On the Backs of Annelids

Gene switch altered sex orientation of worms
Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:56 AM ET

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Altering a gene in the brain of female worms changed their sexual orientation, U.S. researchers said on Thursday, making female worms attracted to other females.

The study reinforces the notion that sexual orientation is hard-wired in the brain, said Erik Jorgensen, scientific director of the Brain Institute at the University of Utah.

"They look like girls, but act and think like boys," Utah researcher Jamie White, who worked on the study published in the journal Current Biology, said in a statement.

Researchers in Jorgensen's lab switched on a gene in female worms that makes the body develop male structures, but they only activated the gene in the brain.

As a result, the female worms still had female bodies, but they behaved like males.

"It suggests sexual behavior is encoded in our genes" and not caused by extra nerve cells specific to males or females, Jorgensen said in a telephone interview.

Animals such as nematodes, fruit flies and mice share many of the same genes as humans and are often used as models to understand human genetics.

But Jorgensen said the study is not likely to resolve the burning question about the genesis of sexual orientation in humans. "A human's brain is much more complex than a worm's brain," he said.

Many scientists think a host of factors such as genetics, hormones and environment may play a role in determining sexual orientation in humans, but this has not been proven.

Jorgensen said the study is interesting because it suggests rather than being caused by extra, sex-specific nerve cells, attraction behaviors are part of the same brain circuit.

The finding was part of a study looking at areas in the worms' brains involved in sexual attraction.

LIVE IN DIRT, EAT GERMS

Nematodes, or C. elegans, are tiny worms about one millimeter long that live in the dirt, chomping bacteria. They have no eyes and rely on smell for navigation and propagation.

There are few males, only one in 500, so most of these female nematodes are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female sexual organs. This gives the female worms the ability to fertilize their own eggs and produce offspring in the absence of a male.

"For the most part they are females," Jorgensen said. "It's really hard to tell that they are hermaphrodites, but they do make these few sperm."

When they do mate with males, female worms produce 1,200 progeny, compared with just 200 when they produce their own sperm.

The researchers were trying to understand the underpinnings of sexual attraction in the male nematodes.

They reasoned it could arise from four extra smell-related nerve cells found only in male worm brains, from four core nerves found in both males and females or from a mix of both.

When they systematically neutralized the male-only neurons, mature male worms still responded to the females.

The findings imply nerve cells common to both male and female worms are central to sexual attraction and sexual orientation.

"They have genes for both male behavior and female behavior in them," Jorgensen said. "It suggests the brain determines behavior."

The study expands on prior studies suggesting a genetic component to sexual orientation.

"This is one more observation. We've seen this in flies and in mice," he said. "The difference is we know what cells are involved."

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation.

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.

Another step forward brought to us by the NSF. Or wiggle, as it were. I especially like the fact this research is coming out of Utah.

Sixty

Happy Birthday Hillary Clinton! Hope you kick collective ass despite the electorate.

• I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting.
  Ronald Reagan

TOS in the House, Represent

I was happily coding when the Project Manager dropped by for some insight. While I have enjoyed being “dealt back in” to some Architecture steering, it can be very distracting to switch tracks, losing momentum. I gave him a fiercely annoyed face. He laughed and the conversation went:

PM: “Do you remember the Star Trek episode where the kid projected a mean image?”
Me: “Naturally. That's The Corbomite Maneuver.”
PM: “No no no. This is the one with the kid from Gentle Ben.”
Me: *Spock arched eyebrow* “Unfortunately I'm not that old.”
PM: “Uh huh. Well, The Corbomite Maneuver had the Klingons in it where Kirk used a code the Klingons had already broken.”
Me: *eye roll* “Now you're mixing episodes. That could be Day of the Dove or The Trouble with Tribbles… or are thinking Next Generation? There's an alien child that uses holography to convince Riker he's been caught on a secret Romulan base.”
PM: “No. This was definitely the old series.”
Me: “Okay. You remember the crazy looking alien at the end of the credits, right before the Desilu logo comes up?”
PM: “Right! That's the image the kid projected.”
Me: “Yes. That's The Corbomite Maneuver. Now what the Hell do you want?”
PM: “Well, you just made that face at me when I walked up.”
Me: “...”

