Paid sex leaves men empty and terrible: Study

As per a study, men who pay for sex are awfully confused people. Many people who go for prostitutes say they don't feel anything except a bad feeling when they have sex with prostitutes. These responses were published in a report in Guardian newspaper. While some subjects said they were unsuccessful getting close to women "through usual ways," half the men were married or committed.

Despite feeling disappointed and lonely after having empty sexual encounters, these men said they will continue to use prostitutes.

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Aussies prefer curling up with books rather than having sex

A new survey has found that most Aussies prefer reading a good book to making love with their partner.

The online poll by Swedish furniture giant IKEA saw one in three Aussies saying that they would rather read than have sex if they had an extra hour in the day, reports Stuff.co.nz.

Nearly 35 percent of the 1057 participants opted for reading, while only 20percent chose to spend one-on-one time with their other half.

However, women take the lead in reading, with 45percent saying they would choose a good novel; only 14 percent said they would opt for private time in the bedroom.

About 26 percent men preferred an hour of romance, with 25 percent favouring reading.

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You can become a spaceship’s pilot in 20 years!

A new report has concluded that a job as the pilot of a spaceship may soon come out of the pages of science fiction books and into reality, in just 20 years of time.

According to BBC News, this is one of the findings of a government study into jobs of the future, which also suggests people will be employed to make human body parts.
It names 20 jobs that could be common by 2030, including “vertical farmers” growing food in multi-storey buildings.

It also says that surgeons may be employed to give people extra memory capacity.

The report was carried out by market research group Fast Future, which tried to determine a list of both jobs that do not currently exist and current jobs that could become more prominent.
Potential jobs of the future will include more farmers of genetically engineered crops and livestock, specialists in climate change reversal, and personal branders who will help individuals to establish their own brand across social networking sites.

In addition, it predicts that police officers will be needed to monitor weather manipulation, and electronic waste data managers will be employed by people who do not want to be tracked online.

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China tried to hack Indian computers: NSA

Chinese hackers have tried to penetrate computers in the offices of National Security Adviser MK Narayanan, a British paper Monday quoted him as saying.

Narayanan said his office and other government departments were targeted Dec 15, the same date that US defence, finance and technology companies, including Google, reported cyber attacks from China.

"This was not the first instance of an attempt to hack into our computers," Narayanan told The Times in an interview, adding the would-be hackers sent an e-mail with a PDF attachment containing a Trojan virus.

The virus, which allows hackers to download or delete files, was detected and officials were told not to log on until it was eliminated, Narayanan said.

"People seem to be fairly sure it was the Chinese. It is difficult to find the exact source but this is the main suspicion. It seems well founded," he told The Times, adding that India was cooperating with the US and Britain to bolster its cyber defences.

The Chinese government has denied any role in the attacks, with a foreign ministry spokeswoman saying: "Hacking in whatever form is prohibited by law in China."

Narayanan said that while he expected China to be an increasingly high security priority for India, the main threat still came from militants based in Pakistan.

He said Islamabad had done nothing to dismantle militant groups since the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, and criticised Britain for accepting its excuse that such groups were beyond its control.

"The British are still blinkered on this. We believe Pakistan's policy of using terror as a policy weapon remains," Narayanan said, adding India is anxious to prevent an attack from Pakistan during the Commonwealth Games in October.

"From Pakistan's point of view, it's important to disrupt the Games so you can claim that India is not a safe place," Narayanan said.

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Paid sex leaves men empty and terrible: Study

As per a study, men who pay for sex are awfully confused people. Many people who go for prostitutes say they don't feel anything except a bad feeling when they have sex with prostitutes. These responses were published in a report in Guardian newspaper. While some subjects said they were unsuccessful getting close to women "through usual ways," half the men were married or committed.

Despite feeling disappointed and lonely after having empty sexual encounters, these men said they will continue to use prostitutes.

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Dental implants becoming popular method for replacing teeth

The method of using dental implants to replace teeth lost to an accident, gum diseases or tooth decay is becoming popular.

Sreenivas Koka, chair of Mayo Clinic Department of Dental Specialties, discusses the advantages of dental implants and what's involved.

To place an implant, an oral surgeon or periodontist cuts open the gum to expose the jawbone and then drills a small hole in the bone for the metal cylinder that serves as the implant.

All this is done when the patient is under anaesthesia.

"It's almost like drilling a screw into the wall," Dr. Koka said.

It takes three months for the area to heal and for the implant to fuse with the jawbone.

Patients may undergo a second procedure in which a post, called an abutment, is attached or screwed down into the implant. This can be done at the same time the implant cylinder is put in or after the area has healed.

In the final step, the dentist attaches a realistic-looking artificial tooth to the implant or to the post. The entire process takes about four months.

According to Dr. Koka, a big advantage of the method is that an implant acts as a substitute for the roots of a natural tooth.

"If you are missing a single tooth, this allows you to leave the other teeth around it alone," Dr. Koka said.

"With a bridge, you have to cut down the teeth on each side of the empty space so that a false tooth can be held in place by two crowns," Dr. Koka added.

Almost any adult in reasonably good health is a candidate for dental implants.

Dr. Koka says that patients often ask if osteoporosis would prevent them from getting dental implants. It doesn't.

Mayo Clinic research has shown that patients with osteoporosis or those taking oral bisphosphonates used to treat osteoporosis have about the same success rate as other patients.

And the success rates for dental implants are high -- 90 to 96 percent.

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Cheers! Beer 'can prevent prostate, breast cancers'

Not only men, even women now have another excuse to go down the pub, thanks to a new study which has revealed that downing a glass of beer daily could prevent prostate and breast cancers.

Researchers at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg have discovered that beer contains a powerful molecule which actually helps protect against the breast and prostate cancers.

Found in hops, the substance called xanthohumol blocks the excessive action of testosterone and oestrogen; it also helps to prevent the release of a protein called PSA which encourages the spread of prostate cancer, they say.

