Stonehenge May Have Been Royal Cemetery

LONDON, May 29, 2008 (Reuters) — Stonehenge may have been a burial ground for an ancient royal family, British researchers said on Thursday.

New radiocarbon dates of human remains excavated from the ancient stone monument in southwest England suggest it was used as a cemetery from its inception just after 3000 BC until well after the larger circle of stones went up around 2500 BC.

Previously, archaeologists had believed people were buried at Stonehenge between 2700 and 2600 B.C.

"The hypothesis we are working on is that Stonehenge represents a place of the dead," said Mike Parker Pearson, an archaeologist at the University of Sheffield, who is leading an excavation of the site. "That seems to be very clear."

"A further twist is that the people buried at Stonehenge may have been the elite of their society, an ancient royal British dynasty, perhaps."

Built between 3000 and 1600 BC as a temple, burial ground, astronomical calendar or all three, the stone circle is sometimes called "Britain's pyramids."

Tourists are drawn to Stonehenge throughout the year and on the summer solstice -- the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere -- up to 30,000 revelers and druids converge on the stones for a night of celebration.

"DOMAIN OF THE DEAD"

Who built Stonehenge and why is debated among scientists, although growing evidence points to the monument's use as a burial place, Parker Pearson told reporters.

Last year the same researchers found evidence of a large settlement of houses nearby. They said the latest findings reinforced their belief that the settlement and Stonehenge form part of a larger ancient ceremonial complex along the nearby River Avon.

"What we suspect is that the river is the conduit between the two realms of the living and the dead," Parker Pearson said. "It was the prehistoric version of the river Styx."

The team estimates that between 150 to 240 men, women and children were buried at Stonehenge over a 600-year period, making it likely that the relatively low figure over such a long points to a single elite family.

A clue is the few burials in Stonehenge's earliest phase, a number that grows larger in following centuries as offspring would have multiplied, said Andrew Chamberlain, a specialist in ancient demography at the University of Sheffield.

Placement of the graves and artifacts such as a small stone mace are evidence the site was reserved as a "domain of the dead" for the elite, Parker Pearson added.

"I don't think it was the common people getting buried at Stonehenge -- it was clearly a special place at the time," he said. "One has to assume anyone buried there had some good credentials."

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/l2958586-stonehenge-cemetery/

As Food Prices Spiral, Farmers, Others Profit

WILLMAR, Minn. - The steepest run-ups in food prices since 1990 are hurting grocery shoppers, restaurants and school cafeterias but they're making others rich.

The winners in the new food economy include crop farmers selling corn and wheat for near-record highs after years of crushingly low prices. Ingredient makers like Cargill and ADM are rife with profits. Fertilizer and tractor companies are cashing in. Hedge funds who made big bets on rising wheat, soy and corn were spectacularly correct. Oil and gas companies, too — it takes natural gas to cook those Wheaties and diesel to haul them around the country.

Travel along the nation's food chain and you'll find some of the biggest profits closest to the land. The nation's farmers, who raise everything from cows to cucumbers, saw their average household income climb about 7 percent last year to more than $83,000. But in grain-rich states, the results were dramatically higher. In Minnesota alone, the median income for crop farmers soared 80 percent to $95,000.

That brings us to Chad Willis.

Willis raises corn and soy beans on 550 acres near Willmar, some of the nation's best corn-growing country.

He sells his grain nine miles up the road from an ethanol plant he invested in. His family cars are powered by an 85 percent blend of the corn-based fuel. His black and gold-trimmed cap reads "E85 Everywhere." And he knows that grocery shoppers jolted by higher prices for cereal or eggs or chicken think it's because of ethanol, which consumed 20 percent of last year's corn crop.

Willis isn't saying how much he made last year. While he acknowledges these are good times to be a farmer, he says he's not pulling in as much as the median income for crop farmers.

Excited, yes, but cautious
"Most people are excited, yes, but cautious about when things are going to turn around, and how hard it's going to turn around," he said.

In between Willis' farm and town, the owners of Haug Implement are having some of the best times anyone can remember. The Deere & Co. dealer sells farm tractors that can run to $160,000 or more and combines that can cost $300,000, a major investment even in the best of times.

