The Measure of All Things
Of course I'll respect you in the morning! Now SHUT UP!!
Ask her to wait a moment - I am almost done.
- Carl Gauss (1777-1855) while working, when informed his wife was dying
Jake liked his women the way he liked his kiwi fruit:
sweet yet tart, firm-fleshed yet yielding to the touch,
and covered with short brown fuzzy hair.
- Jonathan S Haas
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The Trouble with Men - men are useful largely for one thing: supplying genes to mothers. Providing half a baby's genes stirs up the gene
pool and outwits bacteria and viruses that prey on the species. A lot of aggressive male behaviour is genetic advertising: having men brag about football and indulge in
dangerous virility rituals enables women, in some mysterious way, to pick the best genes to hand on. |
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Sex Is Best If You Lose Your Head - it's hard not to warm to a book which discusses Harold Macmillan in the context of the sexual
problems of the dungfly. Paternity, in both species, is the issue... |
Lost in Translation - That the penis also will be long, probably will have gotten fat, that it probably will have lost weight, you can adjust height
with the coconut... |
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About Sperm - "I'm not interested in anything other than assisting people reach their dreams of having a child,"
a Utah man writes to list members. In the past 6 months, 5 women became pregnant thanks to sperm donors found online. |
About Eggs - Women in good physical health, and those who have comfortable living conditions have a tendency to give birth
to boys. Conversely, women living in harsh conditions tend to produce more girls... |
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Maleness - For several decades, medical researchers have been aware of a variety of different abnormalities
that can occur in people's sex chromosome makeup. These abnormalities are not all that rare, involving one individual in every few thousand. For example, there are
men with the combination XXY - male in appearance, but sterile. There are women who have only a single X chromosome; that is, they completely lack the other half of the
chromosome pair. Harder to explain are the "sex-reversed" whose outward appearance is the opposite of their chromosome makeup... |
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The Buddy System - An intelligent man may wake in midlife and realise he has no real friends. Friendship is a bond of mutual awareness - the
deeper we see and the more articulate we are in sharing, the richer the friendship. Friendships will be superficial and unsatisfactory unless those practicing it have
interiority and can arrive at shared understandings through conversation. The best expressions of friendship centre not on sports but around delicate expressions of
thought. |
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The Y of It All - Once genes stop working, they tend to disappear. That's why the Y chromosome is only 1/3 the size of the X. That's the
threat to Y's existence in the future. Even the master sex switch and genes required for sperm aren't guaranteed a free ride: genes on other chromosomes might take over,
leaving them free to slip into oblivion... |
Biological Clock Strikes for Men, Too - American scientists have discovered that genetic damage to sperm routinely starts to cause infertility in men as
young as 35. The strongest biological evidence yet for a significant drop in male fertility in the late 30s is a warning to the increasing number of grey-haired fathers who
are leaving it later to have children... |
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Enjo Kosai - A 4-door white Honda pulls up; the driver parks, flips on his hazards. Yumi heads to the car and yells over her
shoulder, "It's okay. Let's go." Mariko, always meticulous, marks down the time and date in her cellphone's digital calendar. Together, they disappear into the
Honda that during the day drives toddlers to daycare. Much later, they flow back home a little wasted on Asahi Super Dry beer, in need of a shower but ¥8,000 richer... |
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Never Too Old - City police accused a 75-year-old man of impregnating a 10-year-old girl he met at his senior centre. Jimmy Kave of Bridgeport
admitted having sex with the girl several times, but claims she had enticed him. The girl, now 11 and 6 months pregnant, has been taken into the custody by the state
Department of Children and Families... |
Incompatible Mating - most women prefer the smells of men who have a set of immune system genes different from her own. But women taking
contraceptive pills prefer the smell of men with immune system genes like their own. This suggests that widespread pill use could have a subtle effect on how women
select their mates - and perhaps on whether they'll suffer from auto-immune diseases. |
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How to Be a Good Wife - Don't greet him with complaints or problems. Don't complain if he's late home for dinner or even if he stays
out all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day... |
Agreement At a Very Basic Level - Genetically, girls get their verbal and social skills from the X chromosome contributed by
their dads; boys don't get an X chromosome from their dads, so Mom must be the one to blame if these skills are lacking? |
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Thanks for the Drive, Dad - paternal genes help build Freud's famous "id" - the instinctual, emotional, unconscious self - while the mother's
genes are behind the more rational, conscious "ego". During development, maternal and paternal genes compete for control of behaviour. |
Nagmaster - At last! Instant spousal chastisement enters the digital age!! |
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Gynæcologists Lose Interest - 1/3 of American gynæcologists express dissatisfaction with their sex lives - highest of all the
medical specialties - because their work brings them into all-too-intimate proximity to women every day. |
Hitting the Mid-Life Wall - Cyberphobia is an all-consuming jealousy of an aggressive, successful younger man, a "star," who threatens to upset the
established hierarchy; this may induce a midlife crisis in older colleagues. This whizkid, with all the advantages of having testosterone surge around his virile body,
undermines the older man's confidence by seeming to actually understand how computers and the intricacies of the Internet work. |
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Test of Faith - Jealous boyfriends in Russia are hiring professional seducers to test their beloved's fidelity before tying the knot... |
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Great American Heroes - Ted Williams did everything in life that John Wayne merely faked on the screen. After all, Wayne hadn't racked up all of
the hitting records in what was arguably baseball's greatest era. He hadn't been a pilot in two world wars. He hadn't flown as John Glenn's wingman in Korea. Or
crash-Ianded a flaming F-9 Panther jet. Or managed in the major leagues. Or become a world-renowned fisherman...
Mister Rogers was the best neighbour ever... |
Secure Men's Meeting - Come early so you'll get a seat! Also contains a funny clip, "on the Subject of Friends: I'd Rather Play Hockey" (Flash
plugin required) 2.5 meg |
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Conclusion - Should there be one? (Also contains a 4 meg Flash file.) |
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