Scientists have long known that substances in hops help to block oestrogen. This is the first time, however, that they have been found to also inhibit testosterone.

"The research is still early but in trials we hope to further demonstrate that xanthohumol actively prevents prostate cancer development," the 'Daily Mail' quoted Clarissa Gerhauser of the Heidelberg centre as saying.

Xanthohumol is a powerful antioxidant derived from hops. It belongs to a family of chemicals called flavonoids found in fruits and vegetables that are known to have anti- cancer properties.

So which brews are likely to be rich in xanthohumol? "Hops give beer its bitter flavour so traditional bitters and ales will contain far more of this substance than light lagers," sad Ben McFarland, author of 'World's Best Beers'.

"Beers highest in hops, are India pale ales such as those made by the Meantime Brewery in Greenwich, South-East London. First brewed in the 1800s, these ales were made with high levels of hops to act as a natural preservative for export," he added.

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Men prefer less leggy girls, reveals a new study

You can now stop envying women with lengthy legs, for a new study claims that men prefer girls a little less leggy.
In the search to find the most attractive legs, UK researchers asked more than 1000 men and women to rate a series of images of female bodies, reports a news daily.

In each image the legs had been made shorter or longer, to alter the ‘leg-to-body ratio’, but the overall height remained the same.

The men interviewed were asked which pictures they liked the most while the women were asked to predict the men’s thoughts.

While most women surveyed thought men lusted after longer legs, the University of Westminster research found men preferred women of average height - where their legs accounted for half of their overall height

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Man to stay in 10-days with snakes

An expert in deadly animals is planning to stay for 10 days inside a box full of snakes at a Las Vegas Strip casino as part of a reality television show.

Donald Schultz will enter the clear glass box outside O`Sheas Casino on Sunday, starting with 50 snakes inside. Plans call for five new snakes to be added to the box each day until there are 100 snakes — including cobras, pythons and rattlesnakes.

The stunt will be filmed for Animal Planet`s "Wild Recon" series.

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Po-rn video shown on Moscow highway billboard

Drivers in downtown Moscow squinted in disbelief as an electronic highway billboard blazed a two-minute pornographic video instead of its regular advertising clips.

Late-night traffic on one of the Russian capital`s busiest roads slowed Thursday as a couple`s explicit escapades appeared on the 9-by-6-meter (yard) display.

Some people took pictures of the sight with their mobile phones and posted them on the Internet.

Passer-by Alyona Prokulatova told The Associated Press that she was "so shocked that I couldn`t even shoot video or take a picture of it."

The screen`s owner, 3 Stars, told the AP that a hacker attack was likely to blame. Police were investigating the incident.

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A marriage website for HIV positive people

Junali Devi, a widow living in Assam, is eagerly awaiting the launch of India's first matrimonial website for HIV-positive people.

Guwahati's 35-year-old Junali (name changed on request), who lost her husband three years ago to HIV/AIDS, is among thousands of HIV-positive people in northeast India and elsewhere excited by the prospects of finding a good match through the website.

"I am pinning all my hopes to find a genuine match on the proposed website. I want to live a life with dignity and want someone who is intelligent, sober, and caring," Junali said.

The website (www.hitchiv.com) to be launched later this month at the behest of the Indian Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS (INP+) has already generated a lot of interest among HIV- positive people.

"We have already got about 150 to 200 requests for membership despite the fact that the website is yet to be launched," Jahnabi Goswami, president of INP+, said.

Goswami, 32, is one of the few women in India fighting to raise awareness about the disease. She belongs to an even smaller group of people who have publicly declared that they are HIV- positive.

Membership to the website would be open only to people living with HIV/AIDS.

"Strict privacy would be maintained and only registered members will be able to log in and scan profiles of prospective partners," Goswami said.

There are thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS interested in marriage and leading a normal life with dignity, but since they cannot get in touch with like-minded people, their dreams remained unfulfilled.

"It is an excellent idea to have this website as marriages between an HIV- positive couple would enable them not only to lead a happy life but also to take care of and support each other, which is very important," S.I. Ahmed, head of the AIDS Prevention Society, a community healthcare group in Assam, said.

INP+ would arrange pre-marital counselling to prospective couples interested in having children post-marriage.

"When it comes to marriage the couple would surely be told about the pros and cons," Ahmed added.

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Heavy hips, thighs good for health

They can play havoc with your stress levels when you're trying to squeeze into skinny jeans. But big bottoms could be good for your health, according to British scientists.

A team at Oxford University has claimed that carrying extra weight on your hips, bum and thighs is good for one's health, protecting against heart and metabolic problems, the BBC reported.

Hip fat mops up harmful fatty acids and contains an anti-inflammatory agent that stops arteries clogging; big bums are preferable to extra fat around the waistline, which gives no such protection, the scientists said.

According to them, having too little fat around the hips can lead to serious metabolic problems because there is evidence that fat around the thighs and backside is harder to shift than fat around the waist.

Although this may sound undesirable, it is actually beneficial because when fat is broken down quickly it releases a lot of cytokines - linked to heart disease, and diabetes - which trigger inflammation in the body, say the scientists.

Lead researcher Dr Konstantinos Manolopoulos said: "It is shape that matters and where the fat gathers. Fat around the hips and thighs is good for you but around the tummy is bad."

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Super-strong artificial collagen may help treat arthritis

Scientists have created the strongest form of collagen known to science, a stable alternative to human collagen that could one day be used to treat arthritis and other conditions that result from collagen defects.

Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body, forming strong sheets and cables that support the structure of skin, internal organs, cartilage and bones, as well as all the connective tissue in between.

"It''s by far the most stable collagen ever made," said Ron Raines, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of chemistry and biochemistry who led the study.

For decades, doctors have used collagen from cows to treat serious burns and other wounds in humans despite the risk of tissue rejection associated with cross-species transplants.

In 2006, Raines'' team figured out how to make human collagen in the lab, creating collagen molecules longer than any found in nature.

