Wednesday, September 8, 2010

07/09 Good dancing may be sign of male health, scientists say

By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News

Dr Nick Neave looks at the difference between "good" and "bad" dancing

Scientists say they've carried out the first rigorous analysis of dance moves that make men attractive to women.

The researchers say that movements associated with good dancing may be indicative of good health and reproductive potential.


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Their findings are published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

"When you go out to clubs people have an intuitive understanding of what makes a good and bad dancer," said co-author Dr Nick Neave, an evolutionary psychologist at Northumbria University, UK.

"What we've done for the very first time is put those things together with a biometric analysis so we can actually calculate very precisely the kinds of movements people focus on and associate them with women's ratings of male dancers."

Dr Neave asked young men who were not professional dancers, to dance in a laboratory to a very basic drum rhythm and their movements with 12 cameras.

These movements were then converted into a computer-generated cartoon - an avatar - which women rated on a scale of one to seven. He was surprised by the results.

"We thought that people's arms and legs would be really important. The kind of expressive gestures the hands [make], for example. But in fact this was not the case," he said.


“ We found that (women paid more attention to) the core body region: the torso,
the neck, the head”
Dr Nick Neave
Northumbria University

"We found that (women paid more attention to) the core body region: the torso, the neck, the head. It was not just the speed of the movements, it was also the variability of the movement. So someone who is twisting, bending, moving, nodding."

Movements that went down terribly were twitchy and repetitive - so called "Dad dancing".

Dr Neave's aim was to establish whether young men exhibited the same courtship movement rituals in night clubs as animals do in the wild. In the case of animals, these movements give information about their health, age, their reproductive potential and their hormone status.

"People go to night clubs to show off and attract the opposite sex so I think it's a valid way of doing this," Dr Neave explained.

"In animals, the male has to be in good physical quality to carry out these movements. We think the same is happening in humans and certainly the guys that can put these movements together are going to be young and fit and healthy."

Dr Neave also took blood samples from the volunteers. Early indications from biochemical tests suggest that the men who were better dancers were also more healthy.

Have you or your dad got some great dance moves you'd like to share? We'd like to see videos of your best - and worst - moves. If you've already uploaded your dance videos to the internet, please send us a url using the form below.

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08/09 Profile: Dove World Outreach Center

Mr Jones says he sincerely hopes burning Korans will not lead to violence

The plan by the Dove World Outreach Center, a small evangelical church in the US state of Florida, to burn Korans on 11 September has drawn worldwide condemnation.

Its pastor, the Reverend Terry Jones, says that as an American Christian he has a right to burn Islam's holy book because it is "full of lies".

“We must send a clear message to the radical element of Islam. We will no longer be controlled and dominated by their fears and threats”
The Reverend Terry Jones

Despite acknowledging that he has "no experience... whatsoever" of the Koran, he argues that it is "evil" because it espouses something other than Biblical truth and incites radical, violent behaviour among Muslims.

The 58-year-old recently wrote a book entitled Islam is of the Devil.

Muslims consider the Koran the sacred word of God and consider any intentional damage or show of disrespect towards it as deeply offensive .

There are fears that the planned burning will spark international protests by Muslims on a scale similar to those seen after the publication of satirical cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper in 2006.

Already, protesters in Afghanistan have burned an effigy of Mr Jones to chants of "death to America".

"Even the rumour that it might take place has sparked demonstrations such as the one that took place in Kabul," warned the top US and Nato military commander in the country, Gen David Petraeus, earlier this week.

Protesters burned an effigy of Mr Jones in Kabul

"Were the actual burning to take place, the safety of our soldiers and civilians would be put in jeopardy, and accomplishment of the mission would be made more difficult," he added.

Mr Jones says he sincerely hopes burning Korans will not lead to violence, and dismisses the idea that it may put American troops at greater risk.

"We must send a clear message to the radical element of Islam. We will no longer be controlled and dominated by their fears and threats," he says.

Mr Jones has received more than 100 death threats in recent days and says he has started carrying a pistol as a precaution.

'Stand up'

The Dove World Outreach Center, a 50-member church in the city of Gainesville, was founded in 1986 by Donald Northrup.

“Christians must return to the truth and stop hiding. We need to speak up against sin and call the people to repentance”
Dove World Outreach Center website


After he died in 1996, the leadership of the church was taken over by Mr Jones, who had been running a sister church in Cologne, Germany.



Under the pastor, it has been transformed "from a local church to an apostolic church with a world vision", according to its website.

The church follows the Pentecostal tradition, which emphasises the work of the Holy Spirit and the direct experience of the presence of God by the believer.

Pentecostals base their theology on the text of the Bible, which they believe to be the word of God and totally without error. They believe their movement is returning Christianity to a pure and simple form.