Thankfully Memory Alpha had an image of the alien so we were able to move on. Still, I love being right about the old stuff. Bitches need to not doubt.

Skin Deep

Very few people can scoop me when it comes to Star Trek news, but Adam has a few times. Being adorable makes it hard to resent him for it. Anyway. I like the fact that I have no idea who Chris Pine is, the guy just casted for Kirk. Hell, I only know two of the primary actors. Will be fresh, new, and all that. My biggest concern so far is that all the cast is hot. Really hot. Eric Bana, Karl Urban, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Zoe Saldana. Even that Anton Yelchin kid is cute. Stupid Hollywood.

You Go, Boy!

Sen. Craig says he'll appeal, lashes out at Romney
updated 5:52 a.m. EDT, Mon October 15, 2007

BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- Sen. Larry Craig says he will file an appeal Monday over a judge's refusal to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea stemming from his arrest in an airport bathroom sex sting.

In an interview Sunday with KTVB-TV, Craig repeated he will not resign his post in the Senate and said he will continue to work his legal options.

"It is my right to do what I'm doing," said Craig, an Idaho Republican. "I've already provided for Idaho certainty that Idaho needed -- I'm not running for re-election. I'm no longer in the way. I am pursuing my constitutional rights."

In another interview, Craig's wife, Suzanne, said the senator didn't tell her about the arrest until the story was about to break in the media.

"I felt like the floor was falling out from under me. ... And I felt like almost like I was going down a drain for a few moments," she told NBC's Matt Lauer.

Sen. Craig told Lauer it was a "tough call" not to tell anyone about the incident.

"I didn't want to embarrass my wife, my kids, Idaho and my friends," Craig said. "And I wrestled with it a long while. ... I should have told my wife. I should have told my kids. And most importantly, I should have told counsel."

The senator also discussed his relationship with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Craig was Senate liaison for Romney's campaign, a post he abandoned when the scandal came to light.

"I was very proud of my association with Mitt Romney," Craig told Lauer. "... And he not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again."

Lauer's interview with the Craigs will be broadcast Tuesday night on "Matt Lauer Reports" and Wednesday morning on "Today."

Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in August after he was accused of soliciting sex in a bathroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport in June.

After the matter became public, Craig tried to withdraw his plea. But a judge in Minnesota refused, saying Craig's plea "was accurate, voluntary and intelligent, and ... supported by the evidence."

This has to be the best GOP news I've heard all year. Senator Craig's reversal on his promise to resign has him back on CNN. Plus, he threw out some venom for Romney. What is this man thinking? Innocent or not, gay or not, public opinion has been set. His party has abandoned him. His political career is in free fall. Now he's just being vindictive; more power to him. *snicker*

Social Justice

Larry Craig enters pop-culture lexicon
published Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Among the most famous excuses ever given for questionable behavior, "I have a wide stance" must fall somewhere between the schoolchild's favorite "the dog ate my homework" and President Clinton's "I didn't inhale."

But Sen. Larry Craig's contention -- made just after his arrest in a restroom sex sting -- has permeated the public consciousness, showing up as more than just the punch line to late-night talk show jokes.

The online Urban Dictionary defines "wide stance" as a euphemism for a closeted homosexual. David Kurtz of the blog Talking Points Memo called Craig's wide-stance claim "The Best Legal Defense of 2007." And Beau Jarvis, who writes about wine, travel and food on the blog "Basic Juice," notes that the phrase has become less than innocent and proposes "cleansing" it by using it to describe a well-balanced wine.

Craig uttered the now-famous phrase after an undercover police officer at the Minneapolis airport arrested him on June 11, according to police reports.

Sgt. Dave Karsnia claimed Craig entered a neighboring stall after peering at him through a crack in the door, then slid his foot underneath the stall divider, tapping it several times before moving it so it touched the officer's foot. Then, Karsnia said, Craig waved his hand underneath the divider. Karsnia said he recognized the gestures as a coded invitation for gay sex.

