sex
clock | July 30, 2006Men's sleep apnea found alongside erectile problems:
Men who are sound sleepers have better sex lives.
A study published in a recent edition of Urology says men who suffer from sleep apnea syndrome also suffer a high rate of erectile dysfunction.
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One theory, Dr. Atwood said, suggests that sleep apnea disrupts rapid-eye-movement or REM sleep -- a time when men routinely experience erections. Decreased REM sleep means fewer REM erections.
The possibility exists, he said, that REM erections are a necessary process for men to maintain healthy…
clock | July 28, 2006As always, animal porn is under the fold:
You have probably heard that a female praying mantis eats her mate's head during the mating process. You may imagine the process to go something like this:
Actually, there are many species of praying mantises and in most of them sexual cannibalism is quite rare. It occurs much more often in the laboratory than out in the field. Apparently, the lights and sounds of a laboratory are stressful to the female so she acts aggressively in response.
The praying mantises are very aggressive predators and they can eat quite a lot of food, preferring soft-…
clock | July 24, 2006Including screwing with the people who touch themselves for a charitable cause:
"Overall I think a well-intentioned event has been hijacked by a corporation who don't really care if we have good sex and enjoy masturbation, but just want more viewing figures. I hope people do join in and support the event, but I worry that it'll invite more sex-negative discussions than stories that encourage masturbation.
The masturbate-a-thon most certainly has had more coverage in one day than it's got in the past five years that it's been running. Call me old fashioned, but I preferred it when it truly was…
clock | July 22, 2006Apparently, it's not over until it's over. The removal of the cohabitation law I wrote about yesterday may apply only to a few people in NC, not the whole state: Cohabitation law ruling doesn't apply statewide:
Legal experts said Friday that a Superior Court judge declaring a law that makes it a crime for unmarried couples to live together unconstitutional doesn't apply statewide.
Judge Ben Alford's ruling affects only those involved in the litigation: the Pender County Sheriff's Office, Pender County Sheriff Carson Smith, Ben David, the district attorney in Pender and New Hanover counties,…
clock | July 21, 2006According to the referrers pages of my Sitemeter, a lot of you are excited by strange penises, strange penises, strange penises and strange penises (or something like it). So, today we have to move to a different topic, traffic-be-damned, for those without phallic fixations. So, read on....
If science is all you care for you can skip to the bottom of the post because the main character of today's story will be introduced with a poem (also found here):
The Conjugation of the Paramecium
by Muriel Rukeyser
This has nothing
to do with
propagating
The species
is continued
as so many are
(among…
clock | July 21, 2006Judge rules against cohabitation law:
"Those of you shacking up, have no fear: A judge has thrown out a 201-year-old North Carolina law making it illegal for unmarried couples to live together."
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"I am absolutely thrilled with the court's decision," Hobbs, 41, said in a statement. "I just didn't think it was any of my employer's business whether I was married or not, as long as I was good at my job, and I am happy that no one else will ever have to be subjected to this law. I couldn't believe that I was being given this ultimatum to choose between my…
clock | July 19, 2006Evolution of Female Orgasm is one of the ever-recurring themes on blogs. This post was first written on June 13, 2005. There were several follow-ups as well, e.g.,
here, here and here. Under the fold.
The discussion about the recent studies on female orgasm, first about its adaptive function and later about its genetic component, has been raging around the blogosphere for a while now. It was spawned by the publication of Elizabeth Lloyd's book on the topic (it is on my wish-list), and by a paper in Biology Letters about the genetics of female orgasm based on a survey of twins. For…
clock | July 14, 2006Over the last couple of days, there was an interesting exchange of blogposts about the "naturalness" of sex, gender identification and sexual orientation. It is also an excellent example of the need to actually read what other people have written before jumping into the fray with knee-jerk responses. So, actually, READ all these posts before making any comments:
Jessica: Uterus: The Gaymaker
Chris: Essentialized Social Categories I: Gender Essentialism
Janet: Why I have no interest in any possible biological bases for homosexuality
Greensmile: You can't say 'Gay is OK'...
Benjamin:…
clock | July 12, 2006
This post was a response to a decent (though not too exciting) study and the horrible media reporting on it. As the blogosphere focused on the press releases, I decided to look at the paper itself and see what it really says. It was first posted on August 09, 2005. Under the fold...
