Ashley Graham is the First Size-14 Model to Cover the “Sports Illustrated” Swimsuit Edition

Ashley Graham, ‘Sports Illustrated’ Swimsuit Edition, 2016 (Mashable)

Big news for “Sports Illustrated:” the famed Swimsuit edition came out this past weekend, and featured three different models on three different covers. One of the covers featured Ashley Graham, who’s now the first size-14 model to cover the Swimsuit Edition (and appear within its pages).

This is a huge leap for Graham: Last year, she appeared in the Swimsuit Edition, but only in an ad.

In addition to Graham, this year’s Swimsuit Edition’s other cover girls are mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey and model Hailey Clauson.

Match.com Singles in America Data 2016: By The Numbers

Singles in America study header (Match.com)

Man, I love delving into user data from websites (though I’m sure you’ve figured that out by now). Match.com recently released the results of their sixth annual “Singles In America” survey. You can find all their findings on their microsite. Let’s take a look at what insights came to light:

Number of singles surveyed: 5.5K+

Percentage that sushi increases your odds of getting a second date: 170% (!!)

First-date length correlation with second-date chances diagram (Match.com)

Number of men who expect sex on the first date: 6%

Percentage of Millennials likely to have filmed sex: 165% (!)

Orgasms data visualization (Match.com)

Percentage that using the phrase “Netflix and chill” gets you a second date: 99%

Percentage that using the phrase “on fleek” gets you a second date: -26%

#ThrowbackThursday: Beyoncé’s Super Bowl Performance, 2013

Beyonce’s Super Bowl performance, 2013 (Wired)

We all saw Beyoncé’s amazing performance at the Super Bowl halftime show last weekend. And heard her new song. (And have put it on repeat this week.)

I feel like Beyoncé’s Super Bowl performance from 2013 really kicked off her current stratospheric level. And 10 months later, she released her self-titled visual album, and we all know how that went.

The Pentagon Will Pay to Freeze Troops’ Sperm and Eggs

Military troops (The Political Insider)

Family-friendly policies have been proliferating workplace culture within the past year, and now there’s another company to add to that list: the Pentagon.

The Defense Department will a pilot program that allows troops to freeze sperm and eggs in an effort to retain service members. This policy is especially aimed at women: After 10 years of service (which would place a woman in her late 20s, assuming she enlisted when she was 18), women’s retention rate is 30% less than that of men’s. The cost is estimated to be around $150M for five years, or $30M per year.

The move comes as the Defense Department noted changing policies that allowed for longer maternity leaves and “improved child care.” After creating a plan, the Defense Department will outline a plan, and will evaluate two years after implementation. The Defense Department is following in the footsteps of certain Silicon Valley companies such as Facebook, which recently began offering female employees the option of freezing their eggs.

So far, the Defense Department is the only government agency that will allow freezing sperm and eggs within their healthcare policy.

It’ll be interesting to see how the pilot program goes, and how it changes the quality of life for military members.

How is the Zika Virus Affecting Brazil’s Free Condoms During Carnival?

Mardi Gras mask and beads (123 RF)

Today is Mardi Gras (or Fat Tuesday, if you prefer)! It’s a day of revelry before Lent’s 40 somber days take over. Celebrations are held all over the world, but none are more famous than Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s capital. There’s music, costumes, and dancing in the streets, but also a lot of unprotected sexual contact.

In years past, Brazil has been good about keeping those who choose to be sexually active during Carnival safe. The government passes out free condoms during the celebration as an incentive to wrap it up (which eliminates the “I didn’t have a condom” excuse for going without) and to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS. And the number of condoms is always large: In 2015, estimates ranged from 70M to 120M condoms passed out for Carnival.

But what about 2016? I couldn’t find any data on how many condoms Brazil would be passing out this year. I’ve found news on how the country is alerting citizens to the Zika virus and how it’s spread, but no hard (haha) numbers on the condom factor. This is very surprising, given how the number is generally publicly known before Carnival even starts.

You’d think that with the Zika virus in play, the Brazilian government would want to pass out more condoms than usual (the number tends to baseline around 70-75M within recent years). But I haven’t seen anything on how, or even if, the Zika crisis has influenced the number of condoms that’ll be distributed. This is interesting to note, given that Brazil currently has the highest rate of Zika infections.

I’ll update if I eventually find out how many condoms Brazil will give out to revelers. I really hope to find that out.

Are “3-Parent Babies” Ethical?

Human embryos (Bloomberg)

The genetic engineering future is here, and we’ve come to an important initial step: Is it ethical to create babies using DNA from three parents?

Scientists say “yes,” provided there are certain conditions. Said conditions were laid out in a report put out last week by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine:

Scientists would have to perform extensive preliminary research in the laboratory and with animals to try to make sure it is safe. And then researchers should initially try to make only male babies, because they would be incapable of passing their unusual amalgamation of DNA on to future generations.

