Now you know...

[Shankara20]

this post MUST be added over here as well....


https://forum.literotica.com/showpost.php?p=20773120&postcount=19

 

[FurryFury]

I'm a bit scared of canes but I've found spanking to be very theraputic. I'll try almost anything once or twice or more.

In any case it makes perfect sense to me. What they are probably missing out on in their research is the connection between the caner and the canee.

Fucking doctors and researchers!

Fury

 

[FurryFury]

http://www.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/4358043d27aaf.jpg

A new antifreeze protein discovered in tiny snow fleas by Queen’s University researchers may lengthen the shelf life of human organs for transplantation.

Drs. Laurie Graham and Peter Davies, from the Department of Biochemistry, found that the potent protein produced by the fleas to protect themselves against freezing is capable of inhibiting ice growth by about six Celsius degrees. This would allow organs to be stored at lower temperatures, expanding the time allowed between removal and transplant.

The results of the Queen’s study, funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), are published today in the international journal Science.

“Transplant organs must now be kept at the freezing point or slightly warmer,” says Dr. Graham. “If we can drop the temperature at which the organ is safely stored, there will be a longer preservation period.”

The hyperactive antifreeze protein produced by snow fleas is different from two other insect proteins discovered earlier at Queen’s, the researchers say.

“Unlike the antifreeze proteins in beetles and moths, AFPs in snow fleas break down and lose their structure at higher temperatures,” explains Dr Davies, Canada Research Chair in Protein Engineering. “This means that if used to store organs for transplants, they will be cleared from a person’s system very quickly, reducing the possibility of harmful antibodies forming.”

An ancient species related to modern insects, snow fleas are also known as “springtails” because of the distinctive springing organ under their abdomen which allows them to leap hundreds of times their one-millimeter length. Dr. Graham first noticed them while cross-country skiing, and brought several samples into the lab. “It was serendipity,” she says now. “They looked like dots of pepper sprinkled on the snow. Later we were able to collect large numbers for testing at the Queen’s University Biological Station.”

Using a process called ice affinity purification, the team isolated the new protein, which is rich in an amino acid called glycine. “When you grow a ‘popsicle’ of ice in the presence of these proteins, the AFPs bind to the ice and become included, while other proteins are excluded,” says Dr. Davies. “We use their affinity for ice as a tool to purify the protein.”

The antifreeze mechanism of snow fleas has been reported in other parts of the world, including Antarctica, but until now no one has isolated the protein. As well as its potential for use in organ transplants, the researchers suggest it could help to increase frost resistance in plants, and inhibit crystallization in frozen foods.

Source: Queen's University




This news is brought to you by PhysOrg.com

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...prev=/images?q=snow&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&as_qdr=all

 

[Shankara20]

LABELLING THEORY

Social constructionists argue that labels must be rejected (or deconstructed) because they are allegedly the tools of external social control. Some modern gay apologists fondly believe that there was once a golden age when no one was labelled and everyone enjoyed fluid sexuality. Thus Cowan (1988) says that ‘Throughout much of human history it seems that people – both gay and straight – could live comfortably without a name for the "love that dare not speak its name". In biblical times it was enough for David to simply say that his love for Jonathan "was wonderful, passing the love of women".’ What an extraordinary example to choose: it means precisely the opposite of what Cowan says! The whole point about this famous biblical passage is that the lack of a name for David’s love made it difficult to speak about it. It manifestly does not demonstrate a ‘simple’, ‘comfortable’ acceptance of something common – on the contrary, it vividly illustrates the struggle to describe something ‘wonderful’ and very special and beyond the common conceptions available at the time. Contrary to this love being a commonplace occurrence, David loved Jonathan ‘as he loved his own soul’ – a phrase having ‘no parallel anywhere else in the Jewish Scriptures’ (Boswell 1994). In biblical times it became the archetype for true, lasting love, pointedly set against the transitoriness of heterosexual passion.

The relationship between language and experience has been one of the central problems of philosophy for centuries. In more recent times the issue has been the complex relationship between language and identity. The social constructionist school maintains the omnipotence of words: I label you, therefore you are. The school is rooted in structuralism, a linguistic/semantic approach to literature, in which text rather than context is the final arbiter of meaning. The sociological development of the theory maintains that the homosexual did not exist as a personality type or identity until he (or she) was labelled, that the labelling occurred in the work of the sexologists in the late nineteenth century, and that therefore homosexuals did not exist until they were created, i.e. constructed, in the late nineteenth century. The traditionalist or essentialist rejects the philosophical presumption that meaning precedes experience, and adopts the common-sense view that homosexual identity precedes labelling. Despite the sophistication with which social constructionists deal with epistemes and semiotext(e)s, they are profoundly ignorant of historical linguistics.

