Big Sur

The Truth About BDSM: America May Be a Lot Kinkier Than You Think

Contrary to popular belief, it didn’t take E.L. James’ 50 Shades of Grey to spark widespread interest in BDSM, an acronym for which there are 68 million Google search results as of this writing (for reference, “orgasm” returns roughly 55 million results). According to the 2005 Durex Global Sex Survey (PDF), 36 percent of U.S. adults have had sex using masks, blindfolds, or other forms of bondage (compared to 20 percent worldwide). And 65 percent of university students interviewed for a 1999 study published by the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality reported entertaining sexual fantasies about being tied up. As far back as 1953, a study conducted by the Kinsey Institute found that 55 percent of females and 50 percent of males had experienced an erotic response to being bitten.


-Pacific Standard

Silicone Love: Davecat’s Life with a Synthetic Wife and Mistress

Davecat was at the door before the postman even had a chance to knock. He dragged the massive wooden crate into his living room and drew the blinds. “She was everything I dreamed of,” he recalled, of the moment when he first glimpsed his wife through the slats of the crate. She was sitting, staring at him with the infinite patience of a statue. “Her skin was so lifelike, and her eyes—I could have stared into them forever.” He had a name picked out already: Sidore. As so often happens these days, Davecat and Sidore’s relationship began online. After a series of bad relationships with humans, Davecat ordered her for $5,000 from love doll manufacturer Abyss Creations.


-Vice

MORE THAN A GAME

At five o'clock on Thursday June 12th, if all goes to plan, a whistle will blow in São Paulo and the 20th World Cup will begin. It will be hard to hear, because no fans in the world are as passionately noisy as Brazil's. They see it almost as a right that their team, the seleção in their famous canary-yellow shirts, will emerge a month later as the winners. For them, this is not just a football tournament, but an opportunity to exorcise a ghost from the national psyche.

-The Economist

I Started Paying For Everything In Cash, And It Changed My Life

At the start of every New Year, we all hear about friends and colleagues who’ve decided to go on one diet or another in an attempt to atone for too much indulging during the holidays. But while most of them are eliminating carbs or swapping juicing recipes, others may be trying out a regimen designed to give their bank accounts a boost: the all-cash diet.

-Business Insider

Le monde en 2030, selon la CIA

Note: Le rapport auquel il est fait allusion dans ce billet a été produit par la CIA à l’occasion du début de chaque mandat présidentiel aux USA; il est ensuite repris par les Chancelleries du monde entier comme outil de travail, et a donc été formulé de façon à défendre le discours usuel de l’administration US – il n’en demeure pas moins une indication précieuse de ce que celle-ci projette à ses paires, de par le monde. Les informations plus "sensibles" sont traitées en privé, entre intéressés…


-Globale Presse

A Million First Dates

 
After going to college on the East Coast and spending a few years bouncing around, Jacob moved back to his native Oregon, settling in Portland. Almost immediately, he was surprised by the difficulty he had meeting women. Having lived in New York and the Boston area, he was accustomed to ready-made social scenes. In Portland, by contrast, most of his friends were in long-term relationships with people they’d met in college, and were contemplating marriage. Jacob was single for two years and then, at 26, began dating a slightly older woman who soon moved in with him. She seemed independent and low-maintenance, important traits for Jacob. Past girlfriends had complained about his lifestyle, which emphasized watching sports and going to concerts and bars. He’d been called lazy, aimless, and irresponsible with money.

-The Atlantic

Moi, pervers narcissique manipulateur (il paraît)

Depuis quelques mois, le couple que ma compagne et moi-même formons est soumis aux vicissitudes de la vie commune. Après vingt ans passés en notre compagnie, l’amour commence à trouver le temps long. Néanmoins, nous sommes soucieux de maintenir l’unité de notre famille, en particulier pour notre fille.


-Rue89

I’ll Have What She’s Thinking

SCIENCE has looked into some strange things over the centuries — reports of gargantuan sea monsters, purported images of Jesus, sightings of alien spaceships and so on. When I first heard of spontaneous orgasm, while researching a book on yoga, including its libidinal cousin, tantra, I figured it was more allegory than reality and in any event would prove beyond the reach of even the boldest investigators.

