Women on the Pill Choose Less Manly Men

Women using the birth control pill prefer men with less masculine faces compared to nonusers, new research suggests.

Millions of women use hormonal forms of contraception, and some studies indicate the pill could affect partner preferences. A new study shows women were attracted to less masculine male faces after going on the pill, while their ratings of the attractiveness of female faces were unaffected. And in couples who first met when the woman was on the pill, the men were less likely to have?manly faces than those who met when the woman was off the pill. If supported, the findings could have important implications for how relationships are formed.

Many factors can influence human attractiveness. Some research suggests that a preference for masculine or feminine traits may be linked to genetic benefits for a couple's offspring, such as strong immune systems. And a few studies have found that women prefer more masculine traits during the fertile phase of their menstrual cycle. The new study investigated how the pill affects these preferences.

Facial attraction

The study, detailed online March 23 in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, compared the romantic preferences of straight women ages 18 to 24 who were taking oral contraception against those who were not. Researchers showed the women composite images of young male and female faces, which could be manipulated to appear more or less masculine (based on features like cheekbone prominence, jaw height and face width). Scientists then told the participants to alter the male faces so they were most attractive for either a short- or long-term relationship, and to alter the female faces simply to be the most attractive.

The women were tested twice ? once when none of them were taking the pill and again three months after some began using the pill. The women themselves decided whether to join the pill-taking group or not. [7 Surprising Facts About The Pill]

When women were taking the pill, they preferred less masculine male faces (those with more narrow jawbones and more rounded faces, for instance) than before they started taking birth control, the results showed. Being on the pill had no effect on preference for masculinity in female faces.

Choosing a partner

Next, the researchers looked at whether taking the pill influenced women's choices of partners. The scientists compared 85 couples who reported using the pill when they met to 85 couples who reported not using it. Researchers took photos of the faces of the men in each couple and had volunteers judge the manliness of each. The volunteers also rated computer-tweaked versions of the images that accentuated differences in masculinity, for instance making a wide lower jawline (a manly trait) even wider .

Researchers found that the volunteers rated the partners of women who weren't on the pill at the start of their relationships as more masculine than those of women who were on the pill. They rated the computer-manipulated images along the same lines. The link between the pill and facial traits was also confirmed with a mathematical formula.

Even so, the study is correlational and therefore cannot say that the pill, rather than some other variable, causes these mate preferences, said ecologist and evolutionary biologist Claus Wedekind of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Even though the study is interesting and well done, Wedekend said, it faces limitations because it's not a double-blind experiment, a rigorous condition under which neither participants nor researchers know who's in the experimental group. For example, women who choose to take the pill may be biased toward men who are more "stable" and less masculine-looking, Wedekind said, or "may have an idea already what the pill does to them, and that influences the experiment."

Yet given how widely the pill is used, its potential role in how women choose their partners could have far-reaching effects.

Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter?and Google+.?Follow us @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/women-pill-choose-less-manly-men-211656096.html

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The virtues of Indonesian at Rickshaw Republic | Restaurant ...

Tommy Setiawan wants you to know that the egg noodles that come in a bowl of pempek telor at Rickshaw Republic are always served cold. If you, like a certain unenlightened Yelper he's become aware of, want them warm, he will see that you get them warm. But you should be advised that on the streets of Palembang in South Sumatra where Setiawan's wife, Elice, grew up, they are served cold, and that's the way they serve them by default at the city's newest and only Indonesian restaurant.

The noodles might be cold?more like room temperature, actually?but the yellow spaghettilike tangle is served alongside a hot, deep-fried, sliced fish cake that tightly jackets a hard-cooked egg. And noodles and egg rest in a warm bath of dark, chiled vinegar broth so that each bite is a changeable mix of springy, snappy textures and contrasting temperatures that, unless you're numb to all sensation, will capture and hold your attention.

Setiawan so wants you to understand and appreciate this unusual dish, and the others on the menu, that he's likely to visit your table, unroll a map of Indonesia's 17,000-some islands, and show you precisely where it comes from. And then he might go on to tell you that the food from South Sumatra tends to be spicy, unlike, say, the food of the capital, Jakarta, in western Java, where it tends to be sweeter. And perhaps he'll point out that the potato and beef patty that you're meant to dip in a special chicken soup called soto ayam ?with rice vermicelli and shreds of chewy, batter-fried chicken breast?is called a perkedel, and emerged from the centuries when Dutch colonists occupied the islands. Or that the delicate, crisp crepe pockets called martabak that are filled with egg, ground beef, and onion?and their little accompanying salad of sweet pickled cucumbers?are of Arabic origin, via India.

They don't put lemon in SariWangi tea in Indonesia, but say the word and you can have it.

This sort of intel isn't at all intrusive; frequently it's illuminating. Chicago hasn't had much opportunity to explore this vastly varied and underrepresented cuisine since the short-lived Angin Mamiri closed (though caterers the Rice Table are still around). Setiawan, who used to run a restaurant in Boston with Elice, is joined by his son Oscar in the front of the house, where intricately carved wooden birdcages, parasols, and puppets dangle from the ceilings, and fearsome masks and wood carvings adorn the walls, an environment created by the designer Suhail, whose work you might remember from the late Tizi Melloul, Del Toro, or DeLaCosta.

Elice is in the kitchen with their other son, Emil, preparing the dishes, the majority of which are particular examples of regional street food spanning the archipelago. That means familiar portable things like peanut-sauce-drenched tempeh or chicken satay, along with soy-marinated beef and pork, the latter of which is uncommon among Indonesia's Muslim majority but not on the Hindu island of Bali.

