If there is one thing on which many working mothers agree, it is that their partners do not pull their weight on the domestic front.But research to be published this week reveals that men are being unfairly accused and working women are advancing the myth of the "useless man" so they can feel more feminine. "Working women who provide the majority of the household's income to the family continue to articulate themselves as the ones who 'see' household messes and needs as a way to retain claims to an element of a traditional feminine identity," said Dr Rebecca Meisenbach, whose research paper, The Female Breadwinner, will be published this week in the journal Sex Roles.But Meisenbach said the trend of the female high achiever and the male slacker is a tall story that women tell each other to compensate for the fact that most career-orientated women feel an "overwhelming sense of guilt" over their role and less of a mother and a wife."These women are struggling with the intersections of their status as the breadwinner and other gendered societal expectations," she said. "By highlighting stories of how men have to be told or asked to do specific chores in the home, these female breadwinners are making sure they still fit gender boundaries of a wife as someone who manages the home and children."By directing the housework done by their husbands, they maintain a sense of control over the traditionally feminine sphere of the home," she added. "This path of expressing control of and responsibility for both home and paid work may be essential for working mothers to manage competing discourses of ideal worker and intensive mothering."
If there is one thing on which many working mothers agree, it is that their partners do not pull their weight on the domestic front.
But research to be published this week reveals that men are being unfairly accused and working women are advancing the myth of the "useless man" so they can feel more feminine. "Working women who provide the majority of the household's income to the family continue to articulate themselves as the ones who 'see' household messes and needs as a way to retain claims to an element of a traditional feminine identity," said Dr Rebecca Meisenbach, whose research paper, The Female Breadwinner, will be published this week in the journal Sex Roles.
But Meisenbach said the trend of the female high achiever and the male slacker is a tall story that women tell each other to compensate for the fact that most career-orientated women feel an "overwhelming sense of guilt" over their role and less of a mother and a wife.
"These women are struggling with the intersections of their status as the breadwinner and other gendered societal expectations," she said. "By highlighting stories of how men have to be told or asked to do specific chores in the home, these female breadwinners are making sure they still fit gender boundaries of a wife as someone who manages the home and children.
"By directing the housework done by their husbands, they maintain a sense of control over the traditionally feminine sphere of the home," she added. "This path of expressing control of and responsibility for both home and paid work may be essential for working mothers to manage competing discourses of ideal worker and intensive mothering."
(On a Neuro-psychology, Biology of Human Behavior, learning and research updating effort. Thus, "To a man with a hammer & etc." ;-)
Emphasis added.
Fruit grower and distiller Hermann Becker closely examines the thermometer sitting atop his stainless steel still, and then carefully tastes the clear fluid trickling steadily out of the pipe at the bottom. It's pear schnapps, and after two years stored in Becker's cellar, the traditional German drink will be ready for sale. "We also have apple, mirabelle plum, greengage plum, nut and apricot schnapps," Becker explained, pointing to the tasting bottles lined up on a shelf before turning his attention back to his steaming still. [...] In 2003, the European Commission ruled that Germany's spirits monopoly, which subsidizes spirit distillers to the tune of 80 million euros a year, is in breach of European free market regulations and has to be phased out by the end of 2010. "If this ends up coming into effect, the vast majority of micro-distilleries won't be able to keep producing," said Klaus Lindenmann, the CEO of the Baden Small-scale and Fruit Distillers Association. [...] The German government has until the end of 2009 to lodge an application for an exemption to the Commission's ruling, and in an unlikely alliance, environmentalists are strongly lobbying alongside distillers for the spirits subsidies to continue. This is because many of the distillers cultivate a traditional type of fruit orchard that is not only among the most ecologically diverse habitats in Europe, it is also among the most endangered.
Fruit grower and distiller Hermann Becker closely examines the thermometer sitting atop his stainless steel still, and then carefully tastes the clear fluid trickling steadily out of the pipe at the bottom. It's pear schnapps, and after two years stored in Becker's cellar, the traditional German drink will be ready for sale.
"We also have apple, mirabelle plum, greengage plum, nut and apricot schnapps," Becker explained, pointing to the tasting bottles lined up on a shelf before turning his attention back to his steaming still.
[...]
In 2003, the European Commission ruled that Germany's spirits monopoly, which subsidizes spirit distillers to the tune of 80 million euros a year, is in breach of European free market regulations and has to be phased out by the end of 2010.
"If this ends up coming into effect, the vast majority of micro-distilleries won't be able to keep producing," said Klaus Lindenmann, the CEO of the Baden Small-scale and Fruit Distillers Association.
The German government has until the end of 2009 to lodge an application for an exemption to the Commission's ruling, and in an unlikely alliance, environmentalists are strongly lobbying alongside distillers for the spirits subsidies to continue.
This is because many of the distillers cultivate a traditional type of fruit orchard that is not only among the most ecologically diverse habitats in Europe, it is also among the most endangered.