I saw this on Pandagon first - a response to an article on NeuroImage about gender-specific voice recognition. Actually, it was not a response to the article itself (behind the subscription wall), but to the MSM reporting about the article. Soon, other bloggers chimed in, notably Feministing, Blondesense,…
clock | July 10, 2006I often ask you to read several posts in succession and make your own connections. Here's a line up of some old and some new posts about the history, current state (and cultural battle) and possible future of the institution of marriage:
First off, Lance Mannion wrote a couple of days ago on Polygamy, voyeurism, and other fun things to do on the weekend:
"...a lot of Right Wing America lives on the frontier between civilization and Trailer Park choas. The reason they are so terrrified by change and the prospect of sexual and personal freedom is that where they come from all those things are…
clock | July 7, 2006You really think I am going to put this above the fold? No way - you have to click:
Today's lesson is on the reproductive anatomy of the domestic pig (Sus scrofa domestica), which probably applies to the wild species in the pig family as well. Although we may reflexively think about invertebrates when pondering diversity of copulatory organs, mammals are not too bad in that department either. After all, the sperm is delivered in some species into the vagina (e.g., dog), in others into the cervix (e.g., pig) and in yet others into the uterus (e.g., horse), so different strategies are needed…
clock | July 5, 2006I wrote this book review back on February 18, 2006. Under the fold...
I see that Joan Roughgarden has a new paper in Science this week: Reproductive Social Behavior: Cooperative Games to Replace Sexual Selection
Theories about sexual selection can be traced back to Darwin in 1871. He proposed that males fertilize as many females as possible with inexpensive sperm, whereas females, with a limited supply of large eggs, select the genetically highest quality males to endow their offspring with superior capabilities. Since its proposal, problems with this narrative have continued to accumulate,…
clock | June 30, 2006Some flatworms, for instance these pretty Pseudobiceros hancockanus, engage in penis fencing. Both individuals are hermaphrodites, i.e., have both male and female organs. The penis is white, pointed and two-headed. Both individuals are trying to inseminate the other. The one who is inseminated has to bear and lay eggs - a more expensive proposition. The one who "won" the fencing bout and did the insemination can move on and fence some other guys and on and on, "fathering" many progeny until happenning onto a better fencer, getting inseminated, and spending the rest of the life as "…
clock | June 27, 2006The article I linked to in my previous post on the topic of having sex while asleep (or is it 'being sleep while having sex'?), e.g., the one I got pointed to by someone (e-mail?), is actually, quite terrible. So, instead, if you are interested in the topic, you should check out a much more serious website - Sleepsex.org, which focuses entirely on the phenomenon of sexsomnia.
I need to thank Karmen for pointing out that site to me. The site has extensive links to other sources of information, including links to all of Dr. Shapiro's papers on the topic. For instance, this paper (pdf)…
clock | June 23, 2006Sex While Sleeping Is Real, And May Be No Joke
It is a tiny study but the preliminary results are intriguing. The article does not go much into underlying biology, but it touches on possible legal ramifications. If walking, eating or driving while asleep is possible, why not having sex? After all, you don't even have to get out of bed. What do you think?
clock | June 23, 2006There is a tradition in the blogosphere of posting something light on Fridays.
Some people do the Friday Random Ten, but I do not have an iPod, and keep my computer on Mute, so I do not listen to music or can generated a random ten.
Most people post pictures of variousanimals, mostly cats, but I do not like doing what everyone else is doing. And once I've posted pictures of my cats (and I did, a couple of times, though never on a Friday), what's the point of doing it again?
Some people got away from cats and pets and post pictures of cooler animals, like ants, or, well, ants. birds. Or…
clock | June 17, 2006Back To The Woom is a blog that needs to get much more exposure. It is written by a very smart couple here in Raleigh, NC. The posts are always very thoughtfull and well-researched and the topics range from Ann Raynd to immigration, from capital punishment to harsh capitalism. Always worth your time to read (even if you disagree on a detail or two).
This time, I'd like to point your attention to the latest post - The moral majority is watching your inner child molester:
The implication is that, without the threat of eventual punishment at the hands of an omniscient cosmic dictator, many…
clock | June 14, 2006Amanda reviews the lies about sex and contraception that are peddled by the Catholic church in their pre-marital classes:
Pandagon goes undercover the lazy way on a Catholic anti-contraception seminar
and
Pandagon goes undercover the lazy way on a Catholic anti-contraception seminar, Pt. II