According to this report, men in their 50s are more satisfied with their sex lives than at any other time in their lives except their 20s. On a scale of zero to four, men reported satisfaction as follows:

20s - 2.79
30s - 2.55
40s - 2.72
50s - 2.77
60s - 2.46
70s - 2.14

After giving this just a moment's thought, I realized that one little word explains this: kids.

Seriously. Most people start their families in their late 20s or 30s. Before a guy in his 20s settles down, there's likely some fun on the dating scene. But once you find "the one," nothing tops the excitement of the courtship, honeymoon, and early years together without kids.

After the children appear, you find that both of you are a bit more tired, a bit less attentive to looks or clothing, a bit more prone to headaches and irritability, and less likely to enjoy the less-frequent sex. As the kids get older and more independent, they continue to invade your space and their schedules become more demanding.

Once the kids leave the nest, it seems that one of two things happens: (1) husband and wife fall in love all over again and experience some really great time together, going at it like newlyweds, or (2) husband, now financially successful and confident, dumps the old bag for a trophy wife 20 years his junior. (Two of the four commenters over at Science Blog tend to confirm this latter point). In either case, the man is likely to be more satisfied with sex than at any time since before he had kids.

[THWACK]

Ouch! That was my wife taking a swipe at me for the "old bag" comment. For the record: she in no way resembles any sort of bag (unless it's one that's sleek and fashionable and will never go out of style...)

(Hat tip: Instapundit).

Posted by: JohnL at 09:39 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 326 words, total size 2 kb.

The Crack Young Staff, proprietors of the humble "weblog" entitled Hatemongers Quarterly, are not impressed with the linguistic skills of today's youth.

Frankly, neither am I. My wife and I refer to clueless teens generically as "like-you-knows."

But who cares what we think when even Captain Kirk agrees? *

(*)Musical excerpt from the "song" I Can't Get Behind That from Has Been, by William Shatner and the awesome Ben Folds, about which I previously blogged here.

(Hat tip: LLamas).

Posted by: JohnL at 07:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 95 words, total size 1 kb.

Check out this 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence.

Examples:

(Via Gravity Lens).

Posted by: JohnL at 11:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 102 words, total size 1 kb.

Here's a public service announcement: use caution when tripping around cyberspace using the "Next Blog" feature in Blog*Spot, as you are likely to encounter some dummy blogs featuring porn and spam. Having made that disclaimer, here are some links for your edification and enjoyment that I discovered tonight:

Native Eye, a New York photoblog. (This Reinventing Monet is quite cool, as is this lovely Red Hyacinth. Wow - stunning composition).

A lefty Australian's blog: Lindsay's Lobes. Disregard the occasional politics and new agey vibe here. Instead, focus on the clean prose, tasteful site design, several beautiful pictures of a New Zealand holiday, and entertaining musings on family, the environment, and culture.

Finally, here's a Texan cyclist's site: Wallace Alaniz. Lots of really cool pictures from in and around Austin, Texas, one of the greatest places on Earth to live or visit. (Check out the pic accompanying this post).

Hope you enjoy these new sites.

Posted by: JohnL at 10:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 158 words, total size 1 kb.

You're probably familiar with the work of Harold "Doc" Edgerton.

I know I was. Familiar with the work, that is. Not the man who produced it.

Edgerton invented the technique of synchronizing a high-speed stroboscope to a high-shutter-speed camera to create super-realistic stop-motion photographs. As an example, here's an image of a drop of milk splashing as it hits a table top, captured using Edgerton's technique:

In 1947, Edgerton developed a special camera (the Rapatronic) capable of capturing images of nuclear explosions from seven miles away, with some images as short as 10 nanoseconds.

I've always thought that nuclear explosions were eerily beautiful (not that I would ever want to witness one, unless from the safely-shielded command deck of an Orion starship). Here's a representative sample of an atomic fireball captured using a Rapatronic camera:

Check out more Rapatronic photos here.

(And for even more ultra-cool nuclear images and movies click here).

(Hat tip: Gravity Lens, who pointed out this article).

Update: Remember to Duck and Cover!

Posted by: JohnL at 10:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 173 words, total size 2 kb.

Here's some required reading: an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born ex-Muslim woman.

It was her film, "Submission," that the late Theo Van Gogh directed. A Muslim took offense and, rather than debating the issue, pinned a note to Van Gogh with a knife.

Read what she has to say. She knows first-hand what it is like to live in an illiberal society. Can we (i.e., Western liberal democratic culture) survive? Will we assimilate and transform Islam into something modern and tolerant? Will we destroy Islam? Will we instead [shudder] submit?

Update: I titled the post before I was done editing. Quite simply, where are the "liberals" from the West? Arguing that the cartoon flap was a setup by Bush? Justifying the violent Muslim reaction as an understandable response to the existence of Israel and Western colonialism? Where are the grown-ups?

Fortunately, Ali demonstrates a true liberal analysis of the situation.

Posted by: JohnL at 08:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 157 words, total size 1 kb.

I don't have much of anything to add to the Cartoon Wars that hasn't already been covered by Jeff Goldstein.

Go there, and just keep scrolling up. He's a liberal, like I am, in the non-political, classical sense of the word. I just wish more "liberals" were.

Update: Did anyone else see tonight's Colbert Report? Hilarious critique of the cartoon violence. One of my favorite lines (paraphrased): "I have decided to take the brave and ethical stand of not showing the offending cartoons to avoid being killed..."

Posted by: JohnL at 08:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 91 words, total size 1 kb.

This video would have cut a little too close to home for me about 20 years ago.

What cruel videos will they be making about bloggers 20 years from now???

(Via The Llamabutchers).

Posted by: JohnL at 11:51 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 39 words, total size 1 kb.