ON THE day a new computer virus hits the internet there is little that antivirus software can do to stop it until security firms get round to writing and distributing a patch that recognises and kills the virus. Now engineers Simon Wiseman and Richard Oak at the defence technology company Qinetiq's security lab in Malvern, Worcestershire, UK, have come up with an answer to the problem. Their idea, which they are patenting, is to intercept every file that could possibly hide a virus and add a string of computer code to it that will disable any virus it contains. Their system chiefly targets emailed attachments and adds the extra code to them as they pass through a mailserver. A key feature of the scheme is that no knowledge of the virus itself is needed, so it can deal with new, unrecognised "zero day" viruses as well as older ones. Many mailservers already block attachments that will run as executable programs - such as PC files with a .exe suffix - in case they are viruses. But virus writers have tricks up their sleeve to get round this. For example, they can disguise files as an innocent Microsoft Word (.doc) or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file, and then fool unsuspecting users into converting them into an "executable" program file that will run on their computer. Qinetiq aims to prevent this by inserting a line of machine code - the raw code that microprocessor chips understand - into the header area of incoming files. This is the part of the file that holds the formatting data that defines such aspects as a document's layout and fonts. If the file is simply opened by another program, the code is ignored. But if someone attempts to run it as a program in its own right, Qinetiq's code will run first - and stop the rest of the program in its tracks, either by exiting or by sending it into an infinite loop.
ON THE day a new computer virus hits the internet there is little that antivirus software can do to stop it until security firms get round to writing and distributing a patch that recognises and kills the virus. Now engineers Simon Wiseman and Richard Oak at the defence technology company Qinetiq's security lab in Malvern, Worcestershire, UK, have come up with an answer to the problem.
Their idea, which they are patenting, is to intercept every file that could possibly hide a virus and add a string of computer code to it that will disable any virus it contains. Their system chiefly targets emailed attachments and adds the extra code to them as they pass through a mailserver. A key feature of the scheme is that no knowledge of the virus itself is needed, so it can deal with new, unrecognised "zero day" viruses as well as older ones.
Many mailservers already block attachments that will run as executable programs - such as PC files with a .exe suffix - in case they are viruses. But virus writers have tricks up their sleeve to get round this. For example, they can disguise files as an innocent Microsoft Word (.doc) or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file, and then fool unsuspecting users into converting them into an "executable" program file that will run on their computer.
Qinetiq aims to prevent this by inserting a line of machine code - the raw code that microprocessor chips understand - into the header area of incoming files. This is the part of the file that holds the formatting data that defines such aspects as a document's layout and fonts.
If the file is simply opened by another program, the code is ignored. But if someone attempts to run it as a program in its own right, Qinetiq's code will run first - and stop the rest of the program in its tracks, either by exiting or by sending it into an infinite loop.
VATICAN CITY -- In 1512, Raphael finished his ruminative portrait of Pope Julius II, who commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. In 1999, the Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan produced "The Ninth Hour," a wax sculpture of Pope John Paul II struck down by a meteorite. Somewhere along the way, the Vatican's relations with the art world had clearly gone astray.And so in an effort to improve the Catholic Church's engagement with contemporary artists -- and perhaps put a gentler face on a contentious papacy -- the Vatican invited more than 250 artists, architects, musicians, directors, writers and composers for an audience on Saturday with Pope Benedict XVI.Sitting before Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" in the Sistine Chapel, after a choir sang music by Palestrina, Benedict urged them to embark on "a quest for beauty." In what he called "a cordial, friendly and impassioned appeal," he told his guests to be "fully conscious of your great responsibility to communicate beauty, to communicate in and through beauty."About half of the 500 invited artists did not attend, including Bono from the rock band U2. But the meeting still seemed a public relations success in light of the fierce controversies that have made this papacy less than loved by the downtown art scene, and made that art scene unbeloved by a pope who decries nihilism and relativism at every turn.
VATICAN CITY -- In 1512, Raphael finished his ruminative portrait of Pope Julius II, who commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. In 1999, the Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan produced "The Ninth Hour," a wax sculpture of Pope John Paul II struck down by a meteorite.
Somewhere along the way, the Vatican's relations with the art world had clearly gone astray.
And so in an effort to improve the Catholic Church's engagement with contemporary artists -- and perhaps put a gentler face on a contentious papacy -- the Vatican invited more than 250 artists, architects, musicians, directors, writers and composers for an audience on Saturday with Pope Benedict XVI.
Sitting before Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" in the Sistine Chapel, after a choir sang music by Palestrina, Benedict urged them to embark on "a quest for beauty." In what he called "a cordial, friendly and impassioned appeal," he told his guests to be "fully conscious of your great responsibility to communicate beauty, to communicate in and through beauty."
