A slightly bizzare bit of research carried out by the University of Hertfordshire in collaboration with Radio 4's Today programme has indicated that although men may be initially reluctant to get up and dance, once they hit the dancefloor they will generally be quite confident. For women it's more complicated...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/news/8412333.stm
(just excuse the lame headline)

Study: Looking young may mean living longer
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LONDON — Those baby-faced people now have another reason to be smug: a new Danish study says looking young apparently means a longer life.

Research published online Monday in the British medical journal BMJ suggests that people who look younger than their years also live longer.

A huge part of marketing food is obtaining shelf space. Big corporations have been known to actually pay to have their products displayed by grocers at the right height and in a large enough amount to suggest huge consumer demand. Coke and Pepsi have gone to the mattresses several times over shelf space wars.

What I'm going to suggest is only logical since we are talking about a limited resource. (I have an economic degree and will use it to justify my premise if needed. You are warned.)

i thought this was an uncommonly well-written piece about being t*, and having a partner who doesn't deal with it any better than most. there are a few places where it's over-written ("amsonia-blue") but it's definitely worth checking out. it's quite odd, which is, i guess, the reason i enjoyed it.

http://msupress.msu.edu/journals/fg/pdf/09_11.2Peters.pdf

For those who've been concerned about the future of my offering on this site: I am committed to completing the story. Unfortunately, however, it will take some time. I never intended it to be this long, but it's taken a life of its own. My real life work is such that I'm extremely busy during the school year with a number of activities which really hamper my ability to get any serious writing done. We also have some intense family things happening as well.

You need a large pot, preferably one with a metal rack for the inside or one that will fit a metal rack you have inside it. I've done this without the metal rack but it's more controllable with one.

Ingredients: one can of sweetened condensed milk, unopened. Eagle is a common US brand name. Don't open the can, just remove the label.

Put the unopened, labelless can on the rack inside the large pot. Fill with water to a level two inches or more above the level of the top of the can. Add a pinch of salt to the water.

In her acceptance speech, she said, in essence, that this was a new beginning for Gays, Lesbians, Bi-sexuals and Transgendered people and that was going to be the focus of her term as mayor.
Houston biggest US city to elect openly gay mayor

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AP — Houston Mayor-elect Annise Parker, center, celebrates her runoff election vicotry at a campaign party …
Slideshow:Mayor-elect Annise Parker
By MONICA RHOR, Associated Press Writer — 19 mins ago

This is rather confused, but that's because I'm thoroughly confused and trying to understand what's going on.

I just found this article in The Independent newspaper which may be of interest to readers:
From Minnie to Mickey (and all they did was turn off a gene).

The gist of the article is that a group of scientists have developed a simple genetic-based (a modified virus?) technique which can convert the oestrogen producing cells in an adult female mouse to producing normal male levels of testosterone.

The attached link to the Daily Mail is about a campaign to boycott 'pink' toys for girls, they claim stereotyping has held girls and women back for generations.

Personally, I'm more concerned about sexually objectifying young women - but what do I know?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1233779/Parents-urge...

For those of you who don't know, Sephrena went home for the Christmas holidays.

I'm fairly technically minded myself, but I can't work out what's causing this niggling font problem - does anyone have any ideas?

First, (after the break if you're looking at the preview!) an image to illustrate: