Meet up or meat up?: A study of chimps in Africa has found that males who share meat they've hunted with females have twice as great a chance of breeding with that female.
Courtesy LeaMaimoneDoes this sound familiar?
Male chimps that are more generous to the females they’re attracted to have a better chance of, um, hooking up later on.
That is the finding in a study recently conducted in the West African nation of Côte d'Ivoire.
In the case of the chimps, it wasn’t the males’ bestowing of flowers, jewelry or gifts to females that won over their hearts. Rather, it was meat.
In short, the study found that male chimps who shared with females meat they had captured had twice as much chance of breeding with that female, than male chimps who didn’t share meat with females. (Quit your snickering all you Beavis and Butt-head fans.)
Among chimps, males are the sole hunters of other animals to gather meat. Females depend on their generosity to get protein in their diet. And they provide a signal to males as to when they’re especially ready to find some male companionship – pink swellings on their bottoms are a visual clue to the males that the females are ovulating and sexually available.
But upon further study, researchers also found that male chimps were also willing to share meat with females who weren’t in heat. The researchers surmise that the males might be doing that to build up good will among that female to improve mating chances down the road.
In a different twist on this, a separate study has found that female orangutans will steal food from males to watch their reaction and assess if the male is suitable to mate with. Overly aggressive reactions by males will actually make females less likely to want to mate with them.
Due to a lack of video stores in the study areas, no research was able to be done on the effects of watching a Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan romantic comedy had on ape mating behaviors.
Tags : Say you want to walk on the oldest rocks on the surface of the Earth. Well, it turns out that Canada is the place to go. Recently, Science magazine has reported that researchers have found rocks in Quebec that could be as old as 4.28 billion years old. Yes, billion. 4,280,000,000. Now, keep in mind that the Earth is estimated to be around 4.6 billion years old. There are at least three pretty neat points to make here:
1. It is harder than you think to find really old rocks, as most of the crust of the Earth is constantly recycling itself, courtesy of plate tectonics. Fortunately, there is not a great deal of tectonic activity happening in Canada, thus keeping these rocks at the surface.
2. 4.28 billion years old is pretty darn old. Think about it this way; this post is 2,129 characters long. That includes all of the letters and spaces. We will pretend that the very first characters of this post are the youngest, and the ones at the end are the oldest. Humans, which we will understand to be modern Homo sapiens, have only been around for approximately 40,000 years, which would be the very top of the "S" in "Say" that started this post. That is not even one full letter! These rocks have been around for all but the very last sentence of this post. That is a lot of characters/time.
3. They say that these could be the oldest rocks, as old as 4.28 billion years old, but... Dating of really, really old things like this use a technique known as radiometric dating. This type of dating does not give a specific date for the object in question, but rather, a range of dates. So these samples have dates ranging from 3.8 to 4.28 billion years old. The previously known oldest rock samples, also found in Canada, have dates that could be as old as 4.03 billion years old. So... these recently found rocks, if they are actually towards the younger end of their date range, could actually be younger than the potentially 4.03 billion years old rock that was already found.
No matter what, these rocks are still very exciting and can tell us some interesting things about the formation of the Earth's crust!
See?: She's obviously wearing her "no kissing hat," but he just doesn't get it.
Courtesy ElijahMaybe I’ll just tag this one under “Oh… really?” or “you don’t say,” but a new study out of the University of California, Davis, has shown that men are much more likely than women to misinterpret messages attempting to “deescalate sexual intimacy.” And, really, not so much “misinterpret” as “understand the complete opposite of the intended message.”
Let’s try a little non-sexual test:
Person 1: “I’d like another piece of cake, please.”
Person 2: “No, there’s no more cake for you.”
Person 1: “Thanks very much, I love cake.”
Okay, what did everybody think was happening? See, as a man, I totally understood “No, there’s no more cake for you” to mean, “One sec, I’m going to go get some more cake for you.” I mean, I came up with the question, and I still got it wrong. But that’s because I think with my tummy.
The Davis study worked a little differently. 30 female and 60 male UC undergrads were given multiple-choice questionnaires, which asked them to select one of with several options for the meaning behind a variety of statements. The statements ranged from relatively indirect (e.g. “I’m seeing someone else”) to pretty direct (“Let’s stop this”).
The results were…um…what’s the opposite of the word “surprising”? Oh, right, unsurprising.
Men, it seems, were much more likely to interpret a statement like “It’s getting late” to mean “It was a good hit, head for second!” while women thought that the message pretty clearly meant “Hands of, Grabby, I’m going to sleep.”
Men were pretty good at understanding very direct message, like “let’s stop this,” but, embarrassingly, were just as likely to interpret “let’s be friends” to mean “keep going” as to mean “stop.” Any easy mistake to make, am I right? Because, you know, everybody knows that “let’s be friends,” for the whole history of humanity, has meant “let’s do it, weirdo.”
