Campari Calendar Cover Girls (And Man): By The Numbers

Eva Green, Campari Calendar 2015

We’re finally getting to see some images from the 2015 Campari calendar, starring French actress Eva Green.

Dressed in the brand’s signature red, Green is just the latest in the long line of gorgeous and talented women to model for the aperitif company. Each year, Campari choses one iconic woman (or the occasional man) to grace its calendar, which they then send out to “friends of Campari around the world.” This year is particularly special as the brand is celebrating its 150-year anniversary.

Let’s take a look at Campari calendar trends over the last 15 years, gleaned from the calendar’s history:

Year of first Campari Calendar: 2000

Number of calendars produced each year: 9,999

Total number of photographers used: 13

Number of repeat photographers: 3 (Adrian Hamilton in 2000 and 2002; Giovanni Gastel in 2005-2006; Mario Testino in 2007 and 2009)

Total number of cover girls: 15

Total number of cover men: 1 (Benicio del Toro in 2011)

Number of years no cover model was used: 1 ( in 2000)

Number of years with more than one cover girl: 1 (Brazilian model Magda Gomes and Marika Svensson in 2002)

Number of repeat cover girls: 1 (Magda Gomes in 2002-2003)

Year Campari began using Hollywood actresses: 2007 with Salma Hayek

Number of former Bond Girls used: 2 (Olga Kurylenko in 2010 and Eva Green in 2015, both from the Daniel Craig era)

#ThrowbackThursday: “Star Trek” Interracial Kiss

“Star Trek”Interracial Kiss, 1968

Science fiction has long welcomed diversity. The genre has frequently depicted cultural and social mores ahead of the time, even in post-World War II prosperity.

On Nov. 22, 1968, “Star Trek” aired the “Plato’s Stepchildren” episode. While the episode plot centers on a race of telekinetic humanoids, it’s most remembered for depicting the first interracial kiss between a Caucasian man and an African-American woman on a scripted American TV show.

Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Lt. Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) kissed while under alien telekinesis (probably to make it more palatable for the audiences) during the episode. Later, Nichols reported that there had been some pushback from viewers, but some were supportive.

It’s safe to say the episode might’ve opened people’s minds in regards to miscegenation. Nichols singled out one such letter from a white Southerner:

“I am totally opposed to the mixing of the races. However, any time a red-blooded American boy like Captain Kirk gets a beautiful dame in his arms that looks like Uhura, he ain’t gonna fight it.”

Google Trends: “Vanilla Sex” vs. “Kinky Sex”

One image result from Googling ‘kinky sex’

I wanted to see how many times kinky sex was searched for online, so I decided to do a Google Trends comparison. I used “vanilla sex” as a search term since I figured that using plain “sex” would be too broad for my question. I searched only within the U.S. and used 2004-present as my timeframe.

Google Trends ‘Vanilla Sex’ vs. ‘Kinky Sex’

Surprisingly, the “vanilla sex” results (blue line) were much smaller than the “kinky sex” results (red line). My guess is that nobody really searches for vanilla sex (since you can get that pretty easily), and so people turn to the Internet to learn about kinky sex either for mere curiosity or are interested in pursuing it.

Let’s look at the results breakdown:

“Vanilla Sex” by Subregion:

‘Vanilla Sex’ by Subregion

Illinois heads up this list, with Pennsylvania and Michigan tying for second with 96%, and Massachusetts and New Jersey tying for fifth with 92%. New York places third with 94%, while California achieves 89% in ninth place. Texas brings up the rear with 86%.

“Vanilla Sex” by Metro:

‘Vanilla Sex’ by Metro

Yeah, this doesn’t look comprehensive. I find it very hard to believe that New York is the only metro area Googling “vanilla sex,” considering I found that the same metro area was madly Googling sexy Halloween costumes last month.

Unless it’s a case where the numbers need to hit a certain threshold to become visible, this does not look viable. At all.

“Vanilla Sex” by City:

‘Vanilla Sex’ by City

Chicago unsurprisingly tops this list, considering how Illinois topped the subregion list. New York and Los Angeles sit at third with 83% and fourth with 79%, respectively. Seattle, Atlanta and Houston have a three-way (heh) tie with 73%. San Francisco closes out the list with 57%, the lowest I’ve seen so far in doing these Google Trends.

“Kinky Sex” by Subregion:

‘Kinky Sex’ by Subregion

Here’s where it gets interesting: All of the top states score at least 87%, which means these states have a big interest in kinky sex (nothing wrong with that, of course). Cueing the jokes about the South, Kentucky tops this list, with West Virginia a close second at 98%.

“Kinky Sex” by Metro:

‘Kinky Sex’ by Metro

Missouri’s St. Louis and Kansas City appear at #1 with 100% and #3 with 90%, respectively. Charlotte, NC sits between them with 92%.

