Perfume ads, beer billboards, movie posters: everywhere you look, women’s sexualized bodies are on display. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that both men and women see images of sexy women’s bodies as objects, while they see sexy-looking men as people.

Sexual objectification has been well studied, but most of the research is about looking at the effects of this objectification. “What’s unclear is, we don’t actually know whether people at a basic level recognize sexualized femalesor sexualized males as objects,” says Philippe Bernard of Université libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. Bernard cowrote the new paper with Sarah Gervais, Jill Allen, Sophie Campomizzi, and Olivier Klein.

Psychological research has worked out that our brains see people and objects in different ways. For example, while we’re good at recognizing a whole face, just part of a face is a bit baffling. On the other hand, recognizing part of a chair is just as easy as recognizing a whole chair.

One way that psychologists have found to test whether something is seen as an object is by turning it upside down. Pictures of people present a recognition problem when they’re turned upside down, but pictures of objects don’t have that problem. So Bernard and his colleagues used a test where they presented pictures of men and women in sexualized poses, wearing underwear. Each participant watched the pictures appear one by one on a computer screen. Some of the pictures were right side up and some were upside down. After each picture, there was a second of black screen, then the participant was shown two images. They were supposed to choose the one that matched the one they had just seen.

People recognized right-side-up men better than upside-down men, suggesting that they were seeing the sexualized men as people. But the women in underwear weren’t any harder to recognize when they were upside down—which is consistent with the idea that people see sexy women as objects. There was no difference between male and female participants.

We see sexualized women every day on billboards, buildings, and the sides of buses and this study suggests that we think of these images as if they were objects, not people. “What is motivating this study is to understand to what extent people are perceiving these as human or not,” Bernard says. The next step, he says, is to study how seeing all these images influences how people treat real women.

(Source)

Brain training puzzles really can boost intelligence, a study shows for the first time today.

The exercises are an increasingly popular way for people of all ages to keep their minds alert. It has been suggested before that Sudoku number puzzles improve memory, while crosswords expand the vocabulary. The elderly are also said to benefit from a new generation of computer exercises played on video consoles to improve recall. However, for the first time, scientists have proven that mental exercise really does limber up the brain and make it more quick-witted.

A Swiss-American team reports in a leading scientific journal how they used a computer based brain-training method to improve general problem-solving ability. Many psychologists had thought the only way to improve this was actually by practising the specific problem solving task you wanted to get better at. However, this theory is overturned in the work by Drs Susanne Jaeggi, Martin Buschkühl and colleagues at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and University of Bern. They say you can improve generally problem solving ability by carrying out unrelated mental exercises and puzzles.

In the experiment, the team gave 35 volunteers a series of mental training exercises designed to improve their working memory, while they also had 35 more subjects who did not undergo the “brain boot camp”.

Those who underwent the mental exercise tests, were shown a sequence of squares appearing one after another on the computer screen every three seconds. The task was to decide whether a certain square was at the same position as another one previously seen in the sequence. At the same time, participants heard spoken letters and had to decide whether the currently heard letter was the same as one presented two or three steps earlier in the sequence. If they did well the task became harder, while if they did badly it became easier. They repeated the exercises for between eight and 19 days.

Their problem solving ability was then assessed compared to the group who had not taken part in the exercises.

According to the results of the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group who took part in the puzzles had a significantly improved problem solving ability. Moreover, the more the participants trained, the more problems they could solve. Motivation however, was also important too – suggesting people have to be committed to mental exercise to reap the benefits.

Dr Jaeggi said: “It’s the same in sports: you can not expect to get better in football if you merely run around a little bit and not really want to improve.”

This is the first evidence that mental exercise improves intelligence and problem solving ability generally and suggests time spent on crosswords, Sudoku and other number and word games is time well spent.

(Source)

A 75 year old woman from Karlstad in central Sweden has been thrust into the IT history books – with the world’s fastest internet connection.

The music industry wants LimeWire to pay up to $75 trillion in damages after losing a copyright infringement claim. That’s right . . . $75 trillion. Manhattan federal Judge Kimba Wood has labeled this request “absurd.”

You’re telling me. To put that number into perspective (I bet a lot of you didn’t even know “trillion” was a real number), the U.S. GDP is around 14 trillion – less than one fifth of what the music industry is requesting. Heck, the GDP of the entire world is between 59 and 62 trillion. That’s right, the music industry wants LimeWire to pay more money than exists in the entire world.

