Jul 30

From a neat blog posting summarizing some research on sex and intelligence:

By the age of 19, 80% of US males and 75% of women have lost their virginity, and 87% of college students have had sex. But this number appears to be much lower at elite (i.e. more intelligent) colleges. According to the article, only 56% of Princeton undergraduates have had intercourse. At Harvard 59% of the undergraduates are non-virgins, and at MIT, only a slight majority, 51%, have had intercourse. Further, only 65% of MIT graduate students have had sex.

The bar chart of results from a Wellesley college survey is amusing, with the percentage of students who are virgins ranging from 0% for the Art students, up to 83% for the Mathematics students.

The only mystery is why the figure for Computer Science students is only half that for Mathematics. My guess is that it’s because Wellesley is a female-only college, and female computer scientists can basically get on the Internet and find any number of desperate male computer scientists to hook up with.

Also:

…another revealing finding from the Counterpoint survey was that while 95% of US men and 70% of women masturbate, this number is only 68% of men and 20% of women at MIT!

So the hypothesis is that smarter people have a lower sex drive. Obviously there are going to be exceptions, however.

Feb 24

The US Department of Education has changed its policy regarding which TV shows should be provided with closed captions for the deaf. The new criteria are secret, and were decided by a five-member panel of people whose names are also secret. All that we know is that the rules set down by Congress require that captioned material be “educational and informational”.

So, to help illustrate the difference between factual educational programs and non-educational entertainment, here are some examples from the official list of updates produced by the panel.

Officially NOT EDUCATIONAL:

AMC Documentaries
VH1 Behind The Music
CNN en Espanol Deportes (Sports)
Daytime Court trials
Documentary: Gay Hollywood
Documentary: Hell Up in Hollywood: Soul Cinema & the 1970’s
Documentary: Hollywood & the Holocaust
Documentary: Hollywood & the Muslim World
Hollywood Lives and Legends
AE Investigative Reports
Lifetime Intimate Biographies of Women
Reel Radicals: The 60’s Revolution in Film
Time Squad

Officially EDUCATIONAL for deaf people:

21st Century Astrology
ABC Good Morning America
Amazing Animal Videos
Atlantis: In Search of a Lost Continent
Bob the Builder
Cory the Clown Show
Degrassi: The Next Generation
ESPN2 Sports Figure
FOX News
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Pinocchio
Play Piano In A Flash
Robinson Crusoe
The Fountainhead
The Time Machine
Vanity Fair