End of the "Cut" Generation and Other Stories

My guess is -- given our demographics -- that most male readers of the Bhaus were circumcised shortly after birth. Consider, then, that you may all be part of a dying generation.

The Advocate notes that the practice of snipping off foreskins, prevalent among 90% of newborn boys as recently as the 1960s, is rapidly going out of style. Already only 50% or so receive the procedure today, and that number is expected to continue to fall. The LATimes reports that much of the decline is due to doctors abandoning the Victorian point of view that the procedure is medically (or morally) necessary. Some state Medicaid programs and private health insurers also have stopped paying for the procedure, and guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics dating back to 1971 don't recommend it. Sort of interesting to ponder that the lockerroom oddities of the future will be the "cut" boys, not those who are "intact."

In tangential science news, here's an item on Manchester, UK optometrists who have attempted to quantify the beer-google effect. The study, which was funded by an eyewear firm, surveyed more than 1000 members of a speed dating club. I've been out in Manchester and this doesn't sound like work to me at all. Those crazy uncircumcized Brits and their "research"!