Aside from that, the rest of the metro areas are scattered among Texas, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Ohio, California, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

“Kinky Sex” by City:

‘Kinky Sex’ by City

Southern cities Tampa and Atlanta tie for first, with St. Louis coming in at third with 95%. The rest of the lis is scattered geographically.

Conclusions:

It’s difficult to draw any concrete conclusions from the findings. It appears that Googling kinky sex is widespread and not limited to any particular region, metro area and/or city.

Purity Balls: How Popular Are They?

Purity ball

Sometimes, we get curious about the other side of sex education: the side where it pretty much doesn’t exist. Recently, I became curious about the popularity, or possible lack thereof, of purity balls.

For those who don’t know, Christian purity balls have popped up in the last decade as a way for young women (generally preteens and teens) to pledge to remain sexually pure until they marry. They usually take place within an evening event and dance, where fathers attend with their daughters. The fathers pledge to model an example of purity for their daughters, and to protect them from evil teenage boys and their desires.

The daughters, in turn, pledge their virginity to their father. Oh yeah, and the Lord.

Randy and Lisa Wilson created the first purity ball in 1998, and their website notes that balls have been held in 48 states since then. (According to their website, there have also been inquiries from 17 countries.)

In a “New York Times” article written in 2012, feminist writer Jessica Valenti reported 1K+ purity balls were held in 2006, for her 2010 book “The Purity Myth.” In a related stat, Leslee J. Uhruh, president of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse, claims she fielded 4K+ calls concerning holding purity balls “within a 12-month period,” though how this period is calculated isn’t defined.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any data on how fast the movement is growing, where it’s growing the most, how many attendees, and other points of interest.

How Climate Change Affects Male Miner Bee Sex

Bee pollinating a flower

Wondering about the title? Read on!

Researchers at the University of East Anglia recently analyzed the long-term patterns, dating back to 1848, of male miner bees pollinating spider orchids. They’ve concluded that climate change has affected the bees’ pollination of the flowers, and could spell trouble in the future.

Here’s how it works: The male miner bee pollinates spider orchids because the flowers release a specific sex pheromone similar to that of a female miner bee. After hibernation, the male bees wake up before the females and, lured in by the orchids, pollinate with them (referred to as “pseudocopulation”). When the female miner bees wake up some days after that, the male bees find them and reproduce.

But because of global warming and its accompanying temperature increases, the female bees are emerging earlier than usual, (in one case, 15 days earlier). Naturally, the male bees are much more interested in the female bees compared to the orchids’ imitation pheromones.

The male bees are having so much sex with their female counterparts that they’re not pollinating (or pseudocopulating) with the orchids. And this could mean lower crop productivity down the line. As researcher Dr. Karen Robbirt puts it, “The orchids are likely to be outcompeted by the real thing.”

Who would’ve thought our future crop productivity might well depend on…bee sex? Not a lot of people, I’m guessing.

Now if you need a random fact to impress anyone/fill the silence, you’re all set!

Kim Kardashian “Paper Magazine:” Instagram Likes Analysis

Kim Kardashian, ‘Paper’ Magazine 2014

Happy Friday! When “Paper” magazine released its cover photos featuring Kim Kardashian, its stated goal was to “break the Internet” (well, mission accomplished). Naturally, both the magazine and Kardashian posted some of the shots on their respective Instagram accounts.

Since Instagram is the best app for sharing slice-of-life shots, this makes perfect sense. But they each seemed to take different approaches in doing so.

“Paper” Magazine:

The magazine, clearly excited about its work, shared all four of its photos. They also shared the photos in ascending order of nudity: First came Kardashian in her evening gown with the champagne glass balanced on her ass, next came Kardashian mooning the camera. The third photo showed her showing off her butt and boobs in profile, and the last one was her full-frontal. Both the third and fourth shots had back text bars obscuring her nipples and crotch where needed.

As of 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night, the magazine had 137K followers.

The number of likes per Kardashian photo are as follows:

Photo #1 (champagne glass): 9K+

This photo received likes from 6.57% of “Paper”‘s followers.

Photo #2 (full moon bare butt): 5K+

This photo received likes from 3.64% of “Paper”‘s followers.

Photo #3 (boobs and butt in profile): 2K+

This photo received likes from 1.46% of “Paper”‘s followers.

Photo #4 (full frontal): 3K+

This photo received likes from 2.19% of “Paper”‘s followers.

The Kardashian photos were the last photos posted.

Kim Kardashian:

By contrast to “Paper,” Kardashian only shared two photos: the champagne glass and the full moon, in ascending order of nudity.

As of 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night, Kardashian had 21M followers.

Photo #1 (champagne glass): 486K+

This photo received likes from 2.31% of Kardashian’s followers.

