"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

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Women arrested in sex competition - "Nine British women were facing prostitution charges after being arrested at the weekend for taking part in an oral sex competition in the Greek holiday island of Zakynthos, police said on Monday."
As IZ Reloaded commented: "How they judge who wins?"

Wildlife: A luxury we can live without? - "If a species is there, I am firmly convinced that it has a good reason to be... Should nature be preserved in its entirety, meaning all species? I say yes, without any hesitation... Species abundance is also important. We need large quantities of fish if we want to feed the world. We need enough pollinators and soil invertebrates to maintain food production."
Crazy, confused environmentalists. He was probably against the eradication of the Smallpox virus
[Addendum: My comment was published, but I'm amazed at how many crazy environmentalists/eco-mystics there are reading BBC Science/Nature (read the other comments)]

Chess boxers slug it out - "A RUSSIAN man has been crowned world champion in the novelty sport of chess boxing, a game that requires equal skill at moving pawns and throwing punches... Stripped to the waist, wearing towels around their shoulders and headphones playing the lulling sound of a moving train to drown out the baying crowd, the men played for four minutes. Then off came their reading glasses and on went the gloves and the mouthguards. For three minutes they beat each other and then, when the bell went, the chess board was back in the ring and they picked up the gentlemanly game where they had left off."

Lessons in Love, by Way of Economics - "AS my fine professor of economics at Columbia, C. Lowell Harriss (who just celebrated his 96th birthday) used to tell us, economics is the study of the allocation of scarce goods and services. What could be scarcer or more precious than love? It is rare, hard to come by and often fragile. My primary life study has been about love. Second comes economics, so here, in the form of a few rules, is a little amalgam of the two fields: the economics of love. (I last wrote about this subject 20 years or so ago, and it’s time to update it.)"
Reminds me of my unemployment theory of relationships

Rich pickings - "The main message of the book, he says, is to try to discourage people from becoming entrepreneurs unless they are deadly serious and driven to such an extent that they cannot stop themselves... He is convinced that any suitably serious, driven person, blessed with reasonable intelligence and living in a developed economy, who takes his advice will “get rich”, but that it will exact a terrible price. “If you are married, your spouse or kids will be sacrificed; you will be buying them presents laden with guilt. I've met many rich people and by and large their children are a mess.”"

Grad Student Deconstructs Take-Out Menu - ""Seeing this long list of traditional Mexican foods—burritos, tacos, tamales—with a price attached to each caused me to reflect on the means by which capitalist society consumes and subsumes ethnicity, turning tradition into mass-marketable 'product' bleached of its original 'authentic' identity," Rosenblatt said. "And yet, it is still marketed and sold by the dominant power structure in society as 'authentic' experience, informed by racist myths and projections of 'otherness' onto the blank canvas of the alien culture.""

Touching shouldn't always mean sex - "Tina, 36, has been driven to distraction by partner Nicholas's hug confusion. Together for four years, once the honeymoon phase died down she didn't want such regular sex. But she still wanted cuddles! Nicholas, however, displays a positively “Pavlov's dog” (conditional, rather than intellectual, reflex) response to hugs. I've armed her with some techniques to help him relearn that sometimes a hug is just about emotional comfort and not a starting pistol for sex."
Interesting comments: 'And once he's an effeminate cuddler she'll complain he's not man enough. Dont get caught in the tiresome loop that is the female brain.'
'Nice to hear your outraged voices, gentlemen! They've been hiding these 'train your man to roll over and give up" articles in ladies magazines for years. "But she still wanted cuddles!" Makes your blood boil, yeah?'
'My advice to Tina's husband is to divorce her immediately.'
'Have sex with the man on a regular basis and he won't interpret every hug as sexual advance.'
'great...so, its only abt what women want...men dont matter...i am just so sick of hearing wht men need to do for a women, how to understand a woman...for a change, why cant women understand a man and satisfy his needs???'
'if you double in weight, become a drug addict, change your personality or radically reduce the amount of sex you are willing to have with your partner, you're basically breaking your contract with your partner. maybe tina belongs with someone else, who wants less sex? maybe she gulled poor nicholas?'
'It sounds like Tina's husband is starved for sex due to her unilateral decision that she just doesn't want it anymore after four years. I wonder if he would have married her if he knew she'd lose interest so soon? I also wonder if Tina's looking forward to the inevitable cheating and divorce?'
'The chap is not the one who needs help. Why shouldn't he expect his partner to be consistent in the relationship? Poor guy.'
'It does astound me how some women arrogantly think they can "train" men out of their natural behaviour to suit their cyclical emotional needs. My advice to him would be not to consider marriage until he's found himself a certified fox. My advice to her would be to get a cat.'
'Men are just awful, aren't they? Perhaps we should lock them all up.'

