Via Scott K. we have this research confirming Dr. Joe's cure for everything:

Researchers from the Cancer Council of Victoria found that men who masturbated more than five times each week were one-third less likely to develop the cancer.

When I sell liquor, it's called bootlegging; when my patrons serve it on Lake Shore Drive, its called hospitality.

Al Capone
[I'm reminded of this by the apparent suicide of the "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey. How sad that a provider of a desired service is convicted of a victimless crime and ends up dead. The real criminals are those that created and enforced such a law.--Joe]

This study raises more questions than it give answers. I'm not disputing the results. In fact I have reason to believe it is accurate. But what could possibly be the clues that reveals such details about sexual intent?

Looking for love or lust? Your face gives it away Facial features tell if someone wants commitment or casual sex, study says

It’s no use being coy. If you’re looking for a fling, it might just be written all over your face.

A new study by U.K. researchers found that you can tell just by looking at someone’s face whether they’re interested in casual sex or long-term commitment. And, not surprisingly, women tend to be more attracted to the guys who look like true boyfriend material, while men are drawn to faces that seem to say “one-night stand,” found the study, published Tuesday in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.

In a similar vein two different lesbian friends of mine claimed they have excellent "Gaydar". Some simple tests indicate that in fact they were able to determine sexual orientation with very little contact with the people in question. This including their laughing at me when asked if I was gay. Apparently I am so blatantly heterosexual that I couldn't fool anyone even if I wanted to.

Other experiences of mine, which would take too much time to explain, resulted in similar results.

It's not prostitution. It's nuptial gifts.

We are just animals with a more developed brain. The low level wiring isn't all that much different.

Just like penguins and other primates, people trade sex for resources:

Female penguins mate with males who bring them pebbles to build egg nests. Hummingbirds mate to gain access to the most productive flowers guarded by larger males.

New research shows that even affluent college students who don't need resources will still attempt to trade sexual currency for provisions, said Daniel Kruger, research scientist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

The exchange of resources for sex---referred to by scientists as nuptial gifts---has occurred throughout history in many species, including humans, Kruger said. The male of the species offers protection and resources to the female and offspring in exchange for reproductive rights. For example, an arranged marriage can be considered a contract to trade resources.

However, the recent findings suggest that such behaviors are hard wired, and persist no matter how much wealth, resources or security that people obtain.

"It's remarkable to find these patterns in the students in the study," Kruger said. "We have seen many examples where people do this out of necessity, but we still see these tendencies in people who are already well provided for."

I think Barb said she wanted some chores done around the house. Would that be considered an exchange of services?

I've been thinking about this for a long time and Sunday while waiting for the ferry to cross over to the island to visit Mr. Completely and Keewee I made my decision. The event that confirmed everything was the dog sniffing for explosives around the vehicles waiting for the ferry:

There were two things that really struck me about this. 1) The dog didn't take any particular interest in my car even though I had been making explosives and driving that car just a week earlier. No special precautions on cleanliness and the dog didn't hit on us. I also had several hundred rounds of ammunition in the trunk. Therefore the dog and all the WSP officers standing around are just more Security Theater. 2) Why isn't this considered an illegal search? We were on public roads doing nothing suspicious and we get searched.

After a few minutes of thought I realized the game I had been playing was over. For years I have pushing for restoring our freedom and yet we have suffered more and more infringements. There is always some "justification" for the infringement. Before 9-11 it was because of crime and recreational drug use. Now it's the threat of terrorism. Nearly all of the infringements are mere theater in regards to addressing the problems they claim to be concerned about yet they adversely affect the ordinary citizen.

With this realization I concluded I have been playing the game wrong. Therefore I have decided to change sides. From this moment forward I am on the side of Islam. Yes, I know, for the most part they are a bunch of losers. But I have my reasons:

• I think I can make a major contribution to turning their loser ways around.
  • I have thousands of pounds of explosives materials available for immediate use.
  • I have long range rifle experience and equipment.
  • I have computer security expertise.
  • I have extensive engineering experience.
• The U.S. Constitution is dead. It was killed by neglect years ago and there is no hope for its resurrection. This great hope for freedom has died and pretending otherwise is a fraud.
• If we can't have freedom then the next best thing is peace through uniformity of belief. Islam is the best hope for that.
• I'm getting older and so is Barb. Those 72 virgins for eternity are looking better and better.

