Archive for July, 2009

Weekend Edition

Friday, July 31st, 2009

Dial M(agnetic) for Women

Friday, July 31st, 2009

By B. R. Gowani

fragrant news bulletin, men!
following the latest and greatest breakthrough
for male homo sapiens, that is,
the V news of the rousing pill

Dial has a body wash for men now
laden with synthesized pheromones
the full good name is:
Dial for men –
pheromone-infused
magnetic attraction enhancing body wash

just take a shower with it
and the first female you come across
will be attracted to you
you can select her –
provided you like her —
otherwise, you can get the next one

your face, physique, or finances
do not matter, because
advertising has mentally damaged us all
and now this Dial for Men Magnetic
will visually impair women
and they will go with any man
who has been magnetized by the Dial

Crap, you say?

studies show women and men decide to meet
by looking at each other first
now, do they smell first and then meet?

visual attraction comes first
pheromone factor comes later,
unless it is vice versa,
but when you are in action
the natural smell from the arm pit
can activate us more
though not all …
as we humans are different …

B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com

Banking on a Chemical Reaction

Friday, July 31st, 2009


THE TEST As part of an experiment, nine women at a lounge in Manhattan were blindfolded and asked to select a date by sniffing scent strips.

By CAMILLE SWEENEY

ON a recent evening, an unusual experiment took place at a lounge in downtown Manhattan. Nine blindfolded women were asked to determine, by smell alone, whether any among a group of nine men was worth pursuing.

Three men had just showered using a body wash with synthesized pheromones, three had used a body wash without pheromones, and the rest had worked up a sweat and not washed at all. They then rubbed their arms on scent strips, and handed them to the women to sniff.

One participant, Michelle Hotaling, 24, chose a man who had used the pheromone body wash. “In appearance and personality he was not someone I would otherwise be convinced to go out with,” she said, once her blindfold came off. “But his scent was a factor that would push my decision to say, ‘Yes.’ ”

Which was just what Dial, the event’s sponsor and maker of the new “pheromone-infused” Dial for Men Magnetic Attraction Enhancing Body Wash, wanted to hear.

“We don’t claim using our product you’re going to hit a home run,” said Ryan Gaspar, a brand manager. “We say, ‘We’ll get you to first base.’ ”

As the science — or, as some believe, pseudo-science — of pheromones advances toward commercial applications, more manufacturers of personal-care products are dropping tinctures of synthesized pheromones into their formulas, with claims that they will boost sex appeal and confidence.

The pheromone of choice for men is a family of steroids, related to testosterone, found near the axillary glands in the underarm area. For women, a commonly used compound is estratetraenol, a derivative of the sex hormone estradiol. (The patents of these synthesized hormones are proprietary, and when asked, the makers would not reveal their ingredients.)

But does adding synthetic pheromones truly evoke that elusive Love Potion No. 9?

“There has been a lot of misconception about what human pheromones do,” said Dr. Charles Wysocki, a behavioral neuroscientist at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia and an author of “Human Pheromones: What’s Purported, What’s Supported,” a recently published report commissioned by the Sense of Smell Institute, a branch of the Fragrance Foundation. “We want to raise a flag and say, where’s the evidence? How human pheromones work is still totally questionable.”

Identified by American scientists in 1959, pheromones are believed to be part of a chemical communication system that signals reproductive readiness and affects other animal behaviors.

“For humans, though, it’s usually love at first sight, not love at first smell,” said Dr. Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist. “There are many factors to sex appeal, and romance and scent is among them. But from studying the brain, I would argue that our brains are largely built for visual stimuli.”

While Dr. Fisher believes pheromones may not initially be an aphrodisiac, someone’s scent can certainly be a turnoff, or a turn-on, once courtship has been established, she said.

New York Times for more

Barack and the Barricades

Friday, July 31st, 2009

Viewpoint

A series of actions, exemplified by the speech in Cairo, shows that the Obama Administration wants to improve US-MidEast relations. But will he be able to go the whole hog?