In the search for specific words or labels for homosexuality we should not ignore the fact that most people use euphemisms or phrases made up of ordinary words to describe what they do. Even today most people do not use a specific word to describe themselves when engaged in intercrural intercourse, although slang words are available. When General Kuno Count von Moltke explained in court his sexual relations with Philipp Prince zu Eulenburg-Hertefeld, in the first decade of the twentieth century, all he could say was this: ‘Fooling around. I don’t know of no real name for it. When we went rowing we just did it in the boat.’ ‘Fooling around’ was perhaps the most frequently used euphemism during the 1920s through 1940s, and is probably still the term used by adolescents engaging in their first ‘experiments’. In the early 1930s British gay men referred to each other as ‘so’ and ‘musical’, terms gradually supplanted by ‘queer’, which may have been used earlier by the Irish and was popularized in theatrical circles (Skinner 1978). To say that such words show lack of scientific refinement is quite true, but everyone knows exactly what they mean – even when they use such vague terms as ‘it’ and ‘that way’.

The absence of language does not indicate the absence of conceptual thought. The concept of lesbian sex existed even when no particular term was used to identify it. Donoghue (1993) documents the use of generic terms such as ‘kind’, ‘species’ and ‘genius’ (i.e. genus) in mid-eighteenth-century discussions of lesbians, abstract phrases such as ‘feminine congression’ or ‘accompanying with other women’, and abundant euphemisms: ‘irregular’, ‘uncommon’, ‘unaccountable’ and ‘unnatural’, ‘vicious Irregularities’, ‘unaccountable intimacies’, ‘uncommon and preternatural Lust’, ‘unnatural Appetities in both Sexes’, ‘unnatural affections’, ‘abominable and unnatural pollutions’. There is much evidence to suggest that the earlier use of the word ‘hermaphrodite’ was as much a euphemism for ‘homosexual’ as the modern term ‘bisexual’. There is ever-increasing pressure towards abstraction; in many circles today, gay men are called ‘men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM)’, while lesbians are regularly called ‘women-loving-women’. On the Internet, all groups are now embraced within the acronym MOTSS (members of the same sex) or LGBTQ (lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer). This may be convenient, but I don’t think it is an advance in epistemology.

We do have to acknowledge that there do not seem to exist words in early languages which correspond to male and female homosexual, or male and female same-sex relations simultaneously. In other words, there don’t seem to be any words for this high level of abstration until the discipline of sexology begins in relatively modern times. It does not necesssarily follow, however, that there were no words for homosexuality as a general concept, and that it was not until the modern age that abstract, generic, ‘scientific’ terms were invented for homosexuality. Before we attach too much significance to the absence of terms that simultaneously cover male and female homosexuality, consider the following.

When modern people use the word ‘homosexual’ or ‘homosexuality’, nine times out of ten they are thinking of male same-sex relations. Only at the last minute will they say, ‘Oh, yeah, this includes women too’, but even then they will probably use the other term ‘lesbian’. When the terms were coined in the late nineteenth century, they were used predominantly – in fact almost entirely – in the context of legal prohibitions against sex between men. ‘Inverts’ were almost always considered to be men. When John Addington Symonds worked with Havelock Ellis on the book Sexual Inversion, the first book on homosexuality in English, only at the last minute was Symonds persuaded to include a chapter on female homosexulity in his historical survey. (Ellis’s wife Edith was a lesbian, and she got her lesbian friends to contribute their case studies to the project. In her circle, they used the word ‘lesbian’ rather than ‘female sexual inversion/homosexuality’, but eventually this was sublimated into the abstract consideration by her husband.)

