Winter chills

There are endgames being played out in SL but the chills of winter have finally come around. It started raining during the week followed by the cold winds and snow is falling in the mountains as I type. My hopes of a white winter have been raised and I hope it holds out until I get a chance to make it to the mountains over the coming months. Below are some photos to feel good

I'm away this weekend and am going to miss the internet. In particular the SL news via Nittewa.

Hope this cough goes away, it's been bugging me all week

I hope the the day dreams of skiing don't hurt the cashflow this season as they become reality.

I will finish the HLD trilogy when I get back.

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Images from Mt.Hotham

The science of pulling and doing

Life has gotten in the way of blogging lately. It's time to get back into it and I intend to finish the analysis on HLD. It's the queen's birthday long weekend and a dry winter with intermittent rain, caused by a new drought hitting the continent, means there are no signs of snow in the mountains. Neither are there any signs of a republic on the horizon. However I came across some interesting science news and discussions over the last week.

Beside the fact that bio-technology is one of the most inventive / innovative fields around at the moment (similar to IT in the previous decades) bio-sciences are throwing up interesting results like this.

Using research on male masturbation the New Scientist reports

Men who view pornographic images of two men and a woman produce better-quality sperm than men viewing pornographic images of just women, an Australian study reveals.

The finding suggests that humans may be capable of subconsciously increasing semen quality when faced with the possibility that their sperm will have to outrun those of other men in a woman’s reproductive tract.

Will this be used as an excuse in future gang-rape trials? If not, at least is an episode of Law and Order.

In the meanwhile research from socio-biology on female orgasms reports

The Australian research, confirmed this week by a study of 4000 female British twins, adds weight to the view that climaxing serves some purpose in the evolutionary scheme of things.

It may help some women conceive, or just make them willing to have more sex, increasing the species' chance of survival. Orgasms could also have evolved as a mechanism that allows women to weed out unsuitable life partners, the authors of the British twin study believe.

Unfussy women who orgasm easily could end up with men who do not have the patience and caring nature to bring them to orgasm and then also hang around for decades helping look after the children, they say.... [The study (pdf)]

In The Blank Slate, Stephen Pinker argues for socio-biology, however the questions on the scientific methods and claims of it are hotly debated these days. As socio-biology attempts to provide genetic answers to human behaviour, many argue that the current methodology does not take into account the culturally adopted / inherited / adapted behavioural traits. The Oz blogsphere was buzzing last week on this issue and "larvatus prodeo" had the most interesting debates on biological determinism.

In the meanwhile that annual psychology study of putting Australians in a house for three months, also known as

Big Brother - a group of rock-apes and airhead sluts sit around discussing masturbation and the physics of turds floating in toilet bowls. Fascinating stuff. For some reason, millions of people are addicted to this. [Quote]

May have produced it's first results on mating theory also known as doing it.

The Strategic Importance of Lanka

Heads up The Agonist is running a story about Sri Lanka's strategic importance. It's discussing two articles (below) about the Indian vs Chinese influence in SL and South Asia in general.

Sri Lanka's strategic importance at the HindustanTimes
China's March On South Asia at The Jamestown Foundation

Go contribute. IMHO, The Agonist is one of the best Foreign Affairs Blogs around.