7. august 2003

Getting it off too much? In the category "real fruitcakes or parody" we find the Over Masturbation Resource Center, and I have to conflude, reluctantly and tentatively, that these are real nutcases. Unlike other anti-masturbation crusaders, these folks don't consider masturbation a sin, or even argue you should stop doing it. What is the problem, they argue, is doing it too much. Then you'll get back pain, stress, anxiety and a host of other problems that affect almost anyone sooner or later. If you do, then they have some $49.95 snake oil to sell you. So how much is too much? How much is too much masturbation (and sex for that matter)? That depends but I recommend men to keep their ejaculation frequency down to 2-3 times a week.  So what exactly is the problem with a higher frequency? The plethora of problems associated with over-masturbation come from the fact that your body is drained of important nutrients and hormones. And remember to buy the snake oil! PS: This page, on the same site, made me wonder if it is a joke after all. 10:29:02 PM    comment []  trackback []

Urban legends in Baghdad Crazy stories are all over Baghdad. A popular one, according to the NYT: The US soldiers' fancy sunglasses give them xray vision. The rumors became so numerous that Al Sabah, a new daily paper run by Iraqis with financial backing from the Coalition Provisional Authority, the American-run administrative organization, printed a supplement debunking them. "It will take awhile for people to reject the conspiracy theories," said its editor, Ismael Zayer. "Under Saddam, people had to depend on rumor because they could not trust the media." I see. Almost like the blogsphere. 8:43:35 PM    comment []  trackback []

— Penis evolved from rivalry Some scientists say that the shape of the human penis has evolved to displace a rival's sperm with their own. The penis not only injects the sperm, it also is shaped to swoop out the sperm of somebody who'd been there earlier, they claim. Lead researcher Professor Gordon Gallup told BBC News Online: "We theorize that as a consequence of competition for paternity, human males evolved uniquely configured penises that function to displace semen from the female vagina left by other males. "Thus, the human penis may enable males to substitute their semen for the semen of their competitors." Other scientists, however, find the theory "far fetched." 5:42:00 PM    comment []  trackback []

Bali bomber gets death sentence Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, dubbed 'the smiling bomber' by Australian media, was found guilty for his role in the Bali bombing by an Indonesian court and was sentence to death. In court, he has appeared proud of the bloodshed he contributed to and says he will be "happy to die a martyr." 11:37:31 AM    comment []  trackback []

Faith based statistics Proponents of faith-based initiatives didn't like the failure of the evangelical InnerChange Freedom Initiative to convert prison inmates to law-abiding citizens. So they did an Enron: cooked the books. Through distorted statistics it was possible to make the programme look like a huge success. I don't doubt that religiously motivated charities have as much a chance as any other of helping prison inmates and other troubled people. But I reject the evangelical idea that "Biblical principles" have any notable power in making people better. Christians like to claim the moral high ground, but trying to force people to follow two thousand year old dogmas has nothing to do with ethics, and its ideas have repeatedly proved a disaster. If a deep faith had such a great effect in promoting virtue, why are the Catholics and other Christian denominations today buried in sexual abuse scandals, perpetrated by thousands of members of the clergy and covered up wholesale by the entire religious establishment? 8:01:36 AM    comment []  trackback []

GIs and Saddam sons alike drank Israeli beer According to this article, one of the last things Uday and Qusay did in life was drinking beer produced by the hated 'zionist entity.' Israel's troubled economy is receiving a boost as there is now a thriving demand for all sorts of products in Iraq, despite supply problems. Since Israel is one of the few countries in the region making beer, and there are 150,000+ thirsty coalition soldiers in the hot country, the brewery business is doing particularly well. 7:29:58 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.09.2003; 14:08:33.