(is that even a beard?)

Like it when your man has a little facial scruff? According to new research, it could be because it makes him look like a total badass.

A new study published in the journal Behavioral Ecology found that guys appear more intimidating to other dudes when they have beards. Researchers found it has something to do with the way it makes his jaw look—a beard makes a guy’s jawline look bigger, which can make him seem more aggressive when he’s upset than a guy with a clean-shaven face. (Interestingly enough, the look doesn’t intimidate women at all.)

On the flip side, other studies have shown that people think bearded guys seem more intelligent, confident, and mature—it’s just when a guy gets angry that he looks intimidating.

So basically, if you want your guy to seem really smart and confident, and like he won’t take crap from anyone, encourage him to grow a beard. Sounds like a win-win to us.

Read more: Guys With Beards – Why We Like Guys With Beards – Cosmopolitan

Like most athletes, hockey players are a superstitous bunch. For the most part, they put their socks on starting with the same foot every time, tape the same number of a sticks before a game the same exact way.

Find something a player does on a daily basis and you’re likely to find some ritual that players adhere to like dogma.

The most obvious (and visible) example shows up every year at this time: the playoff beard. Ever since the Islanders won four straight Stanley Cups and refused to shave the ritual (and tradition) was born. Almost every player’s postseason suitcase is one item lighter: a razor. To shave is nearly sacrilege.

So I guess it’s appropriate that Zach Parise is the captain of the New Jersey Devils because he’s not going by the hockey bible. Neither are some of his teammates like Patrik Elias and Martin Brodeur. They’re all electing to scrap the scruff, keeping their faces in the buff.

So far so good, their baby faces haven’t upset the hockey gods too much as the Devils are preparing for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

“Every year, the playoff beard, everybody talks about it,” rookie Adam Henrique told the Star-Ledger’s Mike Vorkunov. “It’s something fun besides the game. There’s always interesting ones every playoffs.”

Because of a few off days waiting for the Rangers to finish the Capitals off — hey, sometimes you need off-beat stories like this — there’s been some talk about the beards in New Jersey too. Just the lack of them.

Of course, this is the part where I point out how silly this tradition ends up looking. Nowadays, every team does this. Some players like Alex Ovechkin will shave all but the goatee or Jaromir Jagr will cut the gray out, but there’s some facial hair on almost every single player in the postseason.

Naturally, only one team wins. So for players on 15 of the 16 teams, the beard isn’t so lucky after all. The ratio of lucky beards to unlucky isn’t strong.

But that’s superstition for you. It’s not based in any sort of logic. As somebody who was incredibly superstitious when I played sports, I can tell you I knew the things I was doing were stupid and had little impact on the game, but if I didn’t do something in my normal ritual I would blame my shortcomings on that.

I’m curious to see what you think: Are guys like Parise tempting fate by shaving in the postseason?

http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/blog/eye-on-hockey/19036840/shaving-against-the-grain-are-some-devils-tempting-fate-with-no-playoff-beards

It’s being called the “battle of the beards” — Paul Krugman vs. Ben Bernanke. Both are eminent (and bearded) economists: Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board; Krugman, a Nobel Prize winner and a prominent New York Times columnist. Krugman accuses Bernanke of being too timid in fighting high unemployment and slow economic growth. Bernanke calls Krugman’s policy proposals “reckless.” What’s going on?

Beyond the rhetoric, there’s a serious debate about the Federal Reserve. A decade ago, the Fed was widely seen as all-knowing and powerful. It could cushion business cycles, defuse financial crises and ensure prosperity. No more. Almost everyone thinks unemployment (8.1 percent in April) is declining too slowly. By year-end 2013, it will still be somewhere between 7 and 8.1 percent, according to top Fed officials’ latest estimates.

The Fed hasn’t been passive. Since late 2008, it has kept overnight interest ratesjust above zero. During the 2008-09 financial crisis, its emergency loans to banks and money market funds averted a broader collapse. The Fed also bought more than $2.5 trillion of Treasury bonds and mortgage-related securities in an effort to lower long-term interest rates (studies suggest a decline of 0.7 percentage points or more) and boost stock prices, as investors seek higher returns.

But these heroic exertions haven’t yet ignited a robust recovery.

