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Aug. 26th, 2009 07:29 pmDB wants me to FOAD; he is just back from his first vet checkup in three years. If he thinks life (and I) suck now, wait until the kittens move in on Friday...
Aug. 26th, 2009
A Tale of Two Science Books
Aug. 26th, 2009 08:33 pmI've been plowing through two popularization-of-science books today, and finding it a vastly different set of experiences.
The first was an audiobook of Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. The general premise - charting how and why various groups of humans moved (or did not move) out of tribal formations - is fascinating. After all, it's not as if the tribal format is unviable; not only are there tribes still today untouched by thousands of years of modernization, the Post had an article of how some of the Katrina survivors made it because they banded into a fully functional hunter/gatherer tribe.
Even having someone reading it to me, I found it terribly heavy going and finally bailed for something lighter.
That something was Mary Roach's Bonk, about scientific studies of sex.
Having already covered life after death and cadavers after donation, it's pretty clear that Roach likes offbeat studies. But she brings a light touch and a dry wit that makes her writing as enjoyable as any fiction:
"Every kind of sexual behavior we had observed or known about in humans could be found in animals," wrote Kinsey colleague Wardell Pomeroy, who obviously never dropped in to the Yahoo Clown Fetish Group (642 members and counting).
On the gender makeup of couples in studies: By "homosexuals," he means men. "We were unable to obtain any lesbians," Pomeroy says, as though perhaps they hadn't been in season, or his paperwork wasn't in order.
Mind you, just citing the research references makes for an eyebrow-raising giggle: when discussing men able to fellate themselves, there's the footnote, [A]ccording to a 2001 Hustler article, as they master the yoga pose "the plow" ... Further tips can be gleaned by renting Blown Alone.
The first was an audiobook of Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. The general premise - charting how and why various groups of humans moved (or did not move) out of tribal formations - is fascinating. After all, it's not as if the tribal format is unviable; not only are there tribes still today untouched by thousands of years of modernization, the Post had an article of how some of the Katrina survivors made it because they banded into a fully functional hunter/gatherer tribe.
Even having someone reading it to me, I found it terribly heavy going and finally bailed for something lighter.
That something was Mary Roach's Bonk, about scientific studies of sex.
Having already covered life after death and cadavers after donation, it's pretty clear that Roach likes offbeat studies. But she brings a light touch and a dry wit that makes her writing as enjoyable as any fiction:
"Every kind of sexual behavior we had observed or known about in humans could be found in animals," wrote Kinsey colleague Wardell Pomeroy, who obviously never dropped in to the Yahoo Clown Fetish Group (642 members and counting).
On the gender makeup of couples in studies: By "homosexuals," he means men. "We were unable to obtain any lesbians," Pomeroy says, as though perhaps they hadn't been in season, or his paperwork wasn't in order.
Mind you, just citing the research references makes for an eyebrow-raising giggle: when discussing men able to fellate themselves, there's the footnote, [A]ccording to a 2001 Hustler article, as they master the yoga pose "the plow" ... Further tips can be gleaned by renting Blown Alone.