The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Sex is a pretty taboo subject, especially when it comes to a person's sexual history. I'd like to believe no sober, common sense individual would ever walk up to a complete stranger and say, "Hi, my name is Bob Shitzferbrains. So how many sexual partners have you had?" When a couple of individuals become interested in one another and are curious to move the relationship forward, however, it seems all but inevitable the topic will get broached. While such a conversation can prove to be more awkward than getting caught masturbating by Sister Mary Clarence, as sex, communication, and trust are all key ingredients to a happy and healthy long-term relationship, it may also be vitally important. So what is the "magic number," so to speak, when it comes to sexual partners? Is there such a thing? Would a number which is too high or too low lead a certain percentage of people to bolt before things got too serious? As is typical, it depends on the person. While some...

Many Republicans are elated of the news that the Gallup tracking poll today has Mitt Romney ahead of Barack Obama by 7 points - 52 to 45. It's over, right? I'm sorry to disappoint some of my Republican friends, but I wouldn't get overly excited about that poll result just yet. It is true that as of today, according to Gallup, Romney leads Obama by 7 points among likely voters - 52% to 45%. However, even in light of this, stats nerd Nate Silver gives the president a 65.7% chance of winning the election, compared to just a 34.3% chance for Romney. He bases these numbers on all the polls, trends, weighting for biases, history, along with other numbers with regard to the economy. Including this Gallup poll, he still gives President Obama close to a two-thirds chance of winning the election in close to three weeks. So, Gallup has Romney in a commanding lead, yet a stats expert only gives the Republican nominee about a one-thirds chance of winning on November 6th. What gives? ...

So, I was comparing my responses to some questions with others and one of the questions was something along the lines of, "If someone you were dating admitted to having slept with 14 people, what would your reaction be? That'd be too many and you'd run out the door? It'd bother you, but wouldn't affect your feelings? It's about average? You wouldn't care one way or another?" I wrote that it was too many. I read a couple people (around my age) saying that it was about average. I got to thinking, "Seriously? Is that about average? If so, I'm way behind!" So, I did some research. This is what I do. I found this semi-recent Kinsey study revolving around sex -  http://www.iub.edu/~kinsey/resources/FAQ.html In the study, it says by the time someone is 30, a woman will, on average, have slept with 4 guys and a guy will have slept with between 6 and 8 women. So, in both cases, 14 is a bit high, on average 10 higher for women and between 6 a...

An individual I spoke to a while back claimed that we always need a textbook definition of the word "normal," so that we know how weird we or other individuals are. But, what exactly is that definition? Is there one? Well, according to Webster, there are eight definitions: 1. Perpendicular to a tangent at a point of tangency. 2. According with, constituting, or not deviating from a norm, rule, or principle; conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern. 3. Occurring naturally. 4. Of, relating to, or characterized by average intelligence or development; free from mental disorder. 5. Having concentration of one gram equivalent of solute per liter; containing neither basic hydroxyl nor acid hydrogen; not associated; having a straight-chain structure. 6. Having the property that every coset produced by operating on the left by a given element is equal to the coset produced by operating on the right by the same element. 7. Relating to, involving, or being a normal cur...