Source: FAO. (2012). State of the World’s Forests. Retrieved December 18, 2014 from http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/i3010e/i3010e.pdf
Category Archives: Biology
Length of Time to Female Orgasm
Previous research indicates that women prefer orgasms triggered by penile- vaginal intercourse (PVI) as compared to those triggered by direct manual stimulation of the clitoris.
Miller and Byers (2004) found a large difference between women’s ideal duration of intercourse and their actual duration of intercourse. Women reported having sex for 7 minutes on average, but they desired to have intercourse for 14 minutes on average.
[I]n a sample of East German women, Schnabl (1980) found that 25% of women were able to have an orgasm within 2 minutes of intercourse, while 60% of women could have an orgasm after 10 minutes of intercourse.
The never or rarely group had an mean intercourse duration of 23.24 minutes, the sometimes group had a mean intercourse duration of 27 minutes, and the almost always or always group had a mean intercourse duration of 34.64 minutes.
No prior studies were found that reported an average duration of intercourse as high as what was found in the current study (M = 27 minutes, Mdn = 20 minutes). A previous study with a national sample of Czech women found an average estimated duration of penile-vaginal intercourse of 16.2 minutes compared to American women’s average of about eight minutes (Weiss & Brody, 2009).
Ideal Average Minutes of PVI: 33.38
Average minutes of PVI to trigger orgasm: 18.60
Powers, C.R. (2012, August). Female Orgasm from Intercourse: Importance, Partner Characteristics, and Health. University of North Texas. Retrieved October 21, 2014 from http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc149654/m2/1/high_res_d/dissertation.pdf
22.8% of females reported reaching climax less than 2 minutes after intromission
52.6% less than five minutes in coitus in first marriage
19% claimed to have lasted 10 or more minutes
Kinsey, Alfred C. et al. (1953/1998). Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders; Bloomington, IN: Indiana U. Press. Retrieved October 21, 2014 from http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/research/ak-data.html#coitus
Women in this study said they could masturbate and orgasm with ease in just a few minutes. Of the 82 percent of women who said they masturbated, 95 percent could orgasm easily and regualarly, whenever they wanted. Many women used the term “masturbation” synonymously with orgasm: women assumed masturbation included orgasm.
Hite, S. (Original study — 1976; eBook edition — 2011). The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality (Google eBook).*
Image credit: Bernie C and Tony McCann
Colbert and Sci-Fi v. Fantasy
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUrOrXi043E
So, I’m tempted to think that the reason I feel some apathy toward fantasy is how easy stories like Game of Thrones and LOTR make it for writers to use magic as a deus ex machina. Of course, the same could be said of Star Trek and “technobabble.” So, why is it easier for me to forgive Star Trek? Well, for one, I think it’s more fruitful to converse about technobabble. You can actually talk about real science when you’re talking about why Treknobabble is pseudoscientific.
So, why do I prefer Star Trek to Dr. Who? Well, for one, Dr. Who doesn’t give us a homo sapiens that has overcome its pettiness. Star Trek — to my delight — explores the possibility of what comes after Sagan’s, “If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars.” It seems to me that the Doctor performs a similar capacity to the Vulcans: overseer of the humans. They’re both waiting with their fingers crossed to see if we continue surviving each new genocide, pandemic, or other crisis and continue evolving (intellectually if not biologically) to eventually become spacefaring. (Also, the critical attitude of the Vulcans toward humans seems much more realistic to me than the avuncular attitude of the Doctor toward us.)
That’s infinitely more interesting to me than the idea of constant, secret alien visitation on earth by hostile aliens that require earth to be saved by other kindly aliens. This is essentially the idea of Transformers as well and how cool would it be if the Transformers did what Picard and company do? (Not cool at all if all you want to see is hot robot-on-robot carnage! But, that was well-covered in the first Transformers movie!)
Another thing about fantasy: why are so many important characters in Game of Thrones and LOTR humanoid? This seems forgivable to me with respect to Star Trek because the original series probably lacked funding for advanced effects and make-up. Humanoid aliens were just more practical to make and act. Game of Thrones and LOTR were books, though. Books don’t have budget constraints, right?
And, why, why, why must fantasy take place in a magical corollary to the Dark Ages? Actually, an answer occurred to me as I was typing the question: it may have been in the Dark Ages that magical thinking most flourished.
