Slightly off-topic: Has anyone eaten mochi? It feels like a testicle. This is how I thoughtlessly described it to a group of people once. They were not excited to try it and everyone was a little freaked out, because we were having pink and brown mochi.
@ohayou_kun: I am so sorry! If you eat another one, I'm pretty sure it takes away the memory. I eat mochi whenever I can, weird associations be damned!
ARGH! I live in Wyoming and I see redneck assholes with these hanging from their bumpers all the time. It just makes me fuckin stabby. You wouldn't catch a woman with a chrome plated va jay jay hanging off her bumper. GRRR true, it's usually the same type of asshole that has a confederate flag on a pole in the back of their truck (true story, full sized) I've seen that more than once. Guess it's important to consider the source.
@I_b_meh: Wait, hold on. Confederate flag on a truck in WYOMING? Um, they don't even have the "heritage" meme to fall back on there (which is bullshit btw), so basically they're announcing they're misogynistic, racist a-holes?
I think the honest signalling perspective (the "fanciful account" akin to peacock feathers) is way more plausible than a sexual selection account (the "they're bigger because women dig it!" idea). The dismissal of this doesn't hold:
"If it were true, we would expect to see scrotal testicles becoming increasingly elaborate and dangly over the course of evolution"
No. We would only expect increasingly elaborate and dangly testicles if this were the only selection pressure operating on testicular dangulation (yes, I just made that word up). But there are other obvious pressures, like the pressure to be able to walk, run, crap, have sex without injuring your balls (or the pressure to cool your balls mentioned later), for example, that are going to limit the dangulation.
"not to mention women should display a preference for males toting around the most ostentatious scrotal baggage"
No. Honest signals can go from male to male (for the purposes of competition between males - competition for females, perhaps, but not directed to females). Moreover, the selection pressure that necessitated extreme dangulation (I'm keeping this word) in the past is may no longer be active - we have no way of percieving this signal regularly in the past 400 generations or so, at least. We don't walk around naked anymore. Cultural evolution works on a lightning fast timescale compared to biological evolution; our not caring about sack dangle may have been around for thousands of years, but it might take biology millions to catch up in terms of appearance. Moreover, unless there is a selection pressure against it, the dangulation (a biological feature) would remain (appendix perhaps?).
Lastly, although the "cooling testicle orbit" thing sounds cool, Medical Hypothesis is notorious for supporting fringe theories. I'll look it up anyway.
Rant over! I'll be surprised if anyone got this far.
Does the article go into why men feel the need to hang replicas off their truck hitches? It's bad enough that men seem to feel the need to display their masculinity by buying the biggest truck ever and putting the biggest tires ever on it; but then they need to hang testicles off the back too?
You know what I think of when I see any of the above? Two words: tiny penis.
@LucyRed: A friend of my parents' used his buddy's truck to come over one day. It's a great big, hulking mass of truck complete with two weird pipes sticking out of the bed. My friends and I concluded that his penis must in fact be a vagina to need that much overcompensation. So now, it is known as the Vagina Truck.
I am bookmarking his blog, because my son is asking me all sorts of questions about his junk, and I never really know what to say.
Like, he just asked me why he gets morning wood and all I could think to myself was "Well, according to your father it is to just poke me in the back at 6 am every morning."
I feel like taking the "ask your father" route is copping out.
Whatever, human balls! Wake me when you're as awesome as Vervet Monkey balls!
And the COOLEST part is that the Alpha male has the brightest, bluest scrotum, and when he is displaced by a junior male, that new Alpha male's balls actually get brighter and bluer.
@amazoncowgirl: My spouse thinks that they're a myth. He says it's never more than annoying, and it's an excuse to get girls to pout with dudes who don't have sex every time they want to do it.
@f-words: My more honest male friends say that they are not a myth, but they are unusual, and basically to get them, they have to get right to the point of orgasm and then not do it.
This was also told to me by my current partner, who has never met those particular friends, as they moved away.
This is now how I understand the phenomena known as "blue balls".
@amazoncowgirl: As far as I understand it, blue balls happen when a man gets all revved up and then doesn't cum. So all this blood has rushed to his penis/testicular area and has no release, which is painful.
The same thing can happen to women around the labia if they get really turned on (usually over a period of time) and don't get the release of an orgasm. Frustrating and painful I'm afraid to say.
So I'm sitting in my cube yesterday and my coworker says that she heard that avocados grow just like balls (we were talking about how yummy avocados are). I was confused for a second, and then I said, "you mean testicles?" Last night I worked the concept of avocado testicles into one of the strangest dreams I've ever had. Lord knows what kind of testicle dreams I'll have tonight.
There is a truck in my city that has both giant Truck Nuts, and a back-window mural of the Virgin Mary. I constantly wonder which of these decorations came first, and how the truck's owner reconciles them.
11/21/09
"So, I was thinking about dating Aaron..."
"Oh man, don't do it. You know what Leslie said, he comes with so much scrotal baggage."
11/20/09
My boyfriend is coming over in two hours. Experiment time! Now where is my sewing kit?
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
#tips
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/21/09
'Nuff said?
11/23/09
#tips
11/20/09
I think the honest signalling perspective (the "fanciful account" akin to peacock feathers) is way more plausible than a sexual selection account (the "they're bigger because women dig it!" idea). The dismissal of this doesn't hold:
"If it were true, we would expect to see scrotal testicles becoming increasingly elaborate and dangly over the course of evolution"
No. We would only expect increasingly elaborate and dangly testicles if this were the only selection pressure operating on testicular dangulation (yes, I just made that word up). But there are other obvious pressures, like the pressure to be able to walk, run, crap, have sex without injuring your balls (or the pressure to cool your balls mentioned later), for example, that are going to limit the dangulation.
"not to mention women should display a preference for males toting around the most ostentatious scrotal baggage"
No. Honest signals can go from male to male (for the purposes of competition between males - competition for females, perhaps, but not directed to females). Moreover, the selection pressure that necessitated extreme dangulation (I'm keeping this word) in the past is may no longer be active - we have no way of percieving this signal regularly in the past 400 generations or so, at least. We don't walk around naked anymore. Cultural evolution works on a lightning fast timescale compared to biological evolution; our not caring about sack dangle may have been around for thousands of years, but it might take biology millions to catch up in terms of appearance. Moreover, unless there is a selection pressure against it, the dangulation (a biological feature) would remain (appendix perhaps?).
Lastly, although the "cooling testicle orbit" thing sounds cool, Medical Hypothesis is notorious for supporting fringe theories. I'll look it up anyway.
Rant over! I'll be surprised if anyone got this far.
11/20/09
11/20/09
You know what I think of when I see any of the above? Two words: tiny penis.
11/20/09
11/20/09
this might be too obscure but it was all I could think of
11/20/09
<3 for the Persona series, fo' reals.
11/20/09
Like, he just asked me why he gets morning wood and all I could think to myself was "Well, according to your father it is to just poke me in the back at 6 am every morning."
I feel like taking the "ask your father" route is copping out.
11/20/09
Whatever, human balls! Wake me when you're as awesome as Vervet Monkey balls!
And the COOLEST part is that the Alpha male has the brightest, bluest scrotum, and when he is displaced by a junior male, that new Alpha male's balls actually get brighter and bluer.
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
#tips
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
This was also told to me by my current partner, who has never met those particular friends, as they moved away.
This is now how I understand the phenomena known as "blue balls".
11/21/09
The same thing can happen to women around the labia if they get really turned on (usually over a period of time) and don't get the release of an orgasm. Frustrating and painful I'm afraid to say.
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
Like earrings!
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
#tips
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09