"She got her looks from her father. He's a plastic surgeon." - Groucho Marx

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Genes blamed for fickle female orgasm - "According to a study published this week, up to 45% of the differences between women in their ability to reach orgasm can be explained by their genes. Despite decades of surveys and conjecture about the role of culture, upbringing and biology in female sexual function, from Freud in 1905 to the Hite report in 1976, this is the first study of the role of a woman’s genes... The discovery of a genetic basis for the ability of women to orgasm raises questions about its evolution... But even if orgasm does play this role, it cannot be crucial in humans. The finding that many women cannot achieve orgasm because they do not have the genes for it shows that the ability to orgasm is not a trait for which there has been strong evolutionary selection, says Elisabeth Lloyd of Indiana University in Bloomington, author of The Case of the Female Orgasm. This supports her theory that as far as orgasms are concerned, women have been riding on the genetic coat-tails of male evolution, and that the female orgasm is merely an accidental echo of the male one, the equivalent of male nipples. Lloyd says the findings also challenge the notion that the failure to achieve orgasm represents “female sexual dysfunction”, an idea popular with companies keen to sell remedies for this so-called disorder. “What definition of ‘normal’ could possibly justify labelling a third of women as ‘abnormal’?” she asks."

The Orgasm Wars - "When a woman climaxes any time between a minute before to 45 minutes after her lover ejaculates, she retains significantly more sperm than she does after nonorgasmic sex... the team's results indicated that muscular contractions associated with orgasm pull sperm from the vagina to the cervix, where it's in better position to reach an egg... It's important to note what did not correlate with female orgasm during sex. Degree of women s romantic attachment did not increase the frequency of orgasm! Nor did the sexual experience of either partner... Male symmetry correlated with a high frequency of female orgasm only during copulation. The findings support evolutionary psychologists' "good genes" hypothesis: Women have orgasm more often with their most symmetrical lovers, increasing the likelihood of conceiving these men's children... Here's the cruelest part of Thornhill and Gangestad's findings: The males who most inspire high-sperm-retention orgasmic responses from their sexual partners don't invest more in their relationships than do other men. Studies show that symmetrical men have the shortest courtships before having sexual intercourse with the women they date. They invest the least money and time in them. And they cheat on their mates more often than guys with less well-balanced bodies. So much for the beleaguered bonding hypothesis, which wants us to believe that women with investing, caring mates will have the most orgasms... Faking, however, was more common among women who reported flirting with other men... Faking orgasms might be the easiest way for the woman with many lovers to avoid the suspicions of her main partner."

Pigs Are Worth It - The Pig industry is losing £6 every second - "Pig farmers are asking for your support in getting a fair deal. Your support could help save the British industry, which operates to very high standards of quality and welfare."
Funny how consumers don't translate their support to freely buying more expensive goods.

Regina Lynn's Sex Drive: Unexpected Sources Drive Progress of Sex Tech - "What do the Marines, NASA, SWAT and aerospace have in common? Each has inspired at least one engineer to provide a new perspective -- and a quality contribution -- in the business of sexual pleasure. Many influential sex-tech products emerge from professions outside the adult industry, developed by people with personal needs and desires the establishment wasn't filling. Those people risk their day jobs and reputations because they feel strongly enough about sexual pleasure that they enter the adult marketplace almost by accident."

Laser light therapy for hair rejuvenation - "RadiantLife HRx uses Low Level Laser Technology for hair rejuvenation by supplying pulsed 655 nm laser light energy to the scalp. The energy is absorbed on a cellular level and photo-biostimulation takes place, Blood circulation to the follicle area is also increased."
Maybe they confused it with IPL and it actually kills your hair follicles.

Lo Mein Street, U.S.A.: Americans love Chinese food. The problem is, most of what we're eating doesn't really come from China - "In the United States, there are more Chinese restaurants than McDonald's, Burger Kings and KFCs combined... Chinese food is at once regional and universal, foreign and familiar. It has been a way for Americans to safely dabble in exoticism while holding on to their own cultural traditions. "In the 1950s," she says, "if you ate Chinese food, China itself seemed a lot less threatening."... Authentic Chinese food often involves bones, shells and eyeballs, "more vegetables, less meat, less oil," she writes—and, one presumes, no fluorescent sauces. But Lee hesitates to label restaurants authentic or inauthentic. "Authenticity is a function of time and place," she says. "I prefer traditional Chinese food. But that wasn't always the case. My taste evolved after I went to China."... In the three years Lee spent researching her book, the number of Chinese restaurants in the United States rose from 40,000 to 43,000."