Discussion Concerning the Anti-Gay-Marriage Argument from Tradition
 Clifton The cosmos is about 13.8 billion years old. The human is about 200,000 years old. The first recorded marriage involving a human occurred about 2,674 years ago. [source] [source] |
 Marie I suppose you don’t consider Adam and Eve to’ve been married? |
 Mark Did you snope this already? j/k |
 Joseph Whoa whoa whoa … I thought everything was only 6,000 years old. Check your facts, heathen. |
| Clifton Marie, this hadn’t actually occurred to me. From what I can gather, the thinking behind such a position is that Eve was "wed" to Adam because she was taken from a part of his body and then added back to him to complete him. If that is what it takes, then I would imagine that no marriage since has been valid. No?
Mark, I didn’t. As always, I am open to contradiction. I claim no expertise. Incidentally, Snopes generally does an excellent job of avoiding the argument from authority, which seems to me to be one of the human’s most abused fallacies. Joseph, I’m glad you responded. I always wonder why my irreligious friends get married. Perhaps you can explain it to me. From my perspective, if you want to be with somebody, you will do that. Fidelity shouldn’t be a problem because you both agree to certain terms prior to formally entering into your relationship. Continue reading Discussion Concerning the Anti-Gay-Marriage Argument from Tradition |
My Carbon Footprint for 2012
[source]Bus
1.80 metric tons at 10,000 miles
1.62 metric tons at 9,000 miles
1.44 metric tons at 8,000 miles
1.26 metric tons at 7,000 milesMotorbike
1.56 metric tons at 10,000 miles
1.41 metric tons at 9,000 miles
1.25 metric tons at 8,000 miles
1.09 metric tons at 7,000 milesSecondary Measurements
2.91 metric tons with daily red meat
2.61 metric tons with white/red meat
2.30 metric tons with mainly white meat
2.00 metric tons with mainly fish
1.70 metric tons with mainly vegetarian diet
1.39 metric tons with vegan diet
Learn Spanish with M. Pasteur
Notes
Sometimes pronouns in the quizzes do not match those used in the book; this is intentional and was done for variation. Sometimes phrases are used in the quizzes rather than individual terms; this is to contextualize words/phrases that might be difficult alone.
Quizzes
- quiz
Buscando aire puro
¡Tenía que ser cierto! - quiz
- quiz
- quiz
- quiz
- quiz
- quiz
- quiz
El gran debate
La clave para entender las enfermedades
Enemigos
El microscopio
Los trabajos de Spallanzani sobre los microbios
¿Existe la generación espontánea?
Los microbios se dividen
La teoría de los gérmenes
El joven Pasteur
A París
De nuevo en París
Primeras investigaciones
Cristales y luz
La primera aventura Continue reading Learn Spanish with M. Pasteur
Delicious Squid Spermatophores
[source]We report a case of oral stings by spermatophores of the squid Todarodes pacificus. A 63-yr-old Korean woman experienced severe pain in her oral cavity immediately after eating a portion of parboiled squid along with its internal organs. She did not swallow the portion, but spat it out immediately. She complained of a pricking and foreign-body sensation in the oral cavity. Twelve small, white spindle-shaped, bug-like organisms stuck in the mucous membrane of the tongue, cheek, and gingiva were completely removed, along with the affected mucosa. On the basis of their morphology and the presence of the sperm bag, the foreign bodies were identified as squid spermatophores.
Cockatiel Sex
httpv://youtu.be/5iqo2Ix2R6o
Human Ova, Chicken Ova and Misinformation
From Useless Sexual Trivia: Tastefully Prurient Facts About Everyone’s Favorite Subject*:
“[T]he number of human ova necessary to repopulate the world could fit into a chicken egg.”
The human ovum appears to be roughly spherical:
The diameter of an ovum is ~120 µm. Continue reading Human Ova, Chicken Ova and Misinformation
Biology Study
Scientific method mnemonic: On quest [for] hippos, exercise caution.
Observe: The earth appears flat as I look around in all directions. When the earth is between the sun and moon, it casts a round shadow on the moon. This seems to be true regardless of where one is located on the earth.
Question: What is the shape of the earth?
Hypothesize: I hypothesize that the earth is circular or perhaps a sphere.
Experiment: I find a cubic object, a spherical object, and a conical object. I hold all three objects between a sphere (that represents the moon) and a light source (the sun). I find that the sphere casts a circular shadow on the moon no matter how I hold it. The cone casts a circular shadow in some positions. The cube never casts a circular shadow.
Conclude: Earth appears to be a circle, a cone, or a sphere.
Quizzes