For the first Underwhelming Lovecraft Comic Synopses, let’s start off with “The Statement of Randolph Carter”, first published in the May, 1920 issue of The Vagrant. 

We can't close gender gaps when we spend endless hours counting calories instead of cracking glass ceilings. We can't gain self-assurance when body dysmorphia is so abundant.

11 years on, Vanessa Garcia tells her 24-year-old eating-disordered self "Your time is precious. Get help. Do it now. You have too many important things to do."

On the other hand, Marisa Meltzer asks whether dieting is truly antithetical to feminism. She reflects on Naomi Wolf's 1991 assertion in The Beauty Myth: "A cultural fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women's history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one." Unhappy with her weight and struggling with the personal versus the political as it relates to body image and diet, Meltzer decides to consult the elders.

I decided to go to the source and call Naomi Wolf. .... [S]he's still critical of the kind of nitpicky thinking that dieting encourages. "Women are always tasked with surveilling, evaluating, judging. There is something about the culture asking us to be in that part of our brains all the time that dials down passion and intuition," she says. I brace myself for what comes next—is she going to chastise me, tell me I'm betraying the cause? But Wolf is surprisingly laissez-faire on the subject of individual choice. "Feminism often gets into an unappealing cul-de-sac where there's this set of practices or beliefs that you have to be part of to be a good feminist. Interestingly, that's not very different from more conventional forms of social policing. I don't think there's anything wrong with taking care of your body. I just want to know you're feeling beautiful and important at whatever weight you want."

Bonus link: 20 years on, Naomi Wolf reflects back on The Beauty Myth from the vantage point of middle age.

"Those moments were my own playtime. Secrecy and solitude were my companions. Alone, I kept a secret I could not share with anyone: my own deviation from the norm."

A single panel / excerpt from a multi-chapter comic, which due to adult themes requires registration on Deviant Art: Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3. Written and drawn by Stjepan Šejić.

Caturday bonus:

kitty peak originally appeared on MyConfinedSpace NSFW on September 5, 2014.

middle finger is in originally appeared on MyConfinedSpace NSFW on September 6, 2014.

En México, los antojitos son el pan de todos los días. Uno de esos antojitos, son las gorditas, que las encontramos con rellenos muy variados, por ejemplo, están las de frijol con queso, las de tinga, las de rajas poblanas, las de papas con chorizo, las de carnita en salsa verde, las de chicharrón y un largo etcétera.

En esta ocasión, les tengo preparada la receta de gorditas rellenas de queso cotija y chile ancho, un relleno que es realmente muy sencillo de preparar, pero que tiene un sabor estupendo. Además, prepararlas es muy económico, no pasando de los 35 pesos para preparar unas 20 o 25 gorditas, según el tamaño que deseemos.

Ingredientes para 20 a 25 gorditas

• 1 kilo de masa de maíz para tortillas, 3 chiles anchos, 125 gramos de queso cotija o queso ranchero, sal

Cómo hacer gorditas de queso y chile ancho

Lo primero que haremos es trabajar la masa, misma que sazonaremos con sal y ablandaremos con un chorrito de agua tibia, y amasaremos hasta que quede con una textura muy suave y no pegajosa.

Desvenamos los chiles anchos, les retiramos las semillas y los ponemos a remojar en agua caliente. Cuando estén blanditos, los molemos junto con el queso en un procesador de alimentos o una licuadora (dando pequeños pulsos, pues es una mezcla que no lleva líquido) o, mejor aún, en el molcajete. No agregamos sal, puesto que el queso cotija es muy salado.

Dividimos la masa en 20 porciones, formamos bolitas, torteamos un poco y en el centro colocamos una cucharada de la mezcla de chile y queso. Cerramos y damos forma a la gordita. Por último, las cocemos en un comal o sartén, sin aceite, que debe estar ya caliente, a fuego medio.

