February 2013

• Italian actress and porn star (of over 100 films, above) Moana Pozzi, whose mysterious 1994 death has become the stuff of Italian conspiracy theories, might have been a KGB agent and poisoned by radioactive polonium, according to new revelations gathered for a television documentary called Mistero (Mystery).
  Italian Actress and Porn Star Was a KGB Agent, New Documentary Claims (Hollywood Reporter)

• Legendary porn star Ron Jeremy has been cleared to go back to work. The hirsute actor affectionately nicknamed the “Hedgehog” quietly checked out from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center a week ago after suffering a near-fatal aneurysm near his heart late January.
  Ron Jeremy healthy – cleared to go back to work (NY Post)

• “Colorado Democrats approved a bill that expands sex-ed standards after a debate in the House Friday that wasn’t X-rated but certainly wasn’t PG.”
  Colorado House passes sex ed bill over Republicans’ objections (The Denver Post)

• ‘I Want Your Love’ is a film made by my logtime dear friend Jack Shamama and Travis Matthew, and it’s a bold examination of looking for love in modern, urban gay male culture – itself largely an economy of casual sex, also where emotional desire swirls with disconnection. It’s a deep, thought-provoking film. The film has just been banned by the Australian Film Board and a protest petition has been started.
  ‘I Want Your Love’ Banned by Australian Film Board: Gay sex too much for Australian film censor (Sydney Morning Herald)

• Starts February 25: Free 9-week online HIV/AIDS course (Coursera)

• A map showing the area codes in which Ludacris has “hos” – state by state. And more map porn (not actual porn unless you fap to cartography).
  38 Maps You Never Knew You Needed (Buzzfeed)

• Police in Tokyo, Japan have arrested an art photographer and two printing executives on obscenity charges for printing and distributing 4,000 copies of a book that includes full-frontal male nudity.
  Tokyo Police Arrest Photographer, Printing Execs on Obscenity Charges (XBIZ Newswire)

• An incubator devoted to sexually explicit, porn-themed clones of popular startups could be a thing, but I must wonder – do these sites really ever succeed? There’s Birchbox for your box, Kickstarter for porn, and now there’s Faploid, a Flipboard for adult content. Of course there is.
  Good News! There’s Now a Flipboard for Porno and It’s Called ‘Faploid’ (Betabeat)

• A video about the (fake, unproven) “science” behind “porn addiction” making the rounds this week was so obviously pseudoscience bullshit, and yet I was gobsmacked to see blogs I respect (like i09!) swallow it wholesale and without question. I was even more surprised when Gizmodo was the only one to question it…
  How Pornography Addiction Works and Affects Your Life (Update: Or Not!) (Gizmodo)

• Figures published this week suggest that leafy, suburban Surrey (UK), the county of George Eliot, PG Wodehouse, EM Forster and Arthur Conan Doyle, is Britain’s capital for readers of erotic fiction.
  Under the covers in Britain’s capital of erotic fiction (Telegraph)

• I was in Morocco last month, I loved it there, and so find this item so much more upsetting. The film 475 investigates the case of Amina Filali, a sixteen year old Moroccan girl whose public suicide dominated Moroccan and international media. Filali had accused a young man in her village of rape; when authorities failed to properly investigate her accusations, she was married to her rapist following the citation of article 475 from the penal code, which dismisses a rapist of his charges if he marries his victim. Not long afterwards, she ate rat poison, walked into the village market, and died. An interview with the filmmaker.
  Exposing Sexual Violence in Morocco: An Interview with Nadir Bouhmouch (jadaliyya.com)

• Our pal Jon Millward let me know when he published his fun new research results on porn stars, and he’s getting *tons* of attention and acclaim. Definitely do not miss Deep Inside: A Study of 10,000 Porn Stars and Their Careers.
  A brunette with a B-cup named Nikki Lee: Porn researcher claims to have uncovered the ‘average’ female performer (The Independent)

• Egyptian women are growing increasingly angry and militant as they deal with one of the unintended consequences of the Arab Spring: an epidemic of sexual assault that law enforcement has failed to contain.
  Egypt’s women fighting back against sex assaults (Associated Press)

• My friend and (IMO) the author of one of the best sex guides in the world Dr. Paul Joannides has re-started his sex column on the Psychology Today website, and is a fun, informative addition to reading lists.
  As You Like It (Psychology Today)

• The online community over at Hacker News had some interesting comments about a (dense) post about the morality of sperm donation. The commenters there have a rep for being douchey, so be warned in advance.
  The morality of sperm donation (Hacker News)