I know I am handicapping myself by making this public announcement but I feel morally obligated to tell my friends and family the truth. I don't play the part of secret traitor well--I have to look at my face in the mirror each morning. As Winston Churchill once said in regards to formal declarations of war, "When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite."

My apologies to Uncle and others who (correctly at the time) said, "I’m glad he’s one of the good guys." Things change and perhaps you should too.

When Barb left this morning she didn't know. It was just returning to work in Idaho as she does every other week after spending the last several days with me. But that was the end of a 34 year run we had. Our first date was in March of 1974. This was a picture I took of her on that date, a walk along Dworshak Lake:

It was nice but she was only a virgin once. She just can't compete with 72 virgins for eternity.

You might ask, "What are you going to do?" and that's a fair question. I figure I have at best a few months before I am caught and probably killed but I am certain I can make a significant impact in that time frame. Think for a moment about how long a city could last if all the bridges, roads, water, and electricity were cut off with the repair crews taking sniper fire from 1000 yards away. Draw a circle with a radius of 1000 yards around each of the severed connections and imagine trying to protect the crews from someone, someplace in that area. And as law enforcement is searching for me there they won't really know if I am there are not. I could be several hundred miles away getting ready to sever another city from food, water, and power. You don't need nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons to create mass destruction. By creating the appropriate circumstances you can cause the delicate fabric of society to collapse and let nature do the rest.

Ry and I have observed it's rare that a single person can kill more than 200 people before being stopped. It is my ambition to set a record in the 10s of thousands and perhaps higher. I want my name to be in the history books as a demonstration of just what one determined person can do.

Allahu Akbar!

The problem, it seems to me, is this. People are pack animals and they want -- need -- approval from the herd. So, forcing this one-size-fits-not-nearly-everyone way of life down everyone's throat is detrimental to everyone. Living a life that doesn't fit is miserable and that misery plays out in unhappy ways in people's lives.

Jenny Block
March 27, 2008
Open Relationships: What the World Already Has
[The pack animal observation applies to so many things that bug me about people. It is a huge component of the attacks on freedom. From gay rights and gun control to religious intolerance you will find this urge to conform and to enforce conformity playing a big part.--Joe]

Dr. Joe's cure for everything for over 30 years is getting more attention. The details are here, but the overview is:

1. Sex Relieves Stress
2. Sex Boosts Immunity
3. Sex Burns Calories
4. Sex Improves Cardiovascular Health
5. Sex Boosts Self-Esteem
6. Sex Improves Intimacy
7. Sex Reduces Pain
8. Sex Reduces Prostate Cancer Risk
9. Sex Strengthens Pelvic Floor Muscles
10. Sex Helps You Sleep Better

I remember this sad woman that lived in the same condominium complex as Barb and I who each weekend seemed to have a different guy leaving her place in the early morning. She never seemed happy and we always figured it was self esteem problem and the pond scum she brought home didn't make the situation any better. Now some researchers have some data on women, depression, and sex. I wonder if the researchers investigated the self-esteem issue and if the "self medication" aspects of using sex for treating their depression benefited them in the long term. And of course they should also explore which, if any, was cause and which was effect. Or was it just correlation?

I sort of remember that picture being taken now--and thinking, "No one will really notice, will they?" (notice the smirk on my face). Of course I have had my hand down her shirt so often for the last 30+ years that by now Barb is almost oblivious to it.

Mr. Completely politely ignores it and tells us about the other joys of attending the Gun Blogger Rendezvous and urges you to sign up for the next one.

Dr. Joe is further validated:

LONDON: A steamy sex session in the morning can keep you in good health, say British researchers.

According to a research from Queen’s University in Belfast, a good morning session at least three times a week, decreases the risk of heart attack or stroke by half and a regular session improves circulation, thereby reducing blood pressure.

According to a study in New Scientist, a steamy session twice a week enhances IgA, an antibody that provides protection against microbes that multiply in body secretions, reports the ‘Sun’. Morning sex also helps in alleviating arthritis and migraine. It burns around 300 calories an hour that simultaneously diminishes the risk of developing diabetes.

