New York Libraries: Come on in and Watch Some Porn
Photo: PFHLai (CC)
Sam Biddle writes on Gizmodo:
If you don’t mind getting your face punched in, New York’s public libraries might just be your new favorite place to watch people have sex with each other on the internet. Sure, you’re surrounded by other patrons, but it’s free!
You might think that watching people pound away at each other in the most graphic and jarring manner in public might run contrary to a library’s mission of promoting literature and the arts, while providing a safe and tranquil place to read, work, and study. And sure, in 1973 Miller v. California pulled porn out of the categorical forcefield of free speech. But, the NY Post reports, NYPL rep Angela Montefinise thinks everyone’s favorite part of the Bill of Rights includes PornHub: “In deference to the First Amendment protecting freedom of speech, the New York Public Library cannot prevent adult patrons from accessing adult content that is…
Psychologists Link Election Wins With Higher Internet Porn Use
This is certain to get somebody’s funding cut. ScienceDaily reports:
Some celebrate a political candidate’s victory with a party. Others, according to a Rutgers–Camden researcher, choose porn. Rutgers–Camden psychologist Charlotte Markey and husband Patrick Markey of Villanova University published findings in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior that suggest vicarious winning in elections yields a higher usage of internet porn. Depending on the party wins in 2004, 2006, and 2008, some members “celebrated” with visits to sultry internet sites.
This research, which utilized Google trends, has been popular on blogs as well as with wisecracks from the researchers’ friends. Still, the Rutgers–Camden psychologist, who has long studied how popular culture influences behavior, is curious about how the internet’s wide proliferation of porn will influence future generations.
“Google trends is a way to get a snap shot of what people are really thinking about,” says Markey an associate professor of psychology. “Thirty percent of all content…
Low-Budget Movie Companies Using BitTorrent Lawsuits As Business Strategy
David Kravets writes in Wired:
On March 7, Camelot Distribution Group, an obscure film company in Los Angeles, unveiled its latest and potentially most profitable release: a federal lawsuit against BitTorrent users who allegedly downloaded the company’s 2010 B-movie revenge flick Nude Nuns With Big Guns between January and March of this year. The single lawsuit targets 5,865 downloaders, making it theoretically worth as much as $879,750,000 — more money than the U.S. box-office gross for Avatar.
At the moment, the targets of the litigation are unknown, even to Camelot. The mass lawsuit lists the internet IP addresses of the downloaders (.pdf), and asks a federal judge to order ISPs around the country to dig into their records for each customer’s name.
It’s the first step in a process that could lead to each defendant getting a personalized letter in the mail from Camelot’s attorneys suggesting they settle the case, lest they wind up named in a public lawsuit…
Russian Jailed For Hacking Highway Sign With Porn
Yahoo News reports:
MOSCOW (AFP) – A Moscow court jailed a Russian hacker for 18 months after he altered an electronic advertising billboard so that it screened a pornographic video, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday.
Hacker Igor Blinnikov stopped traffic in January last year by breaking into a computer system and screening a graphic sex video for around 10 minutes on a video billboard beside a busy highway in central Moscow in the late evening.
Blinnikov, who comes from the southern Russian city of Novorossiisk, was found guilty late Wednesday of illegally gaining access to information on a computer and distributing pornographic materials.
He called the video prank on Moscow’s Garden Ring highway a “joke that went wrong”…
The United States Of Shame
The magical thing about the United States is that our nation is a rich tapestry — of gonorrhea cases and bankruptcy, that is. Find out what surprising, ignominious category your home state leads the country in. Who would have guessed that Mormon Utah is porn-crazy? Concocted by Pleated-Jeans:
________
Atheist Students Group Offers Porn For Bibles
Via WOAI San Antonio:
SAN ANTONIO — An atheist student group at UTSA is again offering to trade porn for bibles.
Atheist Agenda set up a booth on the UTSA campus on the Northwest Side and asked students to bring in their bibles in exchange for pornographic magazines. The event is called “Smut for Smut” and, obviously, brings with it some big controversy.
“It is to send a message that the stuff in the bible, and the Quran, and the Torah, and all that sort of thing is, in our case worse, in our opinion worse, than pornography,” explained UTSA student Kyle Bush.
“I can see that God can definitely use this for a greater purpose,” UTSA student Alex Liu
said. “And I see a lot of Christian organizations coming together, you know, to be brothers and sisters standing up for their faith.”
Stephen Colbert Discusses ‘Time-Traveling Porn’ with Professor Daryl Bem (Video)
Professor Bem has received a lot of continued attention (see here and here) for his research on ESP. If you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, Stephen Colbert has a unique take on Professor Bem’s research (and they also discuss the significance of the “Colbert Bump”):
Is Your Brain Addicted To Porn?