During questioning, the senator said he simply has a wide stance when using the restroom and that the officer must have seen him reaching to pick up a piece of paper on the floor, according to the police report.

Craig pleaded guilty in August to disorderly conduct, then unsuccessfully tried to withdraw his plea after the incident became public. Though he initially said he intended to resign, Craig vowed last week to serve out the last 15 months of his term.

Will "wide stance" last as long in popular usage?

"You search the blogosphere or even newspapers and you'll find a lot of references to it," said Grant Barrett, co-host of the nationwide public radio show "A Way With Words" and author of several slang dictionaries. "People are toying with the words, seeing how it feels on the keyboard."

Craig's office declined to comment.

The question to any new slang is whether it will last five or 10 years, Barrett said.

"How can we not mention Watergate and the -gate suffix? That's the single most successful new political word ever," Barrett said. "Over time, the use makes the original meaning become diminished -- even curse words, with use, their value diminishes and they become ordinary."

So far, about six weeks after the scandal broke, the slang shows no sign of slowing down. The Oct. 8 edition of The New Yorker magazine featured an illustration by Barry Blitt called "Narrow Stance," showing Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sitting in a men's room, looking down at another man's foot thrust underneath the stall divider.

In an Oct. 6 "Saturday Night Live" skit, comedian Amy Poehler remarked, "You do have a wide stance," as the punch line of a series of jokes about Craig. Late-night talk show hosts Jay Leno, David Letterman and others have also lampooned the senator's stance.

Still, another new slang term seems to be outpacing "wide stance" in the national lexicon, Barrett said. Unfortunately for Craig, it also stems from his scandal.

"Are you tracking the term 'toe-tapper?' That's gotten more traction than 'wide stance' so far," Barrett said. "They both have too much cachet. They're political, social, new, slangy and a little naughty."

Both phrases will likely make Barrett's short list of nominations for the most significant new word of 2007, as voted on by the American Dialect Society, he said.

"It's a whimsical vote that we do each year," said Barrett, who is a vice president for the society.

So what makes a new phrase last? It has to be useful, Barrett said, and it has to be able to stand alone, without a reference to its origin.

"There's a lot of political slang that hasn't lasted," he said. "The test will be when the story's old hat and then we'll know for sure." (Rebecca Boone, AP)

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

While I know it's wrong to derive pleasure from this man's suffering, I can't help myself. Like Dan Savage said in a podcast, incidents like this become a cutting retort. Whenever we're confronted with vociferous outrage or stinging rebukes from the religious right, we can counter with examples from within their own camp. "Oh! You are really making some noise Senator. You must be gay, too! Like that Craig guy. Or that Haggard guy." *jigs*

Britney Loses Custody Of Children

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Britney Loses Custody Of Children

A judge ruled Monday that Britney Spears must surrender custody of her two sons to ex-husband Kevin Federline because of her alleged substance abuse. What do you think?

Tessa Stokler, Taxidermist "Isn't there another relative or perhaps a perfect stranger the kids could live with?"

Sam Adkins, Systems Analyst "God, I hope there's some high-stakes poker game Federline could lose."

Chuck Strange, Clothing Inspector "At least now she'll have time to do more drugs and have more kids."

The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Lazy

The only printed new media I consistently bother with anymore is the Advocate. Really don't have a gay network of friends and I hate it when str8 co-workers hear about things before I do, so I've had a subscription for years. When I got the latest issue a few days ago I was excited to see how the interview with Hillary went. I was disappointed enough to actually write feeedback to the editor for the first time in more than a decade of readership. Went something like this:

Finished the latest issue and am liking the impact Luke Hayman brought; the pace and content of Forward section was very engaging. Yet the cover story was disappointing. It was basically a personal essay by Sean Kennedy reasoning how it's safe for our community to love Hillary despite her stance on same-sex marriage. While I thought it was well written and basically agree, the big, bold, yellow letters on the cover say INTERVIEW. So… where's the interview? The one that Stockwell said, "marks the first time a presidential front-runner has sat down with the gay press so early in the campaign." I missed that interview.

Guess I'm going to have to actually research Hillary on my own. *sigh*