Now, with funding from the National Institutes of Health
, the researchers have taken this line of inquiry one step further, creating a form of super-strong collagen that may one day help millions.

Raines said that this artificial collagen holds promise as a therapy for conditions such as arthritis, which is caused by a breakdown of the body''s natural collagen.

The research has been published in the Jan. 12 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (ANI)

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Apples, onions good for diabetics

Next time you visit a diabetic friend, gift him apples and onions. It might just help your friend fight and delay the usual medical complications related to heart, eyes and nerves that most diabetics suffer from during the later stages of the ailment.

A team of biochemists from the Allahabad University (AU) led by Dr SI Rizvi has found that Myricetin - a naturally occurring plant polyphenol found in large quantity in apples and onions - can protect diabetic red blood cells (RBCs) from the damaging effects of oxidative stress and increase anti-oxidant defence in Type 2 diabetics thereby delaying the development of diabetic complications.

The discovery has been reported in a prestigious international journal's December 2009 edition as 'Myricetin can mitigate altered redox status in type 2 diabetic erythrocytes'.

"For the common man, diabetes is a condition which is manifested by high glucose level. While the elevated glucose level can be managed by many different drugs or lifestyle changes, the basic condition of the diabetes still remains," said Dr Rizvi.

He said that at the genetic level, there are many causes, which can result in the diabetic condition. To treat this complex disease is therefore not easy. "One of the basic alterations during diabetes is the condition of oxidative stress. Oxidative stress which has been implicated in the development of several late complications of diabetes such as neuropathy (affecting nerves), vascular complication affecting the blood vessels and the heart, retinopathy (affecting the eyes) and the problem of kidneys," he added.

The biochemist said that a strategy for controlling oxidative stress as a result of diabetes was to use dietary supplements, which are high in natural anti-oxidants and the compound 'Myricetin' has been found to offset the increased oxidative stress in diabetic conditions. "Our study, part of a research in the use of plant polyphenols as possible supplementation for diabetic patients, has shown that several parameters which are also very good biomarkers of oxidative stress in human RBC (erythrocytes) are altered during diabetic condition.

"Using a strategy to induce oxidative stress in erythrocytes for both normal and diabetic patients, we found that 'Myricetin' is able to protect diabetic erythrocytes from the damaging effects of oxidative stress. Based on this interesting observation, it is hypnotised that food sources that containing 'Myricetin' can increase anti-oxidant defence in Type 2 diabetes and delay the development of diabetic complications," he added.

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Sex twice a week cuts heart attack risk

Two sex sessions in a week can reduce risk of heart disease in men, says a new research.

The study showed that men who indulged in regular lovemaking were up to 45 per cent less likely to develop life-threatening heart conditions than those who had sex once a month or less.

In the research of over 1,000 men, scientists found that sex apparently has a protective effect on the male heart but they did not examine whether women benefit too.

Thus, American researchers who carried out the investigation are now calling for doctors to screen men for sexual activity when assessing their risk of heart disease, reports the Telegraph.

Despite sex being considered good for physical and mental health, not much has been scientifically proven about the benefits of frequent intercourse on major illnesses such as heart disease.

In the latest study, scientists at the New England Research Institute in Massachusetts, tracked the sexual activity of men aged between 40 and 70 who were taking part in a long-term project called the Massachusetts Male Ageing Study, which began back in 1987.

Over a 16-year period, each man was regularly quizzed on how often they had sex and then checked for signs of heart disease.

Researchers took into account other risk factors, such as their age, weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

The results showed men who made love at least twice a week were much less likely to have heart disease than those whose sexual encounters were limited to once a month or less.

Analyzing the findings, scientists said the benefits of sex could be due to both the physical and emotional effects on the body.

Men with the desire for frequent sexual activity and who are able to engage in it are likely to be healthier, but sex in some forms has a physical activity component that might directly serve to protect cardiovascular health.

Also, men who have frequent sex might be more likely to be in a supportive intimate relationship and this might improve health through stress reduction and social support.

The study was published in the American Journal of Cardiology.

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Early puberty makes girls ‘aggressive

Girls, who go through puberty before turning 12, are found to be more aggressive and more likely to steal, fight and take drugs than their later developing peers, according to a University of Queensland study.


The researchers found that early puberty makes girls "significantly" more aggressive than those who experience puberty later.

The study has also found that there``s no marked difference between boys`` and girls`` aggression levels when at the same stage of puberty.

The findings have come from Australia``s largest longitudinal study, which tracked more than 8,000 mothers and their children over 21 years.

Lead author and sociologist Professor Jake Najman said that girls who are early bloomers are more likely to steal, fight, smoke and take drugs, but the reasons behind such tendencies are not conclusive.

It``s also not known whether these characteristics carry on to womanhood.

Prof Najman says the findings, coupled with children reaching puberty earlier and earlier, may explain why girls are increasingly involved in anti-social behaviour such as drinking, smoking, drug-taking and bullying.

"It links together, in a sense, that what we``re seeing is probably more aggression and delinquent behaviour by females at younger ages as a social trend," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted him as saying.

"... We’re seeing women behaving more like men in terms of their behaviours,” he added.

The study also disproves the belief that boys are more aggressive than girls because of higher testosterone levels.

Najman said the study showed that intervention programs aimed at dealing with anti-social behaviour should be introduced before puberty to have the most effect.

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Women living with partners put on more weight

Women who live with a partner put on more weight than those without a partner or a child, according to a new study.

The study conducted by Wendy Brown, Annette Dobson, U-Q both professors and Richard Hockey of University of Queensland (U-Q), also found that women also experience a larger weight gain after having their first baby.

Researchers surveyed more than 6,000 women over a 10 year period to assess the factors associated with weight gain in young women.

Women with a baby and partner gained the most weight, followed by those with a partner and no baby. Women without a partner or children also gained weight, but at a lower rate.

Dobson and co-authors suggest that the weight gain among all women may be explained by changing social and behavioural factors, said an UQ release.

