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The Fake Sex Doctor Who Conned the Media Into Publicizing His Bizarre Research on Suicide, Butt-Fisting, and Bestiality

In August 2017, the website IFLS, an outgrowth of the mega-popular Facebook group I Fucking Love Science that traffics in journalism-ish content, reported on a paper that, it mused, might be the most not-safe-for-work study of all time. The paper’s subject is so not safe for work that I can’t bring myself to copy-paste the title here, but it has to do with beastiality and “butt-fisting.” The problem with this post, though, is not that it’s inappropriate—it’s that it was the work of a con man.

Damian Jacob Markiewicz Sendler has been tricking research outlets and reporters alike into publishing dubious statements for a while, an investigation by Jennings Brown at Gizmodo revealed Friday. Sendler, 28, has fashioned himself as a Harvard-trained “sexologist,” with a job as a top researcher at a foundation and a passion for documenting some of the further-flung aspects of human desire. But, as Brown cataloged, he has no degree from Harvard, his foundation does not appear to exist, and while it’s possible he did conduct his research, it’s safe to guess his papers might not be rigorously scientific.

Despite this, Brown reports, Sendler has lent his “expertise” to HuffPost (on self-care during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings), Playboy (on men who have sex with dead bodies), Men’s Health (on the sex benefits of barre workouts), Forbes (on why women love serial killers), and even on sex advice giver Dan Savage’s podcast (on a kink that kills).

Continue reading at Slate, or read the full gory details at Gizmodo.

Dulce et decorum

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! - An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And floundering like a man in fire or lime. - Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin, If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, - My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. Wilfred Owen, MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was killed in action at the Battle of the Sambre, just one week before the war ended.

The poem is also known as ‘The old Lie’.

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori is from the Roman poet Horace, and means "it is sweet and honorable to die for one's country," something that Wilfred Owen’s poem, with its description of the savagery of war, in particular the gas attacks, puts to the lie.

11 November, 2018.

Judge Orders Insurer to Pay For Autoerotic Asphyxia Death

March 7, 2018

By Matt Reynolds

CHICAGO — A man’s death by autoerotic asphyxia was accidental and did not arise from self-inflicted injuries, a federal judge ruled Monday, ordering an insurer to pay accidental death benefits to his widow after it initially denied her claim.

Linno Llenos, 56, was found hanging from his basement rafters in August 2016 with a towel and rope wrapped around his neck. Wilmette Police officers responded to a call that he had committed suicide.

A medical examiner concluded that Llenos died from autoerotic asphyxia, a sexual act that involves cutting off the supply of oxygen to the brain during masturbation to heighten pleasure. The medical examiner reached that opinion because of the presence of a release mechanism to prevent strangulation and four rubber genital rings.

Minnesota Life Insurance paid Llenos’ widow Letran Tran $517,000 in life insurance benefits, but denied her claim for $60,000 in accidental death benefits as beneficiary of her husband’s policy.

The insurer explained its decision in a December 2016 letter. While the death was an accident, Llenos did not commit suicide, and was “engaged in an activity which was pleasurable to him when an unfortunate accident occurred.” It was not an “accidental injury” but a self-inflicted injury, which was excluded under terms of the policy, the insurer said.

“Although perhaps more unusual, autoerotic asphyxiation is no different than sky-diving, motorcycle riding, or sailing, in that they are activities people take part in for enjoyment, but which may conceivably lead to their death in the event of accident,” the letter stated.

Tran sued Minnesota Life in January 2017.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Robert Dow sided with the widow, ruling that Llenos’s death by strangulation was accidental and did not arise from an intentional injury.

Dow wrote that while the sexual act could lead to “loss of consciousness and strangulation” and is “undoubtedly risky,” it does not always lead to strangulation or death.

Minnesota Life did not dispute that the death was accidental, the judge noted, and any ambiguities in the policy must be interpreted in favor of granting Tran’s request for benefits.

“Since plaintiff’s loss of consciousness and resultant strangling were the direct cause of his death, defendant cannot logically argue that these results were substantially certain to result from his conduct, while at the same time conceding that plaintiff did not intend to kill himself,” Dow ruled.

He granted Tran summary judgment.

Jeff Bakken, a spokesman for the insurer’s parent company Securian Financial Group, said the company does not comment on litigation.

https://www.courthousenews.com/autoerotic-asphyxia-is-not-suicide-judge-rules/

Reuters | The Wider Image

A neo-Nazi in the midst of a protest

By Shannon Stapleton, reuters.com, Gainesville, Florida, October 21, 2017.

On the morning of October 17, two days before Richard Spencer, an avowed white nationalist and spokesman for the so-called alt-right, was to speak at the University of Florida, my wife asked if I had heard anything about it.

