Strange Research: Sweating Babies Can Predict Aggressive Behavior

Have you ever seen a baby sweat? Neither have I

You’ve heard of the ‘terrible twos’ – that age when babies for whatever reason start to drive their parents and others crazy because of tantrums and what not? What about children who, as they grow, seem to be more aggressive and physical than their playmates? What accounts for this behavior? Why do some babies develop into little monsters and others angels?

Well, there are all sorts of theories and studies on the subject but one of the more peculiar – yet serious – is the recent research that you can predict how a child will evolve based on how much they sweat. That’s right sweat as in beads of salt water pouring off their little bodies as if they’d just run in a marathon. I’ve never seen a baby sweat before, but according to researchers babies that don’t sweat much when they encounter a scary situation will grow to be three year olds who are more physical and aggressive. Really?

Cool, Calm Babies Not A Good Thing?

According to these researchers this tendency toward aggressiveness because of fewer sweating episodes as a baby will stay with a person through adolescence if not longer. The theory goes on to suggest that because these sweat-less babies don’t seem to be bothered by something that might scare another infant, they lack the kind of emotions that would make them less likely to be aggressive later in life.

So, how do you even guess at this outcome? The scientists actually attached electrodes to the feet of one year olds and measured the baby’s reaction to loud noises and a remote-controlled robot. They retested the babies as three year olds. The results showed the babies who were less perturbed by the sounds and the robot sweated less but later on showed more of a tendency toward being aggressive.

Is This Something To Sweat Over?

One might wonder if there aren’t lots of other situations that might make a child be more or less aggressive. Maybe some babies just didn’t like the idea of having electrodes attached to their feet? Maybe they were just having a bad day – you know their applesauce was kind of sour that morning or something. Or perhaps they’d prefer to be out in the sandbox instead of some lab with a bunch of white-coated researchers looking down at them like they were little aliens?

Whatever the case I’d suggest parents and their little ones take this research with a grain of salt – in other words, don’t sweat it.

Is Google's Adsense a Ripoff?

Beware the long arm of the tech giant when it comes to their advertising program

For those looking to earn something from their blogging or writing on sites such as Triond, Google’s Adsense program has been touted as an easy way to earn cash. But, as I recently found out, Google’s Big Brother approach might make you feel more like a crook than a legitimate entrepreneur.

For those not familiar with Adsense, here’s a quick definition. Google shares with anyone signing up and being accepted for the program some of the proceeds from advertisements the program places on your web pages, blogs and within articles you might publish on Triond or any other writing site. For some major businesses that revenue stream can be quite substantial. But, for the casual writer you can expect as little as a few cents a month for your efforts. Nonetheless, it doesn’t cost anything and anything you earn is passive income – meaning you don’t have to do anything to get it.

Bounced By Google

But, recently I got bounced out of the Adsense program and my experience – and that of many thousands of other people – is a cautionary tale for all those who think Google is the great beneficent company who shares its largesse with us poor writers who are picking up scraps as best we can. Indeed, Google is looking more like the Dark Lord persona often used to describe another large tech company.

The email I got from Google was simple and to the point. I was being cut off from any further Adsense involvement and any money I had accumulated was being sacrificed. Now, you might think I’d done something really, really bad to be tried and convicted without even so much as a warning, fair notice, the ability to defend myself, or right of appeal. You’d be wrong. In fact – and you’ll have to trust me on this – I had done absolutely nothing. In fact, from the day I signed up and was accepted for the program two years ago I had not even earned a penny of income from the program. Since my earnings were small and Google doesn’t pay anything until you accumulate a minimum of $100, I wasn’t yet eligible for a payout. The day they canceled my account I was approaching the exalted level of $95 – this after two years of participating.

Manipulating Adverts?

So, what else could I have done wrong. None of the long list of “Terms and Conditions” applied to me. There was some gobildy-gook about manipulating ads but I hadn’t done so, wouldn’t know how to do so, and didn’t even know what ads were being placed in my blogs and articles since that was all handled remotely by Google.

Frustrated, I appealed the decision only to be denied within minutes of my sending the appeal (there’s no doubt that it was a mechanical rejection because no human could have responded that quickly). That was it. I was expecting Google gendarmes to come to my door and haul away my computer or something. That’s how bad their treatment made me feel.

There was some consolation in finding that many, many others have experienced the same accusations and rush to judgment and few of them have been able to figure out why nor have their appeals been successful either.

I have two notions of what might be going on with Google. One is that the Dark Lord is programmed to know when a member approaches a cash out level and cuts off the member so no funds are paid. This might seem to be a far reach because Google certainly has enough money to afford to pay contributors the measly few cents they earn. Besides whatever we earn pales compared to what Google makes from our writing efforts and providing more places to put their ads.

Is Triond Success A Trigger?

The other idea is that Google, in order to maintain a pristine environment for their advertisers, is trying to keep out bogus sites or sites where people click on their own pages’ ads to try and boost their income. This is wrong and we all know it is, but some people (not me) might do it.

I’m figuring that my recent success in terms of numbers of hits on my Triond articles (success in numbers not in cash, as any Triond writer knows) may have triggered the big Google eye in the sky and ordered it to cut me off.

Whatever the reason I feel Google is wrong but I’m not going to fuss about it for the few cents I may have been earning – although I think I deserved the $95 I had accumulated, after all even Google couldn’t possibly believe all of that sum was from bogus hits. But, I have taken action to delete all Google Adsense options from my various blogs and have signed up for alternatives such as Chikita to gain a few pennies from its ad placement program. But, I don’t expect to get rich from that either.

