psychology

I’d been wondering why my MD brother had no TV in his place (none!) till I began paging through another of his JAMAs (Journal of the American Medical Association). I figured it out when the following heart-pounding title caught my eye: “Television Viewing and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease, and All-Cause Mortality."

Can you believe the news of men of late? Deeds done that you’d call inane if not for collateral damage, ramifications, and victims? A presidential candidate with a love child. A governor with one too. A congressman broadcasting his ‘package’. The French president of the International Monetary Fund accused of violent sexual abuse. Jeesh. Brings to mind the first line of a Neruda poem: “It so happens I am sick of being a man."

This is going to be a shock. A recent study* suggests men do stupid things when interacting with attractive women! OMG!

Phrased otherwise, men are more likely to engage in counterproductive behavior under the gaze of beauty than women are before a handsome visage.

The mushroom pictured above is an amanita muscaria, also known as fly agaric. The variety has an etomycorrhizal (a specific sort of symbiotic) relationship with conifers (of which more later) and are hallucinogenic. Some believe they and their relatives played a role in the evolution of human consciousness.