A related study showed that women often use indirect signals out of concern that direct messages will offend or anger men. The same study showed that, on the contrary, most men accepted direct resistance signals easily and without negative reactions.
So, ladies, remember to be direct. Even if it seems obvious. And guys, remember, no always means no.
All About Genital Herpes: Re-Entering the Dating Scene--STDRomance.com
Re-Entering the Dating Scene
Now that you know you have genital herpes, you're out of the dating game, right? Absolutely not. There's no reason to stop looking for love and fun.
Genital herpes doesn't detract from your many desirable qualities, which have drawn people to you in the past and will continue to make you a great catch.
Broaching the Topic of Genital Herpes
The first date after your diagnosis may seem a little strange, however. If you hope to be sexually intimate with your date at some point, you may feel like you're keeping a nasty secret. If you are one to be candid with people, you'll want to blurt it out. Don't. There are some things you should reveal about yourself right away -- for example, that you're married, or that you're just in town for the week -- but some things are better left for the appropriate moment.
It's up to you to decide the right time to tell your date that you have genital herpes. Follow two rules: First, don't wait until after having sex. Second, don't wait until you're just about to have sex -- in which case the attraction may be too strong for either of you to think rationally and act responsibly.
If in the past you tended to start a new relationship with sex, you now might want to change your approach. It might be better to break the news about your herpes to someone who has already grown attached to you. Kissing, cuddling, and fondling are safe, so you don't have to tell before you do that. But use your best judgment as to how physically intimate you want to get before telling. One thing could lead to another, and you might find yourself in an awkward situation.
Dealing With Rejection
Anyone who dates should be prepared for rejection. The person you're seeing may beat a hasty retreat when he or she finds out about your genital herpes. If you get the "I just want to be friends" talk after telling your sweetheart you have herpes, consider this: He or she may have already been looking for a way out, and herpes was as good an excuse as any. What's more, anyone who disdains you or humiliates you for having herpes was never worth your while.
Keep dating, and you will find someone who wants to be with you regardless of your herpes status. There are certainly some who wouldn't mind keeping the intimacy level just short of doing things that could transmit the virus. And of those people, it's likely that at least one will come around, and say, "Hey, I understand there's a risk, but I'm crazy about you, so I'm willing to take it."
Depending on your dating style, you might look for another person who knows he or she has herpes, if only to avoid having to discuss it. If you already use dating services or personal ads, you can also use any of those specifically for people with genital herpes. A search on the Internet for "herpes dating" will turn up several.
- Common, but on the decline
Nationwide, at least 45 million people ages 12 and older -- or one out of five adolescents and adults -- have had genital herpes, a sexually transmitted disease caused by the herpes simplex viruses type 1 or type 2. Over the past decade, the percentage of Americans with genital herpes has decreased, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. It's more common in women (about one out of four women) than men (almost one out of eight). - Symptoms
Most people who have genital herpes don't know it because they've never had any symptoms or don't recognize them. But often, when a person becomes infected for the first time, symptoms appear in two to 10 days. Early signs include a tingling feeling or itching in the genital area, or pain in the buttocks or down the leg. Blisters typically appear on or around the genitals or rectum. You can still infect a partner if sores aren't visible. - New research
Some clinical trials are testing drugs aimed at disrupting genes or enzymes that the virus needs to survive. Several vaccines are in various stages of development, as well as gels or creams that a woman could insert into the vagina before sex to prevent infection in herself and her partner. - Pregnancy
If a woman has her first episode of genital herpes while she's pregnant, she can pass the virus to her unborn child and may deliver a premature baby. Half of the babies infected with herpes either die or suffer nerve damage. If a pregnant woman has an outbreak and it is not the first one, her baby's risk of being infected during delivery is very low. - Donating blood
People with herpes can donate blood. According to the American Red Cross, individuals taking antiviral medication (acyclovir, valacyclovir, famciclovir) will need to wait 48 hours after their last dose before donating blood. The American Red Cross says those currently experiencing an outbreak of genital herpes should not donate blood.
Nicole
http://www.STDromance.com Is a STD dating site for people with herpes, HIV, HPV and other STDS.
Who knew that the probability of the nucleus of an atom decaying had any resemblance to the probability of a couple breaking up?
Well, Richard Ecob at Oxford did and used this similarity to create a computer model of the dating world. This model included imaginary social networks populated with people who had a set of interests looking for partners.
What his team found is that even people with many preferences of traits they would like in a mate had the same likelihood of ending up in a relationship as did those singles with fewer preferences. They also found that people who formed many relationships actually were worse at finding a partner. However, these "super daters" were good for others, breaking up weak couples who were then free to find stronger relationships.
Next thing you know, people are going to be described as protons or neutrons based on how they behave in relationships.
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