Dr. Joe doesn’t need to be convinced but not everyone is certain yet:

It can help to reduce stress, soothe pain, cure insomnia, lower the risk of a heart attack and, as if that wasn’t enough, make your hair shine and your wrinkles vanish.

“Forget about jogging round the block or struggling with sit-ups,” says the UK National Health Service patients’ helpline, NHS Direct. The key for healthy living is, in fact, “a good bout of sexercise”.

Undertaking “regular romps” will bring a plethora of health rewards, from staying fit and burning calories to combating cancer, says the website.

“Orgasms even release painkillers into the bloodstream, helping keep mild illnesses like colds and aches and pains at bay, and produce extra oestrogen and testosterone hormones,” the site says.

“These hormones will keep your bones and muscles healthy, leaving you feeling fabulous inside and out.”

But Dr Melissa Sayer, an expert in sexual health, said the site made unproven claims.

Sounds like more research is needed.  I’m a research scientist…now where is my female assistant?  We need to get started on this right away.

Another womans says she just couldn’t control herself and had to have sex in public:

RANDY Alana May was nabbed having sex in public by police THREE times in 30 MINUTES, a court heard yesterday.

Two of the romps were at a floodlit abbey in the middle of a town. The third was on land also owned by the church.

Officers first saw Alana, 25, with her pants down with a semi-naked man outside Selby Abbey, North Yorks. They ticked her off and told her to go home.

But they returned 15 minutes later and discovered Alana performing a sex act on the man against the 11th century abbey’s walls.

She was again told to go home. But just 15 minutes after that the pair were spotted having sex in church parkland.

Alana and the romeo were arrested. She said of the romps: “I couldn’t wait until I got home.”

She was fined £50 for outraging public decency. Her unnamed lover, who has no previous convictions, got a caution.

They said they had this urge they couldn’t control.  Oh well… I’ll bet they will find a little more willpower the next time the urge occurs:

LONDON: In Argentina ‘sex’ is something which should be enjoyed within the four walls of the house, as if one intends indulging in it publicly, one is more likely to be put behind bars.

An Argentinean couple were recently arrested for making love outside a mayor’s office in broad daylight.

The man and woman, in their mid-30s, were having sex in a completely nude state on a bench by the Nahuel Huapi river in Bariloche, and when cops arrived to arrest them, they shocked them further, by asking the officers to let them finish what they were doing.

A crowd gathered and cheered the couple on, but the Mayor of Bariloche said he was shocked by the spectacle.

Not ashamed of the incident, the woman concerned told police that she had always fantasised about having sex outside the mayor’s office while politicians were working inside.

“They are otherwise two very respectable citizens but they told us they had this urge to have sex in public and that it was very strong and they couldn’t control it,” Fox News quoted a police spokesperson, as saying.

The couple were arrested on charges of disrespecting public space and indecent exposure.

From ABC News online:

The tourist town of Broome, in northern Western Australia, is considering going to unusual lengths to promote safe sex.

Figures show the Kimberley region has the highest rate of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the country and health workers are advising authorities in Broome that something has to be done.

They are pushing for condoms to be made available in parks and public areas where young people gather.

They would be hung in PVC containers from trees – a method that has already proved successful in other Kimberley towns with high Indigenous populations.

Interesting report from the website owners of a sex toy supplier:

A British couple who launched a website selling sex toys to conservative Christians has revealed that vicars are some of their best clients.

Stella Hagarty and husband Stan revealed that they had decided to launch ‘Wholly Love’ to show normally reserved church-goers that sex is a gift from God, and that it should not be treated as something sinful.

And the website seems to have gotten its stamp of approval from God himself, as vicars make up some of the couple’s best clients.

Of course the website owners are not at all unbiased in this.  But I still find it interesting.

Barb’s been saying for about 30 years, “Joe’s cure for everything is more sex.”  Now scientists are confirming (thanks to Samantha Burns) what Barb and I have long known:

Hot sex treats common cold

Majority of people consider even minor throat irritation or mild fever as a good-enough excuse to isolate themselves from their loved ones.

That is understandable, of course. Up until recently, this was regarded as a logical move. Not so long ago, however, scientists were able to prove just the opposite: it is better to be sick together. This obviously does not mean that one should purposely sneeze at his/her partner. In this case, the effect will be minimal. It is important to battle the disease. And as for microbes, hot passionate kisses and good sex is something they fear the most – concluded Manfred Schedlovski, a Swiss researcher from Zurich.

In the course of his lengthy neuroimmunological experiments, the scientist arrived at the conclusion that sexual intercourse has a positive effect not only on the overall physical condition of both partners but also on their immune systems. Phagocytes are to be praised for the marvel. Phagocytes are cells that help the body rid itself of various ailments. This is how they work: once they locate an alien body, they penetrate it and trigger self-destruction.

