Education is — apparently — not the only way to build brains. Maybe you should attend a party school. Not idiotically, of course. Moderately.
Back to that first link:
One myth about sex... is that “testosterone poisoning” makes young men stupid. Actually, a 2007 study... concluded that “boys of average intelligence had significantly higher testosterone levels than both mentally challenged and intellectually gifted boys, with the latter two groups showing no significant difference between each other.”Well, of course. But smarter people drink more....
But if having sex can make people smarter, the converse is not true: being smarter does not mean you’ll have more sex....
Lots of moving parts here. What is the means and what is the end? What do you want most? Sex, intelligence, or drinks? Is drinking a means to more intelligence and sex? Is intelligence a means to more drinking and sex? Or is sex a means to more intelligence and drinking? Are intelligence and drinking a means to more sex? Are intelligence and sex a means to more drinking? Or are — come on, admit it, this one is your favorite — drinking and sex a means to more intelligence?
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Put that together with the news that drinking doesn't kill brain cells.
So...
Why don't we get drunk and screw?
Who knew Jimmy Buffet was a genius?
I don't know if sex, and drinking enhanced my intelligence, but I did learn a number of don't-do-that-again's.
I've long attributed my freakishly high IQ to my compulsive masturbation.
@Eric Read the article. Apparently masturbation doesn't do the trick. Brainwise, I mean.
I mean… this part:
"But there’s some debate over whether fake sex—pornography—could be harmful. Neuroscientists from the University of Texas recently argued that excessive porn viewing, like other addictions, can result in permanent “anatomical and pathological” changes to the brain. That view, however, was quickly challenged….Whether or not porn "addiction" literally damages the brain, even brief viewing of pornographic images does interfere with people’s “working memory”—the ability to mentally juggle and pay attention to multiple items…."
That's specific to porn, and it seems that the studies take place in an environment that may preclude masturbation.
Back to that first link:
The first paragraph in that article is false.
Is "may" a good reason to read the rest ot it?
Sex in rats and mice probably greatly enables them to make sense of their natural feelings about things, especially if having been cooped up in cages. It's this sense that probably improves intelligence. They then have something meaningful to think about that they like to think about.
Pornography (the disgusting kind) obviously would reduce short-term memory because it is a natural defense against being seduced by sodomy for people to forget stuff reminiscent of sodomy and more particularly of having been sodomized.
I am skeptical that alcohol is beneficial. Studies suggest it makes one susceptible to cancer. As for supposed cardiovascular benefits (that could help the brain), studies don't mean much if not controlled. People who drink moderately can drink moderately, which suggests a willpower useful for moderation in eating, which has obvious health benefits. And comparing people of similar weight proves nothing, either, because alcohol probably can cause weight gain (beer belly). And often people are not drinking because they have health problems for which they are taking pills that are incompatible with alcohol. And surveys about alcohol are probably often done by drunken college kids, etc., who'd rather get drunk than actually call people to do surveys--alcohol is something people lie about. And, no, I don't want my dendrites deteriorating.
Now, it is not really surprising that red wines are supposedly the healthiest alcoholic beverages, because grapes are good for you. And the most nutritious part of the grape would be the seed and flesh, which in red wines is left in the fermentation broth. E.g., it is known that healthy resveratol is most concentrated in the skin of non-seedless red grapes. There's especially much of it in muscadine grapes. Well, hey, muscadine grapes are head-and-shoulders tastewise above any fruit out there that I have tasted, better even than pomegranates and fresh figs (though there's something to be said for mixing lots of different fruits to be eaten all at once). Eat your muscadine grapes the right way, though. Stay away from overripe muscadines--they may have fermented (and I rather suspect the thick skin of the muscadine makes it an especially great danger in that grape). But that's a natural thing to do if one goes (correctly) by taste rather than by how fruit makes one feel, because overripe grapes are somewhat mealy tasting and just not as tasty, a testament to the natural undesirability of alcohol consumption. Swallow the seeds--taking care to not chew them even a little bit, as the plant would resent (by predisposing you to early death, presumably). Then grind up the skin very thoroughly with the teeth to get the purple taste out and make things less sloppy, basically.
See what I mean? I'm exactly that dumb.
Althouse said:
"...drinking doesn't kill brain cells."
It is unwise to base your beliefs on one study when there are so many more to refer to. Althouse's statement may be technically correct but it is very misleading. The article she linked does not claim that alcoholism is safe for the brain, it claims just the opposite, that excess alcohol can cause significant damage to the brain in many ways. Imaging studies have demonstrated a specific pattern of brain atrophy from alcoholism.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2077939/
If a portion of the brain is atrophic and if the number of neurons per cc of atrophic brain is the same as the number of neurons in a normal brain, that could mean that the neuronal loss is proportionate to the loss of supporting structures and that the total number of neurons in the brain is actually decreased.
Here is another source of information about the effects of alcoholism in the brain.
http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh27-2/125-133.htm
The study about rats and sex was about rats and may or may not apply to humans. The authors attributed the additional neurons in the hippocampus to less stress in rats who had more sex. That means the effects of sex may be an indirect effect due to reduced stress rather than a direct cause and effect link between sex and brain neurogenesis.
What do you want most? Sex, intelligence, or drinks?
Why choose?
Is drinking a means to more intelligence and sex? Is intelligence a means to more drinking and sex? Or is sex a means to more intelligence and drinking? Are intelligence and drinking a means to more sex? Are intelligence and sex a means to more drinking? Or are — come on, admit it, this one is your favorite — drinking and sex a means to more intelligence?
Yes!
If your brain is healthy, so would all of your other body systems.
Including your reproductive.
The gentlemen's C was a good target in the old days. College was for social connections made in a wine blurred haze. The Naval Acadamy for one admired hard drinking among its new Officers. (See, John McCain and Fleet Admiral Ernest King.)
Commander in Chief of Naval Operations Ernest King was a typacal hard drinking Scots-Irish Ohio Calvinist Kinh had been passed over for Chief of Naval Operations in 1939, but by the end of the day December 30,!941 he was recalled by FDR and made Commander in Chief of the Fleet, and 8 weeks later Chief of Naval Operations, and in 1944, at mandatory retirement age, FDR created the post Fleet Admiral to kept him in charge.
King was quoted as saying, "When the going gets rough, they call the Sons of bitches in."
He was authritarian, staunch and distrustful of the British Navy and the US Army
"he article she linked does not claim that alcoholism is safe for the brain, it claims just the opposite, that excess alcohol can cause significant damage to the brain in many ways. Imaging studies have demonstrated a specific pattern of brain atrophy from alcoholism."
Yeah, heavy drinking is damaging, but the old line about killing brain cells was said to apply to anybody drinking at any time, even one drink. We were also told that the brain doesn't grow new cells. So, basically, any drinking causes some measure of permanent brain damage.
Light drinking is actually beneficial for other reasons, so getting that scary false warning out of the way matters.
Drinking and sex are an escape and motive, respectively, from and for education. That said, consume both in moderation. The consequences of liberal consumption vary with each individual and throughout life.
Has George Costanza weighed in?
Step 1: find a group of people;
Step 2: find something you are interested in;
Step 3: find something you are really interested in;
Step 4: Tweak Step 1 until...
Step 5: Step 2 causes Step3!
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