Delicious LiveJournal Links for 7-30-2008

[andrewducker]

• How much it costs to run an LJ clone
  From the people working on dreamwidth
  (tags: livejournal internet business)
• BBC NEWS | Health | Hour's exercise 'to lose weight'
  "Women who want to lose 10% of their weight - and keep it off - need to be exercising for almost an hour, five days a week, according to US experts." So most people will need to combine that with a diet. Which is also unlikely to work.
  (tags: diet exercise health research weight obesity)
• Jazz label joins the DRM-free revolution
  "Record label Universal Music Classics & Jazz is making its entire catalogue available online without copyi protection as part of an experiment to gauge fans' demand for MP3 tracks."
  (tags: mp3 music technology)
• 'Transsexuality gene' boosts male hormones - sex - 29 July 2008 - New Scientist
  A gene variant has been identified that appears to be associated with female-to-male transsexuality. The variation is in the gene involved in the metabolism of sex hormones. 44% of FtM transsexuals carried it, compared with 31% of non-transsexual women.
  (tags: transexualism hormones genetics)
• Starbucks: Good System, Bad System
  Great article on how systems get in the way if you don't allow exceptions.
  (tags: customerservice business)

Comments

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Now isn't that interesting. But have they found a gene associated with MTF trans people? As you know, I've long thought the two groups are very different.

[andrewducker]

Not that I've seen.

And yes, I'd tend to agree, from the little I know.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

But equally lesbians are very different from gay men, and yet all the test and experiments assume both to be the same and geared towards the gay male perspective (cf. John Barrowman's embarrassing-to-watch on-screen personal journey).

[andrewducker]

Experiments assume them both to be the same?

I've seen some tests that showed certain similarities (to do with testosterone levels in the womb, and some brain structure similarities), but nothing which assumed it.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

It's more that there just aren't really any investigations into female sexuality - any probing of the topic is approached from the male POV and, if anything, lesbians are tagged on as an optional extra. Mainly I feel because the few forays there have been in any genuine way have suggested a radical difference between male and female sexuality that would just be way too complicate to bother with given we only really care what makes boys bum each other.

Please don't ask me to back this one up, it's just an overall impression from a few years of reading here and there. I'm sure someone around here'll know better than me.

[andrewducker]

It's not a bad assessment. I have seen some investigation into female sexuality - but it's generally been in contrast to male sexuality, and of the "Men are simple - we do X, they react in way Y. Women are really, really confusing, we do X, they do Y, unless they do Z, which they also do if we do A."