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September 10, 2002

By MARY DUENWALD

Friends are supposed to be good for you. In recent years, scientific research has suggested that people who have strong friendships experience less stress, they recover more quickly from heart attacks and they are likely to live longer than the friendless. They are even less susceptible to the common cold, studies show.

But not all friends have such a salutary effect. Some lie, insult and betray. Some are overly needy. Some give too much advice. Psychologists and sociologists are now calling attention to the negative health effects of bad friends.

"Friendship is often very painful," said Dr. Harriet Lerner, a psychologist and the author of "The Dance of Connection." "In a close, enduring friendship, jealousy, envy, anger and the entire range of difficult emotions will rear their heads. One has to decide whether the best thing is to consider it a phase in a long friendship or say this is bad for my health and I'm disbanding it."

Another book, "When Friendship Hurts," by Dr. Jan Yager, a sociologist at the University of Connecticut at Stamford, advises deliberately leaving bad friends by the wayside. "There's this myth that friendships should last a lifetime," Dr. Yager said. "But sometimes it's better that they end."

That social scientists would wait until now to spotlight the dangers of bad friends is understandable, considering that they have only recently paid close attention to friendship at all. Marriage and family relationships — between siblings or parents and children — have been seen as more important.

Of course, troubled friendships are far less likely to lead to depression or suicide than troubled marriages are. And children are seldom seriously affected when friendships go bad.

As a popular author of relationship advice books, Dr. Lerner said, "Never once have I had anyone write and say my best friend hits me."

Dr. Beverley Fehr, a professor of psychology at the University of Winnipeg, noted that sociological changes, like a 50 percent divorce rate, have added weight to the role of friends in emotional and physical health.

"Now that a marital relationship can't be counted on for stability the way it was in the past, and because people are less likely to be living with or near extended family members, people are shifting their focus to friendships as a way of building community and finding intimacy," said Dr. Fehr, the author of "Friendship Processes."

Until the past couple of years, the research on friendship focused on its health benefits. "Now we're starting to look at it as a more full relationship," said Dr. Suzanna Rose, a professor of psychology at Florida International University in Miami. "Like marriage, friendship also has negative characteristics."

The research is in its infancy. Psychologists have not yet measured the ill effects of bad friendship, Dr. Fehr said. So far they have only, through surveys and interviews, figured out that it is a significant problem. The early research, Dr. Fehr added, is showing that betrayal by a friend can be more devastating than experts had thought.

How can a friend be bad? Most obviously, Dr. Rose said, by drawing a person into criminal or otherwise ill-advised pursuit. "When you think of people who were friends at Enron," she added, "you can see how friendship can support antisocial behavior."

Betrayal also makes for a bad friendship. "When friends split up," said Dr. Keith E. Davis, a professor of psychology at the University of South Carolina, "it is often in cases where one has shared personal information or secrets that the other one wanted to be kept confidential."

Another form of betrayal, Dr. Yager said, is when a friend suddenly turns cold, without ever explaining why. "It's more than just pulling away," she said. "The silent treatment is actually malicious."

At least as devastating is an affair with the friend's romantic partner, as recently happened to one of Dr. Lerner's patients. "I would not encourage her to hang in there and work this one out," Dr. Lerner said.

A third type of bad friendship involves someone who insults the other person, Dr. Yager said. One of the 180 people who responded to Dr. Yager's most recent survey on friendship described how, when she was 11, her best friend called her "a derogatory name." The woman, now 32, was so devastated that she feels she has been unable to be fully open with people ever since, Dr. Yager said.

Emotional abuse may be less noticeable than verbal abuse, but it is "more insidious," Dr. Yager said. "Some people constantly set up their friends," she explained. "They'll have a party, not invite the friend, but make sure he or she finds out."

Risk takers, betrayers and abusers are the most extreme kinds of bad friends, Dr. Yager said, but they are not the only ones. She identifies 21 different varieties. Occupying the second tier of badness are the liar, the person who is overly dependent, the friend who never listens, the person who meddles too much in a friend's life, the competitor and the loner, who prefers not to spend time with friends.

Most common is the promise breaker. "This includes everyone from the person who says let's have a cup of coffee but something always comes up at the last minute to someone who promises to be there for you when you need them, but then isn't," Dr. Yager said.

Some friendships go bad, as some romantic relationships do, when one of the people gradually or suddenly finds reasons to dislike the other one.

"With couples, it can take 18 to 24 months for someone to discover there's something important they don't like about the other person," said Dr. Rose of Florida International. "One might find, for example, that in subtle ways the other person is a racist. In friendships, which are less intense, it may take even more time for one person to meet the other's dislike criteria."

Whether a friendship is worth saving, Dr. Lerner said, "depends on how large the injury is."

"Sometimes the mature thing is to lighten up and let something go," she added. "It's also an act of maturity sometimes to accept another person's limitations."

Acceptance should come easier among friends than among spouses, Dr. Lerner said, because people have more than one friend and do not need a full range of emotional support from each one.

But if the friendship has deteriorated to the point where one friend truly dislikes the other one or finds that the friendship is causing undue stress, the healthy response is to pull away, Dr. Yager said, to stop sharing the personal or intimate details of life, and start being too busy to get together, ever.

"It takes two people to start and maintain a friendship, but only one to end it," Dr. Yager said.

Friendship, because it is voluntary and unregulated, is far easier to dissolve than marriage. But it is also comparatively fragile, experts say. Ideally, the loss of a bad friendship should leave a person with more time and appreciation for good ones, Dr. Lerner said.

"It is wise to pay attention to your friendships and have them in order while you're healthy and your life and work are going well," she said. "Because when a crisis hits, when someone you love dies, or you lose your job and your health insurance, when the universe gives you a crash course in vulnerability, you will discover how crucial and life-preserving good friendship is."

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/10/health/psychology
 

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Why Low Self-Esteem Can Sabotage Relationships?
Wed Sep 4,2002 10:47 AM ET
By Alison McCook

People with low self-esteem may look for evidence their romantic partner is secretly unhappy with them, and when they get it, they may put their partners down in response, new study findings show.

NEW YORK (Reuter Health) - People with low self-esteem may look for evidence their romantic partner is secretly unhappy with them, and when they get it, they may put their partners down in response, new study findings show.

Over time, this type of behavior can seriously weaken the relationship, according to Dr. Sandra L. Murray of the University at Buffalo, State University of New York and her team.

The finding is from a study in which people with low self-esteem were fed false information about their romantic partner. When the participants were told their partner did not like something about them, those with low self-esteem tended to decide that the overall relationship was in jeopardy, Murray told Reuter Health.

Short-lived problems occur in every normal relationship, Murray explained. However, in the eyes of a person with low self-esteem, those transient difficulties can threaten their sense of security in the relationship, causing them to put down their partners before their partners can reject them, she said.

It's as if the low self-esteem partners were saying: "'So if you're going to reject me, you suck,"' Murray explained.

This behavior is "not adaptive," Murray noted, and can have a significant impact on the health of the relationship. "Going to such a grand conclusion from one episode isn't often warranted," she added.

Murray's team developed their findings from a series of experiments involving people who were involved in romantic relationships.

In the first experiment, the researchers tested the self-esteem of 104 people who were in a romantic relationship for an average of 20 months. During the study, the investigators asked some participants to indicate what sides of their personalities they don't want their partners to see.

