Word: leveler
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...while foreclosures are certainly bad for banks, higher interest rates alone aren't. It is not the level of interest rates that matters to bank bottom lines, but the difference between short-term rates and long-term rates. Banks make money when they can borrow money on a short-term basis - think about your deposits - at little costs and lend it out on a longer-term basis - your mortgage - at a higher rate. That's what economists call the yield curve. And the steepness of the curve, which is the difference between short-term rates and long-term rates...
Since the early 1990s, science has suggested a link between antisocial behavior and a defect in the gene that codes for an enzyme called monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A). A low level of activity on the MAO-A gene results in an excessive breakdown of neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, which helps keep humans calm and happy. The defect thereby increases the urge to react aggressively to threats or fears, leading MAO-A to be referred to as the "warrior" gene. (See 20 ways to get and stay happy...
...reported lifestyle surveys from nearly 2,500 participants in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the largest and most comprehensive survey of health-related behavior among adolescents between 7th and 12th grade, which started in 1994. Slightly more than half of the study's male participants had low-level activity on the MAO-A gene, and about 3% of the total pool reported having joined a named gang in the past year. (See pictures of gangs in New Zealand...
...confirmed cases in just a handful of countries, along with an unknown - though suspected to be large - number of infections in Mexico. That wasn't a huge total, but H1N1 was clearly spreading and it fit the WHO's very specific criteria for the pandemic phase to change from level 4 to level 5: it was a novel influenza virus that was sustaining human-to-human spread in at least two different countries (in that case, the U.S. and Mexico). (See pictures from the thermal scanners used to check for swine...
...criteria for phase 6, which signals a full pandemic, are just as specific, requiring sustained community-level outbreaks in at least one other country in a different region of the world (in this case, Australia...