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clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: 6 Barbary macaques have a distinctive way to get their mates to make a sperm donation: yelling. If the female does not shout, the male almost never climaxes.

7 How do we know this? German primatologist Dana Pfefferle watched a group of macaques, counting the females’ yells and the males’ pelvic thrusts. She says this work is “quite weird, but it’s science.”

8 Here in the US of A, that kind of stuff ends up on YouTube.

9 Because Barry White sounds terrible underwater: Fish can produce a variety of noises with their bones, teeth, and gas bladders. Grant Gilmore of Estuarine Coastal and Ocean Science Inc. says that male fish probably use some of these sounds to woo females.

10 The spiny anteater, an egg-laying mammal native to Australia and New Guinea, has a penis with four heads, but only two fit into the female at once.

11 The tiny male paper nautilus, an octopus, impregnates the much larger female by shooting his penis (a modified tentacle) into her—and leaving it there.

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

And you thought you knew everything...

1 Life emerged on earth about 3.8 billion years ago, but sex did not evolve until more than 2 billion years later. Dirty limericks emerged only quite recently, geologically speaking.

2 Sex—what is it good for? Scientists are not sure, since asexual reproduction is a better evolutionary strategy in some important ways.

3 For those who refuse to commit to one strategy: The hermaphroditic earthworm Dendrobaena rubida has both male and female genitalia. If it cannot find a partner, the worm doubles up so that its female bits and male bits can go to town.

4 Although famously monogamous, female Adélie penguins slip away from their mates occasionally to couple with unattached males. They exact a fee (pdf) for such a dalliance—stones to bolster their nests—not unlike certain people.

5 Some talented penguin teasers can get a gift even without putting out. Again, not unlike certain people.

Tags: sexual behaviour, sexuality, animals, nature

Freud' Sleeping Nude Paid £20

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:33:51 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: I hope neither model nor artist were claiming benefits while they were working.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Lucian Freud's one-time muse was paid £20 a day to sit for a painting expected to fetch more than £17m.

But Londoner Sue Tilley said she did not do it for the money and had "lovely lunches" with the artist.

Freud's 1995 work, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, looks set to become the most expensive painting by a living artist when it is sold in New York next month.

Ms Tilley - who is now a job centre manager - joked she had now become a broadsheet pin-up.

"So I went with my friends to see it, and there was this man - you know those so-called art lecturers who think they know everything - 'yes, this painting was painted because Lucian hated women, so he put the dog high up and the woman was lying on the floor. The poor thing with all her scabs and spots'.

"I started laughing. He was going 'excuse me madam' and I said, 'well actually that's me'.

"Poor man, he thought was going to fall through a hole in the floor.

"He said: 'oh but you're really pretty in real life.'"

Tags: lucien freud

University Degree in Selling Beds

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:29:59 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: This pragmatic approach to the challenges the world faces today is a welcome educational development and will help further erode the old elitist ivory tower provision of useless degrees in subjects like phillosphy and litrature.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

One of England's newest universities is offering tailor-made degrees in the management of selling beds.

Buckinghamshire New University in High Wycombe is offering a retail management foundation degree developed in partnership with bed company Dreams

Dreams founder Mike Clare said many of his staff had attended the university.

"The university's pragmatic approach and understanding of the challenges we face has enabled us to launch a development programme which will enable staff to continue their education whilst also focusing on their careers," he said.

Tags: beds