A big question from Big Think:
Not long ago, scientists thought of the brain as being “hard-wired.” Neural networks are formed at a young age and remain inflexible throughout the rest of one’s lifetime, they believed. But one of the great discoveries of recent decades is that the brain remains highly adaptable, or plastic, even in old age. On its own, the brain seems to compensate for certain diseases and brain damage like Alzheimer’s by rewiring around damaged areas. But there is a dark side to this phenomenon of “neuroplasticity”: unhealthy behaviors are just as likely to alter the brain as are healthy ones. Addictions are a prime example. “All addiction involves long-term, sometimes lifelong, neuroplastic change in the brain,” says Norman Doidge, psychiatrist and author of The Brain That Changes Itself.
In his book Doidge catalogs some amazing stories of personal triumph, but he also discusses how neuroplasticity can be hijacked by one of society’s most pervasive addictions—porn addiction. “The addictiveness of Internet pornography is not a metaphor,” he says. “Not all addictions are to drugs or alcohol…
How to Respect Sex Workers
Monica Shores on Alternet writes a great short piece with links for further research on how to respect sex workers:
Most women have strong feelings about the sex industry, be they for or against. (And many, of course, remain undecided.) When dealing with such an emotionally volatile topic, it’s easy to inadvertently silence or even insult sex workers themselves. (As a participant in sex worker activism for the past four years, I’ve seen that in action and on the page.) There’s a way to debate commercial sex while respecting the industry’s laborers. Here are some suggestions:
1) Don’t diminish or mock sex workers’ agency. When discussing a person coerced or forced into sex work, a sensitive recognition of the violation they’ve suffered is definitely in order. However, it’s important to let individuals themselves make this distinction, rather than automatically assigning them a label that indicates lack of agency. For instance, referring to all…
Drug Lord Turns Porn Star
José Figueroa-Agosto
You have to hand it to the guy, he has cojones! Story from TIME:
Street vendors in Santo Domingo usually eke out a living selling pirated DVDs of Hollywood blockbusters to motorists caught in the notorious traffic jams of this bustling Caribbean capital. But these days, the motorists are the ones seeking out the vendors. “This porno is all people want,” says Wilfredo Ortiz, 22, who has sold DVDs on the streets here for five years. “It’s so popular, I’ve never seen anything like it. This is bigger than that Paris Hilton.” But the star of this homemade movie is no American socialite. He’s the Dominican Republic’s most wanted man. Known as “Junior Capsula,” “Angel Rosa,” and by a slew of other aliases and nicknames, José Figueroa-Agosto is more aptly described as the Pablo Escobar of the Caribbean, an alleged drug trafficker whose network was extensive and whose rule was…
Hong Kong Filmmakers Shoot “First” 3D Porn Film
Reports the AFP via Google News:
A group of Hong Kong filmmakers have started shooting what they claim will be the world’s first 3D pornographic film. The 3.2 million-US-dollar 3-D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy, set for release in May, has already generated interest in a host of Asian film markets, as well as Europe and the US, the Sunday Morning Post reported.
Loosely based on a piece of classical Chinese erotic literature, The Carnal Prayer Mat, the movie will star Japanese adult actresses Yukiko Suo and Saori Hara, the Post said.
The film chronicles the story of a young man who, after being introduced to the erotic world of a duke, realises his ex-wife is the love of his life and features “orgies, swinging and some very graphic sex scenes”, the paper said.
Producer Stephen Shiu acknowledged that censors would likely block the movie’s screening in mainland China, a key market for Hong Kong…
Porn Is Apocalyptic
On porn and the end of the world:
The spread of porn is somewhat akin to Global Warming – both evidence that we are mistreating the Earth, but also has the potential to totally transform our behavior for the better. Porn is evidence that we’re being totally careless with our sexuality, but taboo-breaking could be useful if we don’t devolve completely. I’m not entirely optimistic about our chances.
The trouble with porn is that it is currently forbidden. Even though people decry the mainstreaming of porn – Jenna Jameson on Oprah – the mainstreaming is as senseless as any other cultural artifact. Jenna Jameson shows you can make a lot of money in porn and there’s even some glamor in it, but the real porn story is how this trickles down to everyone else. Just as people debase themselves eating cockroaches on “Fear Factor” to get 15 minutes of fame, porn is bringing…
The CIA’s Plot to Make Osama and Saddam Into Gay Porn Stars
Jeff Stein writes on the Washington Post’s SpyTalk:
During planning for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the CIA’s Iraq Operations Group kicked around a number of ideas for discrediting Saddam Hussein in the eyes of his people.
One was to create a video purporting to show the Iraqi dictator having sex with a teenage boy, according to two former CIA officials familiar with the project.
