Sex News Blog from a2zporn.com

January 21, 2008

So nobody is watching the movie anymore?

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Two in three Australian travelers are either members of the notorious Mile High Club or would like to be a member, a survey showed Monday.

Asked if they would consider a mid-air sexual encounter, almost half of 1,110 people surveyed wanted an adventure, while 12 percent already had mile-high membership wings.

"People are obviously looking for more stimulating entertainment than a movie or a CD when traveling by plane," Totaltravel.com global marketing manager Paul Fisher said.

A flight attendant for Australia's flag carrier Qantas was sacked last year after claiming to have had a tryst with actor Ralph Fiennes in a business class lavatory during a flight from Darwin to Mumbai.

Singapore Airlines last November asked passengers on its new super jumbo Airbus A380 aircraft, which had its maiden commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney, not to seek Mile High Club membership in first class cabins, which boast a double bed.

Fisher, whose company carried out the survey, said joining the Mile High Club was easier these days in a super jumbo, but urged travelers to be mindful of others within close cabin earshot if gripped by "Mile High madness."

Posted by ronnie at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)

January 19, 2008

China studies "sexology" panel's business methods

BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing's crackdown on corruption has reached the supposedly non-profit-making China Sexology Association whose business activities have come under investigation, state media said on Thursday.

Founded in 1994 as an academic society studying sexual health products, the association is not allowed to profit from business activities.

"But evidence shows it has taken part in a series of business activities, and has even compiled business contracts where the association can reap as much as 60 to 80 percent of profits from the exercises," the Legal Evening News said.

The association was suspected of setting up an "expert committee" to comment on health products without approval from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Beijing-based newspaper said.

"At a sex culture festival held in Guangzhou last month, the association sold copper plates that bore its name to dealers of sex health products," Xinhua news agency said. "The plates were worth 400 yuan (28 pounds) to 600 yuan each."

The association denied wrongdoing. "We welcome authorities to come and investigate," chairman Xu Tianmin was quoted by the Legal Evening News as saying.

"It will get rid of misunderstanding and prove that we are not guilty."

The association was set up to "help promote sexual and reproductive health, to popularize the knowledge of marriage and the family so as to contribute to the building of China's spiritual culture".

Corruption was virtually wiped out in the years after the Communists swept to power in 1949 but has made a comeback alongside market-oriented reforms introduced in the late 1970s.

Posted by ronnie at 08:09 AM | Comments (0)

December 08, 2007

Depression, anorexia, childbirth affect sex life

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Childbirth and the psychiatric disorders anorexia and depression can affect a woman's sex life, but in different ways, a small study suggests.

Research has shown that women with mental health conditions, including major depression and eating disorders, tend to report more problems with their sex life than other women do. The same has been found in studies of new mothers.

But the nature of this sexual dysfunction has not been clear.

In the new study, researchers found that women with either anorexia or depression typically had sex more frequently than new mothers did. They were, however, more likely to report having "problems" during sex, according to findings published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

This suggests that anorexia and depression have similar effects on a woman's sex life, while childbirth has a different sort of impact, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Frances A. Carter of the Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Otago University in New Zealand.

The study results are based on questionnaire responses from 76 women who had taken part in three previous, separate studies and included 10 women with anorexia; 24 women with major depression; and 42 women who'd given birth within the past two months. All of the women were married or in stable relationships.

Overall, Carter's team found that 80 percent and 79 percent of women with anorexia or depression, respectively, said they'd had sex in the past two weeks, compared with only half of the new mothers.

On the other hand, none of the women in the postnatal group said they had any problems during sex, while roughly one third of those with anorexia or depression said they did.

The fact that new mothers had sex less often is not surprising, according to Carter and his colleagues. However, the reported lack of any sexual difficulties is "more optimistic" than the results obtained from other studies, which "suggested that sexual difficulties were the norm."

The researchers add that their findings should be considered preliminary, in part because the study group was so small, particularly the number of women with anorexia.

Posted by ronnie at 01:15 PM | Comments (0)

December 02, 2007

To get to Paradise, some Americans go to Intercourse first

INTERCOURSE, Pennsylvania (AFP) - To get to Paradise, some Americans go to Intercourse first.

Earth is also in Texas, and lies around 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) away from Mars and Venus, both in Pennsylvania.

And the good people of Rising Sun, Maryland, probably have close ties to their kinfolk in Hot Coffee, Mississippi, Toast in North Carolina and Two Egg, Florida.

The United States has its fair share of towns with odd place names, some with stories that rival the name for originality.

In New Mexico, the townspeople of Hot Springs voted in 1950 to change the name of their town to Truth or Consequences, after a popular television game show.

Intercourse, which is in the heart of Pennsylvania's deeply religious and traditional Amish country, was called Cross Keys, after a popular inn, when it was founded in the 18th century.

It changed its name to Intercourse in the 1800s for reasons no one is entirely sure of.

"The first centers around an old race track which existed on the Old Philadelphia Pike, where there is a long stretch of race course, known as Entercourse. It is believed that Entercourse gradually evolved into Intercourse," the town says on its website.

Another theory holds that the word Intercourse was more frequently used in the 1800s to "describe the fellowship and social interaction and support shared in the community of faith," the website says.

The picturesque town has capitalized on its famous name, selling T-shirts that read "I love Intercourse."

The town of Boring, Oregon, has taken a different tack, billing itself as "the most exciting place to live."

Meanwhile, Christmas, Florida experiences a business boom during the festive season, especially at its post office as people come from neighboring towns to mail greeting cards with a Christmas postmark.

Santa Claus, Indiana, enjoys a similar jump in business: it claims to have the only post office in the world with the name of the jolly, bearded man who delivers gifts to children around the world on Christmas day.

That means the Santa Claus post office receives half a million letters to its jolly, bearded namesake, and an equal number are posted from the town each Christmas, the head of Santa Claus's (the town's) tourist board, Melissa Miller, told AFP.

"Our post office is probably the most famous thing about our town, and it actually has a lot to do with how we got our name," Miller said.

"Our area was settled by German immigrants in the 1850s, and as the little town grew, they saw the need to have a post office, and applied to the US government for permission to locate one here," she said.

"Their first application was for a town called Santa Fe. But there was already a town in Indiana with that name, so their application was denied.

"So the little town had a community meeting on Christmas Eve, in a little log church with a potbelly stove, and everyone gathered round and talked about what they would rename the town.

"During the meetings, a little girl came running in the door as sleigh bells rang outside, and she cried, 'It's Santa Claus!,'" Miller said.

The name had a ring to it, it was accepted by the US government, and has stuck to this day.

One problem faced by hamlets with weird names is that people steal the signs with the names posted at the city limits.

Intercourse has had its sign stolen several times -- speculation is that the thieves nail the signs above their beds.

Posted by ronnie at 01:04 PM | Comments (0)

December 01, 2007

Late author Mailer wins Bad Sex in Fiction award

LONDON (AFP) - Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Norman Mailer, who died this month aged 84, was Tuesday declared the winner of the 2007 Bad Sex in Fiction Award for his latest work.

Mailer, a hipster poet, director, occasional film actor, and even a New York City mayoral candidate in 1969, won the 15th annual prize for his most recent book, "The Castle in the Forest", which was published this year.

Previous winners of the dubious prize, first awarded in 1993 by the Literary Review, include Booker prize-winner Salman Rushdie, A.A. Gill and Melvyn Bragg.

It was originally created to "draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it."

"We are sure that he would have taken the prize in good humour," the judges said of Mailer, whom they described as a "great American man of letters".

The panel commended the "variety of his work, his innovative journalism, his combative spirit and his love of life".

It is the first time the award has been given posthumously.

Mailer's award-winning passage described a penis as an "old battering ram" -- by comparison, Indian author Aniruddha Bahal, who won the award in 2003, described sex as a "cross-country" rally.

The author, who died of renal failure, penned more than 40 works with diverse styles and themes, and achieved the rare honour of being awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice.

He also wrote a famous essay railing against feminism in 1971, prompting prominent feminist Kate Millet to label him "the ultimate male chauvinist pig."

Posted by ronnie at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)

October 26, 2007

Gene switch altered sex orientation of worms

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Altering a gene in the brain of female worms changed their sexual orientation, U.S. researchers said on Thursday, making female worms attracted to other females.

The study reinforces the notion that sexual orientation is hard-wired in the brain, said Erik Jorgensen, scientific director of the Brain Institute at the University of Utah.

"They look like girls, but act and think like boys," Utah researcher Jamie White, who worked on the study published in the journal Current Biology, said in a statement.

Researchers in Jorgensen's lab switched on a gene in female worms that makes the body develop male structures, but they only activated the gene in the brain.

As a result, the female worms still had female bodies, but they behaved like males.

"It suggests sexual behavior is encoded in our genes" and not caused by extra nerve cells specific to males or females, Jorgensen said in a telephone interview.

Animals such as nematodes, fruit flies and mice share many of the same genes as humans and are often used as models to understand human genetics.

But Jorgensen said the study is not likely to resolve the burning question about the genesis of sexual orientation in humans. "A human's brain is much more complex than a worm's brain," he said.