Photo #2 (full moon bare butt): 751K+

This photo received likes from 3.58% of Kardashian’s followers.

What’s interesting is that Kardashian posted four photos, all with husband Kanye West, afterwards. It appears that she sees the cover more matter-of-factly as part of her life, as contrasted with “Paper” for which this was a special event. The numbers bear that out.

Kim Kardashian Magazine Nudity: By The Numbers

Kim Kardashian, ‘Paper’ Magazine 2014

“Break the Internet,” indeed. Kim Kardashian’s “Paper” magazine cover shoot debuted yesterday, and it’s already the talk of the town (and inter webs) due to her various nude shots.

In photos taken by Jean-Paul Goude, Kardashian poses mooning the camera (as the image above teases), and then goes balls (or boobs) to the wall and poses full frontal holding up her dress around her knees. This is the first time Kardashian has shown so much in a more artsy magazine.

Let’s take a look at how Kardashian’s nude magazine appearances in 2014 compare to the “W” magazine ones in 2010. (In terms of nude posing in magazines, we’re not counting “Playboy” because that would skew the sample.)

“W” Magazine, 2010:

Number of Cover Shots: 2

Number of Total Shots: 10

Number of Shots Sans Clothes: 10

Bare Butt: 2* (*one more prominent)

Bare Boobs: 2* (*shots where nipple is visible)

Full Frontal: 1* (*everything bare from the navel up)

(Technically, both cover shots are full-frontal, but text bars obscure the good stuff.)

“Paper” Magazine, 2014:

Number of Cover Shots: 1

Number of Total Shots: 4

Number of Shots Sans Clothes: 3

Bare Butt: 2

Bare Boobs: 2

Full Frontal: 1

#ThrowbackThursday: Kim Kardashian Nude in “W” Magazine, 2010 (NSFW)

Kim Kardashian, ‘W’ Magazine 2010

Kim Kardashian’s “Paper” magazine photo shoot wasn’t the first time she’s stripped down for a magazine. That would be back in 2010 for “W” magazine and its accompanying article, “Kim Kardashian: Queen of Reality TV.”

In this shoot, her body was covered in silver paint (as above). She was reportedly upset with the result, telling her sisters Kourtney and Khloe, “I’ve definitely learned my lesson. I’m never taking my clothes off again, even if it’s for ‘Vogue.’” But later it’s reported she changed her mind and was proud of her photos.

Apparently, that only lasted a few years.

Brown University Date Rape Drug GHB: How Common Is It?

Brown University’s Robinson Hall, 2009

A female student at a Brown University fraternity party held on Oct. 17 has tested positive for a date-rape drug.

The student drank an alcoholic punch which contained GHB (gamma hydroxybutrate), which was found during a later test. One other student drank the punch, and those results are still pending.

The Australian Drug Foundation notes that symptoms such as drowsiness, lowered inhibitions and memory lapses become present 15-20 minutes after taking the drug, and can continue for 3-4 hours. It’s also easy to overdose since there aren’t much difference in dosage between an overdose and a safe amount.

This continues a story in which the aforementioned female student reported that she was sexually assaulted at the Phi Kappa Psi party.

How common is GHB’s use as a date-rape drug?

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any hard numbers solely on GHB for colleges. A 2009 Monitoring the Future study found that .7% of eighth-graders and 1.1% of 12th-graders reported using the drug in the past year. GHB use peaked in 2000 when 1.2% of eighth-graders in 2000 and 2% of 12th-graders in 2004 reporting using it within the past year.

Drug abuse treatment website Serenity Lane reports that since there have been 15K+ overdoses and 72 deaths related to GHB. But this doesn’t tell us the age-spread, so it’s impossible to tell which, if any, age group this affected most.

Every resource I looked at listed GHB as a date-rape drug alongside rohypnol and ketamine. In fact, Brown’s own Health Services website devotes a page to GHB. It’s clear that its use is still a large issue.

Will In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Replace Sex?

Couple in bed

Dr. Carl Djerassi recently predicted that sex would become purely recreational by 2050 since so many women are having children via in vitro fertilization (IVF). But do the numbers bear this out?

Earlier this year, the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology released a report examining success rates from many IVF clinics. The report revealed that in 2012, IVF clinics performed 165K+ procedures, out of which 61K+ babies were born. Therefore the year had a 37%+ success rate. Two thousand more babies were born in 2012 than in the previous year, and 2012 also had the highest percentage of babies born through IVF thus far.

Dr. Djerassi also remarked that advances in IVF technology will allow parents without fertility problems to consider the procedure. This would, in turn, free up the potential parents (and everyone else) for consequence-free sex.

And Dr. Djerassi would know about recreational sex: In 1951, he helped invent The Pill.

Sex & Stats: Where Numbers Come to Bang

Statistics. Economics. Sex.