Is that shota?
Hollywood actor Verne Troyer, who starred as Mini-Me in the Austin Powers films, is suing a website over a video of him having sex with a model. Labels: celebrity non news, court drama, harry potter, internets, movies, sex, shota
The star, who stands 2ft 8 ins tall, has filed a $20 million lawsuit claiming invasion of privacy and breach of copyright.
He says the tape was stolen and has since ended up in the hands of the same film producer who distributed a notorious sex tape of hotel heiress Paris Hilton.
Mr Troyer, 39, is the latest in a long line of Hollywood celebrities to have their sex lives aired on the internet.
He made the tape with a former girlfriend, an American model in her 20s.
Mr Troyer filed his lawsuit at a court in Los Angeles and also requested and injunction banning further distribution of the film.
The actor, who is Hollywood's smallest star and also a stunt man, was married briefly in 2004 to a yoga teacher.
The following year he appeared on a US reality television show where he got drunk and urinated in the corner of a gym while riding naked on a scooter.
His most famous film role has been as Mini-Me, a miniature clone of Dr Evil, played by Mike Myers, in the Austin Powers films.
He appears in the second and third films of the trilogy - Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Austin Powers in Goldmember.
The actor also starred as Griphook the Goblin in the film of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
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Randomness
>> I had a dream last night that at the nightclub I was being toyed with by this Asian couple. The seme noted I was checking out his uke and because he was the evil type, he demanded his uke service me. In the process, the uke got a huge gash on his back rubbing up against an exposed piece of metal or something in the tight confines of the back room or booth or something. While I'm putting pressure on the guy's wound asking for someone to call 911, the seme punches me in the face knocking me out thinking that I'd done him harm. It was rather anime-like to be sure. Labels: boys, DJ Kaze and Tatsuo, dreamscape, Elf, Heretic, Japan, sex
>> I keep losing my PRO status in Wii Bowling in the Heretic League. I keep bouncing around 1000 and it's frustrating. The game is already hard enough playing left handed with right handed settings. Not to mention the fact the Wii box is about 4 feet to the right of the television really screwing up your orientation.
>> Finally for now, didn't get to see Elf yesterday. We called off our going to WETbar since it was going to be 25 dollars. Tonight is DJ Phil B. from San Fran. It starts early (9pm) and Kaze and Tat will be there. Hopefully it'll be a good time. I could use some fun rather than going through the motions.
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So ronry.
TOKYO - She is big-busted, petite, very friendly, and she runs on batteries. Labels: Japan, sex, technology news
A Japanese firm has produced a 38 cm (15 inch) tall robotic girlfriend that kisses on command, to go on sale in September for around US$175, with a target market of lonely adult men.
Using her infrared sensors and battery power, the diminutive damsel named "EMA" puckers up for nearby human heads, entering what designers call its "love mode".
"Strong, tough and battle-ready are some of the words often associated with robots, but we wanted to break that stereotype and provide a robot that's sweet and interactive," said Minako Sakanoue, a spokeswoman for the maker, Sega Toys.
"She's very lovable and though she's not a human, she can act like a real girlfriend."
EMA, which stands for Eternal Maiden Actualisation, can also hand out business cards, sing and dance, with Sega hoping to sell 10,000 in the first year.
Japan, home to almost half the world's 800,000 industrial robots, envisions a $10-billion market for artificial intelligence in a decade.
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It's almost too bloggable.
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica before the onset of winter darkness was a year's supply of condoms, a New Zealand newspaper reported Monday. Labels: international news, sex
Bill Henriksen, the manager of the McMurdo base station, said nearly 16,500 condoms were delivered last month and would be made available, free of charge, to staff throughout the year to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to buy them.
The base only has a skeleton staff through the long winter.
"Since everybody knows everyone, it becomes a little bit uncomfortable," Henriksen told the Southland Times newspaper.
About 125 scientists and staff are stationed at McMurdo base, the largest community in Antarctica, during the winter months when there is constant darkness.
The first sunrise will occur on August 20 and McMurdo's population will start to increase again in September when supply flights resume, peaking at more than 1,000 during the summer period.
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Random stats from studies about teens just thrown out there that don't really prove anything.
US teens are having less sex, doing fewer drugs and smoking fewer cigarettes than those who grew up in the 1990s, a study released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found. Labels: alcohol, drugs, health news, sex, youth news
They are also more likely to use condoms when they do have sex, wear a seat belt and avoid getting into a car with a driver who's been drinking, the national study of youth risk behavior found.
