Sex educators had been making increasing noise all year about the use of phthalates (toxic chemicals) in cheaply made sex toys, but the lube really hit the fan when Greenpeace issued a toxic sex
toy warning based on their investigative report that put those Crystal Jelly Dongs right off the menu. Calling on the European Union to address what they called an "EU sex scandal," Greenpeace requested a ban on the toys similar to one put on children's toys made with the same chemicals -- just like we've proposed here in San Francisco. Blogs responded in kind, with more information on the chemicals and a guide to unsafe sex toys (or two).
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Sunday, May 24, 2009
Einstein, Sex Fiend
Yeah, he could talk the talk, but could he walk the walk? As it happens, Albert Einstein talked all kinds of smack about his fellow scientists -- and if he ever boasted about how chicks dig physics
geeks or his theory of (his own) relativity to a trophy-drawer of personally collected science-wife panties, he wasn't just pulling another fast equation on y'all. In July, a bevy of Einstein's private letters were unlocked after a 20-year hold, revealing that the king of all high-math nerds had a number of mistresses and numerous sexual liaisons with women who showered him with "affection and gifts."
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geeks or his theory of (his own) relativity to a trophy-drawer of personally collected science-wife panties, he wasn't just pulling another fast equation on y'all. In July, a bevy of Einstein's private letters were unlocked after a 20-year hold, revealing that the king of all high-math nerds had a number of mistresses and numerous sexual liaisons with women who showered him with "affection and gifts."
. Read More..
2257 Raids
The Justice Department added a whole bunch of new age-monitoring regulations in 2005 to their 2257 requirements for pornographers. They added so many, you'd expect them to be done for a while. And because 2257
news died down last year, it's really easy to get lulled into thinking the harassment and shakedowns of pornographers are over. But 2006 has been the year of the surprise 2257 raid for porn film companies. Even though porn is not illegal in the United States and 2257 is For the Children, the laundry list of legitimate businesses on the receiving end of raids this year grew by one more entry this month. In addition to Pure Play Media, Evasive Angles, Darkside Entertainment, Legend, Sunshine Films, Robert Hill Releasing, Sebastian Sloane Productions and Diabolic -- a team of FBI agents conducting 2257 records inspections visited the offices of K-Beech Inc.
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news died down last year, it's really easy to get lulled into thinking the harassment and shakedowns of pornographers are over. But 2006 has been the year of the surprise 2257 raid for porn film companies. Even though porn is not illegal in the United States and 2257 is For the Children, the laundry list of legitimate businesses on the receiving end of raids this year grew by one more entry this month. In addition to Pure Play Media, Evasive Angles, Darkside Entertainment, Legend, Sunshine Films, Robert Hill Releasing, Sebastian Sloane Productions and Diabolic -- a team of FBI agents conducting 2257 records inspections visited the offices of K-Beech Inc.
. Read More..
XXX Goes Down
In March 2005, Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) proposed a bill that would require all commercial Web sites with material "harmful to minors" (in other words, sexually explicit content) to
move to a .xxx domain within six months of their bill becoming law. Anyone with a vaguely sex-related Web site instantly felt the first frost of the chilling effects that would come from such an Internet red light district. In a Boing Boing post, San Francisco's Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Jason Schultz said, "Talk about a misguided attempt at Internet zoning ... also has severe implications for filtering as I'd imagine every .xxx domain would be on the universal black list." But by May 2006 the Register reported .xxx dead in the water, and all the sex writers in Blogistan heaved a collective sigh of relief.
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The Larry Wachowski Story
OK, so it wasn't a total secret that "Matrix" co-creator and producer Larry Wachowski was a cross-dresser -- the relationship with dominatrix Mistress Isla Strix was never really hidden, as it destroyed two
-- but the in-depth article in Rolling Stone revealed much more. In "The Mystery of Larry Wachowski," Peter Wilkinson writes: "Leaving Los Angeles, he and Ilsa moved into a $2.7 million home in San Francisco, on a steep hill in the Castro, with sweeping views of San Francisco Bay. (As of last month, work was still under way on an expensive addition to the house, and a sparkling new red Lexus was parked in the indoor garage.) On the transfer deed for the Castro home, the name Laurence Wachowski does not appear. Instead, it's 'Laurenca' Wachowski. And in a judge's order, filed in the divorce proceeding, he is similarly identified as Laurence Wachowski, a.k.a. Laurenca Wachowski."
