Iran planning to send ships near U.S. waters

Iran plans to send ships near the Atlantic coast of the United States, state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported Tuesday, quoting a commander.

"The Navy of the Iranian Army will have a powerful presence near the United States borders," read the headline of the story, in Farsi.

"Commander of the Navy of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran broke the news about the plans for the presence of this force in the Atlantic Ocean and said that the same way that the world arrogant power is present near our marine borders, we, with the help of our sailors who follow the concept of the supreme jurisprudence, shall also establish a powerful presence near the marine borders of the United States," the story said. The reference to the "world arrogant power" was presumably intended to refer to the United States.

IRNA cited the force's website as saying that the announcement was made by Adm. Habibollah Sayari on the 31st anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war.

State-run Press TV said Sayari had announced similar plans in July. In February, two Iranian Navy ships traversed the Suez Canal in the first such voyages by Iranian ships since 1979.

U.S. Defense Department officials had no immediate reaction to Tuesday's announcement. The United States has deployed fleets to the Persian Gulf in the past.

State-run Press TV, citing IRNA, said Tuesday's announcement came as Iran also plans to send its 16th fleet of warships to the Gulf of Aden to protect Iranian vessels and oil tankers from pirates, who have hijacked dozens of ships and exchanged their crews for ransom.

The Islamic Republic has repeatedly assured that its military might poses no threat to other countries, stating that Tehran's defense doctrine is based only on deterrence, Press TV reported in a story in July about the deployment of submarines to international waters.

U.S. is in falling satellite's potential strike zone, NASA says

A satellite on the verge of falling back to Earth appears to have begun slowing down but will not re-enter the atmosphere until late Friday or early Saturday U.S. time, according to NASA.

The United States is once again an unlikely but potential target for the 26 pieces of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, expected to survive the descent. Those pieces, made of stainless steel, titanium and beryllium that won't burn, will range from about 10 pounds to hundreds of pounds, according to NASA.

NASA said Friday morning that it would be hours before it would be able to zero in on the time and place of the re-entry.

Mark Matney of NASA's Orbital Debris team in Houston said there's no way to know exactly where the pieces will come down.

"Keep in mind, they won't be traveling at those high orbital velocities. As they hit the air, they tend to slow down. ... They're still traveling fast, a few tens to hundreds of miles per hour, but no longer those tremendous orbital velocities," he explained.

Because the satellite travels thousands of miles in a matter of minutes as it orbits -- even just before it begins re-entry -- it will be impossible to pinpoint the exact location the pieces will come down. On top of that, Matney said, the satellite is not stable.

"Part of the problem is, the spacecraft is tumbling in unpredictable ways, and it is very difficult to very precisely pinpoint where it's coming down even right before the re-entry."

Because water covers 70% of the Earth's surface, NASA has said that most if not all of the surviving debris will land in water. Even if pieces strike dry land, there's very little risk any of it will hit people.

However, in an abundance of caution, the Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday released an advisory warning pilots about the falling satellite, calling it a potential hazard.

"It is critical that all pilots/flight crew members report any observed falling space debris to the appropriate (air traffic control) facility and include position, altitude, time and direction of debris observed," the FAA statement said.

The FAA said warnings of this sort typically are sent out to pilots concerning specific hazards they may encounter during flights such as air shows, rocket launches, kites and inoperable radio navigational aids.

NASA says space debris the size of the satellite's components re-enters the atmosphere about once year. Harvard University astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell noted that the satellite is far from being the biggest space junk to come back.

"This is nothing like the old Skylab scare of the '70s, when you had a 70-ton space station crashing out of the sky. So, I agree with the folks in Houston. It's nothing to be worried about," McDowell said.

Pieces of Skylab came down in western Australia in 1979.

The only wild card McDowell sees is if somehow a chunk hits a populated area.

"If the thing happens to come down in a city, that would be bad. The chances of it causing extensive damage or injuring someone are much higher."

NASA said that once the debris hits the atmosphere 50 miles up, it will take only a matter of minutes before the surviving pieces hit the Earth.

Are you a gambler or investor?

John Mowen once had a 2 handicap, a level of accomplishment most amateur golfers can only dream of. But like many seemingly benign pursuits, golf can have a dark side. Mowen admits that about ten years ago he had become so hypercompetitive that the game lost its joy for him and he gave it up.

