Culture Briefs

Men are pigs

“Glenn Geher, an associate professor of psychology at SUNY at New Paltz … is developing a mathematical model to demonstrate what many a grandmother has long cautioned: Women who are de facto skeptical of a man’s intentions are almost always better off than women who spend hours deconstructing the first date. (‘He gave me his home number, he asked about my family … he must be into me!’) Geher found that if a woman cannot accurately judge a man’s romantic designs at least 90 percent of the time, she’s better off being biased. ‘Women using a ‘men are always pigs’ decision-making rule may be more likely to actually end up with honest, committed, and long-term-seeking males,’ insists Geher.

“We have a radar for opposite-sex interest and intentions that has its own unique calibrations. And it follows Darwinian, rather than Aristotelian, logic, because the very survival of our genes is at stake. Men and women need to minimize reproductive mistakes that could thwart their mating goals: For men, missing a chance to score constitutes an error. For women it is dangerous to trust a man who simply wishes to score and move on.”

— Kaja Perina, writing on “Love’s Loopy Logic,” in the January/February issue of Psychology Today

Dietary danger

“While the CIA and FBI track terrorist intelligence and activity, our military seek to calm international unrest abroad, minutemen and bounty hunters try to guard our country’s borders, and scientists attempt to monitor and contain diseases like E. coli and the bird flu, America’s biggest threat is largely homegrown and has already infiltrated most of our homes: unhealthy eating habits and no exercise. …

“If we knew more than 300,000 or 500,000 people would die from a specific type of terrorist attack this year, our government and America’s citizens would move heaven and earth to deter it.

“Yet we know that number of people will die this year from illnesses related to being overweight or having coronary heart disease, and what are we as a nation and individuals going to do about it?”

— Chuck Norris, writing on “The biggest threat to America,” Monday in WorldNetDaily at www.worldnetdaily.com

‘Nifonged’

“It’s official. ‘Nifong’ is now a verb. … Durham D.A. Mike Nifong’s lexical fall from grace was shameful indeed.

“Nifonged is a verb that describes the railroading or harming of a person with no justifiable cause to do so, except for one’s own gain. …

“The Duke lacrosse case fiasco was an unsurprising one. …

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