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Challenging Children With Mystery Stories
Fifth-grade students love puzzles. Ten and eleven year olds are just beginning to leave the safe realm of the basal reader to branch out into sampling various reading categories. Therefore, the puzzle-like form of a mystery story should
stimulate an appreciation and enjoyment of this genre. The mystery story can be an excellent stimulus for utilizing study skills needed to be a good critical reader, such as cause-and-effect, logical deduction, and assessing vital information and facts. These same skills are also valuable in forming a “budding” writer.
This Unit will be an on-going one through the year. First, students will read mystery stories, reporting on them in book reports and discussing them in class in teacher-directed lessons. In the discussions children will be led to discover the “main elements of a mystery”; defining a problem to be solved, looking for clues or evidence, assessing of evidence, and finally arriving at a solution.
In using the main elements to describe the mystery story’s format, the student can be shown how the problem-solving skills of sequencing, analyzing, cause and effect, and the use of logical deduction are used when reading and writing this genre. The final “poetic justice” endings give great satisfaction to a fifth-grader’s sense of “fair play” and innocence redeemed.
As pupils gain more critical-reading skills, they can advance to the reading of more mature stories by authors such as Phyllis Whitney and John Fitzgerald. He wrote The Great Brain series.
In the conclusion of the unit, students will do some creative short-story writing of their own using the mystery story format. In this way, they will have an appreciation for the skills needed to write a “truly good mystery” and, I hope, will have started a life-long love for reading.
For, as Howard Haycraft states in his introduction to A Treasury of Great Mysteries,
. . . people read mystery stories for a diversity of reasons. Some, for the intellectual challenge of the puzzles they present, others for the vicarious pleasure of the chase. Others believe . . . that the vast popularity of the genre lies in the fact that, in a disorderly world, it represents one of the few fixed points of order and morality, where justice may be counted on to emerge triumphant.
This facet of the mystery story definitely appeals to a fifth-grader’s sense of fairness and emerging creative reasoning skills.
Lawrence Trent1, in his preface to the Mystery Writer’s Handbook, states what a mystery story really should contain in its structure. He calls them the “rules of the classic mystery.”
Rule 1: There must be a crime and the reader must want to see its solution, his interest must be aroused and then he must long to see the mystery solved.
Rule 2: The criminal must appear reasonably early in the story. The villain must be evident for a goodly portion of the book.
Rule 3: The author must be honest and all clues must be made available to the reader. The reader must know everything the protagonist knows.
Rule 4: The detective must exert effort to catch the criminal and the criminal must exert effort to fool the detective and escape from him. Coincidence is taboo.
Although these are the devices of the mystery story, they are the hallmarks of all storytelling; the problem, the characters needed to make the reader care about them, the events that occur in their solving of the problem and, in the end, the reader feels a satisfaction in being included in the solution.
The structure of the mystery story lends itself well to teaching children how to write one. Many approaches may be used to introduce a child to mystery writing.
The first, and most important, is to begin reading them. Let a child discover the enjoyment of reading a good mystery story. Some of Phyllis Whitney’s, Elizabeth Levy’s and David Kherdion’s can be used to stimulate discussions and invoke the child into becoming a “discerning” reader.
The Shadow Nose by Elizabeth Levy is a modern story, using an urban setting and basketball as background. The title is a pun taken from the old radio show, The Shadow, and his motto, “The Shadow Knows.” The main character is a boy named after the Shadow, Lamont Cranston. After reading it, the student could be guided to find the clues, asked to write when did you see the solution, and an opinion of the mystery’s title.
For reluctant readers or those more interested in a comic book format, the Hergé series published by Magnet Press would be an interesting starter. Students could read the adventures of TinTin, which are beautifully illustrated in a comic book format.
