Diverse and Interesting Topics

[Sandra]

A grotesque abuse of power from a busybody in a police uniform.

There is no other way to describe the farcical scene on London 's Oxford Street last weekend, recorded by 20-year-old busker Harmonie London and posted to her 300,000 Instagram followers.
In video footage, 'volunteer special constable' Maya Hadzhipetkova tells Ms London she is 'not allowed to sing Christian songs outside of church grounds',
It was truly shocking. Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of pop-star wannabes screeching on our pavements, but this is still - just about - a Christian country, and Ms Hadzhipetkova's intervention was a brazen abuse of power.

https://videos.dailymail.co.uk/video/mol/2024/01/30/5236163022144619961/640x360_MP4_5236163022144619961.mp4

[Sandra]

Eating up to three servings of kimchi a day could reduce the amount of fat around your middle - potentially reducing the risk of diabetes, a major study has suggested.

Kimchi, a traditional Korean dish made of fermented vegetables such as cabbage, has long been linked to health benefits such as regulating digestion and boosting memory.

Now, a study of more than 100,000 people by researchers from the Chung Ang University in South Korea has found that men who eat three portions of the dish per day are less likely to be overweight and have less belly fat - the type thought to be the riskiest for type  2 diabetes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimchi

I did try this a while ago and its not the nicest thing I have ever in my mouth but maybe I should give it another go 

I do drink Kombucha (Flavored cold tea drink with fermentation) so why not.

[Sandra]

Hugo Schwyzer offers some practical advice for checking out women without making them head for the hills.

It's been over 30 years, but I still remember the day Jenny Talbot caught me staring at her boobs.

Jenny and I sat next to each other in a couple of classes. We weren't exactly friends, but friendly; she helped me in math, I helped her in social studies. One day, Jenny and I were working together on a project, our desks and bodies facing. Though she usually wore sweaters, this spring day she wore just a V-neck T-shirt. When she bent over, I could see her breasts encased in her white, frilly bra. I was not quite 14, and in a near constant state of arousal; the sight of a bra strap was, frequently, enough to produce an erection. With Jenny distracted by her work, I had a free close-up view of the kind I'd rarely had. So I stared.

At one point, after she'd been hunched over her work for a while, Jenny looked up and noticed my eyes locked on to her chest. Her reaction was immediate and fierce.

"You're so perverted!" she yelled, loud enough to make the teacher and my classmates turned off. She turned away in disgust and anger; I cringed and flushed with embarrassment. The snickers of my classmates continued for a few days—from boys as well as girls—and they left me confused. Was it wrong to look? Or was it just wrong to get caught looking? Those questions haunted me for a long time afterward. Though I didn't stop checking out hot girls, I made my gaze subtler, not wanting to ever repeat the public humiliation I'd experienced with Jenny.

When I got to college and took women's studies courses, I heard for the first time about the problematic power of the male gaze. I listened to my classmates tell painful stories of the first time they noticed men ogling their bodies. I realized that I'd grown up believing what many men believe, that guys may not have a right to touch what they see, but they have a right to look as much as they want. Listening to women's stories, I understood for the first time just how uncomfortable it was to be on the receiving end of those penetrating stares.

The question I wrestled with then was one I now often get asked by other men: How do I look? These guys aren't asking for feedback on their appearance; they're asking for clear guidelines for how to check out women in ways that aren't going to make those women (or others) uncomfortable.

It's a question we should be asking.

♦◊♦

The jerks who genuinely don't care how their stares make other people feel aren't likely to be reading this, and if they do, they'll ridicule it. These are the lads who think it's their God-given right as men to take ownership with their eyes of all that they survey, and they don't give a damn what anyone else thinks.

On the other hand, there are some who aren't sure men should ever look at a woman (other than their wives.) If you believe that gazing with lust is always a sin (as some religious traditionalists do), then there can't possibly be a "right" way to check out attractive strangers. The best that these ultra-conservatives can do is avert their eyes as much as possible and plead for a modest dress code that will ease the pain of temptation. Sounds exhausting.

I'm convinced most men are in the space between these extreme positions.

For straight (or bi) guys, there are two things to keep in mind. One, it's OK to look and OK to be turned on by what you're looking at. Two, it's not OK to make the person you're gazing at (or other people who witness you looking) uncomfortable.

(Obviously, whether or not you're in a monogamous relationship will go a long way toward determining how acceptable it is to be turned on by someone other than your partner. Not everyone agrees on whether the boundaries of fidelity stop at fantasy or not. That's a topic for another column.)

♦◊♦

One easy technique is the three-second rule. (It has nothing to do with either driving or basketball.) It's clear enough: look at whatever you want to look at for three seconds before you should probably shift your gaze away. Few women are going to feel as if you're undressing them with your eyes if your glance lasts so short a time. If you need to count in your head "one, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand," do it. And wait at least three seconds before looking again.

Shift your gaze. One of the most common complaints women have is that men tend to focus in on a single body area (boobs, butt, etc.) Move your eyes, not just up and down, but look at the woman's face. Breasts don't walk by themselves; they belong to human beings. It isn't erasing a woman's humanity to notice her body (or particular body parts). It isn't erasing her humanity to fantasize about having sex with her. It is erasing her humanity when you make your gaze and your fantasy her problem. A blogger named Holly once wrote, in a comment about this very subject, that there should be "no objectification without due subjectification." That's jargon, but the idea is a simple and useful one: it's OK to stare at someone else's body (and even long for it) as long as you don't ever forget that you're looking at a person. And just as you have a right to lust, that person has a right not to be made forcibly aware of your desire.