Degustación

Estas tortitas rellenas de queso cotija y chile ancho son una verdadera delicia, el queso sencillamente se funde con el calor de la cocción, mientras que el chile ancho le da ese toque picante que tanto nos gusta. Podemos servirlos así, simplemente, o acompañarlas con un poco de crema, lechuga, rábano y agua fresca.

-
La noticia Gorditas rellenas de queso cotija y chile ancho. Receta fue publicada originalmente en Directo al Paladar México por Mary Soco.

• Veñen con crema e eu non gosto moito da nata (bueno, en México non usan nata se non que usan algo parecido á crema agria que non ten exactamente o sabor da nata, se non que sabe parecido a iogur ácido)
• Veñen con moitto queixo e gratinadas: a min non me gustan os gratinados (nen o queixo fundido). Si, son así de raro: parece ser que a todo mundo lles gusta os gratinados, pero eu non o soporto. O problema é que ademáis de gustarlle a moita xente, é moi conveniente para os restaurantes: tes un plato frío, deixalo 5-10 minutos a gratinar e xa vai quente para a mesa. Aforras tempo e cartos. 

Neste caso podedes ver que o acompañei con queixo oaxaca.


Aquí fun un langrán e usei salsa de lata, eso sí, engadindolle caldo e quentandoa un ratiño. Outra vez máis con queixo oaxaca (que non é o meu favorito para as enchiladdas).

Ista si é máis pura á receta de Doña guille: salsa verde, tortilla, un pouco de xamón de pavo, e queixo panela desmenuzado.
Poño unha foto do queixo panela para que vexades que textura ten é coma ten certo parecido co queixo de Burgos (o auténtico non eses sucedaneos chungos que venden)

Los artistas se concentrarán todos los días para denunciar el «atropello»

• El gobierno local convocará a los afectados para buscar alternativas

I don't want to spoil the newest installment of Animation Domination HD's Scientifically Accurate series, but I do want to say that the terrifying penises of the DuckTales crew finally have some... stiff... competition.

Read more...

Spoiler: We’re proud of them.

When you take off your shirt in the morning, you can't help but gaze at this thing that's on your abdomen, wondering how the hell it got there.

"Hello, belly. You're still here, I see."

giphy.com

Every once in awhile you like to grab your belly, just to see how much you have to burn off at the gym.

I'm doing an extra ten sit ups just for this.

wp.clicrbs.com.br

You will always try to suck your belly in, especially when you're around someone you like.

youtube.com

Sitting down is the bane of your existence.

You just can't hide it when you're sitting down.

youtube.com

---

View Entire List ›

La ZETA es una organización llamada así en un guiño a la PETA que está sirviendo de estandarte a un nuevo resurgir en Europa de la zoofilia....

Torbe tiene mucho éxito en el porno a pesar de que parece un solo celtíbero, un Alfredo Landa rijoso y putero. O, quizás, tiene éxito precisamente por esa razón. Porque el alma carpetovetónica de muchos de sus seguidores se siente identificada con él, o logran formular inconsciente en siguiente consejo de coach: si él puede, todos podemos. (Opinión)

Hay otro factor que acaso contribuya al éxito de Torbe, y es que Torbe no se llama Torbe, y no es lo que parece. Al menos no del todo. Torbe (hipocorístico de «torbellino») es la versión cerda (todos tenemos una, no disimulemos) de Natxo Allende (Portugalete, 1969). Y Natxo Allende, que actualmente tiene su empresa, Villacerda, en Madrid, es un hombre cabal, astuto y visionario, al menos bastante más de lo que suele ser norma en el mundo del porno.

Sea como fuere, Torbe es uno de los primeros emprendedores del mundo de internet, y se gana estupendamente la vida filmando vídeos porno de aire amateur y casposo que, por lo general, protagoniza. En una época en la que el modelo de negocio de Hollywood naufraga, Torbe logra ingresar sustanciosos dividendos por parte de los onanistas de internet. Pero ¿cuál es su secreto?

Torbe asegura que su visión del negocio surgió a raíz de unos años de pobreza en los que tuvo tiempo de leer y amueblar su mente con Erich Fromm, Napoleon Hill o Hermann Hesse. Esa es la versión poética de la historia, así que vayamos a por la prosaica.

