Today Apple launched their new music social network Ping (basically a clone of Last.fm), and in Apple’s promotional image for the new feature, they very obviously removed a thread of Tweets from Lady Gaga’s timeline where she clearly spoke out celebrating being pro-gay, about California’s anti-gay marriage legislation, Prop 8.
Seriously.
Apple, we see you.
::pause for the scream of WTF on loop in my head thinking about my gay friends who work at Apple.
Those of us who live in the SF Bay Area know that when Lady Gaga was in town for her San Jose shows, she paid a visit to Apple Headquarters and got a tour. Everyone around here wondered why. This was likely when it was discussed, pre-launch, that they would use her for the Ping page example. She shot a video there for them, it was in the Apple keynote. So either she knew her messages of tolerance (which sell quite well, by the way) were going to be censored, or Apple did not tell her. I wonder which it was.
If you’re tired of me being agitated about the proposed .XXX domain extension, then you can skip this post (and know that when the ICANN comment period is over this month I will stop bugging you to use this text to email ICANN to tell them that .XXX = OMGWTFBBQ). But I do want to say a big *thank you* to the people who have sent in emails with me!
That said, I got a ping last night from the people who set up the nifty website Dot-XXX Opposition: The rest of the story. And guess what!? It shows ICM’s claims of adult community support are unsupported, groundless and unverified; ICM does not have support from the adult entertainment community. It is proof, in their own words. They also state they will not make a business out of the .XXX ghetto. A very diverse group of adult webmasters (not all of them male, either) have come out to say loud and proud, no ICANN, do not do this. Not only for their own businesses; in this video they say it’s also because they know it won’t help solve any problems around minors and adult material.
The video is pretty cool: I really like that now there is absolute proof that a diverse cross section of key businesspeople who create adult content do not want this, and the dudes behind .XXX are not telling ICANN (or journalists) the truth about community support.
Watch for cameos and statements by Larry Flynt, John Stagliano, Peter Acworth, Joanna Angel, the awesome president of Pink Visual Allison Vivas and many more. There are outtakes, but I only loved the hilarious 10-second scene of Peter at Kink spanking a submissive’s bottom saying in his polite British accent how very upset he is about .XXX.
* The comments are mean on Discovery’s article about a Japanese vacation resort offering a destination for men with virtual girlfriends, but the article itself is really interesting. Guys whose girlfriends are LovePlus sims can take their iPhone based sweethearts on a romantic escape where their amorous inclinations are encouraged. (I am almost done writing a book about this phenom; perhaps I am about to give up on finding an American publisher who “gets it.”) Mashable has a cool LovePlus map. (news.discovery.com, konami.jp, mashable.com)
* Please, please, please take a minute to join me in my concern for human rights and the proposed .XXX domain: read why I urge you to write an email to ICANN during the short public comment period. I did. (techyum.com)
* Department: Big business hookups create new corporate STDs. Foursquare and MTV have teamed up to reward STD checkups with a badge; if you use mainstream location based check-in application games like Foursquare, it means that in September when you go to get tested for STDs and STIs, you can check in and get a “reward badge” for demonstrating action about sexual heath. The thing that I think they missed is that it is being marketed as “tells your friends and family” that you did ‘something good’ but I don’t think they took into consideration that many people would rather not let anyone know they are getting tested in case someone asks why. I’m not poo-pooing it. I just think no one wants everyone on their Facebook to know (via Foursquare) that they’re like, “Mayor” of the STD clinic. (Personally, I think Foursquare has turned into an STD.) (news.yahoo.com)
* Not sex related, but interesting: Cyber stalker crackdown ‘thwarted’ by service providers. I’m working on a big project about this with a legal team and tech industry players, so I’m keeping an eye on this stuff… (bbc.co.uk)
Self-portrait of Karmen from women-run porn company I Shot Myself. Full gallery after the jump.
Looking over last weekend’s photos from this year’s Bubble Baba Challenge, the world’s only annual blow-up doll whitewater rafting race (in Russia), I really want to go, and enter the competition! It looks like so much fun. My pal Kumi sent me this post-race article in the St. Petersburg Times Inflatable Sex Toy Challenge Attracts Over 450 and I’ve since been totally entertained looking through the official site (in Russian; translate it with a browser such as Google Chrome).
