Star One Smart Blog's

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This pshop is the result of an email request. For what purpose, I don't know. Honestly. But I can make a post out of it, given another angle I hoarked from AOSHQ.

First, not being a 'pop-culture' savant, I didn't really know who Ashton Kutcher was (is). Wiki tells me he's an Iowa farmboy made good, he comes up from a bad family background. AK attempted suicide, had issues with petty thievery, went through some heavy-duty partying in college...I can relate to that! But not a hint of teh ghey...after all, Kutcher's married to Demi Moore, who was married to Bruce Willis...much like the NFL's Minor League, there's always a coaching marriage carousel in Hollyweird...

So, when this pic shows up in my email, wanting Ashton Kutcher's visage attached, somehow, I wonder if he's gay or not. And how in the world I can make it work...if he isn't?

Is Ashton Kuthcer ghey? Probably not, from my research; but Hollywood does do strange thing to Iowa Farmboys, I'm sure of that...

He's probably on the bubble!

Which brings me to the tie-in...h/t Ace. If Kutcher has bent to Where No Man should Ever Stoop, there may be hope for him!

From the latest Nature Neuroscience Journal (via pop-culture icon Fox News)...Scientists have managed to turn Homosexuality on...and off! in Fruit Flies...

Post-doctoral researcher Yael Grosjean found that all male fruit flies with a mutation in their GB gene courted other males.

"It was very dramatic," Featherstone said. "The GB mutant males treated other males exactly the same way normal male flies would treat a female. They even attempted copulation."
...

"Based on our previous work, we reasoned that GB mutants might show homosexual behavior because their glutamatergic synapses were altered in some way," Featherstone said. "Homosexual courtship might be sort of an 'overreaction' to sexual stimuli."

To test this, the researchers genetically altered synapse strength, independent of GB. They also gave flies drugs to alter synapse strength. As predicted, they were able to turn fly homosexuality on and off, within hours.

"It was amazing. I never thought we'd be able to do that sort of thing, because sexual orientation is supposed to be hard-wired," Featherstone said. "This fundamentally changes how we think about this behavior."

This study provide understanding of fruity behaviors in flies. Whether or not these 'fixes' can extend to the human animal will be a question for much experimentation (and debate; just wait until certain City-States in California get wind of this. It's OK, say the leftists, to use human embryos for stem-cell research, but try to reverse gay? That would be...FASCIST!)

So, Ashton, if you are somehow falling victim to whatever Hollyweird does to people, before you get any worse, pay some big bucks to some nice neuroscientists for some sort of anti-ghey supplement. You can then wear all the pink shirts you want, and laugh at anyone who questions why you might be carrying a dude about on a beach.

Because you'll have the stuff that returns you to normal, and you can, once again, recognize male pheromones as a repulsive stimulus.

Just like the original recognition you were born with!

Scientists drug-test whole cities

This is obviously a welcome use of technology. Instead of relying on the questionnaires handed out in schools, churches, on street corners, or wherever else researchers go to get raw data, now they can get the straight poop...right from the raw sewerage.

Yes, everything that goes in must eventually work it's way back to the sewerage system (at least in well-developed metro areas) and that stuff isn't going to complain if tests are taken.

One of the early results of the new study showed big differences in methamphetamine use city to city. One urban area with a gambling industry had meth levels more than five times higher than other cities. Yet methamphetamine levels were virtually nonexistent in some smaller Midwestern locales, said Jennifer Field, the lead researcher and a professor of environmental toxicology at Oregon State.

Yes, Las Vegas (or is it Reno?) would have quite a bit of meth, given the city runs 24/7. That's the impetus for nonstop gambling (and for the workers who have to pull those hours...I wonder if most of the Meth in Vegas is local, and not tourist-guest users?)

Avoiding the Testing?

At least the ACLU can't complain. ("Uh, I represent that turd right there, and you can't be violating it's civil rights, because, well, he's underprivileged and came from a non-Charmin background!") Think I'm kidding? Hmmmph...

The idea of testing on a citywide basis for drugs makes sense, as long as it doesn't violate people's privacy, said Tom Angell of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a Washington-based group that wants looser drug laws.

"This seems to be less offensive than individualized testing," he said.

Offensive...you mean using the drugs, or getting caught using the drugs, Tom?

From the article:

Field said researchers can't calculate how many people in a town are using drugs.

She said that one fairly affluent community scored low for illicit drugs except for cocaine. Cocaine and ecstasy tended to peak on weekends and drop on weekdays, she said, while methamphetamine and prescription drugs were steady throughout the week.

But the favorite drug used by 'Merrycans everyday? Caffeine.

Reminds me...coffee, hit the door. After the Charmin...