When faced with the concept that certain aspects of their personalities are not appealing to their partners, people with low self-esteem reported fewer positive traits in their partners, and more anxiety about the relationship, than those with high self-esteem.

In the second experiment, the study authors asked another group of participants about how often their partners appeared annoyed with them. The researchers then informed them that, based on their responses, their partners were likely not happy with certain aspects of their personalities, and that these incompatibilities can lead to later, more significant problems in the relationship.

Again, the authors found that people with low esteem thereafter began questioning the strength of their relationships, and distanced themselves from their partners. In contrast, people with high self-esteem appeared even more confident about their partners' affections after the experiment, and showed a higher esteem for their partners as a result of the relationship "threats" insinuated by the experimenters.

In an interview with Reuter Health, Murray explained that people with high self-esteem are relatively confident that their partners value and accept them, a belief that helps them withstand the emotional bumps that appear along the course of a normal relationship.

These findings may prove useful in the context of couples therapy, she noted. It may be helpful for practitioners to evaluate how accepted and valued each partner feels by the other, and, in some cases, to help people learn to reduce their tendencies to read too much into events.

SOURCE: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2002;83:556-573
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September 3, 2002

By DENISE GRADY, NY Times

In fundamental ways, hot flashes remain a mystery. They must originate in the brain. Body temperature is regulated there, in a region called the hypothalamus. But no one knows exactly how estrogen, or the lack of it, acts on that region. Nor is it known why one woman sweats through a dozen flashes a day while another, with the same flagging estrogen levels, stays cool. Similarly, doctors do not know why, in most women, the symptoms eventually go away on their own. And if hot flashes have a purpose or a health benefit, scientists have yet to figure out what it might be.

There comes a time in many a woman's life when she must cast off her garments, fling open windows, toss back blankets and ask repeatedly, Is it hot in here? Even her fondest friends and relatives may find it hard not to laugh.

Hot flashes are pretty funny, as long as they are happening to someone else.

Of the many little adventures that accompany menopause, hot flashes are the most common — affecting as many as 80 percent of women — The rush of heat, the drenching sweat and the telltale flushed face last only a few minutes, but they can recur 10 times a day and several times a night. And the pattern can drag on for years. Is this nature's idea of a joke?

The causes of such thermal chaos are only partly understood. A hot flash is a sudden, intense version of what the body normally does to cool down when it is overheated: blood vessels near the skin dilate to dissipate heat, and the person breaks into a sweat. The tactic works so well that after a hot flash, many women feel chilled.

But why, when a woman is sitting at her desk or driving down Main Street, does her body suddenly think it is overheated? The answer is not clear. One basic fact has been known for decades: hot flashes are linked to declining estrogen levels. In women who have their ovaries removed surgically, the effect can be almost immediate. Some actually begin having hot flashes in the recovery room. And regardless of whether flashes are brought on by surgery or natural menopause, estrogen replacement therapy quickly stops them in most women.

Hot flashes are common in the United States, Australia and Western Europe, but are said to occur less often in Asian women. But no knows whether Asians really have fewer flashes, or just report them less. If they do have fewer, whether the difference is due to diet, genetics or both is not known.

In fundamental ways, hot flashes remain a mystery. They must originate in the brain. Body temperature is regulated there, in a region called the hypothalamus. But no one knows exactly how estrogen, or the lack of it, acts on that region. Nor is it known why one woman sweats through a dozen flashes a day while another, with the same flagging estrogen levels, stays cool. Similarly, doctors do not know why, in most women, the symptoms eventually go away on their own. And if hot flashes have a purpose or a health benefit, scientists have yet to figure out what it might be.

The unanswered questions have become more important recently, as mounting evidence has cast doubt on the safety of hormone replacement, especially for long-term use. Hormones are the most effective treatment for hot flashes, but many doctors and patients have begun to question whether taking them just to relieve symptoms is worth the risks, which include slightly increased odds of heart attack, stroke, breast cancer, blood clots and gallbladder disease. Women want safer alternatives, and although a better understanding of hot flashes may lead to better treatments, so far no great breakthroughs have occurred.

Dr. Robert R. Freedman has been studying hot flashes for about 20 years at Wayne State University in Detroit, where he is a professor of psychiatry and obstetrics and gynecology. The National Institutes of Health has supported his work, he said, but not many other scientists have taken up the cause, and he wishes more would.

"Science gets better with more people working on it," he said.

Before he became interested in hot flashes, Dr. Freedman was trying to find out whether biofeedback could help people with Raynaud's disease, which causes very cold hands and feet. One of his students, whose mother had severe hot flashes from the breast cancer drug tamoxifen, which blocks the action of estrogen, said, "I know you can make cold people warm, but can you take hot women and make them cold?" Dr. Freedman was intrigued.

Most of his studies have been in humans, he said, noting that "rats are a lousy model of menopause." Rats reproduce until they die and do not have menopause. An artificial menopause can be induced with drugs or surgery, but even then it is not clear whether the rats have hot flashes, he said.

"People have measured changes in tail temperature that they assume are flashes, but I don't buy it at all," Dr. Freedman said. Researchers, he added, do not know whether other animals have hot flashes, including female monkeys and apes, though he hopes to study them.

Dr. Freedman and his colleagues study menopausal women, often comparing those who have flashes with those who do not, though, he said, it is hard to find menopausal women who do not have hot flashes.

In the laboratory, the women are hooked up to equipment that measures their skin temperature, sweating and other skin changes that mark the start of a hot flash. In addition, the women swallow radiotelemetry pills, which measure their core body temperature every 30 seconds or so as they travel through the digestive tract. In some experiments the women are given drugs that bring on hot flashes or stop them, and some women stay in the laboratory overnight so the researchers can measure hot flashes during sleep.

Most women who have flashes average six a night, Dr. Freedman said, but, he added, "I saw a woman recently who had 17."

The overnight studies showed something surprising about the sleep problems that many women have after menopause.

"The common thinking is that the hot flashes wake you up and disturb your sleep, and you feel crummy in the morning," Dr. Freedman said. "But we found that half the flashes don't have wake-ups, and half the wake-ups don't have flashes. The insomnia is not necessarily a product of the flashes."

He is conducting more sleep studies to try to decipher the connection.

Dr. Freedman's experiments have found a major difference between menopausal women who have hot flashes and those who do not. Women without flashes have a "neutral" zone of about 0.7 degrees Fahrenheit, and their core body temperatures can rise or fall in that zone without making them shiver or sweat. The upper limit of the zone is the threshold for sweating, and the lower limit the threshold for shivering.

But in women who do suffer from flashes, the zone has shrunk so much that it is almost nonexistent, meaning that even a tiny rise in core temperature will cause a hot flash, and a tiny drop can cause shivering.

But why is the neutral zone compressed to nothing? Dr. Freedman and his colleagues theorize women who suffer from hot flashes, compared with those who do not, have higher brain levels of a hormone called norepinephrine, which can shrink the neutral zone. The norepinephrine changes may be related to dropping levels of estrogen, or to aging, or both, Dr. Freedman said.

In any case, too much norepinephrine seems to play a major role in hot flashes. Studies in animals have shown that increased norepinephrine shrinks the neutral zone, and experiments in people show that a drug called clonidine, which lowers norepinephrine, can expand the zone.

But for most women, clonidine has too many side effects to be a good treatment for hot flashes, Dr. Freedman said, noting that it can cause tiredness, dry mouth and low blood pressure. Some women get relief from antidepressants like Paxil and Effexor that can affect the hypothalamus. But so far, nothing works as well as estrogen.

