(SYDNEY MORNING MAIL) 10 June 2008:

File this under: Duh.

In what must be one of the least surprising relationship columns ever, the writer reveals that men are indeed willing to have sex with a woman simply because they’d like to have sex, not necessarily because they love that particular woman.

She goes on to point out that for a woman, having sex can  be one of the things which triggers feelings of love for a man.

The second part is both true and interesting, but is it really necessary in this day and age to point out the first?

(REUTERS) 29 May 2008:

In what might be the most mindbogglingly obvious result in all of social research, an Ipsos Reid survey in Canada found that men and women are not quite on the same page when it comes to romantic feelings.

For example, 78 percent of the women surveyed said they were in love while only 64 percent of the men did. It could be of course that this is in fact true, that men are less worried about being in a relationship without love.

Or it could be that as Sean Simpson, the research manager said, ” There may be some lack of communication going on…”

Well, yes, isn’t that something that women have been complaining about for eons?

(FINANCIAL POST) 9 February 2008:

Some say that economists are the people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Thus, when they try to calculate the value of love we might expect them to get very confused, for we know that the value of the love of a good woman is beyond rubies.

However, by studying accident statistics it has been possible to see the value that people place on their spouses from a financial standpoint. Looking at accidents in which either the driver or the front seat passenger died, if that passenger was the spouse of the driver then the driver was more than 4 times more likely to be the person who died than when the passenger was unrelated. The assumption is that when an accident happens a driver is more likely to put themselves at risk in order to protect their spouse.

That driving your spouse incites suicide is an alternative explanation, one thought rather less likely. After all, we do have those divorce laws.

(INDIANAPOLIS STAR) 28 January 2008:

According to one confirmed and self-confident bachelor, there’s no point in falling in love. You can simply listen to country songs if you want to know what being in a dysfunctional, co-dependent relationship is like.

Most don’t agree, but it is true that the marriage rate is falling. For men in their early thirties, 33 percent have never been married (as opposed to 29 percent of women). That difference tells us something about the way in which there is usually a (small) difference in ages between partners in a couple.

What no one knows quite yet is whether this is a delaying of marriage or of listening to too many country songs.

(DISCOVERYCHANNEL.COM) 19 December 2007:

“People aren’t the only primates who will pay for sex, new research shows. Male longtailed macaques exchange grooming for the right to mate with females whose fur they cleaned.

The findings, which have been accepted for publication in the journal Animal Behavior, present the first evidence that a “social market” influences sexual interaction in a non-human primate.

“I found that the amount of grooming a male performs on a female during a sexual interaction is related to the supply/demand ratio of females per male around the male-female pair at the time of the grooming,” explained Michael Gumert, who conducted the research.

Put another way, male monkeys — especially lower status ones — have to groom more to get more action when fewer females are around.”

(THE SUN) 10 December 2007:

While he has four acknowledged children by three babymamas, JACK NICHOLSON claims he could have fathered as many as 9,000 kids.  “There could be 9,000 for all I know – I used to live so freely.”   Jack, 70 – whose exes include actress ANJELICA HOUSTON – admits calming down with age.   He said: “You can’t get too wild these days but I’m as wild as you can get.”   A source said: “He loves women – it’s as simple as that.”

(SCIENCE DAILY) 10 November 2007:

One in five young Britons say that they had sex with someone new while on vacation in another country. This has caused some concern among researchers worried about the high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases among the young.

The puzzling thing is that more than half of those who went abroad for such brief relationships said that they actually had sex with other Britons while there.

It’s interesting that these young Brits flee the country looking for love and find that the only people prepared to take them is other Britons.

(MSNBC.COM) 23 August 2007:

Viagra may not only boost a man’s physical ability to have sex, it might boost his emotional feeling of love as well. The drug raised levels of the hormone oxytocin in lab rats, reports the Journal of Physiology. Oxytocin levels raise naturally during childbirth, nursing, and sexual pleasure. It’s known as the “bonding” hormone.

(GLOBE AND MAIL) 18 July 2007:

Researchers at the University of Texas have studied the reasons why people have sex. Apparently there are some 237 different possible ones. Love and attraction figured largely, but other responses were in order to gain a promotion, in order to get closer to God, revenge, to get rid of a headache or simply to get warm. One reason offered, that it burns calories, is certainly true, but surely there are better justifications than “overcoming boredom”?

There were no great differences is reasons offered by men and women: the real surprise is that no one seems to have mentioned the most obvious reason: it’s fun.

(THE INDEPENDENT) 11 March 2007:

Quoting recent research showing that men and women form friendships in different ways and for different reasons, British commentator Sarah Sands believes that friendships are in fact solely a female thing.

Some research suggests that men form shallower relationships while women stick at a friendship through thick and thin.  Sands writes, “Girls continue to form friendships; men join teams.”  She also writes, “Girls love social networking internet sites; boys lose interest once they have posted pictures of themselves and given their opinions.”

Perhaps it’s not that men don’t form friendships, they just form them in a different way.  The friendships formed on a sports team by men mean just as much to them as womens’ friendships do.