"This is a general health concern as obesity rates continue to increase," said Dobson.

These findings were published in the January edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

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Online dating industry to grow by 25 pct in 2010

With the increasing popularity of online dating, analysts have predicted that the industry is likely to experience 25 percent growth this year.

There are numerous dating sites that enable singles to look for romance by tailoring requests in terms of ethnicity, physicality, religion and sexual orientation.

The Australian online dating industry has already experienced a 5 per cent increase last year and is expected to grow by another 5 to 10 percent this year.

A survey of more than 3000 people by a dating website found that 50 percent had tried online dating, while 10 percent met their partner on the internet.

Business analysis group IBISWorld predicts the industry to earn almost 100 million dollars from subscriptions and advertising in 2010.

IBISWorld senior analyst Edward Butler said niche sites were becoming more user-friendly.

"Based on religion or interest, they will do a lot of that work before you even sign up and reduce the effort," a news daily quoted him as saying.

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Study reveals why light worsens migraines

A discovery among blind people has helped scientists resolve a mystery why light can make a migraine go from headache to head-splitter, according to a study published on recently.

The problem appears to lie with a newly-discovered bunch of cells in the retina, its authors say.

Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, made the find after pondering why some blind people who suffer from migraines also experience photophobia -- an extreme sensitivity to light that horribly worsens these headaches.

In a paper published online in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the team reported how they probed two groups of migraine-suffering blind individuals.

One group, of six people, was totally blind and immune to the normal sleep-wakefulness cycle caused by daylight and night.

The other, numbering 14, was "legally blind" because of degenerative diseases of the eyes. They could detect the presence of light and followed the sleep-wakefulness cycle although they could not perceive images.

"While the patients in the first group did not experience any worsening of their headaches from light exposure, the patients in the second group clearly described intensified pain when they were exposed to light, in particular blue or grey," said senior author Rami Burstein.

"This suggested to us that the mechanism of photophobia must involve the optic nerve, because in totally blind individuals, the optic nerve does not carry light signals to the brain."

The team theorised that the culprit had to be recently-discovered retinal cells which have melanopsin photoreceptors -- light-sensitive biological triggers for sleep and wakefulness.

"These are the only functioning light receptors left among patients who are legally blind," Burstein explained.

The next step was to test the ideas on lab rats. Using dyes injected into the rodents' eyes, the scientists were able to trace the pathway from the melanopsin retinal cells through the optic nerve and to the brain, where they found a group of neurons which became activated during migraines.

Tiny electrodes inserted into the rats' brains determined that, within seconds, light unleashed a surge of electrical activity in these cells -- and the cells remained switched on even after the light was removed.

"This helps explain why patients say that their headache intensifies within seconds after exposure to light and improves 20 to 30 minutes after being in the dark," Burstein added in a press release.

The work could be a boon for migraine sufferers, the authors hope. It opens up exploratory options for drugs that block the pathway, enabling a migraine patient to endure light without added pain.

Migraines are a widely researched disorder, although the causes remain unclear.

They are believed to develop when protective membranes surrounding the brain become irritated. This stimulates pain receptors and, in turn, causes sensory neurons to become activated for long periods.

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Men turn their thoughts to sex 13 times a day!

An average man thinks about sex 13 times a day, according to a new poll.

A website questioned 3,000 people to come up with the finding.

Results showed that comparatively an average woman thinks of sex just fives time a day.

And, even though men think of sex at least a dozen times a day, they have it just twice a week, or 104 times a year.

"Men are well known for thinking about sex a lot but to find out exactly how often they do is staggering,” a news daily quoted the market research firm as stating.

It added, "It seems blokes have sex on the brain whether they are in a dry spell or jumping between the sheets on a regular basis."

However, three quarters of men were happy with the amount of sex they were getting.

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NASA develops mirror to look into galactic past

Once upon a time, shiny surfaces and mirrors were credited with magical powers that could look into the future. Now two centuries later, NASA is relying on them to look into the past.

The agency is developing a primary mirror 21.3 feet across, for use on the James Webb Space Telescope, to tell us about our beginning in the universe.

The primary mirror will serve as the telescope's eye and peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems, connecting the Milky Way to our own solar system.

Handling delicate space hardware holds no superstitious myths for NASA, but it's still a delicate task that requires careful preparation.

On Friday, six of the 18 Webb telescope mirror segments will be moved into the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility, or XRCF, at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Centre in Huntsville, to experience mercury dipping to minus 414 degrees F to ensure they can withstand the extreme space environments.

When the primary mirror is assembled in space, it will include three different shapes of mirror segments: 6 are "A" segments, 6 are "B" segments and 6 are "C" segments.

This upcoming test in the XRCF will collect data from all three sizes "A, B and C" -- a first for these in the cryogenic facility.

This test will also include the engineering development unit, the first primary mirror segment of the Webb telescope that has met flight specifications at ambient temperatures.

"By the time testing in the XRCF concludes in 2011, all 18 flight segments will have been through multiple measurements while experiencing the extreme temperatures of space," said Helen J. Cole, James Webb Project Manager at NASA-Marshall.

"This process has been six years in the making and we're excited that we can support the Webb telescope development with our world class cryogenic test facility," Cole added, according to a NASA release

Marshall's X-ray and Cryogenic Facility is the world's largest X-ray telescope test facility and a unique, cryogenic, clean room optical test location.

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Coming soon, breath-controlled cell phones?

Thought touch-pad screen phone was the pinnacle of mobile technology? Well, here’s some news for you – Breath-controlled technology has hit the science town.

The new revolutionary technology, Sensawaft, developed by Zyxio, an American company, could soon aid hands-­free mobile phones apart from other gadgets.

"You can move a cursor or character around a screen with as much accuracy as a finger moving a mouse,” the Telegraph quoted Celine Vignal, the co-founder of the company, as saying.