Pictures in this post are by r0gue elephant (r0gue-elephant.livejournal.com), who really has a fantastic gallery — it’s my fave from this year’s event. Long may they ride the rapids atop inflatable babes of all genders. Snip:
LOSEVO, Leningrad Oblast — Adrenaline-addicts from the city and beyond competed in a three-minute wet and wild ride on inflatable women from sex shops in the eighth annual Bubble Baba Challenge at the Losevo Rapids on the Vuoksa River, about 80 kilometers northwest of St. Petersburg.
The competition was held on Aug. 28. At the contest, riders have to raft on inflatable devices down the rapids on Vuoksa River. The triumphant winner of the race was St. Petersburg “athlete” Vladislav Pavlenko on his “Vanilla Pelotki” (2 minutes 47 seconds) , followed by Dmitry Arsentiev, another local, who rode “Killer Whale” (2.51). Alexander Marasin, also of St. Petersburg and the owner of “Fearless Zina” (2.55), came third.
Competitors, male and female, make their way back to the shore after a heat. Baba translates from Russian as “peasant woman,” but is sometimes used with sexually offensive connotations. More than 450 thrill-seekers took part in the unorthodox contest, where inflatable babes-turned-boats were given titles no proper regata would ever have accepted. Take, for instance, “Floating Piggy” or “Baby-Barge.” Other bold and sassy names that provided valuable insights into their male riders’ characters and egos, have included “Unstoppable Chick,” “Cuddly Female Racoon,” “Big Tit Excess,” “Sexual Goddess,” “Roach,” “Miss Peep,” “School Girl,” “Indefatiguable” and “Luba For A Price.”
The event, which was first held in 2003, runs under the motto “A Rubber Babe is More Than Just A Vehicle”. (…read more, times.spb.ru)
For some reason in my usual obsessive online erotic coolhunting rounds this past weekend, I cam across a number of really strange but highly entertaining videos. They kind of defy description, but have a “weird movie night” feel to them which I quite enjoy. We begin with the above fake ad for Bukakke Milk. Below is a vintage clip from an all-girl topless band The Ladybirds, from 1966. Dangerous Minds has a great post about them here (video via).
UPDATE 09.01.10: The mainstream adult industry is making its opposition to .XXX loud and clear at Dot-XXX Opposition (with John Stagliano!) /update
I wrote this up last night on my tech blog Techyum in Comment Period Now Open on .XXX – Make Your Voice Heard, in part because I wanted to give people a linking option if they did not want to visit a NSFW website to get the info. In short, a few men with no ties to adult business or family groups have been trying for ten years to get ICANN to add .XXX to the selection of domain options — and they are already selling pre-registration at high prices. They scanned a list of rejected domain extensions and picked the one they could profit from the most. There has been no proof of support from any communities, despite their claims. Anti-porn organizations also oppose this. The men behind .XXX have continually skirted the issue that there is no single, universally accepted definition of adult content. There are huge security and global human rights concerns; meanwhile the men behind it are bragging to media about how much money they will make. Read about all of this in detail in the article Now Playing: .XXX. TLD Carpetbaggers Give New Meaning to “Drop and Snatch” (carnalnation.com).
On August 24 the 30-day comment period opened for the proposed .XXX top-level domain. Until September 23, the public is invited to tell ICANN what they think.
After the jump you’ll find a sample email you can send to ICANN (with address).
This stellar article from my dear friend Midori is right in line with the aesthetic I see increasingly expressed by the hundreds of thousands of people who visit this blog regularly. It’s what I call a “Whole Foods attitude” we’re all cultivating about porn, sex toys, and figuring out good ways we can live our [...]
These are hilarious and horrifying, and some may even feel strangely familiar. Jezebel asked readers what their worst masturbation nightmare stories were, and people responded with true tales that are impossible to stop reading once you’ve started. Most of The 10 Worst Masturbation Stories We’ve Ever Heard are from women: woe is the Ken doll. [...]