What we need now — and what the Fed could supply, says Krugman — is a bit more inflation. This would spur growth and job creation, he argues. The Fed now strives to keep inflation around 2 percent annually, a low level that it views as reassuring the public. Krugman wants the Fed to raise its target range to 3 to 4 percent for five years.

“You’d make borrowing more attractive. Sitting on cash would be less attractive,” he says. The logic is straightforward. If prices rise 4 percent instead of 2, consumers and businesses have an incentive to buy now and avoid higher prices later. If interest rates don’t increase (or increase less than inflation), then “real” rates — adjusted for inflation — fall; again, that makes borrowing more appealing.

Higher inflation would also erode the “real” value of debt. With a lighter debt burden, households and businesses would feel freer to spend. Another channel would be a cheaper dollar on foreign exchange markets, making U.S. exports less expensive and imports more expensive. (Krugman minimizes this channel, because he thinks Europe and Japan should also pursue higher inflation.)

Besides Krugman, some other economists advocate higher inflation. But not Bernanke.

Without naming Krugman, he responded at an April 25 news conference: “Does it makesense to actively seek a higher inflation rate in order to achieve . . . a slightly increased pace of reduction in the unemployment rate? The view [of top Fed policymakers] is that that would be very reckless.”

Bernanke argued that the belief that the Fed keeps inflation down (what economists call the “anchoring” of inflationary expectations) tends to be self-fulfilling. If companies think inflation will stay low, they refrain from large price increases that might weaken their competitiveness. This then allows the Fed to be more aggressive in cutting interest rates to fight unemployment. If inflationary expectations shifted, as they might under Krugman’s proposal, the flexibility could be lost.

Although Bernanke didn’t say so, there are other reasons Krugman’s policy could backfire. Consider:

●Prices might increase faster than wages, reducing workers’ purchasing power and (probably) dampening spending.

●Experiencing higher inflation, consumers might become more fearful of the future and, to protect against the unknown, might increase saving and reduce spending — the opposite of what Krugman intends. This happened in the 1970s, although at higher inflation rates than Krugman proposes.

●Something similar could happen in financial markets. Investors — not knowing whether inflation would return to 2 percent and fearing it might go higher than 4 percent — might demand much higher interest rates to prevent erosion of their money. This, too, would undermine Krugman’s strategy.

None of this is preordained. Krugman’s theory could be right. It responds to an understandable urge to do something about the feeble recovery and the millions left without work and hope. But in this debate, I side with Bernanke. Flirting with more inflation is treacherous. If inflation expectations change, the consequences are hard to predict. The double-digit inflation in the late 1970s (peak: 13 percent) resulted from well-intended mistakes and unleashed many damaging side effects.

What we should have learned since 2008 is that the Federal Reserve can’t do everything and overambitious goals guarantee disappointment. The larger lesson is that economists have exaggerated their understanding and control of the economy. People often don’t act according to academic theories. There isn’t a proper policy response for every need. This captures our frustration.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/battle-of-the-beards-paul-krugman-vs-ben-bernanke/2012/05/06/gIQAbwsY6T_story.html

I’m at a crossroads with my beard, again. You men out there know what I’m talking about: You never really plan scruff in the first place, it just happens, usually when you’re feeling lazy at the end of a long weekend. Next thing you know, you’re at work and somebody calls you “distinguished.”

In the same way, the whim to shave it off can just arrive one day, like warm weather in spring. Sure enough, I was feeling the novelty of my current beard waning the other day, and was contemplating a clean start, when I suddenly realized that, this time around, I had actually experienced something new and worth holding on to (at least for a bit): the pleasure of beard grooming.

Yes, that’s a bit of a contradiction—facial scruff is the opposite of grooming, you might argue. And a beard is supposed to be rugged, sexy, natural, not primped. But what’s the point of having one if it’s not also fun to wear and care for? Here are a few items that, I swear, will boost your enjoyment in the lavatory. Nobody need know.

Facial hair is an artform. Sure, some men simply shave daily or keep their beards trimmed, but others go for the glory. We’re talking Batman beards. Punctuation beards. Pac-Man beards. Half-beards. Beards that really make you stop and think.

Trust us, shaving will seem like much less of a chore after seeing these 13 epic works of beard art. Check them out below and vote for your favorites.

By now, you have probably heard of the “feud” taking place between Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and Nobel-prize winning New York Times economic columnist Paul Krugman. And if you haven’t, what the heck are you doing reading this blog?