She added: "We think the possibilities are endless. It even has potential for the military and factory assembly workers, who need to use both their hands continually, but would benefit from another functionality.

"And with video games, just imagine playing a Harry Potter game, and blowing to cast a spell. It would be great."

Sensawaft is supported with microelectromechanical systems involving tiny chips that can be embedded in other devices, such as a video game or hands-free mobile phone headset.

The users basically need to blow on the screen to use applications.

Kat Hannaford, contributing editor to the Gizmodo website, said: "It is certainly intriguing and I can see it has enormous potential.

"But for it to get any traction it needs a major manufacturer to adopt it. And do video gamers really want to be huffing and puffing away into a headset? I am not so sure."

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A marriage website for HIV positive people

Junali Devi widow living in Assam, is eagerly awaiting the launch of India's first matrimonial website for HIV-positive people.

Guwahati's 35-year-old Junali (name changed on request), who lost her husband three years ago to HIV/AIDS, is among thousands of HIV-positive people in northeast India and elsewhere excited by the prospects of finding a good match through the website.

"I am pinning all my hopes to find a genuine match on the proposed website. I want to live a life with dignity and want someone who is intelligent, sober, and caring," Junali said.

The website (www.hitchiv.com) to be launched later this month at the behest of the Indian Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS (INP+) has already generated a lot of interest among HIV- positive people.

"We have already got about 150 to 200 requests for membership despite the fact that the website is yet to be launched," Jahnabi Goswami, president of INP+, said.

Goswami, 32, is one of the few women in India fighting to raise awareness about the disease. She belongs to an even smaller group of people who have publicly declared that they are HIV- positive.

Membership to the website would be open only to people living with HIV/AIDS.

"Strict privacy would be maintained and only registered members will be able to log in and scan profiles of prospective partners," Goswami said.

There are thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS interested in marriage and leading a normal life with dignity, but since they cannot get in touch with like-minded people, their dreams remained unfulfilled.

"It is an excellent idea to have this website as marriages between an HIV- positive couple would enable them not only to lead a happy life but also to take care of and support each other, which is very important," S.I. Ahmed, head of the AIDS Prevention Society, a community healthcare group in Assam, said.

INP+ would arrange pre-marital counselling to prospective couples interested in having children post-marriage.

"When it comes to marriage the couple would surely be told about the pros and cons," Ahmed added.

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Charlie Chaplin to be animated star

Charlie Chaplin is to be brought to life as a cartoon character via an Indian-French collaboration that will see the legendary British comedian featured in an animated television series.

DQ Entertainment, an animation and special effects firm based in the southern city of Hyderabad, is to reproduce the entertainer`s slapstick in 3D and computer-generated images for television.

The eight-million-euro (11.5-million-dollar) project is a joint venture with French media groups Method Animation and MK2, the companies said at a news conference in Mumbai Friday.

A total of 104 six-minute episodes without dialogue will be made, inspired by sketches and gags culled from 70 short films made by Chaplin involving his iconic bowler-hatted vagabond character with a toothbrush moustache and cane.

But there will also be original content, Method president Aton Soumache told reporters.

DQ chairman and chief executive Tapaas Chakravarti said the project, for which the firms have been given approval from the Chaplin estate, would be "better than Mr Bean" -- British comic Rowan Atkinson`s accident-prone buffoon.

"(Mr Bean) has delighted everyone for a number of years... It`s very, very clear that to tickle people`s funny bones you don`t really have to talk all the time and silent movies can work. Chaplin did it for so many years," he added.

"We are absolutely sure that we have to get Chaplin back for 21st century kids and parents."

The animated shorts -- aimed at children aged six and above -- are set to hit screens from early next year, Chakravarti said.

Soumache said pre-sale interest from international broadcasters had been high and that funding was "almost done".

Interested parties include companies in France, Germany, Britain, Switzerland and Scandinavia, India and Australia, he said, without revealing names.

"We`re raising from Europe almost 60 to 70 percent of the budget. We`re raising the rest on video and a few other international deals," he added.

Revenue from the first cycle is expected to be in the region of 45 million dollars, he said.

London-born Chaplin, who died in 1977, is recognised as one of the most influential and recognisable comic actors and directors of the silent film period.

His most famous works include "The Kid" (1921), "The Gold Rush" (1925), "City Lights" (1931), "Modern Times" (1936) and "The Great Dictator" (1940).

Soumache said last November that their baggy-trousered Chaplin character "won`t be a realistic portrayal but more like a puppet in an offbeat universe".

"We`ll put him in modern situations but at the same keeping his poetic, child-like view of the world with a retro feel," he added.

DQ Entertainment has worked with a number of high-profile studios and production houses, including Nickelodeon, The Disney Group, Cartoon Network and a host of international broadcasters.

The Indian firm has a 20 percent stake in Method and has previously worked with them on computer-animated adaptations of French children`s classics "Le Petit Prince" (The Little Prince) and "Le Petit Nicolas" (Little Nicolas).

MK2 is one of France`s biggest independent film companies and owns the international rights to the Chaplin films, which it has restored and reissued on DVD and in cinemas.

Animation and special effects have become a growth market in India, as the domestic film industry, including Bollywood, turns to more modern production methods.

The trend has led to the creation of a number of specialist companies, who are being increasingly used by Hollywood and other foreign studios because of their lower costs.

India`s animation and special effects industry is expected to be worth 23.3 billion rupees this year and is expected to grow to 39.4 billion rupees by 2013, consultants KPMG said last year.

The animation sector is projected to grow by 21.9 percent in the five years to 2013, it added in a report on the media and entertainment industry for the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry

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Website discriminates against ugly people

A dating website has kicked out 5,000 of its members simply because they gained weight over the festive season, but the good news for Indians, who form a substantial chunk of www.beautifulpeople.com, is that they were spared the chop.