Many scientists think a host of factors such as genetics, hormones and environment may play a role in determining sexual orientation in humans, but this has not been proven.

Jorgensen said the study is interesting because it suggests rather than being caused by extra, sex-specific nerve cells, attraction behaviors are part of the same brain circuit.

The finding was part of a study looking at areas in the worms' brains involved in sexual attraction.

LIVE IN DIRT, EAT GERMS

Nematodes, or C. elegans, are tiny worms about one millimeter long that live in the dirt, chomping bacteria. They have no eyes and rely on smell for navigation and propagation.

There are few males, only one in 500, so most of these female nematodes are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female sexual organs. This gives the female worms the ability to fertilize their own eggs and produce offspring in the absence of a male.

"For the most part they are females," Jorgensen said. "It's really hard to tell that they are hermaphrodites, but they do make these few sperm."

When they do mate with males, female worms produce 1,200 progeny, compared with just 200 when they produce their own sperm.

The researchers were trying to understand the underpinnings of sexual attraction in the male nematodes.

They reasoned it could arise from four extra smell-related nerve cells found only in male worm brains, from four core nerves found in both males and females or from a mix of both.

When they systematically neutralized the male-only neurons, mature male worms still responded to the females.

The findings imply nerve cells common to both male and female worms are central to sexual attraction and sexual orientation.

"They have genes for both male behavior and female behavior in them," Jorgensen said. "It suggests the brain determines behavior."

The study expands on prior studies suggesting a genetic component to sexual orientation.

"This is one more observation. We've seen this in flies and in mice," he said. "The difference is we know what cells are involved."

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Posted by ronnie at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)

October 01, 2007

Once-puritan South Africa holds its first sex fair

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africans queued to learn about sex toys and pole-dancing this weekend, at the first sex fair ever held in a country founded by conservative Christians and still home to many sexual taboos.

The exhibition, modeled on a show running in Australia since 1996, would have been unthinkable 15 years ago when South Africa was still ruled by Afrikaners, the white descendants of the original, largely Puritan Dutch and French settlers.

During the apartheid era, customs officials not only confiscated pornography brought from abroad by travelers, but sometimes detained those trying to import it. Strip clubs did not exist and handcuffs, though abundant, were not fur-lined.

The end of white minority rule in 1994 and the establishment of a new constitution -- generally considered one of the most liberal in the world -- unleashed a torrent of hard-core porn. Sex shops and strip clubs blossomed.

Although authorities tolerate the lifestyle, it remains one that few South Africans openly discuss or admit to supporting.

Meanwhile, South Africa has one of the world's worst AIDS epidemics.

An estimated 12 percent of its 47 million people are infected with HIV, most of them black. Sex is the main channel of transmission in a culture where male dominance is rarely challenged and promiscuity often tolerated.

Each day about 1,000 people die from AIDS and another 1,500 contract the virus.

Amid the racy lingerie, pornographic DVDs and exotic sex toys, the Johannesburg "Sexpo SA" made room for a handful of health advocacy groups to set up stands, including the LoveLife Trust, the national HIV prevention program for young people.

Silas Howarth, the 28-year-old South African who organized the exhibition, said around 40,000 people paid the 89 rand ($13) admission to the fair. He said there were plans to hold similar events in coming months in Durban and Cape Town.

Posted by ronnie at 05:42 AM | Comments (0)

September 16, 2007

Old folk are still having sex: US study

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Aging people in the United States are still having active sex lives, unrestrained by age-related sexual problems affecting around half of them, according to a major nationwide report published Thursday.

"A majority of older Americans are sexually active and view intimacy as an important part of life, despite a high rate of 'bothersome' sexual problems," the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said in a report on the new study.

The research found that sexual appetite declines only slightly between the ages of 50 and 70, with many men and women practising vaginal intercourse, oral sex and masturbation well into their 70s and 80s.

Researchers at the University of Chicago surveyed 3,005 people aged 57 to 85, said the NIH, part of the US Department of Health.

The study "suggests a previously uncharacterized vitality and interest in sexuality that carries well into advanced age," said Richard Suzman of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) which took part in the study.

Half of those surveyed up to the age of 75 admitted to having oral sex, said the summary report released here Wednesday on the study, which is published in Thursday's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

More than half of men and a quarter of women admitted masturbating.

Nearly three-quarters of those aged 57 to 64 said they were sexually active. The figure dropped to just over half of those in the 65 to 74 age range, and a quarter of those aged 75 to 85.

Sexual activity was more common among older men than among older women.

The survey sheds light on the impact of physical health on people's sex lives, including sexual problems related to conditions such as arthritis, diabetes and hypertension, the report summary said. Overall health, it found, was more important than age in boosting a person's sex life.

The research may also help promote health education efforts to prevent sexually transmitted disease in older people.

"Sexual activity among older adults poses risks for new cases of HIV, as approximately 15 percent of newly diagnosed HIV infections are among Americans over age 50," the summary said.

About half of the sexually active older adults reported at least one "bothersome" sexual problem. More than a third of active men said they had erectile difficulties, and 43 percent of women reported "low desire."

American men spend more than a billion dollars each year on medications to improve their sexual function, the researchers said, with 14 percent of those surveyed taking medicine to boost their performance.

Posted by ronnie at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2007

German teenagers' debut sex act interrupted by fire

BERLIN (Reuters) - A teenage couple having sex for the first time were interrupted when candles set fire to the girl's attic bedroom and forced them to flee naked from her parents' house, German daily Bild reported on Friday.

The girl had wanted to create a romantic atmosphere for the occasion. But when the room suddenly became engulfed with flames, they had to make a hasty escape.

The couple, both 18, were pictured naked in the paper among the burned wreckage of the attic. A charred teddy had survived but the fire wrecked the entire top floor of the house causing around 100,000 euros (68,000 pounds) worth of damage.

Posted by ronnie at 04:03 PM | Comments (0)

August 08, 2007

Female mice just a sniff away from male sex drive

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Female mice became sexually voracious and tried to mate like males after scientists disabled a small sensory organ, casting fresh light on how gender-specific behavior develops in animals.

The difference seems to lie in how male and female mice use the vomeronasal organ to process pheromones, said Catherine Dulac, the Harvard biologist who led the research published in the journal Nature Sunday.

Pheromones are chemical signals that many animals, including humans, use to communicate socially and sexually.

The vomeronasal organ, found in the noses of some animals but not in people or higher primates, is a key processing center for pheromones.

Scientists had long attributed aggressive male mating tactics to a testosterone-induced hard-wiring of male brains.

"Here you have females that never had male hormones but have perfectly male behavior," Dulac said in a telephone interview.

In female mice, pheromones normally suppress male sex behaviors and activate female ones, the research suggests.

"This comes as a surprise to think that the neural circuitry for male behavior had been sitting in the female brain all this time," said Mark Breedlove, a neuroscientist at Michigan State University not involved in the study.

The researchers said they bred female mice without a gene critical to the vomeronasal organ's function. They also sliced the organ from otherwise normal adult females.

In both cases, the females pursued cage mates aggressively, sniffing their rears and mounting them. They turned to other male mating behaviors, such as pelvic thrusts, while eschewing typically female roles like nesting and nursing.

"You feel sorry for the males. You imagine they're confused," Breedlove said in a telephone interview.

The females did not limit themselves to males, with some trying to mate with other females. It turns out female mice need the vomeronasal organ to tell the sexes apart, just as males have in earlier studies, the researchers said.

The role of pheromones in humans is more controversial.

"We're not so olfactory or pheromonal as mice or rats," Breedlove said.

"On the other hand, it does make you wonder if humans also contain both sets of neural circuitry in the brain, and if something other than odors is responsible for determining which set we'll use as we grow up."

Posted by ronnie at 09:20 AM | Comments (0)

August 06, 2007

Interesting news about the office workaholics

BERLIN (Reuters) - German workaholics may be suffering from a lack of sex, according to a university study published Friday.

A survey of 32,000 men and women by researchers at the University of Goettingen found over 35 percent of those reporting unsatisfying sex lives tended to use hard work as a diversion.

Some 36 percent of men and 35 percent of women surveyed for the "Apotheken Umschau" newsletter said they were likely to put in extra time at the office and volunteer for extra assignments.

The hard work ethic was even more pronounced among those who reported having no sex -- 45 percent of men and 46 percent of women said they voluntarily took on more responsibilities.

"These findings are worrying," the leader of the study, Ragnar Beer, was quoted as saying.

Posted by ronnie at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

August 03, 2007

Why people have sex: It feels good

WASHINGTON - After exhaustively compiling a list of the 237 reasons why people have sex, researchers found that young men and women get intimate for mostly the same motivations. It's more about lust in the body than a love connection in the heart.

College-aged men and women agree on their top reasons for having sex — they were attracted to the person, they wanted to experience physical pleasure and "it feels good," according to a peer-reviewed study in the August edition of Archives of Sexual Behavior. Twenty of the top 25 reasons given for having sex were the same for men and women.

Expressing love and showing affection were in the top 10 for both men and women, but they did take a back seat to the clear No. 1: "I was attracted to the person."

Researchers at the University of Texas spent five years and their own money to study the overlooked why behind sex while others were spending their time on the how.