For women bothered by hot flashes who do not want to use drugs, Dr. Freedman recommends using air-conditioning, wearing light clothing in layers and keeping room temperatures low, because warm environments can definitely bring on hot flashes. Cold drinks can help ward off flashes. In addition, he has done studies showing that the kind of deep breathing techniques taught in yoga classes can reduce the rate of hot flashes by about half. The techniques require training and practice, and he advises patients to take a yoga class to learn them.

He has also tried, unsuccessfully, to get a grant to help a small company make cooling sheets, similar to the ones used in hospitals to treat fever. The cooling sheet would go on the mattress, under a regular sheet, and the woman would lie on top of it.

"You could just stick it on your half of the bed, and you wouldn't freeze your spouse," Dr. Freedman said.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com

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Climax generator found
Rat study shows spinal-cord neurons control ejaculation.
30 August 2002
KENDALL POWELL Nature.com

Researchers have located the spinal-cord neurons that control ejaculation. The finding opens new avenues for treating premature ejaculation and problems with sexual function in paraplegic men.

Injecting male rats with a toxin that kills only one group of nerves in the spinal cord disrupts the very last step of their otherwise normal sexual behaviour, report researchers at the University of Cincinnati1. Encountering a willing female rat, the males still "act interested, get erections, chase her, mount her, and penetrate - they just never climax," says neuroscientist Lique Coolen.

Coolen targeted the lumbar spinothalamic neurons in the lower back because they are active only after a normal male rat ejaculates, and not simply at mounting or penetration.

Normally the brain is involved in the ejaculation reflex. But paraplegic men can climax even when the connection between the lower spinal chord and the brain is severed. So Coolen and other researchers had suspected that cells in the spinal cord generate the reflex.

"This ejaculation generator integrates sensory input from the penis with output to the muscle cells that cause ejaculation," says Coolen. These cells may also carry sensory information back to the brain after ejaculation.

Basic instinct

An estimated 30% of men have problems ejaculating at some time in their lives. Coolen is one of the few researchers to study this in lab animals.

"She's giving clinicians the basic information about what exactly is happening in the brain and spinal cord," says Marcel Waldinger, a psychiatrist at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands.

He currently treats patients for premature ejaculation with antidepressant drugs such as Paxil and Prozac.

These drugs perform well in what Waldinger calls the "stopwatch test". But they have unwanted side-effects because they act on other areas of the brain, and their impact can last 24 hours.

Determining which chemicals activate the spinal neurons could improve treatments for male sexual dysfunction - or even simulate orgasm.

"It's wild speculation," warns Coolen. "But if we were to find the chemicals that contribute to the sensation of ejaculation and the pleasure associated with it, we may be able to find drugs that have the same effect."

References
Truitt, W.A. & Coolen, L. Identification of a potential ejaculation generator in the spinal cord. Science, 297, 1566 - 1569, (2002).

Source: http://www.nature.com/nsu/020826/020826-8.html
 

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How rats may help premature ejaculation and other ejaculatory function sexual disorders?
29 August 2002

Findings may also apply to humans, prompting hopes of improved treatment for men who suffer from premature ejaculation and other ejaculatory function sexual disorders.

Rats could hold the key to new treatments for men with sexual problems, scientists believe.
Researchers in the United States said they have identified nerves in the spinal cords of rats which trigger ejaculations.

They believe the findings may also apply to humans, prompting hopes of improved treatment for men who suffer from premature ejaculation and other sexual disorders.

The practical implications include the possible development of additional treatments for premature ejaculation

Lab tests

They then deactivated a small group of neurons in the spinal cords of male rats which were then placed in a cage with a "sexually receptive" female.

The male rats appeared to mate with the female, but later examination of the female showed they had not ejaculated.

All other aspects of their mating behaviour remained unchanged.

The researchers said the findings suggested that the spinal neurons regulate the onset and completion of ejaculation.

Writing in the journal Science, they said the discovery could lead to new treatments for men who suffer premature ejaculation.

Similarly, they said it could also help paralysed men who have problems ejaculating.

"Detailed understanding of a spinal ejaculation generator will significantly benefit treatment of sexual dysfunction, in particular related to ejaculation," they said.

"The practical implications include the possible development of additional treatments for premature ejaculation and ejaculatory function in paraplegic men."

 

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Why should you not take advantage of friends?
Thu Aug 29, 2002 5:51 PM ET
By Charnicia E. Huggins

People who tend to deny or suppress, rather than address, their own anxiety and negative feelings or other troubling information, may be at risk of putting their friendships and close relationships in jeopardy. When people are out of touch with their issues or their feelings, they may not recognize the potential problems that can occur. Consequently, they keep finding themselves being 'blindsided' by negative relational patterns.

NEW YORK (Reuter Health) - People who think that their friends won't care about them running an hour late, failing to return something borrowed or reneging on a promise may be mistaken, study findings suggest.

In fact, so-called "repressors," who tend to deny or suppress, rather than address, their own anxiety and negative feelings or other troubling information, may be at risk of putting their friendships and close relationships in jeopardy, according to two Illinois researchers.

"When people are out of touch with their issues or their feelings, they may not recognize the potential problems that can occur," Dr. Lori McKinney of Governors State University in University Park, Illinois, told Reuter Health. "Consequently, they keep finding themselves being 'blindsided' by negative relational patterns."

McKinney and her co-author, Dr. Leonard S. Newman, investigated repressive coping and the way in which repressors predicted reactions to their inconsiderate behaviors in a study of 84 university students and their close friends or significant others. Their findings are published in the October issue of the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.

In general, students who used repressive coping tended to think that their close friends or significant others would feel less badly about them showing up an hour later than they agreed upon, reneging on a promise, or otherwise acting inconsiderately than their close friends reported they would feel, the report indicates.

"Repressors may therefore be oblivious to the fact that conflicts may arise following their inconsiderate behaviors," the authors write.

It is not that people who use repressive coping styles have a more optimistic outlook about things than their non-repressor peers, study findings indicate. For example, when asked how they would respond to inconsiderate behaviors, students in both groups indicated that they were not as prone to anger as their partners predicted.

Repressors, however, were unique in downplaying the idea that their close friends or significant others would react negatively to their own thoughtlessness, the researchers report.

"Repressors sometimes avoid thinking about negative interactions because they don't want others to think poorly of them," McKinney said.

Yet, "it's important to realize that all human beings have limitations," McKinney said. "It's okay to still be a work in progress."

SOURCE: Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 2002;21:427-437.

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Why Do 'Macho Men' Have Bad Marriages?
Thu Aug 29,2002 11:10 AM ET
By Alison McCook

Married men who are overly and stereotypically "masculine"--too driven, emotionally closed off, and focused on work rather than family--tend to have wives who are relatively unhappy and dissatisfied with the marriage, new study findings show.

NEW YORK (Reuter Health) - Married men who are overly and stereotypically "masculine"--too driven, emotionally closed off, and focused on work rather than family--tend to have wives who are relatively unhappy and dissatisfied with the marriage, new study findings show.

Men who possess traits that are considered to be stereotypically male--consumed by success and power, uncomfortable showing affection toward other men, attuned to work over family--are in a state of gender role conflict, according to study author Matthew J. Breiding of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

While possessing some of these traits is normal, when men have too many, or express them in an over-the-top way, their relationships with others--including their wives--will be affected, Breiding explained in an interview with Reuter Health.