The plot of a mystery story is most important, and many times the hardest part of the writing. Pauline Bloom2 reminds us that good story structure demands that you not only involve your main character in trouble, but that you resist the temptation to have him work out his solution too promptly and too easily. In good fiction and in good mystery fiction particularly, the conflict must grow.
The process of writing a well-developed mystery then has to be step-by-step. This process is easily understood by young students, as this is how they have been learning so many of their skills up to this point. They can then very readily use this step-by-step process in their reporting of their reading. Who are the main characters? Where are they? What has happened? What is the mystery to be solved? How did they begin? Did you recognize any clues? Did an event surprise you?
When the time comes to introduce students to the writing process, the newspaper can be an excellent starting point.
Headlines could be cut out and the student asked to create a story using the facts needed to answer the 5 W’s: who, where, when, what and why.
Richard Martin Stern3, in his essay on Suspense, writes that “suspense is the stuff of which all fiction is, or ought to be, made.” He adds that plot alone will not make the reader care, characters and suspense are needed. He calls the important words, “intention” and “anticipation”, the positive openings to the rise of suspense in the reader’s mind.
Time is a powerful tool in the producing of suspense. It helps build up to the climax of the story and is a device used in many stories to heighten the suspense.
Sequencing is another important factor in the building of suspense. It helps to walk the student through a recapping of the story’s time elements to see just when events occurred. You can guide the reader to see the building of the story, realize how the pace adds to the excitement and recognize how the author pulled him along to make him keep turning the page to read more. This, Stern feels, is the “essence”. This is suspense—the art of making the reader turn the page.
In planning the story structure, Charting and Clustering are two very useful tools. The student should be shown how important planning is before beginning to write. Charting, a skill which is easily followed by ten year olds, consists of charting out the main facts of the story in a paper.
. Read More..
stimulate an appreciation and enjoyment of this genre. The mystery story can be an excellent stimulus for utilizing study skills needed to be a good critical reader, such as cause-and-effect, logical deduction, and assessing vital information and facts. These same skills are also valuable in forming a “budding” writer.
This Unit will be an on-going one through the year. First, students will read mystery stories, reporting on them in book reports and discussing them in class in teacher-directed lessons. In the discussions children will be led to discover the “main elements of a mystery”; defining a problem to be solved, looking for clues or evidence, assessing of evidence, and finally arriving at a solution.
In using the main elements to describe the mystery story’s format, the student can be shown how the problem-solving skills of sequencing, analyzing, cause and effect, and the use of logical deduction are used when reading and writing this genre. The final “poetic justice” endings give great satisfaction to a fifth-grader’s sense of “fair play” and innocence redeemed.
As pupils gain more critical-reading skills, they can advance to the reading of more mature stories by authors such as Phyllis Whitney and John Fitzgerald. He wrote The Great Brain series.
In the conclusion of the unit, students will do some creative short-story writing of their own using the mystery story format. In this way, they will have an appreciation for the skills needed to write a “truly good mystery” and, I hope, will have started a life-long love for reading.
For, as Howard Haycraft states in his introduction to A Treasury of Great Mysteries,
. . . people read mystery stories for a diversity of reasons. Some, for the intellectual challenge of the puzzles they present, others for the vicarious pleasure of the chase. Others believe . . . that the vast popularity of the genre lies in the fact that, in a disorderly world, it represents one of the few fixed points of order and morality, where justice may be counted on to emerge triumphant.
This facet of the mystery story definitely appeals to a fifth-grader’s sense of fairness and emerging creative reasoning skills.
Lawrence Trent1, in his preface to the Mystery Writer’s Handbook, states what a mystery story really should contain in its structure. He calls them the “rules of the classic mystery.”
Rule 1: There must be a crime and the reader must want to see its solution, his interest must be aroused and then he must long to see the mystery solved.
Rule 2: The criminal must appear reasonably early in the story. The villain must be evident for a goodly portion of the book.
Rule 3: The author must be honest and all clues must be made available to the reader. The reader must know everything the protagonist knows.
Rule 4: The detective must exert effort to catch the criminal and the criminal must exert effort to fool the detective and escape from him. Coincidence is taboo.
