Culture

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Bling, foreclosures, rising credit card debt, bank and auto bailouts, upside down mortgages and perhaps a mid-life crisis new Corvette---all symptoms of compulsive overspending.

University of Michigan researcher Daniel Kruger looks to evolution and mating for an explanation. He theorizes that men overspend to attract mates. It all boils down, as it has for hundreds of thousands of years, to making babies.

Is race defined by appearance, or can a person also be colored by socioeconomic status? A new study finds that Americans who are unemployed, incarcerated or impoverished today are more likely to be classified and identified as black, by themselves or by others, regardless of how they were seen -- or self identified -- in the past.

Frequent price cuts can have a major adverse effects on brand equity, even for well respected brands, according to a study published in a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®).

"A Dynamic Model of Brand Choice When Price and Advertising Signal Product Quality" appears in the current issue of the INFORMS journal Marketing Science. The study is by Tülin Erdem of NYU; Michael P. Keane of the University of Technology Sidney, Australia and Arizona State University; and Baohong Sun of Carnegie Mellon University.

New data from The Kinsey Institute at Indiana University demonstrate that many women think condoms undermine sexual pleasure, but those who use both hormonal contraception and condoms report higher overall sexual satisfaction.

The study authors suggest that this inconsistency reflects how women think about their contraceptive method when asked questions about two different aspects of sexuality -- sexual enjoyment and overall sexual satisfaction.

Eating saturated fats from butter, cream and meat, as well as trans fats found in hydrogenated oils can boost our risk of cardiovascular disease, while consuming mono-unsaturated fat can be good for our heart.

Yet what's the effect of all these fats on our weight? Are some better than others?

For every rock star who hits it big, there are thousands of artists who never make it out of their own back yards. Before Madonna was "Madonna," she was a local success in New York clubs. Until Britney Spears became a global pop superstar, she performed in dance revues in her native Louisiana.

Feagin, who admits a passion for coastal ecosystems, said four elements are impacted as a hurricane rolls over a barrier island: beaches erode, sand dunes "blow out," houses and buildings are damaged and, finally, the marshes receive sediment deposits from all the above.

Research at the Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) has led to better understanding of clouds, the unknown quantity in current climate models. The Delft researcher Thijs Heus has tackled this issue with a combination of detailed computer simulations and airplane measurements. He charted data including cloud speed, temperature and the 'life span' of clouds to arrive at new observations.

Interaction

TORONTO, ON. – As video sharing websites like YouTube continue to grow in popularity, so do challenges around proper labeling of videos and monitoring for copyright infractions.

But one student from the University of Toronto has created a framework that can improve the efficiency of such websites and cut down on copyright infringement.

Insurance solutions are pushed forward at the climate negotiations this week in Poznan.

This is a critical juncture to build insurance mechanisms solidly into the architecture of the agreement that will emerge in Copenhagen next year.

A new analysis finds that state policies meant to limit minors' indoor tanning use have had little effect. Published in the January 15, 2009 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that additional efforts are needed to reduce indoor tanning use in youth.

MADISON — When it comes to the world of the very, very small — nanotechnology — Americans have a big problem: Nano and its capacity to alter the fundamentals of nature, it seems, are failing the moral litmus test of religion.

In a report published today (Dec. 7) in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, survey results from the United States and Europe reveal a sharp contrast in the perception that nanotechnology is morally acceptable. Those views, according to the report, correlate directly with aggregate levels of religious views in each country surveyed.

A group of scientists of the University of Granada has developed a new optical technique which permits to know if a Compact Disc (CD) is original or a copy. This new technique is economical, fast and effective, and allows to detect illegal CD copies.

Optical CDs are at present the most extended physical means of distribution of digital information around the world. However, bootlegging in this sector is a serious problem which involves important economic losses and which has not been solved up to now.

POZNAN (5 December 2008)—The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) today released a comprehensive analysis clarifying major challenges and offering an assortment of options that could help negotiators reach a global agreement on reducing carbon emissions tied to forest destruction and degradation.

BOSTON, Mass. (Dec. 4, 2008) —If you're happy and you know it, thank your friends—and their friends. And while you're at it, their friends' friends. But if you're sad, hold the blame. Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego have found that "happiness" is not the result solely of a cloistered journey filled with individually tailored self-help techniques. Happiness is also a collective phenomenon that spreads through social networks like an emotional contagion.