Clipmarks | cementedminds's clips

Men have three times more sex partners

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:31:53 GMT

clipped by: cementedminds
clipper's remarks: Is this true, do you think?

Men must be having sex with each other, or with the same group of prolific women, no?

Clip Source: www.denverpost.com

Almost one in three American men say they've had sex with at least 15 partners in their lives, triple the rate of similar behavior found in interviews with women, according to a government survey.

The results, reported today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, came from surveys that probed the sexual habits and drug use of 6,237 people age 20 to 59 who answered questions from 1999 to 2002. About 4 percent of adults overall, and only 11 percent of unmarried adults, said in the survey that they never had sex.

Tags: men, women, sex, surveys

Mauritania's 'wife-fattening' farm

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:30:03 GMT

clipped by: cementedminds
clipper's remarks: This is absolutely vile and upsetting.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Fat women are traditionally seen as more desirable

Obesity is so revered among Mauritania's white Moor Arab population that the young girls are sometimes force-fed to obtain a weight the government has described as "life-threatening".

Tags: feminism, women, gender, bbc

Germany bans Cruise film

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:28:55 GMT

clipped by: cementedminds
clipper's remarks: I'm not for censorship at all, but I AM (frankly) when it comes to Scientology and Cruise, I'm all for it.

Shut them both up, say I!

Clip Source: film.guardian.co.uk

Germany has barred the makers of a movie about a plot to kill Adolf Hitler from filming at German military site because its star Tom Cruise is a Scientologist, the defence ministry has said.

Tags: film, entertainment, censorship

A celebrity for our times: What is it about Paris?

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:26:59 GMT

clipped by: cementedminds
clipper's remarks: I agree completely with her uselessness, but I am interesting in why the world is so obsessed with her.

Clip Source: news.independent.co.uk

She is neither talented nor clever; her only claims to fame are her egotism and her inherited wealth. Yet to millions she is a heroine. Leonard Doyle explores the phenomenon of Paris Hilton

Tags: celebrity, celebrity-obsession, independent

The Alchemist to become a film

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:22:22 GMT

clipped by: cementedminds
clipper's remarks: As if the book was tedious enough, they have to go and make a film of it!

I'll be giving this one a miss!

Clip Source: books.guardian.co.uk

The Alchemist, the bestseller by Paolo Coelho, is heading for the big screen, with Laurence Fishburne at the helm.

Tags: film, literature, guardian

Mud at Glastonbury

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 11:01:23 GMT

clipped by: cementedminds
clipper's remarks: No thanks, say I!

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Tags: entertainment, weather

Brown and Blair: the top five TB-GB moments

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:56:56 GMT

clipped by: cementedminds
clipper's remarks: Unintended satire...?

Clip Source: politics.guardian.co.uk

1. 'There is nothing that you could say to me now that I could ever believe'

2. 'Well, that's a lie...'

3. 'You've stolen my fucking budget'

4. Mini-putsch

5. Granita

Tags: politics, satire, guardian

Masked crusaders - anonymity online

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:03:24 GMT

clipped by: cementedminds
clipper's remarks: Should anonymity online be denied? This commentary was written for and about the Guardian''s ''comment is free'' website, but it could, arguably, be applied to any interactive website.

Clip Source: commentisfree.guardian.co.uk

On the internet, no one knows you're a dog. Or a paedophile, a stalker, a paid astroturfer, a Giyus agitpropper or just your common or garden angry white male with a grudge. Or many grudges, even. Some brave souls go public in person here on Comment is free - the site's editor, Georgina Henry, is apparently considering imposing this on the rest, and unsurprisingly the idea is meeting resistance.

Tags: technology, internet, debate, interest, commentary, sociology

Study finds even toddlers know gender expectations

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 08:50:56 GMT

clipped by: cementedminds
clipper's remarks: I would have predicted that they would [notice] yes. I think that children start to recognise their own gender (and sexuality) around age two, so they would therefore recognise it in others too.

Clip Source: origin.sltrib.com

If moms suddenly started shaving their faces and wearing neckties and dads painted their nails and applied lipstick, would their 2-year-olds notice?
It turns out they would. At 24 months of age, children seem to recognize gender stereotypes - and when they are broken, according to research from Brigham Young University.
"It just shows we need to be cautious," said Ross Flom, study author and assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at BYU. "They're not passive creatures. They're very active - which could be kind of frightening for parents [thinking], 'Holy cow, our 2-year-old is picking up on these subtleties. Imagine what else they're picking up on.' ''

Tags: psychology, interest, gender

The Science of Humour

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:17:37 GMT

clipped by: cementedminds
clipper's remarks: Interesting piece, not least because humour is constantly evolving.

Clip Source: www.scientificblogging.com

Is it possible to scientifically measure someone’s sense of humor? Are there universally good or bad jokes that make people laugh no matter their gender, profession or cultural background?

