LA Times photo

In Seattle, [Lucas] Goodman [pictured] began dropping hints around his eight-man boat more than a year ago. He talked with his best friend, and with another rower who seemed both understanding and physically large enough to make a good ally.

When word spread, no one teased or whispered about him. The crew saves money by sharing hotel beds on the road, and the teammate who bunks with Goodman didn't mind.

"So what if I sleep in the same bed with a straight guy or with Lucas?" Casey Ellis asked. "Either way, there's going to be another guy there with me."

And one lesbian runner even had her teammates console her after a breakup:

At the University of Delaware, runner Lauren Stephenson said that coming out brought her closer to teammates.

Stephenson announced her sexual orientation as a junior, trying to soften the blow by saying she was bisexual. Soon, she found herself consoled in the locker room after a girlfriend cheated on her.

"All my teammates were telling me, 'You're so much hotter than she is, what is she thinking?' " Stephenson said. "It was just amazing."

It's about time someone in professional sports followed these kids' leads. The only pro athlete we know of who came out while playing is Australian rugby player Ian Roberts (who also happens to be ridiculously sexy...)

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Reasearchers at the University of Texas at Austin asked almost 2,000 people for their motivations for engaging in sexual intercourse -- and they've compiled the top 237 responses in a new study in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior. It's being billed as "the most thorough taxonomy of sexual motivation ever compiled." Besides basically just being horny, many of the top reasons are surprising, and sometimes hilarious. The New York Times reports:

Who knew, for instance, that a headache had any erotic significance except as an excuse for saying no? But some respondents of both sexes explained that they’d had sex “to get rid of a headache.” It’s No. 173 on the list.

Others said they did it to “help me fall asleep,” “make my partner feel powerful,” “burn calories,” “return a favor,” “keep warm,” “hurt an enemy” or “change the topic of conversation.” The lamest may have been, “It seemed like good exercise,” although there is also this: “Someone dared me.”

Dr. Buss has studied mating strategies around the world — he’s the oft-cited author of “The Evolution of Desire” and other books — but even he did not expect to find such varied and Machiavellian reasons for sex. “I was truly astonished,” he said, “by this richness of sexual psychology.”

The study also found that men are much more likely than women to admit to having sex for personal gain. Also, hilariously, men view “the person demanded that I have sex” as good enough reason as any. Last time someone tried that one on us, we...oh, wait. Never mind.

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So much going on over the weekend!

- A 127 foot-tall pink condom-shaped balloon floated over the Dutch city of Lichtenvoorde over the weekend, with the words "safe sex" written on it (in Dutch). The city was hosting a motorcross/hard rock festival this weekend, with about 80,000 people expected to attend. The promotion was launched by the regional public health service.

- In Japan, Ms. Kanako Otsuji is in a dead heat to become the nation's first openly gay or lesbian member of parliament.

- After police arrested a gay couple for kissing in front of the Colosseum in Rome, an Italian gay-rights group stages a public kiss-in at the same location.

- Super-wealthy gay artist Charles Merrill burns a rare Koran valued at $60,000 in protest of Muslim views against homosexuality.

Leapin' X-Files! Here's a news item that would make Agent Scully's panties drop...

Australian scientists just announced the discovery of a 20,000- to 40,000-year-old wombat jawbone the size of a large car! The AFP used this file photo (with a hot Spanish motorcyclist, taken at the Maru Koala Park in Australia) to demonstrate the size of a normal wombat -- about three feet long. The jawbone, discovered by a tour guide in the Jenolan Caves west of Sydney, indicates the ancient creature was 6.5 feet tall and 10 feet long.

All very fascinating, but again, we were just kinda jazzed to run the pic of cute Spanish biker boy. And speaking of The X-Files, David Duchovny revealed "the truth" to television insiders at a press conference two weeks ago, while promoting his upcoming Showtimes series Californication, that plans are finally moving forward for a new film based on the popular cult sci-fi series.

Both he and Gillian Anderson are signed on, and shooting on the Chris Carter-scripted movie may begin as early as October. In the meantime, all this giant wombat business got us thinking about one of our all-time fave X-Files episodes, the creepy "Field Trip," which aired in season six. The agents find themselves lured to a cave in the mountains, tripping out on mushrooms and trapped by a giant carniverous plant as it devours them.

Unfortunately for Mulder and Scully, cute Spanish biker boy was nowhere to be found.

Are you ready for some football!?

Yes, I know…perhaps only four of you reading this care at all. But you gotta admit these guys are HOT.

While I could wax on about said hotness for pages, let’s overlook the obvious and get to some troubling business at hand: Michael Vick.

Here comes scandal. Just as football’s pre-season is about to get underway, Vick gets in trouble with the law. And I’m talking capital “T” kind of trouble.

And this is a star player, not some second-string has-been or nobody.

For those of you unfamiliar, he is the quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. He’s very good at his job. He’s handsome. He’s often well-spoken. He’s a star—some might even say a national hero (at least by football standards).

But he’s also either very cruel and vicious, OR just not very bright. My guess is some combination of both. He’s currently facing charges on DOGFIGHTING. Yes, dogfighting. He’s pleaded not guilty, and I’m a true believer in “innocent until proven guilty” and all that, but come on.


Vick and three of his friends, (who also pleaded not guilty) stand accused of training and breeding pitbulls for competitive dogfighting. There is prison time involved, and what we might consider considerable fines – but with Vick’s salary, these fines will barely nick the skin.

Here’s a man making millions a year, yet the best pastime he can find for himself in the off-season is raising and breeding dogs to fight each other to the death.

One of the most disturbing tidbits in all this horrific ordeal is that these GROWN MEN allegedly killed dogs that they considered not up to par, by torture, electrocution, hanging, and drowning—among other measures.

Barbaric. Where’s the sport in this? This sports “star” should be ashamed his name is even mentioned in context of such brutality.

Question is, will these charges affect his career in the NFL?