"It's refuted a lot of gender stereotypes ... that men only want sex for the physical pleasure and women want love," said University of Texas clinical psychology professor Cindy Meston, the study's co-author. "That's not what I came up with in my findings."

Forget thinking that men are from Mars and women from Venus, "the more we look, the more we find similarity," said Dr. Irwin Goldstein, director of sexual medicine at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego. Goldstein, who wasn't part of Meston's study, said the Texas research made a lot of sense and adds to growing evidence that the vaunted differences in the genders may only be among people with sexual problems.

Meston and colleague David Buss first questioned 444 men and women — ranging in age from 17 to 52 — to come up with a list of 237 distinct reasons people have sex. They ranged from "It's fun" which men ranked fourth and women ranked eighth to "I wanted to give someone else a sexually transmitted disease" which ranked on the bottom by women.

Once they came up with that long list, Meston and Buss asked 1,549 college students taking psychology classes to rank the reasons on a one-to-five scale on how they applied to their experiences.

"None of the gender differences are all that great," Meston said. "Men were more likely to be opportunistic towards having sex, so if sex were there and available they would jump on it, somewhat more so than women. Women were more likely to have sex because they felt they needed to please their partner."

But this is among college students, when Meston conceded "hormones run rampant." She predicted huge differences when older groups of people are studied.

Since her study came out Tuesday, people are coming up with new reasons to have sex.

"Originally, I thought that we exhaustively compiled the list, but now I found that there should be some added," Meston said.

Posted by ronnie at 05:24 PM | Comments (0)

July 16, 2007

Vietnam experiences a "quiet" sexual revolution

HO CHI MINH CITY (Reuters) - A young woman lives with her boyfriend but hides it from her family, girls write blogs about love and relationships and couples seeking privacy cuddle in public parks at nightfall.

A "quiet" sexual revolution is unfolding in Vietnam, an intensely family-oriented society that holds strong traditions of women being married by their mid-20s and having children.

Huyen, a 30-year-old public relations executive, came to work in Ho Chi Minh City two years ago from Hanoi. After first staying with an aunt, she secretly moved into her boyfriend's apartment.

"I didn't tell my aunt," she said. "It is quite popular to move in together. Besides, Saigon is big and many couples who have moved together from other provinces live together."

Young people are dating more before marriage, having pre-marital sex, and have more outlets through the Internet to talk about the joys and problems of relationships than previous generations.

Parks in the city still called Saigon are popular at night among canoodling couples for whom privacy is a premium. Although economic change has altered the model of three generations living under one roof, it is still the norm for most.

Sitting on motorcycles with their backs to the road and oblivious to the surroundings, these couples are usually in their 20s, the age group that makes up more than half of Vietnam's 85 million population.

In the heart of the capital, Hanoi, a tree-lined boulevard aptly named Thanh Nien (Young People) runs between two lakes and is known as a "lover's lane" for romantic trysts. Couples cuddle and kiss on their bikes under the trees or in swan-shaped paddle boats out on the water.

LIGHTS OUT

The tradition dates back to the early 1980s when assignations were tacitly permitted by the straight-laced authorities, recalled sociologist Le Bach Duong.

"I still remember they would turn off the lights on Thanh Nien street at 7.30 or 8 at night so it was like an unwritten agreement between the electricity authority and the youth," said Duong, director of the Institute for Social Development Studies.

"At midnight, they turned the lights back on again."

Nowadays, the lights stay on.

It is all part of the socio-economic transformation in the communist-run country that was relatively isolated only 15 years ago after decades of war and economic failure.

"Somebody said it is a time of sexual revolution in Vietnam but it is a bit quieter than that, than what happened say in America in the 1960s and 1970s, but it's growing," said psychologist Khuat Thu Hong.

"It's difficult to explain such a rapid change."

The changes are especially sharp for single women, whose job opportunities and mobility have become equal to those of men in recent years of high economic growth and increased incomes as agrarian Vietnam moves toward industrialization.

Living arrangements are changing, especially for migrants who left home villages to study at university or work in offices and factories around the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City.

Internet chat rooms, web sites, blogs and columns in the state-run "mass media" have become forums for young people to discuss love and sex and sexual orientation.

Vietnamese say attitudes toward sex and relationships have become much more open. However, most preferred not to use their full names in interviews, a telling sign that traditional family values still hold sway.

One outspoken woman is Nhu Khue, a petite 30-year-old who writes her own blog and is an active member of a web site for women www.traicasau.com/forum.

"In Vietnam, old people still want girls to be virgins but times are changing," she said.

Khue and others said that there is a perception that only Vietnamese women who date foreign men have pre-marital sex.

EXTRA-MARITAL AFFAIRS

In general, Westerners living in Vietnam view Vietnamese as abiding by traditional norms, but it is not a prudish society.

"Rice six days a week and pho (noodle soup) on the seventh," is a comment some Vietnamese make to indicate an extra-marital affair or liaisons with a prostitute.

Sharp beeps or vibrations on a married man's mobile phone can elicit quips about "the cat" (lover) calling.

Research on youth by a variety of organizations show that young people are sexually active at the same age as their parents, but the difference is that their parents were married and they are not.

These and other phenomena indicate that sex is no longer seen just for reproduction of children or an heir to work the farm, but more than that, experts said.

"Through our counseling we hear a lot of young people both girls and boys, talk about their pleasure," said Hoang Tu Anh, a medical doctor with the Consultation of Investment in Health Promotion non-governmental organization.

"In the last two or three years, there has been an upsurge in short stories or novels written by female writers on female sexuality," Tu Anh said.

The group runs a web site www.tamsubantre.com that provides a forum for people to chat under the auspices of a moderator about marriage, relationships and reproductive and sexual health.

Donors such as the United Nations Population Fund and others back a Sunday evening call-in show on Voice of Vietnam radio called "Windows of Love," a forum for people of all ages.

"It is quite remarkable that at least outwardly, all this change has not resulted in a break-up of social cohesion," said Ian Howie, UNFPA representative in Vietnam. "The rapidity of change seems to have been accommodated."

Posted by ronnie at 07:39 AM | Comments (0)

June 05, 2007

British women prefer chocolate to sex: poll

LONDON (AFP) - More than half of British women prefer chocolate to sex, saying it can be depended on to give pleasure, according to a survey published Tuesday.

But British men overwhelmingly think sex is sweeter, with 87 percent preferring carnal pleasures to a bar of confectionery.

Fifty-two percent of women would rather curl up with a bar of chocolate, according to the survey of 1,500 Britons by confectionery giant Cadbury, quoting one women as saying "chocolate provides guaranteed pleasure".

"Chocolate never disappoints," she said.

Cadbury -- hit by a salmonella scare last year -- highlighted a study by the psychologists at the University of Wales into links between chocolate and endorphins, the mood-enhancing chemicals which produce feelings of pleasure.

"It's not just the endorphins that makes chocolate so enjoyable," said Paul Hebblethwaite, the company's global science director.

"As it melts in the mouth at body temperature, chocolate's creamy texture and unique aroma hit all of the body's senses, heightening the sensuality of the experience," he added.

Tastes vary between different parts of the country: Londoners are the keenest on sex, with 79 percent preferring it to chocolate, while overall 40 percent of people in eastern England would prefer to a bar of chocolate.

The manufacturer also pointed out that almost half of British men regularly give chocolate as a birthday present or a thank you gift.

Posted by ronnie at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)

May 16, 2007

Bible drawn into sex publication controversy

HONG KONG (Reuters) - More than 800 Hong Kong residents have called on authorities to reclassify the Bible as "indecent" due to its sexual and violent content, following an uproar over a sex column in a university student journal.

A spokesperson for Hong Kong's Television and Entertainment Licensing authority (TELA) said it had received 838 complaints about the Bible by noon Wednesday.

The complaints follow the launch of an anonymous Web site -- www.truthbible.net -- which said the holy book "made one tremble" given its sexual and violent content, including rape and incest.

The Web site said the Bible's sexual content "far exceeds" that of a recent sex column published in the Chinese University's "Student Press" magazine, which had asked readers whether they'd ever fantasized about incest or bestiality.

That column was later deemed "indecent" by the Obscene Articles Tribunal, sparking a storm of debate about social morality and freedom of speech. Student editors of the journal defended it, saying open sexual debate was a basic right.

If the Bible is similarly classified as "indecent" by authorities, only those over 18 could buy the holy book and it would need to be sealed in a wrapper with a statutory warning notice.

TELA said it was still undecided on whether the Bible had violated Hong Kong's obscene and indecent articles laws.

But a local protestant minister shrugged off this possibility.

"If there is rape mentioned in the Bible, it doesn't mean it encourages those activities," said Reverend Wu Chi-wai. "It's just common sense ... I don't think that criticism will have strong support from the public," he added.

Posted by ronnie at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

May 12, 2007

Map of Virgin's shrine offers pilgrims sex ads

LISBON (Reuters) - Pilgrims to a holy shrine in Portugal are being given free maps of the site that show the Virgin Mary on one side and adverts for sex objects and aphrodisiacs on the other.

The maps, thought up by an advertising company, have raised eyebrows among the Catholic faithful and ire from the authorities at the popular Sanctuary of Fatima.