Normally Haug would still be taking orders for combines for delivery for the fall harvest. But Deere cut off new orders in mid-November because demand was so high.

Owner Donald Haug Jr. says it wasn't long ago that he couldn't close on new equipment unless he narrowed the gap between trade-in and the sale price to $10,000.

"We're seeing some substantial purchasing, and we're talking over $100,000, and the guy just strokes the check for it," he said.

The boom times in farm country have arrived. Corn, soybean, and wheat prices have been pushed at or near record highs by a combination of high demand and new money from hedge fund traders who used to show little interest in those markets. Over the past 20 years, Minneapolis Grain Exchange trading volume has risen almost six-fold to a new record last year. The run-up is because in the frenzied trading the same commodities are changing hands far more than they used to.

"Grain farmers are making a hell of a lot of money," said Peter Georgantones, president of Investment Trading Services, a commodities brokerage in Bloomington, Minn. "I got grain farmers — a ton of them — who are going to improve their net worth this year — net, now — by a half a million bucks minimum. For one year. That's a nice gain. Not to mention their land's worth more."

Newspapers cover much of the floor in his office and 22 yellow Post-it notes cover much of his desk, where one computer terminal shows nothing but commodity prices. Every few minutes his phone rings with a call from a farmer checking crop prices.

"These guys, they grow 60, 70, 80 thousand bushels of beans," he said. "I got guys sitting on $2, $3 million worth of grain right now. Farmers are making good money."

Biofuels debate
The International Monetary Fund estimates biofuels accounted for almost half the increase in consumption of major food crops in 2006-2007, saying it has propelled prices for corn, other grains, meat, poultry and dairy.

Others dispute that. A report last month from the Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University said higher corn prices have had little to do with rising food costs because other factors, such as rising energy costs, have been at least as important.

Willis, the farmer near Willmar, is quick to point out that farmers pay much of those profits right back out to their own suppliers.

The liquid propane that runs his corn drier cost $1.55 per gallon last year. He's been told to expect $2 this year. Fertilizer last year ran $115 per acre. This spring it cost double that. He bought 2,500 gallons of diesel fuel for his tractors last year, at a price that started at $2.50 a gallon and rose to $3.09 by the end of the year and has risen further since then.

"You look at the grain prices, yeah, that's nice," he said. "But everything's going up right along with it."

Bottom-line boosters
While virtually all businesses are contending with higher energy costs, the rising commodities prices are proving to be bottom-line boosters for other sectors, too.

Profits at seed and pesticide maker Monsanto Inc. reached nearly $1 billion last year — a 14-fold increase since 2003. They've tripled to $1.1 billion at agrichemical maker Syngenta and agriculture divisions of DuPont Co. and Dow Chemical Co. have also seen their earnings balloon.

Cargill, which makes ingredients and trades in commodities markets, boosted its profits to $2.3 billion, up nearly six-fold since 2001.

Meanwhile, profits at agricultural processor Archer Daniels Midland Co. have more than quadrupled to $2.16 billion during the same period.

Fertilizer makers are winning big, too.

Mosaic Co. saw its third-quarter profits jump tenfold to $520.8 million because strong demand from farmers is giving it power to raise prices.

Companies like Deere, the world's biggest maker of farm machinery, are in the midst of flush times, too.

Between 2005 and 2007, Deere's net profit rose more than 25 percent to $1.8 billion. Meanwhile, operating profits of the Moline, Ill.-based company's agriculture division rose nearly 50 percent, to $1.4 billion.

'Everybody wants a piece of the pie'
"Everybody is getting their little piece. Everybody wants a piece of the pie," said Lee Richardson, a 37-year-old farmer from Willards, Md., who's seen the robust profits of his grain harvest consumed by the increasing costs of raising more than 1 million chickens annually on his family's 2,200-acre farm

Food prices in the U.S. rose about 4 percent last year, which may not sound like much, but it's the fastest rate since 1990, according to the Agriculture Department. Prices on some foods rose much faster. White bread prices rose 13 percent last year, bacon 7 percent. Peanut butter jumped 9 percent.