Yes, you read that title correctly, and no it’s not The Onion spoofing anyone: via the Meeting Boy Tumblr, I found Want a raise? Wash your vagina (dailykos.com). In a post today, Daily Kos’s dhonig points out that one of the nation’s top-read conservative women’s magazines Woman’s Day is running a large ad from Summer’s [...]
I’m sorry Tron fans; and no, this item is nowhere near as hot as Olivia Wilde in her Tron Legacy costume. But I have to show you the Tron-a Sutra (wonderhowto.com, via Our Kitchen Sink). They shot 20 positions plus a video (sadly not embeddable; yes I know this non-sharing tactic is the mark of [...]
With the globally enforced utensil embargo on Australia, Jasmine at Girls Out West (gallery) must combat the threat of starvation with only the crudest of tools at hand. Girls down under sure are fierce. (Alt: vibrators and melons may satisfy, but cleanup is a pain in the arse.) Share:
No one enjoys seeing Brits being scandalized and spilling their tea to shriek “but that would be indecent!” more than me. But with this one, I’m actually having to squint to see what’s indecent. Today the British InDecent Bed launched to the tune of £50,000; perhaps it’s truly indecent to our refined UK friends — [...]
It’s an end-of-the-day story, but today attorneys general from 17 US states sent a joint letter demanding that Craigslist remove its Adult Services section “because the website cannot adequately block potentially illegal ads promoting prostitution and child trafficking.” NPR reports in Craigslist Asked To Drop Erotic Services Ads, (…) “No amount of money, however, can [...]
Agent Provocateur had me re-upping my fangirl card with their recent retro-sexy video campaign to promote the Autumn/Winter 2010 collection, “Private Tapes.” Released and announced this morning, “Betty Sue” however, may be the best AP has created yet — and I wish it was an embeddable video so I could help it go viral. In [...]
You are already familiar with the work of evil genius (and total sweetheart) Oatmeal — he is the creator of infamous and unsettlingly hilarious online memes such as 10 Reasons it Would Rule to Date a Unicorn, The 8 Phases of Dating, How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You, How to [...]
Quickies and loving couples who occasionally like to “make fuck” aside (as compared to “making love”): for some guys it’s going to boil down to understanding the difference between a quick-and-dirty come-on — versus a bit more teasing, cat-and-mouse. However, there’s a little bit of ca-ca to step around first. Sex ed colleague (and longtime [...]
I’m still reeling from the way my talk at Gnomedex came out; it was pretty much an unplanned 20 minutes, with the goal of talking about… well, exactly what I ended up talking about. But I just kind of let go… And to my amazement, I got a standing ovation at Gnomedex. In the ten [...]
Watch the Lady Java video if you must: do not bother unless you are the one person who totally fapped to Christina Aguilera’s Not Myself Tonight video. I’ll get my geek on to peep the FleshDrive* news item instead — and all I will say is, $39.95, really: “Hundreds of adult movies in the palm [...]
It’s just the best no-apologies San Francisco Honda owner motorcycle ad ever pecked out on a keyboard. Excerpted below because things this good just never last… And here you thought the Inception-rimming ad was genius. No so. (thanks, Korntee!) Frankenstein Honda CB 750 cafe-ish womanizer/ Or parts bike – $700 (richmond / seacliff) You are [...]
Well, this is a twist that no one expected; with another twist. European porn company Private announced a few days ago that they are totally cool with “pirating” because they see it as free advertising for services they want to develop that will be made of content that people *actually* want to pay for. To [...]
Violet Blue is a Forbes Web Celeb, SF Appeal contributor, a high-profile tech personality and one of Wired's Faces of Innovation. She is regarded as the foremost expert in the field of sex and technology, a sex-positive pundit in mainstream media (MacLife, Forbes.com, The Oprah Winfrey Show, others) and is regularly interviewed, quoted and featured prominently by major media outlets (from ABC News to the Wall Street Journal). A published feature writer and columnist since 1998, Violet also has many award-winning, best selling books; her books are featured on Oprah's website. She was the notorious sex columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. She headlines at conferences ranging from ETech, LeWeb and SXSW: Interactive, to Google Tech Talks at Google, Inc. The London Times named Blue one of the 40 bloggers who really count (2010). Violet Blue is in no way associated with the unauthorized use of her name (or likeness) and registered trademark in pornographic films.
