The Republic of T.

It feels good to know I’m not alone.

Mentioned earlier that I have a penchant for procrastination. Not that I particularly like procrastinating. It’s just that it comes with the territory as far as some aspects of my life are concerned. I know it’s a trait I share with Scarlett O’Hara (”I’ll think about it tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day!”). But apparently it’s a trait I share with many of my fellow Americans.

My name is Terrance. I’m a procrastinator, and I’m not alone.

Overall, more than a quarter of Americans say they procrastinate. Men are worse than women (about 54 out of 100 chronic procrastinators are men) and the young are more like to procrastinate than the old, Steel said. Three out of four college students consider themselves procrastinators.

… The causes of procrastination combine temptation, sense of immediacy, the value of doing the job, and whether you believe you can get the work done, Steel found. He even created a complicated mathematical formula, complete with Greek letters, to figure out when a person is likely to procrastinate.

Temptation is the biggest factor. And it’s why procrastination is getting worse, Steel said, citing technology.

Far be it from me to argue with science, but I think I’ll have to disagree with the guy who did the study, as far as the why of procrastination. At least in my own case.

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Speaking of virgin births, anyone looking to launch a new religion my want to check out Flora, the female Komodo dragon who's never been with a male dragon, but is about to give birth. 

Per my comment on the previous post — concerning claims of a connection between soy, homosexuality and penis size — it turns out that science bears out my personal experience.

The relation between sexual orientation and penile dimensions in a large sample of men was studied. Subjects were 5,122 men interviewed by the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction from 1938 to 1963. They were dichotomously classified as either homosexual (n = 935) or heterosexual (n = 4187). Penile dimensions were assessed using five measures of penile length and circumference from Kinsey’s original protocol. On all five measures, homosexual men reported larger penises than did heterosexual men. Explanations for these differences are discussed, including the possibility that these findings provide additional evidence that variations in prenatal hormonal levels (or other biological mechanisms affecting reproductive structures) affect sexual orientation development.

Proving once again that with guys it all comes down to “Who’s Got the Biggest.” Or at least thinks he does. Maybe that’s the root of the concern expressed by the WorldNetDaily columnist. In which case I suggest he try the tofu hot dog challenge.

It’s from Alfred Kinsey, though. So the nutters will disregard it anyway.

Via Andrew Sullivan.

Logical, that is. But what do you expect from someone who never even took college algebra?

You Are Somewhat Logical

Ok, so didn’t get the majority of questions right But you did answer some pretty tough questions correctly Logic may not be your strong point, but you hold your own!

Via Scientist, Interrupted.

There's probably a lot of joke potential in this story of the first ever penis transplant (surgically successful, but rejected for psychological reasons), but I'm not going to explore them. I have an honest question. Why a transplant? I'm not up on the latest surgical techniques in gender transition, but why did they need to transplant? Couldn't surgeons have done something for this guy similar to what they do for FTM transgendered people?

It's a good thing there's probably more planets like earth out there. Because, boy have we done a number on this one.

Just to put this on the radar, there's an HIV vaccine that looks promising. Will the same people who opposed the HPV vaccine, because  it's a "license for promiscuity," also oppose an HIV vaccine because it might allow people to "sin without consequence"? I'm not saying they will, but remember that according to some of them "AIDS is not the enemy."

I’m calling it now. Stephen Hawking is writing a children’s book with his daughter, about the "wonders of he universe." It’s theoretical physics for kids, and I’m wiling to bet that the wingnut brigade will cry foul as soon as it hits the bookshelves. Look for it to be banned from at least one school library, and maybe even a few public libraries for good measure.