trends in these behavioral strategies," Kruger said.
Get a clue
There are plenty of these signals in the animal world. Male peacocks' huge, outrageous tails can make foraging for food and evading predators difficult, but the plumage, which many researchers say indicates male fitness, is so effective at luring females that the trait has been preserved in the population, Kruger points out.
While the findings are compelling, the scientific community has typically greeted the field of physiognomy, which links facial characteristics to certain behavioral traits, with skepticism.
Kruger argues, however, that the research is a valuable tool for understanding mating strategies. And, of course, for explaining how Pitt and Clooney managed to snag People Magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" title two times each—it might have to do with their genes, but could also have something to do with ours.
PS - copied this from the internet...as I find this to be interesting. Or at least, help to explain why and how women pick their mates for flings and long term relationships. By the way, these are the first few posts for 2007, so Happy New Year to everyone...hehehe including myself
Women seem to judge potential mates by how masculine their features are, new research shows. Men with square jaws and well-defined brow ridges are seen as good short-term partners, while those with more feminine traits such as a rounder face and fuller lips are perceived as better long-term mates.
In the study, 854 male and female subjects viewed a series of male head shots that had been digitally altered to exaggerate or minimize masculine traits. The participants then answered questions about how they expected the men in the photos to behave.
Overwhelmingly, participants said those with more masculine features were likely to be risky and competitive and also more apt to fight, challenge bosses, cheat on spouses and put less effort into parenting. Those with more feminine faces were seen as good parents and husbands, hard workers and emotionally supportive mates [compare examples].
Despite all the negative attributes, when asked who they would choose for a short-term relationship, women still selected the more masculine looking men. Brad and George then would be picks for a brief romance, if not the long haul.
Makes sense
The study, detailed in the December issue of the journal Personal Relationships, reached conclusions similar to research published earlier last year in Britain.
The new study's author, Daniel Kruger at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health, said that from an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense women would view more masculine-looking men as potential flings and less masculine-looking ones as long-term partners.
The key, he said, is testosterone, the hormone responsible for development of masculine facial features and other secondary sexual characteristics.
Testosterone is necessary for development, but can also have detrimental health effects. It has been shown, for example, to interfere with the body's immune response, so men who are able to maintain high levels of the hormone are typically strong and healthy—traits women would want to pass on to their progeny.
Increased testosterone has also been linked to male cheating and violence in relationships, so while these men might produce high quality offspring, they don't always make great parents or faithful mates, Kruger says.
The study suggests women could be equipped to use seemingly superficial characteristics "as a cue to pick up on trends in these behavioral strategies," Kruger said.
Get a clue
There are plenty of these signals in the animal world. Male peacocks' huge, outrageous tails can make foraging for food and evading predators difficult, but the plumage, which many researchers say indicates male fitness, is so effective at luring females that the trait has been preserved in the population, Kruger points out.
While the findings are compelling, the scientific community has typically greeted the field of physiognomy, which links facial characteristics to certain behavioral traits, with skepticism.
Kruger argues, however, that the research is a valuable tool for understanding mating strategies. And, of course, for explaining how Pitt and Clooney managed to snag People Magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" title two times each—it might have to do with their genes, but could also have something to do with ours.
PS - copied this from the internet...as I find this to be interesting. Or at least, help to explain why and how women pick their mates for flings and long term relationships. By the way, these are the first few posts for 2007, so Happy New Year to everyone...hehehe including myself
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Another Saturday - the last Saturday before 2007
Hahaha...yes! another working Saturday, same thing....the only supervisor working the full day and the one who has no pay anyway. The rest of the supervisors just work half day or totally didn't turn up at all. Same of old story...even when I work the full day, my boss's right hand woman still have the cheek to comment why was I working half day for the past 2 nights when I have already clear my annual leave. The thing was that she was one of those who didn't turn up at all on Friday...our Qtr-end closing day. See...what women are capable of. Can only see and pick on other's fault first without looking at own self or own actions.
Hope next year my luck is better, I tried my best not to be angry with these types of injustice. Just my luck....to work with under women.
From....my coffee's schedule, seem like this coming week is not a good week for me but thankfully I was informed early so that I can make other arrangements to make up for the slack. One of which is to read more of Osho's works. ( see below )
I am reading the good articles written by Osho. By the way, he was an Indian man. Wow....his works were profoundly deep and it will take some understanding to see what was the man's insight and what he tried to say in his articles. Yes! I really enjoyed them. If you are interested, you can click on this link below.
Just click the hyperlink below to see it
http://www.oshoworld.com/onlinemag/dec06/htm/osho_speaks_fear.asp
Hope next year my luck is better, I tried my best not to be angry with these types of injustice. Just my luck....to work with under women.
From....my coffee's schedule, seem like this coming week is not a good week for me but thankfully I was informed early so that I can make other arrangements to make up for the slack. One of which is to read more of Osho's works. ( see below )
I am reading the good articles written by Osho. By the way, he was an Indian man. Wow....his works were profoundly deep and it will take some understanding to see what was the man's insight and what he tried to say in his articles. Yes! I really enjoyed them. If you are interested, you can click on this link below.
Just click the hyperlink below to see it
http://www.oshoworld.com/onlinemag/dec06/htm/osho_speaks_fear.asp
Saturday, December 23, 2006
24/12 this is christmas's eve
hahaha....yes! and I am also the only supervisor working the full day without any pay but still ending staying till the morning. seen to be unfair but what to say, coz my boss is a woman. very petty....and must win at all cost type. just my luck ending up working under her.
anyway...remember about the above, stay back or go home made no different now too as it is already 4am in the morning.
to sum up this week....a shitty week by my normal standard as I spent the week without my coffee ( you know what I meant, right? ) and with the wet weather, things are kind of bleak. Hope my new week is better...still it depends whether I gotto have my coffee or not. so far, no answer....seem like better to delay the answer as long as impossible till the day comes. that goes to show my status....or my standing while I value the coffee highly. seem like I must wean off my dependent on the coffee for my own good or always putting myself in bad situation.
another week and it is already 2007.....maybe the new year will bring me better luck both in the money sense and at work. I really need that.
anyway...remember about the above, stay back or go home made no different now too as it is already 4am in the morning.
to sum up this week....a shitty week by my normal standard as I spent the week without my coffee ( you know what I meant, right? ) and with the wet weather, things are kind of bleak. Hope my new week is better...still it depends whether I gotto have my coffee or not. so far, no answer....seem like better to delay the answer as long as impossible till the day comes. that goes to show my status....or my standing while I value the coffee highly. seem like I must wean off my dependent on the coffee for my own good or always putting myself in bad situation.
another week and it is already 2007.....maybe the new year will bring me better luck both in the money sense and at work. I really need that.
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