Dialers

Estamos en 1999. Torbe empezó en el mundo del porno freak por internet fundando Putalocura, con el advenimiento de los dialers, un cacharro que hizo millonarios a muchos desaprensivos. El sistema funciona tal que así: se instala en el PC un programa que marca un número de teléfono de tarificación especial (el típico 906) usando el módem con el que nos conectamos a internet. El programa, a veces, se descarga inadvertidamente por parte del usuario.

A través de esta nueva conexión tenemos acceso a la descarga de vídeos, o a la posibilidad de videochatear en directo con chicas que permanecen durante horas frente a una webcam. Cada minuto que transcurría, entre desahogo y desahogo venéreo, el usuario está apoquinando una cantidad de dinero desorbitada. Generalmente, un euro por minuto.

Aquello representaba que cinco personas videochateaban simultáneamente con una chica, se percibían cinco euros por minuto.

En otro orden de cosas, pudiera parecer insólito que alguien se conectara a internet mediante una línea de tarifación adicional, cuyo coste ascendía a un euro por minuto, aproximadamente, para visualizar en la pantalla de su ordenador cómo una pareja mantenía relaciones sexuales, o cómo una chica solitaria te preguntaba tu color favorito mientras lamía una piruleta. Pero funciona. Y muchos usuarios no se limitan a masturbarse durante dos minutos, sino que se enganchan a charlar con las chicas, a jugar con ellas durante horas. Con la ventaja de que manejas a tus títeres a distancia, en el resguardo, anonimato y comodidad de tu propio domicilio. Un simple cliqueo del ratón y accedías a un mundo lúbrico en el que tú lo gobernabas todo. Alcanzabas el orgasmo, y otro simple cliqueo te devolvía a tu habitación. Ahí radicaba, en parte, el tremendo éxito de los chats o los videochats.

Con todo, el lucrativo modelo de negocio se hundió cuando la gente empezó a contratar ADSL y, en vez de llamadas al 906, se debía introducir el número de la Visa. Torbe, sin embargo, ha continuado creciendo, adaptándose a los nuevos tiempos como un espécimen que se resiste a ser pasto de la selección darwiniana. En Villacerda, actualmente, Torbe tiene a veinte personas en nómina, además de diversos colaboradores externos. Y tiene abiertos muchos otros frentes, como abrir un club privado en Madrid o rodar una película porno con grandes medios.

Su secreto parece residir en que conecta con el público, minimiza los costes y busca continuamente modelos de negocio alternativos, en vez de anquilosarse en el mismo. Torbe asegura que actualmente factura millones, pero que tampoco le importaría vender todo su negocio por un buen pellizco y no volver a trabajar nunca más.

Aunque Torbe tiene otro secreto: es todo un personaje, ha aparecido en diversos programas de televisión, publica libros, mantiene un blog, ha sacado canciones al mercado con títulos propios de una película de Pajares y Esteso. Y, también, ha hecho correr la tinta acerca de su parte oscura, que él insiste en negar. Por ejemplo, llamó feas a las mujeres de Torrelavega y tuvo que declarar ante el juez por ello. También se le ha acusado de rodar porno con menores; le condenaron a dieciocho meses de prisión, pero al no tener antecedentes se libró pagando una sustanciosa multa. Y solo es la punta del iceberg: el propio Torbe ha admitido que está agotado de asistir a tantos juicios.

La seducción del oso

El hombre, como el oso, cuanto más peludo, más hermoso, suele sentenciarse con aire paremiológico. Porque el éxito de Torbe no solo puede entenderse en clave financiera o estratégica. Tras las miles de visitas que recibe su portal subyace una trama psicológica y sociológica que podría ser objeto de glosa para una tesis doctoral. Intentaré ofrecer algunas pistas al respecto, tal y como lo veo yo tras visionar algunos vídeos de los comienzos de Torbe.

