Web Log Archives: July 13, 2003 - July 19, 2003
Saturday, July 19, 2003
Reuters: "On a rare winning streak that could bring them their first title in 18 years, Japan's long-suffering Hanshin Tigers baseball team has got a little extra support from a newly designed bra."
Vietnamese authorities have suspended a student magazine for running a cover photo of naked statues and "inappropriate articles, including stories that stimulate young people's sexual curiosity." The magazine, Sinh Vien, is published by the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth League.
Friday, July 18, 2003
Very welcome news on the sex science front: Masturbating may protect against prostate cancer. "The team concludes that the more men ejaculate between the ages of 20 and 50, the less likely they are to develop prostate cancer. The protective effect is greatest while men are in their twenties: those who had ejaculated more than five times per week in their twenties, for instance, were one-third less likely to develop aggressive prostate cancer later in life." OK, I'm no scientist, but are there really men out there who ejaculate less than five times per week in their twenties?
Friendster reaches one million users.
Thursday, July 17, 2003
It was only a matter of time before someone asked, Is Harry Potter gay? Michael Bronski teases out the clues. "But what are we to make of the fact that Harry, before he learns of his true identity, is forced to live in a closet? Or that before he learns of his acceptance to Hogwarts, he is preparing to go to Stonewall High School?" Bronski doesn't push this reading too literally, instead arguing that the books are more vaguely "queer" in the sense of celebrating unconventional behavior. More.
In a sidebar piece on the same page, Joyce Millman explores the subculture of Harry Potter slash, in particular the the cult of Severus Snape. "Many of these Snapecentric fan fictions are fluffy 'Mary Sue' stories, in which a beautiful young transfer student discovers the softer side of the Potions Master. But in other stories, Snape has a full-blown taste for bondage and discipline, seducing students of both sexes — including Harry and Hermione — during detentions in his dungeon."
Ashlee Vance at the Registerasks, Robosnail: Science or sex toy? "Researchers at MIT have come up with a new experiment that raises the question, 'Where do you draw the line between science and simply having too much time on your hands?'"
10-year-old finds porn in birthday piñata. Not inside the piñata as treats, just used as part of the papier-mâché body.
This is your penis . . . this is your penis on drugs.
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Private email goes public, humiliation and hilarity ensues. Heard this story before? In this case, one college student summer intern in Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson's office sent the following breakup letter to a fellow intern.
From: Kelly Tripplehorn [mailto:tripplehorny@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 2:11 PM
Subject: you suck
Well, as of this afternoon, I was planning on ruining your career by making phone calls to all of my parents friends and have you blackballed from the workplace as well as every prestigous law school in the country, but then (lucky for you) I decided not to do that because you are a sad sad person and I will just let your life self destruct right before my eyes.
Michele I am sorry, I don't care how big of sadistic fucked up crush you have on me but people like me simple don't date people like you. You are too competitive with me and you just simply will never be better than me. I will always have more friends than you just because I don't care about beating people and lying to get to the top. (You are an absolute hipocrit in everything that you do, I am not going to go into details why you are because that would be a waste of my time and yours but I can assure you if you were to ever meet yourself you would hate your twin) I have told most all of the staff about our situation now and they already knew you were really messed you. They said when you were talking to them about me, they all told me you had 'serious issues' and that every word you said sounded scripted and they knew without a doubt that you were lying. I have noticed that people who you think are your good friends actually really dislike you but unlike me, they will not tell you to your face because they would rather be fake nice to you than be your enemy.
Now talking about how I am obsessed with money, I simply am not. You are. You always are trying to impress me by how much money you have and I don't care. The difference is though I talk about it but it is never about bragging and it is never directly about money, it is always directly about the conversation. For instance, someone will ask, what are you doing for july 4rth. And then I will say I am going to aspen. It is a simple fact that I am but since you don't have a house in aspen, you get offended because of your competitive nature. When you talk about money you will say something like UT's tuition is 5% of your family's income, thus my tuition would be 125,000. Yea, Michele you are right, I brag too much about what I have.
Well I am just going to stop writing because you are just absolutely beneath me. I have heard that you try to undermine people all the time that are better than you and everysingle time it does not work because people can see through such shallowness and that is why as I have heard so many times, Most "everyone at UT absolutely hates you." For instance even the people that you thought were your friends Mellissa Mahaffey or that girl you met at espn, they hate you, they just never say anything. Everyone knows you are a pathetic social climber who will go to any discusting means to move up the ladder. But guess what Michele, you will never move up the ladder because I am at the top and people like me hate people like you. You might be able to trick people like me for maybe a month or so but your true personality comes through after a while and it is vile, if that. You have sooooo many people that absolutely hate you and you will never know it because they will never say anything to your face. You will not succeed in life and even the staff thinks that also, after I told them about the things that you do. You suck and good luck being miserable for the rest of your life. I do not even know why I wasted my time typing this for suck slime. Everyone tells me that you are so beneath me (which you are) and I should not get worked up over suck trifles. By the end of the day if I wanted to, I could make a phone call and have your life absolutely ruined but there is no need because you are falling fast enough towards failure without me. In the end, all I can say is that people love me and people hate you. You should observe me and take a few notes on how to make real friends. Other than you tieing this one other person, I have never had such little respect for a human being in my life. I don't even have to tell you why because in my very accurate analysis that most everyone else agrees with, if you were to agree with my analyis about your character than my whole entire analysis would be wrong. Your inflamed ego has left you so blind and so impotent that you can nto even recognize the most obvious flaws in yourself. All your old roommates absolutely hated you and you still think the problem is with them, not you. Well I talked to your roommates and I thought they nice normal girls. So naturally, you would not fit in with them because you are so intellectually above them all. Right? You suck at life and you need to figure out why or you will be miserable for the rest of your life.