Anyway, here’s the lowdown in case you aren’t up to speed. Krugman took Bernanke to task in aSunday NYT magazine piece, criticizing Bernanke for not doing enough to tackle the problem of high unemployment. Krugman argued that a temporarily higher level of inflation might be necessary (and not problematic) to help bring down the unemployment rate.

In one of the more damning (and most widely picked-up) comments, Krugman geeked out (in a sci-fi, as opposed to econowonk, sort of way) and compared Bernanke to the infamous Borg of “Star Trek” fame, writing that Bernanke’s refusal to consider higher inflation targets as an option show he had been “converted into a half-robot servant of a hive-mind.”

Bernanke responded to questions about Krugman in his press conference Wednesday, saying that seeking a higher inflation rate would be “reckless” and only lead to a slightly faster pick-up in the drop in unemployment. He added that it risked damaging the Fed’s reputation as an inflation-fighter.  Krugman gleefully retorted that this was further evidence that Bernanke had been assimilated by the Borg.

Economists are having a field day with this battle of the beards. I received the best response to this little feud in my e-mail Thursday in the form of a research note by CitiFX currency analyst Steven Englander. Titled “What would Fed Chairman Krugman do for the USD?” Englander took Krugman’s sci-fi analogies to an even more preposterously nerdy level.

The first line  of Englander’s report reads as follows:

String theory opens the door to multiple universes and in one of them Paul Krugman is undoubtedly Fed Chairman.

It gets better. In a clear sign that this may be bordering on fantasy, Englander assumes that the Krugman Fed operates in a world where one party has clear control of both the White House and Congress.

My presumption is that the Krugman Fed would cooperate by financing the fiscal expansion, allowing government spending or (or in a very strange Republican Krugman parallel universe) tax cuts to have a real impact without affecting government debt.

Englander seems to be backing the Bernanke camp though. He disagrees with Krugman’s take that even more stimulus is the answer.

Plenty of economies have tried to spend and print their way to prosperity and the track record is not encouraging. In fact, if it worked, everyone would do it.

He further imagines a world where Chairman Krugman’s policies, in a best-case scenario, eventually lead to full employment but a much stronger dollar and significantly higher inflation. And what happens if Chairman Krugman fails? Englander’s forecast is grim: “Weimar Republic.” Englander also joked that Chairman Krugman could be succeeded by Chariman Plosser, a reference to the uber-hawkish president of the Philadelphia Fed.

By contrast, Englander writes that under current Fed policy, the worst-case scenario appears to be a continuation of the status quo: low inflation and sluggish growth. But if the Fed holds the course and gets it right, it’s the best of all outcomes:

A Bernanke Fed that succeeds in gradually returning to full employment. Virtue rewarded.

This is all in good fun of course. Englander concluded his note by saying he leaves it to readers to “weight the probabilities of these outcomes.”

But it makes me wonder if the writers at “Fringe” are taking notice. That Fox show, which may or may not return for a fifth season (fingers crossed) deals extensively with alternate timelines and parallel universes. Here’s hoping that Fed Chairman Krugman (or heck, Fed Chairman La Monica …  a boy can dream) makes a future cameo appearance.

Beard-growing as a sport is growing even bigger than the beards that are competing.

At least it is in Germany, where 163 facially hirsute men showed up at the 25th Annual International German Beard Championships, which took place this weekend in the city of Bad Schussenried in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.

“We’ve never had so many participants,” event organizer Wolfgang Stier told the German website The Local

The competition was especially hairy since the event attracted bearded competitors from the U.S., France, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands to compete to win top prize in such categories as “Kaiser empire moustache,” “freestyle whiskers,” “musketeer chin beard” and “natural beard with styled moustache.”

The highest score a beard buff can recieve is 50 points and Jens Müller from the city of Pforzheim scored 49.5 points for his “trendy beard,” while Lutz Giese from Berlin received that amount for a “Chinese chin beard,” All Voices reported.

Meanwhile, American Aarne Bielefeld won the freestyle full beard category, and Albert Schmid from Switzerland won the prize for the best beard with a stylish moustache.

As a sport, “bearding” may seem bizarre, but Phil Olsen, who heads Beard Team USA, a loose-knit organization of bearders from all over the country, says there’s more to it than meets the eye — or the chin.