And it's picking up speed. Food inflation is running at an annualized rate of 6.1 percent as of April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on May 14.

In addition, a weakened dollar makes American produce cheap and desirable abroad while weather-wrecked harvests in some foreign countries have generated regional scarcities, increasing global demand for products. At the same time, emerging economies in India and China are creating nations of residents demanding higher-quality ingredients and food.

The rising prices are forcing changes at food and ingredient buyers such as Kraft Foods Inc.

Kraft Foods Inc. has seen its commodities costs grow 9 percent, or $1.3 billion. This year, the company expects to see an even bigger input cost increase.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24840735/

The Cleveland Browns Have Rich Military History To Be Proud Of

While we recognize that Memorial Day is meant to commemorate those who lost their lives serving in the military, ClevelandBrowns.com would like to take the time to remember all those Browns players who served their country over the years...

Even when it comes to military service, the Browns are well-represented in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

And that's a good thought for Browns fans to have over this Memorial Day weekend.

Three Browns -- Don Steinbrunner, Alex Agase and Weldon Humble -- are featured prominently in the first of the HOF's several planned traveling exhibits, "Pro Football and the American Spirit: The NFL and the U.S. Armed Forces."

The warmup jacket Steinbrunner wore while with the Browns in 1953, his only season in the NFL, and the Purple Heart he was awarded in Vietnam, are both included.

He served in the Air Force, becoming one of just two former NFL players to have lost his life in the Vietnam War when his plane was short down over Kontum, South Vietnam on July 20, 1967. The other player is Bob Kalsu, who played with the Buffalo Bills in the late 1960s.

But unlike Kalsu, who was immediately memorialized nationwide, Steinbrunner's story fell through the cracks until surfacing in 2004.

Agase, a guard with the early Browns, and Humble, a linebacker and one of his teammates, are in a display entitled, "The Parallel Careers of Two NFL Soldiers; They Must Have Been Born Under the Same Star."

Agase and Humble went into the Marines to serve in World War II on the same day, July 1, 1943, and even were in the same regimen. Agase got hit by enemy fire at one point and was evacuated, and Humble was his replacement.

Following the war, both went back to college to finish their football careers, Agase to Illinois and Humble to Rice.

Both men began their pro careers in 1947 in the All-America Football Conference, Agase serving as a guard with the Los Angeles Dons and Chicago Rockets and Humble playing linebacker with the Browns. Agase went to the Browns in 1948 and he and Humble were teammates together on three straight league championship teams through 1950.

Both played four seasons with Cleveland, Agase through '51 and Humble through '50.

Agase retired -- temporarily -- after the 1951 season and then returned to the field in '53 with the Baltimore Colts, after which he retired for good. But in between, he served as an assistant coach in 1952 with the Dallas Texans.

Humble was out of football in 1951 and then went to the Texans in '52 for one final season as a player, where he was reunited with Agase yet again.

The two men, seemingly joined at the hip since 1943, at long last went their separate ways following the 1952 season, ending one of the most unique and interesting relationships in the history of pro football."

But long before the HOF came up with this exhibit, the history of the Browns and the military, and how they're indelibly linked, could be found in the team's media guide -- or press book, as it was called then -- in that inaugural season of 1946.

The biographical information about nearly every single player listed contains a reference to their war service:

Tackle Chet Adams -- Entered the Army in February 1944 as a private and was discharged as a first lieutenant in June 1946. Served in the Corps of Military Police.
Halfback Al Akins -- Served 32 months with the Marines, leaving with the rank of first lieutenant. Saw service in Guam, Saipan and Japan and won the Presidential Unit Citation.
Tackle Ernie Blandin -- Served 3½ years in the Navy, including a year in the Marshall Islands and three months in Hawaii.
Guard George Cheroke -- Was in the Army Air Forces more than four years, 19 months of which were in the European Theatre. Rose to the rank of captain.
Halfback Tom Colella -- Served in the Marine Corps from July 1942 to August 1943.
End Alton Coppage -- Served in the Army Air Corps for 31 months. Was overseas with the 20th Air Force.
Tackle Jim Daniell -- Won the Silver Star for heroism aboard a destroyer off Okinawa. Held the Asiatic-Pacific Theatre ribbon with nine battle stars.
Halfback Fred "Dippy" Evans -- Served in the Army Air Corps for three years, from February 1943 until January 1946. Got lost one night in a fighter plane and had but three minutes of gas left when he finally landed.
Fullback Gene Fekete -- Served in the Army from April 1943 until June 1945.
Center Frank "Gunner" Gatski -- Served 3½ years in the Army Infantry, including 18 months in the ETO.
Quarterback Otto "Otts" Graham -- Entered the Navy on Feb. 14, 1944 and was discharged Sept. 19, 1945.
Halfback Don "Slooie" Greenwood -- Enlisted in the Army Air Corps.
Tackle Lou "Chief" Groza -- Entered the Army's Medical Dept. in the Infantry. In the service for three years, spending six months on Leyte, five months on Okinawa, two in Hawaii and six in the Philippines.
End John Harrington -- Served in the Central Pacific before ending his tour of duty as a first lieutenant in early 1946.
Guard Lin Houston -- Was in the Army from May 1943 until February 1946. Served in New Guinea and the Philippines.
Halfback Edgar "Special Delivery" Jones -- Entered the Navy in April 1942 and was discharged in October 1945.
Guard Alex "Tata" Kapter -- Was a Naval pilot.
End Dante Lavelli -- Entered the Army in 1943 and served in France, Belgium and Germany.
Halfback Bill Lund -- Served as an ensign aboard a Navy destroyer in the Pacific Theatre.
Center Mel "Mac" Maceau -- Served for more than three years in the Army Air Forces, including 27 months in the China-Burma-India Theatre. Won two Bronze Stars and a Presidential Unit Citation.
Fullback Marion Motley -- Served in the Navy.
End John "Rock" Rokisky -- Served as a Navy athletic instructor for four years, including 11 months at Pearl Harbor.
Tackle Lou Rymkus -- Entered the Navy in March 1944 as an athletic instructor and served until early in 1946. Was stationed nine months at Pearl Harbor.
Quarterback Lou Saban -- Entered the Army in 1943 and had attained the rank of first lieutenant by the time of his discharge in 1946. Was utilized as an interpreter in China.
Center Mike "Mo" Scarry -- Interrupted his schooling to enlist in the Army and served with the Infantry in the African Campaign.
Fullback Gaylon Smith -- Enlisted in the Navy.
End Mac "Speed" Speedie -- Enlisted in the Army in March 1942 and was discharged as a first lieutenant in June 1946. Served in reconditioning work in the medical corps.
Halfback Bob Steuber -- Served in the Navy.
Halfback Ray Terrell -- Joined the Marines two months after Pearl Harbor (February 1942) and left the service as a second lieutenant in April 1946. Spent 10 months in the Pacific Theatre, plus three months in Japan.
Guard Ed Ulinski -- Entered the service May 7, 1942, terminating his Army career exactly four years to the day, on May 7, 1946, as a captain in the Army Air Forces. Served six months in the West Indies, during which time his B-29 made a forced landing in Cuba.
End John "Jumbo" Yonakor -- Enlisted in the Marines on June 6, 1942 (exactly two years before D-Day), and was called to active duty 13 months later. Served in the Southwest Pacific. Discharged in May 1946.
End George "Pordy" Young -- Entered the Navy in 1943.
Groza always told the story that, when actually in a fox hole while serving in Okinawa in 1945, he signed his first contract with the Browns.

So in a lot of ways, then, maybe that's where this link between the Browns and the military had its roots.

http://admin.clevelandbrowns.com/article.php?id=8475

Woman Wakes Up After Family Says Goodbye, Tubes Pulled

CLEVELAND, Ohio - A West Virginia woman was being transferred to the Cleveland Clinic after walking the line between life and death. Doctors are calling Val Thomas a medical miracle. They said they can't explain how she is alive.