By Mahir Ali

Hopes that Barack Obama’s presidency would lead to significant changes in the way the United States conducts itself in the Middle East were tempered by the realisation that numerous domestic and international considerations would prevent him from making a clean break with the past, even if he were so inclined. When he spoke about extending a friendly hand and inviting the Muslim world to unclench its fist, it was just a gesture – albeit not a gesture one could imagine Obama’s predecessor making with even a modicum of sincerity.

But then, the incumbent is simply incapable of sounding like George W. Bush. Obama’s eloquence and intelligence are, however, no guarantee that he does not speak with a forked tongue. In the wake of his Cairo oration early last month, which was intended as a significant exercise in reaching out to the Muslim and Arab worlds, one of the commonest critiques revolved around the pertinent but rather obvious point that words are not enough and, no matter how pleasant their texture, they are bound to ring hollow until matched by actions.

At the same time, regardless of the quality of Obama’s intentions and the extent of his capabilities, no one can sensibly contend that his major goals ought to have been achieved within six months of entering the White House. He is neither a messiah nor a miracleworker – which, mind you, are not qualities claimed by his supporters but, rather, attributes ridiculed by his detractors. The latter include the neoconservatives who helped to make such a mess of the Bush presidency, as well as the Al-Qaeda types who facilitated some of that administration’s darkest deeds.

It is, therefore, hardly surprising that both these elements were keen to undermine Obama’s overture to the Muslim world. Osama bin Laden (or someone pretending to be him) and Ayman Al Zawahiri attempted a pre-emptive strike via audio recordings in which they warned against heeding the new American message. Their evident desperation was clearly a reaction to Obama’s potential appeal, and thereby a bonus for him. It would have been thoroughly embarrassing for the US if, instead, bin Laden and Zawahiri had given an indication of softness towards the president.

And it might have been equally unnerving if the neocons had decided to back Obama’s initiative. True to form, they accused him of selling out and of bending over backwards to please Muslims in general and Arabs in particular. And even though Obama made no concessions in the context of his nation’s special relationship with Israel, many Zionists, too, were upset with the balance he sought to strike by conceding that the plight of the Palestinians was unacceptable, and unequivocally criticising the expansion of Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory.

Newsline for more

Manhar Udhas sings Nayan Ne Bandh Rakhi Ne. Poet Barkat Virani “Befaam”

Friday, July 31st, 2009

Obama names evangelical Christian to run National Institutes of Health

Friday, July 31st, 2009

By Patrick Martin
Subordinating science to religion

Earlier this week, President Obama announced the selection of Francis S. Collins as the director of the National Institutes of Health. Collins, while an accomplished biologist and the leader of the groundbreaking Humane Genome Project, is an increasingly outspoken advocate of evangelical Christianity who has publicly declared that Darwin’s theory of evolution cannot explain the moral dimensions of humanity.

In selecting Collins, Obama clearly bypassed many qualified scientists whose appointment would not have generated controversy over their outspoken religious views. The decision was intended as a deliberate accommodation to the religious right.

In 2006, Collins published a volume entitled The Language of God. The title of Collins’ book was suggested to him by the statement made by President Bill Clinton welcoming the first successful mapping of the human genome. Clinton, like George W. Bush a Southern Baptist, declared, “Today, we are learning the language in which God created life.”

While opposing the pseudo-scientific teaching of the creationists, known as “intelligent design,” Collins argued instead that there was no contradiction between evolution and religion. He claimed that god created the world 13.7 billion years ago, set evolution in motion, and then intervened from time to time in human history, as in the Christ story.

Collins claimed that there were aspects of human nature that could not be explained by Darwin’s theory. “Selfless altruism presents a major challenge for the evolutionist,” he argued.

Shortly after the book was published—and more than four years after the Human Genome Project successfully mapped the genetic structure of man—Collins was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bush.

Collins left the government-run Genome Project in 2007 and launched the BioLogos Foundation to promote his claim that biological evolution is the product of the will of god. He reportedly had differences with the Bush administration’s suppression of certain areas of scientific research. He supported making use of the hundreds of thousands of human embryos discarded every year by in vitro fertilization clinics to conduct stem cell research. Collins supported Obama in both the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination and in the general election.