About 48 percent of high school students were no longer virgins in 2007, down from 54 percent in 1991.
Meanwhile, just 15 percent said they'd had four or more sexual partners, down from 19 percent in 1991.
And 62 percent of sexually active students said they'd used a condom the last time they had sex, up from 46 percent in 1991.
Some 35 percent of teens had at least one drink of alcohol in the month before they were surveyed in 2007, down from 42 percent in 1991.
Marijuana used has fallen to 20 percent of students from a peak of 27 percent in 1999 while methamphetamine use is down to four percent of teens surveyed in 2007 from 10 percent in 2001.
Nearly half as many students admitted to carrying some kind of weapon: 17 percent in 2007 compared with 33 percent in 1991.
But there has been little change in the number of students who said they'd stayed home from school because they felt unsafe either in the building or on the streets: seven percent in both 1991 and 2007.
Only 12 percent of students said they'd rarely or never worn a seat belt in 2007, down from 35 percent in 1991. Just 27 percent said they'd gotten into a car with a driver who'd been drinking, down from 36 percent in 1991.
"We are pleased that more high school students today are doing things that will help them stay healthy and avoiding things that put their health in danger," said Howell Wechsler, director of CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health.
"Unfortunately we are not seeing that same progress among Hispanic teens for certain risk factors."
While their has been a significant decrease in the number of black teens who'd had sex (66 percent in 2007 compared with 82 percent in 1991) and also among white teens (44 percent in 2007 compared with 50 percent in 1991) there was no change among Hispanic teens (52 percent in 2007 and 53 percent in 1991.)
"Hispanic students were more likely than either black students or white students to attempt suicide, use cocaine, heroin or ecstasy, ride with a driver who had been drinking alcohol, or go 24 hours or more without eating in an effort to lose weight," Wechsler said in a conference call with reporters.
"Hispanic students were also more likely than both black students and white students to say they did not go to school on occasion because of safety concerns, were offered or sold illegal drugs on school property or drank alcohol on school property."
A nationally representative sample of more than 14,000 students in grades nine to 12 were surveyed.
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Zack and Miri Make a Porno teaser trailer!
Labels: movies, porn, sex, you tube
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Supreme Court upholds new PROTECT act which narrows broad child porn law.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court upheld criminal penalties Monday for promoting child pornography. Labels: court drama, loli, sex, shota, youth news
The court, in a 7-2 decision, brushed aside concerns that the law could apply to mainstream movies that depict adolescent sex, classic literature or innocent e-mails that describe pictures of grandchildren.
The ruling upheld part of a 2003 law that also prohibits possession of child porn. It replaced an earlier law against child pornography that the court struck down as unconstitutional.
The law sets a five-year mandatory prison term for promoting, or pandering, child porn. It does not require that someone actually possess child pornography. Opponents have said the law could apply to movies like "Traffic" or "Titanic" that depict adolescent sex.
But Justice Antonin Scalia, in his opinion for the court, said the law does not cover movie sex. there is no "possibility that virtual child pornography or sex between youthful-looking adult actors might be covered by the term 'simulated sexual intercourse.'" Scalia said.
Likewise, Scalia said, First Amendment protections do not apply to "offers to provide or requests to obtain child pornography."
Justice David Souter, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dissented. Souter said promotion of images that are not real children engaging in pornography still could be the basis for prosecution under the law. Possession of those images, on the other hand, may not be prosecuted, Souter said.
"I believe that maintaining the First Amendment protection of expression we have previously held to cover fake child pornography requires a limit to the law's criminalization of pandering proposals," Souter said.
The 11th U.S. Circuit of Appeals struck down the provision. The Atlanta-based court said it makes a crime out of merely talking about illegal images or possessing innocent materials that someone else might believe is pornography.
In the appeals court's view, the law could apply to an e-mail sent by a grandparent and entitled "Good pics of kids in bed," showing grandchildren dressed in pajamas.
In 2002, the court struck down key provisions of a 1996 child pornography law because they called into question legitimate educational, scientific or artistic depictions of youthful sex.
Congress responded the next year with the PROTECT Act, which contains the provision under challenge in the current case.
Authorities arrested Michael Williams in an undercover operation aimed at fighting child exploitation on the Internet. A Secret Service agent engaged Williams in an Internet chat room, where they swapped non-pornographic photographs. Williams advertised himself as "Dad of toddler has 'good' pics of her an me for swap of your toddler pics, or live cam."
After the initial photo exchange, Williams allegedly posted seven images of actual minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Agents who executed a search warrant found 22 child porn images on Williams' home computer.