In the same way, investing is a pursuit that can be healthy or unhealthy. Taking an unhealthy approach to investing can slide into gambling and make it a losing proposition. This is a subject that Mowen, a professor in the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University and an expert in consumer behavior, has explored in depth. Most recently, he coauthored a paper that examines differences between gambling and investing.

The two aren't as different as you might think. In both cases, you're placing your money in ventures with uncertain outcomes. But the consequences of treating your portfolio as a gambling stake instead of a nest egg are dramatic.

Whereas gamblers in the stock market think short term and trade a few stocks frequently based on little information, investors understand that the odds tip decisively in their favor if they invest broadly and for the long term. An investor has a greater need for education and information than a gambler, says Mowen.

"Investors also have a future focus, and to me that's the hallmark of investing." Gamblers often have a penchant for risk-taking, which they find stimulating, Mowen says. In addition, they have a tendency to be more materialistic, impulsive and superstitious.

Few of us, however, can be neatly classified as thoughtful and sober or wild-eyed and impulsive. We all fall somewhere along a spectrum that stretches between those extremes, says Frank Murtha, a behavioral-finance consultant with MarketPsych, which offers psychological training and other services to financial professionals.

Penny for Your Stocks

Another way to approach the investing-as-gambling phenomenon is to consider not only how securities are traded but also which securities are purchased. One class of stocks is a gamble almost by definition. I'm talking, of course, about penny stocks — those low-priced, high-risk securities for which you'll almost certainly find solicitations as close as your spam folder. In fact, you may be receiving more penny-stock tout sheets than usual. Alok Kumar, a finance professor at the University of Miami, found that the demand for penny stocks increases during tough economic times.

Further, Kumar compared behavioral patterns of people who bought lottery tickets with those of people who bought "lottery-type" stocks, or penny stocks. His research showed that those who were predisposed to buy lottery tickets also favored penny stocks.

People who spent a lot on both tended to be poor, young African-American or Hispanic men who lived in cities. Investors in the lowest income group, with annual incomes of less than $15,000, lost an average of $4,725 per year on penny stocks — or about a third of their income. Those with higher annual incomes lost about the same dollar amount in penny stocks — but their losses were a smaller fraction of their income.

Huge Gladiator School Found Buried in Austria

The newly located facility includes features never before seen at a Roman gladiators' school, or ludus, such as traces of a wooden training dummy. And outside the gates, the researchers discovered what they call the first known gladiators' cemetery on the grounds of a ludus.

The complex "is absolutely huge," said Franz Humer, scientific director ofCarnuntum Archaeological Park, where the gladiator school was discovered—and where much of the ancient city has been reconstructed, a la Colonial Williamsburg.

The discovery, near the River Danube, is "one of the most interesting things I can imagine here in my career," Humer added.

The newfound school "is important," added the University of Buffalo's Stephen Dyson, an expert on the history and archaeology of the Roman Empire.

"It's the only one of this size and scale to be found anywhere in the Roman provinces," said Dyson, who wasn't involved in the discovery.

And though the Carnuntum ludus may not change historians' fundamental image of gladiators, "it's an important addition to our evidence."

Gladiator School Linked to Gladiator?

The school was probably built at the same time as the adjacent 13,000-person amphitheater, which was erected around A.D. 150, during the reign of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and excavated in the 1920s and 1930s.

Aurelius is known to have spent time in Carnuntum, and it's possible his son Commodus—the namesake of the villainous emperor in the 2000 blockbusterGladiator—saw his first gladiator matches in the town.

"Maybe he got an appetite" for the bloody sport at Carnuntum, Humer said. "We can't prove it … but from the chronology, it would be possible."

Gladiator School Twice the Size of a Walmart

Archaeologists detected the school with tractor-mounted radar equipment that penetrates the earth to produce three-dimensional images of buried objects.

The radar revealed a range of subterranean structures around a central courtyard, from tiny dormitory rooms to a large room with heated floors—collapsed flooring suggests hollow areas for underfloor heating, the researchers say.

