Archive for August, 2009
Katie Holmes goes to fashion
Spotted out today (August 14) in Melbourne with hubby Tom Cruise and daughter Suri, the former “Dawson’s Creek” actress will be peddling her own garb at Maxfield stores.
Confirming the big career news, a rep for Katie told People magazine that a “line will be sold at Maxfield in the fall.”
Teaming up with her stylist Jeanne Yang for the designing process, Holmes’ collection will reportedly “include women’s and children’s clothes” as a “premium designer” line.
WOMEN are far more choosy about casual sex
WOMEN are far more choosy about casual sex than men, who don’t specially care whether a woman is moderately or exceptionally attractive as long as she hops into bed, new research says.
But German men are pickier than Americans and Italians – in that order – about who they spend a night in bed with, according to psychological research from Britain’s Brunel University published in the journal Human Nature.
In the study, Achim Schutzwohl and his colleagues asked more than 400 male and 400 female students in the US, Germany and Italy to judge the role played by physical attractiveness in their willingness to go out with someone, go to their flat, or go to bed with them.
The imaginary members of the opposite sex asking for favours were ranked either “slightly unattractive”, “moderately attractive” or “exceptionally attractive”.
“Looks affected men and women differently,” the research team said.
For all three offers, men were more likely to accept when the woman was moderately or exceptionally attractive, but it made no difference whether she was little or very appealing.
Women on the other hand were more likely to go to a man’s flat or agree to go to bed if he was exceptionally attractive.
Men are much more likely to seek and have casual sex than women, and are far less choosy about the looks of their sex partners.
That’s the conclusion of a new study by British researchers who analyzed questionnaire responses from 860 American, German and Italian students.
The students were asked to imagine being approached by a member of the opposite sex, described as either “slightly unattractive,” “moderately attractive” or “exceptionally attractive.” The participants were then asked what their response would be if such members of the opposite sex offered to go out, go to their apartment, and to go to bed with them.
The 427 men were more likely than the 433 women to agree to casual sex, and the men expressed a greater desire for it than women. The study also found that the men were more likely to go out, go to the apartment, and go to bed with members of the opposite sex in all three categories of attractiveness.
Men needed to be exceptionally attractive to tempt women to consider casual sex, said Dr. Achim Schutzwohl, of the department of psychology at the University of Brunel in the U.K., and colleagues.
German men were less likely to accept date, apartment and sex offers than Italian and American men. Italian men were more likely than Americans to accept an offer of sex.
“While men are not entirely insensitive to their requestor’s attractiveness, women have higher standards and are more likely to engage in casual sex with an exceptionally attractive man than with a less attractive man,” the researchers concluded.
U.S. researchers have discovered a compound that can kill breast cancer stem cells
The discovery came using a new method of screening for drugs that specifically target and kill cancer stem cells, and it could be used to find drugs targeting other cancer stem cells as well, they said.
Many teams have been looking for ways to destroy these master cancer cells in hopes of making cancer easier to cure.
“There is a lot of evidence to suggest now that these cells are responsible for many of the recurrences that are observed after treatment has stopped,” Piyush Gupta of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Broad Institute, whose study appears in the journal Cell, said in a telephone interview on Thursday.
The problem is that cancer stem cells are rare and difficult to study in the lab because they quickly change into other types of cells. And they are hard to kill.
“It wasn’t clear it would be possible to find compounds that selectively kill cancer stem cells,” Gupta said in a statement. “That’s what we did.”
To study the cells, Gupta’s team first devised a method for stabilizing cancer stem cells in the lab and getting them to multiply. They then tested them against 16,000 natural and commercial chemical compounds to see which ones were able to kill the cancer stem cells specifically.
That turned up 32 contenders.
They narrowed down this list to a handful of chemicals, and tested these in the lab and in mice.
A chemical called salinomycin hit the target. It was 100 times more potent at killing breast cancer stem cells than Bristol-Myers Squibb Co’s cancer drug Taxol, or paclitaxel.
Cancer stem cells treated with salinomycin were far less able to start breast cancers when injected into mice than cancer stem cells treated by paclitaxel. And the treatment also appeared to slow the growth of tumors in the mice.
Gupta said it is not clear if salinomycin will emerge as the best drug compound for killing breast cancer stem cells — or that it will be safe to use in people with cancer.
But the study offers a new roadmap for drug companies to isolate and test compounds capable of killing the cells.
the biker jacket.
The mostly flat landscape makes New York an ideal place for cycling, yet most of the bikers LVMH chairman Renaud Dutreil sees are delivering packages or take-out food. He says he was surprised too see so few two-wheel commuters upon his move here last year from Paris, which has a citywide bike-rental system.
“The main goal here is to change people’s minds about cycling,” Dutreil, a recreational biker, says.
There appears to be a potential global marketplace for bike apparel and accessories. Research firm The NPD Group found that overall sales of “sport use” products are on the rise, with bicycling posting a 4 percent growth rate last year.
Ironically, the first-place winner of the Bike in Style competition isn’t a cyclist. “I used to ride a bike when I was younger, but my bike was stolen from our garage,” says Jessica Velasquez, who’ll be a senior at FIT specializing in sportswear design this fall. “I have a small apartment so I haven’t been in a hurry to get a new one.”
However, she heard from friends that most biking-specific apparel doesn’t address the realities of everyday life and, conversely, street clothes don’t allow for safe or efficient cycling. One frequent issue, especially for women, seemed to be knee-length coats getting caught. Her solution? A poncho with a drawstring.
The poncho also allows for a refined look that doesn’t pull when reaching for handlebars and it has pockets for all the electronics most riders in their 20s and 30s carry with them.
Mad Import accessories
These days, it’s easy to be fashionable, green and to do good while you shop. Check out Mad Import accessories. Mad Import accessories can be used every season and are funky, fun and colorful. For those not interested in color, there are tons of browns and other muted colors.
Mad Imports is a socially & environmentally responsible company that markets handmade fashion accessories from Madagascar & Kenya . Their eclectic accessories blend traditional and contemporary design ideas of their international design team who incorporate renewable raw materials to create vivid & original clutches, totes and shoulder bags.
The sale of Mad Imports products enables families to gain economic independence and promotes environmental conservation. Mad Imports invests in several development efforts. Currently, they fund the education of the children of their weaver partners and work closely with the Akany Avoko orphanage to provide educational materials and support for special projects.