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Monthly Archives: January 2010
Defending the G-Spot
Yes, Virginia, It Does Exist
I’m not surprised when politicians, religious leaders, military chiefs, mafia bosses, corporate CEOs or media pundits make ignorant, misleading statements with great and somber certainty. But when people who call themselves “scientists” spout toxic stupidities with similar conviction, it is rather more unnerving. One current case in point: a team of British “scientists” at King’s College London claims to have determined “fairly conclusively” that the G-spot does not exist.
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Giggle of the day
G-spot ‘myth’ claim touches nerve
After scientists in London declared the G-spot may be a myth, gynaecologists gather in Paris to launch counter-attack
There are a handful of subjects – among them cricket, the weather and the art of downing pints through a funnel – on which the French deign to allow the English a degree of authority. Sex, however, is not one of them.
Today, just three weeks after scientists at King’s College London declared that the elusive G-spot may be a myth, a group of gynaecologists gathered in Paris to launch a counter-attack on what they called a “totalitarian” approach to female sexuality.
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Thank You, Amanda Palmer!
Amanda Palmer, writer of Coraline and fiancee of Neil Gaiman, has made my day, just by walking down the carpet at the Golden Globes. This is the second time this year that I’ve seen a big old fuck you to the conventional idea of beauty. (The first being V’s “Curves Ahead” photoshoot). Of course, the mainstream media has a huge freakout over the whole thing. How dare a woman sport hair?!
I LOVE it!
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Catcher in the Rye novelist JD Salinger dies at 91
The legendary author of The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger, has died at age 91 at his home in New Hampshire.
The reclusive novelist died of natural causes, his son said in a statement released by his literary agent.
The Catcher In The Rye, first published in 1951, is a tale of teenage angst. It has become one of the most influential American novels of the modern era.
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Got the plague!
More Braaainnns!
I’ve always had a love hate thing with cupcakes. Tasty? Sure, yeah, sometimes. More often, the minute you pull off that paper (and take half the damned thing with it) you’re “treated” to a burst of dry, dusty crap the consistency of wadded up paper. Maybe I’m just remembering school cupcakes, in horror. Anyway, if I ever got cupcakes like these, I think it would definitely be more of a love love thing. I mean, come on! Little squiggly pink brains! That you get to bite into! What’s not to love?
And the gooshy brain slugs? Bonus! 
Via: Neatorama
Flickr Link Via Craftzine
No Backstory Required
10 Science-Fiction Heroes Who Don’t Need Origin Stories
Of the ten listed, here are my two favorites, Deckard and The Tick!:
Deckard (Blade Runner):. Let’s just sidestep the whole question of whether Deckard is a Replicant, shall we? I’m serious. Because whether you believe Ridley Scott (who insists Deckard is a replicant, and reworked the Director’s Cut to bolster that viewpoint) or Harrison Ford (who’s pretty sure Deckard’s a human) neither answer is an Origin Story. Deckard can be a Replicant, or a human, without us knowing how he became a blade runner, and why he quit doing it, and why he has such an ambivalent relationship with his job and his colleagues. In the movie version — let’s leave Dick’s vastly different novel out of this — Deckard is sort of the archetypal noir detective, and part of what makes him an archetype is that we don’t get told that he is the way he is because his diapers weren’t changed enough when he was a baby, or his fifth-grade sweetheart trashed his locker, or what have you. I live in dread that any day now, some movie studio is going to announce a Blade Runner prequel movie, in which we get to see Shia or Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the young Deckard, busting heads and learning about Replicants. The stuff. Of. Nightmares.
The Tick (The Tick): Spoooooon! I mean, why would you want to explain the Tick? He’s the Tick, the ultimate goofy superhero parody, and somewhat ineffectual do-gooder. Like another Ben Edlund creation, Bad Horse, the Tick is archetypal and stands alone, without any need to fill out his early life. There are hints in the comic that he escaped from a mental institution, but it’s best just to think the Tick appeared, fully formed, when we needed him most. Maybe as a manifestation of his Drama Powers, bringing him into existence when the situation demanded — cried out for — it.
Catch the other 8 at io9.
Interview: Nathan Fillion Talks Firefly, Dr. Horrible, and Why Kids Need to Read
Photo by Raven Underwood; used under CC Attribution license.
Nathan Fillion has, in the space of seven years, risen to the status of a geek icon. Beginning with his best-known role as Captain Mal Reynolds on Firefly, his work on several of Joss Whedon’s projects has transformed the former soap opera actor into a huge draw for the geek crowd. But there’s a lot more to Fillion than tight pants and a pistol — and a heck of a lot more than a shirt with a picture of a hammer on it.
For one thing, he loves to read. He grew up with two English teachers for parents, and the love of books that they nurtured in him continues to inspire him today. It was, significantly, that love of books that drove Fillion and his good friend, author PJ Haarsma, to found the organization Kids Need to Read. Kids Need to Read is a charity that concentrates on fostering this same love of books in kids all over the United States by giving books to public libraries and schools, which are all to often woefully underfunded. Continue reading