Popular file-sharing service LimeWire was shut down last October, after Judge Wood found them liable for copyright infringement in May 2010.

According to Law.com, the RIAA and the 13 record companies that are suing LimeWire for copyright infringement have demanded damages ranging from $400 billion to $75 trillion, and have claimed that Section 504(c)(1) of the Copyright Act allow them to request damages for each instance of infringement where two or more parties were liable. In other words, the RIAA thinks it should be entitled to damages not only for the individual works, but for every time that work was infringed (i.e. downloaded by another user).

At the moment, about 11,000 songs have been identified as “infringed” material, and each song has probably been downloaded thousands of times. The RIAA thinks it should be compensated for each individual download.

Judge Wood disagrees. In a 14-page ruling (PDF), Judge Wood said that the music industry is entitled only to a “single statutory damage award from Defendants per work infringed,” for several reasons, including “Absurd Result.” According to the document, the “Plaintiffs’ position on statutory damages also offends the ‘canon that we should avoid endorsing statutory interpretations that would lead to absurd results.’”

The document goes on to read: “As it stands now, Defendants face a damage award that ‘could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, if not over a billion dollars.’”

Judge Wood also points out that “if one multiplies the maximum statutory damage award ($150,000) by approximately 10,000 post-1972 works, Defendants face a potential award of over a billion dollars in statutory damages alone. If Plaintiffs were able to pursue a statutory damage theory predicated on the number of direct infringers per work, Defendants’ damages could reach into the trillions. As Defendants note, Plaintiffs are suggesting an award that is ‘more money than the entire music recording industry has made since Edison’s invention of the phonograph in 1877.’”

(Read More)

Katy Perry isn’t the only “California Gurl” hanging out with Snoop Dogg – Cameron Diaz says she and the rapper go way back.

“We went to high school together,” the Bad Teacher actress, 38, said of her fellow Long Beach Polytechnic High School alum, 39, on Wednesday’s Lopez Tonight. “He was a year older than me….I remember him, he was very tall and skinny. He wore lots of ponytails.”

Another thing that hasn’t changed: his passion for pot.

“I’m pretty sure I bought weed from him,” Diaz said of Snoop, who has a medical marijuana card. “I was green even in high school!”

No word on if she sampled his gin and juice, but the star admitted school was kind of rough even with her weed connection.

“Anytime you heard the locker slam and you’d turn and there was a girl taking off her earrings, she’s pulling her hair back in a ponytail and she’s taking all her friends’ rings and coming at you like this,” she said. “I used to get in fights with boys more than girls, for some reason boys liked to fight me. But one time in junior high I had this girl come up to me in the locker room from behind and pull my hair back. I had to shut her down!”

(Read More)

An ‘evil’ clown who stalks and threatens kids is being hired by parents as a birthday treat.

Dominic Deville stalks young victims for a week, sending chilling texts, making prank phone calls and setting traps in letterboxes.

He posts notes warning children they are being watched, telling them they will be attacked.

But Deville is not an escaped lunatic or some demonic monster.

He is a birthday treat, hired by mum and dad, and the ‘attack’ involves being splatted in the face with a cake.

‘The child feels more and more that it is being pursued,’ said Deville.

‘The clown’s one and only aim is to smash a cake into the face of his victim, when they least expect it, during the course of seven days.’

If the boy or girl manages to avoid the ‘hit’, they are given the cake as a birthday present. Well, that’s alright then.

The frightening fun can be stopped at any time, which is handy for parents who have second thoughts and don’t fancy the cost of child therapy.

Deville said: ‘The clown will never break into a residence or show up at work. ‘It’s all in fun and if, at any point, the kids get scared or their parents are concerned, we stop right there.

‘But most kids absolutely love being scared senseless.’

Deville set up his Evil Clown service in Lucerne, Switzerland, after being inspired by some of his favourite horror films – possibly including Stephen King’s It and Killer Klowns From Outer Space.

The idea is unlikely to be popular with sufferers of coulrophobia – the irrational (irrational?) fear of clowns.

But Stephen Vaughan of Clowns International, said scary clowns could be as funny as their red-nosed counterparts. ‘I think what Dominic is doing is a great idea,’ he added.

‘Bringing a little bit of life and laughter into kids’ lives is what we are all about.’

(Source)

Two Nottingham superhero enthusiasts have changed their names to what are thought to be the longest in the UK.

