Well, aside from the crappiness of the study, which seems pretty likely, and the even crappier theorizing based on it, and the typically totally crappy media coverage, I have to ask, is everybody looking at it from the wrong end of the telescope?

Sex work is intimate and emotional, not purely manipulative, not purely "just a job," as few jobs are. The telling fact is that when women are feeling menstrual and crappy and misanthropic, they perform less well. So perhaps when they are feeling sociable and friendly and yes more sexual, they perform better? Just because it is work and not something you would do for free, does not mean that it is something that you might take a certain satisfaction from when you are in the mood.

Maybe it is not at all about men somehow detecting ovulation, but women being just a bit more into the "job" from time to time.

Hominids shook off the whole female going into heat thing common to almost all other mammals no more than 5 million years ago (the pongoid split), and for all we know a lot more recently. It is not really surprising that female sexual behaviour might just be a little bit more enticing and enthusiastic during ovulation, that there might be just a little teeny tiny bit of being in heat going on.

And it is pretty primal stuff, so it is also unsurprising that the behaviour might not be all that conscious or reasoned. The whole "female deceptive ovulation" theory is pretty old and at least somewhat credible. There have also been a number of somewhat credible studies showing a correlation between ovulation and promiscuity/infidelity, none of it reasoned or planned or internally acknowledged. So perhaps a hangover from a previous oestrus/heat behavior, not an evolutionary adaption of some kind.

But then the EV boys get ahold of it, and go to town. I'm sorry CZEdwards, you might have on some slightly rose-coloured glasses there, the field is not anywhere nearly so reformed and reasonable as you depict.

Back when I did my thesis, on a subsidiary matter I had to make reference to nutrition, so I did some research. Up until then I had thought it was relatively scientific. I was shocked to find out what a load of crap most of it is. Various national food guides with their daily recommended amounts are put together in a highly politicized fashion, with actual science taking a back seat. What you end up with is something that satisfies various food industries, and includes a few quirky notions from various activists and politicians.

As I dug into the data, I realized that there actually isn't much data there at all. Human beings have wildly variant requirements, which actually can only be tested by deeply unethical starvation type experiments anyway. We can, however, look at history, Vitamin C deficiency (scurvy) for example. Before Captain Cook, ships would go on 2 year voyages with very limited access to fresh food. Some of the crew would get scurvy within months, some would take over a year, and some would never get it at all. Obviously, highly variable requirements. The same applies to every other nutrient, and indeed, every contaminant too, as some people seemed to be able to tolerate exposures to say mercury (as in pre-penicillin syphilis treatments) that would quickly poison others.

Most nutritional recommendations are based on a guess at the median requirement or toxicity of whatever it is, and adding two standard deviations up or down as it may be. Which means that while the recommendations might just maybe apply very generally on a population level, they mean pretty much diddly-squat for any particular individual looking at their own particular diet.

The only general things that are really well established are 1) eat lots of different stuff, and 2) stay away from contaminants.

There are three or four "anonymous" cowards and two or three pseudonamed assholes who have some issues. The only thing rational people can do is: A) comment more than we normally would, so as not to leave them the stage, and B) not respond to them, which can be difficult, trolls specialize in reaching up over the bridge.

AKA and fetboy and I have been trying to fight them down, but it isn't easy. All I can say is comment alot more than you would otherwise, and maybe we can drown out the filth and insanity of a bunch of pimply faced adolescents still living in their mothers' basements with little better to do than spew back the hatred of their ruined pathetic loser(TM) lives.

that every comment on this this thread will be of deep interest to DHS drones.....

They will track you, they will no fly you, they will find your ssn and trace you.

And that's ok.

'cuz the dolt in the white house and his evil minions/masters are keeping everybody safe.