Adopting a gender role to a rather extreme degree is what "gets a man into trouble," Breiding said.

Previous studies have shown that men who have gender role conflict also tend to show certain behaviors that can be difficult for others, such as hostility, dominance and anger. In addition, these men may hesitate to open up emotionally to their wives--all of which can affect the health and happiness of a marriage, according to Breiding.

In the new study, Breiding and Dr. David A. Smith asked 59 married couples to complete a scale designed to measure the husband's level of gender role conflict. The husband filled out one scale for himself, while his wife completed one on him. Spouses then indicated how content they were in their marriages and whether they felt depressed or unhappy.

The investigators found that the higher the state of gender role conflict in the husband--according to him or his wife--the less happy the wife was in the marriage. Such couples also tended to have more disagreement over marital issues, and the wives were more likely to be depressed.

Husbands were also negatively affected by gender role conflict, but not to the degree that their wives were, the authors note.

Breiding and Smith presented their findings this month during the 110th annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Chicago, Illinois.

In the interview, Breiding explained that men likely develop their gender role conflict from influences such as role models and messages from media and others that stress the importance of success in work, rather than in relationships.

He noted that a woman may also influence how her husband perceives his gender role and, therefore, may in part be responsible for the husband's potentially destructive self-image. "Certainly, I think the wives can have a reciprocal influence," he said.

Breiding added that his results can also be interpreted in a positive light, since there are apparently many men out there who are not in a state of gender role conflict and have happy, mutually satisfying marriages.

More and more men are "receiving different messages of what it means to be a man," Breiding explained. "That can have a transformative effect on how they interact with their wives and other male friends."
 

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SEAGATE SWINGS "HAMR" TO INCREASE DISC DRIVE DENSITIES BY A FACTOR OF 100

Demonstration at Seagate's new research lab unveils technology that could store up to 50 terabits of data per square inch

Seagate has decided to use a HAMR, combined with self-ordered magnetic arrays of iron-platinum particles, is expected to break through the so-called superparamagnetic limit of magnetic recording by more than a factor of 100 to ultimately deliver storage densities as great as 50 terabits per square inch. This will provide the capability for people to store the entire printed contents of the Library of Congress on a single disc drive in their notebook computers.

See also: Are 400 gigabyte hard drives near? Yes! IBM "pixie dust" breaks hard drive barrier

PITTSBURGH — 21 August 2002 — Seagate has decided to use a HAMR to cram more and more bits of information per square inch into hard disc drives, pushing the limits of magnetic recording even further beyond what was ever thought possible. The Company today demonstrated its revolutionary Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology, which records data magnetically on high-stability media using laser thermal assistance.

Source: http://www.seagate.com/cda/newsinfo/newsroom/releases/article/0,1121,1503,00.html

Jay Lyman, sci.NewsFactor.com

Hard-drive maker Seagate said it has overcome a significant challenge in magnetic memory with a new technology capable of achieving far beyond today's storage densities -- up to as great as 50 terabits per square inch. Currently, the highest storage densities hover around 50 gigabits per square inch, but Seagate said its heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology could break through the so-called superparamagnetic limit -- a memory boundary based on data bits so small they become magnetically unstable.

By heating the memory medium with a laser-generated beam at the precise spot where data bits are being recorded, HAMR dramatically increases density -- and substantially improves the outlook for magnetic recording, according to Seagate.

The need for higher storage density -- the number of data bits stored on a disk surface -- already has been addressed with smaller bits, but these data chunks are becoming so small that they will be magnetically unstable within the next five to 10 years, researchers said. "HAMR is designed, in part, to overcome the paramagnetism limit," Seagate spokesperson John Paulsen told NewsFactor, adding that the technology will be incorporated in products between five and 10 years from now.

Seagate -- which recently demonstrated the HAMR technology at the opening of its new research center in Pittsburgh -- maintains that heating the disk and recording components makes it easier to write information, which is stabilized with subsequent cooling.

To Terabit and Beyond

While the technology was originally expected to accommodate one terabit of data per square inch -- which Paulsen called "extremely high compared to today's standards," Seagate researchers now believe they can store as much as 50 terabits per square inch -- equivalent to the entire printed contents of the Library of Congress ( news - web sites) -- on a single disk drive for a notebook computer.

A different technology, under development at the University at Buffalo in New York, promises to provide a nanoscale sensor capable of reading ever-smaller bits of data. The sensor could result in DVD movie storage on small devices or even a supercomputer the size of a wristwatch, UB officials told NewsFactor.

IBM ( NYSE: IBM - news) scientists also recently announced they could compress massive amounts of data into one terabit per square inch, nearly 20 times more than the most dense magnetic storage solutions currently available.

Magnetic Stays Mainstream

While other technologies, such as holographic optical storage, show promise in the storage of massive amounts of data, Seagate claims magnetic recording will remain the preferred form of mass storage. "With technologies like [holographic optical storage], what you've got is something that's much more expensive for the storage density you get," Paulsen said. "Magnetic technologies are mature, and they've been on a trajectory."

IDC research manager Dave Reinsel agreed, calling the HAMR technology "a glimpse of future magnetic recording technology." Reinsel said that technologies like HAMR "will continue to keep disk drives as the preferred mass storage device for mainstream computing for many years to come."

Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com

 

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Why and how are we attracted to opposite sex?

In her new book, Sex: A Natural History, science reporter Joann Rodgers debunks some previous sexual theories, as she explores the biology and psychology of what drives our sexual behavior, from why we find Hollywood star Brad Pitt attractive, to why we sometimes cheat on our mates.

ABCNEWS.COM

In her new book, Sex: A Natural History, science reporter Joann Rodgers debunks some previous sexual theories, as she explores the biology and psychology of what drives our sexual behavior, from why we find Hollywood star Brad Pitt attractive, to why we sometimes cheat on our mates.

The findings: Sex is a lot more scientific than you might think. Though often influenced by culture, Rodgers found that human sexual behavior, including flirting and courtship, is also determined by biology — and certain rituals are the same now as they were in the era of cavemen.

"A lot of sexual behavior — including what we're attracted to — is hardwired into our brains," Rodgers said. "A lot of it is conditioned by the way evolution formed our brains. Basically, our sexual brains are from the stone age."

The Mating Dance

Culture also plays a role, which leads to variation in sexual behavior among various people and varying ideals of beauty. But there are basic similarities that remain the same.

"Certain kinds of behavior are so universal that they appear to be biologically programmed," Rodgers said. "There is a mating dance."

When scientists studied flirting couples at a hotel bar, they saw some of the same things again and again — gestures that are part of our "brain chemistry," Rodgers said.

A couple that was "connecting" would look into each other's eyes. When they sat down together, the man would lean forward, thrusting out his chest, while the woman would start twirling her hair.

"The man makes the first touch, say pretending to brush something off the woman's blouse," Rogers said. The hands would eventually touch each other, and eventually, the couple heads off to one of the rooms, researchers found.

No Battle of the Sexes

Rodgers also concluded that there isn't really a "battle of the sexes" and that the "Men are from Mars, Women Are From Venus" theory is a misleading one, Rodgers said.

"Battles always have a winner and a loser," Rodgers said. "But in the so-called battle of the sexes both sides have to win or else everyone loses … Scientists will tell you there is no battle."