En primer lugar, creo que el público de Torbe deja patente que le aburren los directores de cine para adultos que le otorgan gravedad e impostura a sus creaciones. Los argumentos enrevesados o pretenciosos, los diálogos a lo Woody Allen y demás defectos de esteta gafapasta que se cree Orson Welles. Nada de primeros planos, a lo Griffith, para captar el alma de los personajes. Nada de blanco y negro esnob para que luego el bueno de Ted Turner coloree la película para venderla al gran público. Nada de actores disfrazados con sotanas y tocas negras como en los cuadros que el estomagante surrealista Clauvis Trouille pintaba para asombrar a los burgueses. Nada de amantes atornillándose las bocas con romántica pasión. Nada de Kamasutra, porque el sexo no es una tabla de gimnasia. Los seguidores de Torbe quieren la realidad, la sucia realidad, la atávica, y aspiran a contemplarla sin cataplasmas por un único motivo: rendir culto a Onán.

Los seguidores de Torbe prefieren las chocarrerías que le escuché a un hombre en una película porno que vi hace años: «Sí, sí, no sabes multiplicar ni multidividir», decía el hombre mientras se trincaba a la mujer. Al menos te ríes, deben pensar. Al menos nos ahorramos que, después de que el actor haya tocado entera a la actriz, centímetro a centímetro, como si leyera Braille en su piel, sugiera a la actriz que imite las reverencias de los japoneses para penetrarla con gracia a cuatro patas. Con soltura y elegancia exquisitas.

Porque los seguidores de Torbe no entienden la pornografía como esa sucesión de planos detalle de las películas mayoritarias, esa tangibilidad de quirófano que muestra hasta el hartazgo a dos órganos sexuales en mecánica coyunda; planos tan morosos e insistentes que recuerdan a algún documental de fauna exótica, un documental que radiografía a un insecto larvario rompiendo fatigosamente la crisálida para emerger al mundo, pringoso de babas. O algo así. La mitad del metraje de un filme para adultos, a juicio de muchos seguidores de Torbe, se centra en exhibir a dos mucosas frotándose con una coreografía hierática y maquinal, exenta de toda emoción, o en una penetración de martillo neumático, sin alterar nunca el ritmo, dentro, fuera, dentro, fuera, como quien está tricotando un jersey.

Porque el verdadero porno de los seguidores de Torbe está protagonizado por una astuta mezcla entre lo ordinario y lo sutil. Porque los seguidores de Torbe no se sienten identificados con la perfección. Historias de marqueses, de monjas, de extraterrestres, de amazonas… ¡puaj! La gente necesita historias cotidianas. Porque la gente quiere correrse, y no otra cosa, con alguien que podría ser la vecina del quinto. Un viaje en metro. Mala iluminación. Suciedad, sordidez. Apresuramiento espasmódico por eyacular antes de que el convoy llegue a su próxima estación: los mejores orgasmos sobrevienen a los cincuenta o sesenta segundos del mete-saca. Como bien saben los seguidores de Torbe.

Los seguidores de Torbe no admiten necesariamente que toda la estructura de la película pornográfica deba articularse alrededor del money shot o el cum shot, el plano del semen brotando del pene del actor como si tuviera un aspersor entre las piernas. Lo que Torbe promulga es eyacular dentro de la mujer. Aunque no se vea nada de nada. Porque no suele excitar la visión pulposa de la leche ajena. Ni tampoco el contemplar los espumarajos de la boca de la felatriz. Si el actor quiere terminar en su boca, que lo haga, pero que ella le deje todo bien limpito, y que se lo trague sin exhibiciones, como en las películas japonesas, que saben más de esto que nosotros.

