Tuesday, December 12, 2006

‘Doing It For Science’ Safer Sex Roundup


filed under: Do It for Science by Melissa Gira | 2 Comments

The Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences released yesterday reports on the development of a “molecular condom” designed by University of Utah scientists. Treated with “semen-seing gel,” the condom still has about five years more to go in development, but it is believed to be able to maintain effectiveness for up a day or more after insertion.

The above condom works by delivering a microbial gel, such as the controversial tenofovir, which was tested mostly on women in the developing world. Microbicide gels are so-called “female-initiated” safer sex interventions, which, so goes the current thinking on HIV prevention, are a real missing link in public health. It’s true that women do need a way to take control of HIV prevention, but honestly, isn’t there some more effective way also to get more men to get over their [fear? disdain for? paranoia that they can’t get off with?] condoms, too?

On that note,The Kinsey Institute and Indiana University Research team members have recently published this paper on erection loss with condom usage and its correlation to “risky behaviors.” Scary factoid: “nearly 40 percent of their study participants — male patients at an STI clinic — reported condom-associated erection loss at least once in the previous three months.” That’s all the more reason for safer sex education to focus on communication (read: dirty talk), intimacy (or, not just penis + vagina = awesome), and relationship skills building (the community health care way to say how to learn to fuck better together so that you can maybe get grant funding to do it) as ways to promote condom usage.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is placing ads calling for Pfizer to stop promoting Viagra as a sexual-enhancement drug: “We urge Pfizer to not only end this dangerous marketing tactic, but also to fund a national educational campaign on the dangers of Viagra and crystal meth in order to mitigate the negative impact its advertising continues to have.”

Finally, if you’re in New Zealand, Durex will trade you free condoms for field-testing their new products.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Mind-Controlled Vibrators


filed under: Do It for Science by Melissa Gira | Leave a Comment

Hitachi, makers of the oft-adored “Cadillac of Vibrators” (pictured, and available for home delivery today), the Magic Wand, tease the ever-loving fuck out of the collective sex toy watching world by unveiling a technology that allows one to turn devices on and off with one’s mind.

There’s a bit of vibrator urban myth that goes like this: every few years, there’s a major panicked retail run on the Hitachi Magic Wand (full disclosure: this isn’t product placement, kids, I just happen to have been actually sexually hacked by this thing), as a result of a vague rumor that the folks at Hitachi, who have such a loyal following that they don’t even need to put photos of smiling women on the boxes, are about to pull the product. Stories swirl about of secret stockpiles of the Hitachis in Japan that will surely go for hundreds, thousands even, once Hitachi, literally, pulls the plug.

brainsbrainsbrains

So it’s not a tremendous shock that the company that brought us the Magic Wand (and, other useful things, too, I’m sure) isn’t going to market this new tech with any overtly smutty leanings. Us fans, of course, already have a mean case of the wheels turning over the possibilities for using our brainwaves for powering orgasms.

(Which, arguably, we’re already doing. But how hot is that CAT scan?)

Hitachi promises a consumer model available by 2011.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Sexsomnia Roundup


filed under: Do It for Science by Melissa Gira | Leave a Comment

New Scientist has cracked the sleep sex story once again, reporting on the effects sexsomnia has on intimate relationships. (If you, like me, are temporarily without bugmenot, just check the Reuters story, which is pretty close.)

It’s difficult to find much publicly available on the subject, but the next time you’re in the stacks at your local research institution (or you scam a login to one of these sites), here’s some places to start:

Yes, sexual assault. One trend in the sexsomnia field is use the expert testimony of researchers to intervene in charges of sexual assault made against actual or alleged sufferers for the disorder. Wikipedia currently points to three different cases of rape charges being dropped when the assailant was shown to have sexsomnia. Of the three, however, one man was found guilty on appeal, and prosecutors are seeking a similar appeal in a second case.

What with how very little research goes into things sex, and the still-significant uphill battles rape survivors face in seeking legal redress, I think it’s safe to give decent pause at how the sleep sex field is developing, as, in the words of one sexsomniac, “Is this just a stipulation or a convenience [sic] excuse with men with a sex obsession?”

comparatively sweet to-clear-the-palette photo by: Ryan Tomorrow

Thursday, October 19, 2006

HOWNOTTO play doctor


filed under: Do It for Science by Melissa Gira | 1 Comment

Yes, indeed, there is no lack of educational enrichment in this excerpt from a demonstration of the implanting of the AMS 700 penile prosthetic into an amazingly docile patient:

Remember, students, anything can be made to seem like a learning experience when delivered in the soft, dulcet tones of these good folks in blue paper robes.

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