Williams also was convicted of possession of child pornography. That conviction, and the resulting five-year prison term, was not challenged.
(Ed note: As you can see nothing is mentioned about cartoon or anime or anything of the sort, so that part is still held legal from the last Supreme Court ruling. So continue to write me your hate mail about shota, but realize that it is, in fact, still legal.)
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Inmates and Wardens Gone Wild!
ARAPAHO, Okla. (AP) - Authorities have charged a western Oklahoma sheriff with coercing and bribing female inmates so he could use them in a sex-slave operation run out of his jail. Labels: crime drama, nakedness, sex, women
Custer County Sheriff Mike Burgess resigned Wednesday just as state prosecutors filed 35 felony charges against him, including 14 counts of second-degree rape, seven counts of forcible oral sodomy and five counts of bribery by a public official.
Burgess, the top officer in the county of 26,000 since 1994, appeared in court Wednesday was released after posting $50,000 bail.
A message left at Burgess' home Thursday was not immediately returned.
Among other things, Burgess is accused of having sex with a female drug court participant who was in his custody. The crimes are to have occurred between October 2005 and April 2007.
A federal lawsuit filed in October claims Burgess told one drug court participant he would have her sent to prison if she didn't comply with his sexual demands.
The lawsuit, filed by 12 former inmates, alleges the sheriff's employees had them engage in wet T-shirt contests and offered cigarettes to those who would flash their breasts.
One prisoner alleged she became a jail trusty with more freedom after agreeing to perform a sex act on Burgess, but lost that status when she later refused.
Burgess also faces two counts each of sexual battery, rape by instrumentation and subornation of perjury, and one count each of engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses, indecent exposure and kidnapping.
He could be sentenced to 467 years in prison if convicted on all counts, special prosecutor James Boring said, though a lesser sentence would be more likely.
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Frisky fags to be unleashed in Amsterdam public park after dark;
dogs's decry discrimination.
Dutch council officials will permit gay sex in public areas but fine dog owners who let their pets off the leash in Amsterdam's Vondelpark. Labels: animal news, gay news, sex
Paul van Grieken, an Alderman in the Oud-Zuid district of the city, has startled many Amsterdammers, despite their famously liberal attitudes, with plans to allow public sex as part of this summer's new rules of conduct for the country's best-known park.
"Why should we try to impose something that is actually impossible to impose, which also causes little bother for others and for a certain group actually means much pleasure?", he said.
Amsterdam's beautiful Vondelpark in the centre of city draws hordes of summer visitors, families, skaters and joggers.
But the park's rose garden has become famous as a trysting spot for gay men looking for uncomplicated sexual encounters.
Mr van Grieken stresses that tolerance to "cruising" gays, aimed at protecting homosexuals from violence, will have "strict rules attached".
"Thus, condoms must always be cleared away, it must never take place in the neighbourhood of children's playgrounds and the sex must be restricted to the evening and night-time," he said.
The new park rules have the blessing of the Dutch police, who have urged all Dutch parks to follow Amsterdam's lead.
But Amsterdam's dog owners are less impressed. The new park code of conduct will set out stiff fines for dogs that are allowed to run around the Vondelpark off the leash.
"Research showed that many people find this disturbing," said Mr van Grieken.
One dog owner protested: "As long as the park has existed, we've been allowed to let our dogs run freely. It's outrageous that we will be punished from now on but public sex won't. If they can drop their trousers, why can't I let my dog loose?"
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I'm worth $1,015 an hour in bed.
Or at least that's what this site told me. (You may get errors, clicking back and trying again usually solves the problem.) Labels: effing random link, personal, sex
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Pretty Boy Poll died.
The butt stuff pretty boy poll died. Maybe it was because it was a very naughty question and they didn't appreciate it. Or maybe it was something else, I dunno. But it was really obvious that butt stuff was going to win when I asked what y'alls favorite thing to do was. You know. Sexually. Rawr! Labels: pretty boy poll, sex
I got a new poll provider. Hopefully this one won't fuck up. Enjoy!
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Oh Canada. First the upset over yaoi/hentai and now this?
Gay and straight youth groups in Canada have come out against a change in age of consent from 14 to 16. Labels: Canada, court drama, loli, sex, shota, youth news
Richard Hudler of the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Ontario claims that it will unfairly prejudice gay teenagers.
"My first lover was 17 years older than me. And this is common [among gay people]," he said, according to xtra.ca.
"It is dangerous, considering the attitude toward sexual orientation in schools, for a young person to attempt to make sexual contact with a peer."