-NY Times 

50 Reasons We're Living Through The Greatest Period In The History Of The World

I recently talked to a doctor who retired after a 30-year career. I asked him how much medicine had changed during the three decades he practiced. "Oh, tremendously," he said. He listed off a dozen examples. Deaths from heart disease and stroke are way down. Cancer survival rates are way up. We're better at diagnosing, treating, preventing, and curing disease than ever before.

-Business Insider

The Sordid End of David Meggett

Jeanine Loveland was 26 and needed out of Ocean City. She had moved to the Maryland beach town from her Pennsylvania home the moment she turned 18 to operate games at a carnival, working the midway, but she had become bored with the scene. The partying and the drugs, once liberating, had trapped her.

-SB Nation

What Makes a Football Player Smart?

Not long ago, I was talking about daily life in the N.F.L. with Ryan Fitzpatrick, the veteran Tennessee Titans quarterback, who studied economics at Harvard. “It’s such a physical game,” he said. “You see three-hundred-pounders hitting each other, and people think of the physicality. When people see the game, they think we’re meatheads; they think of the way jocks acted in high school. But we spend more time studying than we do on the field.”

-The New Yorker

Nymphomaniac, agitation et controverse autour du porno signé Lars von Trier

Le 1er janvier sortait en France le volet un de Nymphomaniac du grand cinéaste danois Lars von Trier. Le film, dit porno, donnant la vedette à Charlotte Gainsbourg en nymphomane autoproclamée, arrivait précédé d’une campagne promotionnelle haletante de six mois : bandes-annonces pimentées, affiches des visages d’acteurs mimant l’orgasme là comme ici sur la Toile. Le film remonte le parcours érotique, avec trois actrices à différents âges, d’une assoiffée sexuelle. Shia LaBeouf, Uma Thurman, Willem Dafoe, Stellan Skarsgärd sont à la distribution.


-Le Devoir

Inside the Life of France's Most Famous Dominatrix

The life of Catherine Robbe-Grillet makes Fifty Shades of Grey look like a Disney movie. In 1951, she became the mistress of the writer—and accomplished sadist—Alain Robbe-Grillet, whom she later married. Today, an 83-year-old widow, she is France’s most famous dominatrix. Visiting the 17th-century château where Robbe-Grillet conducts some of her rituals, Toni Bentley delves into the world of a modern-day Marquise de Sade, her relationship with the much younger Beverly Charpentier, and her journey from submission to dominance.

-Vaniy Fair

Everything You’ve Been Told About Your Job Is A Lie

Your entire working life is based on a myth. It all began when you arrived for your interview.

-Business Insider

Incredible Photographs From the Surface of Mars

It’s been 10 years since the twin exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity touched down on the surface of Mars. Since then, the rovers have traveled more than 4.8 miles and 23.6 miles, respectively, and have taken hundreds of thousands of images of the red planet. John Grant, supervisory geologist in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum’s Center for Earth and Planetary Studies and chair of the Science Operations Working Group on the mission, selected 50 images based on his colleagues’ suggestions for the exhibition “Spirit & Opportunity: 10 Years Roving Across Mars.”

-Slate

Whoops, I Like Pro Football

I used to really hate football. As an outsider who hadn’t watched more than four or five games in his life, it just looked like a bunch of lard bros banging into one another while a couple of weasel bros took turns trying to throw the ball into the air so hard it would turn into points. And then, you know, a bunch of car and beef jerky commercials.

-Vice

NFL Cheerleading Is A Scam: A Former Ravens Cheerleader Tells All

As a glimpse into the dark side of NFL cheerleading, the recent Raiderettes lawsuit was revelatory, but it didn't quite capture the soup-to-nuts seediness of the enterprise. Thanks to a tipster—a former cheerleader—we've gotten our hands on a copy of the many rules and many regulations the 2009 Baltimore Ravens cheer squad was expected to follow. The rulebook, along with some extra information the tipster gave us, depicts cheerleading on this level as a scam exploiting the good looks and naiveté of young women—a Ponzi scheme in hot pants.


-Deadspin