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• The Pope will have immunity from prosecution regarding the mishandling of child sex crimes by staying within the walls of the Vatican, according to an anonymous Vatican source. Reuters reported Friday, Feb. 15, that church sources have explained that the retiring Pope Benedict would be “defenseless” if he leaves the Vatican.
  The Pope seeks immunity from child sex crime conspiracy investigation (Examiner; also Reuters has what looks to me like Vatican-issued PR on the topic)

• This is a total puff piece about 3D printing and sex toys (there is not currently a home-printing sex toy phenomenon). But don’t miss where Thingiverse’s lawyer said that Thingiverse has disallowed CAD files of sex toy blueprints on its website because, “We want to be open-source but we have to draw the line. You can’t post that stuff here.” Which shows us all how they really feel about open source. As in, Thingiverse will allow the red-headed stepchild of innovation (known as open source) into their house, but they ‘have to draw the line’ at family photos…
  Cheap 3D printers fuel home-printed sex toy “phenomenon” (Dezeen)

• Great news! The number one sex-ed website for young adults – our beloved Scarleteen – now has live IM sex advice!
  Scarleteen Live! (Scarleteen)

• Rock’n'roll pioneer Chubby Checker is suing two computer companies for allowing his name to be used as the title of an app that guesses the size of a man’s penis.
  Chubby Checker sues Hewlett-Packard over app to measure penis size (Guardian UK)

• Sasha Grey did an interview with The Daily Beast about her new film “Would You Rather,” transitioning from porn to Hollywood, her penchant for “extreme” sexuality, and much more.
  Hollywood’s Favorite Ex-Porn Star: A Chat With Sasha Grey (The Daily Beast)

• New York porn performers (female) do “the porn Harlem Shake” and it’s as exactly as unimaginative as mainstream porn can be :(
  Woodrocket: The Harlem Shake Naked (Porn Edition) (Wood Rocket)

• Behind the scenes filming “The Harlem Shake Naked (Porn Edition).” Porn Harlem Shake, Behind the Scenes (ANIMAL)

• A billboard making oral sex jokes and featuring porn star and Charlie Sheen “goddess” Bree Olson is currently up on a busy street corner in Chicago.
  Porn Ads Reaching New Mainstream Levels (Buzzfeed)

• File under: censorship is at its most unchecked and frightening extremes when under the banner of fear: Iceland could become the first Western democracy to attempt censorship of the internet under radical proposals to block online pornography.
  Iceland considers pornography ban (Telegraph)

• Good news. The sex ed reform bill we wanted has made it closer to the finish line: Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and 32 other Democratic politicians re-introduced the “Real Education for Healthy Youth Act” on Thursday, legislation that would “expand comprehensive sex education programs in schools and ensure that federal funds are spent on effective, age-appropriate, medically accurate programs.”
  Lawmakers Introduce Sweeping Sex Ed Bill To Expand LGBT Inclusive, Gender Balanced Health Classes (Think Progress)

• Maggie Mayhem has written a lengthy rage-post about her troubling personal experiences working at Kink.com, and levies a number of strong accusations at founder and CEO Peter Acworth (and others) who she says have shaped and participated in what she describes as a dark behind-the-scenes culture.
  Tales Of Kink.Com (Maggie Mayhem Speaks)

• Mayhem’s post followed news of Acworth’s arrest for possession of cocaine after a video was posted online of guns being shot in the Armory (there is a decommissioned shooting range in the Armory’s basement).
  Fetish Porn Mogul Arrested for Cocaine Possession By Cops Investigating Indoor Shooting Range In His Dungeon (Gawker)

• Singapore is seeing an increasing number of cases involving males tricked and blackmailed by foreign females on social networking sites over Webcam-recorded sexual acts.
  More Singapore males blackmailed over Webcam acts (ZDNet)

• Meet Crave’s Duet, a dual-headed vibrator that charges via USB and can store up to 16GB of digital stuff. Half of it is the rechargeable battery with the Flash memory—convenient to store all your porn—and the other half is the dual-headed vibe.
  Duet Vibrator Comes With Up to 16GB of Storage—Wait, What? (Gizmodo)

• Adult-film actress Aurora Snow on why some women love her work.
  Porn Isn’t Just For Men! Why Women Love Watching (The Daily Beast)

• Google is trying to figure out the cause of a mysterious search bug that returns pages and pages of almost exclusively pornographic and adult results when users enter certain equations or search strings.
  Google Search Glitch Serves Up Porn Results, Links (Sydney Morning Herald)

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