They said Thomas suffered two heart attacks and had no brain waves for more than 17 hours. At about 1:30 a.m. Saturday, her heart stopped and she had no pulse. A respiratory machine kept her breathing and rigor mortis had set in, doctors said.

"Her skin had already started to harden and her fingers curled. Death had set in," said son Jim Thomas.

They rushed her to a West Virginia hospital. Doctors put Thomas on a special machine which induces hypothermia. The treatment involves lowering the body temperature for up to 24 hours before warming a patient up.

After that procedure, her heart stopped again.

"She had no neurological function," said Dr. Kevin Eggleston.

Her family said goodbye and doctors removed all the tubes.

However, Thomas was kept on a ventilator a little while longer as an organ donor issue was discussed.

Ten minutes later the woman woke up and started talking.

"She (nurse) said, 'I'm so sorry Mrs. Thomas.' And mom said, 'That's OK honey. That's OK," Jim Thomas said.

Val Thomas and her family strongly believe that the Lord granted them their miracle and they want everyone to know.

"I know God has something in store for me, another purpose. I don't know what it is but I'm sure he'll tell me," she said.

She was taken to the Cleveland Clinic for a specialist to check her out. Doctors said amazingly she has no blockage and will be fine.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24777532/?GT1=43001

The Hard Rock Cafe

The brainchild of Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton, the first Hard Rock Cafe (HRC) opened its doors in London, England June 14, 1971. Attracting customers with first-rate but moderately priced casual American fare, warm service and ubiquitous Rock 'n' Roll music and sensibility—HRC became an instant classic.

Beginning global expansion in 1982, Tigrett and Morton agreed to develop their own Cafes in various parts of the world. Morton opened HRCs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Houston, while Tigrett opened New York, Dallas, Boston, Washington, D.C., Orlando, Paris and Berlin—then later sold his interest to Mecca Leisure. In 1990, The Rank Group, Plc., a London-based leisure company, acquired Mecca and continued expansion of the concept in their geographic territory. Later Rank acquired Hard Rock America from Morton, and Hard Rock Canada from Nick Bitove, then consolidated worldwide control of the Brand. With this came one of the most universally recognized trademarks on the globe.

Boasting more than 104 HRCs in over 36 countries, Hard Rock Cafe is a truly global phenomenon. From our launch in London, England, to major city expansion in New York, L.A, Paris and Tokyo, then onto exotic and far-flung locales such as Kuala Lumpur and Taipei, Hard Rock offers an amazing experience to our devoted and ever-expanding clientele. Our unparalleled memorabilia collection consists of 60,000+ pieces which rotate from restaurant to restaurant, providing the world's most comprehensive visual history of rock 'n' roll. This includes our awe-inspiring collection of classic guitars and other instruments, posters, costumes, music, lyric sheets, album art, platinum and gold LPs, photos and much more. Like any "living museum" worth its salt, HRC's memorabilia collection remains very much a work in progress. Hence, we are constantly expanding our collection as new music and new music history is made every day!

After over a quarter of a century, HRC is true to its original intentions. Our Rock 'n' Roll sensibility (an HRC birthright!) continues to be the core of all HRC restaurants and all expansion efforts. Classic American food served by a capable, caring and attentive wait staff is still the order of the day at HRC. Our long-standing commitment to diverse philanthropies and our 'Save The Planet' motto has also helped HRC become a cultural force to be reckoned with—coast-to-coast, continent-to-continent.

HRC has always had one guiding philosophy-"Love All - Serve All." Moreover, HRC is a place where all have always been welcome—regardless of age, sex, class, or musical taste. This unconditional welcome continues today, and is as integral now to Hard Rock as it once was, in the beginning.

From 1971 to today, we've paved the Rock 'n' Roll way. Hard Rock Cafe International now is a major entertainment and leisure company- one which continues to successfully expand the Hard Rock Brand through myriad music-related ventures. Rock on!

All Is One.


http://www.partyspace.com/facilitypages/hardrockatlantic/history.htm

Cure For The Common Cold ? / Smallpox Drug May Also Target Some Upper-Respiratory Infections

Science Daily (May 21, 2008) — Scientists at Saint Louis University have made two key discoveries that could lead to the first-ever human testing of a drug to target the adenovirus, which causes a number of severe upper-respiratory infections and is one of many viruses that causes the common cold.