Moreover, an American study involving 300 sexually active women whose partners did not use condoms revealed that they were less prone to depression.

Sex increases the production of testosterone that provides stronger bones and muscles thus helping to stave off osteoporosis.

A good morning session can make the hair shine and skin glow by raising the output of oestrogen and other hormones which are associated with it.

According to Yale School of Medicine researchers, having morning sex can aid in averting endometriosis, a condition where the tissue that normally lines the uterus, grows in other parts of the pelvis.

I keep wondering if disgraced New York Governer and anti-gun bigot Spitzer was aware of the book Mayflower Madam when he booked a room at this particular hotel:

As recently as this past Valentine's Day, Feb. 13, Spitzer, who officials say is identified in a federal complaint as "Client 9," arranged for a prostitute "Kristen" to meet him in Washington, D.C.

The woman met Client 9 at the Mayflower Hotel, room 871, "for her tryst," according to the complaint.

The book was a true story and a very good one. If he hasn't read it already maybe he'll have time while he is in prison.

If I were a peer reviewing this piece of work I would ask the "researcher", "Please repeat after me, 'correlation is not causation'. Again, 'correlation is not causation'. Good, keep doing that until you can remember it when you are writing your papers."

It looks to me like this guy has staked his career on something and is looking for evidence to support his hypothesis. And of course if that is all you are looking for and you ignore contradictory evidence you can probably convince yourself your hypothesis is valid.

Here is a sample of his conclusions:

Straus analyzed the results of four studies and found that spanking and other corporal punishment by parents is associated with an increased probability of three sexual problems as a teen or adult:
• Verbally and physically coercing a dating partner to have sex.
• Risky sex such as premarital sex without a condom.
• Masochistic sex such as being aroused by being spanked when having sex.

“These results, together with the results of more than 100 other studies, suggest that spanking is one of the roots of relationship violence and mental health problems. Because there is 93 percent agreement between studies that investigated harmful side effects of spanking, and because over 90 percent of U.S. parents spank toddlers, the potential benefits for prevention of sexual and relationship violence is large,” Straus says.

I haven't read all his papers so it's possible he has considered an alternate hypothesis but I could find no evidence of that in the web pages I viewed this morning. The alternate hypothesis that is just "screaming at me" is that children with behavioral problems are more likely to behavioral problems as adults. And if they have more behavioral problems as children then they are more likely to get spanked.

It sounds like something is miswired in the brain. I've talked to women that were true sex addicts and women who took drugs to reduce their sexual desire to managable levels, but this is significantly different:

PSAS, identified and named just six years ago, remains a mysterious condition that thousands of women wish they didn't have. They are constantly on the edge of orgasm regardless of time, place or circumstance. And while this situation might sound desirable, funny or just plain weird it is actually akin to being a prisoner: a nightmarish reality where a woman's body acts independently of her own desires.

ABC News spoke with four women who all experience unwanted sexual sensations. Heather Dearmon, Nancy Austin, and two women who requested anonymity (referred to as Lauren and Emily) all suffer from unintended sexual arousal.

"It's unwanted sexual sensations in your vagina," Dearmon said.

"And sex doesn't help it," Lauren said. "Orgasm doesn't relieve it, sometimes it makes it stronger. This is to me, irritating, torture."

It's a sad situation. Apparently there is an exception to Dr. Joe's cure for everything.

[H/T to Phil for pointing it out to me.]

From Florida:

The pastor of a southwest Florida church opened many eyes and ears Sunday when he said he wants married couples in the congregation to -- have sex for 30 days in a row.

Dr. Joe says, "Well, it's a start I guess."

While I applaud this ruling I can't help but be cynical:

Houston's adult bookstore backers Wednesday hailed a federal court's decision to overturn a 35-year-old state law that banned promotion or sale of sex toys. But the decision won't go into effect until the court issues its mandate in early March — long after the industry's lucrative pre-Valentine's Day season.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law violates the privacy protections of the 14th Amendment.

"Just as in Lawrence, the state here wants to use its law to enforce a public moral code by restricting private intimate conduct," the judges wrote in the 2-1 ruling. "This case is not about public sex. It is not about controlling commerce in sex. It is about controlling what people do in the privacy of their own homes because the state is morally opposed to a certain type of of consensual private intimate conduct."

