From The Guinea Pig Diaries by A.J. Jacobs. Copyright c. 2009 by A.J. Jacobs. Reprinted by permission of Simon and Schuster, Inc.

In the course of all the life experiments I do for journalism, the most common theme of the e-mails I get sent is that my wife is a saint. These e-mails are sent by readers who are in awe of Julie for putting up with my biblical beard, or for tolerating the endless stream during my year of reading the Britannica. Often, they'll say that I owe her something for the suffering I've inflicted—precious stones, perhaps.

But a … Read More

Is Lady Gaga a hermaphrodite? It just might be true, per a scooter-stepping revealing sneak peak during a recent performance at Britain's Glastonbury festival. 

Admittedly, it's hard to tell both in the video below and in the picture to the left. Yes, she is not wearing much over her pelvic area. Yes, it is skin tight. But according to Bossip, Lady GaGa allegedly has already confirmed her dual-genderism, though the quote below is unsourced and thus somewhat dubious:

It's not something that I'm ashamed of, just isn't something that I go around telling everyone. Yes. I have both male … Read More

Are you familiar with the show True Blood? It's part of the vampire invasion of aught eight. The program features few of the cuddly and cute bloodsuckers from the Twilight series (though Bill Compton does have a lot in common with handsome Edward Cullen). These undead sons (and daughters) of the night are dark, dangerous and debauched. They care about two things: feeding and fornicating (not necessarily in that order).

Thanks to a synthetic blood developed by Japanese scientists, the vampires in the world of True Blood have come "out of the coffin" and into mainstream … Read More

I'm a man, which is supposed to mean that I'm not willing to ask for directions. But on this front, I've always been a little different. For the last nine years, my wife has been my shining directional beacon, a kind of sit-next-to-me Northern Star. When we lived in New York City, she would send me on the subway with yellow post-it notes that detailed the stops and transfers. Without these handwritten guides, I'd likely be penning this story as an emissary of the mole people.

But this year, I was given a Garmin global positioning system (GPS) as a birthday … Read More

Chastity Bono, the only child of entertainers Sonny and Cher, has begun taking steps to transition from female to male, a publicist revealed yesterday. He began living as a man in March, shortly after his 40th birthday, and is now known to his family and friends as Chaz.

Bono's publicist, Howard Bragman, said in a statement, "Chaz, after many years of  consideration, has made the courageous decision to honor his true identity. He is proud of his decision and grateful for the support and respect that has already been shown by his loved ones. It is Chaz's hope that … Read More

The answer as to who, in the romance equation, is pickier when it comes to selecting a mate may come down to a question of who's doing the approaching and who's being approached, regardless of gender, finds a new study from researchers at Northwestern University.

The long-held belief is that women are more selective than men when it comes to mate selection. Why?  Because females  are programmed to consider the reproductive cost of choosing a partner, in other words, what bearing and raising children with the potential partner would be like.

A new study challenges this view. Typically at … Read More

In today's piece "13 Male Habits The World Could Do Without," number 13 includes "pleaning," defined as "cleaning something so poorly we're prompted to say, 'Man, this was a piss-poor cleaning.'"

Love Buzz is quite familiar with this phenomenon: man says he'll clean his mess in the kitchen. Man spends some time with Windex and paper towels and proclaims said room spotless. When you go in five minutes later to retrieve the hummus from the fridge you find grease on the stove, crumbs on the floor, and pieces of… something, stuck the counter. When questioned, man says, "It looks … Read More

Men and women evolved different brains over millions of years, because of necessity. Men chased down food for their families and provided protection. Women cared for the young and old, and provided a nurturing environment. Because of these different roles, the sexes evolved to process information differently, think in radically different ways, expect different things, and have different perceptions, beliefs and behaviors. In the last forty years, as the gender roles in our society have been blurred, both males and females have become more and more confused as to what is normal behavior. We expect our partners to be able … Read More

I edited Maxim for four years, and let me tell you, we knew everything there was to know about guys. Like this: All guys really care about is girls. Our sex and relationship pieces tried to break down the great female mystery, and they were consistently the highest-rated articles in the magazine aside from, well, the pictorials. And we learned a lot ourselves. Here are nine interesting nuggets of wisdom I gleaned from my job presenting women to men. 1. Women like when you play with their hair. Not while she's in the front seat reasoning with … Read More