I had just returned from assignments on Barbuda and Puerto Rico, which were wrecked by hurricanes.

In August, rallies by white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia, had led to a deadly clash with counter-protesters. I contacted my editors and asked for the Florida assignment.

The evening before the speech, I walked around the Gainesville campus. All seemed calm; there were no protests. The area was blanketed by police because Florida’s governor had declared a state of emergency to try to prevent violence.

Early the next day there was a light presence from both sides. I met a self-proclaimed white nationalist named Tyler Tenbrink from Texas and photographed him. Later, he and two others were arrested on charges of attempted homicide in an altercation with protesters after Spencer's speech.

Read more on the Reuters | The Wider Image web site.

A poster from 1930s Chicago reads: “The enemy is syphilis. Enlist employees in a campaign against it.”

2016 was a record year for syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia.

Here are 5 possible reasons why.

By Julia Belluz, Sep 27, 2017, vox.com.

We don’t talk much about chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis, in part because it can seem like they’re not big health issues anymore. But it turns out more and more Americans may be quietly suffering from these once nearly eliminated STDs.

According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were more than 2 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis reported in the United States in 2016 — the highest cumulative number ever recorded.

The leap in cases in just one year is truly eye-popping. Between 2015 and 2016, the rate of:

Gonorrhea increased by 18.5 percent to 468,514 cases

Syphilis increased by 17.6 percent to 27,814 cases

Congenital (spread from mother to infant) syphilis increased by 27.6 percent to 628 cases

Chlamydia increased by 4.7 percent, to 1.59 million cases

To appreciate just how astonishing the trends are, consider that as recently as a decade ago, these STDs were at historic lows or near elimination, with more and better screening and diagnostics to help identify cases and get people into treatment.

Syphilis can show up on the body in sores and rashes. Gonorrhea and chlamydia can lurk with no symptoms. They’re all generally easy to cure with a timely antibiotics prescription, but when left untreated, they can lead to infertility or life-threatening health complications. That’s what makes screening and access to health care so important.

Continue reading on the vox.com website.

Not the Bangkok Hilton: Tourists pay to stay in Thailand's prison-style hotel.

Mugshots taken on check-in, and striped pyjamas issued to people wanting to spend a night behind bars.

By Oliver Holmes in Bangkok, Sept 1, 2017, The Guardian.

Surely, it’s a tourist’s worst nightmare.

A holiday to the pristine beaches of southeast Asia turns ugly after a boozy night, and you wake up bleary-eyed in a dingy prison.

Not according to one hotelier, who believes there is a market for Thailand’s prison experience.

Sittichai Chaivoraprug, 55, built a hostel on the outskirts of the capital Bangkok that has nine tiny, dark rooms and cement walls with bunk beds for those seeking an authentic night in jail.

The sliding doors at Sook Station are made with thick bars, although two rooms have a solitary confinement-style metal door with peep holes. A minuscule barred-window looks out to the street. Only the air-conditioning and wifi break the illusion.

Continue reading, and watching the video, on The Guardian’s web site.

Hurt Me Plenty

A short threesome about punishing, swallowing, and driving -- newly remastered with gratuitous graphics effects.

By Robert Yang (www.debacle.us, @radiatoryang)

Three short games -- Hurt Me Plenty, Succulent, Stick Shift -- attempt to expand eroticism in games beyond a cutscene.

What if sex in games was something we performed as players, instead of something we obtained? What do sex mechanics look like? How can we convey or embody intimacy in games? Well, that's what Radiator 2 tries to do.

Hurt Me Plenty: a short game where you spank the heck out of a dude and learn about how BDSM communities formalize consent / caring. Progress through negotiation, play, and aftercare, with your AI-controlled partner.

Succulent: a short interactive music video game thing where you help a hunk enjoy a delicious shapely treat. It's pretty straightforward, really. (Now featuring new stunning immersive "cheek physics" technology!)

Stick Shift: an autoerotic night-driving game about pleasuring a gay car. It's a bit difficult and requires finesse, but it has a huge video tutorial and cosplay community, just search "how to drive stick shift" on YouTube.

Check out the games here.

Two men with a marriage certificate, wearing traditional Bavarian Lederhosen.

Congratulations!

Germany’s parliament approved gay marriage on June 30, 2017!

According to the UK’s conservative Daily Telegraph, opposition in the lopsided 393-226 vote came mostly from conservatives in the Lutheran and Catholic churches, and the far-right Alternative für Deutschland.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, the daughter of a Lutheran minister, had introduced the measure in Germany’s parliament, but declared her fundamental opposition to gay marriage. She permitted her party’s members to vote according to their conscience, and voted against the law herself. All six Muslim members of parliament voted for the law.