The change in the age of consent has cross-party support and is almost certain to become law.
Politicians argue it is a necessary child protection measure.
LGBT groups also spoke against the discriminatory age of consent for anal sex in Canada.
Under Canada's Criminal Code, anal sex is only legal if both individuals are 18 years old.
The Canadian House of Commons justice committee had a chance to strike down the law last year, but the chair, Conservative MP Art Hanger, refused.
"This factor sends a strong message to the gay community that hostility toward same-sex relationships is a motivating factor behind this legislation," said Hudler.
"The bill is homophobic," Jeremy Dias, executive director of Jer's Vision, a youth group that seeks to end discrimination in schools, said, according to xtra.ca.
"Why can't a gay male youth make sexual decisions until he's 18?"
Canada's legal system ties consent to the desire to protect children from adults who wish to exploit them sexually.
Section 153 of Canada's criminal justice code then goes on to prohibit the sexual touching of a person under 18 by a person in three circumstances: if he or she is in a "position of trust or authority" towards the youth, if the youth is in a "relationship of dependency" with him or her or if the relationship is
"exploitative."
The alleged intention of the bill is to target sexual predators and pimps, although no legal distinction is made to differentiate them from older partners engaged or interested in non-exploitative relationships, or to distinguish between sexual harassment and normal approaches.
Details of the proposed change include raising the age of consent from 14 to 16, while creating a near-age exemption for sex between 14 to 15 year olds and partners up to five years older, and keeping an existing near-age clause for sex between 12 and 13 year olds and partners up to two years older.
The Canadian Senate will continue hearings on the Conservative government's omnibus crime bill, which includes the age of consent changes, this week.
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If you need me, I'll be in my lab.
Kansas -- A woman responding to a break-in in her garage found a man having sexual intercourse with her 4-year-old female rottweiler, police said Wednesday. Labels: /b/, animal news, bizzare news, sex
The woman called police Tuesday night after finding the 20-year-old man.
Police arrested the man, who they say had a prior conviction for the same crime less than six months ago.
"This is the first time that I've ever seen this... and I've been in law enforcement a long time," said Lt. Sam Hanley, who leads the department's sex crimes unit.
The man was booked into Sedgwick County Jail on suspicion of criminal sodomy and aggravated burglary.
The burglary was included because the man is suspected of breaking into the garage while someone was home, police said.
He had lived with the family for a while last year in the 3700 block of East Clark, police said.
The man pleaded no contest to having sex with an animal last September in Reno County and was fined $353, according to court documents.
He also can be found on an Internet Web site where people show photos and tell stories about sex with animals, Capt. Darrell Haynes said.
The rottweiler was not injured, Hanley said, but a Kansas Humane Society spokeswoman said the incident still qualifies as animal cruelty.
"It is abuse," said Jennifer Campbell, director of communications for the Kansas Humane Society. "That is committing a violent act toward that animal."
Campbell said she hopes investigators explore whether the incident was an attempt to strike out at the dog's owners.
"That's where a lot of animal cruelty starts," she said.
Research has shown that perpetrators "are frustrated and angry and upset, and animals are vulnerable," Campbell said.
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Weekends of Reruns
Last weekend, it was Sherwin. A boy who was one of the last ones I've dated locally. He came on kinda strong but didn't seem to want to take it any further. And he ignored my calls this past week to see if we could get together. After all, if we're both lonesome, and we know what we're good at... It's too bad he seems to have been playing Useless Ukes Games™. Labels: boys, China, clubbing, Heretic, nakedness, personal, sex
This weekend, it was Ashley. Well, okay, no he didn't come on strong and we didn't do anything! But seeing my most important ex always has the ability to made me either quite delighted or absolutely miserable depending really on how I'm feeling at the time.
Oh, and there was also Raver J. Well he IS always the hottest thing ever. And quite easily accessible a majority of the time. Just as long as he hasn't got his glowing lights set on someone else before you get a chance. We had a very good time Friday night and I was reminded that I *DO* know what I'm doing with a boy when I finally get around to it.
So that's how things have been going there.
The writer's strike may be over in Hollywood, but I'm still seeing quite a few reruns if you know what I mean. Not that that is such a terrible thing. I mean if the boy is good, why not give it another look-see?
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Toys never say "No."
A federal appeals court has overturned a Texas statute outlawing sex-toy sales, essentially leaving Alabama as the only state with such a ban. Labels: court drama, sex
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Texas law making it illegal to sell or promote obscene devices, punishable by up to two years in jail, violated the Constitution's 14th Amendment on the right to privacy.