I do wish I knew how to eliminate my now inactive Adsense account on Triond but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet.

Are Public Swimming Pools Safe?

There’s Poop in Public Swimming Pools; Government Study Says

I’ll never go into a public swimming pool again – EVER!

That’s the conclusion I’ve come to after reading of a new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to the report (2013), public pools are one of the best places where you are likely to come into contact with human poop. The CDC researchers discovered E. coli bacteria in more than half the public pools they tested.

Well, you might say, that’s only half the pools so there’s a good chance my neighborhood pool is okay. Are you really willing to take that chance? Not me. I’d rather take my chances in an ocean or lake – although I’m not claiming that’s much better in many cases. Maybe I’ll just settle for a shower at home and my own wading pool in the backyard.

In addition to E. coli the researchers found other kinds of bacteria – the kind that can easily cause skin rashes and ear infections.

Moms – Watch Your Babies!

So, how is this stuff getting into the pools in the first place? The answer is ... you! The poop comes from swimmers not showering before getting into the public pool, as well as what they might do once they are in the pool.

Even though public pools do their best to keep pools clean – like adding chlorine and taking other preventive measures, it’s a losing battle. The CDC even cautions people to shower before entering the pool, not to swallow pool water if they can help it, and for mothers to take particular care with their young, still diaper-wearing children (e.g. don’t change their diapers anywhere near the pool).

For me, no matter what is done to maintain pool cleanliness, I’m out of the water – permanently.

Top Five Tips to Increase Your Amazon Mechanical Turk Income

If you are looking to increase your financial gains from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service, I’ve got a few tips for you.

For those who are not yet familiar with Mechanical Turk it’s a crowdsourcing service operated by Amazon at which you can take surveys, do transcriptions and other small, short jobs and earn money for doing so. You can find out more about it and sign up for it at mturk.com.

1. Be Selective

Although there are thousands of turk assignments available each day, you won’t earn much by scrounging through the assignments that pay you less than 10 cents. You may have to do a few of those low paying hits (as assignments are called) to being with so you can build up your rating, but after that be selective. Doing one or two hits for 50 cents each is better than doing 10 hits for five cents, if for no better reason than the two hits are likely to be shorter in duration overall.

Luckily, Mechanical Turk lets you choose the dollar/cent amounts you want displayed. You should make good use of this option.

2. Length is Important

Each hit has a designated time span that the provider estimates it will take the average person to complete the hit. Pay attention to these. In my view the key to being successful on Mechanical Turk is completing as many hits as you can in as few minutes as you can. I find a 75 cent survey, or higher, isn’t worth my time if it is estimated to take 45 minutes or more.

3. Jot Down The Worst Offenders

Unfortunately, there are some providers on Mechanical Turk that are just not on the up and up. They are marketers, scammers and a few others of this ilk. They appear from time to time and often are recognized by the name they post (usually providers don’t use their own name anyway). Keep a record of these folks so you can skip them when they show up again. And, yes, you do need to jot them down. After years of doing turk hits it’s almost impossible to remember them all.

4. Return Hits

You want to keep a stellar reputation on Mechanical Turk so your personal ranking doesn’t fall so low that you’ll stop receiving good assignments to take (Mechanical Turk has a very carefully constructed ranking system and you’d best take note of it). If you start a hit but find it’s not to your liking, or you are not able to complete it for some reason make sure you go back to the start page and “return the hit.” Not doing so can lower your ranking – and you don’t want that to happen.

5. Set Reasonable Limits

Participating in Mechanical Turk can be mesmerizing – and fun. But, don’t get carried away. Yes, you can make several hundred dollars a month if you really work at it. But, you are not going to get rich and you shouldn’t let it suck up every waking moment of your life. Set reasonable goals for how much time per day or per week you are going to spend on MT and stick to that goal.

Does a May-december Romance Make Sense? New Research Says Probably Not

Older mate and younger partner, are likely to be worse off

The idea of a May-December romance may seem like something exciting, just like the notion of a female “cougar” going after a younger man is popular (given a television show about just such a situation). But, recent research suggests that for people on polar ends of the age spectrum life is not likely to be such a great deal after all.

The study says that older people who married younger mates, or vice versa, are more likely to be less wealthy, less educated, and less attractive than couples of more similar ages. So, while the idea of a wealthy Daddy Warbucks having a woman half his age or less on his arm may seem like something straight out of the Playboy mansion, the reality is likely to be a lot less appealing. In fact, the researchers found that the wider the age differential between two people the more likely it is to see more negative affects in the relationship.

Looking at U.S. census data covering 40 years the researchers found that a better educated person, say with a college degree and job prospects to match, was more likely to be linked with mates of their own age. On the other hand, low-income or lesser-educated people (and therefore lower job prospects) were found to associate with a more diverse age group of people and thereby increasing the chance of marrying someone who might be a lot older or younger.

It’s The Social Network That Counts

The researchers conclude that the social network someone is in, or gravitates toward, is the primary indicator of the partner they are likely to end up with. Further, men who married to someone of a very different age ended up making less money in their careers compared to like-aged people who marry. Even more specifically, the researchers offered the example of wage differences of several thousand dollars per year for men who married a woman eight or more years older, compared to men who married a woman closer to their own age.