There are currently no drugs approved specifically to treat adenovirus infections in large part because there has been no animal model in which to test drug candidates, a key prerequisite before testing in humans.

SLU researchers and their collaborators, however, have made two breakthrough findings: an animal model suitable for adenovirus testing -- in this case using Syrian hamsters -- and a drug that successfully attacks the adenovirus in those animals. The drug, hexadecyloxypropyl-cidofovir or CMX001, is currently under development by Chimerix, Inc. as a biodefense agent to meet the threat of smallpox or monkeypox viruses and as an antiviral agent in transplant patients.

The SLU research is published the week of May 19 in an early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"This is exciting news and a major step forward in finding a drug to treat adenovirus infections in humans," said William Wold, Ph.D., professor and chair of the department of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine and the study's lead author.

One of the key obstacles to finding an animal model for adenovirus testing involves the fact that the virus is generally species-specific; meaning the human version of the virus doesn't replicate well in animals commonly used in laboratory research.

The SLU researchers, however, found that the adenovirus replicates in Syrian hamsters (also called golden hamsters) with suppressed immune systems in much the same manner as it replicates in humans whose immune systems are weakened -- making Syrian hamsters ideal for animal model testing.

"We are pleased to see that CMX001, a drug candidate showing broad antiviral activity that is being developed under a federal grant for smallpox, also has potential benefit against adenovirus," said George R. Painter, Ph.D., president and CEO of Chimerix.

Said Samuel Stanley Jr., director of the Midwest Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research (MRCE): "It is exciting to see work funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' MRCE program lead to potential new therapies for this important virus."

There are 52 known serotypes, or strains, of adenovirus in humans. They generally cause acute upper respiratory infections including colds, tonsillitis and ear infections, but they can also cause conjunctivitis, gastroenteritis and bladder infections.

Most people are able to recover from an adenovirus infection, but in some young children and people with weakened immune systems, adenovirus infections can turn virulent and even deadly. Adenovirus can also cause disease and even death in organ transplant recipients. Severe adenovirus outbreaks have occurred among groups of military recruits likely due to crowded living conditions.

CMX001 is an oral pro-drug, or derivative, of cidofovir, a drug developed by Gilead Sciences, Inc. to treat a type of retinitis in AIDS patients. Chimerix licensed from Gilead the rights to develop CMX001.

Cidofovir has long been a possible candidate to treat a number of virus infections, including the herpes virus, poxvirus and adenovirus infections in humans. The drug, however, is quite toxic to the liver and kidneys and is not available in oral form, which limits widespread use.

Using the new animal model, the SLU researchers found that CMX001 provided protection from the adenovirus when it was administered prophylactically (before infection with the virus) or therapeutically (after infection). The scientists found that the drug worked by greatly reducing the ability of the virus to replicate in key organs, mostly notably the liver.

The SLU team also found that CMX001 was much less toxic and far more powerful than cidofovir. In addition, scientists discovered, two weeks after infection with the virus CMX001 had reduced the viral load in the liver and blood to undetectable levels.

In addition to Wold and Painter, others who participated in the research include Karoly Toth, D.V.M., Jacqueline F. Spencer, John E. Sagartz, D.V.M., Ph.D., and R. Mark Buller, Ph.D., all of the Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080520090542.htm

The Plight Of The Older Sibling

There are two Jones brothers, Joshua and Justin. But when something breaks — like the time a soccer ball crashed through a garage window — it’s usually Joshua who gets the lecture: You’re the oldest, his parents remind him. You need to set an example. Your younger brother is watching.

Now, a new study has confirmed what first-borns like Joshua have always suspected: The oldest kid in the family really does bear the brunt of parental strictness, while the younger brothers and sisters generally coast on through.

“The folklore is that parents punish the older child more than the younger ones,” says Lingxin Hao, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University and an author of the study, published in the latest issue of the Economic Journal. “But it isn’t just folklore — this is a national pattern.”