Once again from your intellectual, moral, social, and emotional superior,
Paul Kelly Tripplehorn, Jr.
More at Snopes and Metafilter and the Washington Post.
Sleazy celebrity fuck-and-tell: "James Hewitt has spoken for the first time of Princess Diana's prowess as a lover. . . . The 45-year-old former soldier - whom Diana once said she 'loved and adored' - made the remarks during filming of Channel 4's documentary Confessions Of A Cad, to be shown a week tomorrow." More.
Weird science in the news: Fake lie-detector reveals women's sex lies.
Assorted neato stuff at Nerve:
Plus, Em & Lo are blogging from their book tour.
The Onion runs an angry letter to the editor of a porn site. "To the people at Sexxxotika.com, let me begin by saying that I thoroughly enjoy your pornographic web site. I have been a paying member since September, and since then have reveled in the graphic images of female nudity and hardcore sex. But I'm afraid this week your site went too far."
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
Keith Gessen and Aaron Matz are discussing Michel Houellebecq's Platform this week in the Slate book club: Monday, Tuesday and continuing through the week.
Also at Slate, a poem entitled "Leaflet on Wooing" by Lucie Brock-Broido.
The Taipei Times reviews The Emerging Lesbian. "Taiwan, Sang Tze-lin proclaims, has since the early 1990s pioneered the emergence and definition of a lesbian identity in a way that's unique in the Chinese-speaking world. American-style its arguments may be, but in a pan-Chinese context they are crucially important. The future, she argues, may show that Taiwan sowed the seeds of a modern Chinese lesbian identity which the mainland's same-sex-oriented women eventually followed. The book, which started life as a Ph.D. thesis at Berkeley, California, is an academic work that looks at the evolution of lesbian politics in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It doesn't, despite its title and subtitle, find evidence of very much of an unbridled nature being done or publicly said in China. The absence of the free interchange of ideas there means that such groups as exist have had to express themselves in guarded, and especially non-political, language."
Traci Lords has just published a memoir, Traci Lords: Underneath It All, which deals with her lousy childhood, underage porn career, FBI bust, inspirational recovery, and adult career in movies and TV. She's out promoting it with book signings and media appearances. The Times Daily ("serving Northwest Alabama") has a lengthy interview with Traci Lords. MSNBC has the transcript of a Dateline segment on Lords, which includes an interview with Lords and some interspersed rebuttal from industry figures Jim South and Nina Hartley. Traci Lords' personal site has a book tour schedule, portfolio of glamor and softcore photos, message board and info about her current projects. More about Lords here and here and here.
Monday, July 14, 2003
The Economist looks at moves to legalize prostitution. "But these days, many in the world's more liberal countries doubt if the exchange of sex for money between consenting adults really does threaten the fabric of society, and ask if the state really has any right to stop them doing so. Even some who still disapprove of prostitution wonder, given the authorities' constant failure to curb it, whether it might be less bad to legalise and license the profession. This would help to get it off the streets, take it out of the hands of organised crime, control the spread of disease and curb sex slavery and underage prostitution."
A drug-free workplace policy for strippers? What the fuck?!? Pagan Moss takes a stand (and continues to rock).
Sunday, July 13, 2003
Los Angeles is getting its own sex museum. "The Erotic Museum is scheduled to open on Hollywood Boulevard this fall, with a collection ranging from Pablo Picasso nudes to antique sex machines. . . . In addition to Russian erotica, the museum's permanent collection will include photographs by David LaChapelle, known for his surrealistic, sexually charged works; illustrations by Japanese artist Hajimi Sorayama, known for his erotic robots and pinups; and works by modern photographers Geoff Cordner and Carlos Batts."
India news from Sify: "Infuriated mobs went on rampage stoning vehicles and staging rasta rokos in parts of Maharashtra to protest against the alleged depiction of Gautam Buddha in a pamphlet distributed by a pharmaceutical company to propagate ayurvedic sex stimulant pills. . . . Trouble broke out following publication of the pamphlet in a newspaper depicting Gautam Buddha wearing a suit in an advertisement of a sex pill. . . . The caption of the photograph read 'good health is dependent upon balance in all respect of life'." When did Buddhists start rioting? That's just wrong. (Info on ayurvedic medicine from a skeptical website.)
The Guardian book section has a review of Grandes Horizontales by Virginia Rounding, which looks at "the lives and legends of four nineteenth-century courtesans."
