Men's voices change as they age

Lately I've noticed that my voice is deeper. Seemed odd. I guess that's why this story in the NYT caught my eye this morning. It chronicles how a man's voice changes as he ages. And lo and behold, the voice is said to deepen between 50 and 68 years old. And then it gets higher. Horrors! This was described in the following way:

“What happens is that Grandma and Grandpa begin to sound more similar,” Dr. Hunter said.

Something to look forward to. If my voice gets higher I'll just stop talking. I've got a deep, gruff voice. Do you hear me?! Deep and gruff!

Iran snubs half its population

Today's NYT:

Subjects now open only to men include accounting, engineering and pure chemistry, according to the Iranian news Web site Rooz Online. The University of Tehran, for example, will now accept only male applicants for subjects relating to natural resources, forestry and mathematics. Most petroleum-related subjects have also been made exclusive to men. 

“Some fields are not very suitable for women’s nature,” said Abolfazl Hasani, a senior Iranian education official, according to the Rooz Online report. 

Also note:

Women account for nearly 60 percent of university students in Iran.

Religion poisons everything.

Gadhafi: "It's all about me"

From AP:

A Russian newspaper is quoting the Kremlin's special envoy to Libya as saying Moammar Gadhafi has threatened to blow up Tripoli if it falls into rebel hands.

This is the same mindset that causes a certain, idiotic breed of men to kill their families because they lost a job. What self-important idiots these men are. Similarly, if Gadhafi must go, he feels a need to destroy Tripoli. It's a case of X chromosomes gone mad.

But then, there are so many self-important people these days, and of both genders. It's all about them. We should give them their own holiday. They'd like that. How about "Self-Important Twit Day"?

Only cowards kill women and children

Even in a world filled with terrible news stories, the ones that upset me the most are about men who kill wives, girlfriends or children. There are so many of these sickening, cowardly men running loose in the world. It makes me ill, it really does.

Yesterday in the New York Times there was a story about the sentencing of a creep who beheaded his wife. An excerpt:

Muzzammil Hassan, who'd claimed his wife abused him, stood with his head bowed as the judge told him that even his own children had nothing but contempt for him. He scoffed at the idea that Hassan stabbed Aasiya Hassan more than 40 times and decapitated her because he was afraid of her.

"You bought two hunting knives, you tested them for sharpness, you laid in wait in a darkened hallway for your unsuspecting wife and you butchered her," Judge Thomas Franczyk said. "Self-defense? I don't think so."

I don't think so, either. Men like Hassan are selfish psychopaths who care nothing for anyone but themselves. If only we could push a button and remove them from the world. It would be a much better planet without them.

The story has extra, added irony. Read on.

Hassan, who killed his wife inside the offices of the Muslim-oriented television station the couple started to dispel negative cultural stereotypes . . . painted himself as a victim in an eight-year marriage filled with arguments and threats. He said God sent him the courage to kill his wife and that he felt as if he'd escaped from a terrorist camp afterward.

Yes, Hassan, undoubtedly god gave you the courage to be the murderous, cowardly swine that you are. I expect no less of gods. And the Times writer adds this postscript to the story:

But there was no denying the irony in the case that involved a couple who made it their life's work to improve the image of Muslims in a post-Sept. 11 world and the worst possible stereotypes their television station was meant to counter.

Indeed. These men are all cowards who would never think of attacking another man. They might get hurt! Murderous, cowardly swine -- that's all they are. I hope each of them is persecuted in prison.

Men are less responsible than women

I've been planning to write a post about this for some time. You know, it was hard to tell who was responsible and who wasn't, way back in the days when I lived in a largely gay community. Gay men weren't pushing to have babies in those days, or marry. Our lives were totally about fun. (Well, we worked too, but fun was a major driver in our lives.) So in that era, I wasn't aware of the differences between men and women.

But after I moved out of NYC and into the rural area in which I now live, I met a ton of straight people with children. And one thing that has come through loud and clear to me is the childishness of the men, and the responsible nature of the women. I don't know what to attribute this to, other than obvious child-rearing differences, but it's a stark fact. The straight men I've met up here are much, much less responsible than the women. They're children, really, and the wife or girlfriend is the only one who holds things together. In many relationships, it seems the men have a mommy rather than a life partner.

What prompts me to write today is an article in the New York Daily News today about a book that takes an absurd tack in analyzing this situation. Oh, no, it's not the men's fault -- it's the damn, uppity women. Mind you, the book is being excerpted in the Wall Street Journal, so it's not surprising that the book's message is warped. Here's an excerpt:

"Hymowitz's book, "Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men Into Boys," is excerpted in the Wall Street Journal, and discusses the "novel sort of limbo, a hybrid state of semi-hormonal adolescence and responsible self-reliance" that characterizes many young men in today's society. 

Though she attributes a number of elements to the notable emergence of this boy-to-man subculture, chief among them are financial stability and changing sexual hierarchies."

Uh, huh. "Changing sexual hierarchies." It surely has nothing to do with the stupid, irresponsible nature of the men themselves. Nope, it's the uppity women. Sigh.

Why many men lack empathy

"Extra testosterone reduces your empathy" is a story I found on physorg today. The title pretty much tells the tale.

Read the whole thing if you like. It explains why women can understand another person's intentions better than men -- in other words, why they're more empathetic. This finding makes you wonder why in hell men run the planet, given this huge defect. Here's a takeout from the story:

A new study from Utrecht and Cambridge Universities has for the first time found that an administration of testosterone under the tongue in volunteers negatively affects a person's ability to "mind read", an indication of empathy.

What they mean by "mind read" is the ability to understand another person's motivations by watching them. In other words, the thing autistic kids find it so hard to do: understand others. And when we say women are "intuitive", we are again referring to this skill.

It was obvious without the study but it's good to nail this stuff down. I wonder if you can extend this further. Men who have hairy chests and go bald have more testosterone than men with hairless chests who keep their head hair in later life. Does this mean you can fool the hairy guys more easily because they won't understand your intentions? Interesting question.

Put that cup down, pardner

I think the results of a new study from the UK are funny. They tested male and female reactions to caffeine. The results? It turns out the men can't handle it but the women thrive. Apparently the men's fight-or-flight reactions are triggered when they drink coffee. It actually lessens their effectiveness! I'm not sure why I this so funny but I do.

Here are a couple of take-out paragraphs from the above-linked article:

The results, published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology showed that pairs of women drinking caffeinated coffee completed puzzles 100 seconds faster than those on decaffeinated coffee, while men on caffeine completed the puzzles 20 seconds slower than those on the decaffeinated. Men drinking caffeinated coffee were “greatly impaired” in the memory tasks.

The researchers pointed out that many high-level meetings are male-dominated and concluded that unlimited supplies of coffee at such meetings might not be a good idea, at least for the men attending them. They said men might even “unintentionally sabotage the partnerships forged to solve stressful issues.”

Almost a joke but not -- man games!

Everyone can just lie back and relax now. The human race has reached its pinnacle with the release of urine-stream games. You know you want to read it. Here's the link.

I'll bet Rex Ryan is dying to try one.