Macho men don't always get the girl

Being an aggressive macho male doesn’t mean that you will always get the girl, for according to a new study, the fainthearted do also have a good chance of winning the heart of the fair damsel.

Researchers have for long been puzzled by the knowledge that if aggression makes men more likely to father kids, then all males should be selected to be very aggressive. However, this is not the case.

In a study on fruit flies, the boffins carrying out the study noted that the females of the species sometimes choose males who do not fight, and sometimes choose males for no obvious reason.

This, they say, may help explain the large variation in aggressiveness in most species, including humans.

One reason for this variation, they added, could be that no fighting strategy works all the time.

“We showed in fruit flies that even the most genetically aggressive flies can have an Achilles heel, and lose against males who are (for the most part) wimps,” study leader Brad Foley, from the University of Southern California.

“There’s no single way to win a fight, or win mates. Females didn’t necessarily prefer aggressive males -- some males mated less when they lost fights, but some males mated more if they didn’t fight. Moreover, different females preferred different males.

“Unexpected interactions between individuals can define winners and losers (so-called ‘chemistry’). In order to understand why flies, and humans, and other animals, are so genetically different from each other, we need to stop imagining there's a ‘best’ kind of strategy,” he added.

The research team also included Larry Cabral of Cal State Sacramento (co-corresponding author with Foley), and Foley’s supervisor Sergey Nuzhdin, professor of molecular and computational biology at USC.

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Nude Bruni photo sells for $91,000 in NY auction (See Pic)

A nude photo of French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, standing in a pigeon-toed pose and covering her modesty with her hands, was sold on Thursday in New York for $91,000, more than 20 times its expected price. A buyer for a Chinese art collector bought the black-and-white image, taken by photographer Michel Comte in 1993 during her modeling days, Christie's auction house said. The sale of the photo has attracted attention since Bruni married French President Nicolas Sarkozy in February.

The photo had been expected to fetch between $3,000 and $4,000. It was auctioned as part of a sale of 140 photos from German collector Gert Elfering, which also features work by Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton and Peter Beard. An Avedon portrait of 1950s and 1960s French screen siren Brigitte Bardot sold for $181,000. It had been expected to garner between $80,000 and $120,000.

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Attractive people prefer one-night stands

Attractive women and square-jawed, masculine men are more likely to be interested in short-term sexual relationships or one-night stands, a new study has found. The study, by Durham University researchers, ties in with research carried out by the same team that found that women see masculine men as more likely to be unfaithful and be bad parents. Based on a survey of 700 heterosexuals, the study also found that when it comes to sex, young men and women have perspectives that are completely opposed to each other, reinforcing the Mars and Venus stereotype. Men prefer women who seem to be open to short-term sexual relationships, while women seem more interested in men who are potentially long-term relationship material. Findings of the study have been published in the latest issue of the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour. Participants in the study were shown pairs of photographs or "averaged" facial images of men and women in their early 20s with two opposing attitudes to relationships.

They were asked to choose the face that they felt would be more open to short-term sexual relationships, one-night stands and the idea of sex without love. They were also asked which face they thought was the most attractive for a long- or short-term relationship, who was more masculine or feminine, and who they thought was generally attractive. Women open to short-term sexual relationships were found to be more attractive, while men most open to casual sex were generally perceived as being more masculine-looking, with facial features including squarer jaws, larger nose and smaller eyes.

The study shows people can use their perceptions to make more informed partner selection depending on the type of relationship they are pursuing. It is a significant step in further understanding the evolution of partner choice. "Our results suggest that although some people can judge the sexual strategy of others simply from looking at their face, people are not always sure about their judgments possibly because the cues are very subtle," said co-author Lynda Boothroyd.

newby: ibnlive

It's a miracle: Pregnant man tells Oprah

A transgender man who is six months pregnant said in an interview aired by Oprah Winfrey on Thursday that he always wanted to have a child and considers it a miracle.

"It's not a male or female desire to have a child. It's a human desire," a thinly bearded Thomas Beatie said. "I have a very stable male identity," he added, saying that pregnancy neither defines him nor makes him feel feminine.

Beatie, 34, who lives in Oregon, was born a woman but decided to become a man 10 years ago. He began taking testosterone treatments and had breast surgery to remove glands and flatten his chest.

"I opted not to do anything with my reproductive organs because I wanted to have a child one day," he told the talk show host. Beatie's wife Nancy said she inseminated him with a syringe using sperm purchased from a bank.

Now, he said, his size 32 jeans are getting a bit tight and his shirts are a bit stretched. Nancy, to whom he has been married for five years and who has two grown daughters by a previous marriage, also appeared on the show, saying the couple's roles will not change once the baby is born.

"He's going to be the father and I'm going to be the mother," she said. Their marriage is legal and he is recognized under state law as a man. The couple was shown on video provided by People Magazine, which collaborated with Winfrey on the show, showing the room that will be the baby's nursery.

Beatie said the little girl was going to be "daddy's little princess." The couple was also filmed in their hometown of Bend, Oregon, where he underwent an ultrasound showing the baby in his womb.

"I can't believe it. I can't believe she's inside me," Beatie said while watching the ultrasound image. "We see her as our little miracle." His obstetrician, Dr Kimberly James, who practices in the Oregon town, told Winfrey, "This is a normal pregnancy."

She said Beatie stopped taking testosterone two years ago and his levels of the hormone are normal. "This baby is totally healthy," she said. "This is what I consider a normal pregnancy."

The couple said they had been turned down by a number of other doctors before James agreed to take him as a patient. The couple said an earlier attempt at pregnancy failed when he developed a tubal pregnancy, resulting in surgery that removed his Fallopian tubes.

The couple said they decided to go public with the pregnancy because they wanted to control the way the news got out. "We're just going to have the baby now," Nancy said. "If we have to, we'll go hide."

The couple runs a small business in Bend and has some savings, she said. In addition, Beatie is working on a book about his childhood, his mother's suicide and his life growing in Hawaii where, as a girl, he was a teen beauty pageant contestant and earned a martial arts black belt.

Winfrey called the development "a new definition of what diversity means for everybody."

newsby: ibnlive

Preity injured at IPL launch, gets a black eye

Actress Preity Zinta, co-owner of the Indian Premier League's Mohali team, suffered a minor injury during its formal launch in Mohali, on the outskirts of Chandigarh.

"I don't know how it happened," Preity said. "But in the melee at the launch (Monday), an elbow came and hit me straight in the eye. I had to go through the event with a black eye wearing dark glasses."

Eyewitnesses said there was a huge rush at the launch, and somebody appeared to have thrown something at Preity. As one of her bodyguards lunged to catch whatever had been thrown, his elbow appeared to have hit Preity in the eye.

After the event, the actress spent the evening nursing her eye with ice packs.

"It will swell a bit. I guess it's bound to happen when one is in such situations," she said.

The IPL Mohali team is led by Yuvraj Singh. The tournament starts April 18.