Although these are the devices of the mystery story, they are the hallmarks of all storytelling; the problem, the characters needed to make the reader care about them, the events that occur in their solving of the problem and, in the end, the reader feels a satisfaction in being included in the solution.
The structure of the mystery story lends itself well to teaching children how to write one. Many approaches may be used to introduce a child to mystery writing.
The first, and most important, is to begin reading them. Let a child discover the enjoyment of reading a good mystery story. Some of Phyllis Whitney’s, Elizabeth Levy’s and David Kherdion’s can be used to stimulate discussions and invoke the child into becoming a “discerning” reader.
The Shadow Nose by Elizabeth Levy is a modern story, using an urban setting and basketball as background. The title is a pun taken from the old radio show, The Shadow, and his motto, “The Shadow Knows.” The main character is a boy named after the Shadow, Lamont Cranston. After reading it, the student could be guided to find the clues, asked to write when did you see the solution, and an opinion of the mystery’s title.
For reluctant readers or those more interested in a comic book format, the Hergé series published by Magnet Press would be an interesting starter. Students could read the adventures of TinTin, which are beautifully illustrated in a comic book format.
The plot of a mystery story is most important, and many times the hardest part of the writing. Pauline Bloom2 reminds us that good story structure demands that you not only involve your main character in trouble, but that you resist the temptation to have him work out his solution too promptly and too easily. In good fiction and in good mystery fiction particularly, the conflict must grow.
The process of writing a well-developed mystery then has to be step-by-step. This process is easily understood by young students, as this is how they have been learning so many of their skills up to this point. They can then very readily use this step-by-step process in their reporting of their reading. Who are the main characters? Where are they? What has happened? What is the mystery to be solved? How did they begin? Did you recognize any clues? Did an event surprise you?
When the time comes to introduce students to the writing process, the newspaper can be an excellent starting point.
Headlines could be cut out and the student asked to create a story using the facts needed to answer the 5 W’s: who, where, when, what and why.
Richard Martin Stern3, in his essay on Suspense, writes that “suspense is the stuff of which all fiction is, or ought to be, made.” He adds that plot alone will not make the reader care, characters and suspense are needed. He calls the important words, “intention” and “anticipation”, the positive openings to the rise of suspense in the reader’s mind.
Time is a powerful tool in the producing of suspense. It helps build up to the climax of the story and is a device used in many stories to heighten the suspense.
Sequencing is another important factor in the building of suspense. It helps to walk the student through a recapping of the story’s time elements to see just when events occurred. You can guide the reader to see the building of the story, realize how the pace adds to the excitement and recognize how the author pulled him along to make him keep turning the page to read more. This, Stern feels, is the “essence”. This is suspense—the art of making the reader turn the page.
In planning the story structure, Charting and Clustering are two very useful tools. The student should be shown how important planning is before beginning to write. Charting, a skill which is easily followed by ten year olds, consists of charting out the main facts of the story in a paper.
. Read More..
Friday, May 22, 2009
Catch a Rabbit
The LAPD, The FBI, and the CIA are all trying to prove that they are the best at apprehending criminals. The President decides to
give them a test. He releases a rabbit into a forest and each of them has to catch it.
The CIA goes in.
They place animal informants throughout the forest. They question all plant and mineral witnesses. After three months of extensive investigations they conclude that rabbits do not exist.
The FBI goes in.
After two weeks with no leads they burn the forest, killing everything in it, including the rabbit, and they make no apologies. The rabbit had it coming.
The LAPD goes in.
They come out two hours later with a badly beaten bear. The bear is yelling: "Okay! Okay! I'm a rabbit! I'm a rabbit!"
. Read More..
give them a test. He releases a rabbit into a forest and each of them has to catch it.
The CIA goes in.
They place animal informants throughout the forest. They question all plant and mineral witnesses. After three months of extensive investigations they conclude that rabbits do not exist.
The FBI goes in.
After two weeks with no leads they burn the forest, killing everything in it, including the rabbit, and they make no apologies. The rabbit had it coming.
The LAPD goes in.
They come out two hours later with a badly beaten bear. The bear is yelling: "Okay! Okay! I'm a rabbit! I'm a rabbit!"
. Read More..
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