Within the courtyard, a mini-amphitheater—complete with the Roman equivalent of spectators' bleachers—allowed gladiators to practice their moves. Perhaps gladiators, who were mostly slaves, performed there for potential purchasers, Humer speculated.

Next to the training complex stood a walled field, or campus, which may have been used for housing wild animals intended for gladiatorial combat or for exercising horses—a feature never before found at a ludus, Humer said.

The entire complex occupies some 200,000 square feet (19,000 square meters)—nearly twice as big as the average Walmart.

The central buildings of the Carnuntum gladiator school do, however, closely resemble the remains of known gladiator schools uncovered at Rome and Pompeii. That similarity gives the researchers confidence that the Carnuntum find is indeed a gladiator school, even though it hasn't been excavated.

Rivaling Rome

Excavation of the cemetery and other structures could add detail to historians' understanding of gladiators' lives, said Newcastle University's Ian Haynes, an archaeologist who specializes in the Roman Empire.

Even if excavators never turn over a single shovelful of dirt at the site, the Carnuntum ludus "is a powerful reminder of how the cultures of the empire's urban centers are linked together," said Haynes, who isn’t part of the Carnuntum research.

"The work that is found here on the Danubian border stands in direct comparison with finds from the center of Rome itself. ... [That] brings home quite forcefully that cities like Carnuntum were absolutely brimming with aspects of this Roman, cosmopolitan culture."

Why are moms dressing like their teen daughters?

When Raquel Alderman, 43, picked up a medium-size tank top in Hollister while shopping with her 14-year-old daughter, Olivia, she said she didn't intend to mimic her daughter's style.

The solid-color tank top was in Alderman's size and had no visible Hollister branding, so she said she saw no harm in purchasing it for herself. But Olivia wasn't having it.

"Mom, you are not shopping at Hollister!" Olivia remembered saying to her mother. "Moms don't shop at Hollister. You are too old for this store. OMG, I can't believe you are buying something here."

Olivia said she didn't want the Hollister employees to think her mom was buying it for herself -- she wanted to spare her any possible humiliation -- so the teenager took it to the register and carried the bag out of the store. She told Alderman she was a "PTA mom" and wanted to know why she trying to "relive her teenage years."

Shocked, Alderman explained that the tank top fit her and she liked it -- that was it. But Olivia said it wasn't what she was buying -- it was the fact that her mother was shopping in "her" store.

Alderman contributed a post about the shopping experience on Raising Teens, a blog maintained by close friend Cindy Goodman.

At the end of her post, Alderman raises a question many mothers of teenage daughters ask themselves: "Are we trying to feel or look younger by wearing their clothes or is this just our teenagers feeling embarrassed by their mom shopping in their store?"

According to a new study released by Temple University, moms are turning into "consumer doppelgängers" of their children, shopping in teen stores so as to mimic the identities of their teenage daughters.

The study began as a way to see if daughters were trying to copy their mothers, and after questioning 343 mother-daughter pairs, professor Ayalla Ruvio and her team discovered the opposite was true.

The mothers, averaging an age of 44, and the daughters, around age 16, were quizzed about their shopping habits. And this phenomenon, emerging over the last five years, is the last thing teen daughters want.

"I don't feel like I should be forbidden from dressing fashionably and looking good just because I'm a 30-something mom"
--Christina McMenemy

"They're in a stage where all they want to show is how independent they are and how they construct their own separate unique image that does not look like their mother," Ruvio said. "And then the mother goes out and copies them."

But mothers aren't dressing like their daughters to look like teenagers, she said. Cognitive age is more important than actual age -- women feel younger, so they want to project that personality with their clothing, according to Ruvio.

Ruvio suggests that another motivation behind this behavior is a lack of time to keep up with fashion trends on mothers' parts. Instead, they look to their daughters as fashionable role models and mimic the styles.

"We live in a society that one of the main values is to look younger," Ruvio said. "Most of these women have kids, work and they don't have time to monitor the market and see what is cool and hip, so they basically take a shortcut. Through their teenage daughters, they know they're safe."

Roni Cohen-Sandler, a psychologist specializing in mother-daughter relationships, warns against this phenomenon and the potential effects it can have on adolescent development. She said she believes it inspires a feeling of competition in what is supposed to be a supportive relationship.