Don't forget the third parties. Even if you and your wife (or girlfriend) have agreed that it's OK to check out other people, doing it in an obvious way in front of her is hurtful. But other strangers count, too. A buddy of mine was in his car, stopped at a stoplight, staring at a hot woman walking through the crosswalk. "I was drooling," he admitted. "Then I looked over at the car next to me, and this girl, maybe 10 years old, was in the passenger seat, watching me. She looked frightened. I felt like shit."

We live in a world that is deeply suspicious of male desire. Rightly so, I think. The number of men who rape, who cheat, who act out in countless other sexually compulsive and destructive ways is depressingly high. The solution doesn't lie in puritanical self-restraint or in a defensive insistence that there's nothing wrong. The solution lies in acknowledging that while we have a right to want what we want, we don't have the right to burden or offend others by the way we display those wants.

As I figured out when I was a kid, it wasn't wrong to be turned on by Jenny Talbot's boobs. But it was wrong to stare so long and so hard that I forgot Jenny herself.

[Sandra]

Misogyny is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls.
It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy.

Chauvinism

Unlike behaviors of misogyny, however, chauvinism doesn't necessarily involve an underlying hatred or disgust for females.

Chauvinism stems from a sense that males are superior to females and a belief women are naturally weaker, less intelligent, or otherwise less able in some capacity compared to men.

And I thought you guys wanted us (especially naked)

[Sandra]

Revenge porn is a type of digital abuse in which nude or sexually explicit photos or videos are shared without the consent of those pictured.
Also called nonconsensual pornography, it's closely related to sexual abuse.
A current or previous partner may share such images as "revenge" or threaten to distribute them as a type of blackmail.

You may have sent these private images to a partner.
A partner may have convinced you to take explicit pictures, possibly in an effort to control or shame you. An abusive partner could even take sexual or nude photos of you without your knowledge.

Revenge porn isn't limited to romantic partners, though. A co-worker, family member, or stranger could also gain access to your private images and share them publicly for a variety of reasons.

Is Revenge Porn Illegal?

Forty-six states and the District of Columbia have laws against revenge porn.
Only Wyoming, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Massachusetts lack this kind of law.

There's no federal law against revenge porn.
But in all states, it's illegal to share sexual videos or pictures of anyone under age 18.

The Communications Decency Act of 1996 regulates porn on the internet.
It says websites and internet providers don't have legal responsibility for pictures or videos posted by their users.

That means they're not legally required to take down revenge porn unless it breaks copyright or federal criminal laws.

[Sandra]

High-speed train that will hurtle from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in just two hours gets the green light for $2.5billion funding boost

The Brightline West railway aims to whisk passengers in electric trains across the Nevada desert in just two hours.

[Sandra]

Vicars have been accused of aiding asylum seekers to 'game' the immigration system by helping hundreds to convert from Islam and 'pray to stay' in the UK as it emerged people smugglers used Instagram to urge migrants to follow Jesus to help them gain British citizenship.

One such advert, in Arabic, has a picture of Jesus and says finding God will lead to more successful asylum claims 'in the shortest possible time with the lowest cost'.

[Sandra]

Police in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, stopped a man running down the street with a fridge strapped to his back.

Daniel Fairbrother explained that he hadn't stolen it, he was training for the London marathon and was hoping to break the world record for completing the race 'while carrying a household appliance'.

When the cops heard he was running in aid of a diabetes charity, they accepted his explanation and wished him luck. This could well become a convenient Get Out Of Jail card next time there's a full-scale riot in one of our city centres.

Any looter legging it with a flat-screen TV could claim they were doing it for charity. Imagine the scene back at the nick.

'PC Hollis, why did you let that kid go after you stopped him carrying half a dozen boxes of trainers in his backpack?'

'They were Air Jordans, sarge. He said he was running the London marathon to raise money for charity . . . ''
 

[Sandra]

Titled 'Where should I throw my rubbish?', the maze-like flowchart is a step-by-step guide which includes questions such as 'can you crumple it in a ball?' and 'is it a tea bag?'.

The guide has reportedly been drawn up the Sustainability and Plastic Reduction Action Team - known as SPRAT, a group set up six years ago to help mandarins 'lower their environmental footprint in their everyday lives'.

The rubbish flowchart is tacked to a wall in the offices of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
But civil servants have labelled it 'baffling' because there are so many different steps to follow, making the process very muddled.



 

[Sandra]

    OneTaste founder Nicole Daedone and former CEO Rachel Cherwitz donned their power heels for their latest court appearance
    The company's promotion of 'orgasmic meditation' won praise from celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow and Khloe Kardashian
    But they face labor charges amid claims they forced women into sex acts and kept them in 'residential warehouses'

The founder and ex-sales boss of 'orgasmic meditation cult' OneTaste dressed to impress as they appeared with an entourage of supporters after it was charged with forcing women into sex acts and keeping them in 'residential warehouses'.
But there were no grimy mugshots for Nicole Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz as they faced down photographers outside the New York courthouse.
Their San Francisco based company was making $12 million a year from their sexual disfunction treatments for women which included being genitally massaged by a man with a latex glove.

But the FBI began investigating in November that year after ex-customers came forward saying they were left in debt after paying for expensive classes, and former employees said they were ordered to have sex with potential investors.

[Slivers]

I think I watched a documentary about this on Netflix.

[Max]

So I use porn quite a lot to help me get aroused but, recently, it doesn't have as good an effect. Even watching lesbian porn doesn't get me going - it used to.
It seems, since I chatted with people on kik/skype and watched real people having real orgasms, porn isn't as effective. 
Anyone else notice that? What do you do when that happens? 

Currently I am trying to get aroused and failing.  Slightly better now after a chat earlier.
Yes I can wank and get off but I'd rather it not be so mechanical and to be the result of arousal where the end result is more satisfying/longer-lasting.