Sex Makes You Dumber!

Sex and studying do not get along. The more sex partners you have, the more prone you are to academic failure, as found by a new survey made amongst students at Cambridge University.
The on-line questionnaires completed by over 1,000 undergraduates revealed that poorly performing colleges had the most sexually active students.

Peterhouse, one of the least performing Cambridge colleges, won the bronze of the promiscuity: these students had an average of five sexual partners annually compared to three at Christ’s College, a silver at Cambridge college as concerns the academic performances. Over 25 % of the Christ’s students stated they were virgin, this college is the Cambridge champion on the issue.

The results, published in the student magazine Varsity, also revealed which subjects delivered more sexually active students than others. Sex champions were the medicine students, since they had the highest average number of sexual partners (8), opposite to theology, with 2. Social political science won the second place (7 annual partners), history the third (6), followed by modern and medieval languages (5).

More sex does not seem to be correlated with a more intelligent behavior. Even if 40 % of the students had at least a one-night stand, over 60 % had never made tests for HIV, chlamydia or other sexually transmitted diseases.

"The more sociable a person is the less time they have for their studies. People who have a lot of sexual partners not only spend time initiating relationships with people but they also have to contend with a lot of stress when those relationships break up. This can seriously affect a person’s ability to concentrate," said Cary Cooper, a professor of psychology and health at Lancaster University.

"Some results confirm long-held stereotypes. Those involved in postgraduate study are less likely to have had sex than their undergraduate counterparts. It suggests that as long as you believe in sex before marriage, you will have lost your virginity by the time you graduate," said Ed Cumming, Varsity’s associate editor.

"It’s obvious that the mathematicians haven’t found the winning formula yet. But it’s good to see that doctors and nurses is still a popular game," said student union president Mark Fletcher.

Who needs a House Then?

Stocks rise on rate cut hopes

NEW YORK - A jittery Wall Street advanced Monday, reversing some of Friday's sharp losses as investors took a dismal new home sales report as a sign the Federal Reserve will lower rates this week.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 176 points in a session that was relatively calm when compared to the turbulence of last week.

On the surface, the advance appeared surprising after the Commerce Department reported sales of new homes in December fell by 4.7 percent and that 2007 new home sales plunged by a record 26.4 percent compared to 2006. But while the report at first exacerbated the market's concern that the housing and mortgage crises are causing a recession, it also raised hopes that the Fed might cut rates again by a wide margin to stoke the weakening U.S. economy.

"Anticipation of another Fed rate cut is the main magnet in the market today," said Alfred E. Goldman, chief market strategist at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc.

He was skeptical the gains would stick — anything the Fed decides after its two-day meeting lets out Wednesday could be met with disappointment. If the rate cut is small or nonexistent, the market will likely be unsatisfied; if the cut is wide, the market may worry the economy is worse than it thought.

"If we do rally into a Fed rate cut, we have a lose-lose situation," Goldman said.

And traders who bet on the Fed's next move were pricing in a more than 80 percent chance of a half-point cut.

"Any less than that could be a problem," said Richard Sparks, senior equities analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow rose 176.72, or 1.45 percent, to 12,383.89 by late afternoon after falling as many as 95 points in morning trading. On Friday, the blue chip index tumbled 171 points after a two-day advance of more than 400 points.

Broader stock indicators also advanced Monday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 23.36 or 1.76 percent, to 1,353.97, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 23.71, or 1.02 percent, to 2,349.91.

Government bond prices slipped as stocks rose. The 10-year Treasury note's yield, which moves opposite its price, was at 3.59 percent, up from 3.58 percent last Friday.

Alexander Paris, economist and market analyst for Chicago-based Barrington Research, said most investors were waiting for the Fed to announce its decision on Wednesday before making any big bets. That was one of the reason for a quiet trading day where the Dow stayed mostly in positive territory.

"It was calmer than I expected it would be, especially when you have lots of news for investors to look at," he said. "But, it's the Fed offsetting the news — and people don't want to make a big move when you don't know what they're going to do about interest rates."