The judges alluded to Lawrence v. Texas, a Houston case that resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the state's sodomy law in 2003.

So tell me why this same reasoning doesn't result in the overturning of laws restricting recreational drugs, prostitution, gambling, and firearms? I can only conclude the judges rule however they want to rule then find a reason to justify themselves afterward.

Some people should be rented out by the minute by their cellmates to the bidder of the most cigarettes. My number one nominees at this time are these criminals. This should continue for the rest of their lives--no sleep allowed.

A woman in New York state sold a young girl to her landlord for sex to cover her overdue rent, federal authorities said.

Linda O'Connor, 46, also sold the girl to strangers twice at a hotel in 2006 and 2007, authorities said. The girl was 12 and 13 at the time of the alleged rapes.

O'Connor, who lives in the upstate New York town of Norwich, was arrested Sunday on federal charges of selling a child and other pornography counts. Assistant U.S. Attorney Miroslav Lovric said she could face up to life in prison.

O'Connor's former landlord, Dean Sacco, 49, of New Jersey, was also charged with having sex with the girl, crossing state lines to have sex with a minor and various pornography charges.

The girl told authorities that O'Connor and Sacco photographed the assaults. Now 14 and in foster care, she told police she faced homelessness and that Sacco threatened to kill her if she did not comply.

The girl told investigators Sacco had sex with her at least five times and that O'Connor took her to a hotel in December 2006 to have sex with a 40-year-old man for $150 while O'Connor watched. O'Connor later took her back to the hotel again to have sex with a second man, the girl said. After the second encounter, O'Connor took the girl Christmas shopping.

I have had a copy of Joy of Sex and More Joy of Sex since shortly after they came out. Now there is a much updated new version, The New Joy of Sex, due to come out in September. If you can't get expert personal training then reading a book is the next best thing. This will probably be one of the better books on the market.

If only I could have convinced Barb when we were in the baby making business we needed some help:

LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have created human embryos with three parents in a development they hope could lead to effective treatments for a range of serious hereditary diseases within five years.

Researchers from Newcastle University, in northern England, presented their findings at a medical conference at the weekend, a university spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

The IVF, or test-tube, embryos were created using DNA from one man and two women.

Both women have could carried babies that were from all three of us. However great an idea I think this is I am sure Barb will manage to find some fault with it. She is kinda funny that way.

It's nothing new to state that many men are attracted to women wearing high heels. But this is something new:

STILETTOS can be good for a woman's sex life, says a study which claims wearing them ``directly works the pleasure muscles linked to orgasm''.

Experts found the high heels toned women’s legs and strengthened pelvic muscles.

In tests, Dr Maria Cerruto, of the University of Verona, Italy, discovered that wearing a pair of ‘‘moderately high heeled shoes’’ had beneficial effects for a woman’s sex life.

‘‘Heels work the pelvic muscles and reduce the need to exercise them.

‘‘Wearing heels during daily activity may reduce the need for the pelvic floor exercises necessary to keep that part of a woman’s anatomy toned and elastic,’’ Cerruto said.

Dr. Joe also has verified methods of directly exercising the pleasure muscles linked to orgasm. Women, make an appointment to obtain the full details and avoid the well-known risks associated with high heels.

Interesting. They are making it into a chain. I wonder if they will be opening a "store" in Nevada. Not that Dr. Joe would have anything more than academic interest or maybe buying some stock.

I received the following story from an email list I subscribe to. It's just a funny story but I do sometimes wonder if this sort of thing might have contributed to our current political mess. Politicians, and the people that elected them, ignore and deliberately bend the first principles of our Constitution and even the philosophical underpinning (yes, Ayn Rand's book Philosophy: Who Needs It has made big impact on me) of how we determine true from falsity and right from wrong. Little by little the nature of our government morphs into something completely unrecognizable and unrestrained by the founding document.

A new monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to help the other monks in copying the old texts by hand. He notices, however, that they are copying from copies, not the original manuscripts. So, the new monk goes to the head monk to ask him about this. He points out that if there were an error in the first copy, that error would be continued in all of the other copies.

