A study of 4,494 Swedish twins found gay men to be better at theater. Young adults approve of mama’s boys, but think they should act less feminine. Male–male same-sex genital interactions are more common among primate species with large testes. Malaysian doctors described paraffinoma in a man who received a course of oil injections to the penis; a fourteen-year-old boy who presented with symptoms initially thought to indicate diabetes was found to have poisoned himself by using an entire tube of Bengay to masturbate; and the authors of “A Warty Lesion on the Penis” declared no conflicts of interest. The masked birch caterpillar uses anal drumming to recruit collaborators in the construction of silken shelters. Among elderly male Americans who frequent female sex workers, advanced age is associated with more regular patronage, while lack of a spouse is associated with seeking the “girlfriend experience.” Humans are aroused when robots enjoin them to touch the robots’ “intimate areas.” Researchers interviewed a group of predominantly poor, African-American, H.I.V.-positive, heterosexual-identified, cisgender Los Angeles men who occasionally have sex with nonoperative trans women about the construction of femininity, approaches to “negotiating” the partner’s penis, and the dissonance of having sex with a female partner who has male genitals. “When I’m with them,” said one subject, “I don’t even want to see their penis, because then it totally would mess up my thing.” Sharkskin increases drag. Crime-scene analysis of lipstick smears can be made cheaper. Forensic scientists investigated how much female DNA is transferred to men’s penises and underwear following nonintimate social contact with women. Smartphone assistants respond inadequately to reports of rape. Ants captured by ant lions are less likely to call for help the more likely they are to die.
A twenty-eight-year-old Indian man who presented disheveled and whispering following the death of his wife in childbirth was cured of his grief by a single dose of ketamine, which carried him to heaven in a flying chariot. Psychosis makes it easier for Brazilians to lucid dream. Obsessive-compulsive Israelis tend to express themselves with language in which agency is omitted. A Bayesian phylogenetic study of ninety-three traditional Austronesian cultures found that social stratification is stabilized, and inherited class systems promoted, by human sacrifice. African-American men who died between 1802 and 1970 lived an average of one year longer if they possessed distinctively black forenames. A 1535 Bible in Lambeth Palace Library was found to contain handwritten acknowledgment of a debt whereby Mr. Cutpurse would repay Mr. Cheffyn twenty shillings on pain of imprisonment at Marshalsea. Most of the animals now dying in the sixth mass extinction will leave no fossil trace.
Scientists created transparent wood and lightweight black gold. A pig’s heart was kept beating in a baboon’s abdomen for 945 days. A Seattle turtle was treated for a buoyancy disorder in a hyperbaric chamber. Rising levels of oceanic CO2 are silencing snapping shrimps. The WIV1-CoV virus, present in Chinese horseshoe bats, is ready to infect humans. The head of the Bird Strike Prevention Office at Changshui Airport warned of the proliferation of black wattle. The forehead of the sperm whale is specialized for ramming combat. Britain’s ex–first sea lord disapproved of naming a new royal polar-research vessel Boaty McBoatface. Baltimoreans would pay an average of $7,875 to repair a large central facial defect. There is a universal Not Face.
Blind Stream, watercolor and ink on Xuan paper, by Yun-Fei Ji, whose work is on view at the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Courtesy the artist and James Cohan Gallery, New York City.