Companies that own Dreamer's and Le Rouge Boutique, which sell the devices in its Austin stores, and the retail distributor Adam & Eve, sued in Austin federal court in 2004 over the constitutionality of the law. They appealed after a federal judge dismissed the suit and said the constitution did not protect their right to publicly promote such devices.
In its decision Tuesday, the appeals court cited Lawrence and Garner v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 opinion that struck down bans on consensual sex between gay couples.
"Just as in Lawrence, the state here wants to use its laws to enforce a public moral code by restricting private intimate conduct," the appeals judges wrote. "The case is not about public sex. It is not about controlling commerce in sex. It is about controlling what people do in the privacy of their own homes because the state is morally opposed to a certain type of consensual private intimate conduct. This is an insufficient justification after Lawrence."
The Texas Attorney General's Office, which represented the Travis County district attorney in the case, has not decided whether to appeal, said agency spokesman Tom Kelley.
Phil Harvey, president of Adam & Eve Inc., said the 5th Circuit Court's decision was a big step forward. He said his business plans to expand to sell in stores and at home parties, something company consultants had been fearful to do because of the Texas law.
"I think it's wonderful, but it does seem to me that since Texas was one of three states in the country -- along with Mississippi and Alabama -- that continued to outlaw the sale of sex toys and vibrators, that it was probably past time," Harvey said Wednesday.
Alabama is in the 11th Circuit. But Mississippi, which also is in the 5th Circuit, essentially will have its ban overturned as well, some legal experts said.
Virginia's law barring obscene items is different from other state laws and does not seem to apply to sex toy sales, said Harvey, whose company distributes nationwide. Louisiana, Kansas, Colorado and Georgia had laws barring obscene devices, but courts have since struck them down.
The 5th Circuit Court's decision is encouraging for Sherri Williams, who has been fighting the issue in Alabama for a decade. Williams, who owns Pleasures stores in Alabama, sued in 1998 after state lawmakers banned the sale of sex toys there. A year ago, she lost her fight again when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider a lower court decision upholding the Alabama law as constitutional.
Williams hopes that lawmakers will take notice of the recent Texas case and support a newly filed bill in the Alabama Legislature to overturn the ban on adult toy sales.
"I think the courts are finally listening to the people," Williams said Wednesday. "You have 'Sex and the City,' 'Desperate Housewives' and other shows promoting what society is doing. I think the courts have finally opened their eyes and looked around, which is a miracle in the South."
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Free Sex. Oh just one catch...
A Prague brothel has introduced for the first time "reality porn" after unveiling a business model which is making the owners a profitable return. Labels: breeder news, international news, internets, sex
Anyone can go into the smartly-named "Big Sister" brothel and have sex for free, against one condition... they have to be taped.
Clients enter the brothel and choose which woman they'd like, varying from Asians to redheads, from a touchscreen menu.
The idea is to have clients have free sex and do what they please with the women, taping everything and upload the videos on the internet, which will then be viewed by members-only users who pay monthly fees for access.
Bloomberg news agency interviewed one of the customers of the Prague brothel, 36 year old bank-security technician 'Nick'.
He told Bloomberg he drove for over eight hours to enjoy the 'priceless' fun.
"Sex is no taboo,'' Nick says, though he asked that his last name not be used. "You have to free your mind.''
The Czech brothel is simply marrying the latest internet technology with what many view as the oldest profession.
The owners of the business say the innovative idea is becoming more and more popular.
"Our goal is to attract as many people as possible to catch the first reality sex TV,'' says marketing manager Carl Borowitz, who goes by the name Carlos. "This is National Geographic for adults. Everyone's curious to watch their neighbor.''
Visitors to Big Sister start at the electronic menu, which provides each woman's age, height, working name and the languages she speaks. After a customer makes his selection, a manager makes sure the client signs broadcast release forms, and then the intimate details are arranged with the partner for the evening, Bloomberg reported.
Every move is recorded by more than 50 video cameras mounted everywhere from the toilets to the bed posts.
"It does seem people like all extremes of reality TV,'' says Paul Levinson, chairman of communications and media studies at Fordham University in New York, who wasn't aware of Big Sister.
"As media gets more advanced it gets more real. As much as high-definition has replaced black-and-white, this advancement has also been seen in terms of content.''
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I wished people would stop reminding me of Sen. Larry Craig and restroom stall sex.
