Outnumbered by opposite sex - men like it, women feel wary

GENDER RATIO: Women feel threatened when outnumbered by the opposite sex, such as in math, science and engineering classrooms, while men enjoy being in a roomful of women, a study published showed.

“Walking into a situation in which you sense the possibility of being ostracized or isolated can be quite threatening,” said the study, which looked at the effect of so-called situational cues, such as being outnumbered, on women’s performance in math, science and engineering courses.

The gender ratio in those classes is “approximately three men to every one woman,” said the study, led by Mary Murphy, a psychologist at Stanford University in California.

Published in the October issue of Psychological Science, the study monitored the reactions of a group of advanced students in traditionally male-dominated fields while they watched videos depicting a conference.

In one of the videos, men outnumbered women, while in the other the sexes were equally represented.

The women’s heart rates accelerated and perspiration increased when they watched the video in which their gender was outnumbered.

They also reported “a lower sense of belonging and less desire to participate in the conference,” the study showed.

And they paid more attention to their surroundings when they watched the video in which women were in minority.

“This kind of attention allocation (to surroundings) would interfere with performance and might help explain the performance gap between men and women in these fields,” the study said.

Men, meanwhile, showed no significant physiological or attention changes when watching either film.

In fact, they liked being in a setting dominated by women.

“Women probably feel they really could belong in the environment where there are more women, while men might simply be attracted by the unusual number of women in these settings,” said Murphy.

Former Harvard University president Lawrence Summers drew fire two years ago for suggesting “innate” gender differences as a reason for the preponderance of men in leadership roles in math and science.

AFP

Weird, wonderful and wacky stories

BIZARRE INCIDENTS: Australian John Allwood smashed 40 watermelons with his head in just one minute.

Using only one hand, Germany’s Thomas Vogel unfastened 56 bras in 60 seconds.

When it comes to the world’s weirdest achievers, nothing beats the ultimate accolade — a place in Guinness World Records for demonstrating bizarre skills.

Nothing is too wacky.

Can you catch 77 grapes in your mouth in under a minute, keep nine yo-yo’s spinning at the same time, hold your breath for more than 14 minutes or throw a washing machine? Then Guinness has a spot for you.

The annual compendium, whose latest edition is published even has a section entitled Trivial Pursuits.

Few would argue with the title as Guinness lists the globe’s finest practitioners at putting the cover on a duvet, kicking yourself in the head and throwing paper aircraft into a bucket.

Italian Michele Santana wins an entry for typing 57 books backwards.

Indian yoga instructor G.P Vijayakumar snorted eight fish up through his mouth and out of his nostrils in a minute.

American Jackie Bibby shared his bath with 75 live western diamondback rattlesnakes.

The latest edition also has a four-page pullout of the world’s grossest records.

Frenchman Michel Lotito claimed the weirdest diet — over the years he consumed 128 bicycles and 15 supermarket trolleys which he washed down with six chandeliers, two beds and a pair of skis.

Natasha Veruschka won Guinness immortality by swallowing 13 swords at the Third Annual Sideshow Gathering and Sword Swallowers Convention in Pennsylvania.

Few could equal the bizarre feat of China’s Dong Changsheng — he pulled a 1.5-ton car using ropes hooked onto his lower eyelids.

In the mass participation category, 3,541 Philippine women in Manila shared the record for the most women ever to have breastfed their babies simultaneously.

The top prize for survival has to go to American park ranger Roy C.Sullivan — he was struck by lightning seven times.

Each strike took its toll — he lost eyebrows and a toe nail as well as suffering singed hair and chest burns.

He died in 1993 — not killed by lightning but by his own hand after reportedly being rejected in love.

AP

Woman gives birth to own grandchildren

GRAND DELIVERY: A 51-year-old surrogate mother for her daughter has given birth to her own twin

 grandchildren in northeastern Brazil, the delivery hospital said.

Rosinete Palmeira Serrao, a government health worker, gave birth to twin boys by Caesarean section at the Santa Joana Hospital in the city of Recife, the hospital said in a statement on its website.

Hospital officials were not available for comment but press reports said the grandmother and twins were discharged in excellent health.

The Caesarean section was performed about two weeks ahead of time because Serrao was having trouble sleeping, the statement said.

Serrao decided to serve as a surrogate mother after four years of failed attempts at pregnancy by her 27-year-old daughter, Claudia Michelle de Brito.

Brazilian law stipulates that only close relatives can serve as surrogate mothers.

De Brito is an only child and none of her cousins volunteered, so Serrao agreed to receive four embryos from her daughter.

AP

Price of true love: US$7,800

SINGLES PARTY: 16 A Shanghai matchmaking website is promoting a singles party for wealthy men and beauties - with a hefty admission fee of 58,800 yuan (US$7,800).

The nationwide party will be held during the last 10 days of October, and the venue is still a mystery.

According to the website, it has about 10 men signed up from the Forbes list of wealthy people, but won’t provide their details.

Xu Tianli, director of the website, said the Forbes-listed men are all VIP club members, and signed up for the party voluntarily.

“The admission fee will not only include the expense for the party, but also include a year’s service from our website,” said Xu.

The website assured participants of a VIP experience during the party, including staying in a five-star hotel in Shanghai.

The website expects to recruit 50 more party guests. Already more than 570 people have signed up on the Website, two-thirds of them women.

“We will select beautiful, young unmarried women with a good education to take part in the party,” said Xu.

But their glamor will be all natural - women at the party aren’t allowed to wear any cosmetics, except for skin-care creams.

“We want them to show their very true side to the men,” said Xu.

The website organized a similar party last November costing 28,800 yuan to enter, arousing controversy.

Sociologists said the event equals an exchange of money for beauty, which is a very backward marriage view.