Daniel Knox-Hewson, 23, is now Emperor Thrash, while Kelvin Borbidge, 22, has become Baron Grind (short versions).

Their new names consist of 15 superhero names each. Mr Thrash and Mr Grind said they changed their birth name at the legal Deed Poll service for £10 each.

The best friends were among more than 100,000 people in Britain to change their name this year.

‘Superhero status’

Mr Knox-Hewson renamed himself Emperor Spiderman Gandalf Wolverine Skywalker Optimus Prime Goku Sonic Xavier Ryu Cloud Superman Heman Batman Thrash.

Mr Thrash said: “We decided to change our names because we were bored of our day-to-day lives and wanted to do something that reflected our true personalities.

“We couldn’t believe how easy it was to do, we just had to fill in a few forms and we were granted superhero status.”

Mr Borbidge now goes by the name of Baron Venom Balrog Sabretooth Vader Megatron Vegeta Robotnik Magneto Bison Sephiroth Lex Luthor Skeletor Joker Grind.

Mr Grind said he was looking forward to seeing his new name on his bank card.

“I wonder how they will fit it all on?” he said.

(Source)

An estimated 16 million women in China may be married to homosexual men, “silently suffering” the consequences to sustain their wedlock, a leading Chinese expert claimed today.

Prof Zhang Bei-chuan from Qingdao University, who researches on AIDS and HIV, said that about 90% of homosexual men marry because of pressure to follow traditional values prevalent in the country.

“But their wives are struggling to cope and their plight should be recognised,” he was quoted by the state-run China Daily. About 16 million women in China may be married to homosexual men, he claimed.

Xiao Yao, a 29-year-old magazine editor in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, divorced her gay husband in 2008.

“Most gay men’s wives I’ve known are silently suffering at the hands of husbands who could never love them, and like me, some even got abused by husbands who were also under great pressure,” she said.

She runs a website which has 1,200 such women registered as users and says it “makes them feel they’re not alone and empowers them to make the right choices.”

However, the gay community is split on the claim. “Zhang’s estimation is unsubstantiated and I even feel it’s pointless to research the issue,” Xiao Dong, a 36-year-old gay, who heads a civil organisation for HIV/AIDS prevention and control, said.

“To put gays’ wives under the spotlight might cause more public misunderstanding or even hatred toward the gay population, which does not help defuse existing social discrimination against them,” he said, while adding that the question of marriage is complicated for them.

However, Meng Lin, a 50-year-old gay from Beijing, believes that Zhang’s estimation is reasonable.

“I myself almost married a woman many years ago, but finally gave up when I learnt I was HIV positive,” he said.

“Gay men and gays’ wives are both victims of social discrimination and stigma, so we should not simply blame one party,” he added.

Wang Zi (name changed) said that he would never tell his parents the truth and while he does not want a heterosexual marriage, he would consider it so as not to hurt the feelings of his parents.

“I may marry a lesbian and we can keep going with our own lifestyle more honestly,” the 27-year-old said.

(Source)

In a study involving 12 surgeons and 21 surgical residents, video game skill was correlated with laparoscopic surgery skill as assessed during a simulated surgery skills course, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

James C. Rosser Jr., M.D., of Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, and colleagues asked 33 surgeons (21 residents and 12 attending physicians) about their video game–playing habits, then assessed their performance at the Rosser Top Gun Laparoscopic Skills and Suturing Program, a one-and-a-half day course that scores surgeons on time and errors during simulated surgery drills. During the study, conducted from May through August, 2002, the surgeons also played three video games for 25 minutes while the researchers assessed their gaming skills.

Of the surgeons who participated in the study, 15 reported never playing video games, nine reported playing zero to three hours per week, and nine reported playing more than three hours per week at the height of their video game playing. “Surgeons who had played video games in the past for more than three hours per week made 37 percent fewer errors [in the Top Gun course], were 27 percent faster and scored 42 percent better overall than surgeons who never played video games. Current video game players made 32 percent fewer errors, were 24 percent faster and scored 26 percent better overall than their non-player colleagues,” the authors write. Those in the top one-third of video gaming skill made 47 percent fewer errors, performed 39 percent faster and scored 41 percent better on the overall Top Gun score than those in the bottom one-third.

“Training curricula that include video games may help thin the technical interface between surgeons and screen-mediated applications, such as laparoscopic surgery,” the authors conclude. “Video games may be a practical teaching tool to help train surgeons.”

(Source)