"The map is not official and makes the wrong use of the picture of the Virgin Mary," a shrine spokeswoman said on Friday.

"The Sanctuary is saddened and will carry out the necessary measures to end its distribution."

Thousands of pilgrims are expected to travel on foot to Fatima on May 13 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the first appearance of the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children on a hillside near the town, 120 km (75 miles) north of Lisbon.

About 3.5 million people flock to the shrine every year. One of the children who reported to have seen visions of the Virgin Mary later became a nun and is said to have foretold the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981. The pontiff later placed one of the bullets that nearly killed him in the crown of the statue of Fatima.

Posted by ronnie at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)

April 27, 2007

Woman sneaks into prison for sex

BALTIMORE - A woman pleaded guilty to using a false ID badge to enter a corrections facility while posing as an attorney so she could have sex with an inmate, state prosecutors said.

Tiffany Weaver, 29, entered the plea Wednesday. She was charged with identity theft and use of false government identification after entering the Maryland Reception Diagnostic and Classification Center in November to meet with inmate Jason Moody. Moody is serving a 30-year sentence for manslaughter.

Weaver arrived at the center with a Maryland State Bar Association Security Identification Pass with a photo and a business card with attorney Amanda Sprehn's name.

She asked for admittance to meet with Moody and showed the fraudulent badge. Corrections officials responsible for monitoring inmate meetings with attorneys witnessed the two having sex once they were alone. The corrections officers ended the meeting.

The real Amanda Sprehn, an Annapolis attorney, told The Baltimore Examiner she was on leave when her firm received a letter banning her from the jail.

"I was out on maternity leave," she said. "They informed me they received a letter saying I had been caught having sex with an inmate — which was a real laugh."

Weaver's sentencing is scheduled for June 7.

Posted by ronnie at 07:16 AM | Comments (0)

April 01, 2007

Parents protest H.S. sex newspaper

HAMPTON, N.H. - Some parents are protesting the "sex" edition of the student newspaper at Winnacunnet High School. Several said they were especially offended by a photograph of two women kissing under the headline, "Why men love women who love women," a quiz question about anal sex, and an interview with an unnamed custodian who said he had found a vibrator in the girls' shower.

"Those articles offended me personally as a parent," said Venus Merrill, a school board member. "It's not something you want to read with your family and it's not something that should be going home."

Principal Randy Zito said the Winnachronicle had crossed the line of responsible reporting and that he had dealt with the problem privately. He also said he had pulled copies of the paper that normally would have been sent to middle schools in the cooperative school district.

The newspaper's faculty adviser defended the editors' decisions and said the February edition of the paper was intended to inform students, not shock people — although they knew it would stir controversy.

"The kids wrote the articles and came up with the topic," said adviser Carol Downer. "They didn't go out to cause controversy, but the Winnachronicle is also not a P.R. piece for the high school. This is a place for students to express their view and talk about issues that are troubling the student body."

The newspaper is not reviewed in advance of publication by administrators. The school board has not discussed the controversy in a public meeting, but parent Paula Wood, of Seabrook, said she wants it on the agenda for the next one.

Zito told her it would have to be discussed in a closed session because it might involve personnel issues, but Wood said she asked the superintendent to hold a public meeting.

"I don't want to discuss personnel," Wood said. "I want to discuss the paper. "I thought it was a vile, disgusting piece of pornography I wouldn't want to be in front of children, let alone paid for by taxpayers."

Wood said she and her children, two boys, discuss sex openly, "but not in a disgusting manner."

The student paper's editor in chief, Katie McCay, and managing editor, Lisa McManus, said they wanted to educate students, nearly half of whom are already having sexual intercourse, according to a 2005 Youth Risk Behavior Survey at the high school. The true or false quiz was particularly enlightening, they said.

"As we put the pages on the table, the staff said, 'Oh my goodness, that's false? I had no idea,'" McCay said. "This is definitely stuff kids didn't know about."

They also got a lot of feedback about the article on lesbians, she said.

"We thought it was an important topic to address," McCay said. "Being in a high school, it's something I've seen and something other kids have seen in the hallways."

In an editorial, McManus wrote that the students were aware they were dealing with a taboo.

"These stories have been edited and re-edited for content and delivery, keeping in mind that the job here is to inform, not shock," the editorial said. "It's about sex. Deal with it. ...

"It is something parents hope their children remain ignorant about until after marriage. It is something faculty members and administrators hope not to deal with, but something that almost all students have experienced or been exposed to."

Posted by ronnie at 09:09 PM | Comments (0)

March 16, 2007

Finally, something good about being old..

BERLIN (Reuters) - A brothel in Germany hopes to capitalize on the growing number of retirees by offering them a 50 percent discount for sex in the afternoon.

The "Pascha" in the western city of Cologne has introduced reduced rates for sex sessions for clients aged 66 and above -- provided they can prove they are old enough.

"All clients need to do is show us some proof of age," said a spokesman for the brothel's managing director Armin Lobscheid. "A 'normal session' costs 50 euros with us -- and we're now paying 50 percent of that for these older guests."

"We don't earn as much money, but we're establishing ourselves across a broader range of age groups," he added.

After testing the water with reductions for senior citizens once a week, the Pascha decided earlier this month to offer 50 percent off sex services between midday and 5 p.m every day.

"There's been plenty of demand and people have certainly been taking advantage of the offer," the spokesman said. "Older folks are more active than you think."

The brothel's Web site is keen to stress this point.

"Life begins at 66!" it says in an advert for its "senior citizens afternoon" next to a picture of a motorcycle rider.

Posted by ronnie at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2007

Man aged 107 forsakes sex for longevity: paper

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A 107-year-old Hong Kong villager, who still enjoys an occasional smoke, has attributed his longevity in part to decades of sexual abstinence, a newspaper said on Sunday.

"I don't know why I have lived this long," Chan Chi -- one of Hong Kong's oldest people -- was quoted as saying in the South China Morning Post during an annual feast for the city's elders.

"Maybe it has to do with the fact that I have lived a sex-less life for many years -- since I was 30," said Chan, a widower whose youthful bride perished during the Japanese invasion in World War Two.

Chan, from Hong Kong's less built-up New Territories hinterland, was pictured looking sprightly and eating heartily at the banquet.

A former chef, he said a low-fat diet and regular dawn exercises had helped him fight off the ravages of old age.

But the centenarian, who's had no difficulty living a monastic existence for nearly 80 years, admits the pleasures of tobacco have been harder to resist.

"Now I want to quit," he was quoted as saying of his decades-long cigarette addiction. "Maybe the government should ban cigarette sales so I can give it up," he added.

Posted by ronnie at 07:15 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2007

Sex in fast lane halts traffic on Israeli road

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police investigating why a car was blocking traffic in the fast lane of a major highway on Sunday found a couple inside having sex.

A police spokesman said the female driver and her male passenger gave in to their passions without pulling over to the side of the road, causing congestion and leaving other motorists having to swerve to dodge their stationary vehicle.

A patrolman gave the woman a ticket for holding up traffic.

Posted by ronnie at 12:33 AM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2007

Britons ignorant about sex, survey reveals

LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly one in three Britons think that if a woman jumps up and down, washes or urinates immediately after sex, she can prevent pregnancy, a survey revealed Monday.

It was one of a string of revelations in the survey carried out by the Family Planning Association (fpa) at the start of Contraceptive Awareness Week.

They reveal "widespread confusion and misunderstanding" about some of the basic facts, said the fpa, which has called for improved sex and relationships education in schools.

"In today's sexualized society, we are bombarded with a multitude of sexual imagery and messages," said Anne Weyman, chief executive of fpa.

"Nevertheless, providing people with the information and skills they need to make positive choices about their health and lives is not considered a priority."

One in five pregnancies currently ends in abortion, the fpa said.

The survey showed that half the 500 people questioned did not know that a woman's most fertile time is between 10 and 16 days before her next period.

The poll, carried out by Gfk NOP, also revealed that 89 percent of respondents were unaware that it is possible for sperm to live inside a woman's body for up to seven days.

Nearly 25 percent incorrectly thought that the fluid a man produces before he ejaculates does not contain sperm.

Most blamed their ignorance on a lack of sex education at school, with 18 percent of the 18 to 65-year-olds questioned saying they never had any such lessons.

"None of us is born with the facts about sex and reproduction -- we are taught them," Weyman added.

"If this doesn't happen, myths start getting into circulation and people end up not being able to tell fact from fiction.

"If contraception isn't used or if it fails, instead of seeking professional help and advice people may take action that is completely ineffective in preventing a pregnancy."

Posted by ronnie at 08:34 PM | Comments (0)

February 04, 2007

Yale in a lather over steamy showers

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Sex is not a taboo subject at Yale, home to Sex Week, a biennial celebration that's one of the most provocative campus events in the nation. But a randy couple's frolic in a shower at one of Yale's undergraduate residential colleges prompted a professor to issue an e-mail of protest, which in turn has sparked debate on the Internet.

With the subject line "Shower Stalls are for Showering," the e-mail begins "OK, well THIS is the most awkward college-wide e-mail I've ever had to send."