About half of the 500 invited artists did not attend, including Bono from the rock band U2. But the meeting still seemed a public relations success in light of the fierce controversies that have made this papacy less than loved by the downtown art scene, and made that art scene unbeloved by a pope who decries nihilism and relativism at every turn.
Amid the centuries-old castles of the ancient city of Ferrara is a doctor who has come upon an entirely new idea about how to treat multiple sclerosis, one that may profoundly change the lives of patients. Dr. Paolo Zamboni, a former vascular surgeon and professor at the University of Ferrara in northern Italy, began asking questions about the debilitating condition a decade ago, when his wife Elena, now 51, was diagnosed with MS. Watching his wife Elena struggle with the fatigue, muscle weakness and visual problems of MS led Zamboni to begin an intense personal search for the cause of her disease. He found that scientists who had studied the brains of MS patients had noticed higher levels of iron in their brain, not accounted for by age. The iron deposits had a unique pattern, often forming in the core of the brain, clustered around the veins that normally drain blood from the head. No one had ever fully explained this phenomenon, considering the excess iron a toxic byproduct of the MS itself. Dr. Zamboni wondered if the iron came from blood improperly collecting in the brain. Using Doppler ultrasound, he began examining the necks of MS patients and made an extraordinary finding. Almost 100 per cent of the patients had a narrowing, twisting or outright blockage of the veins that are supposed to flush blood from the brain. He then checked these veins in healthy people, and found none of these malformations. Nor did he find these blockages in those with other neurological conditions.
Amid the centuries-old castles of the ancient city of Ferrara is a doctor who has come upon an entirely new idea about how to treat multiple sclerosis, one that may profoundly change the lives of patients.
Dr. Paolo Zamboni, a former vascular surgeon and professor at the University of Ferrara in northern Italy, began asking questions about the debilitating condition a decade ago, when his wife Elena, now 51, was diagnosed with MS.
Watching his wife Elena struggle with the fatigue, muscle weakness and visual problems of MS led Zamboni to begin an intense personal search for the cause of her disease. He found that scientists who had studied the brains of MS patients had noticed higher levels of iron in their brain, not accounted for by age. The iron deposits had a unique pattern, often forming in the core of the brain, clustered around the veins that normally drain blood from the head. No one had ever fully explained this phenomenon, considering the excess iron a toxic byproduct of the MS itself.
Dr. Zamboni wondered if the iron came from blood improperly collecting in the brain. Using Doppler ultrasound, he began examining the necks of MS patients and made an extraordinary finding. Almost 100 per cent of the patients had a narrowing, twisting or outright blockage of the veins that are supposed to flush blood from the brain. He then checked these veins in healthy people, and found none of these malformations. Nor did he find these blockages in those with other neurological conditions.
Over the last several months, The St. Petersburg Times published a series of scathing articles on the Church of Scientology under the rubric "The Truth Rundown." In 1980, the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for an investigation of the church's inner workings. Coverage of Scientology has long been an important story for The St. Petersburg Times, given that the church's spiritual headquarters is located in nearby Clearwater, Fla. So it came as a bit of a shock when, on Friday, the newspaper's management announced that it would sell one of its sibling publications to a California media company whose top management are Scientologists. Governing magazine, which is based in Washington and for 23 years has covered the workings of local and state governments across the country, will be sold to e.Republic, whose founder and other top executives are Scientologists. The sale is expected to close after Thanksgiving. The evening before the announcement, Governing's staff gathered at the Willard InterContinental Washington hotel for its annual awards dinner, honoring its picks for the best government officials. On Friday, the staff learned of the magazine's sale, which had long been in the works. And at a staff gathering, the question of Scientology was raised, given the paper's aggressive coverage of the church. "I'm aware that some of the top officials personally practice Scientology, but it never came up in the negotiations," said Andrew Corty, a vice president of the Times Publishing Company, the holding company that runs the St. Petersburg paper and Governing. "It certainly was a question asked at our staff meeting."
Coverage of Scientology has long been an important story for The St. Petersburg Times, given that the church's spiritual headquarters is located in nearby Clearwater, Fla. So it came as a bit of a shock when, on Friday, the newspaper's management announced that it would sell one of its sibling publications to a California media company whose top management are Scientologists. Governing magazine, which is based in Washington and for 23 years has covered the workings of local and state governments across the country, will be sold to e.Republic, whose founder and other top executives are Scientologists. The sale is expected to close after Thanksgiving.
The evening before the announcement, Governing's staff gathered at the Willard InterContinental Washington hotel for its annual awards dinner, honoring its picks for the best government officials. On Friday, the staff learned of the magazine's sale, which had long been in the works. And at a staff gathering, the question of Scientology was raised, given the paper's aggressive coverage of the church.
"I'm aware that some of the top officials personally practice Scientology, but it never came up in the negotiations," said Andrew Corty, a vice president of the Times Publishing Company, the holding company that runs the St. Petersburg paper and Governing. "It certainly was a question asked at our staff meeting."