"Our purpose and our goal here at Dove World Outreach Center is to get people to stand up. We, as the church, need to stand up for righteousness and for the truth of the Bible," a statement on the church's website states.

"Christians must return to the truth and stop hiding. We need to speak up against sin and call the people to repentance."

It later adds: "Any religion which would profess anything other than this truth is of the devil. This is why we also take a stand against Islam, which teaches that Jesus is not the Son of God, therefore taking away the saving power of Jesus Christ and leading people straight to Hell."

On its blog, the church describes International Burn a Koran Day, on the anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks, as "neither an act of love nor of hate".

"We see... that Islam is a danger. We are using this act to warn about the teaching and ideology of Islam, which we do hate as it is hateful," it says.

"We do not hate any people, however. We love, as God loves, all the people in the world and we want them to come to a knowledge of the truth. To warn of danger and harm is a loving act. God is love and truth. If you know the truth it can set you free. The world is in bondage to the massive grip of the lies of Islam."

The church has been denied a permit for a bonfire by the authorities in Gainesville, but Mr Jones plans to go forward with the Koran burning and pay any fines incurred.


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08/09 US church defiant despite condemnation of Koran burning

A small US church says it will defy international condemnation and go ahead with plans to burn copies of the Koran on the 9/11 anniversary.

Terry Jones said he had prayed over the matter but insisted the Koran-burning would go ahead

The top US commander in Afghanistan warned troops' lives would be in danger if the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida went ahead.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the church's plan was "disrespectful and disgraceful".

Muslim countries and Nato have also hit out at the move.

And the US Attorney General, Eric Holder, called the idea "idiotic and dangerous".

But organiser, Pastor Terry Jones said: "We must send a clear message to the radical element of Islam."

The controversy comes at a time when the US relationship with Islam is very much under scrutiny.

There is heated debate in the country over a proposal to build a mosque and Islamic cultural centre streets from Ground Zero, site of the 9/11 attacks, in New York.

Speaking at a State Department dinner marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Hillary Clinton condemned Pastor Jones.

"I am heartened by the clear, unequivocal condemnation of this disrespectful, disgraceful act that has come from American religious leaders of all faiths," she said.

Despite having a congregation of just 50, the plans of Pastor Jones' church in Gainesville have gained worldwide notoriety, sparking demonstrations in Afghanistan and Indonesia.

Gen David Petraeus, the top US commander in Afghanistan, said on Monday that the action could cause problems "not just in Kabul, but everywhere in the world".

"It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems," he said in a statement.

The Vatican, the Obama administration and Nato have also expressed concern over the plan.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Tuesday that "any type of activity like that that puts our troops in harm's way would be a concern".

Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen blasted the plans, telling reporters that burning Korans violated the Nato alliance's "values".

Pastor Jones - author of a book entitled Islam is of the Devil - has said he understands the general's concerns but that it was "time for America to quit apologising for our actions and bowing to kings".

Another pastor at the church told the BBC that members intended to burn several hundred copies of the holy book on Saturday evening, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, in defiance of an order by the city not to hold an open air bonfire.

Muslims consider the Koran to be the word of God and insist it be treated with the utmost respect. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the holy book is deeply offensive to them.

An interfaith group of evangelical, Roman Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim leaders meeting in Washington on Tuesday condemned the proposals as a violation of American values and the Bible.

"I have heard many Muslim Americans say they have never felt this anxious or this insecure in America since directly after 11 September," said Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America.

Claims that US soldiers have desecrated the Koran in both Afghanistan and Iraq have caused bloodshed in the past.

There were deadly protests in Afghanistan in 2008, when it emerged that a US soldier deployed to Iraq riddled a copy of the holy book with bullets.

And further lives were lost in Afghan riots in 2005 when Newsweek magazine printed a story alleging that US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet.

The story later turned out to be false and was retracted by the magazine.



Analysis


Paul Adams

BBC News, Washington


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The Dove World Outreach Center may only represent a handful of people, but its incendiary plans haven't emerged out of nowhere.

The role of Islam in America has become a hot button issue with social and political implications.

While most Americans would probably take issue with exhortations to burn the Koran, there is clearly widespread concern about the influence of Islam.

Protests over the planned location of an Islamic centre close to Ground Zero in New York, and similar controversy in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, have highlighted popular anxiety about Islam in America.

Earlier this year, an opinion poll found that 53% of Americans view Islam unfavourably, with only 42% viewing the religion favourably.

Reports about young American Muslims being radicalised on the internet have helped to stoke fears about the nature of a religion indelibly associated, since 9/11, with a violent assault on the US.

Far from subsiding over time, anxiety seems to have deepened. As a result, American Muslims say they feel more isolated than at any time since the 2001 attacks.