The site has created quite a stir in the virtual world, after disowning members because they put on weight after Christmas and New Year festivities and no longer qualified for membership. The company said it expelled 1,520 users from the US, 88 people from Russia, 832 from the UK, 176 from Turkey, 533 from Canada, 220 from Denmark, 510 from Poland, 323 from France, 425 from Germany and 402 from Italy. No one from India was ousted.

Beauty Meter
So how beautiful do you have to be to qualify? Beautifulpeople.com has a running meter which decides your attractiveness after you upload your picture. And for those “too ugly” to make it, there’s an option to tour the website as a guest. The existing members vote in new ones, who qualify if they get a certain number of votes. The site declares that its members never have to “filter through unattractive people on mainstream sites” and ‘guarantees’ that “your date will always be beautiful”.

Offended visitors
“Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded,” the site’s founder Robert Hintze reportedly said in a BBC interview. With 5,40,000 members from 16 countries and a traffic of 4 million visitors per day, the site also has a fair share of critics and anti-groups on social networking sites . Writes Laila Masiqbal, on Facebook group Say no to http://BeautifulPeople.com, “It is definitely not the sexiest website nor the most elite.” Max Randall, on Antibeautifulpeople.com writes, “What ignorance!” while Igor Zanetti from Croatia says, “It is pretty
stupid. Frustrated freaks.”

A blogger on iamugleeee says, “I hate this website. It’s like going back to the dark ages. Somebody please spam them!!!!” Shom Ray, director, eMakerz: E Branding Solutions, a Delhiite says, “They are discriminating on the basis on looks. Such sites should be banned.”

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Goa to banish bikini babes from ads

Fighting against the slur of turning into a sex-tourism destination, the Goa tourism department has decided to censor all advertisements.

"Goa is a family holiday destination and not sex tourism destination. We will make sure that bikini babes do not symbolise Goa tourism in future," state tourism minister Fransisco Pacheco said.

He said the tourism department will ask all empanelled advertisement agencies to desist from using scantily-clad women in their campaigns.

"The department has already stopped such ads but I will make sure that henceforth all advertisements are scrutinised by the department before being sent for printing," Pacheco said.

The tourism minister expressed concern over the recent incidents of rape in the state which, he said, had given a bad name to Goa, one of the most favoured tourist destinations for both Indian and foreign tourists.

Pacheco said that he will also ask all tour operators, including private players, to follow the guidelines on advertisements to help improve the state`s image.

Stating that foreigners sunbathing on the beaches in bikini should not be misconstrued as promoting sex tourism, he said, "Can you ask someone to be fully dressed and take a bath? Naturally, they will venture into the sea in bikini and later soak in the sun."

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Men who do more housework get more sex

Men who devote lots of time to paid work and household chores get more sex and the same applies to women.

These are the conclusion of a new US study of almost 7000 married couples, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

Published in the Journal of Family Issues, the study denies the ideology that the time crunch has killed passion stone dead.

"As life gets busier and time gets tighter, a select group of go-getter spouses can successfully balance multiple time commitments," say the authors, Constance Gager, of Montclair State University, New Jersey, and Scott Yabiku, of Arizona State University.

Barbara Pocock, the director of the Centre for Work and Life at the University of South Australia, in a study of Australian working women found resentment over housework killed libido.

"Women's feelings about their husband were shaped by perceptions of fairness around housework," she said. "If the resentment factor was high that's when their sex life was not great. The best sex aid a man could use was a vacuum cleaner.''

The US researchers said: "The much-lamented speed-up of everyday life does not appear to have adverse effects on sexual frequency."

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Marriage can affect your waistline

They say being married is good for health, especially for men. But as far as women are concerned, it turns out that they've to pay a higher price for marriage - extra weight gain.

That's the conclusion of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, a 10-year study from the School of Human Movement Studies at the University of Queensland. The findings appear online and in the February issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"The weight gain appeared to start when they married, then worsened when they had their first child," said lead author Wendy J. Brown, Ph.D. "There was no effect on the rate of weight gain of having a second baby."

From 1996 to 2006, researchers periodically surveyed a randomly selected group of 6,458 Australian women ages 18 to 23 at study's start.

"Women with no partner and no baby averaged 11 pounds over 10 years. With a partner and no baby they gained about 15 pounds, and if they had a partner and a baby they gained 20 pounds," Brown said.

"The so-called energy-balance variables like eating too much and moving too little had an effect, but the estimates of weight gain are adjusted for differences in these factors," she said.

Brown said that young women ages 18 to 33 are gaining weight at a higher rate than their mother's generation.

The expert added: "If it continues, this generation will end up with more health problems later in life. It is important to understand the causes of this weight gain."

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NASA's Kepler finds five planets

Nasa's Kepler Space Telescope has detected its first five exoplanets, or planets beyond our Solar System. The observatory, which was launched last year to find other Earths, made the discoveries in its first few weeks of science operations. Although the new worlds are all bigger than our Neptune, the US space agency says the haul shows the telescope is working well and is very sensitive. The exoplanets have been given the names Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b. They were announced at an American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington DC.

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How men and women respond differently to sex

When it comes to sexual responses, men and women are poles apart, concludes a new study.

Led by Queen's University Psychology professor Meredith Chiversk, the study found that men's reports of feeling sexually aroused tend to match their physiological responses, while women's mind and body responses are less aligned.

"We wanted to discover how closely people's subjective experience of sexual arousal mirrors their physiological genital response – and whether this differs between men and women," said Chiversk.

Although a gender difference has been reported in individual studies of sexual arousal, until now there has been no systematic analysis.

In the study, researchers analysed 134 studies, published between 1969 and 2007, involving more than 2,500 women and 1,900 men.

Participants were asked how aroused they felt during and after exposure to a variety of sexual stimuli.

This subjective measure of arousal was compared with physiological responses—changes in penile erection for men and changes in genital blood flow for women.

The men's subjective ratings more closely matched their physiological measures than the women's; men's brain and bodies were almost always in agreement, while there was more often a reported inconsistency between women's bodies and minds.