Si os fijáis en algunos vídeos de Torbe, de hecho, en muchos de ellos parece que no se ha pactado previamente dónde eyaculará. Cuando está dentro de ella, empujando, rozando el orgasmo, entonces, entre gemidos, le susurra al oído a la chica que si se corre dentro. Torbe, imagino, espera derribar las numantinas defensas psicológicas de la chica excitándola con su sesión de sexo. Porque todos sabemos que no responderíamos igual a una propuesta a diez segundos del orgasmo que recién llegados a una entrevista laboral. En muchas ocasiones, la actriz se niega, ya sea porque teme quedarse embarazada del oso, ya sea porque no le apetece (más de una, de hecho, ni siquiera desea ser besada por Torbe, aunque él suele insistir mucho en ese punto). Pero en algunas pocas, la chica parece perder un poco el control, piensa lo de que «ya que estoy en el convento…» o «ancha es Castilla», y dice que sí, que adelante, como pasó una vez (solo una) con una de sus chicas favoritas y con la que más veces parece haber repetido: Nekane.

Todos somos Torbe (un poquito)

Como ya se ha señalado, Torbe también logra que muchos de nosotros nos sintamos identificados con él. O, al menos, que nuestra parte más oscura y atávica conecte con él. Nos retrotrae a un estadio primitivo de nuestra especie. Nos sale pelo y articulamos sonidos guturales. Como en la escena de 2001: Una odisea en el espacio, cuando suenan los violines de Also sprach Zarathustra, donde el mono lanzará al aire un pene protésico en vez de un fémur.

Torbe consigue que imaginemos a un hombre cuarentón que, a juzgar por las duricias de sus manos, las uñas negras y la fina película de cemento portland que recubre su camisa y sus vaqueros abolsados, de buen seguro se desloma a diario como albañil. Torbe es el cavernícola borderline de brazos mantecosos, barrigón y alopécico, que todos tenemos dentro, y que en absoluto representaba al actor pornográfico por excelencia, que suele estar más emparentado con un Apolo que con un oso con olor a tigre.

Vello ensortijado en el pubis, curvas y obesidad, sudor, ropa interior o ropa normal (porque la desnudez completa desalienta el morbo). Nada de dermis lustrosas o aceitosas, sino con las imperfecciones cotidianas asumidas, para que el espectador se sienta acompañado; espinillas y forúnculos, cartucheras, esas abolladuras de pelotas de golf que anuncian la celulitis. La perfección, en el porno, tiene un efecto disuasorio. El porno debe ser sucio o no es porno. Todas esas son las ideas que transmite Torbe en cada uno de sus fotogramas. Porque Torbe sabe que a muchos de sus seguidores les gusta pensar que un hombre rudo, sin éxito entre el género femenino, gordo, peludo y con halitosis, puede estar profanando el sexo de esa actriz tan atractiva.

Y el hombre rudo, que también será el espectador, acabará babeando por su suerte, por estar ahí, zampándose un delicioso pastelito de crema como ése, una ambrosía que su panza, acostumbrada al fast food, jamás hubiera podido digerir. Y encima le sale gratis. No solo eso: cobra por estar con ella. Y a ella, además, parece escapársele un disfrute fidedigno. El hombre cobraba un sueldo y encima le demostraba a aquella mujer que el oso, cuanto más peludo, más hermoso.

En 2005, Torbe estuvo nominado como mejor actor de reparto en los Premios AVN, realizados en Las Vegas y considerados como «los Óscar» del cine porno. Y ahí estaba Torbe, que se movía, se arqueaba, se retorcía y embestía con un brío que, más que fornicar con mujeres, parecía estar echando una partida al futbolín. Y por eso, lejos de estrategias, dialers y cameos en películas como Torrente 2 o Torrente 3, Torbe tiene éxito a pesar de ser (o por ser) un oso celtíbero.

The post ¿Por qué Torbe tiene éxito si es un oso celtíbero? appeared first on Yorokobu.

Despite being versatile, stylish, comfortable and seemingly ubiquitous, blue jeans are taking a significant sales hit and according to Associated Press, it’s all due to the rise in popularity of yoga pants, sweatpants and other athletic wear that telegraphs an enthusiasm for juice cleanses and cross-fit.  Over the past year, the sales of jeans has dropped a whopping six percent and is losing considerable market share to pants with elastic waistbands.

