Macho men 'not seen as good bet'

Macho men 'not seen as good bet'

Women do not see macho men as a sound bet for a long-term partnership, preferring those with more feminine features, a study suggests.

Men with masculine features like large noses and small eyes were seen as less warm, less faithful and worse parents than more feminine counterparts.
Some 400 British men and women made judgements after viewing photographs in which the features were subtly altered.
The study appears in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

SPOT THE MACHO MAN

Lead author Dr Lynda Boothroyd of Durham University said: "This research shows a high amount of agreement between women about what they see, personality-wise, when asked to judge a book by its cover.
"They may well use that impression of someone to decide whether or not to engage with that person. That decision-making process all depends on what a woman is looking for in a relationship at that stage of her life."
Dominant partner
Some 400 British men and women completed the web-based test which put a pair of pictures in front of them.
Participants were asked to judge the faces on the following categories: dominance, ambition, wealth, faithfulness, commitment, parenting and warmth. They did so by clicking on the point of a scale.
The differences were subtle but apparent to the trained eye. The feminine face had more curved eyebrows, an arched forehead and slightly higher cheekbones. He also wore a hint of a smile, as women smile more often than men, the researchers said.
Both the women and the men who took part in the test judged the more feminine more favourably on faithfulness, commitment, parenting and warmth.
The masculine were seen as more dominant, but there was no difference between the two on ambition and wealth.
Dr George Fieldman, a principal lecturer in psychology at Buckingham Chilterns University College, said the findings in many ways "made sense".
"In a modern society physical strength is not a necessity but potentially a threat. A woman may choose a more feminine partner because it may reduce the chance of violence towards her and any offspring they produce.
"This research may have no immediate implications, but it does feed into our understanding of evolutionary psychology and why people make the choices they do."

Russia builds its first amphibian nuclear plant

Nuclear power is highly controversial, enough so that the building of new commercial nuclear power plants ceased, until now. Russia began construction of its first floating nuclear power plant, planning to build at least six more despite long-standing environmental concerns. Russian supporters justify the program as a way of bringing power to some of the country's most remote areas, also saying some of the plants could be sold to other nations, but critics express that could be a latent dangerous (more than actual) energy source.
It’s truth that nuclear plants provide an important amount of energy worldwide (about 7%), but how safe are they? With a high potential for severe radioactive contamination by accident (Chernobyl) or sabotage (in March, 2006, safety reviews found that several nuclear plants in the United States have been leaking water contaminated with tritium into the ground), they also represent the possibility that its use in some countries could lead to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Opponents express some concerns regarding nuclear plants saying that the waste they produce is not well protected and that it can be released in the event of terrorist attack, or that, in the worst case, they can even become a perfect target for the enemy. In US, plants are surrounded by a double row of tall fences that are electronically monitored and patrolled by a sizeable force of armed guards. But, how can you protect an amphibian nuclear plant? Also, nuclear reactors require cooling, typically done with water, so, how can they regulate the temperature of exhaust water to avoid killing fish and a long-term impact of hotter-than-natural water on ecosystems? Russian authorities said that these floating plants are much safer than atomic energy stations on the ground. But, what would happen in case of an accidental spill, or, again, what kind of environmental effect can this amphibian nuclear plant cause?