Friday, December 10, 2004

The virtues of the desktop

Suddenly all of those viagra emails are making more sense. A study published in this month's Reproduction Journal finds that using laptops may decrease male fertility. The issue here is, apparently, heat.

According to the New Scientist, Yefim Sheynkin's is the first study to address the impact of laptops on sperm count:
. . . the only previous scientific paper on the impact of warm laptops on male reproductive organs was a 2002 anecdotal report published in The Lancet (vol 360, p 1704) of a scientist who suffered burns to his penis and scrotum after using one.
On that note, let me say, I have been labeled a workaholic on more than one occasion, but I have never, and I mean never, seared my pudendum in the line of duty. (Etymological aside: Did you know that the origin of the word pudendum is the Latin pudenda membra , which means "parts to be ashamed of"?)

I know, first the farting herring post, now the boiling sperm post...in an effort to stave off my thundering holiday-fascist state-mother's yarzheit depression I have descended to pretty juvenile amusement.

Thanks to Pinko Feminist Hellcat for the heads-up, as it were, on this one.

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