Yale officials told The Associated Press on Friday that the e-mail was sent Jan. 30 by Professor Jonathan Holloway, master of Calhoun College, one of 12 residential colleges at the Ivy League university.

About 330 students received the e-mail from Holloway, who runs Calhoun as master. He referred comment to Yale's public affairs department.

His e-mail warns against "intimate activity" in the showers, "especially that kind of activity that leaves the showers in a decidedly less hygienic state.

"Several times since the start of the spring term some Hounies have come across a couple having the time of their lives in a shower stall," the e-mail stated, referring to the nickname for college residents. "Last night, the shower flooded and the bathroom could not be used for over 90 minutes. To the as yet unidentified couple, this may be pleasurable and exciting for you, but it is a violation of community standards. Please stop."

The note, first reported Friday by the New Haven Register, ended with a warning to the frolicking couple: "I really don't want to explore this matter any further, as I respect your individual privacy. But such continued brazen public displays of affection will only invite public embarrassment. I beg of you, let's not go there."

One Calhoun resident made his views clear on another blog, criticalmassblog.com. Dan Gelernter, class of 2009, is co-editor of Critical Mass, aimed at "collegiate conservatives," and called the episode "a new chapter in the story of Yale's continuing descent into the depths of moral degradation."

"It is not merely unfortunate, but pathetic and disgusting that the Master needed to send such a note to us... but in the moral vacuum that has been created by Yale intellectuals, students seem to be left without even the most basic guidelines for proper and decent behavior," Gelernter wrote.

Posted by ronnie at 04:40 PM | Comments (0)

January 21, 2007

Hong Kong tutors selling sex appeal

HONG KONG - Angela Yiu and Stella Cheng spent weeks meeting with fashion stylists and photographers before deciding on the mini skirts and high heels to wear in their promotion campaign.

They're not models peddling perfume or sports cars. They're English tutors who earn good money helping secondary school students pass Hong Kong's grueling exams to get into college.

"Their long legs are the most beautiful ones in the tutorial industry," said Ken Ng, head of Modern Education, one of the city's biggest tutoring businesses. "This is our selling point."

Sex appeal has become a hot selling point, just as important as teaching ability and knowledge, in Hong Kong's hypercompetitive world of cram schools — or "bou zap se" in the local Cantonese dialect.

Attractive teachers are marketed like movie stars. Their schools show them off on billboards, full-page newspaper ads and TV screens in railway stations and on buses.

Some tutors have their own teams of stylists, fashion designers and photographers, Ng said. They also have personal Web sites, where potential students can see their photos, read their online journals and download video clips of "gag moments" in class.

It's just the latest twist in the competition to grab the business of students caught up in Hong Kong's make-or-break exam culture. Youngsters take two college exams during their seven years in secondary school and they have to pass both to get into a university.

So hoards of students trek to after-school lectures at tutoring centers.

The Census and Statistics Department says a third of secondary school youngsters sought private tutoring in the 2004-05 school year, spending a total of $18.9 million a month — 25 percent more than five years earlier.

Industry pioneers like Modern Education and King's Glory each have about 10 centers around the city, each offering around 200 lessons a week.

All the companies boast of their ability to give youngsters an edge by predicting what questions will be asked in the exams, employing teams of full-time analysts who study patterns from previous exam papers.

With competition growing fierce on that front, the tutorial centers in recent years have increasingly focused on promoting their teachers as trendy icons consumable by students.

"When our rivals are equally good at predicting the exam questions, we need a new ground to outrun them," Ng said. "And that is the tutor's appearance."

Last summer, Ng hired Yiu, who once won a modeling contest, to teach English along with Cheng, described by Ng as "a gorgeous former lawyer."

Yiu, who has a business degree, said: "Being a model is not a long-term career. I should plan for the future. I know my good appearance has a market."

Indeed, tutoring is one of the most profitable jobs in this Asian city. Top tutors who have more than 4,000 students can earn high salaries.

Elaine Chow, an advertising executive, said tutoring businesses are applying a "star-making" promotion technique in which tutors dress fashionably and are given nicknames like "the Godfather of Science," "Brand-A tutor" or the "Queen of English."

"In the advertisements, going to tutorial centers is portrayed as a trendy after-school activity more than a chance to acquire knowledge," she said. "This is a twisted tutoring market."

Percy Kwok, a former education researcher of the Chinese University of Hong Kong who studied the private tutoring phenomenon in 2003, said tutorial centers closely follow the consumption culture of youths to catch their attention.

"They may even expose tutors' private life if necessary," he said.

But he added that while tutorial centers have become highly commercial, they provide useful techniques in tackling exams, such as predicting question types. Daytime teachers don't have comparable resources or the time to do that, he said.

Tutorial centers will continue, he said, "As long as university certificates and exam results are the best evidence to prove one's competence and guarantee a stable income."

Posted by ronnie at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2007

More Internet sex please, we're Croatian

ZAGREB (AFP) - A majority of Croatians say they find the Internet to be a useful tool in improving their sex lives, according to a survey.

Fifty-eight percent of Croatians who responded to a magazine questionaire said that they had ended up in bed with people they had met while surfing on match-making or pornographic websites.

More than 85 percent of Croatians who visit the sites said they had met up with their online friends, said the survey of 2,079 people published in the Drustvena istrazivanja magazine.

Sixty-two percent of women and 54 percent of men said they have had sexual relations with people they had met on such websites, it added.

According to the study, on average visitors to the websites are 30-year-old singles, have a university degree, and are satisfied with their sex lives.

The biggest number, or 44 percent, are aged between 25 and 34, followed by 30 percent of them aged between 12 and 24, and 19 percent between 35 and 44.

According to estimates in the local press, some 240,000 Croatians out of 1.2 million with Internet access are regular visitors of pornographic sites.

Posted by ronnie at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

December 02, 2006

A saucy mistake about a sex problem..

LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters Life!) - Nearly two-thirds of Britons think the fiery Italian sauce Arrabiata is a sex infection, according to a survey on Friday.

The survey, of 1,015 people and released on World AIDS day, also showed nearly half were unable to identify a range of common sexual complaints.

"What is very worrying is the lack of knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) revealed in the survey," said sex therapist Emily Dubberley.

"Sixty-three percent in the UK thought an Italian sauce was an STD and over 43 percent couldn't identify any of the common sexual complaints we asked about.

"This ignorance has no excuse in today's world."

The survey, conducted by pollsters MYVOICE, also found that 48 percent of respondents found body odor and poor personal hygiene a turn off against just 4 percent who felt the same about a refusal to wear a condom.

The poll also found that 35 percent of people looked for information about sex on the Internet against 27 percent who consulted magazines.

In contrast only 4 percent went to their doctors.

Posted by ronnie at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)

December 01, 2006

Writers put brave face on bad sex awards

LONDON (Reuters) - There cannot be much good in bad sex, unless maybe it wins you a prize.

Two authors put on a brave face at being recognized for one of literatures most dubious accolades -- the Bad Sex in Fiction Award -- in a ceremony at London's In & Out Club in upmarket St. James's Square late Wednesday.

The prize was presented by American singer Courtney Love.

What organizers call Britain's "most dreaded literary prize" went to first time novelist Iain Hollingshead and "Twentysomething" for the "passage considered to be the most redundant in an otherwise excellent novel."

The award sponsors at Literary Review magazine said it was Hollingshead's "bulging trousers" which put him ahead of runner-up Tim Willocks for "The Religion."

"I am delighted to be the youngest ever recipient of the Literary Review's bad sex award," said 25-year-old Hollingshead. "I hope I win it every year."

Hollingshead is now part of a select club of writers that includes Tom Wolfe and Sebastian Faulks.

He collected a statue representing Sex in the 1950's and a bottle of champagne over shortlisted writers including Thomas Pynchon, Will Self and Irvine Welsh.

The review distributed selected passages of steamy and graphic prose from "Twentysomething" involving groans, grunts, squeaks and "flashing unconnected images and explosions of a million little particles."

The prize was founded by then Review editor Auberon Waugh, son of 20th century British novelist Evelyn Waugh, and a prominent journalist and satirist.

Now in its 14th year, the prize aims "to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it."

Posted by ronnie at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2006

Selling with sex offends New Zealand businessmen

WELLINGTON (AFP) - A billboard of a large-breasted bikini-clad woman has been blamed for ruining a New Zealand business meeting by distracting staff and clients.

J. Everett, whose business overlooked the billboard in the city of Auckland, was so upset that he complained to the Advertising Standards Authority.

"On Friday we had a very important meeting and both clients were clearly distracted by the content of this billboard and I feel as a result the meeting did not go as well as it could have," he wrote.

The advertising agency involved argued that the billboard juxtaposed a stereotypical fake "Hollywood blonde" against the all-natural formulation of their client's product, a "naked" and natural muesli bar.

However, in a decision released Wednesday, the complaint was upheld.

Posted by ronnie at 06:48 PM | Comments (0)

November 06, 2006

Newspaper gets slapped for sex story

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian government leaders have rebuked a local newspaper for publishing a frank expose of sexual attitudes among the country's youth.