The main goal of creating a “three-parent baby” would be to make a “genetically related child without risk of passing on a disease.” This would be done using mitochondrial replacement technique (MRT), which combines genetic material from two women and one man. Mitochondrial disorders are only passed down by women, so one women’s genetic material would substitute for the other one’s. (The defective material would be completely removed.)

Naturally, there are many implications (social, sexual, medical) for these experiments, and it’ll be interesting to see how things proceed. The UK introduced a bill on this same subject last year, and recently received approval to begin mitochondrial transplants.

Pornhub Data of 2015: By The Numbers

Pornhub Insights 2015 Year in Review (Pornhub Insights)

I always love it when certain tech companies release their user data for the general public’s education/amusement. Last week, we learned about OkCupid stats. This week, it’s Pornhub.

Pornhub is pretty good about releasing user insights (see their recent post on activity during winter storm Jonas), and their year-end data, released last month, is no exception. The following numbers are just what I found most interesting, and you can read the full report on Pornhub’s Insights blog (NSFW, BTW).

Amount of bandwidth used: 1,892 petabytes (PBs)

Context: 1 PB = 1,000 terabytes (TB) = 1,000,000 gigabytes (GB), i.e. that’s a hell of a lot of data

Average visit duration (U.S. only): 9 minutes, 51 seconds

Pornhub 2015 Year in Review: Hourly Traffic Worldwide (Pornhub Insights)

Most popular search term worldwide: lesbian

Top pornstar: Kim Kardashian

Top term searched more in 2015 than in 2014: giantess (+1,091%)

Pornhub 2015 Year in Review: Women – Worldwide Traffic (Pornhub Insights)

Country with highest proportion of female users: Jamaica (44%)

Country with highest proportion of female users: Japan (17%)

Average age of Pornhub users: 35.3 years

Pornhub 2015 Year in Review: Traffic by Device Worldwide (Pornhub Insights)

Most popular mobile operating system (OS): Android (49.7%)

Most popular desktop browser: Chrome (48.9%)

This is all so fascinating to me, and I hope you feel the same!

#ThrowbackThursday: Pornhub Data during Winter Storm Jonas, 2015

Pornhub Stats: Traffic during Winter Storm Jonas (Pornhub Insights)

A few weeks ago, winter storm Jonas shut down a few cities on the East Coast. Naturally, people were going a little stir-crazy. The good people at Pornhub delved into the data, examining how the traffic was affected as opposed to a regular weekend. For the full report, hit Pornhub’s post on the site’s Insights blog (NSFW, as you probably guessed).

How Many American Youths Are Affected by HIV?

HIV red ribbon (Care TV)

HIV can strike anyone, but it’s especially harmful for young people, as they may not know to get tested and can unknowingly pass it on to partners. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 12K of youths (“youths” defined as people ages 13-24) are infected with HIV in 2010, or a rate of 1K a month. (I couldn’t find any data on how large this number has grown six years later.)

This counts for about 25% of new HIV infections. The CDC estimates that 75% of infections that youths acquire will affect young men. Young women are more likely to contract the virus through heterosexual sex at 86%, and young men are more likely to contract it through homosexual sex at 87%. About 60% of youth do not know they are infected, and can unknowingly pass the virus on to partners.

With these numbers in mind, it’s imperative that we raise awareness so those who are sexually active get tested, particularly young people.

Barbie Gets Three New Body Types

New Barbies (CNBC)

For decades, Barbies have been a constant presence in many girls’ toy boxes. Her body barely changed for over 50 years: tall, thin, big boobs, small waist (for that coveted 7:10 waist-to-hip ratio) and balancing on her tiptoes.

For many years, her physical assets have been a point of contention for feminists and activists for positive body image and acceptance. (I can confirm: I’ve been told my grandmother wouldn’t let my mom play with Barbies when she was growing up on the grounds that the doll was too “buxom.” I mean, she wasn’t exactly wrong.) It seems that their concerns have finally been acknowledged.

Barbie will be sold in three different body types: petite, curvy, and tall. Mattel, the company that’s made the doll since its inception in 1959, is also expanding the line in terms of ethnicity and race options:

Barbie dolls will come in seven skin tones, 22 eye colors, 24 hairstyles, and even a flat foot.

This move comes as consumers seek dolls that resemble themselves, or the little girls in their lives. For many women, Barbie is the first doll they could envision as themselves, and dreaming big. and it’s even better that now more dolls will resemble the consumer base’s diversity. Mattel has already begun diversifying their Barbies: the company broadened the range of “skin tones, eye colors and hair styles” available.

The new Barbies will debut this spring in stages. It’ll be interesting to see how the new dolls impact Mattel’s bottom line: Worldwide sales fell 4% in Q4 2015, and the company’s stock price has dropped 43% since a high in 2013.

Sex & Stats: Where Numbers Come to Bang

Statistics. Economics. Sex.