There is little argument that Collins is a fully qualified scientist who can capably lead a major research effort, as he did on the human genome. However, these advances were made in conflict with the religious views with which he has become publicly associated.
As director of the National Institutes of Health, Collins will have a different role from his position as a scientist. He will head the most important and well-funded scientific organization on the planet. Over the next 14 months, NIH will spend $4 billion on research at its Bethesda, Maryland campus, while distributing $37 billion in research grants throughout the United States and around the world.

Harvard experimental psychologist Steven Pinker wrote, “I have serious misgivings about Francis Collins being appointed director of NIH. It’s not that I think that there should be a religious litmus test for public science administrators, or that being a devout Christian is a disqualification. But in Collins’s case, it is not a matter of private belief, but public advocacy. The director of NIH is not just a bureaucrat who tends the money pipeline … He or she is also a public face of science, someone who commands one of the major bully pulpits for science in the country. The director testifies before Congress, sets priorities, selects speakers and panelists, and is in many regards a symbol for biomedical research in the US and the world. In that regard, many of Collins’s advocacy statements are deeply disturbing.”

The selection of Collins was generally hailed in the corporate-controlled media as a clever maneuver by Obama, a way of paying tribute to religion while selecting an individual who defends evolution against creationism and opposes restrictions on abortion rights and stem cell research.

Both Christian fundamentalist and Catholic groups hailed the nomination, except for those devoted specifically to the promotion of the theory of “intelligent design.”

Over the past several years, Collins has become an increasingly vocal religious advocate. In his blog for BioLogos, entitled “Science and the Sacred,” Collins wrote: “Suppose God chose to use the mechanism of evolution to create animals like us, knowing this process would lead to big-brained creatures with the capacity to think, ask questions about our own origins, discover the truth about the universe and discover pointers toward the One who provides meaning to life. Who are we to say that’s not how we would have done it?”

British naturalist Richard Dawkins ridiculed this argument in a dialogue with Collins on science and religion published by Time magazine. He said: “I think that’s a tremendous cop-out. If God wanted to create life and create humans, it would be slightly odd that he should choose the extraordinarily roundabout way of waiting for 10 billion years before life got started and then waiting for another 4 billion years until you got human beings capable of worshipping and sinning and all the other things religious people are interested in.”

WSWS for more

After Israeli war, Iran moves to rebuild Gaza

Friday, July 31st, 2009

Press TV

As the Israeli siege keeps Gaza buried in ruins, an Iranian foundation works alongside a local Palestinian charity group to help families rebuild their homes.

Thee three-week-long Israeli military offensive in Gaza has left the Gaza Strip in a state of destruction. What remains of the properties of tens of thousands of Palestinians are just heaps of rubble.

Although several donor countries have pledged about USD 5 billion in aid to rebuild the region, reconstruction has been put on hold because Israel has banned building material — such as steel and cement — from entering Gaza.

However, in spite of Israeli restrictions, Iran has stepped in to offer direct assistance to the Palestinians who were left homeless by Operation Cast Lead.

Bypassing government bureaucracy, the Martyrs’ Foundation of the Islamic Republic of Iran has worked in partnership with the local Ansar Charity Institute to provide the necessary assistance.

“We work on projects to help the families of Palestinian detainees in Israel and the families of those killed by Israel. This particular project provides 8,000 dollars to the families of those who were killed in the Gaza war and those who lost their homes,” Sami Abu Ayada of the Ansar Institute told Press TV.

So far, up to 102 families across the Gaza Strip have benefited from the project. Although the aid falls short of the amount needed by each family to rebuild their home, it is, nonetheless, more than many of them have received from other donors.

“I will use this money to build a small shack out of bricks and corrugated iron. It will shelter my family in the rainy season. It is better than the tent we live in now. Other people who can afford to rent homes will save this money to rebuild their homes once the border is opened,” a Gazan woman who received aid said when interviewed.