The Weekend Mail gave detailed descriptions of favorite sex positions from its survey -- including "spooning, galloping and tea bag positions" -- in three pages of stories that delivered on its front-page promise: "You'll be shocked."

"I received endless calls and SMS over the articles," Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak told a ruling-party meeting Sunday.

"The media going overboard in exploiting sex will only worsen our social problems," he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times, a pro-government daily in the same stable as the Mail.

"The feature spoke of this and that position -- and I am not talking about positions during a football game or the Middle East position," he quipped.

The minister for women, family and community development called the feature irresponsible and "downright vulgar."

The New Straits Times Press Bhd, which prints the Weekend Mail and The Malay Mail daily, apologized unreservedly for the stories and said it would question the editors.

"The articles were offensive and distasteful," the publisher's chief executive, Syed Faisal Albar, said in the apology displayed on the front page of The Malay Mail on Monday.

Mainstream media outlets, many of them controlled or partly owned by ruling-coalition interests, have traditionally followed a conservative moral line in this mainly Muslim nation.

They remain pro-government in reporting political issues, but have begun to experiment with more tabloid-style reporting since Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi came to power three years ago and encouraged more lively debate on non-political issues.

After its romp through free speech, which would also have landed mainstream Western media in trouble, The Weekend Mail said its survey respondents only held one position in common: "One point everyone agreed on was that sex and sex-related issues should be discussed openly to avoid any negative perceptions."

Posted by ronnie at 07:07 PM | Comments (0)

November 03, 2006

Elections blunt Greeks' appetite for sex

ATHENS (AFP) - Politics and sex don't always mix well -- at least in Greece, where a survey has showed that Greeks seem to lose their sexual drive just before an election.

Carried out ahead of last month's local elections, the survey published in Eleftherotypia daily showed that Greeks reduce their frequency of sexual contact to just twice a month before a ballot, compared to four times monthly at other periods.

The survey by a private Greek group that studies sexual behaviour also found Friday that 69 percent of respondents would vote for a homosexual candidate.

The result is unusual for Greek society, which frowns on same-sex relations, and where the influential leader of the Orthodox Church, Archbishop Christodoulos, has officially labelled homosexuality a 'defect'.

Posted by ronnie at 07:14 PM | Comments (0)

October 05, 2006

Cuban centenarians attribute longevity to coffee, cigars and sex

HAVANA (AFP) - Cuba's high number of centenarians say their longevity is a result of going easy on alcohol, but indulging in coffee, cigars and sex, according to a survey released.

Cuba, with a population of 11.2 million, has around 3,000 people who have lived more than a century.

A study was carried out of 54 of the more than 100 centenarians who live in Santa Clara province, which has Cuba's highest average age, by Professor Nancy Nepomucemo. The results were reported to the National Geriatrics and Social Work workshop, according to the newspaper Juventud Rebelde.

Their lives are disciplined, the study found, yet not austere: none was alcoholic, and they expressed a love for coffee and cigars. They maintained a strong interest in their sex lives and other topics, the study said.

Most of the super-seniors were mentally alert, do manual labor in rural areas, and 60 percent said their parents also were long-lived. Ninety-five percent ate a diet including fish, eggs, milk, white meat, vegetables, and manioc, which they cook with little salt and natural seasonings.

Posted by ronnie at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2006

Couples line up for passion in a car on stilts

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Couples in Amsterdam are writing out their dreams of passion for the chance to spend a night in a small car fitted with a bed and hoisted up on poles.

For a free overnight stay, couples must write to the Italian artist who converted the hatchback, and explain their romantic intentions -- ranging from marriage proposals to re-enactments of teenaged backseat fumblings.

Federico D'Orazio said he removed the seats of the Opel Kadett, squeezed a double bed into it and placed it on 13-foot-high poles to provide a place for "real love" in a city famed for its sex trade.

"I tried to make a space for real love in a city where sex is dominant," said Federico D'Orazio. "You can have sex because it is a safe structure."

The car is not anywhere near Amsterdam's famous red light district -- where scantily clad prostitutes display their charms in the windows of brothels -- but it has received enough offers to be filled for six months. It is available until mid-October.

Dutch couple Hanne Hagenaars and Hans Bolscher said they recently spent a night in the car, although at one point a passer-by tried to climb in with them.

"In cars a lot of aggressiveness takes place so to invite people to make love in the car, I think it is really nice," said 45-year-old Hagenaars.

Posted by ronnie at 01:52 AM | Comments (0)

August 31, 2006

Court rejects suit over right to sex

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A Chinese court has rejected a woman's claims for compensation for her sex life, which was ruined when her husband was injured in an accident, the Shanghai Daily reported Thursday.

Wei Suying, 31, whose husband has suffered from erectile dysfunction since a 2003 workplace accident, filed suit in a Shanghai court asking for 220,000 yuan ($27,650) in compensation from the shopping center where the accident occurred, it said.

The compensation included claims for mental anguish and for her purchases of products such as vibrators.

"I was not even 30 years old when my husband had the accident, which deprived me of my right to enjoy sexual life," the newspaper quoted Wei as saying.

But the court ruled that Chinese law does not define an individual's sex life as a protected right. Relatives can only ask for mental anguish compensation when a victim dies, the report said.

Wei's husband, Zhang Chengxiang, stumbled and hit his genitals on the corner of some audio equipment when an iron bar fell from a vent and knocked his head while he was working in a shopping center, it said.

The shopping center had paid Zhang 130,000 yuan ($16,340) in compensation in a previous lawsuit.

In pre-communist China, sex was less a taboo than it became under former leader Mao Zedong, when it became a matter of doing one's reproductive duty for the state.

Since then, the government has embarked upon a stern family planning policy to control a booming population -- the world's largest -- but official attitudes toward sex remain puritan, though they are changing slowly.

Posted by ronnie at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)

August 03, 2006

Soldiers urged to make love, not war

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea needs soldiers and is calling on its troops to make them by turning out more babies.

South Korea's military this week unveiled a new policies aimed at making it easier for military couples to have and raise children.

The country has the lowest fertility rate among developed nations with an average of 1.08 children per woman. The birth rate among military couples is 0.83, officials said.

"The low birth rate can seriously affect our economy, politics and even national security," said Lieutenant Hong Kyung-moon, an army personnel officer.

The army will try to keep newlyweds together by allowing them to stay in the same posting for five years so that they can start and raise a family, Hong said by telephone.

If a military family has a third child, the soldier can select a geographic area in the country to their liking for their posting. These policies and others went into effect on Aug 1.

"We improved the system and believe it will bring an increase in the birth rate," Hong said by telephone.

Communist North Korea, which has a military-first policy, extols its women to have as many babies as possible, praising its most fertile couples as heroes of the revolutionary movement.

The two Koreas are technically still at war because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in a truce and not with a peace treaty.

Posted by ronnie at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)

June 07, 2006

Radio show apologizes for "sex assault" poll

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hosts of a chat show on a Hong Kong radio station apologized Tuesday for an Internet survey asking its listeners to vote which actress they would most like to sexually assault.

The Commercial Radio poll drew widespread criticism last week, with teachers, legislators and ordinary citizens slamming it for advocating violence against women and for corrupting youth.

"The program hosts and co-workers publicly apologize for any offence that the Internet poll 'Which female artiste would you most like to sexually assault' caused to female artistes and everyone in Hong Kong," a message posted on the radio Web site said.

The hosts also promised to be more careful in selecting the content of its shows in future.

Posted by ronnie at 05:20 PM | Comments (0)

June 04, 2006

Baby boom shows Australians do it for their country

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia is in the grip of a baby boom, figures showed on Friday, after the government urged couples to do their patriotic duty and "have one for your country".

Australia recorded 261,400 births in 2005, the highest number since 1992, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said, pushing the national population up to almost 20.5 million.

The baby boom came after Treasurer Peter Costello urged Australian couples two years ago to have more children, saying they should have "one for mum, one for dad and one for the country".

"It was a light-hearted way of making a serious point, and I am delighted that at least some families have been taking up the challenge," Costello said on Friday.

The government has identified Australia's low fertility rate and ageing population as a key issue.

A government study has warned that the number of people aged 65 or older is set to double by 2042 and the number aged 85 or more would quadruple, while the number of working-age Australians will remain stable.

Costello has urged Australians to have more children, and for older people to remain in the workforce beyond the usual retirement age of 65, to counter what he says is Australia's demographic destiny.

In 2004, Costello introduced a A$3,000 (1,200 pound) baby bonus, which is paid to the parents of each new-born child, which will rise to A$4,000 from July this year and A$5,000 from July 2008.

The government has also introduced tax breaks to help parents who leave work to look after children, and a range of extra family payments.

Posted by ronnie at 08:52 AM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2006

Polish TV to ban erotic ads during pope's visit

WARSAW (AFP) - Poland's TVP public broadcaster is to ban television adverts containing erotic and violent scenes during Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the country next month, officials said.

"Programmes of masses will obviously not be accompanied by publicity," Zbigniew Badziak, the TVP official responsible for publicity, told AFP.

"For other programmes linked to the pope's visit, we will eliminate all advertisements that could hurt religious feelings, particularly those containing violent or erotic scenes."