According to market  research firm NPD Group , the sale of jeans dropped to  $16 billion in the last fiscal year while the sale of active wear climbed a whopping seven percent to total 33.6 billion dollars.  This dip has jeans manufacturers legitimately worried while retailers like J.C. Penney are drastically expanding their inventory of athletic and leisure apparel. It’s time to get used to seeing more and more people being totally fine with leaving the house in sweatpants.

Of course, there were a few times where jeans manufacturers shot themselves in the foot. Take for example skinny jeans, which were only flattering on people with two percent body fat and felt like they were squeezing your internal organs into a vise. By comparison, yoga pants feel like stepping into a warm hug.

One way traditional pants manufacturers are trying to compete  is by trying to marry the appearance of denim with the comfort of leggings with products like jeggings or those yoga pants that are covertly styled to look like office wear. In other words, brands like Levi’s are trying to recover lost revenue by making pants that have the comfort of sweatpants but still give the illusion that the wearer is making an actual effort.

The last time jeans’ market share was threatened was 12 years ago when theirs sales took a three percent drop due to an abrupt rise in the popularity of khakis. So yeah, people were clamoring to look like accountants long before the rise of normcore.

Amanda Hallay, assistant clinical professor of fashion merchandising at LIM College told Associated Press that the shift to athletic or leisure wear marks a radical shift in lifestyle change in the consumers, which makes sense. Think about how many people can now work remotely and enjoy a “pants-optional” work environment in their home offices. Also, many other offices have instituted more casual dress codes that will allow attire that is slightly more formal than pajamas.

“Everyone wants to look like they’re running to the gym, even if they’re not,” said Hallay

Well, when you put it like that, the future sounds kind of horrifying.

Source: Associated Press

Have an old, beat up refrigerator or dish washer that still works just fine? How about tile you can't stand to look at, but can't afford to replace? I am certain many of you have a clutterfest of cables somewhere in your home.

But you don't have to look at these eyesores day in and day out. Our newest Homes and Hues article can show you how to hide a number of unsightly distractions in your home decor.

These ideas are a great way to make your home look a lot less cluttered and more attractive and all for a relatively small amount of money.

Learn all the helpful hacks at Homes and Hues: 16 Helpful Solutions to Hide the Eyesores in Your Home

(Image: Cyberprout)

It's an established tradition that noblemen often get epithets--an adjective that describes that person's defining characteristic. But not every nobleman can be Charles the Great, Philip the Bold, or Suleiman the Magnificent. Some aristocrats through history have received less flattering nicknames. Paul Anthony Jones of Mental Floss has rounded up 60 odd or insulting epithets. Here are a few samples:

5. ALFONSO THE SLOBBERER was King of Galicia from 1188-1230. He apparently earned his nickname because he foamed at the mouth when enraged. […]

9. ARCHIBALD THE LOSER was the son of Archibald the Grim, who served as 4th Earl of Douglas from his father’s death until his own death in battle in France in 1424. […]

18. CHILDERIC THE IDIOT was King of the Franks from 743-751. No one is quite sure what he did to earn the epithet “the Idiot,” but seeing as he ended his reign by being deposed and consigned to a monastery, it may be nothing more than an attempt by his successors to tarnish his name. […]

21. CONSTANTINE THE DUNG-NAMED was the nickname of Constantine V, the Byzantine Emperor from 741-55. The Latin epithet Copronymus, “dung-named,” was unsurprisingly bestowed on him by his many enemies. […]

25. EYSTEIN THE FART, Eystein Halfdansson, was an 8th century king of Norway. The epithet “Fart” is usually taken to mean that he was a busybody or loudmouth, although no definitive explanation has yet been found. […]

33. HALFDAN THE BAD ENTERTAINER, also known as King Halfdan the Mild, was the son of Eystein the Fart. His nickname apparently refers to his habit of paying his soldiers generously, but providing them with little food or entertainment. […]

35. HENRY THE IMPOTENT was king of Castile from 1454-74. His nickname probably refers to his disastrously ineffectual reign, although some accounts have since suggested that Henry was genuinely impotent, if not secretly homosexual.