Man Puts Out Girlfriend's Cigarette with Fire Extinguisher - "Angered by his girlfriend's smoking, a German man used a fire extinguisher to put out her cigarette. The apartment now looks like it snowed inside -- and boyfriend was hauled downtown."

We the People - Weird News Story Archive - "A survey by American University’s Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies finds that there is wide acceptance of the Internet by Washington politicians. Most representatives have a public e-mail address so constituents can voice their opinions to their elected officials, but few use it to respond. Instead, they expect constituents to include their postal addresses for a paper response. Why? The survey found that Congressional staffers think people would be dissatisfied with e-mail responses, and instead surely prefer replies printed on Congressional letterhead."

School Bans Hugs Over 2 Seconds - "Branham joined her classmates on Friday for a 20-minute, public hug-a-thon... The "no-hugging" rule had previously been in the student handbook. After many students began expressing concern about public hugging and kissing in the hallways, the school began reinforcing the guideline by punishing huggers, which led to Friday's protest."

PM Lee says JI fugitive Mas Selamat's escape a setback - "Asked if it has affected the country's reputation, Mr Lee said, "It's not done (any) good for our reputation, but I don't think people believe that we are just like any other place where you can have television sets and other things in jail these days...we are different, this was a lapse. What to do, it has happened.""
I don't mind them having 'television sets and other things in jail' as long as they don't run off.

NEJM -- The Health Care Costs of Smoking - "Although smoking cessation is desirable from a public health perspective, its consequences with respect to health care costs are still debated. Smokers have more disease than nonsmokers, but nonsmokers live longer and can incur more health costs at advanced ages. We analyzed health care costs for smokers and nonsmokers and estimated the economic consequences of smoking cessation... Health care costs for smokers at a given age are as much as 40 percent higher than those for nonsmokers, but in a population in which no one smoked the costs would be 7 percent higher among men and 4 percent higher among women than the costs in the current mixed population of smokers and nonsmokers. If all smokers quit, health care costs would be lower at first, but after 15 years they would become higher than at present. In the long term, complete smoking cessation would produce a net increase in health care costs, but it could still be seen as economically favorable under reasonable assumptions of discount rate and evaluation period. Conclusions If people stopped smoking, there would be a savings in health care costs, but only in the short term. Eventually, smoking cessation would lead to increased health care costs."

10 Things Your Dad Never Told You About Sex | Just A Guy Thing - "A combination of porn and ‘true story’ articles in Maxim and FHM had me growing up thinking that a threesome was a natural part of everyday life and would happen regularly. After losing a couple of girlfriends through requests for their big-bosomed friend to join us for a session, I began to lose faith. Some people claim that “Ménage á trois” is actually French for “In your dreams”. While I’m sure many people have had threesomes (or more) with other women, the sad reality is that the threesomes we could have would most often involve not another woman, but another man."


Troika creates (mostly) harmless "Newton" Mac OSX virus - "How would you like a virus that doesn’t delete files? Doesn’t mail itself to your friends and only strikes once at random? If that sounds like something you’re into, here is the Newton virus for Mac OSX. The virus comes on a plug and play USB stick and automatically downloads itself to a MacBook (or any Mac, I suppose) when inserted."
Someone: sure its pretty nifty and cute but. give it some time heh. maliciousness always comes later

The (mostly) virus free nature of Mac OSX explained - "Mac OSX, a completely new redesigned operating system based on Unix. Having left every classic application in the dust the problems from those operating systems and programs could not be brought over to OSX, this is something Microsoft has not been able to do (but had the chance to do so back in the late 90s). Windows maintains backwards compatibility in one form or another in every single version... Apple has a relatively small user base and it was more feasible for them to make that move and that at least in part is responsible for the almost completely spyware and virus free Mac OSX. I don’t expect that to stop the debates which will continue until the end of time or until Apple or Microsoft are no longer in existence, whichever comes first."