Xu Anqi, a marriage expert from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said if two people don’t have a similar personality, lifestyle, and values, their marriage won’t last - even if they have beauty and money.

“Of course, such a party has its own reasons for its existence, but it may mislead young people to think that true love comes from a man’s money and a woman’s beauty,” she said.

“And wealthy men may find themselves a gold digger rather than true love,” she added.

Shanghai Daily

Lucky phone number not all that lucky

SUPERSTITIOUS SIX: A businessman in Qingdao, Shandong Province, was almost driven mad after he paid more than 10,000 yuan ($1,316) for an “auspicious” phone number, which brought him endless troubles instead of luck and fortune as he had expected.

Last year, the man, surnamed Liu, bought the phone number “66-666-666” from one of his friends. (Many Chinese regard the number six as a sign that everything is going smoothly.) But since then, his life has become a nightmare, as he receives at least 100 calls a day from strangers.

Some call to test whether the phone number really exists and some call asking to borrow money, believing “only rich people could offer to pay for such an auspicious number”.

Now Liu hopes he can get rid of the troubles by selling the number to someone else.

Qingdao Daily

Funny World:

23 needles found in woman’s body

PRICKLY WOMAN: Chinese surgeons will try to remove 23 needles from a woman that doctors believe may have been imbedded under her skin by grandparents trying to kill her so that a baby boy might take her place.

After Luo Cuifen of China saw blood in her urine, doctors found 23 needles in her body. Her grandparents may have inserted the needles to try to kill her as a child because they wanted a boy, a hospital said.

The needles - about an inch in length - were discovered by X-ray after Luo Cuifen, 29, went to doctors complaining of blood in her urine.

Many of the needles have worked their way into Luo’s vital organs including her lungs, liver, bladder and kidneys, making their removal difficult, said Qu Rui, a spokesman for the Richland International Hospital in Yunnan province’s capital, Kunming.

He said six of the 23 needles, all of them in the woman’s abdomen, would be removed in the first of several expected operations.

“Tomorrow’s surgery carries a definite degree of risk,” Qu said.

According to a hospital news release, Luo has for years suffered from severe depression and anxiety and long-term insomnia, and was completely unable to do any heavy lifting or hard physical labour.

The operation will involve 23 doctors in fields ranging from women’s medicine to neurology and including bone specialists and cardiologists, the news release said. Doctors from Canada and the United States will join those from China in the operation.

Qu said doctors believe the woman’s grandparents may have inserted the needles long ago, hoping she would die and her parents might have a boy in her place. China limits most families to just one child, although rural Chinese may be allowed to have a second if their first is a girl, subject to the payment of fines.

It wasn’t clear whether further investigations into the case were planned, with media reports saying Luo’s grandparents had already died.

In many parts of China, baby boys are still heavily favoured over girls because they are bound by tradition to support their parents in their old age, and because they carry on the family name.

Infanticide and abortions of female fetuses have created a skewed ratio between the genders, with 119 boys reported born for every 100 girls, according to official figures.

By comparison, the ratio in industrialised countries between 104 and 107 boys for every 100 girls.

AP

Robber charged over naked stick-up

BIRTHDAY SUIT: A 24-year-old man arrested in the US state of Pennsylvania for holding up a convenience store wearing nothing but a hat has told police he did it because he was bored, according to local reports.

Police were questioning Carl Wagner over a separate incident of indecent exposure when they recognised him from a surveillance video in which he can be seen entering the store naked but apparently covering his manhood with a hand.

“We actually had an incident where the gentleman lives where he was exposing himself to two females. He was initially brought in on that accusation,” Carbondale police sergeant Thomas Heller told local television channel WNEP.

“We put two and two together, it was definitely him,” he added. Police said that Wagner had admitted carrying out the stick up and had been charged with robbery, open lewdness and indecent exposure.

The surveillance video shows a man with heavy tan lines, apparently from a ‘wife-beater’ style vest, approach the counter.

Officials said the man demanded money from the clerk, who refused to hand anything over and called the police.

The robber then fled the store empty handed.

Wagner appeared in court fully dressed. Asked by police why he carried out the attempted robbery, he said he was bored.

AFP

Why women worry so much?

FEMALE WORRIES: Scientists have known that on the whole, females of all ages tend to worry more and have more intense worries than males. Women also tend to perceive more risk in situations and grow more anxious than men.

Now we know why.

Women are more likely than men to believe that past experiences accurately forecast the future, according to two new studies.

The research, involving both 3- to 6-year-olds and adults of both genders, tested the extent to which participants’ thought that worry can be caused by thinking that a bad event that happened in the past could happen again in the future. (This skill, in its simplest form, is critical to social understanding as it is important to making decisions and assessing risk.)

For the first study, subjects listened to six stories that featured characters harmed by another person or animal in the story.

Many days later, the character felt worried or changed their behaviour when confronted with the same wrongdoer who had hurt them before. (For example, if one little boy stole a toy from another, the child might be worried when he saw that boy again and hide the new toy he was playing with.)

The second study was the same, except that the person or animal the character ran across later only looked similar to the one that had harmed them before.

At the end of each story, the participants were asked to explain why the character was worried or changed their behaviour.

Females, both children and adults, were more likely to use uncertainty to explain the character’s reaction, that is, they tended to explain the reaction in terms of events that might happen versus those that will happen, the researcher reported.

They also tended, more than males, to predict that the characters who encountered the new character who looked similar to the wrongdoer would feel worried because they thought the new character would also do them harm.

The studies, detailed in the Sept./Oct. issue of the journal Child Development, also found that children increasingly made these kinds of past-to-future connections as they got older, which yields insight into their cognitive development.

AP