A second thing to consider is that it is really only in the English language that you can have one single word for both sexes, because European (and most other) languages require different forms for masculine and feminine (and neuter) nouns etc. Strictly speaking, the words that were coined in German were homosexualist (which means ‘male homosexual’) and homosexualistin (which means ‘female homosexual’). The same division is true for other equivalent words (e.g. in Ulrichs’s system Urningthum meant specifically male homosexuality, the Urning was specifically a male homosexual, and the female homosexual was an Urningin. Ulrichs’s classification system has more than 30 terms, but though they are all very ‘scientific’ and abstract, the only term that applies equally to men and women is Urnische Liebe, ‘homosexual love’ (though even that is really used most of the time about men). When we stand back and look at his system, it appears as though he has conceptualized the abstract concepts of ‘the homosexual’ and ‘the bisexual’ and ‘the heterosexual’, but I think all his concepts, strictly speaking, label specifically male or female examples of these.

The claim that in ancient and indigenous cultures there are no words for homosexuality as a general concept, is true only if you insist that the term simultaneously encompasses men and women. Even then it’s not entirely true, because Aquinas defined ‘the vice of sodomy’ as ‘male with male and female with female’, which satisfies the requirements for abstract inclusiveness. If you don’t insist that the term encompass men and women, then you will find terms for male homosexuality and male homosexuals as general concepts, and female homosexuality and female homosexuals as general concepts, and male and female heterosexuals and heterosexuality as general concepts.

For example, ancient cuneiform texts have been found describing male homosexuality as a generalized concept, ‘the love of a man for a man’, and one cuneiform text mentions lesbians. As early as the third century BC Hellenic writers coined the word gunaikerastria to denote sexual relations between women. This term means ‘female lover of women’ and is as scientific a term as one could wish, less euphemistic than ‘lesbian’, more economical than ‘sex between women’, and devoid of value judgements.

There were many ancient terms for abstract concepts or categories of homosexual. In the Byzantine Empire there were several words for male homosexuality in general (rather than words for effeminate or receptive homosexuality in particular): paiderastia, pederasty; arrhenomixia, mingling with males; arrhenokoitia, coitus with males. The two latter terms are perfect behaviourist equivalents to ‘homosexuality’. Paiderastia, from Classical Greek paiderastes, boy-lover, is itself a general concept, strictly speaking no narrower than the modern ‘man-lover’. Boswell (1994) points out that ‘the most common words for "child" in both Greek (pais) and Latin (puer) also mean "slave," so in many cases when an adult is said to be having sex with someone designated by these terms it could simply be with his slave or servant’. In other words paiderastia, pederasty, is not necessarily narrowly confined to boys, but may be closer to ‘homosexuality’ than modern historians acknowledge. The pederastic pair consists of the erastes and the eromenos, ‘lover’ and ‘beloved’; we can infer an active/passive division, but strictly speaking these are not examples of inserter/receptor terminology, and the term ‘boyfriend’ was not used in a particularly derogatory fashion. The modern Greeks, under the influence of (American) English usage, have abandoned these terms, and use the awkward term omophylophilia.

Metaphors and tropes are as important for understanding homosexual culture as more precise ‘scientific’ terms. Among the ancient Toltecs (conquered by the Aztecs), queers worshipped the transgender god/goddess of non-procreative sexuality and flowers named Xochiquetzal, and sodomy was called the ‘Dance of the Flowers’. In China, metaphors such as ‘the passion of the cut sleeve’ or ‘the southern custom’ encompassed queer-cultural values of love and loyalty for some two thousand years. The earliest Chinese word referring to homosexual relations dates from the sixth century, nanfeng, literally ‘male wind’ (still used today as a literary expression for male homosexuality), perhaps more accurately translated as ‘male custom’ or ‘male practice’ (Hinsch 1990). Another term from this period is nanse, male lust or male eroticism (se denotes sexual attraction or passion). These words are as abstract (hence ‘scientific’) as the word ‘homosexuality’ coined thirteen hundred years later. Nanfeng actually has two sets of characters pronounced the same, one meaning ‘male custom’ and the other meaning ‘southern custom’ (‘man’ and ‘south’ are both pronounced nan). Homosexuality is believed to have been especially popular in Fujian and Guangdong, the southern regions of China, and ‘southern custom’ was the term for homosexuality during the Ming period; nanfeng shu, the southern custom tree, which consists of two trees, one larger than the other, entwined with one another to become one, was a standard icon of homosexuality in Chinese literature (Ng 1989, Hinsch 1990).