"It gives teen girls an unfortunate message about how the mom feels about herself, her age and her own insecurities about appearance," she said. "That's a message that has me very concerned: It's a youth-worshipping philosophy and suggests that the mom isn't comfortable with getting older."

Christina McMenemy, a mother of two young children, has battled the age-appropriate-fashion question. After losing 80 pounds, the 35-year-old said she wanted to show off what she's accomplished, and not with a miniskirt or cutoff shirt, but a ruffled shirt. McMenemy went to Kohl's and accidentally wandered into the juniors' department after spying a top she liked. McMenemy said a woman in her 20s gave her a hateful look.

"Let your teenage daughters look cute, but you want to look sophisticated and elegant" 
--Tina Adams, owner of Wardrobe Consulting and Signature Services

"I don't feel like I should be forbidden from dressing fashionably and looking good just because I'm a 30-something mom," McMenemy said. "I don't see any age limits listed on the labels. Now that I've lost the weight, I really enjoy finding pretty clothing because it reminds me to appreciate the body I've got and all of the work I've put into it at this point."

McMenemy said she believes that society puts mothers at a crossroads. You can be the good, frumpy mom who cares more about her kids than what she should be wearing, or the mom who is more fashionable and therefore must be more into her needs than her children's.

But McMenemy said she doesn't want to dress like a teenager -- she wants to feel good about her appearance and wear what makes her happy.

There is a difference between looking good and looking "cute," according to Tina Adams, who owns Wardrobe Consulting and Signature Services, LLC. She advises mothers and daughters on their wardrobe and how to dress appropriately befitting their age. The biggest conflict Adams encounters is telling women they can look fabulous without dressing like a teenager.

"We try to tell them, 'Do you really want to look cute?' " Adams said. "Let your teenage daughters look cute, but you want to look sophisticated and elegant."

To achieve that look, Adams suggests skipping the juniors' department's low-rise jeans and finding a pair of nice midrise boot-cut jeans (read: not "mom jeans"). Also, a dress with a cinched-in waist, V-neck shirt or a pencil skirt are all key pieces to a sophisticated wardrobe that showcases maturity and femininity. Shopping in the juniors' department can often result in ill-fitting clothes because of the sizing divide.

Cohen-Sandler, the psychologist, has heard from many of her clients that there is nothing a teenage daughter enjoys hearing more than, "Can you help me find something to wear?" They don't want their mothers to be unfashionable, but they don't want to dress like twins, either, she said.

Jennifer Gray and her daughter, Shaughnessy Chow-Domos, 18, own a boutique together in Vancouver, British Columbia, calledJennyfleur Loves... . Their store caters to a wide range of women, from age 13 to 70. Mothers and daughters alike can find trends they love because Gray and Chow-Domos purchase their favorite items for the store. The two also share clothes, including leather jackets and designer finds they buy to borrow from one another.

But recognizing their age differences, both said they know what they can share and what to avoid. Each has their own style. Shopping together remains one of their favorite activities, and they don't just look out for themselves, they said.

"I don't think I've ever met anyone that can shop like I do, except for Shaughnessy," Gray said. "We're perfect shopping partners. We'll go into a store and grab a stack of clothes for each other while we're shopping for ourselves."

This is exactly the mother-daughter bond that Cohen-Sandler said she fears will disappear if the consumer doppelgänger trend continues. Teenage girls regard "their" stores with ownership; shopping at Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch at age 14 is like a membership to an exclusive club, one where they don't want Mom shopping.

"Teens lose a source of feedback and information that they really need to count on during these years," Cohen-Sandler said.

"What mothers have to understand is that it's not just a tank top -- it's symbolic of many different things: roles that mothers and daughters have, respecting boundaries between teen and adult worlds, knowing when you make a purchase or wear something, it's going to have an effect on your daughter, the daughter's relationship with peers and you."

But to McMenemy, with a 6-year-old daughter, this study and her experience raise another point entirely. When mothers put themselves after their children and husbands, is dressing how they want to such a crime?

"There's too many stories of fashion making women feel bad about themselves. Why is it so wrong to see something that is fashionable and want to wear it if you do look good in it?" she asked.

However, no matter their stance, every woman interviewed said the same thing -- women look best when they are who they are.