“It takes a lot of skill to get the beard ready for competition. But, like with anything, people with good genes do have a better chance,” Olson told The Huffington Post.“Some people pick their parents well and can grow a good beard, just like basketball players who are tall have an advantage.”

Although “bearding” has caught on in recent years, Jeffrey Moustache, 25, a Los Angeles photographer, has been growing his English moustache — which grows out straight across his face like a ruler — since he was 15 and has gotten it up to 13 inches long. Yet even with such clear devotion, he says he finds it hard to take the idea that bearding is a sport seriously.

“It’s pageantry for men. Honestly, you have to laugh at yourself,” Moustache told The Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/german-beard-championship_n_1446791.html

It was perhaps the first explicit confirmation of a new era of beard politics dawning in Egypt, where candidates for political office use facial hair to subtly persuade voters of their character.

Mr Al Shater’s gesture has positioned the Islamist as a man who straddles the divide between the moderate members of the Muslim Brotherhood – of which he is the deputy leader – and the more conservative Salafists, who often wear beards without moustaches in the belief that it is what the Prophet Mohammed wore in the 6th and 7th centuries.

Mr Al Shater, a prominent businessman who was arrested several times by the Hosni Mubarak regime for his work with the Muslim Brotherhood, remained as a behind-the-scenes power broker until his candidacy for president. He has now emerged as one of the front-runners in the elections scheduled for next month.

“Khairat Al Shater is a good merchant, a good businessman,” said Mohamed Ashoub, the famed hairdresser and make-up artist for Egyptian cinema who had in the past prepared Mr Mubarak’s hair and make-up for TV appearances. “He knows what sells.”

A follicle-deep analysis of the 23 candidates for the presidency – several of whom may be disqualified pending lawsuits – reveals a spectrum of hairstyles. Mr Ashoub said each candidate’s choice gave hints about their personality.

Omar Suleiman, the former intelligence chief of Mubarak who wears a thin moustache, is “stubborn and mysterious”, he said. Amr Moussa’s longer salt and pepper cut had the air of a “socialite”. The closely trimmed white hair and shaved face of Mohammed Selim Al Awa, an Islamic constitutional scholar, “longs for power”.

And Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, the Salafist lawyer who has by far the longest and whitest beard, wears a “mask of spirituality”, Mr Ashoub said.

Whether Mr Al Shater purposely shaved his moustache to appear more palatable to the Salafist vote is up for debate. When his campaign posters debuted on March 31, an image of Mr Al Shater appeared with a wise grin and hairless upper lip, superimposed over an Egyptian flag. Before that, images showed a thin moustache.

Mr Al Shater did not respond to an inquiry sent to his email address about the trim.

H A Hellyer, a geostrategic analyst in Cairo, said it was “plausibly” a political move.

“Shater may have shaven his moustache to appeal to those Salafis who think to do so is religiously meritorious – even though there exists a difference of opinion among Salafis in general in that respect,” he said.

Sameh El Shahat, an Egyptian who advises on brand identity as the president of the London- and China-based risk consultancy China-I Ltd, said piety is becoming a salient political issue in Egypt and “therefore an important factor in the image of politicians”.

For Egypt’s two largest political parties, religion is “their manifesto and coming across as devout is an important part of their image, if not the most important”, Mr El Shahat said from London.

Striking a chord with voters on a personal level has become vital in the months of campaigning before the presidential elections expected to be held on May 23 and 24. The removal of the Mubarak regime left a “gaping vacuum of public and political identity” to be filled, said Charles Holmes, a consultant at the US-based political risk firm Marcher International who has done extensive work in Egypt.

What is clear is that there will be little time for extensive debate about the political platforms of each candidate, he said. The parliamentary elections that started last November and finished in February showed that candidates could still be successful, even if they were political novices without firm views on the most pressing issues for Egypt. The Salafist Al Nour Party, for instance, won about a quarter of the seats in the elections without a clear agenda.

In some ways, Mr Holmes said, the Islamists have the easiest job when it comes to connecting with voters because of their “ready-made identity”, referring to the use of religious slogans and signs of piety through their appearance.