Gay Leather Scene Tones Down From Hard-Core to Dress-Up

By Michael Musto, The New York Times, December 22, 2015

On a warm Saturday night in November, about 800 gay men wearing harnesses and other items made of leather gathered at Brut, a party held at Santos Party House in Lower Manhattan.

Mostly in their 20s and 30s, the men danced to pounding house music, flirted in an intimate lounge below the dance floor and ogled two beefy go-go men gyrating on boxes. Shirts came off, but leather harnesses stayed on all night, as Brut bills itself as New York’s only monthly leather party.

But if the party was introducing the leather scene to younger gay men who had never heard of the Village People, it also underscored a social shift: The leather scene has lost much of its overt sadomasochistic edge, and is now more about dressing up.

...

The leather scene used to occupy a very visible part of gay culture. In the 1960s through the early ’80s, men in leather caps and chaps could be seen strutting about Christopher Street, looking as if they had emerged from a Tom of Finland illustration by way of a Marlon Brando movie still.

“Leather became metaphoric for claiming masculinity,” said Michael Bronski, a gender and sexuality studies professor at Harvard University and author of “A Queer History of the United States.” “These guys were baby boomers who’d been told that being gay meant being a sweater queen or being fluffy or effeminate.”

Gay leather bars dotted Manhattan, with names like the Spike, Rawhide, the Ramrod and Badlands. And during the city’s annual gay pride parade, wearers of leather played a prominent role. Indeed, the annual Leather Pride Night party was one of the parade’s main sources of funding.

Continue reading on the New York Times website.

Does a harness make you a real player?

In an Era of Closing Leather Bars and Harness-Wearing Poseurs, Where Are the Real Leather Men?

By Mike Miksche, Slate.com, June 29, 2017

These days, even the young’uns are showing up to gay, kink-themed events, styling themselves in decorative neoprene harnesses as if performing some kind of butch drag. It’s worlds away from the hardcore BDSM scene of the 1970s and ’80s captured by the likes of Robert Mapplethorpe, who immortalized the leather man in his photographs. Be it the master and slave, the boot fetishist, or the fist-ee: They were rough personas, serious and perverse.

In the New York Times, the gay nightlife chronicler Michael Musto wrote a few years ago that the scene has now lost much of that overt sadomasochistic edge; it’s becoming more about dressing-up, shifting from a serious lifestyle to a sexy costume:

Musto cited the closures of New York leather and fetish bars: places like the Ramrod, Spike, Rawhide, and Badlands. This shift also happened outside of New York in cities like San Francisco, where more public venues are shutting down or morphing into mainstream-like bars. On the bar scene and in the street, it can seem like leather has gone the way of the disco, the piano bar, or the Times Square sex cinema. So what does it mean to be a real leather man in today’s apparently dying scene?

Continue reading at Slate.com.

Indonesian SHARP and RASH skins

From gay Nazis to ‘we’re here, we’re queer’: A century of arguing about gay pride

By Laurie Marhoefer, The Conversation, June 22, 2017

This month, hundreds of thousands of people around the world will join gay pride marches in cities big and small. In many cities, pride marches are controversial. In some – like Moscow – they are even banned. But for many people in North America, parts of Europe, Latin America and elsewhere, attending the local pride march has become an unremarkable ritual of summer.

...

The Nazi Party itself was zealously anti-gay. Once in power, the Nazis murdered thousands of men for the “crime” of male-male sex. Yet, the historical record shows that a small number of men quietly belonged to both the homosexual emancipation movement and the Nazi Party, though they were not open about their sexuality within the party. Historians are still debating the significance of homosexuality in the Nazi Party. The small faction of gay fascists lauded erotic relationships between manly, “Aryan” soldier types while loathing feminists, Jews and leftists.

Continue reading on The Conversation website.

Gay Life in New York, Between Oppression and Freedom

A slideshow on the New York Times website.

By Jake Naughton, June 22, 2017.

Luis Carle sees himself, and his work, as a bridge — between the gay and straight communities, between the younger and older generations of the L.G.B.T. community, and between past and the present. The Puerto Rican photographer was 17 when came out in San Juan in 1980, and in subsequent years witnessed the AIDS crisis, the culture wars, and the march toward broader L.G.B.T. rights. All along, he made pictures of his community and the seismic waves that were reshaping it.

“My generation was the one between oppression and freedom,” he said. “I feel proud of seeing both sides. I was right there in that period of time and my work documented some of the magic that went on in those days. A lot of that is not going to happen anymore.”

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