However, trading for the week is expected to be volatile as Wall Street digests President Bush's final State of the Union address Monday evening and the Fed's rate announcement Wednesday. Last Tuesday, in an emergency move, the Fed lowered rates by 0.75 of a percentage point.

Hopes for another large cut on Wednesday had been tempered late last week by news that French bank Societe Generale sold European index futures to close positions taken by an alleged rogue trader. It is thought those trades may have aggravated the massive losses in Europe and Asian trading last Monday, when the U.S. markets were closed.

Profit reports Monday were ostensibly upbeat, but revealed some troubling signals about the economy. Fast food seller McDonald's, a Dow component, said its quarterly profit rose 3 percent due to tax benefits and strong sales, but December U.S. sales were flat with a year ago as cash-strapped consumers pared back spending. McDonald's shares fell $3.03, or 5.6 percent, to $51.07.

Merger and acquisition news added to the market's uncertainty. Blackstone Group LP on Monday said it is still interested in buying Alliance Data Systems Corp., but that the $6.4 billion deal is in jeopardy because regulators want to place onerous terms on the takeover. ADS dropped $23.12, or 35 percent, to $42.48. Blackstone slipped 21 cents to $19.15.

The dollar fell against most major currencies except the yen, and gold prices rose.

Crude oil rose 28 cents to settle at $90.99 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by nearly 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, but volume was a relatively low 1.39 billion shares.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 13.79, or 2.00 percent, to 702.39.

Asian trading saw steep losses — in Tokyo, the Nikkei stock average dropped 4 percent and a key index in Shanghai plunged 7.2 percent. In Europe, London's FTSE 100 fell 1.36 percent, Frankfurt's DAX rose 0.03 percent and Paris's CAC 40 lost 0.61 percent.

New home sales fall by record amount

WASHINGTON - New home sales plunged in 2007 by the largest amount on record while home prices tumbled sharply in December. Analysts forecast more trouble in 2008 as housing tries to emerge from its worst slump in more than two decades.

The Commerce Department reported Monday that sales of new homes dropped by 26.4 percent last year to 774,000. That marked the biggest decline on record, surpassing the old mark of a 23.1 percent plunge in 1980.

The government reported that the median price of a new home barely budged last year, edging up a slight 0.2 percent to $246,900, the poorest showing since prices fell by 2.4 percent during the 1991 housing downturn.

And the slump in sales and prices appeared to be worsening at year's end. December sales fell by 4.7 percent, a bigger-than-expected drop, while the median price of a home fell by 10.4 percent last month, when compared to December 2006, the biggest 12-month decline in 37 years.

"It looks like the floor fell out of the housing market in December," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. He said the current slump is already on par with the deep housing downturn of the 1980s and could end up being the worst in the post World War II period.

The data on new homes followed earlier reports that sales of existing homes dropped 13 percent last year, the biggest decline since 1982, while construction of new homes and apartments fell by 24.8 percent, the largest drop since 1980.

Zandi predicted that sales of new and existing homes will likely hit bottom this spring and that construction will level off by this summer. But he said prices were likely to keep falling for the entire year as weak demand forces sellers to cut asking prices even further to move homes.

Housing is slumping now after a five-year boom. Demand for both new and existing homes hit all-time highs for five straight years, ending in 2005, the peak of the boom. New home sales fell by 18.1 percent in 2006. The sales level last month is now down by 56.5 percent from the monthly peak hit in July 2005.

The prolonged slump in housing is raising concerns that the weakness could be severe enough to push the country into a full-blown recession. In an effort to guard against that threat, the Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate last week by the largest amount in more than two decades with a further rate cut expected on Wednesday when the Fed completes a two-day meeting.

In addition, President Bush and House leaders reached agreement on a $150 billion economic stimulus package last week which included items to boost housing by increasing the size of the mortgages that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration can handle. But critics said the continued plunge in housing showed that more dramatic action is needed.

"The worst housing market in 20 years has led us to the brink of a recession and I remain convinced that we need to address the housing mess as we continue discussions on an economic stimulus," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Jerry Howard, the chief executive officer of the National Association of Home Builders, said policymakers needed to offer greater relief including raising the loan limits for Fannie and Freddie for two years instead of just one.