During sexual intercourse, number of phagocytes tends to increase significantly; oftentimes, number of these cells almost doubles after orgasm. This in turn enables these cells to detect and destroy antibodies more quickly.

Shcedlovski’s research results have already found support among his colleagues. Immunologist Peter Schleicher also shares the initial hypothesis of his colleague from Zurich. “Not only does sex heal our organism; it also sustains its immune system,” stated Peter Schleicher in his interview to Bild am Sonntag.

From the U.K. Times Online:

How Ziggy the indiscreet parrot gave a cheating girlfriend the bird
By Alan Hamilton

When the African grey said: ‘I love you Gary’ in his partner’s voice, Chris Taylor became suspicious.

WHEN Chris Taylor’s best friend repeatedly mentioned the name Gary, his suspicions were aroused. He didn’t know a Gary.

And, when the best friend made slurpy kissing noises every time he heard the name Gary on television, Chris wondered if Ziggy was trying to tell him something about some other pretty boy. The penny dropped when, one romantic evening as Mr Taylor cuddled his girlfriend Suzy Collins on the sofa, Ziggy blurted out: “I love you, Gary.”

What gave the game away was that Ziggy spoke the fatal phrase in Ms Collins’s voice. Even by the standards of African grey parrots, Ziggy is a mimic and a half, and from his cage in the corner he had heard every bill and coo of a secret love affair.

A chill ran down Mr Taylor’s spine. He turned to Suzy, whose cheeks had flushed to beetroot. As she dissolved in tears she was forced to admit to a month-long fling with Gary, some of their intimacies conducted in Mr Taylor’s home while he was out at work, but Ziggy wasn’t. She could not deny it; every time her mobile phone had rung, Ziggy had piped up in perfect imitation of her: “Hiya Gary.”

In high school I participated in track.  In college and after, until we had kids, I played a lot of tennis.  After Bill Clinton (spit, spit) was elected President I took up shooting.  With my choice of sports it should come as no surprise that cheerleaders seemed a bit pointless to me.  However here is news of a cheerleading coach that could have made a difference in my attitude on cheerleaders:

SULTAN, Wash. – A high school cheerleading coach resigned after allegedly teaching her team how to perform certain sex acts.

It happened in the small Snohomish county town of Sultan, apparently during a team sleepover at the home of cheerleading coach Katie Chase.

…

Chase held a sleepover, where she allegedly instructed the students on how to perform certain sex acts.

She had been on the job since September and was not employed as a teacher. She resigned Thursday and a new cheerleading coach was hired today to take her place.

If that is the type of coaching Ms. Chase is interested in there are other opportunities for her in the nearby Seattle area if she has sufficient expertise.  I wish her luck in her future endeavors.

Thanks to Fish Or Man for pointing this out.

The Seattle Times just announced their web statistics for the stories of 2005.  One story in 2005 was probably the most popular story EVER.  Danny Westneat explains:

By tallying clicks on our Web site, we now chart the most read stories in the online edition of The Seattle Times. Software then sorts the tens of thousands of stories for 2005 and ranks them. Not by importance, impact or poetic lyricism, but by which stories compelled the most people to put finger to mouse, click, open and, presumably, read.

Which brings me back to sex with horses. The story last summer about the man who died from a perforated colon while having sex with a horse in Enumclaw was by far the year’s most read article.

What’s more, four more of the year’s 20 most clicked-upon local news stories were about the same horse-sex incident. We don’t publish our Web-traffic numbers, but take it from me — the total readership on these stories was huge.

So much so, a case can be made that the articles on horse sex are the most widely read material this paper has published in its 109-year history.

Even though sex is one of my hobbies I didn’t have an interest in this story.  It wasn’t until today that I actually read the story.  I’d heard about it of course but it was one of those stories that made me uncomfortable.  The mental images were disturbing for me and I didn’t want to know any more details.  I categorized it as a Darwin Award incident and forgot about it.  The rest of you that made this story so popular; I think you need to get your own sex life–this vicarious stuff is more than just a little weird.

Okay, I just remembered another case where guns and sex mixed fairly well.  It’s this joke:

Back in the good ole days in Texas, when stagecoaches and the like was popular, there were three people in a stagecoach one day:  a true red-blooded born-and-raised Texas gentleman, a tenderfoot city-slicker from back East, and a beautiful and well-endowed Texas lady.  The city- slicker kept eyeing the lady, and finally he leaned forward and said, “Lady, I’ll give you $10 for a blow job.”  The Texas gentleman looked appalled, pulled out his pistol, and killed the city-slicker on the spot.  The lady gasped and said, “Thank you, suh, for defendin’ mah honor!”  Whereupon the Texan holstered his gun and said, “Your honor, hell!!  No tenderfoot is gonna raise the price of women in Texas!!”