11 posts tagged “sex”

Simon Young, one of the top guys in the new media, Web 2·0 sphere, and I had a very lovely dinner last night. And while we do talk about work, there’s always room for humour. From Sy:

A priest goes to a hotel and asks, ‘Is the porn disabled?’
   The hotel clerk replies, ‘It’s just normal porn—you sick freak!’

   I had to tell this one back:

An Irish priest is holidaying in London and was very puzzled by women outside certain shops going, ‘Come on in, Father, £10 for a quickie! Ten pound for a quickie!’
   When he returned to his church in Eire, he asked, ‘Mother Superior, what’s a quickie?’
   ‘Ten pound, same as it is in London.’

Dabysan has a few interesting observations about Moment of Truth, the game show airing on a Murdoch Press network in the US and, God help us, TV2 in New Zealand.
   The good news is that this show has reached the end of its run in New Zealand as of this Friday and let’s hope it doesn’t return.
   It’s basically a game show that paints a highly negative image of United States and the decline in taste and responsibility of New Zealand television programmers. The cancellation may be a sign that the Kiwis have found some sense again (as is the return of Life on Mars and the airing of Jekyll). The only reason it ever aired, as far as I can tell, is that it must be dirt, dirt cheap.
   Dabysan wrote: ‘The show is a sure sign of the coming of the apocalypse.’ How right that is.
   On Dabysan’s blog is a clip of one of the episodes:

   That is the sum total of the show but somehow through “editing” (which means using the same footage over and over again, and having really long and repetitive previews telling TV audiences to come back after the break) it lasts the full 46 minutes (i.e. a commercial television hour).
   If it were shown in this shortened format I might not think so ill of it, but for it to occupy an hour of some viewers’ lives is daft.
   I wrote in the comments:

I can’t see the entertainment value in Moment of Truth. The contestant knows what questions will be asked so she should not be surprised. She was obviously not ashamed to reveal his or her answers to a total stranger, so why should millions of strangers be a problem? As for their loved ones, the contestant obviously has no shame to have engaged in embarrassing conduct so she shouldn’t be ashamed now. If she is potentially ashamed, she should not have gone on. I am glad this show is getting killed off after this Friday’s episode in New Zealand after a very short run.

   What I did not write is that this sort of show, displaying the lax morals of certain US citizens, is an insult to decent Americans—but it has a secondary effect. There is a very real danger that all Americans are grouped in our minds as being like those idiots on the show.
   When you see this and news about how many sexual partners a typical New York woman has had or that one in one hundred adult Americans are in jail, you begin to form a very negative image indeed: sleep around, cheat, lie, dis your parents, be unfaithful, commit crimes. Meanwhile, the American newsmedia, as broadcast internationally, play down things such as Sen. John McCain’s military record or provide us with exemplary behaviours (exceptions of US shows that do include the little-watched Real Life Heroes).
   The blogs are good in that they give voice to some normal folks—but most people are still influenced by the stereotypes and the sensationalism caused by biased editing in the old media.
   It is the same effect as the casting of Middle Eastern actors as terrorists in US shows, which groups them into a negative bunch and propagates a false stereotype.
   A second danger is that young people watching this show—I forget what time it airs in New Zealand but it is not that late—might think that such behaviour is acceptable.
   The message is: you can engage in any behaviour, from sexual deviancy to outright deception, and be rewarded for it if you have no sense of shame.
   I can think of a few people already who act this way and am delighted at the distance I have from them.
   It is not dissimilar to some reality TV shows which show that connivance and arrogance are the keys to winning major cash prizes.
   The world simply does not work this way, and if it ever came to that, then civilization is in deep, deep crap.
   When some people point out conspiracy theories about Communists seizing the media, promoting a value-destroying ideology and showing that emotionally harmful behaviours are normal, it’s easy to laugh at them. Then you see just what the media are propagating and you have to really think: jeez, they have a point, regardless of what Snopes might say.
   It might not be Commies doing the dirty work, as some citizens are quite happy to go down a destructive path, exhibiting behaviours that every experience tells them is bad. There are enough of us whose lives have been rendered so valueless by our own governments or corporations that Schadenfreude pushes us to enjoy seeing others’ shame and controversy.
   A good society, a decent, honest, progressive one, would never have the time or inclination to indulge in shows such as Moment of Truth or, for that matter, gossip tabloids that depend on a declining society for their success.

Just got this in from Mike Corso at Cool Site of the Day.

A recent Brazilian YouTube sex scandal threatened to close down every WordPress blog around the world.
   Did you hear about it? It's already called “YouTube Gate”—apparently a spicy sex scene was posted on YouTube and someone discussed it on a WordPress-hosted blog.
   The problem is the Brazillian courts placed a ban on viewing the IP address of the entire WordPress website …
   … And that means potentially thousands of bloggers can't have their content shown in their country.
   Even worse, this isn't the first time a violation like this closed down an entire network of blogs.
   But the bottom line is this should be a wakeup call for those who rely on hosted blogs (like WordPress) to tweak their strategy and avoid getting their own blogs banned.
   The good news is the fix is simple … just host WordPress on your own server (rather than hosting it on the WordPress site).
   Getting WordPress installed on your own site is now a snap … just take advantage of John Saya's FREE WordPress autoinstaller.

http://www.cnotes.com/r/wordpress.html

Any questions, shoot me an e-mail.