"Understanding measures of arousal is paramount to further theoretical and practical advances in the study of human sexuality. Our results have implications for the assessment of sexual arousal, the nature of gender differences in sexual arousal, and models of sexual response," said Chiversk.

The study will be published in the international journal, Archives of Sexual Behavior.

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Men’s minds and bodies more in sync sexually than women`s

When it comes to sexual responses, men and women are poles apart, concludes a new study.

Led by Queen`s University Psychology professor Meredith Chiversk, the study found that men`s reports of feeling sexually aroused tend to match their physiological responses, while women`s mind and body responses are less aligned.

"We wanted to discover how closely people`s subjective experience of sexual arousal mirrors their physiological genital response – and whether this differs between men and women," said Chiversk.

Although a gender difference has been reported in individual studies of sexual arousal, until now there has been no systematic analysis.

In the study, researchers analysed 134 studies, published between 1969 and 2007, involving more than 2,500 women and 1,900 men.

Participants were asked how aroused they felt during and after exposure to a variety of sexual stimuli.

This subjective measure of arousal was compared with physiological responses—changes in penile erection for men and changes in genital blood flow for women.

The men``s subjective ratings more closely matched their physiological measures than the women``s; men``s brain and bodies were almost always in agreement, while there was more often a reported inconsistency between women`s bodies and minds.

"Understanding measures of arousal is paramount to further theoretical and practical advances in the study of human sexuality. Our results have implications for the assessment of sexual arousal, the nature of gender differences in sexual arousal, and models of sexual response," said Chiversk.

The study will be published in the international journal, Archives of Sexual Behavior.

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Here is why powerful men most often cheat

Tiger Woods, David Letterman, former senator John Edwards and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford—these are some of the men who recently came into the limelight for their philandering ways. And now researchers are trying to figure out why power and cheating go hand in hand for men.



Researchers have pointed out that despite the genetic propensity to sleep around, cheating remains a choice, not a DNA-bound destiny restricted to men.

They said that men who cheat might not have been thinking consciously about their acts at all.

"I’m guessing these things don’t happen at the forefront of their brain. They aren’t things he sits down and calculates out. It’s in the background," Live Science quoted Scott Reynolds, assistant professor of business ethics at the University of Washington in Seattle, as saying.

Even if their brains did register the infidelities, high-profile philanderers have so much power and control over their lives they couldn’t imagine getting caught, say scientists.
Scientists have said that even the most upright, squeaky-clean person can have an extramarital affair, and perhaps they are more likely to do so.

"People don’t necessarily practice what they preach. It’s not clear to what extent people’s ethical values are actually running what they do or don’t do," said Lawrence Josephs, a clinical psychologist at Adelphi University in New York.

Whatever the cause of each extramarital act, mistresses and multiple romantic partners are here to stay, say scientists.
From an evolutionary perspective, men are here to sow their seeds—they desire more sexual partners and even lower their standards when it comes to one-night stands, studies have shown.

"Guys would naturally be more promiscuous if given the opportunity," said Daniel Kruger, a social and evolutionary psychologist at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health.

And added with status and power, extramarital affairs are an easy bet.

"These people are not only high in power, but also somebody like Tiger Woods is going to be traveling a lot and have a lot more opportunities to meet women. Women fawn over these guys," said Kruger.

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One third young jobless in UK felt suicidal, finds study

One in every three youths who lost jobs in the wake of the recession in the UK has shown suicidal tendencies, a new report has said.

The Prince`s Trust youth index, the largest of its kind, shows that those, aged 16 to 24, who are out of work, training and education are significantly less happy with their lives, health and family than those with jobs.

"This is because unemployment has a knock-on effect on a young person`s self-esteem, emotional stability and overall well-being. The longer a young person is unemployed, the more likely they are to experience psychological scarring," David Blanchflower, a former member of the Monetary Policy Committee
and contributor to the report said.

"Previous research suggests a correlation between economic downturns and suicide levels nationwide."

The hardships forced one in every three jobless persons to feel like committing suicide at some point in their lives, said the report.

The survey, which was carried out by YouGov, quizzed 2,088 young people, of whom 130 were unemployed.

It found that a quarter of those who are, or have been, unemployed argue with their parents and families.

They also face a lifetime of poorer health, with one in 10 claiming that being out of work drove them to drugs or alcohol, The Daily Mail reported.

Painting a grim picture of a lost generation of young people who find themselves out of work, the report said nearly half of those struggling to find a job believe their life lack direction and a third feel depressed all or most of the time.

Statistics released last month revealed that nearly a fifth of 16 to 24-year-olds - more than a million young people - are not working, the highest figure since records began.

The Office for National Statistics data showed that the recession had disproportionately affected young people, with an 8 percent rise in unemployment among 16 and 17-year-olds.

According to the Prince`s Trust report, the jobless were three times more likely to say that they had no hope for the future than those in employment.

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Sex' makes men spendthrift!

Promise of sex makes men open their wallets like nothing else, American researchers have claimed.

A study by researchers from the Arizona State University in Tempe and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque showed that thinking about mating influences men's decisions about spending and giving.

In the experiment, the team led by Vladas Griskevicius and Josh Tybur, invited college students to the lab in small groups. Each was randomly assigned to one of two conditions: "mating" or "non-mating", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reported.

The mating subjects looked at three photographs of people of the opposite-sex on a computer screen, picked which one they thought most desirable, and spent a few minutes writing about an ideal first date with that person.

The non-mating subjects looked at a street scene photograph and spent the same amount of time writing about the ideal weather for walking around and looking at the buildings it featured.

Then, all subjects were asked to imagine that they had a modest windfall of money, such as a lottery win of a few thousand dollars, and must choose how much they wanted to spend on a variety of conspicuous luxuries - such as a new watch, European vacation or new car - and how much they would save in a bank account.

The results were dramatic: men in the mating condition said they would spend much more money than men in the non-mating condition.