The ultimate goal of sexual relationships is cooperation and reproduction, despite the different strategies and behaviors employed by each of the sexes to reach it, Rodgers said. A woman for example might "play hard to get," a courtship ritual that her ancestors used, too.

"These are behaviors that have evolved over millions of years, as the ways males and females size each other up," she said. "Men and women aren't different species. Ultimately, the male and female get together and have children — and that's a win-win situation."

Many people believe that infidelity is more of a male trait — something that is part of their makeup, based on the theory that men have needed to spread their sperm, far and wide in the name of evolution.

But that doesn't explain why women cheat too, or whom the men are cheating with, Rodgers said.

"Until the advent of paternity testing, men just didn't have a reliable way of finding out," she said. "Women are probably more like men in this respect than we'd like to think."

Why Women Love Brad Pitt

Among cultures there are different preferences in terms of what is attractive. In the West, there is a lot of emphasis on female breasts, while in Oriental cultures, for instance, there is more of a preoccupation with a woman's neck. Some cultures prefer heavier women.

But the kinds of body types we are attracted to is also linked to another part of our anatomy — our stomachs.

If Arnold Schwarzenegger walked onto a stone age plateau looking as buff as he did when he starred as Conan the Barbarian, women would think "he'll take a whole lot more to feed" than the other men, Rodgers said.

"Our sexual brains evolved at a time when there wasn't that much to eat," Rodgers said. "Arnold probably would have had a hard time finding a mate. People are programmed to be suspicious of extremes — extreme fatness, thinness, or muscularity."

Studies show that even now, most women are not particularly attracted to body builder types. But a moderately muscular guy like actor Brad Pitt, who is also blessed with symmetrical features, is a hit with the ladies. Elizabeth Taylor, Denzel Washington and ancient Egypt's Nefertiti are universally recognized as being full of sex appeal, for the same reason, Rodgers said.

"The first thing we look for is symmetry. Symmetry is a sign of health," Rodgers said. A new study released last week, which found that asymmetrical people are more jealous than others, fits into the theory. Asymmetrical people are less attractive, and therefore more fearful of losing their mates.

Sex and Death

Sex plays a role in our lives until the day we die — and in fact, sex and death are intimately connected, Rodgers found.

"Scientists say that sex and death are intimately related. Bacteria, for example, never die," she said. "They just keep on reproducing — splitting — forever."

Humans are more complex organisms, and when we evolved and started exchanging genetic material, things got more complicated. With bacteria, its whole makeup — just one cell — is devoted to reproduction, and that's all it does.

But with humans, only our sex cells are involved in reproduction, and the rest of our cells, including those that make up our skins and organs, cannot reproduce indefinitely. Sex — or the lack thereof — leads to our demise.

"Our other cells can only divide a certain number of times, and then they die, which is why we die," Rodgers said.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com

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August 27, 2002

By RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN, M.D. NY Times

New evidence suggests that the talking cure and psychotropic medication have much more in common than had been thought. In fact, both produce surprisingly similar changes in the brain.

After six years of twice-weekly psychotherapy sessions, Eric had plenty of insight. But his anxiety level had barely changed.

He was still bedeviled by a ceaseless urge to wash his hands and shameful and repetitive violent thoughts. Out of desperation and against the wishes of his therapist, he visited my office to discuss the possibility of medication.

"I thought I could understand my way out of my obsessive compulsive disorder," he recalled recently. "I wanted to be able to do it on my own, without medication."

What he did not remember was his vehement opposition to psychotropic medication on the ground that it was not natural and would change his brain chemistry.

Of course, he was right. Like Eric, many patients and therapists share the view that psychotherapy is preferable to pharmacotherapy because it is more "natural" and because it supposedly gets to the root of the patient's problem. They are convinced that self-understanding will bring relief, whether the problem is anxiety, depression or obsessional thinking.

Insight is a prerequisite of happiness, the theory goes, and well-being achieved without the hard work of psychotherapy is artificial and inauthentic.

But new evidence suggests that the talking cure and psychotropic medication have much more in common than had been thought. In fact, both produce surprisingly similar changes in the brain.

Take Eric's obsessive compulsive disorder. It hobbles patients with unwanted thoughts, often violent or sexual, that play in the mind like a broken record. Owing to the sometimes lurid nature of the thoughts, the treatment mainstay had for years been psychoanalytically oriented therapy to unlock the sexual and aggressive conflicts presumed to underlie the symptoms.

There was just one problem. That form of psychotherapy rarely, if ever, worked for those patients, a point now widely accepted by most psychoanalysts themselves.

But two seemingly different treatments can be highly effective: a form of talk therapy called cognitive-behavior therapy and a class of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants, or S.S.R.I.'s, drugs like Prozac and Zoloft. It is well known that patients with the disorder have altered serotonin function compared with normal controls.

Brain imaging that uses PET scans, or positron emission topography, has shown that the disorder is associated with functional hyperactivity of the caudate nucleus, a structure buried beneath the cerebral cortex. Some researchers hypothesize that the caudate is part of a subcortical circuit that acts as a kind of filter, sifting out extraneous thoughts and impulses.

In obsessive compulsive disorder, they theorize, the subcortical filter malfunctions, allowing the unwanted thoughts to reach the cortex and then on to consciousness.

In a study by Dr. Lewis Baxter at the U.C.L.A. School of Medicine, patients with the disorder who responded to either a reuptake inhibitor like Prozac or cognitive behavior therapy over 10 weeks showed virtually the same changes in their brains, decreases in the activities of the caudate nuclei and, thus, changes toward normal function.

When patients improved, the changes in their brains, as shown in the PET scans, looked the same regardless of whether they had received antidepressants or psychotherapy.

An S.S.R.I. works, in part, by enhancing the neurotransmitter serotonin, whose activity is often abnormal in people with obsessive compulsive disorder and depression. Cognitive behavior therapy focuses on changing distorted patterns of thinking.

The intriguing finding from the PET scans is not limited to O.C.D. Two studies of patients with depression, reported last year in The Archives of General Psychiatry, compared the effects of interpersonal psychotherapy with an antidepressant on brain function, as observed in PET scans. In those studies, the depressed patients received interpersonal therapy, a short-term talk treatment that focuses on the effects of social relationships and major life events on mood.

In one study, a 12-week trial that compared an S.S.R.I., Paxil, to interpersonal psychotherapy, Dr. Arthur Brody, also at U.C.L.A., found that depressed patients who responded to either treatment had nearly identical changes in their brain function, a decrease in the abnormally high activity seen in the prefrontal cortex before treatment.

In the second study, Dr. Stephen D. Martin at the research unit of Cherry Knowle Hospital in Sunderland, England, reported that six weeks of Effexor, an antidepressant that enhances both serotonin and norepinephrine, and interpersonal therapy produced similar effects in those depressed subjects who responded either to medicine or to psychotherapy. Each had shown an increase in the activity of the basal ganglia, a subcortical brain structure.

Although the observed changes with psychotherapy and antidepressant were similar in that study, they were not identical. Subjects with interpersonal therapy but not Effexor also had activation of a brain area called the cingulate gyrus, which responds to serotonin in the brain and has a role in regulating mood.

The studies show that pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy can produce remarkably similar effects on functional brain activity. But does that mean that antidepressants and psychotherapy are really equivalent?

In a word, no. Psychotherapy alone has so far been largely ineffective for diseases like schizophrenia, where there is strong evidence of structural, as well as functional, brain abnormalities. So it seems that if the brain is severely disordered, then talk therapy cannot alter it.