Badziak also said TVP would avoid transmitting adverts for products such as beer and intimate hygiene items during the pope's visit.

"It was the same during visits to Poland by Pope John Paul II," he added.

Benedict XVI's May 25-28 visit is due to take in Warsaw, Krakow, the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, the shrine of the Black Madonna in Czestochowa, and Wadowice, the birthplace of John Paul II.

Over 90 percent of Poles profess to be Roman Catholic.

Posted by ronnie at 01:18 PM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2006

Global sex survey: guess who's satisfied

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Around the world, middle-aged and elderly men tend to be more satisfied with their sex lives than women in the same age group, a survey released on Wednesday said.

Substantial majorities of people who are married or who have a partner remain sexually active throughout the second half of their lives, according to a survey of 27,500 people aged 40 to 80 in 29 countries.

"There was very little effect of age on sexual well-being," though other factors such as health problems or depression had a substantial impact, said lead researcher Edward Laumann of the University of Chicago in a telephone interview.

The survey published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior looked at how they viewed their sex lives, their health, and their happiness.

It found that a greater proportion of people in Europe, North America, and Australia, where men and women have more or less equal relations, enjoyed sex physically and emotionally, Laumann said.

A smaller percentage of people reported satisfying sex lives in male-dominated cultures in poorer countries, the research showed.

But the gender gap persisted around the world.

"There's a systematic disparity between men and women, where men are on the average substantially -- or about 10 points -- higher in their levels of satisfaction as women in that country," he said.

Most of those surveyed at random were married, though there was an obvious bias toward participants who were willing to talk about sex, and toward urban populations in less-developed nations.

"Pleasure is not part of the story" in sexually conservative cultures in the Far East -- China, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand, Laumann said. "Procreation is the rationale for sex. Many women ... characterize sex as dirty, as a duty, something they endure" -- and often stop having it after age 50.

But roughly two-thirds of adults in Western nations reported their sex lives were very to extremely satisfying -- though some countries appeared happier than others.

Roughly four out of five middle-aged to older Austrians, for instance, rated their sex lives highly, while considerably fewer adults in France and Sweden shared that sentiment.

In the United States, about three-quarters of men and two-thirds of women reported they were very satisfied with the physical and emotional aspects of their sex lives.

In Japan, by contrast, just 18 percent of the men and 10 percent of the women answered positively about their sex lives. And in Taiwan, only 7 percent of the women said sex was very important in their lives.

Satisfying sex is not the same as a satisfying sexual relationship, Laumann said the survey showed.

"People who are dating have higher levels of sexual satisfaction than (married) couples ... but when they think the relationship is temporary, they're not going to feel as positive about sex," he said.

Posted by ronnie at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)

April 17, 2006

Future sex: gizmos, robots

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When America's top sex researchers gathered recently to discuss the next decade in their field, some envisioned a future in which artificial sex partners could cater to every fantasy.

"What is very likely to be present before 2016 would be a multi-sensual experience of virtual sex," said Julia Heiman, director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University, Bloomington.

"There is a possibility of developing erotic materials for yourself that would allow you to create a partner of certain dimensions and qualities, the partner saying certain things in that interaction, certain things happening in that interaction."

A field dubbed "teledildonics" already allows people at two remote computers to manipulate electronic devices such as a vibrator at the other end for sexual purposes.

"People who use it are just blown away," said Steve Rhodes, president of Sinulate Entertainment, which has sold thousands of Internet-connected sex devices over the past three years. "This is not something that just the lunatic fringe does."

"The Iraq war...was kind of a boom for our company."

Gina Lynn, who writes the "Sex Drive" column for Wired magazine, says she has used and enjoyed the Sinulator and says there is no reason to fear the technology.

"People are still really afraid of...any sort of combination of sex and technology and of the Internet," she said. "What people are missing here is the point, which is the human connection that we are facilitating through the technology."

"No one who is even inventing this stuff wants or even thinks that technology could ever replace human connection or sex."

Annie Sprinkle, a former adult film actress, prostitute and author of "Spectacular Sex," said teledildonics are a logical outgrowth of improvements in pleasure devices.

"Now people use vibrators like mad and rightly so; the technology of sex toys has vastly improved," she said. "The more options the better; I mean it can never replace body to body."

"Some people will love it more than anything else and others won't be into it."

SEX WITH A PORN STAR

Entrepreneurs are also seeking to fuse explicit video imagery with real-life tactile sensation.

Brad Abram, president of XStream3D Multimedia, said his firm's "Virtually Jenna," an online game in which the player has sex with realistic cartoon of porn star Jenna Jameson, can link hardware devices following the action to genitalia.

"None of the big publishers will probably venture in there so we could be like the Hustler or the Playboy or whatever, the Penthouse of adult gaming," the Vancouver, Canada-based Abram said. "Sex toys is a huge business."

His service, without the hardware, costs $29.95 a month, and he said several hundred thousand people have tried the online sex game to date. He expects the hardware area of such simulations to grow rapidly.

Is it possible to go a step further and come up with a sex robot such as that portrayed by actor Jude Law in the 2001 film "AI: Artificial Intelligence" or the orgasmatron machine of the 1973 Woody Allen movie "Sleeper?"

Carl DiSalvo, a doctoral candidate at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Design, has helped design a robotic device that simulates the warmth and feeling of a hug. He said such work could be expanded into the realm of sex.

"That hardly seems to be difficult," he said. But "a realistic encounter is where the thing gets to be much more expensive."

Companies such as realdoll.com sell very lifelike human-size sex dolls without electronics for $6,500, not including $500 shipping. DiSalvo is skeptical about the demand for such high-end devices, as is San Francisco sexologist Carol Queen.

"I do find that a world full of people getting it on with you know, perfect gizmos instead of each other has some sort of a post-Orwellian kind of sense to it," she said. "I don't really think that most people are going to want this."

Others suspect the technology is also far off. "Right now they are having trouble making robots that just sweep floors," said Pepper Schwartz, a sociology professor at the University of Washington in Seattle and author of many books on sex.

"You know, we're talking about a big jump from something saying 'You are so sexy, I want you' to mimicking all the things that would create a cyborg. We're not at the cyborg level yet."

ALL IN THE MIND

Going even a level further, other researchers say in decades to come advanced devices will be able to stimulate the brain to create a sexual experience without manipulating genitalia.

Marvin Minsky, a pioneer in the study of artificial intelligence dating back to 1951, said such devices could either trigger an actual physical response from the brain, or have the entire experience take place in the mind with the sensation of sex -- but without the mess or risk of sexually transmitted disease.

"It's bound to happen ... and is not as far off as some people think," Minsky, a professor emeritus at MIT, said of direct brain manipulation. "They are doing things with monkeys but it is not a big world-class industry yet, so that could take 20-30 years."

"But if the game (industry) people got involved in some underdeveloped country that didn't have any laws against it, it could all happen twice as fast."

Some researchers warn that too much fantasy could prove adverse to everyday human interaction.

"There is a great deal of pushing people out of social relations into a kind of simulated relationship, which in fact decreases what is essential in human life, which is sociability -- one's capacity to relate to other people," said John Gagnon, a veteran researcher and author on many books on sexuality.

Posted by ronnie at 09:47 AM | Comments (0)

April 04, 2006

More sex therapy please, we're northern Europeans

PARIS (AFP) - Nordic European countries, which have attracted a reputation for their chilliness and reserve, have more sex therapists than their warmer more southerly neighbors, according to a new survey.

The Euro-Sexo survey, carried out by sociologist Alain Giami from the French medical research institute Inserm, found startling differences in the number of sex therapists in seven European countries.

Finland registered the highest with 109 for every million habitants, although that figure included sex education teachers, Giami said.

France came in lowest with just 13 per million people, and in contrast to the other countries most French sex therapists tend to be men and doctors.

"Britain has more sex therapists who are not doctors, but they also prescribe more medication for erectile dysfunctions than in France," Giami told AFP.

Denmark came in second place with 40 sex therapists per million people, Norway third with 30 and Sweden had 22. Britain followed with 19, with Italy in second to last place with 14.

Most sex therapists are women who have worked in other branches of the health services such as nurses, midwives, or marriage counsellors.

More than two-thirds of sex therapists, especially those who have no medical background, have undergone some kind of training. "In Denmark, Finland and France that figure rises to 90 percent," said Giami.

But use of the title "sex therapist" has still not been regularised in the seven countries surveyed, or across Europe more generally, although France and the Nordic countries have set up a system to ensure proper training standards.

In the meantime, sex therapy "is a profession in flux" according to the survey, published in Sexologies, the European magazine of sexual health.

Posted by ronnie at 03:55 PM | Comments (0)

March 23, 2006

Road-Construction Callers Get Sex Line

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Callers to a state road-construction information line Thursday might have been surprised to hear, "We love nasty talk as much as you do."

The Illinois Department of Transportation intended newly installed signs along the Dan Ryan Expressway, which will undergo major reconstruction starting later this month, to instruct motorists to call a toll-free number for information on alternate routes.

Instead, the initial number posted directed callers wanting "exciting live talk" to another toll-free number, which begins, "Hey there, sexy guy. Welcome to an exciting new way to go live, one on one, with hot, horny girls waiting right now to talk to you."