Mike Corso
Cool Site of the Day

   This is a bit disturbing. Global Voices has more info. One of the quotations indicates a million Brazilian bloggers will be affected.
   I am not sure if a Brazilian judgement should have an effect on blogs like this, penalizing those in Brazil who are using wordpress.com. Those who didn’t feature the home-made porn on their blogs—as in the overwhelming majority of Wordpress users—should not pay the price for the handful that did. (And surely non-Wordpress blogs are affected, too?)
   Surely a simple deletion of the offending URLs would suffice?
   And this desire to post someone’s home sex video on to their own blogs—well, it ain’t my scene. Stick it on to YouPorn and let the perverts all go to the same place, and keep it off the blogosphere!

If you thought the story of Amir Massoud Tofangsazan was embarrassing, what if something similar happened to a celebrity?
   Over the last few weeks, the Edison Chen scandal has rocked Hong Kong and even affected the Beijing Olympics.
   Chen, a Canadian-born actor about to make a big US début—already he’s a Pepsi spokesman in Hong Kong—took in his laptop for repair but forgot to take down his home-made porn, which includes 12 female celebrities.
   Just as with Laptop Guy (Thomas Sawyer) in the UK with Amir’s photos in 2006, someone at the computer shop decided they would post the 1,200-plus images and videos on to the ’net.
   If we think the Britney Spears Machine is bad, Hong Kong tabloids make that look like a old world gentlemen’s club.
   PC World offers this analogy: ‘Imagine photos of, say, Matthew McConaughey popping up on the Internet, showing him in various states of undress and sexual acts with, say, Alicia Keys, Kelly Clarkson and Kirsten Dunst.’
   One of the celebs implicated is Gillian Chung, who was supposedly going to perform at the Olympics. Not any more. Prior to this month she had a wholesome image—now she may be more associated with performing and receiving oral sex. (The logical thing now would be to revamp her image as Madonna does regularly, but whether that will go down well in the innocent Cantopop world is another matter.)
   Batgwa summarizes the other celebs:

The biggest female stars implicated were Gillian Chung (鍾欣桐) and Cecilia Cheung (張栢芝).
   Other less well known female celebrities were implicated too, including Bobo Chan (陳文媛), Rachel Ngan (顏穎思), Mandy Chen (陳育嬬), Candice Chan (陳思慧) and Edison’s current girlfriend Vincy Yeung (楊永晴).

   Chen has basically announced, at 27, his retirement from the Hong Kong scene. He might have to: some of the celebs may have Triad connections (there is some gang involvement in Hong Kong moviemaking) and he’s received death threats.
   Cops have arrested nine people so far in connection with the unlawful distribution of the images.
   While Chen is no saint, he deserved his privacy. The poster has essentially brought down the careers of several people. I suppose this is a reminder that when you are in the public eye, you need to take precautions. Putting your own porn on to a disc or a flash drive would be an idea—or simply be a role model and being less promiscuous in relationships and never fear these leaks.
   We may criticize Chen for his behaviour and we certainly should criticize the breach of trust from the shop, but the problem is wider. We need to ask ourselves just where our values are—and the way the Chinese people have reacted shows that they have not fled the free and occupied parts of China.

According to a story in the Fairfax Press today, New Zealand women lead the world in promiscuity. Not something to be proud of. It reminds me of one Kiwi ex-girlfriend whom I had to wake when I went to the loo at night. She said, ‘What are you telling me for?’ I said, ‘Could you save my place for me?’ That’s how bad it is: my suspicions have been statistically confirmed.