First-borns who dropped out of school were 20 percent less likely to be getting most of their annual income from their parents than younger siblings in the same situation, Hao and her team found after reviewing annual surveys, involving more than 7,000 kids each year, conducted from 1979 to 1994 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In addition, the researchers found, first-born daughters who got pregnant as teenagers were 30 percent less likely to be getting most of their money from their parents than younger female siblings.

“Parents have an incentive to play tough with their kids, especially the older ones, to try to establish this signal to the other children that they’re not a pushover,” says Joseph Hotz, an economics professor at Duke University and a co-author of the study.

It’s all for the sake of setting an example, a refrain first-borns know all too well. By punishing the oldest kid more severely, Hotz says, parents are hoping to essentially scare the younger brothers and sisters straight, keeping them from making a similar mistake.

Parenting a perfectionist
“We did become stricter with Joshua after Justin was born,” says Ken Jones, father to the Jones boys — Joshua is 13, and Justin is 11. “I think I was a bit rougher on Joshua. He had to do things more perfectly.”

As the Jones family, who lives in Corona, Calif., has found, and the new research confirms, being a little tougher on the oldest kid in the family often turns out a kid like Joshua — the stereotypical rule-abiding, responsible first-born.

The study showed that older siblings were much less likely to drop out of school or, in the case of girls, get pregnant, than the youngest in the family, perhaps because they’ve had a lifetime of being held to higher standards.

That stricter parenting style often shapes the first-born kid into a play-by-the rules perfectionist, so parents tend to rely more on their oldest child than the younger kids, says Kevin Leman, a Tucson, Ariz., psychologist and author of “The Birth Order Book.”

“When a job needs to get done, it’s the habit of the parent to call on the first-born, because they’re the most reliable and conscientious,” Leman says. But it's no accident that the oldest has become a responsible wonder child; it's the parenting strategy that made them that way.

That’s how Ed Newman, a first-born, describes himself as a kid. As a teenager in New Jersey in the ’60s, he would never consider breaking his 11 p.m. curfew. He even remembers ignoring a group of buddies who repeatedly rapped on his window one night, trying to get him to come out. “It just seemed … wrong,” says Newman, now 55 and living in Duluth, Minn.

Flash forward 30-odd years later, and Newman’s youngest brother, eight years his junior, hits him with this piece of information: Baby brother Robert didn’t even have a curfew growing up.

“I knew my parents had loosened up some, but I didn’t know they had loosened up completely!” says Newman.

This is the same brother, Newman adds, who once singed off his eyelashes and eyebrows after making an explosive that blew up in his face.

Younger siblings, the researchers found, really are more likely to take more risks than the oldest kid in the family. In the data Hao and her team reviewed, younger siblings were especially more likely to drop out of school — and get financial support from their parents.

When it comes to parenting the first-born, there’s always a set of younger eyes watching the parents’ every move. But with the youngest, nobody younger is watching the consequences play out, making it harder for parents to stick to all that “tough love” talk. For the youngest kids who get into trouble, “parents are more likely to go in and bail them out,” says Hotz.

'Exhaustion takes over'
By the time the second and third kids come around, many parents lighten up, and realize that they probably overreacted a little with setting rules for their first kid, Leman says. “The first-born’s a guinea pig; we practice on ‘em,” he says. “Once the other kids come in, we lighten up. Or exhaustion takes over.”

With her oldest daughter, Lisa Russell set down very specific rules about sweets and TV watching, and kept her little girl, Emily, to a strict schedule. Dinner was always at 6, bedtime always at 8.

“When Emily was little, she was just always my perfect little robot who did everything I wanted her to do,” Russell says. “I thought, God, I must be really good at this.”

Fourteen years and four more kids later, dinner happens when it happens, and bedtime “isn’t so much of a time, it’s more like when a meltdown occurs,” says Russell, who lives in Yakima, Wash. Her five girls range in age from 5 months to 14 years.

“I don’t make an issue of things anymore,” Russell says. “You learn to choose your battles, and you learn what matters and what doesn't matter.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24397323