The 26.4 percent drop in sales for 2007 represented weakness in every part of the country except the Northeast, where sales posted a small 1.6 percent advance. Sales recorded declines of 32.2 percent in the West, 26.7 percent in the Midwest and 26.3 percent in the South.

It would take 9.6 months to eliminate the backlog of unsold new homes at the December sales pace, the longest stretch of time since the month's supply stood at 10.3 months in October 1981.

The severe credit crunch that hit in August has made the troubles in housing worse because it has prompted banks and other lenders to tighten their standards, making it harder for prospective buyers to qualify for loans. Also adding to the problems facing prospective sellers is the rising tide of mortgage defaults, which are dumping more homes on an already glutted market.

"We are seeing the compounding effects of rising subprime mortgage defaults, a weakening real economy and housing market credit restraints," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Bank Corp.

Hoffman said all of the weakness in housing will likely convince the Fed to follow-up with last week's 0.75 percentage point rate cut with a half-point cut on Thursday.

Bush's State of the Union calls for research spending

President Bush spent a lot of time in his State of the Union address Tuesday evening talking about technology, but it was mostly about calling for better alternatives to oil. (Defending the war in Iraq was another.)

"Tonight, I announce the Advanced Energy Initiative -- a 22-percent increase in clean-energy research -- at the Department of Energy, to push for breakthroughs" in automobile fuel and electrical generation, Bush said, citing an unhealthy "addiction" to oil.

Even though it may be a politically savvy move to call for weaning America from foreign oil, it's hardly clear that the humble black liquid is in danger of disappearing. Peter Huber and Mark Mills last year wrote a provocative article that essentially argues: if prices go up and are viewed as staying up, there's plenty of oil in Canada and Venezuela alone for the next century.

In addition to the oil angle, Bush also reiterated something he called for in the 2005 State of the Union address: digitized medical records. "We will make wider use of electronic records and other health information technology, to help control costs and reduce dangerous medical errors," he said.

Finally, Bush cited three themes -- R&D funding, R&D tax credit, and education -- that are beloved by tech companies. Here's an excerpt:

First, I propose to double the federal commitment to the most critical basic research programs in the physical sciences over the next 10 years. This funding will support the work of America's most creative minds as they explore promising areas such as nanotechnology, supercomputing, and alternative energy sources.

Second, I propose to make permanent the research and development tax credit to encourage bolder private-sector initiatives in technology. With more research in both the public and private sectors, we will improve our quality of life -- and ensure that America will lead the world in opportunity and innovation for decades to come.

Third, we need to encourage children to take more math and science, and to make sure those courses are rigorous enough to compete with other nations. We've made a good start in the early grades with the No Child Left Behind Act, which is raising standards and lifting test scores across our country. Tonight I propose to train 70,000 high school teachers to lead advanced-placement courses in math and science, bring 30,000 math and science professionals to teach in classrooms, and give early help to students who struggle with math, so they have a better chance at good, high-wage jobs. If we ensure that America's children succeed in life, they will ensure that America succeeds in the world.

Skyfire browser for Windows Mobile is game changing, does Flash

The Skyfire browser is set to finally bring PC-like browsing to your Windows Mobile device with crazy speeds and support for all manner of embedded content. Sure, there are ways to get Youtube and other mobile video content through proxy sites that convert on the go or with other 3rd-party applications, but this puppy does it all in one sweet and free package. Facebook and Myspace pages load up in no time, video plays in the browser, and all of this is accomplished with some server side magic on the part of the Skyfire server but is completely transparent to the user. All flavors of Windows Mobile -- 5 and 6 for both touchscreen and not -- are supported with the roadmap hinting at Symbian support in the near future. Sounds too good to be true? It is, and you don't have to just take our word for it, follow the read link to get signed up for the beta, this is something that just cannot be missed.

Check the video of it in action after the break.

