Weird Shorts - Boys and Girls

It’s an old excuse, whenever a man is caught eyeing-up another woman by his partner we’ll often claim that it’s not our fault, it’s just the way we’re wired. Well not according to neuroscientists at Gwinnett College in Georgia. Researchers there monitored the brain activity of 14 men while showing them pictures of women’s behinds taken before and after surgery designed to give them Beyonce like curves. The scans showed ‘reward areas’ of the men’s brains more commonly associated with drugs or alcohol lit up more in response to the redesigned rumps. In other words, we do it because we like it (Orange).

But if what most attracts men is a great set of lady bumps, what would top women’s list of desirable traits in their perfect man? That’s what online matchmakers UKDating wanted to know, so they analysed the responses of 83,000 lovelorn women to find the top ten most wanted male characteristics. And number one was… a salary over £50k ($75k). Bizarrely, being good looking came in at number 9, just above being 5’11” tall and five places below owning an Audi TT. But do girls really only like cars and money, or does this finding perhaps explain why these particular girls had to resort to a dating service in the first place (News://Lite)?

The economics of relationships also features in the new book from Karyn Langhorne Folan. In Don’t Bring Home A White Boy, Folan describes today’s black women as being stuck in “market failure”, with college educated black women outnumbering their male counterparts by 3 to 1. This severely restricts the women’s options unless they look outside their own race. “In this case, we are the commodity and the new market is men of other races,” states Foley, who is herself a Harvard-educated lawyer, “it’s Econ 101 for the single, educated black woman” (STL Today).

Mind you, women aren’t always a commodity, sometimes they’re the consumer. At least that’s what Cuban cigar maker Habanos is hoping. In an effort to boost sales in a market hit hard by anti-smoking legislation the world-over, Habanos have produced what they’re billing as the first Cuban cigar specifically for female smokers. Their new Julieta brand is smaller and milder in hopes of being more appealing to women, but still manages to keep that phallic edge to its image (Sky News).

But say you get past the economics, race issues and emphysema and actually make it to that critical first date. What could be safer that a tip to the cinema? Well lots actually according to Slate magazine, who have thoughtfully provided a list of the five worst movies to go see on a date, as voted for by readers. My sympathy goes out to the poor girl who thought Happiness would make for a good Valentine’s Day treat for her and her (soon to be ex) beau (Slate.com).

And after the movie what could be more intimate that a private tryst in a bedroom prepared in advance for such an event. That at least seems to be the reasoning of one Karlos Pokaia of Rotorua in New Zealand. Only one problem, Karlos did not have a room that was suitable, but no matter, he simply broke into a house of a family on vacation and used one of theirs, Luckily for him he managed to get his end away before being arrested and charged with burglary (Yahoo!News).

Also to be filed under “wrong place – wrong time” is the case of the two Canadian high-school teachers who thought a school pep-rally was the best place to perform a lap dance. No doubt intended as a bit of fun, the ubiquity of camera phones meant that video of the act was online within days, provoking at least one parent lodge a complaint. Both teachers have been suspended with pay while an investigation is carried out (ABC News).

Oh for a more innocent age when a glimpse of stocking was something shocking, to paraphrase the familiar song. Well you have a chance to do more than glimpse Queen Victoria’s stockings this month, you could possibly own them if yours is the winning bid at the auction being held in Edinburgh on the 24th (Telegraph).

Sadly, this post comes too late for anyone wishing to attend the Psychometric Lovers’ Ball this year, as it was held last Friday in London’s Royal College of Art. Featuring an all no star line-up and a prize for the best psychometrically matched couple (as determined by a computer algorithm), this is definitely a date for the more romantically inclined WU reader. Assuming your salary is over £50k of course (FAD).

Finally, if you’re really unlucky in love, why not call it quits and curl up with a good book? And if you’re a boy make sure it has plenty of pictures. That’s because a study of the reading habits of 100,000 children has revealed that while boys might read as much as girls, they tend to choose books with much simpler structures, and the gap only gets bigger with age. However this recent finding reverses a similar gap where boys overtook girls that was reported by a survey two years ago and may only reflect a change in fads. The end of the Harry Potter novels has left boys with few difficult books to try, according to researcher Professor Topping, while the recent popularity of the Twilight series means many more girls are being drawn in to reading the challenging vampire romance by pressure from their peers (Independent).

(Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)