Thanks for passing it along, Parnian!
Probably gay.
Clogged drains.
Via Dan Savage at the SLOG:
"To explain this letter," writes a "Savage Love" reader/tipster, "a greywater recycling system is where you take shower and wash basin water, treat it, and use the treated water to flush your toilet. Recently a university that uses one of these systems ran into some problems. Filters clean the water before it is recycled and, well, university students were doing what university students do and the filters were getting clogged."
Click to make larger:
Tweets from homophobes.
This website was passed along by Luis (thanks!):
On March 12, 2012, the hashtag #ToMyUnbornChild became a trending topic. People used this hashtag to "tweet to" their future child. Here are 100 real tweets from real people — all within 24 hours — saying they would murder their child if he or she was gay.
And some samples (clic to make larger):
Click here for many more: link.
I'm still holding out hope that the proportion of people who feel this way is shrinking, and hopefully very quickly.
Pat Robertson says oral sex is ok.
This clip has been making the rounds. Pat Robertson is a very outspoken and powerful televangelist. He's made millions of dollars preaching to Christian evangelicals. In the past, Robertson has been extremely critical of homosexuality and his teachings about sex, in general, are very, very socially conservative. That's why this clip has caught so much attention.
Thursday mail - March 15.
Have any questions or comments related to class or otherwise? If so, fire away.
Fruit flies need love too.
From the New York Times:
By DIANE ACKERMAN
According to Mom wisdom, it’s a cozy meal, in a penumbra of pleasure that mingles the fragrant food with the cook. If men are anything like common fruit flies — and who’s to say they’re not at times; heaven knows women are — Mom was right.
Anyway, that’s the romantic ploy of female fruit flies, for whom a dinner date is the ultimate rush. And rush it literally is, since they live only about 25 days and can’t afford to be shy. Still, the males need to be in the right mood, and the females are surprisingly picky and manipulative, given their short careers. Did I mention that some fruit flies have come-hither eyes? I don’t mean the dozens of mosaic facets, so evocative of hippie sunglasses, but the zingy psychedelic eye colors lab folk like to breed into them, the better to study mutant genes.
[...]
During fruit fly courtship, the male, lured by a full larder, extends one mandolin-like wing and serenades the female, then engages in a style of oral sexual foreplay many humans enjoy. Then he mounts her and copulates for 20 minutes or so. Here’s the sly part. The last male she has sex with will sire most of her many offspring, and she chooses the father only after lots of romps in the orchard or lab, based on his flair for courtship.
As with most animals, from squirrels to spiders, the males pursue but the females choose, and even the lowly fruit fly can be choosy.
Why the dinner date? Because Live Fast and Die is their mantra, and they need a handy food supply if their large new brood is to survive.
Read the entire article here.
Homosexuality in Iran.
From the CBC, and passed along by Amir (thanks!):
Twins from different dads.
in Reproduction
From MSNBC, and as discussed in class last week:
Mother gives birth to twins with different dads ‘One-in-a-million’ occurrence involves two eggs and two different fathers
A Texas woman wasn't planning on two conceptions for the record books.
But that's what she got — along with two beautiful boys — when she gave birth to twins of different fathers nearly a year ago.
"Both of them have similar appetites. They like to play with their older brothers. They like to play with each other," Mia Washington told the TODAY show Thursday.
Talk about baby-papa drama.
How did it happen? Every month a woman's ovary releases one egg that can be fertilized by one sperm. But in this case, a pair of eggs emerged.
Sperm, meanwhile, can remain alive and well and viable for up to five days in the reproductive tract. Thus a woman can have sex with different men within those five days and the sperm “just kind of hang out there waiting for the egg to be released,” Dr. Hilda Hutcherson, Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Columbia University, told Meredith Vieira on TODAY.
Washington, who just turned 20, admitted to her partner that she had sex with another man within that five-day window — hence, the double conception.
The mystery began to be solved when her partner, 44-year-old James Harrison, became concerned that Justin and Jordan, born only 7 minutes apart, looked so different. A paternity test followed.
When he discovered that Justin wasn’t his son, Harrison said, "I was hurt, torn apart — didn't know what the next move was gonna be," Harrison said in a taped NBC News segment.
Nonetheless, he's loved both boys the same since then. "I raised him [Justin] from a baby all the way to now. He knows me as his father, and I know him as my son," Harrison explained.
See the accompanying video, and read the rest, here.
Dear Rush.
Click to make larger:
Santorum, signed.
Now That You're Big.
in Sex Ed, Humour Etc.
Passed along by Madeline, your TA (thanks!). By Simon Greiner (click to make larger).
Big gay vs. little gay.
The Force.
Passed along by Bree (thanks!): By Mike Jacobsen.
AT&T silent treatment ad.
Also passed along by Laura (thanks!).
Silent treatment.
Passed along by Laura (thanks!).
Thursday mail - March 8.
Have any questions or comments related to class or otherwise? If so, fire away.
Robin Williams on Viagra and oral sex.
An oldie, but a goodie, passed along by Anna (thanks!). As she notes, "best ending to a standup...ever." NSFW language!
Why homosexuality should be banned.
The original video, which I posted last year, disappeared. Boris sent along a new link (thanks!). Click on the little red dialogue bubble (annotations) to get rid of the annoying popup text boxes.
Sexual relationships road map.
Click to make larger:
Where do you fit?