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Move over, alfa males. Being No.2 is better, scientists say.

A new study on baboons has found that alpha males, or those at the pinnacle of the social hierarchy, tend to have high stress levels than beta males — the nice guys who are placed second.

The Princeton University study contrasts with earlier findings that stress levels tend to drop the higher you ascend on the social ladder.

It also suggests that being top of the pile has a big downside too, The New York Times reported.

For their study, published in the journal Science, the researchers looked at 125 male baboons living in five social groups over a nineyear period in Amboseli, Kenya.

They measured their stress hormone levels by analysing 4,500 fecal samples and found that alpha males had very high stress hormone levels, just as high as those of the lowest ranking males.
The stress, according to the researchers, was probably because of the demands of fighting off challengers and guarding access to fertile females.

Beta males, who fought less and had considerably less mate guarding to do, had much lo wer stress levels. They had fewer mating opportunities than the alphas, but they did get some mating in, more than any lower-ranking males.

The research is both impressive and surprising, said Robert Sapolsky of Stanford, a neurobiologist who carried out groundbreaking studies on stress in baboons, and was not involved in the new study.

“What’s cool about this paper is that being an alpha and being a beta are very different experiences physiologically,” Dr Sapolsky said.

Levels of stress are important partly because of the health effects of stress hormones. In the short term, in immediate fight-or-flight situations, the hormones work to energise the individual.

— PTI

The Dark Knight is back!

MS Dhoni and co. beat Bangalore by 58 runs to win their second straight IPL title.

Chasing 206 to win, Ashwin delivered a body blow to RCB’s title aspirations when he got the big fish Chris Gayle for a naught in the first over. MS Dhoni’s move to open the attack with the off-spinner struck more gold as he followed Gayle’s wicket with Mayank Aggarwal’s in his second over to put the CSK right on top.

Chennai bowlers then restricted Bangalore to a paltry 147/8 and romped home by the big margin. It was an icing on the cake for CSK skipper Dhoni after the historic World Cup triumph last month.

Regular fall of wickets sent half the RCB side back in the dug-out after 10 overs, making it the most lopsided of the four IPL finals so far. Shadab Jakati (2/21) bowled well in tandem with Ashwin to pick up his two wickets.

Feeling happy? Don’t be too smug as chances are that you will die young, scientists say.
An international team, which looked at several studies to find out if happiness has also a dark side, discovered that people who are too full of joy die younger than their more downbeat peers.

They found that children who are rated “highly cheerful” at school went onto die younger than their more reserved class mates, according to news reported.

This is because they are likely to lead more carefree lives full of danger and unhealthy lifestyle choices, believe the researchers.

They may also be more likely to suffer from mental problems such as bipolar depression which sees moods swing from extreme happiness to debilitating sadness, they said.

Being too cheerful-especially at inappropriate times-can also rouse anger in others, increasing the risk of a person coming to harm, they pointed out. The study by a variety of universities analysed the details of children from the 1920s to old age. The researchers found people whose school reports rated them “highly cheerful” died younger than their more reserved classmates.

They also discovered that trying too hard to be happy often ended up leaving people feeling more depressed than before, as putting an effort into improving their mood often left people feeling cheated. Magazine articles offering tips on how to be happy were also blamed for worsening modern day depression.

One study saw participants asked to read an article offering ways to improve your mood, and follow one of the tips to see how effective it was. Participants then took the advice offered-such as watching an upbeat filmoften concentrated too hard on trying to improve their mood rather than letting it lift naturally.

Now this is interesting. Sourav Ganguly joins Pune Warriors and will replace Ashish Nehra who has been ruled out because of injury.

Lets see if Dada can change the fortunes of the Pune Warriors who are currently languishing on the bottom of the table.

ChennaiForums.com is a new (old) website that i had been contemplating on launching for more than a year. It was a website in 2009 that i closed while moving to a bigger server. I never got around bringing it back alive until yesterday (lets make it officially) when the final design was taken live.

ChennaiForums.com is an another unique website in the sense that there is no such site in existence (to my knowledge). There are a lot of blogs, news sites and what not, but a dedicated discussion forum for Chennai is something that i have not come across so far.

Feel free to register, participate and share your views. And please do let your friends and family know about it. It’s still early days, but i am hopeful it will be a big community.

Anirudha Srikkanth’s fifty and useful contributions from Suresh Raina and M.S. Dhoni helped Chennai Super Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders by two runs in the opening match of the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Friday

Chennai Super Kings registered a thrilling two-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders in the opening match of Indian Premier League-IV at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here on Friday.

Set a target of 154, KKR needed nine to win off the last over, but Tim Southee restricted the visiting side to just six, allowing the defending champion to begin its campaign on the right note.

In its chase, KKR appeared to be coasting when it was 111 for two in 15 overs. Forty-three were required off 30 balls when R. Ashwin returned to bowl his last over, the 16th of the innings, and snared a well-set Jacques Kallis (54, 42b, 7×4), who was caught at short fine-leg by S. Badrinath.

In the next over, new man Eoin Morgan was stumped off Suresh Raina and two balls later, KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir ran himself out following a series of fumbles and stop-starts, leaving his team to get 34 runs off 19 balls, five wickets in hand.

The 19th over from Suraj Randiv changed the equation somewhat, as Manoj Tiwary plundered two sixes and Laxmi Ratan Shukla a four, to bring the requirement down to nine runs in seven balls. Tiwary went for another heave off Randiv’s last ball, but was stumped smartly by Dhoni.

KKR’s chase had begun in the right earnest when Kallis smashed Southee for three boundaries in the fourth over to set the pace, the 50 coming up in the sixth over. In the same over, Dhoni made a hash of what appeared to be a stumping chance of Manvinder Bisla off Randiv.

KKR lost its first wicket on 64 in the ninth over, when Bisla (27) advanced down the track to Shadab Jakati, missed, and was finally stumped by Dhoni.

Yusuf Pathan struck a gigantic six off Jakati, only to survive a close stumping call in the next over bowled by Randiv. Yusuf’s luck soon ran out when he was run out a ball later, ‘Captain Cool’ running and picking up the ball from short square-leg and hitting the stumps directly.

Earlier, Dhoni elected to bat and CSK reached 153 for four mainly through Anirudha Srikkanth, who had opened the batting, rousing memories of another Srikkanth who had served so well at the top of the order.

Source: News Agencies

Chennai Super Kings wasted no time in adding Upul Tharanga and Tim Southee to the squad. Both went unsold in the auction and now they have been bought by CSK for the upcoming IPL Season 4. Doug Bollinger and Ben Hilfenhaus are injured while Baily is also a concern.

• MS Dhoni (C)
• Suresh Raina
• Murali Vijay
• Albie Morkel
• Wriddhiman Saha
• Michael Hussey
• Dwayne Bravo
• Michael Hussey
• Doug Bollinger
• R Ashwin
• S Badrinath
• Scott Styris
• Ben Hilfenhaus
• Joginder Sharma
• Nuwan Kulasekara
• Sudeep Tyagi
• Suraj Randiv
• George Bailey
• Francois du Plessis
• Upul Tharanga
• Tim Southee
• Vasudeva Das
• Anirudha Srikanth
• Abhinav Mukund
• Yo Mahesh
• Ganapathy Vignesh
• Shadab Jakati

• Coach - Stephen Fleming
• Fielding Coach – Rixon
• Bowling Coach - Andy Bichel

IPL T20 2011 Schedule