It also means deep-fried snacks, like springy fish cake balls bound with tapioca flour or shattery battered chicken wings studded with crispy garlic and shellacked with a sweet chile-ginger glaze.

More ample dishes, such as chicken curry or beef rendang, illustrate the indispensability of rice all over the islands. The latter is a super-slow-cooked, currylike stew in which the liquid is simmered off until the meat darkens, absorbs the spices, and sizzles in the pan. You can sample either with plain rice or, in an order of nasi lemak, with a perfect cone of coconut-milk-saturated rice that's surrounded by an array of contrasting items: pickled carrot, shredded omelet, fried anchovy, shrimp crackers, peanuts, and spicy sambal. The idea is to customize each bite with fork and knife, not unlike the way one would with Thai shrimp-paste rice.

The everyday menu is tightly focused, and it may not take you long to notice repetitive elements?egg noodle, shrimp crackers, fried stuff. As diverse as Indonesian food is, there are three dishes blanketed by thick peanut or cashew sauce. One such dish, the gado gado, is a smothered-and-covered, hot-and-cold salad of boiled eggs, steamed vegetables, and shrimp chips that might be the most internationally familiar Indonesian dish after satay. And there are three dishes similar to the pempek telor based on springy dumplings formed from minced fish and tapioca starch. One of them, the batagor, is composed of crispy fried dumplings of minced fish and shrimp bound to pillowy chunks of tofu, which are slathered in thick peanut sauce. They're delicious, but heavy and rich, and if you make the mistake of ordering them with the gado gado you might start to feel you've developed a nut allergy.

There's a weekly rotating list of three "Mommy specials" that diversify things a bit. One week it may be the aforementioned soto ayam, and the next a meatball soup, brimming with crispy fried-beef-stuffed wontons and tofu, or deep-fried empanadas stuffed with chicken, boiled eggs, and vermicelli, or a heaping mound of spicy mie goreng: egg noodles stir-fried with finely minced beef balls, chicken, and egg.

For dessert there's a pair of refreshing icy sweets, including a pink rose-syrup slush layered with soft young coconut, jackfruit, and cassava noodles.

Rickshaw Republic is one of the more unique and special places in town, and not just for the singularity of the food. Sure, the Setiawan family have cornered the near-nonexistent market on Indonesian food in Chicago, but they're such earnest ambassadors for it that even if you're a first-timer, you should be evangelizing its virtues after you leave.

Source: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/mike-sula-reviews-rickshaw-republic-indonesian-restaurant/Content?oid=9050173

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Congressman Paulsen On Israel: Future Is Bright

On the last day of the AIPAC Policy Conference 2013, AIPAC delegates from across the country descending on Capitol Hill. For the first time in AIPAC?s history, delegates lobbied all 535 members of Congress on the same day.

Before he met with the AIPAC delegates, U.S. Representative Erik Paulsen (R-MN 3rd District) met with TC Jewfolk for an exclusive interview. He discussed the future of U.S.-Israel relations, the continuing danger of a nuclear Iran, and what he would like to see from a new generation of leaders in the Knesset.

We asked the congressman to comment on the theme of this year?s conference, ?Building Tomorrow Together.? He said the future for Israel is bright, so long as the United States and Israel maintain the strong friendship they currently have. He said that despite the ?significant challenges? in the Middle East, he is optimistic about Israel?s future.

Echoing some of the comments made at AIPAC by leading congressional Republicans like Rep. Eric Cantor and Sen. John Cornyn, Rep. Paulsen offered a subtle criticism of the Obama administration. ?The United States needs to understand this, our leadership needs to understand this?Israel has a right to defend itself and enact its own policies. And we have to make sure that our country does not tread on? what Israel feels is in its best interest.?

That includes, he said, supporting Israel on the threat posed by Iran. Last year, he discussed Iran at length with TC Jewfolk. When asked if he had anything to add he said, ?I got elected to the congress four years ago; we were talking then about the threat of a nuclear Iran. And here we are four years later and we?re still talking about that same issue.?

He added, ?A nuclear Iran is not in the interests of Israel, and not in the interests of the world.?

Rep. Paulsen insisted that the sanctions on Iran continue to work, and he praised current legislation that will ?enhance the President?s ability, and authorize him to impose additional sanctions on those that have commercial ties to Iran.?

When asked about the recent Knesset elections, he admitted to not having followed them very closely. However, he talked about the three times he?s visited Israel and praised ?the diversity, the energy, the innovation,? of its leaders and people, their ?accepting of other faiths,? which he said has produced a ?thriving democracy.?

He said the perspective he gained by being in Israel, and seeing firsthand how the country reacted to rockets from Gaza, showed him that ?the security threat is very real.? What interested him most, he said, was that regardless of political differences on other issues, all parties could immediately unify around ?the security issue.?

On the recent vote in the United Nations affirming Palestine as a non-member state, he said he worries about the ramifications of the Palestinian Authority?s push to circumvent negotiations with Israel itself.

?The Palestinian Authority has to fundamentally acknowledge Israel?s right to exist as a Jewish state?that is really critical?and until we have that, we?re not going to have the safety and security that we need.?

Filed Under: AIPAC 2013 ? Politics & News

Tags: aipac 2013, Erik Paulsen, featured, Iran, Israel, Palestinian Authority

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TcJewfolk/~3/yGc-DdGet54/

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