The Chinese language is particularly rich in queer metaphors that do not relate directly to sex/gender roles, but to a larger complex of queer culture with an emphasis upon desires, tendencies, preferences and emotional commitments rather than sexual acts. The two main terms for male homosexual relations, ‘passion of the cut sleeve’ (duanxiu pi or pian) and ‘joy of the shared peach’ both derive from ancient stories about specific emperors and their favourites dating back to the sixth century BC, a literary tradition kept alive for more than two thousand years. ‘Emperor Ai [reigned 6 BC—1 AD] was sleeping in the daytime with Dong Xian stretched out across his sleeve. When the emperor wanted to get up, Dong Xian was still asleep. Because he did not want to disturb him, the emperor cut off his own sleeve and got up.’ This story ‘was alluded to repeatedly in later literature and gave men of subsequent ages a means for situating their own desires within an ancient tradition. By seeing their feelings as passions of the "cut sleeve," they gained a consciousness of the place of male love in the history of their society’ (Hinsch 1990).

The story of the fickle emperor Duke Ling of Wei (534–493 BC) and his devoted favourite Mizi Xia was so famous that his very name became a catchword for homosexuality, and ‘the joy of the half-eaten peach’ became one of the most frequently used phrases to denote homosexuality in general for more than two thousand years. ‘Another day Mizi Xia was strolling with the ruler in an orchard and, biting into a peach and finding it sweet, he stopped eating and gave the remaining half to the ruler to enjoy. "How sincere is your love for me!" exclaimed the ruler. "You forgot your own appetite and think only of giving me good things to eat!"’ (Hinsch 1990). However, later when the ruler’s ardour cooled, Mizi Xia was executed for committing some crime against Duke Ling, who professed not to believe his innocence. ‘"After all", said the ruler, "he once stole my carriage, and another time he gave me a half-eaten peach to eat!"’ This is obviously a poetic symbol, and it seems to me that like all symbols it encapsulates an essence, in this case the essence of homosexual love. It is also worth noting that the metonym of the half-eaten peach connotes a generalized eroticism rather than any specifically active or receptive sexual role, emphasizing the mutual sharing of the fruits of that love.

The male prostitutes who flourished in late Imperial China were called xiaochang, little singers. By the time laws were promulgated to regulate homosexuality during the Ming dynasty, the legal term for homosexuality was jijian, a derogatory term meaning ‘chicken lewdness’, from ji, chicken, and jian, ‘private, secret’, which may reflect a popular belief about the behaviour of domesticated fowl. By 1985, in Taiwan, a long and noble history of poetic metaphors had been replaced by an exact translation of the most notorious Western euphemism: Bugan shuo chu kou de ai – ‘The love that dare not speak its name’!

CITATION: Rictor Norton, A Critique of Social Constructionism and Postmodern Queer Theory, "Labelling Theory," 9 July 2002

 

[bronntanas]

"dressed seriously" hmmmmm, I often giggle when I put on my bra and panties....

You can use my bathroom. It's all gender, like the bathroom on Ally McBeal.

 

[Shankara20]

You can use my bathroom. It's all gender, like the bathroom on Ally McBeal.

thank you so much, such a dear lad

 

[graceanne]

You can use my bathroom. It's all gender, like the bathroom on Ally McBeal.

I gotta ask. A bathroom on Ally McBeal? Wouldn't that hurt? I mean she's so skinny and all.

 

[Shankara20]

The tattoo-removal business is booming, according to a May Fox News report that highlights dissatisfaction with formerly trendy Chinese-language tats that were often either mistranslated as nonsense ("blood and guts" translated as "blood and intestines") or were actually jokes pulled on people too cool for their own good (such as Chinese words for "gullible white boy"). A removal service in Beverly Hills, Calif., said it takes off at least seven Asian tattoos a week. [Fox News, 5-9-06]

 

[Shankara20]

People Who Believe Marijuana Is Odorless: Two men were arrested at the drive-thru window at a KFC restaurant in Buffalo, N.Y., in June by narcotics officers who were eating inside; one of the men had what an officer said was "the biggest marijuana cigar you ever saw," which was making so much smoke that it was wafting into the restaurant. [Washington Post-AP, 7-3-06]


And in Tucson, Ariz., in June, after police were called to one home, they noticed an overpowering marijuana smell coming from a neighbor's house; Jose Ortega Mendez, 35, was arrested when 220 bales of marijuana, totaling two tons, were found inside. [KVOA-TV (Tucson), 6-19-06]

 

[Shankara20]