Stop dwelling on sex abuse, says World Youth Day bishop - "People should stop "dwelling crankily" on old wounds, Bishop Anthony Fisher said today as he faced questions about the Catholic Church's handling of Melbourne sisters repeatedly raped by a priest... Melbourne priest Kevin O'Donnell raped the girls while they were in primary school and died in prison about 10 years ago. Cardinal George Pell, now the leader of the Catholic Church in Australia, was Melbourne Archbishop when the Fosters complained of the abuse, and they claim he stalled their compensation claim."
Given their dwelling on 'sin', this is bizarre.

Male Bias or Female Choice? - "Why, now that women students are approaching a 3-to-2 majority on campus and predominate in so many disciplines (including many science departments), is Washington singling out a few male-dominated departments in engineering and physical sciences?... The answer from their critics — call them the Anti-Title-Niners — is that this bias exists largely in the imagination of well-organized activists"
Some comments: "Why do we not worry about the overwhelming numbers of women in English and Psychology? Don't those subjects deserve equal investigation?"
"Setting quotas will be devastating, enabling people to express their prejudice against women openly. I was the only woman on the faculty of a biochemistry department and everyone assumed I was offered a faculty position only because I was a woman."

Did he spray toes at library? - "A Columbus man has been charged with crawling under a table at a library on University of Cincinnati’s campus, spraying a substance from a syringe on a woman’s shoes and then photographing them... “There’s really no way to explain people’s fetishes,” said University of Cincinnati Police Capt. Karen Patterson this morning. “I’ve been in police work 24 years and I can’t explain it. I don’t know. It would take a psychologist or psychiatrist to explain it.”"

Jessica Bruinsma - "An injured Jessica Bruinsma hooked her bra to a mountainside supply line and alerted rescuers to her whereabouts just as they were giving up the three-day search for the lost hiker. The white sports bra has become the talk of the Berchtesgaden area of Germany near the Austria border... “She certainly isn’t a 36-DD,” Elana said, referencing earlier press reports that endowed her sister with busty measurements. “She’s a tiny little thing.” Regardless, “It certainly is going to be a famous bra,” Elana said. “We’re going to have a party for her every June 19, and give her some new bras,” Elana Bruinsma, said this morning."

Woman charged with trading sex for gas - "“When people are selling their bodies for gas, that’s pretty sad,” said Ken Easterling, chief prosecutor in the Kenton County Attorney’s Office."

Kiss of Breath: Teen Arrested for DWI Blames Macking - "According to Newsday, Vigliotti blew a 0.15 blood alcohol level (the legal limit is 0.08) but apparently told the cop who pulled her over, "I didn't drink! I was kissing a boy who was drunk." The cop, though, found Vigliotti to be slurring and "four full beer bottles under the passenger seat of her Volkswagen and an empty beer can in her purse.""

Drug user ‘masturbated in ambulance’ - "SECURITY cameras may be needed in ambulances to protect both patients and paramedics, the ambulance union said today, after one of its members was cleared of digital rape of a drug user... Mr McGhie said the 23-year-old woman who accused Mr Howe of assaulting her had the illicit drugs GHB and cannabis in her system on the night of the incident. The court had heard Mr Howe was trying to restrain her as she thrashed her arms and legs and masturbated loudly in the ambulance... He said ambulance officers sometimes now refused to transfer patients unless a third person travelled with them, which could delay emergency treatment. The MAS said even though Mr Howe was acquitted, it would not reinstate him, saying it was “determined to maintain the high level of trust that the community has for its paramedics”."

Lobster Knife Fight! - "Continuing this blog’s fascination with battles featuring crustaceans (we’ve had crabs and crawfish so far), here’s a photo titled Lobster Knife Fight"