To kick off, here's the story that inspired the theme of today's post. A Franciscan monk from a monastery near Krakow in Poland has leapt into the bestseller lists with a Catholicism-friendly sex-manual for couples "who love God". Hailed as a Catholic "Kama Sutra", Father Ksawery Knotz's book - demurely titled "Seks" - has been published with the blessing of the Polish Church and goes (apparently) well beyond the "missionary position" of lore, though it keeps with holy tradition by counselling against contraception (The Guardian).
But when it comes to sex education, it is perhaps the Germans rather than the Poles who need to learn the facts of life, or at least, German editors do. In a shock result, a poll by German youth magazine Bravo has revealed that teens have a familiarity with drink and porn that belies their "tender years". The 2009 "Dr. Sommer Study" found that 79% of youths aged 14-17 had seen pornography, and 50% had been drunk at least once, 36% to the point of incapacity. This latter result may also go a way to explaining the 28% of teenagers who admitted to having had unprotected sex (The Local).
Perhaps Germany could take a leaf out of North Carolina's book, where the "Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign" has started a service where teens can text-in for sex advice from their mobile phones, getting the answer back the same way(Fay Observer). I wonder what answer you get if you text "Hlp my cndms splt! Wht doi do?", "Ur 2 L8, mrri hr!" perhaps?
Of course it's easy to pull off a discrete text message, but there are times when it's necessary to get your sex advice in person, with all the embarrassment that entails. Except that is for patients to the UK's Chalmers Hospital, where as part of a major refurbishment a private corridor is being added to and from the sex-clinic, so that visitors need never have to pass through the public areas (BBC News).
And as if to show that the British medical profession has its finger on the pulse of sexual health, members at a recent conference of the Royal College of Nursing voted 93% to 7% to call for the legalisation of "co-operative" brothels. Their hope is that by encouraging prostitutes to band together in licensed "mini-brothels", they would be safer from violence and exploitation and be more easily screened for STDs (The Scotsman).
Scouts on a camping trip were given beer and cigarettes by their scoutmaster, it is alleged. Police arrested scoutmaster Michelle Edwards after a park ranger came across the scouts playing "beer pong". Although Edwards denied the charges, claiming the contraband had been smuggled onto the trip, video footage from a local store clearly showed her and two of the scouts buying the beer, said a spokesperson for the Bossier Sheriff's Office. Can you get a badge for "beer pong", I wonder (ArkLaTex.com - with video).
And even if there isn't a badge, wouldn't the title of "Beer Pong Champion of 2009" look good on your resume? Four students from the University of Nevada have hatched a plan to stage the world's largest "beer pong" tournament, in Nevada, in August this year. A thousand two-player teams are expected to compete for the title and the $10000 first prize (Nevada Sagebrush).
If you decide, after viewing the CURFEW BREAKERS clip, to rent this film, you'll have to look for it on DVD under its alternate title, HOOKED. It's a glorious mess, but not quite as outrageously stupid or weird as some of its ilk.
Category: Art, Avant Garde, Performance Art, AI, Robots and Other Automatons, Juvenile Delinquency