A former police official and current aggressive, respected Wellington, New Zealand, litigator, Rob Moodie, 67, said in July that he is tired of the old-boy network of male lawyers and judges, and that henceforth he will show his disdain by dressing in women's clothes in court. The worse the "corruption" he senses, the frillier will be his outfits, said the married father of three, who also said he happens to like women's clothes, but that it took the pervasive male courthouse culture to bring that into the open. Moodie said already he has enjoyed giving "a flash of lace at the urinal" but said he would keep his trademark moustache. [The Dominion Post (Wellington), 7-25-06]

 

[Shankara20]

An analysis of government records by The Washington Post revealed in July that a federal agriculture subsidy program to compensate farmers for market-losing crops has evolved, through regulatory interpretation and lax enforcement, into a program that since 2000 has paid $1.3 billion to people who don't even farm at all. (Although pre-tax income of all farming was a near-record $72 billion in 2005, federal subsidies actually grew to $25 billion, a sum considerably more than that paid to families receiving welfare.) [Washington Post, 7-2-06]

 

[graceanne]

People Who Believe Marijuana Is Odorless: Two men were arrested at the drive-thru window at a KFC restaurant in Buffalo, N.Y., in June by narcotics officers who were eating inside; one of the men had what an officer said was "the biggest marijuana cigar you ever saw," which was making so much smoke that it was wafting into the restaurant. [Washington Post-AP, 7-3-06]


And in Tucson, Ariz., in June, after police were called to one home, they noticed an overpowering marijuana smell coming from a neighbor's house; Jose Ortega Mendez, 35, was arrested when 220 bales of marijuana, totaling two tons, were found inside. [KVOA-TV (Tucson), 6-19-06]

Anyone who thinks that pot is odorless has been smoking too much of it.

 

[Shankara20]

New Research Casts Doubt on Surgery for Infants Born with Male and Female Traits

Gender, often said to depend solely upon anatomy or hormones, may depend also on hard-wired genetics, according to new research that could help doctors and lawyers better understand the one in 4,000 babies born with both male and female traits.

"The biology of gender is far more complicated than XX or XY chromosomes and may rely more on the brain's very early development than we ever imagined," researcher Eric Vilain, M.D., reported today at the AAAS* Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

"Surgical sex assignment of newborns with no capacity to consent should never be performed for cosmetic reasons, in my opinion," said Vilain. "We simply don't know enough yet about gender to be making surgical or legal assumptions."

Vilain is an associate professor of human genetics who also serves as a chief of medical genetics and director of research in urology and sexual medicine within the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Another AAAS* speaker, William G. Reiner, M.D., agreed. "The most important sex organ is the brain," said Reiner, a psychiatrist and associate professor in the Department of Urology, Oklahoma University Health Science Center. "We have to let these children tell us their gender at the appropriate time."

An estimated one in 4,000 to one in 5,000 babies may be classified as "gender ambiguous" because intersex conditions affecting their genitalia, reproductive systems or sex chromosomes make an immediate assessment impossible, Reiner explained.

Yet, many laws—including U.S. marriage laws—assume that everyone is clearly male or female, a concept known in legal circles as sexual dimorphism, or binary law, legal expert Susan Becker of the Cleveland State University explained at the AAAS Meeting. At the same time, children with ambiguous genitalia continue to undergo surgical sex assignment. Baby girls with a condition called congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), for example, may undergo clitoroplasty to reduce male-looking anatomy, as well as vaginoplasty if the labia are fused together.

"The U.S. Constitution promises equality, rights and benefits for all citizens," Becker noted. "But, as the Constitution is structured and interpreted, individuals who do not meet the binary definition for male versus female don't have the same benefits and aren't completely protected from discrimination."

Children may be particularly vulnerable to negative consequences resulting from binary or gender-based laws, Becker added. If one partner in a same-sex union dies, for example, the surviving partner may face a legal battle to retain custody of the children, thus inflicting a second major trauma on the grieving children. A host of legal documents that convey rights and benefits, from birth certificates to passports and drivers' licenses, require declaration of one gender or the other, which may be impossible for some people.