Ted Kennedy endorsing Obama

WASHINGTON -- Senator Edward M. Kennedy will endorse Barack Obama for president tomorrow, breaking his year-long neutrality to send a powerful signal of where the legendary Massachusetts Democrat sees the party going -- and who he thinks is best to lead it.

Kennedy confidantes told the Globe today that the Bay State's senior senator will appear with Obama and Kennedy's niece, Caroline Kennedy, at a morning rally at American University in Washington tomorrow to announce his support.

That will be a potentially significant boost for Obama as he heads into a series of critical primaries on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5.

Kennedy believes Obama can ``transcend race'' and bring unity to the country, a Kennedy associate told the Globe. Kennedy was also impressed by Obama's deep involvement last year in the bipartisan effort to craft legislation on immigration reform, a politically touchy subject the other presidential candidates avoided, the associate said.

The coveted endorsement is a huge blow to New York Senator Hillary Clinton, who is both a senatorial colleague and a friend of the Kennedy family. In a campaign where Clinton has trumpeted her experience over Obama's call for hope and change, the endorsement by one of the most experienced and respected Democrats in the Senate is a particularly dramatic coup for Obama.

"The America of Jack and Bobby Kennedy touched all of us. Through all of these decades, the one who kept that flame alive was Ted Kennedy,'' said Representative Bill Delahunt, A Quincy Democrat who is also backing Obama. ``So having him pass on the torch [to Obama] is of incredible significance. It's historic.''

Obama's landslide win in South Carolina yesterday gives Obama and Clinton two wins each in the primary campaign, and puts the two senators in a fierce battle for delegates on Feb. 5, when 22 states will hold Democratic primaries and caucuses.

While polls show Clinton ahead in some large states, including her home state of New York and delegate-rich California, the Kennedy endorsement gives Obama a stamp of approval among key constituencies in the Democratic party that could make Super Tuesday more competitive.

Kennedy plans to campaign actively for Obama, an aide said, and will focus particularly among Hispanics and labor union members, who are important voting blocks in several Feb. 5 states, including California, New York, New Jersey, Arizona and New Mexico.

The Massachusetts senator was key in helping his colleague, Senator John F. Kerry, score a comeback win in Iowa in 2004, sending Kerry on a path to the nomination. Kennedy campaigned on his own and released several senior members of his staff to work for Kerry.

SAG Awards Snub 'Sweeney,' Love Angelina Jolie

The Screen Actors Gild, the only group with a guaranteed awards show coming next month, has announced its nominations. And they are strange.

In one fell swoop, as they say, the SAG nominating committee has snubbed a number of films and actors who were on the fast track to Oscars. At the same time, the SAG voters have revived some that were completely dead or forgotten.

The biggest shocks? A total snub of Paramount’s Oscar-bound “Sweeney Todd,” and the restoration of Angelina Jolie to Best Actress in the mostly unseen and panned “Mighty Heart.”

The oddest choices? Best Ensemble cast nominations for “3:10 to Yuma,” a remake of a Western that had been just about completely buried in the rubble of small releases. Other unusual choices in that category: “Hairspray” and “American Gangster.”

Wednesday, I wouldn’t have given any of those three a shot at the Best Picture nomination for the Academy Awards.

The other two more reasonable choices by SAG: “No Country for Old Men” and “Into the Wild.”

But that leaves out other ensembles that were thought more likely to make it, including the top-seeded Oscar film “Sweeney Todd,” plus: “Juno,” “The Savages,” “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,” “The Great Debaters,” “I’m Not There,” “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” and “There Will Be Blood.”

Actors whose names surprisingly don’t appear on the SAG list: Philip Seymour Hoffman, who’s got three tremendous performances this year, his “Savages” co-star Laura Linney, Paul Dano from “Blood” and any of the cast of “Sweeney Todd.”

It’s almost as if the nominators didn’t see all of the films. Or, if they did, the voters were so scattered that the finalists made it with little plurality.

Either way, the SAG Awards will now be viewed in a new light once the Academy Award nominations are made known. They’ll either have been a true predictor or a scattershot in a year when no one had the faintest idea what to do.