“It would look like it was taken by a hidden camera,” said one of the former officials. “Very grainy, like it was a secret videotaping of a sex session.”
The idea was to then “flood Iraq with the videos,” the former official said.
Another idea was to interrupt Iraqi television programming with a fake special news bulletin. An actor playing Hussein would announce that he was stepping down in favor of his (much-reviled) son Uday.
“I’m sure you will throw your support behind His Excellency Uday,” the fake Hussein would intone.
The…
Dirty Girls Who Are Addicted To Porn
Not quite your average New York Times story:
LENEXA, Kan. — It was the final session for the women at Westside Family Church’s Victory Over Porn Addiction group, and the youngest member, a 17-year-old named Kelsie, had not had a good week.
“I slipped two nights this week,” she said, to nods of support from the other women in the group.
“I decided that every time I’m tempted I’ll just let everything out to God,” she said, “then pray specifically for someone else, do selfless acts, to get away from being selfish.”
The group’s leader, Crystal Renaud, offered gentle counsel. “Pray for yourself, too,” she said.
To the wide array of programs offered by evangelical megachurches like Westside, the group adds what Ms. Renaud says is something long overdue. While churches have addressed pornography use among the men in their congregations and among the clergy, a group for women who say they are addicted to pornography is…
The Blackmail Virus That Targets Internet Porn Addicts
It’s amazing that no one thought of this before: place a computer virus on porn sites, use it to obtain the names of people downloading content from the sites, and threaten to expose them unless a payment is made to the blackmailer. Genius, in fact… As reported by the BBC:
A new type of malware infects PCs using file-share sites and publishes the user’s net history on a public website before demanding a fee for its removal.
The Japanese trojan virus installs itself on computers using a popular file-share service called Winni, used by up to 200m people. It targets those downloading illegal copies of games in the Hentai genre, an explicit form of anime.
Website Yomiuri claims that 5500 people have so far admitted to being infected. The virus, known as Kenzero, is being monitored by web security firm Trend Micro in Japan.
Masquerading as a game installation screen, it requests the PC…
Now You Have Two Ways To Go Blind … Lazer Tits!
According to the movers & shakers of the internets, this is the new trend sweeping the web …
You are forewarned, I am not responsible for blindness resulting from viewing of these (many NSFW) pics. LazerTits says:
For centuries the female bosom has been wrongfully held in the prison of maternal duty and manboy motor-boating … It’s time to get ZAPPED!!!!
What will YOU say when your kids ask where you were during the revolution? Don’t burn your bra, BLAST IT!!!
Porn: Good For Us?
Peep Show Window. Photo: David Shankbone (GNU)
Milton Diamond for The Scientist:
Pornography. Most people have seen it, and have a strong opinion about it. Many of those opinions are negative — some people argue that ready access to pornography disrupts social order, encouraging people to commit rape, sexual assault, and other sex-related crimes. And even if pornography doesn’t trigger a crime, they say, it contributes to the degradation of women.
It harms the women who are depicted by pornography, and harms those who do not participate but are encouraged to perform the acts depicted in it by men who are acculturated by it. Many even adamantly believe that pornography should become illegal.
Alternatively, others argue that pornography is an expression of fantasies that can actually inhibit sexual activity, and act as a positive displacement for sexual aggression. Pornography offers a readily available means of satisfying sexual arousal (masturbation), they say, which serves as…
Remembering the “Prince of Gonzo Porn”
Porn star Jamie Gillis died of cancer today. But just two years ago, Susie Bright performed the definitive interview with “the first male superstar of porn.”
“Gillis graduated from Columbia University in 1970. An aspiring actor, he was working as a cabbie when he answered an ad in the Village Voice and – ka-boom! He found himself making porn loops…”
After “The Opening of Misty Beethoven,” he became the world’s most famous adult film star — and evventually, even Jamie’s dad was asking if Jamie could get him a date with porn stars…
One of the Popes Wrote an Erotic Book
The following is the second chapter from my book 50 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know, published in 2003.
For more on me: go to The Memory Hole.
_____________________________________
Before he was Pope Pius II, Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini was a poet, scholar, diplomat, and rakehell. And an author. In fact, he wrote a bestseller. People in fifteenth-century Europe couldn’t get enough of his Latin novella Historia de duobus amantibus. An article in a scholarly publication on literature claims that Historia “was undoubtedly one of the most read stories of the whole Renaissance.” The Oxford edition gives a Cliff Notes version of the storyline: “The Goodli History tells of the illicit love of Euralius, a high official in the retinue of the [German] Emperor Sigismund, and Lucres, a married lady from Siena [Italy].”
It was probably written in 1444, but the earliest known printing is from Antwerp in 1488. By the turn of the century, 37 editions…