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- In an effort to help Sen. Larry Craig, the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing that people who have sex in public bathrooms have an expectation of privacy. Labels: congress, court drama, gay news, sex
Craig, of Idaho, is asking the Minnesota Court of Appeals to let him withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct stemming from a bathroom sex sting at the Minneapolis airport.
The ACLU filed a brief Tuesday supporting Craig. It cited a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling 38 years ago that found that people who have sex in closed stalls in public restrooms "have a reasonable expectation of privacy."
That means the state cannot prove Craig was inviting an undercover officer to have sex in public, the ACLU wrote.
The Republican senator was arrested June 11 by an undercover officer who said Craig tapped his feet and swiped his hand under a stall divider in a way that signaled he wanted sex. Craig has denied that, saying his actions were misconstrued.
The ACLU argued that even if Craig was inviting the officer to have sex, his actions wouldn't be illegal.
"The government cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Senator Craig was inviting the undercover officer to engage in anything other than sexual intimacy that would not have called attention to itself in a closed stall in the public restroom," the ACLU wrote in its brief.
The ACLU also noted that Craig was originally charged with interference with privacy, which it said was an admission by the state that people in the bathroom stall expect privacy.
Craig at one point said he would resign but now says he will finish his term, which ends in January 2009.
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Australia to censor the net. WTF Mate?
The Australian Government has announced that they will be joining China as one of the few countries globally that broadly censor the internet. Labels: Austrailia, controversial, internets, sex
The Labor Party’s policy was announced prior to the Australian Election in November and was justified on the basis that the previous Government’s policy of providing free copies of NetNanny to all Australian households who wanted it didn’t adequately protect children.
As recently as the week prior to the election, Labor Party candidates were telling those concerned about the proposed law that the censorship wouldn’t be compulsory, and that the “clean feed” would be opt-in, not opt-out. Today’s announcement by Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy states that the censorship regime will be mandatory, although people will be able to opt-out of it. The problem of course then becomes if you opt-out questions will be asked as to why you want out, which in itself may lead to Government monitoring.
To be censored by the Australian Government is “pornography and inappropriate material.” X rated pornography is illegal online in Australia, as are casino style internet gambling, certain forms of “hate” speech and R rated computer games. BitTorrent would be a possibility, even if certain downloads for personal use may be legal under Australian law, sharing those downloads would not be. How far “inappropriate material” may extend was not made clear, for example questioning Government policy where it comes to Aboriginal people could be deemed to be discrimination under Australian law and hence blocked by the censorship regime. Worst still, bloggers or those (such as forum owners) who allow users to comment or post could find themselves blocked under this proposal should someone say or post the wrong thing. If there is one certainty in any country that implements broadscale censorship, once they start blocking content it doesn’t stop, and certainly every do-gooder group and special interest lobbyist will be wanting the Government to add to the list.
There is also a potential cost involved to Australian Internet users. The previous Government regularly cited feedback from ISP’s stating that the cost of implementing a “clean feed” would be passed onto internet users, who already pay some of the highest internet access costs in the Western world for on average slow services.
Notably Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was a former Australian Diplomat in China, and speaks fluent Mandarin; given Australia’s boom is fueled by mineral exports to China, it would seem that Australian Government policies are now by China in return. This video from before the election may have foretold some of the future.
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Sexy Replicants of the future!
If you're younger than 35, you'll probably live long enough to put David Levy's prediction to the test. Levy says that by 2050 we'll be creating robots so lifelike, so imbued with human-seeming intelligence and emotions, as to be nearly indistinguishable from real people. And we'll have sex with these robots. Some of us will even marry them. And it will all be good. Labels: Japan, sex, technology news
Levy lays out his vision of a Brave New Carnal World in Love and Sex With Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships, which, despite its extended riffs on sex toys through the ages, is a snigger-free book. Levy's no Al Goldstein. Rather he's a 62-year-old British chess master turned artificial-intelligence expert persuaded that robot sex can brighten the lives of many, many unhappy people. "Great sex on tap for everyone, 24/7,'' he writes on the final page of the book. What's not to like?
"Chess'' and "sex'' aren't words that normally share the same sentence, but in Levy's case, the one led to the other. A keen chessman since boyhood, by the time he got to St. Andrews University he played at the international level. At the university he got interested in computers and the challenge of programming machines to play chess. Eventually he earned international recognition for his work on chess-playing computers and natural-language software, and in the mid '90s headed a team that won the Loebner Prize, widely regarded as the world championship of conversational software. Today he owns a firm that develops electronic hand-held brain games.
