Safety Net
Is your teenage son using the internet to view sexually graphic images and videos? Well, thank God. According to a new study by Clemson University economist Todd Kendall, increased access to pornography is associated with a decrease in instances of rape. By looking at the growth of internet usage around the country and comparing it with crime statistics, Kendall found that at 10 percent increase in web use correlates with a 7.3 percent decrease in reports of rape. Kendall notes that there is no similar association between web access and other violent crimes. He also points out that the effect of internet access on sexual crime has been most pronounced in 15 to 19-year-old boys, the group that may have benefitted the most, porn-wise, from the rise of the internet. Kendall argues that pornography actually acts as a substitute for rape. Here's another idea, professor: Besides looking at porn, what do sexually frustrated, bitter, power-hungry teenagers do on the internet? They troll blogs. Yes, instead of committing one of the most heinous of violent crimes, these teens are taking out their violent inclinations in the one forum where they can have an equal voice and not be judged by their age. They may risk disemvowelment, but at least they don't have to register as Sense Offenders.
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Promiscuous Moms Good for Kids
If the woman next door looks like she's running a brothel, with strange men coming in and out of her house, ditch those puritanical morals and applaud you neighbor: She may just be doing it for the benefit of her future children. A new study published in the journal Nature demonstrates that females who mate with several males produce offspring with a greater survival rate than those who only mate with one partner. The authors brought antechinuses, Australian marsupials, into captivity and divided the females up into two groups: those destined for loving, monandrous relationships, and lady players who would have three partners apiece. When the offspring was released into the wild, kids of the polyandrous moms had a survival rate three times that of the kids of one-man women. The authors attributed increased offspring survival to "post-mating sexual selection" or "sperm wars" When multiple males' sperm compete for fertilization, the sperm that will produce the most viable offspring have an advantage. The authors confirmed this with paternity tests: Monandrous females who mated with a male with high "ejaculate competitiveness"—he fathered many children in polyandrous situations—gave birth to offspring with a high survival rate. So ladies, if you don't trust yourself to assess potential husbands, just sleep with lots of men, and let the sperm sort it out.
Spirited Away
In Thank You For Smoking, a tobacco lobbyist and a Vermont senator battle over whether a cheese-supporting (and therefore heart disease-enabling) politician can honestly condemn the tobacco industry. Ah me; that sort of thing can happy only in America...at least it certainly couldn't happen in Finland. According to state statistics from 2005, both cardiovascular disease and cancer have taken a back seat to Finland's number one killer of men aged 15 to 64: alcohol. Breast cancer still takes slightly more female lives than the drink. In 2005, the state reports, about 2,000 Finns died of alcohol-related causes, including suicide and traffic accidents. The average Finn drank the equivalent of 10.5 liters of pure, 200 proof alcohol over the course of the year. Finnish authorities said the result was worrying because of its possible effects on...the economy. "...People of working age pay the pensions of the coming generations and keep the economy competitive," a Ministry of Social Affairs and Health senior official told newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. Finnish Parliament is looking to decrease alcohol consumption, entertaining proposals that would ban retail sales of adult beverages before 9 AM. Ah, prohibition. What a noble experiment it would be.