Should Prostitution Be a Crime?

Last November, Meg Muñoz went to Los Angeles to speak at the annual West Coast conference of Amnesty International. She was nervous. Three months earlier, at a meeting attended by about 500 delegates from 80 countries, Amnesty voted to adopt a proposal in favor of the “full decriminalization of consensual sex work,” sparking a storm of controversy. Members of the human rights group in Norway and Sweden resigned en masse, saying the organization’s goal should be to end demand for prostitution, not condone it. Around the world, on social media and in the press, opponents blasted Amnesty. In Los Angeles, protesters ringed the lobby of the Sheraton where the conference was being held, and as Muñoz tried to enter, a woman confronted her and became upset as Muñoz explained that, as a former sex worker, she supported Amnesty’s position. “She agreed to respect my time at the microphone,” Muñoz told me. “That didn’t exactly happen” — the woman and other critics yelled out during her panel — “but I understand why it was so hard for her.”

-NY Times

Une femme avec une femme : aux origines du fantasme

Pour la chroniqueuse de « La Matinale » Maïa Mazaurette, l’attirance des hommes comme des femmes hétérosexuelles pour les plaisirs saphiques constitue un fantasme acceptable socialement pour les unes, et valorisant pour les autres.

-Le Monde

Hyper-Reality presents a provocative and kaleidoscopic new vision of the future, where physical and virtual realities have merged, and the city is saturated in media.

New report officially ranks all the catastrophes that could wipe us out in 2016

There's no such thing as a scale of all the bad things that could actually happen to you and me, but if there were, a 'global catastrophe' would have to rank pretty much near the top of it, no?

These kinds of terrible happenings – defined as "events or processes that would lead to the deaths of approximately a tenth of the world's population, or have a comparable impact" – might only be hypothetical for now, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be studying them, assessing their causes and risks, and trying our best to prevent them.

-Science Alert

29 breathtaking photographs of the human race

The images below are sure to have your emotions fluctuating up and down the full spectrum of the human experience. Some are beautiful, gritty, real, inspiring, and some, are quite sad.. Here are 29 photos of the human race, without a bias or a filter. We are just saying “here they are.” 

-The Mind Unleashed

Hear Moby's New Serene Album 'Long Ambients1: Calm. Sleep.'

Moby has released a free album, which was intentionally penned to lull listeners to sleep and for other relaxing activities. Long Ambients1: Calm. Sleep. is available as a free download and it's also streaming on a variety of services, including Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Music, Deezer and Tidal.


-Rolling Stone

Confessions Of a Drug-Addicted High School Teacher

One year may not sound like enough time for a life to come apart at the seams, but a year in the life of a drug addict can be counted by drama, bullshit and tragedies in the same way rings can be counted on a tree. What? You’re still mad at me for overdosing on Christmas? That was like two overdoses and a car accident ago. It’s already Easter, man. Let shit go.

-Medium

Goldman Sachs Guide to being a man

The Gents over at Goldman Sachs have a put together a guide to being a man’s man. Some you might not agree with, some you NEED to do right now…  and without further ado…

-The Baum List

Ceci est une bite. Et on l’a interviewée

Voici un petit personnage adorable. Il fait un câlin à un hérisson, il s’amuse dans une cuisine, il essaye d’attirer l’attention pendant un match de foot. Mais... Oh ! Tiens ! C’est une bite !

Sur le Tumblr Things My Dick Does (les choses que ma bite fait), un homme – qui préfère rester anonyme – expose les aventures fantasmées et mignonnes de son pénis.

-Rue89

Lonely life of Roberto Esquivel Cabrera, the man with the world’s longest penis

At nearly 19 inches (48.2cm) Roberto Cabrera’s penis is just two inches shorter than the world’s smallest man.

-News.com

26 sexist ads that companies wish we'd forget they ever made

Alcoa, 1953: Alcoa Aluminum's bottle caps open "without a knife blade, a bottle opener, or even a husband."

-Business Insider

The Woody Allen Interview (Which He Won't Read)

With 'Cafe Society' set to open the French festival, the director reflects on his unreflective stance on aging ("If you focus on mortality, the house always wins"), his movies ("I would erase all but a few"), saving wife Soon-Yi, working with Miley Cyrus, why TV is "harder" than he thought and his willful avoidance of his own press: "I scrupulously have avoided any self-preoccupation."

-Hollywood Reporter

Feet Lost and Found in the Pacific Northwest

When feet started floating into the dark, coastal bays of British Columbia, it wasn’t hard to imagine the worst, especially when the Mounties went silent. Even paradise has an underbelly.

-Outside

Looking at trees can reduce your stress levels, even in the middle of a city

If you're looking for a simple way to reduce the amount of stress in your life, you might want to go find some trees to hang out under, because a new study suggests that simply taking a walk down a tree-lined street - even in an urban setting - has the power to significantly decrease your stress levels.

-Science Alert

In Narcisse, Around 75,000 Snakes Are Waking Up From a Nap

A slithering carpet of 75,000 snakes in a space the size of a living room. It’s hard to imagine wanting to get close to such a scene, but every year it happens, and visitors from around the world attend the unusual reptilian display in the remote hamlet of Narcisse in Manitoba, Canada.

-NY Times

Explorer Matthias Haker Discovers Crumbling Churches, Overgrown Synagogues and Golden Chapels

These illuminating images show the crumbling remains of some of the worlds places of worship. The shots include golden chapels, overgrown synagogues and eerily silent rooms that were once used for prayer. They were visited by Matthias Haker, a 31-year-old photographer from Potsdam, Germany. Adding to the general intrigue of his images, Matthias never discloses the location of a shot – not even the town, country or continent.

-design you trust

The Village where Provence meets the Côte d’Azur

You might want to pour yourself a cold glass of rosé before you begin browsing this post, maybe play some Jacques Brel; it only seems right. I left Paris and floated down south this weekend in search of sun, sea and Provençale pastels. Join me for a little tour of this ridiculously charming village…

-Messy Nessy Chic

The Hidden Economics of Porn

Humans have been creating images of sex and genitalia for millions of years, but it is only in the past few centuries—since the 1600s, according to historians—that these representations started meeting academics’ preferred definition of pornography, which involves both the violation of taboos and the intention of arousal. The first efforts to make money off of this new endeavor could not have come long after that.

-The Atlantic

Your Porn Is Watching You

 
Thirty million Americans regularly watch porn online, according to the Wall Street Journal. That’s a lot more than fess up to it, even in anonymous surveys: In 2013, just 12 percent of people asked copped to watching internet porn at all. But thanks to pervasive online tracking and browser fingerprinting, the brazen liars of America may not have a say in whether their porn habits stay secret. Porn watchers everywhere are being tracked, and if software engineer Brett Thomas is right, it would be easy to out them, along with an extensive list of every clip they’ve viewed.

-Motherboard

Soviet Pin-Up Style – 45 Fun and Flirty Images from the Merging of Soviet Social Posters with American Pin-Up Art

Known for his unique style, Valery Barykin’s prints contrast the aesthetic of the beloved American Pin-Up culture and its heightened sexuality with the sharp-edged and saturated colors of Soviet Russia’s propaganda posters. His upbringing was surrounded by socialist advertisements and mass produced American pin-up photographs that slowly made their way into Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.

-Vintage Everyday

A photographer has spent 3 years taking pictures of women to see how beauty is defined around the world

In 2013, photographer Mihaela Noroc quit her job in Romania to backpack around the world full time. Since then, she has visited every continent except for Antarctica and a total of about 50 countries, photographing hundreds of women along the way for her project, dubbed Atlas of Beauty.

-Tech Insider