Designing computers that talk like humans naturally led to the larger question of how humans interact with robots, which are nothing more than computers with arms and legs and a head. The Japanese have taken the lead in developing "partner robots,'' machines that, for example, might do household tasks for elderly people. But if you could invent a robot that serves cocktails, could you not invent a robot that would make a superior bedmate?
It sounds like a mighty tall order. A machine with skin that feels like ours? With our physical dexterity? And, most important, with a mind like ours - imperfectly rational, sometimes emotionally intelligent, sometimes emotionally dumb?
"I think it's a reasonable assumption,'' Levy said in a telephone interview from his home in London. He lays out his case in a voice that's calm, rational, almost flat, more geeky than goatish.
"If one looks at the advances in technology in the last, say, 40 or 50 years, they've been immense, and the more we learn about the science and the technology, the quicker it will be to discover even more within that science."
Smart money never bets against technological advances, but it helps if you stack the deck. "The automaton simulates man when man has been defined in an automaton's way," literary critic Hugh Kenner wrote. Is that what Levy does?
"I take a pragmatic point of view," he said, "partly because in my original field, computer chess, that was how the problem was solved." Not by making machines that thought like chess masters but by making machines that beat chess masters. Similarly, Levy thinks, robots need only "simulate" human intelligence and emotions "to the point that they are absolutely convincing." If you can't tell whether the thing is man or machine, what difference does it make? You'll treat it as if it were alive. The rest is philosophical hairsplitting.
So who will avail themselves of 21st-century sexbots?
Sad cases, for one, people so physically unattractive or anti-social or isolated or emotionally crippled that they have trouble finding human romance. People who love their computers more than their fellows. Hey, they're out there already.
"They're lonely; they're miserable," Levy said. "I think society will be a much better place when they have an alternative that satisfies them without doing any harm to other people."
Add in those who have a satisfying sexual relationship but are simply curious and somewhere between 20 percent and 50 percent of the population will experience man-machine mating at least occasionally, Levy predicts.
He respects the fact that plenty of people, out of moral or religious conviction, will contemplate this with horror.
"But by and large," he said, "it will be very good for society, very beneficial, and I think that will be the majority view within a relatively short space of time."
Sexbots may put prostitutes out of business, he notes.
Near the end of the book Levy alludes to a set of vexing questions. If robots become utterly humanlike, must we not treat them as more than machines? So if you marry a robot, can it inherit your estate? If you catch it boffing the mail carrier, can you toss it out with heavy trash? If your robot pops your neighbor in the mouth, who does your neighbor sue?
Levy admits he doesn't know the answers.
"There are lot of questions here that need a great deal of discussion and consideration from people who are much wiser than I am in the field of ethics, philosophy and law. Clearly the law makers and the lawyers are going to have a field day debating these issues."
He expects the impetus for creating sexbots to come from the sex-toy industry rather than, say, MIT. Already a Japanese sex-doll manufacturer has announced plans to market a doll with electronics in it, and Levy has read that Japanese companies are working to produce sex robots for people living in outlying fishing villages.
"I think the Japanese are probably working on this more than one would realize from the little that's been published so far," he said.
Levy has been amazed at the publicity the Love and Sex With Robots has generated since its release last month. He's done a dozen radio interviews and a TV interview. Howard Stern raved about the book. So far, no hate mail.
Would Levy himself have sex with a robot? He doesn't have to ponder the question.
"If there was a robot of the sort I describe in the book, I would certainly want to experience using it for sex, and I wouldn't regard it as anything untoward," he said. "I would do it out of curiosity. Not that I have a need for a new sex partner. I'm happily married."
And the wife would be OK with this?
"Yes, yes, and if she wanted to try one I wouldn't have a problem with that. I would regard it as genuine scientific curiosity."
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In other news: Steve finally catches on to some of Blue's Clues.
NEW YORK (AP) - Nickelodeon is considering a special for its young audience about sex and love following the news that 16-year-old "Zoey 101" star Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant. Labels: breeder news, celebrity non news, loli, sex, shota, television
The television network has made no announcement about the future of "Zoey 101," its popular program aimed primarily at youngsters aged 9- 14. Filming for the show's fourth and final season has finished, and episodes are scheduled to begin airing in February.
For the special, Nickelodeon said it's talking with Linda Ellerbee, the veteran newswoman who has stepped in frequently in the past with shows on talking to children about difficult issues in the news. She's done shows about same-sex parents, AIDS, the Columbine shooting and President Clinton's impeachment scandal.
"I think it's important that something be done," Ellerbee told The Associated Press on Thursday. "But I think it's important that it be done in a measured way, and not just to feed the beast of news stories.