Various conditions can cause genital ambiguity. For example, CAH in genetic girls (XX chromosomal makeup) results in prenatal exposure to androgen, the steroid that triggers male development. Genital features of girls born with CAH may appear to be male. In other cases, collectively known as Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), genetic males (46 XY chromosomal makeup) may have female characteristics when a mutation of the gene that encodes for the androgen receptor results in resistance to androgen's masculinizing effects during development. Depending upon the timing of exposure to androgens in the uterus, a host of other conditions may result in ambiguous genitalia.

Through his clinical work with some 100 patients, Reiner said, those who are genetically male, with the 46 XY makeup, will tend to identify themselves as boys if they can react and respond to male hormone, and even if they are born without a penis, underwent surgical reassignment and were raised as girls. "These children know who they are," Reiner said. "It's encouraging that many more surgeons today are choosing to postpone surgical gender assignment until the patient is mature enough to take that step. Of course, social and legal gender assignment still must be carried out at birth."

Scientific evidence on gender is revealing an increasingly complex picture. For example, conventional wisdom has held that gonadal hormones dictate whether the brain becomes masculine or feminine during development.

But, even before hormonal influence, Vilain has reported, embryonic mouse brains show clear gender-specific differences. Building on his previous discovery, Vilain said, he and colleagues have since identified 54 genes that were differentially expressed in the brains of male and female embryonic mice just 10 days after conception, prior to hormonal exposure.

"Differences of gene expression between male and female brains, very early on, suggest that our brains may be hard-wired at a very early stage to become male or female," according to Vilain.

Biological differences have clear implications for laws related to sexually dimorphic traits, including sexual preferences, Vilain said. Understanding male versus female development also could help provide new clues to diseases such as autism, which occurs most often among males, or depression, an illness that is more common among females. In fact, Vilain said, his group already is investigating a specific region of the brain, the substantia nigra, which is damaged more often in men with Parkinson's disease.

Becker, the legal expert, said that straight-forward public discourse on gender will be essential for developing improved public policy. "In U.S. society, sex, sexuality and sex appeal is used to sell everything from toothpaste to cars," he said. "It seems that we can handle sexual caricatures in the media and sexually explicit movies, but we aren't equipped to have open, honest discussions regarding sexuality and gender. The time has come to move beyond our discomfort to engage in more product dialogue, informed by the best possible scientific information."

Becker's sentiments were echoed by Rochelle Diamond of the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals, co-organizer of the AAAS* session, with Mark Tumeo of Cleveland State University. "Policy-makers, surgeons, parents and patients all need to know more about gender ambiguity from the scientists' viewpoint," she said.

The AAAS* session also was expected to include Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality; James P. McGovern of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-Mass.); and Stephanie J. Bird of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The session and related news briefing were held today in memory of David Reimer. A man raised as a girl after a botched circumcision, Reimer played a key role in raising public awareness of gender ambiguity. He took his life in May 2004 at the age of 38.

— Ginger Pinholster

18 February 2005


*What is AAAS?
The American Association for the Advancement of Science,
"Triple A-S" (AAAS), is an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science around the world by serving as an educator, leader, spokesperson and professional association. In addition to organizing membership activities, AAAS publishes the journal Science, as well as many scientific newsletters, books and reports, and spearheads programs that raise the bar of understanding for science worldwide.

AAAS History
Founded in 1848, AAAS serves some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of one million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.


AAAs web site link

 

[Netzach]

I love the first couple of posts - aren't you glad our sexual mores are unchanged?

"A flash of lace at the urinal" I need to write an erotic novella just to call it that.

 

[Netzach]

The tattoo-removal business is booming, according to a May Fox News report that highlights dissatisfaction with formerly trendy Chinese-language tats that were often either mistranslated as nonsense ("blood and guts" translated as "blood and intestines") or were actually jokes pulled on people too cool for their own good (such as Chinese words for "gullible white boy"). A removal service in Beverly Hills, Calif., said it takes off at least seven Asian tattoos a week. [Fox News, 5-9-06]

http://www.wondermark.com/d/087.html

 

[Shankara20]

http://www.wondermark.com/d/087.html

LOL

 

[Shankara20]

Black and White
A film by Kirsty MacDonald
New Zealand, 2006, 17 minutes, Color, VHS/DVD, English

A beautiful and stylish film about the creative collaboration between one individual and a photographer, BLACK AND WHITE also shines a sensitive light on a subject that is too often either shunned or sensationalized: the experiences of intersex people (sometimes called hermaphrodites). This fascinating film artfully explores the potent creative collaboration between Mani Bruce Mitchell and the acclaimed photographer Rebecca Swan. Portrayed through this lens, Mitchell’s story introduces viewers to notions of fluid gender identity, challenging the rigid categories of “male” and “female.”

