Looks Be A Lady
According to a study out of the London School of Economics, girls may be getting sexier with each generation. Satoshi Kanazawa found that 'very attractive' individuals are 36% more likely to beget a daughter than those rated less-than-stunning. Kanazawa based his conclusions on nearly 3,000 in-home interviews with parents aged 18 to 28, during which the interviewer rated the attractiveness of the subject. Kanazawa says his work supports the idea that parents produce children who will benefit more from their parents' attributes: Physically attractive parents tend to have female children, while males tend to be born to parents who can be considered attractive for other attributes such as strength. He says this theory is a generalization of the Trivers-Willard hypothesis, which proposes that parents should invest more in the sex that has greater reproductive potential. Kanazawa has authored other surely uncontroversial papers, such as "Why beautiful people are more intelligent," and "Teaching may be hazardous to your marriage," which contends that male high school teachers and college professors constantly exposed to young women may begin to find their wives less attractive and their marriages less satisfying.
Update: There may be some statistical issues with the figures cited in the study.
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Mel O' Drama
While newscasters, bloggers and sane people everywhere dropped their jaws at Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic drunken tirade, experts tried to determine what caused his unsavory comments: racism or sheer intoxication. University of Kentucky psychologist Mark Fillmore fell on the alcohol-doesn't-create-anti-Semitism side, saying "Alcohol doesn't produce new behaviors. It releases things that people believe or know." Steven Sussman, a USC professor of preventative medicine and psychology, said that drunk people can sometimes say things they don't believe just to be belligerent and provocative. "Basically, the person talks gibberish," said Bankole Johnson, chairman of psychiatric medicine at the University of Virginia, who gave the most credit to booze. "They might not even be certain of what they are saying," he continued. "They don't understand what they are saying, and they don't mean what they are saying." That may be true, Dr. Johnson. However the statement, "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world" is a lot of things, but gibberish it ain't.
Weeding Out the Runts
Hey, teenagers, are you smoking pot and having unprotected sex? Science has good news for you: A recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation found that in mice using cannabis around the time of conception can prevent pregnancy. THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, binds to cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2, which are found not only in the brain but also in sperm, eggs and newly formed embryos. Once it binds, it can prevent transport and implantation of the embryos. Other studies show that cannabis use can negatively affect fertility in men. Together, they make a not-so-bad case for marijuana as birth control.
Brewski
While environmentalists whine about the melting of the polar ice caps, one group of Greenlanders is making the best of the situation. An entrepreneurial company is turning the melted Arctic Island into beer. The first ever Inuit microbrewery is taking the fine water—over 2,000 years old and pollutant-free, according to the brewers—and using it to produce ale that supposedly tastes cleaner and smoother than other beers. The first 66,000 liters are on their way to Denmark, and the brewery says the US and Germany have expressed interest in the product.