But it is clear that talk therapy can alter brain function. The reason may come from the elegant work of a Nobel Prize-winning psychiatrist and neurobiologist, Dr. Eric Kandel. Studying the simple and well-mapped nervous system of a sea slug, Aplysia, Dr. Kandel showed that learning leads to the production of new proteins and, in turn, to the remodeling of neurons.

Sea slugs exposed to the controlled-learning condition that produced long-term memory ended up with double the number of neuronal connections as the untrained animals. In essence, Dr. Kandel has proved that learning involves the creation of new neuronal connections.

The clear implication for humans is that learning literally changes the structure and function of the brain.

Now it may seem a big leap from a snail to a human. But if psychotherapy is thought of as a form of learning, then when therapists talk to patients, they cause them to learn, perhaps changing their brain function and, perhaps, for the long run.

In the end, Eric chose cognitive behavior therapy and improved drastically. Through exposure to those situations that he feared like messy dirty places, he became desensitized to them and lost his compulsion to wash.

Had he chosen an antidepressant, chances are that he would also have improved.

If psychotherapy produces nearly the same brain changes as pharmacotherapy, then the boundary between mind and brain is purely artificial — even unnatural.

The author is a psychiatrist who directs the Psychopharmacology Clinic at the New York Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/27/health/psychology/27BEHA.html?pagewanted=print&position=bottom
 

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Dangerous Strep Bug Can Be Spread by Oral Sex
Wed Aug 28, 200210:30 AM ET
By Keith Mulvihill

A bacterial infection dangerous to infants, pregnant women and elderly people or those with existing medical problems can be spread by sexual activity between men and women, particularly oral sex, new study findings show.

See also:

• Is oral sex safe? Oral sex is unlikely to transmit HIV, researchers say Oral sex between men and women can spread a deadly bacterial infection, new study finds.  
   
• Is Oral Sex a Sin? No where can I find that the Bible actually forbids or discusses oral sex. There is no biblical evidence that it is a sin against God for a husband and wife to express love for each other in this way. Even the book of Leviticus, which mentions many Old Testament sex-related prohibitions and rules for the Israelites, never mentions it.

NEW YORK (Reuter Health) - A bacterial infection dangerous to infants, pregnant women and  elderly people or those with existing medical problems can be spread by sexual activity between men and women, particularly oral sex, new study findings show.

While group B streptococcal infection (GBS) rarely makes healthy young adults sick, the bug can cause health problems for pregnant women and babies, the study's lead investigator, Dr. Betsy Foxman, explained in an interview with Reuter Health. GBS can also sicken elderly people or those with existing medical problems.

"Pregnant women who are colonized with GBS have a one in two chance of passing GBS to their newborn if they are not treated with antibiotics during labor and delivery," said Foxman, who is with the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor.

Infection in newborns can cause neonatal sepsis--a massive immune response that can be fatal--and meningitis, an infection of the membranes surrounding the brain that can be fatal or lead to brain damage, Foxman explained.

"Although GBS is treatable with antibiotics, increasingly, GBS is becoming resistant to antibiotics," she added, "Of every 100 newborn babies infected with GBS, 4 to 6 will die."

Based on these facts, health experts have been increasingly interested in learning more about how GBS is spread.

To investigate, the team of researchers evaluated 120 heterosexual couples for the presence of GBS. Each partner also completed a questionnaire that assessed their sexual habits and risk factors for becoming a GBS carrier. The findings are published in the September issue of the journal Epidemiology.

"We demonstrated...that among heterosexual couples co-colonized with GBS, 86% carried the identical strain. Further, we identified engaging in oral sex as a risk factor for co-colonization with the identical strain," Foxman said.

"While sexual activity between men and women has been suspected to be important in transmitting GBS, this is the first study to give tangible evidence that sexual transmission occurs," added Foxman.

Since male-to-female oral sex resulted in increased co-colonization with group B strep, Foxman advocates safe sex practices, such as using dental dams and condoms when engaging in oral sex.

These practices "would minimize transmission via this route and prevent transmission of other sexually transmitted diseases as well," she said.

SOURCE: Epidemiology 2002;13:533-539.

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Cuckoo in Carolina

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, NY Times

August 28, 2002

The ruckus being raised by conservative Christians over the University of North Carolina's decision to ask incoming students to read a book about the Koran — to stimulate a campus debate — surely has to be one of the most embarrassing moments for America since Sept. 11.

The ruckus being raised by conservative Christians over the University of North Carolina's decision to ask incoming students to read a book about the Koran — to stimulate a campus debate — surely has to be one of the most embarrassing moments for America since Sept. 11.

Why? Because it exhibits such profound lack of understanding of what America is about, and it exhibits such a chilling mimicry of what the most repressive Arab Muslim states are about. Ask yourself this question: What would Osama bin Laden do if he found out that the University of Riyadh had asked incoming freshmen to read the New and Old Testaments?

He would do exactly what the book-burning opponents of this U.N.C. directive are doing right now — try to shut it down, only bin Laden wouldn't bother with the courts. It's against the law to build a church or synagogue or Buddhist temple or Hindu shrine in public in Saudi Arabia. Is that what we're trying to mimic?

As a recent letter to The Times observed, the problem with the world today is not that American students are being asked to read the Koran, it is that students in Saudi Arabia and many other Muslim lands are still not being asked to read the sacred texts of other civilizations — let alone the foundational texts of American democracy, like the Bill of Rights, the Constitution or the Federalist Papers.

The fact that they ignore such diverse texts is the source of their weakness, and the fact that we embrace them is the source of our strength. What we should be doing is driving that point home, not copying their obscurantism.

The notion that U.N.C. violated constitutional prohibitions against state-sponsored religion — by asking freshmen to simply read a book, "Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations" — has been rightly dismissed by the courts as nonsense.

I discovered the other day that my 17-year-old daughter, who is a 12th grader at a Washington-area public high school, was reading Genesis, Luke, Psalms and Job as part of a summer assignment for her A.P. English class. I'm glad. I wish she had also been assigned the Koran.

I understand that some people feel it's not right that terrorists kill 3,000 Americans — in the name of Islam — and then we go out and make the Koran a best seller to try to figure out who they are. But that doesn't bother me as an American. It would bother me, though, if I were Muslim. It would bother me that people have been awakened to my faith by an outrageously destructive act perpetrated in its name — rather than by some compelling attractiveness of countries that claim to reflect Islam's vision of a just society.

The freedom of thought and the multiple cultural and political perspectives we offer in our public schools are what nurture a critical mind. And it is a critical mind that is the root of innovation, scientific inquiry and entrepreneurship.

Right after 9/11, the majority of books on Amazon.com's top 100 best-seller list were about the Middle East and Islam. But there has been no parallel upsurge in interest in American studies, no new intellectual ferment in the blinkered, monochromatic universities and madrasas of the Arab and Muslim worlds since 9/11. One is reminded of Harry Lime's famous quip in the movie "The Third Man" — that 30 years of noisy, violent churning under the Borgias in Italy produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance, while 500 years of peace, quiet and harmony in Switzerland produced the cuckoo clock.

"A monolithic framework does not create a critical mind," remarked the religious philosopher David Hartman. "Where there is only one self-evident truth, nothing ever gets challenged and no sparks of creativity ever get generated. The strength of America has always been its ability to challenge its own truths by presenting alternative possibilities. That forces you to justify your own ideas, and that competition of ideas is what creates excellence."