These are some of the questions answered by the doctoral thesis Sentido del humor: construcción de la escala de apreciación del humor (Sense of humor: building of the appreciation of humor scale), carried out by Hugo Carretero Dios, researcher in the department of Social Psychology and Methodology of Behavioural Science at the University of Granada.

Tags: psychology, interest

Trashing Teens

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:14:56 GMT

clipped by: cementedminds
clipper's remarks: Interesting read, particularly for those who are interested in studying adolescence.

Clip Source: psychologytoday.com

Psychologist Robert Epstein argues in a provocative book, "The Case Against Adolescence," that teens are far more competent than we assume, and most of their problems stem from restrictions placed on them.

Tags: psychology, interest

Feminism and Politics in 2007: A Young Man’s Perspective

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:11:52 GMT

clipped by: cementedminds
clipper's remarks: Interesting piece.

Clip Source: www.theseminal.com

The other day, in a very strange web-surfing session, I stumbled onto two fascinating discussions almost one after another. The first was a series of articles by the author of Bitch PhD about her open marriage. The other was a heated discussion at the blog prosebeforehos about their logo, which features a superhero spanking a woman with a newspaper.

Bitch PhD argues in favor of “feminist” marriages free of the sexual, economic, and social constraints that formerly oppressed women. She decries the negative social responses she has received for being the “breadwinner” while her husband stays at home, for not having changed her last name, and for having an arrangement in which extramartial sex is permissible. Emphasizing the political dimension of these questions, she pushes the idea that the ongoing sexual revolution is continuing to liberate men and women from confining social roles.

Tags: debate, feminism

The Image of Helplessness

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 10:09:58 GMT

clipped by: cementedminds
clipper's remarks: More from the piece:

Most American women are becoming ever more comfortable with their capabilities as they break into new professional roles, learn how to do electrical wiring or automobile maintenance, tackle life insurance, IRAs and tax planning on behalf of the many configurations of family they are nurturing, or even put their lives on the line as warriors in Iraq. They are surprising themselves and the culture every day by not falling apart as they take on tasks that the prefeminist world was sure would lead them to collapse in a heap, needing smelling salts.

Yet at the same time, the culture seems increasingly obsessed with showcasing images of glamorous young women who are falling apart -- sometimes seriously, even fatally.

For a long time, hotel heiress Paris Hilton seemed reasonably cool-headed, if amoral, in the limelight. But cool-headed isn't trendy, so she managed to get herself arrested for drunk driving, broke her probation, went off to jail, was released
Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com
Every year, a high point on my calendar is taking my now 12-year-old daughter to the Glamour Women of the Year awards. Each time, we're more delighted and impressed with the coolness, style and competence of the women honored -- including the inevitable starlets and entertainers.
Last year, actress/rapper Queen Latifah brought ranks of New York schoolgirls to their feet, screaming with glee, as she gave a rousing speech about empowerment; actress Anne Hathaway shone an inspiring light on women in the military. These stars reflect the true situation of American women: High levels of competence, idealism and all-around effectiveness are by now pretty much the norm out there in the land of reality.
But this kind of empowered, right-on female role modeling scarcely registers in the pop culture landscape. There, a young woman sobbing helplessly in the back seat of a police car as she's hauled off to jail is the new Miss America -- the new mass icon of popular fascination.

Tags: society, sociology, interest, celebrity-obsession

Killed for loving the wrong man

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 08:12:42 GMT

clipped by: cementedminds
clipper's remarks: This story really upset me last night when I was watching the news, and is still frightening to me today.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Banaz Mahmod was killed after falling in love with a man her family did not want her to marry.

Her father Mahmod Mahmod, 52, and uncle Ari Mahmod, 50, from Mitcham, London, were convicted of murder on Monday.

Banaz Mahmod was 20 years old, and very much in love, when she was strangled with a bootlace and her body stuffed into a suitcase.

According to the prosecution, Banaz had to pay the "ultimate price" for bringing shame on her Kurdish family.

The court heard that Banaz was murdered at her home in Mitcham in Surrey in January last year.

Four months later, the suitcase containing her body was found buried more than 100 miles (160 km) away, deep beneath the foundations of a house in a Birmingham suburb.

Having left an arranged and unhappy marriage, Banaz had started a relationship with Rhamat Sulemani.

Tags: islam, interest, bbc

Two photographs - same photographer - different messages

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 07:54:46 GMT

clipped by: cementedminds
clipper's remarks: Satire (of sorts).

Clip Source: agylen.com

What links them, besides being both taken on a June 8, is that the photographer is the same: Huynh Cong Ut, better known as Nick Ut.

Does this say anything about the world we live in? I’m not sure

Tags: photography, satire, interest