Sadly, I had no idea of the horrible shooting at Virginia Tech while I was escorting Laural and Sharaine Barrett around yesterday. In fact, I spent most of the day out or at meetings. I learned about it probably 18 hours after most other people. By today, its impact was felt strongly, particularly at Facebook, where netizens changed their profile photographs to a VT black ribbon.
   I join the millions who are sending prayers and thoughts to the victims, and the families of the victims.
   I am no expert of what happens inside the minds of people such as the alleged shooter, Cho Seung-Hui. The BBC paints a picture of a loner who has aways felt distant, even as a child. The media coverage has tended to discuss gun control, before finding parties to blame, with the Virginia campus being a target.
   If I am to add anything to this debate, I believe we need to go past the same scapegoats. After Columbine, we have already asked these questions and these school shootings continue. In a country like New Zealand, where we are not immune from rampages, we do find armed students a foreign idea associated most strongly with the United States. Le Monde says the massacre taints the American Dream. At the same time, I look at Switzerland which has (unofficially) one firearm for every man, woman and child, yet no one seems to go on rampages there—and this begs the question: why?
   Men like Cho seem to be loners, and in this case, the paranoia that grips post-9-11 USA alerted Virginia Tech staff to his odd behaviour. Despite this, the murders of 30-plus people still could not be prevented. Teachers and counsellors were on alert. There is nothing that could have been done because it seems as though the faculty was diligent, delayed emails and text messages aside.
   My guess is that the issues predate any faculty involvement into Cho’s conduct. I do not know about the Korean community in Virginia. If the Korean community is well integrated, we still hear that Cho’s peers left him alone. Perhaps this is the lesson: to not let our peers be. To be concerned with someone other than ourselves. To end a selfish, me-first society.
   Some teenagers go and get boob jobs for self-image reasons. But negative self-image comes from a society that chooses to shun, forcing some to say, ‘Look at me.’ That same society did not reach out to Cho Seung-Hui. They, we, effectively let Cho stir in his own hatred.
   There is much negativity in the modern United States, and that must seep in to people’s consciousness. I wonder if Cho was sickened by the gulf between his traditional Korean upbringing and what he witnessed among his peers. His family were decent, Christian, and churchgoing. If the United States is about values and honour, would Cho have been sickened by the hypocrisy that he saw through his filter? I often have discussions with Asians—Japanese, Pakistanis, or my own race—and this comes up. We identify sexual promiscuity among westerners as one thing that seems out of place with the stated values of our adopted nations, for example.
   Is it the breakdown of societal values, or his perception thereof, that broke Cho on that horrid, dark day?
   Ironically, through that darkness, there was light. Students and professors who shielded others from the bullets. Those acts of heroism were restatements of American values. It is an indescribable sacrifice, how some gave their lives to show that.
   Why it takes the loss of lives to show us the selflessness of some great Americans, young and old, is sorrowful. But let us not let their passings be in vain. 
   I still hear the huge bollocks here in New Zealand about ‘Asians keep to themselves’ or ‘They don’t like getting involved in public life.’ If the US is anything like that, then the US is dead wrong. I have not sensed this sort of prejudice on my Stateside visits, but I have only been to 10 or 11 states. Cho may have cried out in his own way for help but that was mistaken as a preference to be alone. Others may be crying out right now, and it is our job to help them.
   One school shooting this year is enough to last us through the rest of our lifetimes.

I never understand the reports on American football, but at least with this broadcast, I have an excuse.

   Yes, it is incredibly sexist and exhibitionist, but another example of why privateers may well outdo the networks if this sort of stuff grows further on video-downloading services.
   Simple equations: (a) network pulls a great show—leads to viewer resentment; (b) network broadcasts reality TV, but anyone can make those shows, and stick them up online—result: network differentiation and branding suffer; (c) people upload their own videos, without network interference, and viewers choose what to watch—consequently, no resentment.
   I can foresee a day when even the networks shop online for programming.
   Some of you youngsters may remember Chilly Beach, the Canadian cartoon series that started on the internet. It became a network show. Many more will follow suit. 
   And Foxxy News is merely the old Fox formula taken a step further: get a lower-chakra concept, and watch the viewer ratings rise. No, I do not know which week this report is from. I doubt that even a football fanatic will care.
   In fact, I am not totally sure Ms Anderson said anything. (‘Oi, my face is up here.’)
   They can get a lot more blue: any of our French readers wish to enlighten us about Les Nuz on their comedy channel? (When the Anglos do nudity, it’s porn. When the French do it, it’s comedy.)
   Solution: quality programming can be the solution to differentiation and network branding. But if the networks keep knocking out cheap fare like reality TV, then I will not be surprised if we begin going online, spreading videos via viral methods, and bypassing the big corporations.

If you want something bawdy and suggestive, hop over to Rockstep’s Vox blog and the post on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. I never quite thought of that particular scene as a bondage video, though it was filled with sexual connotations: have a listen to the audio track with your eyes closed.

Damn, why weren’t the Bikini Bandits in force when I was last in København? I even was there on graduation day and for midsummer, with drunk students all over town.
   I wondered if this was real. As my friend Ian points out, the name of the traffic cop is too fabulous to have been made up. But the reality is that it is part of a governmental campaign to get people obeying the 50 km/h speed limit. Sorry! Scandi is not as liberal as people think!

(Des membres du groupe Pub!: je suis désolé que cet article est en anglais, mais je voudrais le partager.)

I get sent a lot of jokes via email. But sometimes, I think I can do better. One of these days, I’ll have enough of these for a sitcom.

Scientists say that goldfish have a memory of a few seconds. How do they know? Do they interview the goldfish?
   Which brings me on to cat food. How do we know it’s tasty? Did someone ask a cat? Or did some poor bastard have to try it?

—As a traffic cop, I have seen some ridiculous behaviour. There was this one time when I pulled over a car to find that a woman had been giving her husband a blow-job.
—That’s not unheard of, Jack.
—Yeah, but she was driving!

Don Brash was giving a speech the other night. Then the karaoke bar manager took the mike off him and told him to stop wasting everyone’s time.

The Greg Brady manœuvre is a move used by some teenage boys to get a snog from a girl. But the Karori Pool is not one used by the elderly.

   Yes, I was watching Finding Nemo earlier this evening, and the second joke did come (sorry) while I was driving. The last one may need an explanation, especially for those outside Wellington: pool and pull are nearly homonyms, and I always associate Karori as a suburb where older people live.