I would bet that Islam is taught in virtually every state university in America — and was before 9/11. I first studied Islam and Arabic at the University of Minnesota in 1971.

America will always be a strong model for how a nation thrives in the modern age, as long as our culture of curiosity, free inquiry and openness endures. And the Arab Muslim world will continue to struggle with modernity as long as 12th graders in public schools there are never challenged to read Genesis, Luke, Job and Psalms over their summer vacations.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/28/opinion/28FRIE.html
 

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Why Stress May Cause Internet Addiction?
Mon Aug 26, 2002 1:55 PM ET
By E. J. Mundell

Experts estimate that only about 2% to 3% of all Web users fall into the category of "Internet addicts"--individuals who typically neglect family and friends, lie about how much time they spend online, and mold their daily lives to fit their Internet use. The researchers found no differences between men and women when it came to the percentage of individuals showing signs of problematic Internet use, or their underlying psychology.

CHICAGO (Reuter Health) - When the going gets tough, many stressed-out Web surfers go "cyberslacking," according to the results of a new study.

Researchers say that a small minority of Internet users may spend hours online in a compulsive effort to avoid life's anxieties.

"Procrastination, low productivity, social withdrawal and relationship difficulties" were common among those spending an unhealthy amount of time on the Web, report researchers led by graduate student Richard Davis of York University in Toronto, Ontario.

He presented the findings here Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.

Experts estimate that only about 2% to 3% of all Web users fall into the category of "Internet addicts"--individuals who typically neglect family and friends, lie about how much time they spend online, and mold their daily lives to fit their Internet use.

In their study, Davis and his colleagues sought to determine the psychological role of Web use among individuals at high risk for addiction. He had 60 undergraduate students complete standard questionnaires measuring their amount of daily Web use, perceived stress, and personal coping styles.

The Canadian researchers found that individuals with online habits suggestive of "problematic Internet use" were more apt to rely on "avoidant coping"--reacting to life's stressors by simply turning to a distractor.

Furthermore, individuals in danger of Internet addiction also tended to be nonassertive when faced with problems. For example, "if their boss has reprimanded them, instead of dealing with it head-on they will do it in non-assertive ways" such as complaining to others or simply avoiding thinking about the incident, Davis explained. Excessive, unhealthy Internet use appeared to combine nonassertive coping with avoidance--something Davis described as "withdrawal coping."

Excessive Internet use was also strongly linked to procrastination, suggesting that the Web is fast becoming a more interactive ( news - external web site) alternative to video games or bad TV. In the workplace, especially, this type of online procrastination is commonly known as "cyberslacking," resulting in "significant losses in productivity," according to the researchers. In fact, one 2001 study found 50% of Web surfers admitting that they spent about half of their online time avoiding more productive activities.

And just what are hardcore Web users doing during all those hours online? "We know that the number-one thing people are looking at is online pornography," Davis said. "That's a big distractor. Also engaging in online gaming (gambling), and chat rooms." While some addicts may be focusing on just one "distractor"--pornography or online casinos, for example--others may split their time between these activities, chatting and more generalized surfing, Davis noted.

The researchers found no differences between men and women when it came to the percentage of individuals showing signs of problematic Internet use, or their underlying psychology. Women are increasingly making up a larger percentage of Web users, Davis pointed out. "For young females, it used to be that young teenage girls used to come home and go to their telephone and talk all night to their friends. Now they are coming home and instant-messaging in a big way."

But the Internet can also offer constructive, positive resources for stress relief, he said. For example, teens worried about approaching a member of the opposite sex may find the Web a more congenial space for tension-free conversation. And online support groups have for years been key in helping otherwise isolated individuals cope with sometimes overwhelming issues. According to Davis, "this highlights what the Internet does best--provides information and a medium for like-minded individuals to interact."

Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com
 

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Drowning Freedom in Oil
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, NY Times

The more I've traveled in the Muslim world since 9/11, the more it has struck me how true this statement is: Nothing has subverted Middle East democracy more than the Arab world's and Iran's dependence on oil, and nothing will restrict America's ability to tell the truth in the Middle East and promote democracy there more than our continued dependence on oil.

August 25, 2002

On a recent tour of India, I was visiting with an Indian Muslim community leader, Syed Shahabuddin, and the conversation drifted to the question of why the Muslim world seems so angry with the West. "Whenever I am in America," he said, "people ask me, `Why do they hate us?' They don't hate you. If they hated you, would they send their kids to be educated by you? Would they look up to you as a model? They hate that you are monopolizing all the nonrenewable resources [oil]. And because you want to do that, you need to keep in power all your collaborators. As a consequence, you support feudal elements who are trying to stave off the march of democracy."

The more I've traveled in the Muslim world since 9/11, the more it has struck me how true this statement is: Nothing has subverted Middle East democracy more than the Arab world's and Iran's dependence on oil, and nothing will restrict America's ability to tell the truth in the Middle East and promote democracy there more than our continued dependence on oil.

Yet, since Sept. 11, the Bush-Cheney team has not lifted a finger to make us, or the Arab-Islamic world, less dependent on oil. Too bad. Because politics in countries dependent on oil becomes totally focused on who controls the oil revenues — rather than on how to improve the skills and education of both their men and women, how to build a rule of law and a legitimate state in which people feel some ownership, and how to build an honest economy that is open and attractive to investors.

In short, countries with oil can flourish under repression — as long as they just drill a hole in the right place. Think of Saudi Arabia, Libya or Iraq. Countries without oil can flourish only if they drill their own people's minds and unlock their energies with the keys of freedom. Think of Japan, Taiwan or India.

Do you think the unpopular mullahs in Iran would be able to hold power today if they didn't have huge oil revenues to finance their merchant cronies and security services? Do you think Saudi Arabia would be able to keep most of its women unemployed and behind veils if it didn't have petrodollars to replace their energies? Do you think it is an accident that the most open and democratizing Arab countries — Lebanon, Jordan, Bahrain, Morocco, Dubai and Qatar — are those with either no oil or dwindling oil reserves? They've had to learn how to tap the talents of their people rather than their sand dunes.

The Pentagon is now debating whether Saudi Arabia is our enemy. Yes and no. There is a secularized, U.S.-educated, pro-American elite and middle class in Saudi Arabia, who are not America's enemies. They are good people, and you can't visit Saudi Arabia without meeting them. We should never forget that.

But the Saudi ruling family stays in power not by a democratic vote from these progressives. It stays in power through a bargain with the conservative Wahhabi Muslim religious establishment. The Wahhabi clerics bless the regime and give it legitimacy — in the absence of any democratic elections. In return, the regime gives the Wahhabis oil money, which they use to propagate a puritanical version of Islam that is hostile to the West, to women, to modernity and to all non-Muslim faiths.

This bargain suits the Saudi rulers well. If they empowered the secularized, pro-American Saudis, it would not be long before they demanded things like transparency in budgeting, accountability and representation. The Wahhabi religious establishment, by contrast, doesn't care how corrupt the ruling family is in private — as long it keeps paying off the clerics and gives them a free hand to impose Wahhabi dogma on Saudi society, media and education, and to export it abroad.

So while there are many moderate Saudis who do not threaten us, there is no moderate Saudi ruling bargain. The one that exists does threaten us by giving huge oil resources to the Wahhabi conservatives, which they use to build mosques and schools that preach against tolerance, pluralism and modernity across the Muslim world — and in America. And it is our oil addiction that keeps us from ever confronting the Saudis on this. Addicts never tell the truth to their pushers.