The head monk says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son." So, he goes down into the cellar with one of the copies to check it against the original. Hours go by and nobody sees him. So, one of the monks goes downstairs to look for him. He hears sobbing coming from the back of the cellar, and finds the old monk leaning over one of the original books crying.

He asks the old monk what's wrong, and in a choked voice comes the reply..."The word is 'celebrate.'"

Even in the simple story above it would be tough to change. All those centuries of tradition and the hundreds of collaborating volumes by "great teachers" who based their scholarly works on simple clerical errors. Who would be willing to say their greatest leaders through the ages were mistaken and totally wrong?

So, what was the fatal error or errors of our founding documents that allowed the replication errors to be introduced and never corrected? It's not as if we were actually making copies of the copies. The original documents are available and other than perhaps the question of a comma or two no one questions the integrity of copies.

I believe there is a single flaw that allowed this to happen. This fatal flaw permeates our state constitutions as well as our U.S. Constitution. That flaw is that there is no punishment for those that violate the Constitution. If a politician votes for a law, another signs the law, the judges, the police, and the prosecutors enforce the law. If it is later declared to be unconstitutional the very worst that happens to all of the people involved is they say, "Whoops." Hence there is nothing to lose for them when they engage in illegal activities. How can you expect any other outcome than what we have today? Imagine how your children, your employees, employer, your local merchants, your banker, your neighbors, etc. would behave if they could cheat, steal, lie, and injury people and the worst that would happen to them is they had to say, "Whoops, I'm sorry." That is what has happened to our governments.

I keep wondering how to restore our Constitutions (yes, I remember Jack Anderson's quote--I deal with him in that post). There needs to be some punishment for those who violated the constitution. But the same judges, prosecutors, and police who violated the constitution would be reluctant to convict themselves. One thing that might work is a separate branch of government whose sole task is to prosecute violators of the constitution. But at this point I don't think our government needs to get any bigger. I have a better plan. This plan will not only eliminate the problem of unconstitutional laws being passed and enforced it will also reduce the size of government.

Joe's Enforcement of Enumerated Powers (JEEP) would be implemented as follows:

• Whosoever shall identify a government employee who is acting under the color of law but outside constitutional boundaries shall post said transgression on a special Internet website.
• The identified government employee will have seven days to constitutionally justify their actions on the same website, correct their error, or remove themselves from government employment for life.
• If, after the seven days have elapsed, anyone who does not believe the constitutional justification or correction of the error was adequate may remove said government employee from the gene pool. This shall also apply to anyone that attempts to prevent him from said gene pool cleaning.
• After successfully cleaning the gene pool the pool cleaner(s) must identify themselves and may post information on the same website to support their actions.
• After successfully removing the pond scum from the gene pool said pool cleaner(s) will stand trial via a popular election in the jurisdiction of the government employee. Hence in the case of a city mayor being removed from the gene pool the pool cleaner(s) will be judged by the voters of the city. A U.S. Senator would require a state election. A President would require a national election.
• The criteria for finding the pool cleaner(s) not guilty of murder will be that if 10% or more of the voters, having read the web postings and tested to make sure they actually did read the postings, believe the pool cleaners had probable cause to engage in said pool cleaning the pool cleaners will be declared to have engaged in praiseworthy homicide. Note that is "Probable Cause", not "Preponderance of Evidence" or "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt".
• If the pool cleaner(s) are found NOT guilty of murder they will receive all of the material assets of the pond scum which they removed from the gene pool.
• If the pool cleaner(s) are found guilty of murder they will be punished as any other murderer.

Expect a rapid and dramatic reduction in the size of government and strict adherence to the enumerated powers.

See, that wasn't so tough was it?

Promote JEEP, it's the for the good of our children.

Xenia is our daughter who made the vagina cake, wore "Vagina Day" shirts to school, and did the Celebration of Ovulation anthology. Here is her cake:

Thanks to Tam we now have a couch I can only imagine Xenia wanting. A sample picture:

Via Dr. Laura Berman from Newsweek:

Sex is good for adults. Indulging on a regular basis—at least once a week—is even better. Research links sex (with all safer-sex precautions taken) to an astonishing array of physiological benefits, from longevity to pain relief. Many studies don't address whether the health bonus comes from the act itself or from the corresponding emotional intimacy, but the bottom line is that getting physical has some great side effects—especially for women. Here are six ways that sex boosts your health:

1. It Fights Colds and Flu. Sexual intercourse once or twice a week raises the body's level of the immune-boosting antibody immunoglobin A by a third, according to research at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania.

