Blog Posts by Book of Odds

"Sex and the City," Season 2, Episodes 1 and 18 ("Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "Ex and the City"): Samantha dates men who are on the far ends of the size spectrum-in the first, her boyfriend packs "half a pack of Lifesavers," while in the second, as Carrie deals with Mr. Big, Samantha must come to grips with Mr. Too Big.

"How long is your penis when it is hard?" -Alfred Kinsey

Of the many sensitive questions asked of thousands of people by Alfred Kinsey, this is one for the history books. The pioneering sexologist wanted to find out what has been hidden since humanity donned the fig leaf: How long is the average penis?

The answer? Six inches.

Here's how he found out.

In the course of his sexological research, Kinsey asked thousands of American males to estimate the size of their penises. According to Gebhard and Johnson's The Kinsey Data, "a ruler was often held [by the interviewer] so that the numerals were not visible, and the interviewer's finger moved

If you could peek inside the heads of people when they are thinking about sex-at work, on the train, at the grocery store-the things you'd see would probably make you jump right out of your shoes. We are nearly all Walter Mittys of sex-and according to a 2007 study conducted in Spain, those fantasies are good for reality.

The study, conducted by the University of Granada, found that the more time men and women spent fantasizing, the more sexual desire they experienced. Beyond their power of suggestion, sexual fantasies, the study suggests, reduce anxiety about sex. Fantasizing is healthy, no matter what you fantasize about. (Well, almost. Read on.)

Whatever you fantasize about, chances are you're not alone. If you are reading this at work, look around you: assuming you work with adults, 1 in 10 of your co-workers has fantasized about having sex at work. Maybe that doesn't shock you; the Internet, let's say, has desensitized you beyond all belief. But take another look around

Who made hairiness unfashionable? According to BackHair.org-not a site of calm community acceptance, fair warning-the blame for making smoothness sexy goes to a certain hairless young cowboy from Thelma & Louise, played by a then-unknown Brad Pitt. (The website's hero is the furry, luxuriantly chest-haired Tom Selleck in all his Magnum PI glory.) A Flak Magazine article from 2003 goes further, blaming a Hungarian Olympic multi-medalist from the 1930s, whose true claim to fame came with his early talkie portrayal of Tarzan: the smoothly shorn Johnny Weissmuller.

Whichever handsome SOB is to blame, body hair is currently out. Way out. And none is more out than back hair, that cringe-inducing, sweat-trapping pelt guaranteed to generate a Robin Williams crack or two. Aw, shazbot.

Body hair has been a part of humanity for as long as humans have been humans. Early hominids sported thick, dark hair over almost their entire bodies, males and females alike. Apes and monkeys retained

There are times when parents lie in bed at night and calculate the odds. Prom night is one of those times.

There is that pesky worry about teenage sex-and parental concern is always heightened when high school boys who have showered, shaved, and outfitted themselves in evening attire show up to escort high school girls who have spent even more time and money making sure they are at their most alluring.

But worries that there might be fooling around in the backseat are trumped by fears about what could happen when the car's in motion. As midnight rolls towards the middle of the night, mothers and fathers are left to imagine empty beer bottles, car wrecks, and ambulances speeding towards the ER-scenes which are far less pretty than the pre-prom snapshots of just a few hours before.

And according to teens themselves, parents are right to fret.

A 2010 Liberty Mutual/Students Against Drunk Driving survey found 1 in 1.11 11th and 12th graders (90%) thought their friends

What are the odds you will get diabetes?

The odds an American has already been diagnosed with the condition are 1 in 16.53, more than double what the odds were just 30 years ago. And those numbers do not capture the whole story because many people (1 in 51.92) have diabetes and don't yet know it, making the actual odds you already have the condition 1 in 12.82. And the situation is only expected to get worse.

Based on current trends, the predicted odds an American will be diagnosed with diabetes by 2050 are1 in 8.33. But for a boy who is currently 10 years old, the risk of being diagnosed in his lifetime is estimated to be 1 in 3.05; for a 10- year-old girl, the estimated risk is 1 in 2.6, almost the exact same odds that an adult in the US will go out to eat at least once a month.

Of the several types of diabetes, the explosion in type 2 is of the greatest concern. Where type 2 diabetes was once a disease that struck people over 40, according to the CDC there are an

"The thought of it is so revolting that even calling such a vice by its proper name is considered a kind of immorality." - Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals

"Hey, don't knock masturbation, it's sex with someone I love!" - Woody Allen, Annie Hall

The sexual revolution of the 1960s and '70s changed a lot of attitudes. But somehow, masturbation, the least social form of sex, is still controversial, more than 60 years after the Kinsey Report and two decades after the Divinyls' hit "I Touch Myself." Especially when it comes to women.

Psychoanalyst Joyce McFadden's Women's Realities Study collects online data about women's perspectives on many issues. She reported in 2008 that out of 63 different questionnaires, the one on masturbation gets the third-most responses. She found that 1 in 1.43 (70%) of respondents felt guilty about masturbating, and fully 1 in 1.25 (80%) did not grow up regarding it as a normal aspect of sexuality-even though most were young enough to have

Let's say you're an average guy in the prime of his life (me). You're single (not me) and gainfully employed (kind of me). According to the latest numbers from the CPS, you make just under $60k annually ($58,815 to be precise). Sounds nice, but you give back about ¼ of this in income tax, social security, medicare, and to the cushions of your IKEA sofa. So, in reality, you have about $44,111 of disposable income in your pocket. Since you're Mr. Joe Average we also know (thanks to the nice people at the BEA) that you have a personal savings rate of about 4% of disposable income and, according to the BLS, you're likely to spend another 33% combined on shelter and food. All said and done, you're left with just under $28,000 big ones to spend on frivolous things (like dating). We'll call this your adjusted disposable income.

Let's say you're the 1 in 33.33 adults who is actively dating. You've managed to snag a first date with that nice girl in accounting (who may appreciate this

video games

New research on young boys, published in Psychological Science in March 2010, suggests playing video games may retard the academic progress of young boys.

We reported recently on teenagers and video games. This new research focused on a younger population, boys between the ages of 6 - 9, and found that those who were given video-game systems had significantly worse reading and writing scores at the end of a four-month period than boys without the games.

Math skills were not affected.

The researchers do not claim playing video games inherently causes lower academic performance. It's possible that boys armed with PlayStations and other video game systems might simply be choosing to spend less time developing their reading and writing skills and more time trying to up their game scores.

Most kids have access to a video game system. The odds a child 2 - 11 in a household with a TV has access to a video game console are 1 in 1.41 (71%).

The findings tend to