At birth Mitchell was assigned the gender “male” but when investigative surgery subsequently revealing that “he” had ovaries, “Bruce” was renamed “Ruth” and reassigned the gender “female.” BLACK AND WHITE picks up on Mitchell’s story in 2005, weaving together her unflinching yet unexpectedly humorous insights, along with Swan’s descriptions of their creative collaboration on a book about gender identity. Documenting the way Mitchell boldly expressing her own intersex identity through the medium of art, the film challenges the viewer to see Mitchell for who s/he is. Combining intimate, present-day interviews with rich archival slides, photographs and film footage, as well as playful fragments of Super-8 stop-motion animation, BLACK AND WHITE is a stunning tribute to Mitchell’s courage and fierce commitment to change.


link

 

[Netzach]

WMM rocks. That looks really interesting. I'd kind of love to track down those photos...

 

[Shankara20]

An Eyeful a Day Keeps the Doctor Away by: Jonathan Hayter
Tue, January 24, 2006 - 1:02 PM
An Eyeful a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

by: Jonathan Hayter

Staring at women's breasts is good for men's health and makes them live longer, a new survey reveals.

Researchers have discovered that a 10 minute ogle at women's breasts is as healthy as half-an-hour in the gym.

A five year study of 200 men found that those who enjoyed a longing look at busty beauties had lower blood pressure, less heart disease and slower pulse rates compared to those who did not get their daily eyeful.

Dr. Karen Weatherby, who carried out the German study, wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine: "Just 10 minutes of staring at the charms of a well endowed female is roughly equivalent to a 30 minute aerobics workout.

"Sexual excitement gets the heart pumping and improves blood circulation.

"There is no question that gazing at breasts makes men healthier.

"Our study indicates that engaging in this activity a few minutes daily cuts the risk of stroke and heart attack in half.

"We believe that by doing so consistently, the average man can extend his life four to five years."

She added that sexy stars like Dolly Parton, Heather Locklear, Anna Nicole Smith and Demi Moore had proved to be especially good for the men's health.



the above just might not be true....

 

[Shankara20]

Sixty years after Indiana abolished gambling and wrecked the economy of the resort town of French Lick, the state brought it back, allowing casinos, but they had to be located on water and not the state's dry land. Developers of the French Lick Springs Resort thus spent $382 million on a plush "riverboat" casino on a manmade lake barely larger than the boat, and it opened in November.
[New York Times, 10-26-06]

 

[Shankara20]

Derek Ogley, 70, had just been discharged from Tameside General Hospital in Ashton, England, in November, but doubled over in pain in the waiting room (eventually diagnosed with pancreatitis). Nurses informed Ogley's family they would have to call 999 (the UK's 911) or drive him around to the emergency entrance about three minutes away, because, since he had been discharged, rules prevented them from treating him. [The Mirror (London), 12-1-06]




.

 

[Shankara20]

Men!

John Sheehan, 33, was arrested in November, nude, near the rapid-transit station in El Cerrito, Calif., and when asked if he was carrying contraband, admitted that he had a "screwdriver" in his rectum. (Police treated the item as a potential weapon, training guns on him while he removed the 6-inch-long "awl" wrapped in electrical tape.)
[Contra Costa Times, 11-3-06]

And a week later, in Monkwearmouth, England, a 22-year-old Iraq-war veteran told buddies he was bored and, imitating a prank from a "Jackass" movie, inserted a firework "up his backside," according to a Daily Mail story, and lit it. When it exploded, he was taken to Sunderland Royal Hospital with a scorched colon and other serious injuries.
[Daily Mail (London), 11-9-06]


.

 

[Shankara20]

An unnamed, "well-known Adelaide (Australia) model" was seen screaming, "Where's my baby? Someone's stolen my baby" shortly after she paused while jogging and pushing the 5-month-old's buggy along the city's River Torrens in December. According to a report in Melbourne's The Age newspaper, the woman had stopped to answer a cell-phone call, and when she finally turned back around, the buggy was gone. Unfortunately, it had rolled into the river during the phone call, and the incident ended badly.
[The Age (Melbourne), 12-15-06]

 

[Shankara20]

PANTY FETISH: Uncovering Why Men Beg, Borrow, Steal Women's Underwear
By Ducky DooLittle

Once I caught an ex-boyfriend stealing my panties. He swiped them off the floor and tucked them into his coat pocket on his way out the door. I asked him what he was doing and he said he wanted something to remember me by. He said he wanted to take my panties because they inspired "flashbacks" to our sexual adventures together. I thought that was rather sweet and romantic.