2. It's a Beauty Treatment. In a study at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in Scotland, a panel of judges viewed participants through a one-way mirror and guessed their ages. Those who looked seven to 12 years younger than their age (labeled "superyoung") were also enjoying lots of sex—four times a week, on average. OK, maybe they were having so much fun because they looked young. But it's likely the sex was helping, researchers say. One reason is that it raises a woman's estrogen level, which helps make hair shiny and skin supple.

3. It Burns Calories. A little over four calories a minute, or the equivalent of four Hershey's kisses in a half hour of love. Think of it as part of your weekly exercise regime, and burn, baby, burn.

4. Yes, Honey, I Have a Headache. For a woman a migraine might actually be a reason for making love rather than avoiding intercourse: the increase in endorphins and corticosteroids during arousal and orgasm is analgesic.

5. It Promotes Regular Menstrual Cycles. A series of studies by behavioral endocrinologist Winnifred Cutler and colleagues at Columbia and Stanford universities found that women who have intercourse at least weekly (except during their period) cycle more regularly than abstainers or the sporadically active. (Related research found that lesbian lovemaking also smoothes out menstrual cycles.) Cutler argues that intimacy is essential, not orgasms: "Regular exposure to a loving partner has extraordinary effects on health and well-being."

6. It Can Prevent Accidents. Women use the muscles of the pelvic floor to stem the flow of urine. As they age, they need to keep these strong to avoid peeing accidentally. The same muscles are exercised during intercourse, and as with all muscle-building programs, the benefits require consistency.

Take note women, Dr. Joe makes house calls. Contact my wife Barb to make an appointment.

Via Phil and Craig C.

 I enjoy playing miniature golf, but when playing indoor golf "miniature" is going to be frowned upon. Here are the rules for Indoor Golf:

The Rules of Indoor Golf:

1. Each player shall furnish his own equipment for play, normally one club and two balls.
2. Play on course must be approved by the owner of the hole.
3. Unlike outdoor golf, the object is to get the club in the hole and keep the balls out.
4. For most effective play, the club should have a firm shaft. Course owners are permitted to check shaft stiffness before play begins.
5. Course owners reserve the right to restrict club length to avoid damage to the hole.
6. Object of the game is to take as many strokes as necessary until the owner is satisfied play is complete. Failure to do so may result in being denied permission to play again.
7. It is considered bad form to begin playing the hole immediately upon arrival. Experienced players will normally take time to admire the entire course, paying special attention to well formed mounds and bunkers.
8. Players are cautioned not to mention other courses they have played or are currently playing to the owner of the course being played. Upset owners have been known to damage a players equipment for this reason.
9. Players are encouraged to have proper rain gear, just in case.
10. Players should not assume that the course is in shape to play at all times. Players may be embarrassed if they find the course temporarily under repair. Players are advised to be extremely tactful in this situation. More advanced players will find alternate means of play when this is the case.
11. Players should assume their match has been properly scheduled particularly when playing a new course for the 1st time. Previous players have been known to become irate if they discover someone else is playing what they considered a private course.
12. The owner of the course is responsible for the pruning of any bushes, which may reduce the visibility of the hole.
13. Players are strongly advised to get the owners permission before attempting to play the back nine.
14. Slow play is encouraged, however, players should be prepared to proceed at a quicker pace at the owners request.
15. It is considered an outstanding performance, time permitting, to play the same hole several times in one match.

What I wonder is who it is that thinks they are the innocent party here:

WARSAW, Poland - A Polish man got the shock of his life when he visited a brothel and spotted his wife among the establishment's employees.

Polish tabloid Super Express said the woman had been making some extra money on the side while telling her husband she worked at a store in a nearby town.

"I was dumbfounded. I thought I was dreaming," the husband told the newspaper on Wednesday.

The couple, married for 14 years, are now divorcing, the newspaper reported.

