mister_greywolf

Prof Pfaus and colleagues in the US and Switzerland analysed 20 previous studies that examined brain activity while subjects engaged in tasks such as viewing erotic pictures or looking at photographs of their partners.

They were able to form a complete map of love and lust in the brain.

They found two structures in particular – the insula and the striatum – are responsible for tracking the progression from sexual desire to love.

Somewhat surprisingly the part of the striatum involved in love is also associated with drug addiction – but there is good reason for this.

Prof Pfaus said: ‘Love is actually a habit that is formed from sexual desire as desire is rewarded.

‘It works the same way in the brain as when people become addicted to drugs.’


Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/lifestyle/902738-love-is-the-drug-but-lust-excites-a-pleasure-zone#ixzz1yqbsZWYr

Female promiscuity, the normal sexual behaviour for most animals, may be necessary for the survival of a species, U.K. biologists say.

Researchers at the University of Exeter and the University of Liverpool studying fruit flies found that females having multiple mates reduced the risk of a population of flies going extinct.

The phenomenon of females having multiples mates, called polyandry, is the norm for most animal species, but biologists aren't sure why.

The scientists studied two groups of fruit fly populations, one that was allowed to mate naturally, where the females had multiple male partners, and one monogamous group, where the females were limited to one mate.

They found that over 15 generations, five of the 12 monogamous populations of flies had gone extinct because mating resulted in all-female broods, and all the males died out.

"Polyandry is such a widespread phenomenon in nature, but it remains something of an enigma for scientists. This study is the first to suggest that it could actually save a population from extinction," said Wedell, in a statement.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/02/25/tech-biology-female-promiscuous.html

Interesting.

Obviously we have more to learn from close cousins like chimpanzees and bonobos, but this is suggestive. I suspect that our ideas on what is "right" and "normal" in human sexuality are going to change considerably as we unravel more of the genetic roots of our behaviour.

Happy days everyone!

The fiesta finished at midnight last night. Traditionally at this time the people dancing behind the bands in the street will kneel and press their foreheads against the ground, singing "pobre de mi". "Poor me" - another year until the fiesta starts again. This can go on for some time ...

I'm posting a link to the opening ceremony - 100,000 young people in a sea of red and white, singing and spraying champan. It's like a giant mosh pit. London doesn't have this. The rocket signalling the start is fired about 2 mins in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urTGV238GB0&feature=fvsr

This quote keeps coming up from a play I saw a few weeks back. It's from Waiting for Godot, and in describing the human condition one of the characters (Pozzo) says:

They give birth astride of a grave,
the light gleams an instant,
then it's night once more.

Very bleak.

The play starred:
- Ian McKellen (Gandalf in LOTR, Magneto in X-Men) and,
- Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek - Next Generation, and Prof. Xavier in X-Men).

This is them being serious - absolutely brilliant acting. Godot is the pivotal English play of the 20th century, in my opinion. The theatre's description is here:
http://www.trh.co.uk/show_waitingforgodot.php

( More about the playCollapse )

In other news, a Spanish man was killed in the fourth encierro this morning during San Fermin. The death of Daniel Jimeno Romero is the 16th since 1924. He was 27 years old from Madrid, and on holiday in Pamplona with his parents. He died of a single horn wound to the neck.

Edit: correcting the name of the actor Sir Ian Murray McKellen. Thanks.

La Fiesta de San Fermin started today at midday in Pamplona. I was long interested in this fiesta, but now mark only its start and its finish. Tomorrow morning is the first encierro. It is not pretty. Viva! Gora!

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I arrived late, late, after dining and talking.

They arrived late, coming down from the Blind Beggar. Isaac, the groovy bar manager, Bob, the moody carpenter, and Erika, the pretty Hungarian barmaid.

The music was stripped down 60's garage rock, and 50's. Everybody was dancing. Two girls on the decks, one a red head I had talked with before, swapping song for song with her friend, all tumbled brown hair and short skirt.

When the lights came up they switched to schmaltzy of 60's love songs, to send everyone home.

"Ooooooh my love, my darling, I've hungered for your touch".

I stepped up to Erika, and drew her into my arms. We pressed together, her breasts against my chest, her belly against mine, her thighs and groin pressing into me.

"i neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed your love"

She sang into my ear, and I into hers. I felt her breath, and her lips, touching me. She sighed. We parted a little.

"Oi oi oi" the boys cried, Isaac and Bob, gesturing at us, and making semi-obscene motions.

"Too late", I said, smiling at them.

"Yes", she said, laughing over her shoulder, still pressed against me. "You're too late. We had our moment".

Couples sometimes lose sight of everything but themselves.

The French have a phrase for it: "folie a deux".

( On Brick LaneCollapse )

( Article and linkCollapse )

I chased up this article after reading some comments about condoms. It's been around a while, so you may know it.

Reported in "Psychology Today", and elsewhere, research indicates that biochemicals in semen may increase women's feelings of happiness. Women having condom sex, and no sex, reported less happiness. Methods of taking semen were not discussed. Sample size 293 first study, and 700 second study.

Wolf semen is particularly effective in raising happiness levels in women.

VvvV

If you're not into loud music look away now

I was not killed on the 22nd.

The following night I was back in the same area - last party of the night -  for the relaunch of "The Blind Beggar". Once famous as the watering hole of London criminals, the Kray twins, it is now a refurbished music pub. Friends at the bar had asked us to come, and we were late.

A blonde girl was dancing on a table as we entered. Her jeans undone, and pushed down to reveal her thong she was grinding away, and flashing her bra covered tits. A crowd was cheering.

My mind drifted to a bar in Moscow - the Mucky Duck? the Hungry Duck? - that I'd been in some years before. On a zinc topped bar naked girls and boys were dancing in a haze filled room. The atmosphere was orgiastic.

London has nothing spontaneous like this. The bar manager pulled the girl down, and she left with her boyfriend to clapping and cheering.

We moved on. I was accosted twice by prostitutes -  in Commercial Road and Whitechapel Road. I felt sorry for them. A little dance in the Indo finished the night. Walking home I was accosted again in Vallance Road. The night seemed not for the hunters but for the victims.

No virtue here, but no interest either, in these offerings.