Romantic is a good word to describe an entire bracket of panty fiends. A friend of mine explained it to me by saying, "Panties are the item closest to a woman's body. They hold all the scent that makes a woman a woman. Every woman has her favorite pair. Every day they are discarded, dirty, into the hamper. They are seldom handled by anyone other than the woman who owns them. And panties are one of the most intimate items a woman owns. To have a woman's panties is like having a little piece of her."

These guys want a keepsake. They want to carry your scent with them. This is not surprising because our sense of smell is a powerful sexual tool. Scientists say it's the pheromones in our sweat glands that inspire these reactions. The romantic panty thieves only want the panties that belong to the single woman they lust after. It's that one woman that makes the panties special.

Another type of panty consumer is the man who just wants panties and doesn't really care who they belonged to. He uses the panties to enhance his fantasies; the woman who wore them is irrelevant.

Quite often these men have panty fantasies early in their sexual development. For example, maybe a man caught a glimpse of a woman's panties as she walked up a flight of stairs. Perhaps he then used that image to fuel his sexual imagination. From then on panties continued to inspire his fantasies. Actually owning a pair of panties would enhance his fantasies.

Other men are attracted to the fabrics. Panties are made out of soft fabrics like silk and satin. These kinds of textiles aren't always available to men. Just feeling them reminds them of women. And still other men like to wear the panties. They'll try them on to feel their erection burst through the fabric. To achieve these heightened experiences some men will often steal or spend money to get the items they desire.

Stealing the panties can be a kick in and of itself. Any sex act that involves taking a risk like that is usually motivated by adrenaline. As much as the man may want the panties, he also gets off on the experience of getting away with the crime of stealing. This is so prevalent that we frequently see news reports of men getting caught stealing their neighbor's panties. Almost all laundromats have signs posted regarding the theft of one's items. I spoke with one man who bragged about his panty-stealing adventures. He said he enjoyed rummaging through clothes hampers and dresser drawers at parties. (That conversation prompted me to move my hamper out of my bathroom and into a more secure location!)

I much prefer the idea of men buying panties from willing participants. Selling worn panties is a huge industry in America and around the world. In the UK they're called "knickers" and you can find them sold online and in magazines. In Japan the industry is so large that they sell used panties in vending machines along with other adult pleasures like beer and cigarettes. Some Japanese schoolgirls are so hip to the high demand for panties that they have taken to selling theirs to strangers after school. This way they can spend the extra cash on mini-Mp3 players and candy. (I imagine the smartest girls spend some of the cash on new panties so they can meet the demand, right?)

When it comes down to it, whether it's the girl that wore the panties, the scent, the fabric, or the adventure, I am finding the reasons behind the desires are as unique as the men who have them. Which proves to be true for all things sexual.

 

[Shankara20]

Burusera shops in Japan sell used girl panties.

"Buru" means bloomers and "sera" means sailor, the sailor uniforms that are worn by Japanese schoolgirls. They also sell other types of clothes, such as school uniforms, blazer school uniform, school swim suit uniform, etc. The clothes are often accompanied by genuine photos of the girls wearing them. The clients are Japanese men who smell or otherwise experience the panties for sexual stimulation. Vending machines have sometimes been used to sell packaged used panties.

Namasera is a variation of Burusera. "Nama" means Fresh. The concept is the same as burusera, but the "goods" are still being worn by the girl who then removes them and hands them over directly at the point of sale.
The price for a pair of panties can be as high as 5,000-10,000 yen (45-90 US dollars).

Underage schoolgirls participate in sale of their used panties, either through burusera shops or using mobile phone sites to sell directly to clients. When laws banning the purchase of used underwear from under-18s were introduced in Tokyo in 2004, it was reported that some underage girls (called kagaseya or sniffers) were instead allowing their clients to sniff their panties from directly between their legs. Others chose to sell photos of themselves, throwing in the used panties for free.

The panty fetish is not unique to Japan, but only there has it been institutionalised to such a degree.