Three of six informational signs were planted Thursday along the 11-mile stretch of roadway that will be rebuilt during the next two years, IDOT spokesman Matt Vanover said. An IDOT worker commuting to work Thursday morning recognized the incorrect number and alerted officials, he said.

"We apologize to anyone who may have called that number and did not get the information that they were looking for," Vanover said.

Workers were correcting the number on the signs Thursday afternoon, Vanover said. The Bureau of Operations is responsible for the signs, but Vanover would not comment further. He said the agency would investigate the mistake but he would not speculate on whether anyone would be disciplined.

The signs alert motorists to the coming work on the nation's fourth-busiest expressway and urges them to find a detour with help from the toll-free number.

But the first one posted prompted callers to dial another number, where they were invited to engage in "hot amateur talk and voice personals" for 99 cents a minute, or "live, one-on-one" chat with a "nasty girl" for $2.99 a minute.

Posted by ronnie at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)

March 02, 2006

Latvian men apply, women object to sexist job ads

RIGA (AFP) - When Latvia's Welfare Ministry ran a bogus help wanted ad seeking "handsome men able to charm women," it got around 15 applications, the ministry's press service said.

But when it ran an ad seeking a "good-looking blonde woman" to work as an accountant, it was swamped with letters of complaint from women, who said the ad was offensive.

A notice published along with the job advertisements said that Latvian law forbids hiring employees depending on their sex. But people still responded to the ad seeking a Don Juan.

"We have received applications with CVs and photos. Many applicants were young men just out of school, but there were also candidates in their forties with one or more university diplomas," Agnese Gaile, head of the gender equality department of the ministry, told AFP.

The advertisements, for non-existent jobs in fictitious companies, were part of a campaign to promote awareness of gender equality.

"These applications show that people still do not understand their rights. They take the risk and are ready to work for companies which set unequal conditions for men and women in the hiring process," Ingus Alliks, a secretary of state in the welfare ministry, said.

In contrast to the job seeking a charming male, no one applied for the job for the good-looking female accountant.

"The ad drew no applications, but several women sent angry letters denouncing the offensive content and expressing hope that the company will never be able to fill the post," Gaile said.

Posted by ronnie at 02:51 PM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2006

Canadian students embracing virtual sex

TORONTO (Reuters) - Call it a sexual revolution of the virtual kind -- young Canadians are practising a new style of safe sex and the only touching required involves a keyboard.

Of more than 2,500 university and college students polled across Canada, 87 percent of them are having sex over instant messenger, webcams or the telephone, according to results of a national survey released on Monday.

"We were very surprised," Noah Gurza, a founder of Toronto-based CampusKiss.com, an online dating community for students, which commissioned the first annual Canadian CampusKiss & Tell Survey.

"We did realise that new technologies are always embraced by younger individuals, but we didn't think it would've reached such a high number."

Gurza said most post-secondary school students grew up using computer technology, and their lives currently revolve around technology, so it makes sense that it would extend to their sex lives.

"It's now extended within their sexual world, whether it be as a social lubricant as a means to then engage in something that's more real, in more real time, or if it's just a means in itself of pleasuring here and there," he said.

Some 2,684 students from more than 150 university and college campuses across Canada took part in the survey. Fifty-one percent of the participates were female and 49 percent were male.

Of those surveyed, 53 percent of students enjoyed sex over instant messenger, while 44 percent did the deed using a webcam and over the phone.

When it comes to having actual sex, eighty-seven percent of those polled claimed to be sober at the time. Ninety percent of students who responded said their campus promotes and supports safe-sex practices.

Posted by ronnie at 07:57 AM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2006

Survey finds Hong Kong having more sex

HONG KONG (AFP) - Hong Kongers, once found to prefer work to sex, have become a little more sexually active -- and picked up a few special interests along the way.

Residents of the Chinese territory are now having regular sex, and doing it in more places, with more people and in more ways, the survey by HK Magazine found.

More than 10 percent of respondents said they'd had sex with so many partners that they had lost count. More than half of the men said they had paid for sex, while that figure for women was 2.4 percent.

The survey of 1,500 people, which also took place in the Bangkok and Singapore, found Hong Kongers were more prepared to have sex to further their careers and that an equal number of men and women -- around 86 percent -- like to talk dirty.

The findings are in contrast to a survey by condom company Durex last year that placed Hong Kongers at the bottom of the world's sex league table, having sex just 79 times a year.

However, the HK Magazine survey did unearth some less surprising facts.

In a city where 98 percent of the population has one or more mobile phones, 38 percent of men and 35 percent of women said they had interrupted sex to answer a call.

Posted by ronnie at 07:29 AM | Comments (0)

January 16, 2006

Sex and the electricity in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Ahmed Hadi and his new wife Tiba Mohammed, like many young married couples in Baghdad, are not getting enough sex. The problem, they say, is not a lack of desire but of power -- electrical power.

Making love for many of Iraq's Muslim population not only requires a willing partner but also a sure supply of water -- preferably hot in the winter -- to enable the participants to take a shower afterwards before going to pray.

No hot water means no hot shower and therefore prayers, which take place five times a day for devout Muslims, can become a problem.

Either a couple avoids sex or they are forced to take a cold dip, not a pleasant prospect during the winter months.

"I have less sex than I want because there is no hot water to wash with afterwards," moaned Hadi, 25, a Baghdad local who works in the water sector and has only been married for two weeks.

"Sometimes, when we are in the middle of making love the electricity turns off so we have to stop. I get out of bed to put a generator on and then we have to wait for the water to heat up," he told AFP.

On the evening of the Eid Al-Adha (Muslim feast of the sacrifice) holiday which started on Tuesday, Hadi had hoped for a night of romance.

"Unfortunately, the electricity cut out from 5 pm until 11 pm. There was nothing for us to do other than sit and look at each other. I did not get married just to have conversation," he said.

In contrast to the situation in Iraq, power cuts in Western countries often lead to a spike in births nine months later as couples abandon watching television to share a warm bed.

Baghdad and much of central Iraq is suffering its worst ever electricity shortage, said a Western diplomat with expertise in the electricity sector. The power is on for just two to six hours per day in the capital.

In contrast, southern and northern Iraq -- where most of the power stations are based -- have more energy then before the US-led invasion when Saddam Hussein used to divert most of the power to Baghdad, depriving everyone else.

Following his downfall in April 2003, US-led and Iraqi projects have been launched to generate permanent power for all of Iraq, but so far they have failed to make much impact.

This is because the US-led coalition underestimated the dilapidated state of Iraq's electricity infrastructure following a decade of international sanctions, the diplomat told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In addition, repair work has been hampered daily by insurgent attacks against transmission lines and power stations.

For normal Iraqis, especially those living in Baghdad, this has resulted in further hardship.

Yasser Mohammed Saffar, a 26-year-old shop owner, and Tamara Shimary, 20, his wife of one year, live together with Safar's parents and two sisters in an apartment in southeastern Baghdad.

He too said the lack of electricity has affected his sex life because there is no hot water in the winter months and no air-conditioning in the summer -- another major impediment to a person's libido.

When Safar got married in the summer of 2004 he was so worried about the electricity cutting out in the flat on his first night with Shimary that he decided to bribe an official from the local grid to keep the power flowing.

"However, I then realised that it would be cheaper -- and more private -- to book a night in a hotel for my new wife and I," he recalled. "We had plenty of electricity, air-conditioning and water, it was great."

Major hotels try to secure a constant supply of energy for their guests.

One such hotel is the Al-Mansour in central Baghdad, which is conveniently located close to the well-powered Green Zone, where the Iraqi seat of government and a number of embassies are based.

Mohammed Jabbar, assistant manager for house-keeping at the hotel, agreed that guaranteed electricity and hot water were an attraction for newly-weds.

Safar said the lack of electricity in Iraq was definitely preventing people from having as much sex as they would like, but he also blamed other stress factors such as the deadly violence.

"Each kind of disorder you face -- such as the security problem and the lack of electricity -- reduces your sex drive, eventually down to zero," he said.

"Fortunately I am still going, thank goodness."

Posted by ronnie at 04:44 PM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2006

British prisoner changes sex but then changes mind

LONDON (AFP) - A British prisoner who transferred from a men's jail to a women's facility after changing sex has opted to swap gender -- and prisons -- again.

John Pilley was granted permission in 1999 to have a sex change, the procedure taking place two years later after which, as Jane Anne Pilley, he was moved to Holloway women's prison in London.

However, the 54-year-old, serving a life sentence for attempted murder and kidnapping, has decided to become a man again, The Times newspaper reported.

Pilley was waiting to have the new operation, again to be carried out by Britain's state National Health Service, after which he will be transferred back to a men's prison, the paper said.

"Although it is not unheard of, it is very rare indeed for people to have regrets and want to change back," Christine Burns of Press for Change, a pressure group for transsexual rights, said of the new operation.

Pilley, who underwent seven years of hormone treatment before the first operation, was initially refused permission to change sex but won his case after taking legal advice.

Before moving prison he was allowed to wear womens clothing in his cell at night and mens clothes during the day, The Times said.

Posted by ronnie at 04:48 PM | Comments (0)