Until we face up to that — and curb our consumption and encourage alternative energies that will slowly bring the price of oil down and force these countries to open up and adapt to modernity — we can invade Iraq once a week and it's not going to unleash democracy in the Arab world

 

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August 24, 2002

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We have physical attraction (but not sex!) with friends, study finds
Fri Aug 23, 2002 5:42 PM ET
By E. J. Mundell

We harbor feelings of physical attraction for friends of the opposite sex. On the other hand, "regardless of physical attraction between cross-sex friends, most people report not wanting to change the relationship from friendship to romance," according to researchers led by Elizabeth Zellers of the University of Indianapolis in Indiana.

CHICAGO (Reuter Health) - First Monica and Chandler, now Joey and Rachel, and next--most Americans? Researchers say a full 72% of us harbor feelings of physical attraction for friends of the opposite sex.

On the other hand, "regardless of physical attraction between cross-sex friends, most people report not wanting to change the relationship from friendship to romance," according to researchers led by Elizabeth Zellers of the University of Indianapolis in Indiana.

She reported the findings here Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.

In their study, Zellers and her colleagues interviewed 87 heterosexual college undergraduates averaging 20 years of age. Each was asked to think about a close friend of the opposite sex and respond "true" or "false" to statements such as "I am physically attracted to this person," "I want to kiss this person" and "I want to have sex with this person."

Zellers stressed that physical attraction--where one simply finds a person physically alluring--is different from sexual attraction, which implies a conscious sexual urge. "By sexual attraction I mean that the person thinks 'I want to have sex with this person', more than just physical attraction, which is 'I find this person attractive,"' she explained.

A full 72% of respondents said they did find their close friend physically attractive, with men more likely to do so than women. Three quarters of men surveyed said they were attracted to a female friend, while about two thirds of women said they felt a pull toward a male friend.

The researchers also compared the responses of single individuals with those of participants already involved in a romantic relationship.

A sizeable minority of both singles and romantically involved individuals admitted to having a strong sexual attraction to a close friend--although the percentage was higher among singles. Of the 38 singles in the study group, 22 (58%) said they had a desire to kiss their opposite-sex friend, and of that 22, ten said they also had a desire for sex with that friend.

Among the 49 non-singles, 18 (38%) said they thought about kissing their friend, with 11 of those 18 thinking about sex as well, the survey found.

Still, there's a big gap between thinking and doing, and most of those interviewed said they just weren't ready to take that leap. "Even though a lot of people will report having physical attraction, most won't want to change the relationship," Zellers said. According to the study, "63% said they would not want to change the relationship from friendship to a romantic one."

It remains unclear why so many of us might harbor a secret hankering for our office colleague, college pal or next-door neighbor. One reason, Zellers suggested, is that we tend to seek out friends that match us in physical allure. "Studies have shown that you kind of talk to people that are the same level of attractiveness as you," she said.

Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com

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How to get rid of migraine headache caused by orgasm? Drug Cures Case of Orgasm-Induced Migraine
Thu Aug 22, 2002 6:22 PM ET

While the researchers can offer no specific explanation for the cause of the woman's orgasm-induced migraines, they note that her case highlights the effectiveness of lamotrigine in the prevention of migraine with aura.

NEW YORK (Reuter Health) - Migraines that struck a 36-year-old woman soon after she had an orgasm were successfully treated with the drug lamotrigine, Italian researchers report.

"To our knowledge, this is the first case in which migraine attacks were triggered by orgasm," lead author Dr. G. D'Andrea and colleagues at the University of Parma report in the August issue of the journal Cephalalgia.

Migraine headaches are characterized by intense pain, sensitivity to light and sometimes nausea and vomiting. Migraines can be preceded by auras, which are typically flashes of light or blank spots in the field of vision.

"Two to five minutes after every orgasm, (the woman) suddenly began to experience blurred vision in the left or right side of the visual field, developing into a flickering zigzag line together with pinpoint circles of red and blue light," the authors explain.

According to the researchers, three types of sexual headache are recognized by the International Headache Society. In the case of the woman in the present report, the researchers believe her migraine could potentially fit into type 2--"a sudden severe headache occurring at orgasm."

However, they point out, there are several differences between their patient's symptoms and those typically experienced by type 2 migraine sufferers. Namely, type 2 sexual headaches are more commonly seen in men and the pain is more often on both sides of the head.

Regardless, D'Andrea's team reports that the woman responded positively to treatment with 100 milligrams per day of the drug lamotrigine, which is sold under the name Lamictal.

In the first 6 months of treatment, the doctors stopped the treatment twice and the woman's migraine attacks "promptly recurred." After 2 years of continued treatment, the woman again went off the drug and has remained migraine-free after orgasm for the past 33 months, the report indicates.

While the researchers can offer no specific explanation for the cause of the woman's orgasm-induced migraines, they note that her case highlights the effectiveness of lamotrigine in the prevention of migraine with aura.
 

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Why sexually deprived men may be unfaithful?
Thu Aug 22, 2002 6:19 PM ET
By E. J. Mundell

Any increase in a man's roving eye could signal an ebb in desire for his current mate, researchers report.

CHICAGO (Reuter Health) - While it might not necessarily lead to cheating, any increase in a man's roving eye could signal an ebb in desire for his current mate, researchers report.

A study focused on men's appraisals of women's physiques found that they are "more tuned into others when their own relationships aren't as passionate," said Dr. Regan Gurung of the University of Wisconsin in Green Bay.

Researchers who study the psychology of sexual attraction have long known that men spend a large amount of time scanning their environment for suitable mates. But does the nature of this "scoping" change according to current relationship quality?

In their study, Gurung's team had 48 women and 42 men--all currently in relationships--complete questionnaires designed to measure levels of relationship commitment, satisfaction, passion, intimacy and likelihood of cheating. They then were asked to rate the attractiveness of 12 young adult females of various body shapes.

The result? Men who tested low on the passion and intimacy sections of the relationship questionnaire consistently rated women higher in attractiveness, compared with men who said they were satisfied with the level of romance in their relationship.

Gurung presented the findings here Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.

Speaking with Reuter Health, the Wisconsin researcher theorized that some men may at least be toying with the idea of cheating as they check out women. Men who tested as "more likely to cheat" on the relationship questionnaire tended to give women especially high marks for sex appeal, Gurung noted.

"They're thinking, 'You know what? I'm not that psyched with what I have--yeah, she looks good,"' he said. Not surprisingly, levels of sexual arousal also rose as men checked out women.

In a more unexpected finding, the researchers found that heterosexual women's ratings of other women's attractiveness may be influenced by current relationship quality as well.

While women in "low-passion" relationships tended to give other women high grades for sexiness, women in more satisfying relationships gave the same women just so-so marks. Gurung speculates that romantic happiness may help women feel more attractive--and less threatened--in relation to other women.

Gurung stressed that a roving eye does not necessarily mean that a man is seriously considering cheating or ending a relationship. Many of the men who wished for more passion in their relationship also told the researchers they remained fully committed to their mate, and were generally satisfied with the relationship.

"This study shows that even men who are very satisfied could still be looking at other women," Gurung said. The study "gives us good suggestions for things we should be watching out for," he said, "but it's not saying 'dump your boyfriend if he looks at someone else."'

Source:  http://story.news.yahoo.com