Press TV for more
(Submitted by Ingrid B. Mork)

Private-public partnership benefits women and newborns in India

Friday, July 31st, 2009


WHO/Marie-Agnes Heine

In India, more than 100 000 women die from pregnancy-related causes every year, more than anywhere else in the world. If the current trend persists, India will not be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 5 of reducing maternal mortality by three quarters by 2015. But some Indian states have made progress in recent years.
The government of the western Indian state of Gujarat, with a population of 50 million, has brought on board private hospitals and doctors to provide free obstetric care to poor women. This private-public partnership, called Chiranjeevi Yojana, or ‘plan for a long life’, was launched in 2005 in five districts. The government pays for the services provided by the private practitioners. The programme now covers all 25 districts of Gujarat.

This photo story shows how women and newborn benefit from the Chiranjeevi scheme and why this public-private partnership could also serve as a model for other regions and states that want to improve maternal and newborn health.

WHO for more

Bashir Makhtal’s ordeal

Friday, July 31st, 2009

EDITORIAL (The Star)

Stories of Canadians seized overseas, detained and thrown into squalid jails have become sadly commonplace in recent years. But the latest, of Bashir Makhtal, is especially alarming, because the former Toronto man faces a potential death sentence after an Ethiopian court declared him guilty of having links with a separatist and terrorist organization. His sentence will be handed down tomorrow.

Makhtal’s real crime appears to be having a grandfather who founded the Ogaden National Liberation Front, which Ethiopia has labelled a terrorist group – and to which Makhtal says he has never belonged. An ethnic Somali from Ethiopia’s embattled eastern Ogaden region, young Bashir was sent to Somalia for safety at the age of seven. But a flaring civil war forced him to flee to Canada in 1991.

After 10 years in Canada, Makhtal returned to Africa to open a trading business, apparently to support impoverished relatives. In December of 2006, he was arrested by Kenyan authorities while re-entering the country from a business trip to Somalia, which had enjoyed a period of relative calm until it was attacked by Ethiopian troops fighting to dislodge an Islamic government. Caught in a sweep of terrorism suspects, he was stripped of his Canadian passport and deported, under protest, to Ethiopia.

Since then, Makhtal has been subjected to solitary confinement, interrogated in a language he doesn’t speak, and hauled before a military tribunal. Canadian officials were denied access to him for 16 months. But after Transport Minister John Baird took an interest in his plight last year – following pleas from Somali constituents –Makhtal’s conditions improved and his case was moved to a civilian court.

The Star for more

Rove Had Heavier Hand in Prosecutor Firings Than Previously Known

Friday, July 31st, 2009

By Carrie Johnson

Political adviser Karl Rove and other high-ranking figures in the Bush White House played a greater role than previously understood in the firing of federal prosecutors almost three years ago, according to newly obtained e-mails that shed light on a scandal that led to mass Justice Department resignations and an ongoing criminal probe.
The e-mails and new interviews with key participants reflect contacts among Rove, aides in the Bush political affairs office and White House lawyers about the dismissal of three of the nine U.S. attorneys fired in 2006: New Mexico’s David C. Iglesias, the focus of ire from GOP lawmakers; Missouri’s Todd Graves, who had clashed with one of Rove’s former clients; and Arkansas’s Bud Cummins, who was pushed out to make way for a Rove protege.

The documents and interviews provide new information about efforts by political aides in the Bush White House, for example, to push a former colleague as a favored candidate for one of the U.S. attorney posts. They also reflect the intensity of efforts by lawmakers and party officials in New Mexico to unseat the top prosecutor there. Rove described himself as merely passing along complaints by senators and state party officials to White House lawyers.
The e-mails emerged as Rove finished his second day of closed-door-testimony Thursday about the firings to the House Judiciary Committee. For years, Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers had rejected efforts by lawmakers to obtain their testimony and their correspondence about the issue, citing executive privilege. The House of Representatives sued, igniting a court fight that was resolved this year after discussions among lawyers for former president George W. Bush and President Obama.

Washington Post for more