Beard-A-Thon(R), proudly presented by Just For Men(R) Mustache & Beard, invites hockey fans across the United States to join in a great hockey tradition and grow their own playoff beards for the 2012 Stanley Cup(R) Playoffs. Besides participating in a great hockey tradition, beard growers will be raising money for charities across the nation.

In the past three seasons, over 25,000 fans have participated in the Beard-A-Thon(R) program, raising over $1,100,000. This season, the goal is an additional $1 million for NHL team charities.

To participate in the Beard-A-Thon, simply log onto www.beardathon.com , choose your favorite NHL team, and invite family, friends and business associates to pledge your playoff beard, promising not to shave until your team wins the Stanley Cup(R) or is eliminated from the playoffs. Those unwilling or unable to grow playoffs beards can also pledge their favorite player, other local celebrities, or build their own beard with the “Build-a-Beard” web application.

“The intensity, both on and off the ice, goes to a whole new level in the playoffs. Beard-A-Thon gives fans a chance show their passion and raise money for charity,” states John Cimperman, Principal of Cenergy, the New York-based sports marketing agency that manages the program.

“We’re big fans of Beard-A-Thon and all the charities they support,” says Ralph Marburger, Director of Marketing for Just For Men(R). “It’s a great fit with our brand mission to help men look good — and do good in their communities.”

Last season, the Stanley Cup(R) Champion Boston Bruins led the NHL by raising over $75,000 for the Boston Bruins Foundation. Bruins Foundation Director of Development Bob Sweeney raised $9,835 with his beard, followed closely by Los Angeles Kings broadcaster Jim Fox, who raised $7,615.

For more information, log onto www.beardathon.com . All Beard-A-Thon donations are tax deductible.

About the Playoff Beard

A playoff beard is the superstitious practice of a National Hockey League player not shaving during the Stanley Cup playoffs, from the moment his team enters the playoffs until it is either eliminated or wins the Stanley Cup. It is believed that the four-time Stanley Cup Champion New York Islanders started the tradition in the 1980s. In recent years, other sports and other players have claimed the playoff beard tradition, but it is, and always will be, a hockey tradition.

Superstition, more than anything, can dictate a player’s actions so with the Hawks falling in the first round last year, Kane is going in another direction. His playoff beard is bound to be scrutinized compared to his teammates. And with younger players on the Hawks roster, Kane is looking forward to having some fun at some other players’ expense for once, instead of his own.

“I know [Jimmy] Hayes can grow a terrible beard, but I think [Andrew] Shaw is going to be interesting to see what he can pull off. He’s kept it clean-shaven the whole time around here, it seems like he can’t grow it too much, and he’s the youngest guy on the team, so it’ll be fun to see what he has.”

Shaw’s name came up often as a guy to watch. Has he kept it clean-shaven to this point?

“He’s been growing one for two weeks, and I still don’t see anything,” Jamal Mayers joked.

The 20-year-old Shaw knows what he’s in for.

“It’s embarrassing,” he said. “You’re playing juniors – 19-20 years old –and 16-year-olds are growing bigger beards than you. I’ll see what I can get going … I don’t know what it is. My brothers have big beards, my younger brother has a bigger beard than me. It hasn’t hit me yet.”

On the other end of the spectrum is Brandon Bollig. He had the start of a playoff beard the moment he walked into the Hawks dressing room.

“A bunch of guys joke every time I come to the rink, they ask if I shaved this morning, and I already have a beard. It’s funny,” Bollig said. “I’m excited if we get going here for quite a while, to see where it goes.”

That’s another humorous benefit of a long playoff run. From nearly clean-shaven looking to grizzly. The Hawks are bound to have the full range of playoff beards.

“I think [Marcus] Kruger has a good lower-half beard,” Bryan Bickell said. “Shaw still has peach fuzz. I think he’ll be the hardest one to grow. Bollig is 23, so he’s got a good-looking one. He probably had one at 16, probably before that. [Nick] Leddy can grow some facial hair. I think Shaw is going to lose that race.”

Though the younger players will get the focus, they’re just as interested in seeing the veterans.

“I’m excited to see what some of them do with it,” Shaw said. “Like Duncan [Keith], his hair, already, it’s pretty hilarious.”

“I don’t think Shaw is going to look too good,” Bollig said. “I don’t know about Kaner either.”

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/blackhawks/post/_/id/4670646/kane-opts-for-playoff-beard-over-mullet