There are some very interesting questions brought up by David Levy's book, Love and Sex With Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships (see also Programmed for love). Suppose robots get so human like they are practically indistinguishable from humans in their interactions? What if they are anatomically correct enough to have sex with without you being able to easily detect they are not human?

That's thought provoking enough but the really interesting questions are what this means to the concept of marriage fidelity as the technology is taken to the limit:

• If you have sex with such a robot is it "cheating"?
• Does it depend on whether you knew it was a robot or not?
• If it is considered cheating whether you knew it was a robot or not, then is it "cheating" when a person has sex with an "adult toy" of today?
• If it is considered cheating to have sex with the human like robot, but it's not considered cheating to have sex with an adult toy of today's technology then at what point in the sophistication of the technology does it become cheating?
• If it is not considered cheating if it was a robot then what is the basis for making that distinction? Is it just because one comes with a warranty and has parts that are dishwasher safe?
• What if certain parts of the robot are actually from human donors? How many parts need to be human before it's not considered a robot? Or how many artificial replacement parts must a human have before they are considered a robot?
• If it is not considered cheating if it was a robot, you think it is a robot at the time, what happens if you find out later it was not a robot?
• If it is not considered cheating if it was a robot, you think it is a human at the time, what happens if you find out later it was a robot?

Of course all these questions will have to be answered on a case by case basis by the humans and robots involved but my interest is in the basis of how people will make these decisions. I find it all wonderfully entertaining.

Just a few of the stories that came out this year.

Reader Rob reported this to me:

Female monkeys may shout during sex to help their male partners climax, research now reveals.

Without these yells, male Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) almost never ejaculated, scientists found.

Female monkeys often utter loud, distinctive calls before, during or after sex. Their exact function, if any, has remained heavily debated.

Counting pelvic thrusts

To investigate the purpose behind these calls, scientists at the German Primate Center in Göttingen focused on Barbary macaques for two years in a nature reserve in Gibraltar.

The researchers found that females yelled during 86 percent of all sexual encounters. When females shouted, males ejaculated 59 percent of the time.

However, when females did not holler, males ejaculated less than 2 percent of the time.

To see if yelling resulted from how vigorous the sex was, the scientists counted the number of pelvic thrusts males gave and timed when they happened.

They found when shouting occurred, thrusting increased. In other words, hollering led to more vigorous sex.

Counting monkey pelvic thrusts is admittedly "quite weird, but it's science," researcher Dana Pfefferle, a behavioral scientist and primatologist at the German Primate Center, told LiveScience. "You get used to it."

Quite promiscuous

Male and female Barbary macaques are promiscuous, often having sex with many partners. This means sperm levels can get quite drained.

The females shout when they are most fertile, so males can make the most use of their sperm.

Pfefferle noted her research suggests these calls might also make females more attractive to other males. She added these shouts might play different roles in other species.

Pfefferle and her colleagues detailed their findings online Dec. 18 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

It sounds as if they haven't done the corresponding research in humans yet. I'd like to volunteer to do that research. Now if only I had a population I could observe without disturbing the experiment.

I doubt that many teenagers will be able to convince their parents of this but it could make for some very interesting dinner time talk:

Early sex may not lead where we think it does.

Teens who start having sex at an early age may be less likely to engage in delinquent behavior in early adulthood than teens who wait until they are older to have sex, a new U.S. study finds.

The conclusion contradicts the widely held belief that early sexual activity is associated with later drug use, criminality, antisocial behavior and emotional problems.

We got a very surprising finding, particularly that early sex seems to forecast less antisocial behavior a few years later, rather than more," said lead researcher Kathryn Paige Harden, a PhD candidate in clinical psychology at the University of Virginia.

"There is a cultural assumption in the United States that if teens have sex early, it is somehow bad for their psychological health. But we actually found that teens who had sex earlier seem to have better relationships later. Now we want to find out why," she said.

"Our hypothesis as a result of this finding is that teens who become involved in intimate romantic relationships early are having sex early and more often but that those intimate relationships might later protect them from becoming involved in delinquent acts."

So many variations of such a discussion between parent and teenager are going through my mind that I couldn't possibly unscramble them.