A Nickelodeon spokesman, Dan Martinsen, confirmed the discussions but said no decision had been made.
Spears, the younger sister of pop star Britney Spears, told the OK! celebrity magazine this week that she was pregnant. The father is her 19-year-old boyfriend, Casey Aldridge. She said she plans to raise the baby in her home state of Louisiana.
Nickelodeon has made no comment beyond a supportive statement for its star: "We respect Jamie Lynn's decision to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation. We know this is a very difficult time for her and her family, and our primary concern right now is for Jamie Lynn's well being."
The company has received a mixed response so far from its viewers, and the news has launched a public discussion about how parents should deal with it.
"This is a great opportunity for parents at this moment to talk to their kids about this—more important, to listen to their kids about this," Ellerbee said.
Rather than focus strictly on Spears, Ellerbee said she's considering producing a broad discussion about how people know they're in love, when is the right time to have sex and what are the value systems of their parents and friends. It could air as soon as next month.
"Right now what Nick is trying to do—and what I am trying to do—is figure out what is the best thing to do for kids," she said.
One television critic, David Hinckley of the New York Daily News, wrote Thursday that to end "this sordid moment" with a lesson, Nickelodeon should pull the plug on "Zoey 101."
"If Nickelodeon keeps Jamie Lynn Spears because her product sells, it runs the risk that a valuable message it has spent years crafting could shift from `trust us' to `whatever,'" Hinckley wrote.
Although Nick executives are still discussing the future of "Zoey 101," it's considered unlikely that it would shelve the final season. The third season ends Jan. 4 with a cliffhanger episode about whether Spears' character continues to attend a boarding school in California or moves to London with her parents.
Executives at Nick's rival Disney Channel public relations crisis this summer when Vanessa Hudgens, the 18-year-old star of its "High School Musical" franchise, posed for nude photos that were leaked to the Internet. Hudgens apologized, Disney stuck by her and the issue quickly faded.
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Sorry man, I don't swing that way.
DUNCANVILLE, Texas (AP) - The most popular address on Cedar Ridge Drive is Jim Trulock's split- level home, which has a group sex room and attracts as many as 100 people to swinger parties featuring "Naked Twister" nights.
But the festivities could soon be over. In response to neighbors' complaints, the city has outlawed sex clubs in residential areas. Citations have been issued, and search warrants may be next.
"It's crazy that they want to force their morality down our throats," said Dawn Burton, 45, a regular guest at the parties. "We're all frustrated."
So are those who complain of the noise, traffic and parking problems that occur in their otherwise quiet, upscale neighborhood every Friday and Saturday, when Trulock's home is transformed into "The Cherry Pit."
Duncanville, which proclaims itself "The Perfect Blend of Family, Community and Business," is an unlikely venue for a neighborhood swinger club. The city of 36,000 just southwest of Dallas has about 50 places of worship and not a single registered sexually oriented business.
Duncanville officials insist they are not just another prudish Texas town giving the boot to spouse-swappers. They say it all boils down to a matter of law: Trulock is operating a business featuring live sex acts.
"It's not trying to judge anyone or pass judgment on someone's lifestyle," city spokeswoman Tonya Lewis said.
To support its claim, the city notes that the Cherry Pit accepts money from guests and promotes the parties on its Web site.
"We're not about infringing on the rights of the Cherry Pit patrons or owners," Lewis said. "But now your right to have fun has infringed on everyone else's. And now you have to draw the line."
Other cities have wrestled with the same issue.
Phoenix, for example, prohibited live sexual performances in 1998, effectively outlawing swinger parties. An appeals court upheld the law in 2003, and Duncanville used it as a blueprint when passing a ban last month.
Retiree Jack Martin, who lives a block behind Trulock's home, said he's concerned that the parties will reduce the value of his property.
Others are annoyed by the procession of cars that crowd their street on weekend evenings, or the flood of strangers who descend on the neighborhood.
"If you're going to do that, you should open a business," Martin said. "Go somewhere where it's allowed."
Attorneys for Trulock, 59, say the Cherry Pit is nothing more than a private residence where a group of friends get together on weekends to socialize in whatever way they prefer.
While guests are encouraged to make "voluntary donations" to cover the cost of food and refreshments, organizers deny that anyone is being charged admission to his parties.
Ed Klein, an attorney for the Cherry Pit, said many guests give no money, but those who do often chip in $10 or $20. Klein said he plans to file a lawsuit next week that will challenge the constitutionality of the