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Israeli magician creates ice record

You may call it an illusion, but an Israeli magician spent 66 hours in an eight-tonne block of ice to create a new world record.

Hezi Dayan, 29, had himself sealed into a specially constructed transparent ice cube in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, where he apparently stayed for nearly three days wearing just jeans and a thin T-shirt.

"My aim is that at two or three in the morning, people on their way home from a night out will say, 'Come let's go to the square and see if that loony is in his ice'," Dayan told the Haaretz newspaper before attempting the feat.

At the stroke of the New Year, assistants cut open the ice block and removed the weak-looking illusionist, taking him straight to a waiting ambulance. However, his condition wasn't immediately clear.

Some 200 onlookers celebrated the arrival of the new decade with Dean, many of the them carrying signs - from the encouraging "Hezi the great", to the more practical "Don't die Hezi Dayan".

Dayan broke the record of the American magician David Blaine who spent 63 hours in a similar ice cube in New York's Times Square in 2000.

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High blood sugar 'raises cancer risk'

Too much glucose in the blood is unhealthy, doctors have said for long. Now, a new study has found that high blood sugar can raise the risk of developing cancer, with women sufferers being the most vulnerable.

Scientists in Sweden have carried out the study and found people, particularly the women, with high blood sugar levels face a greater danger of developing cancer and die from the disease as well.

"The results suggest that, for women, the higher the level of sugar in the blood, the higher the risk. For men, there was still an association, but it was weaker," Dr Tanja Stock, lead scientist at Umea University, told 'The Observer'.

For their study, the scientists examined blood sugar levels in 274,126 men and 275,818 women from Norway, Austria and Sweden with an average age of 44.8, then followed them up a decade later to see how many developed or died from cancer.

According to the scientists, the study is significant because it found the increased likelihood of cancer occurred regardless of the participants' body mass index levels.

Though it does not prove that blood glucose of itself leads to cancer, but it suggests that it might promote tumour growth by acting as a source of fuel for tumour cells, especially fast-growing, highly proliferative cells.

"Significant increases in risk among men were found for incident and fatal cancer of the liver, gallbladder, and respiratory tract, for incident thyroid cancer and multiple myeloma, and for fatal rectal cancer.

"In women, significant associations were found for incident and fatal cancer of the pancreas, for incident urinary bladder cancer, and for fatal cancer of the uterine corpus, cervix uteri and stomach," the scientists wrote in the 'Public Library of Science Medicine' journal.

Dr Panagiota Mitrou, Science Programme Manager at World Cancer Research Fund which funded the study, said the findings "raise the possibility that controlling blood sugar levels may be a way to reduce risk of some cancers".

However, disagreed Dr Iain Frame, Director of Research at Diabetes UK: "It would be wrong to conclude that high blood glucose levels alone are causing the increase in cancer cases and deaths. Nor can we say that, by controlling blood glucose levels alone, we could lower the risk of cancer."

Added Dr Laura Bell of Cancer Research UK: "This is an interesting study looking at blood-sugar levels and cancer risk but it's really only looking at one part of a complicated picture."

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Women love cell phones more than boyfriends: Survey

Mobile phone seems to have become first love of many girls as a survey found that losing their cell phones is more upsetting for women than splitting with their boyfriend.

In a survey of 4,000 women living in Australia, carried out by British pawnbroker Borro to know their most treasured possessions, four in every 10 women said they would be lost without their mobiles, but would happily go without a man in their life.

Majority of the women surveyed consider their mothers to be their most prized possession followed closely by their photographs and then their mobile phone, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Besides mother and mobile, women treasured their friends more than then their boyfriends, the study claimed.

Other items which made it to the list of most treasured items in a woman's life were diamond rings, pets, laptops and hair straighteners.

As part of the survey, when the women were asked whether they would dump their boyfriends for money, a large chunk said they would consider doing so if offered more than USD one million in cash.

The survey's results showed the changing focus of what is important in many women's lives, said Anne Hollonds from Relationship Australia.

"I think it fits within the fact that we are very focused on our own lives these days," Hollands added.

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Twitter bans 370 words as passwords

Social networking site `Twitter` has banned 370 words it considers "too obvious" to be used as passwords.
Twitter rejects certain words like "123456" and "password" to be used as passwords because it thinks they are too easy to guess and put users data at risk, The Telegraph reported.

Along with, names of famous cars such as "porsche" and "ferrari", and football teams like "Chelsea" and "Arsenal" are also banned.

A few science fiction words are also a part of the banned word list of the website.

"THX1138" -- title of the first film by Star Wars fame director George Lucas, is banned. So is "NCC1701" – the registry number of Star Trek`s starship Enterprise – and "trustno1", Fox Mulder`s password in The X-Files, the report said.

A recent research by insurer CPP has shown that people are often too predictable when it comes to choosing passwords.

Security experts advise that a strong password should consist of letters, numbers and even punctuation symbols. They should be changed regularly and one should not use the same
password for their online services.

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Husband`s extra-marital affair ‘good for marriage’!

.’If your husband is enjoying a secret rendezvous with another women, don’t run after him with a knife, for the extra-marital affair is a sign that your marriage is a healthy one.

That’s the claim of France`s most prominent female psychologist Maryse Vaillant in controversial new book on the effects of infidelity on married life, Men, Love, Fidelity, reports The Telegraph.

Vaillant reckons that men who keep mistresses actually improve their marriage.

"[Most] don`t do it because they no longer love them, on the contrary," she said. "They simply need breathing space. For such men, who are in fact profoundly monogamous, infidelity is almost unavoidable".

Once women accept that the "pact of fidelity is not natural but cultural", and that infidelity is essential to the "psychic functioning" of certain men who are still very much in love, it can be a "very liberating" for women, she added.

In her book, Vaillant insists that fidelity is not, by definition proof of love.

"They are often men whose father was physically or morally absent ... during their childhood. These men have a completely idealised view of their father and the paternal function," she said. "They lack suppleness and are prisoners to an idealised image of a man of duty."

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