Have "the times changed" in the last few decades? Or has this sort of thing being going on for a long, long time? If it has changed, why did it? Was it the independence of women having greater earning power? Or was it social acceptance of female sexuality? Something to do with the availability of birth control and/or good health beyond menopause? How would one design a study to answer those questions?

Older white women join Kenya's sex tourists:

MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Bethan, 56, lives in southern England on the same street as best friend Allie, 64.

They are on their first holiday to Kenya, a country they say is "just full of big young boys who like us older girls."

Hard figures are difficult to come by, but local people on the coast estimate that as many as one in five single women visiting from rich countries are in search of sex.

Allie and Bethan -- who both declined to give their full names -- said they planned to spend a whole month touring Kenya's palm-fringed beaches.

[...]

"It's not love, obviously. I didn't come here looking for a husband," Bethan said over a pounding beat from the speakers.

"It's a social arrangement. I buy him a nice shirt and we go out for dinner. For as long as he stays with me he doesn't pay for anything, and I get what I want -- a good time. How is that different from a man buying a young girl dinner?"

Yeah, I know, the "hard figures are difficult to come by" phrase made me laugh too.

Probably not safe for work. Funny video of couple learning about an "alternate lifestyle".

We just had to do it.  There was no choice, really.  This had been building for a long time and finally, we made the trip (I say pilgrimage) north to the new Cabela's store in Post Falls, Idaho.  Calling the new store a mere "store" would be like, well, like calling Cabela's a mere store.  It's much more than that.  It's bigger and nicer than some whole shopping malls.  There is a space as large as our warehouse dedicated to displaying stuffed big game animals, including a moose standing in water (with live fish).  There is another fish tank as large as our two offices here combined, and the list goes on.

The parking lot is bigger than any of the several county fairgrounds lots I've seen, and they actually are building a freeway to the place (OK, it's really just a four lane road with a center lane).

While most gun dealers keep all the guns behind the counter, cabled together, this place had racks of the less expensive ones out in the isles where we could handle them.  They all have trigger locks, but are otherwise treated no different than hammers or screwdriver sets (except for the form 4473 requirement, et al).  Yes, this is Idaho, where we're not all afraid of our shadows, so this sort of thing works nicely.  The ammo section alone is much like a small market in its own right-- Row upon row of boxed ammo, out where you can open a box and actually see what you're buying.  They have several types of loading presses represented, assembled, where you can test the feel of them, and a whole isle of loading data books.

They were busy, but they had just the right amount of salespeople (available when you needed them, but they didn't get in your face, though I have to tell you guys-- you COULD have sold me the Blue Ridge flintlock I was fondling if you'd pushed it just a tad-- I was teetering).  There were signs posted in the covered entrance: Something like, "If you brought guns in for trade, check them in with a salesman.  No loaded guns, but loaded concealed carry is OK."  These are my people.

What struck me over and over was that here is a business catering to what some might call "guy stuff" (guns, hunting, fishing, camo clothing and outdoor gear of every description) and they are not relegated to a shamed, forsaken corner of society.  They are big and beautiful, they have their brand name on much of the merchandise, and they are doing very well.  That sort of puts the lie to the whole "politically correct" set of policies adopted by lesser retailers, which really only amount to surrender of principle.

Cabela's hasn’t surrendered.  The camo clothing section alone (remember the anti camo clothing movement of the Clinton years?) was larger than most whole stores.  There was the regular gun section, including hunting rifles, shotguns, eeeeevil black rifles, and the nicest selection of black powder firearms I've yet seen in one place.  Then there was the "Firearms Museum"-- a store within a store where you can purchase fine handmade shotguns, double rifles, rare and antique firearms.  I witnessed some haggling over a nice double, going for well into the five figures range.  There is an indoor audio-animatronics shooting gallery and a big-screen video shooting gallery.  I wasn’t terribly impressed, but they were there, damn it, and that is good.  The in-store restaurant served us ostrich and bison club sandwiches.  Mine was good, not spectacular, but good, and it was ostrich!

There was for sure a disproportionately high percentage of beautiful women in the place.  I don't mean the help, though that could be said of some of them too, I mean the customers.  You fellas who are being "chickified" by the NAGS out there (National Association of Gals); are you taking heed?  You know who you are; you're