http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/05/spermicide Comments On: Spermicide by Paul Constant en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Thu, 23 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Thu, 23 May 2013 05:00:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
1) Germ line cells are fairly sensitive, so it's a bit of a canary in the public health coal mine, and what other consequences the cause of the decline might be having are still unknown;

2) Whatever it is, it's unlikely to be affecting humans alone, which is bad news for conservation and agriculture alike; and

3) Do you really want to see more demand for fertility drugs, and therefore more fucking Octomoms? I don't.

@25, the periodic stress of ancestral human lifestyles was significantly different from the continuous, ubiquitous stress of modern life in a lot of ways. There could be a multitude of factors here. Take, for example, sleep: until the modern era, there wasn't much in the way of light pollution, sleep patterns tended to be a lot more natural, and people generally didn't chronically sleep-deprive themselves. Now we do, and we're starting to document a lot of negative health effects from it. The progression of civilization is an amazing thing, don't get me wrong, but the further we come socially and technologically, the more distance we put between our current lifestyles and the sort of life we actually evolved for, and the tension that creates has consequences that we have to learn to manage.
Posted by balderdash]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 18:51:04 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Ben]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 17:37:50 -0800 The Stranger Posted by sirkowski]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:57:56 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Paxlotl]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:08:37 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Phoebe in Wallingford]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:04:12 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Pope Peabrain]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:50:38 -0800 The Stranger
For example, the abysmal reproduction of cheetahs seen for years in captivity was assumed to be due to their low sperm counts and high number of misshapen/low-motility sperm. But there was inadequate notice taken of other aspects of cheetah biology, to wit:

1. Cheetahs are solitary and come together only briefly for breeding in the wild. The constant presence of other animals nearby in captivity suppresses reproduction (visual, olfactory, and aural cues are all likely important, so isolation needs to be done carefully).

2. Females exert active mate choice and won't necessarily conceive if put with any old male, and it's probably sexist assumptions on the part of male researchers that obscured this fact for so long. A best-candidate pool should be chosen based on known genetic background to minimize the inbreeding coefficient, and then trial introductions carried out. If a female doesn't care for her chosen mate, you're pretty much S.O.L. without more-intensive assisted-reproduction technologies.

3. Estrus in females is largely cryptic, with few behavioral cues, so ongoing monitoring of hormonal cycles (non-invasively checked by analyzing metabolite levels in excreta) is needed to time introductions of prospective mates.

If these factors are given their due, captive reproduction dramatically improves, with no detectable improvement in sperm quality of the males involved.
Posted by rob!]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:43:11 -0800 The Stranger Posted by PCM]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:10:11 -0800 The Stranger he cant satisfy you with his little worm
but i can bust you out with my super sperm

http://www.angelfire.com/sk/oldskool/shg…

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:06:45 -0800 The Stranger Posted by gnot]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:52:00 -0800 The Stranger Posted by dangerousgift]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:51:35 -0800 The Stranger Posted by zivilisierter Wurm]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:48:08 -0800 The Stranger If only I could cut down to one hand-job a day, or hold the line at two, or even three! But with the prospect of oblivion before me, I actually began to set new records for myself. Before meals. After meals. During meals. Jumping up from the dinner table, I tragically clutch at my belly—diarrhea! I cry, I have been stricken with diarrhea!—and once behind the locked bathroom door, slip over my head a pair of underpants that I have stolen from my sister's dresser and carry rolled in a handkerchief in my pocket. So galvanic is the effect of cotton panties against my mouth—so galvanic is the word "panties"—that the trajectory of my ejaculation reaches startling new heights: leaving my joint like a rocket it makes right for the light bulb overhead, where to my wonderment and horror, it hits and it hangs. Wildly in the first moment I cover my head, expecting an explosion of glass, a burst of flames—disaster, you see, is never far from my mind. Then quietly as I can I climb the radiator and remove the sizzling gob with a wad of toilet paper. I begin a scrupulous search of the shower curtain, the tub, the tile floor, the four tooth-brushes—God forbid!—and just as I am about to unlock the door, imagining I have covered my tracks, my heart lurches at the sight of what is hanging like snot to the toe of my shoe. I am the Raskolnikov of jerking off—the sticky evidence is everywhere!(Portnoy's Complaint, in case anyone was wondering.)
Posted by rob!]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:46:52 -0800 The Stranger Posted by tkc]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:40:15 -0800 The Stranger
And it was just...just...everywhere.
Posted by Pick1]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:21:52 -0800 The Stranger
We're just getting sexier.
Posted by Brooklyn Reader]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:21:28 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Fistique]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:19:07 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Knat]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:16:57 -0800 The Stranger Posted by YOU KNOW ITS TRUE!]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:11:15 -0800 The Stranger Posted by UNPAID COMMENTER]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:09:28 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Matt the Engineer]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:04:01 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Mattini]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:02:07 -0800 The Stranger Posted by LogopolisMike]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:02:01 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Rhizome]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:01:48 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Jables]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:00:00 -0800 The Stranger