36. IVAYLO THE CABBAGE, also known as “Ivaylo the Swineherd,” was a Bulgarian farmer who led a peasants’ revolt in the late 13th century and proclaimed himself Emperor of Bulgaria in 1278. He was overthrown the following year and assassinated. […]

45. LOUIS THE UNAVOIDABLE was the nickname of Louis XVIII of France, who spent much of his reign in the late 1700s and early 1800s either in prison or in exile during the French Revolution. When Napoleon was finally defeated in 1815, Louis was the “unavoidable” choice to return and reclaim the throne.

The other day, I mentioned to my editor, Miss Cellania the Caffeinated, that this naming tradition is one that we should revive.

-via VA Viper

(YouTube link)

This is what happens when you feed the rabbits on Ōkunoshima, also known as Rabbit Island, in Japan. You might get smothered, but there are worse ways to go. The YouTube account mybbbunny has a series of videos about the island. -via Tastefully Offensive

Photo by Jamie Lee Curtis Taete

It wasn’t so long ago that the world’s eager young masturbators could happily jerk themselves into a state of exhaustion without a care in the world. But now there's a growing level of consciousness of something that should probably have been quite obvious to anyone whose blood hadn’t all been redirected away from his brain. Namely, that if you watch tons of videos of unlimited genres of depravity, you’re going to find it more difficult to get turned on by a living, breathing, naked human being who wants to do IRL sex stuff with you. If watching someone stick their big toe into someone’s asshole feels normal to you, for instance, you might find making out kind of boring.

One of the people who can be credited for raising this point is Gary Wilson. His site, yourbrainonporn.com, has been at the forefront of efforts to understand what porn is doing to many of its users. Now, he's turned all his knowledge into a book, Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction.

I called Gary to discuss his new book and the issue of porn addiction facing millions of young onanism enthusiasts around the world.

VICE: So the main premise of your book is that you can either watch porn or have sex, but you can't have both. Is that right?
Gary Wilson: It is of course possible to have both. But for some guys it is difficult to have both. With internet porn some men are having not only erectile dysfunction (ED) but they're also having other sexual symptoms such as inability to orgasm, delayed ejaculation, declining libido with real partners, loss of attraction to real partners, and also very commonly their sexual taste—at least in porn—have morphed into something which is strange and upsetting for them.

Can you watch some porn and still have a healthy sex life? Is there a safe level?
Watching porn will always affect you. How much it will affect you is hard to say. So in other words we have seen guys who are terribly addicted, and it has deeply affected their sex lives. They need a year or more off porn in order to get a real erection with a real partner. So that’s an extreme occurrence. On the other end of the spectrum however you will have some guys with a girlfriend and they will watch porn a couple of times a week. But here’s the deal. You don’t know how much it affects you until you remove the variables. So these guys will just do a challenge and say, “OK I’ll stop watching porn,” and what they find is that they will still get benefits. And the benefits that they’ll get is that real sex is far more exiting. Their wife or girlfriend looks a lot better. They didn’t think that porn was affecting them but once they quit they found out that it was. Essentially porn has a broad spectrum of effects.

Porn has been around for generations in varying forms. What has caused the rise in issues like ED? Is it simply a case of faster and faster internet speeds?
It’s definitely escalated over the past few years. Firstly, the delivery system of the internet has caused this escalation. Secondly, however, adolescents as a result have complete access to hardcore streaming videos as soon as they desire it. But the question we have to ask is why the internet is so appealing? Think about Facebook. There are studies that show Facebook causes addiction. It can cause brain changes that mirror the brain changes that occur in drug addicts. In fact there are 70 internet-brain studies showing that. And what can occur with the internet is that is raises arousal and dopamine levels. Dopamine powers this reward circuit and the internet is unique in this sense. Clicking on new pictures, new words, sending messages, receiving messages becomes a novelty which raises dopamine levels in the reward circuit. So does surprise, shock, and anxiety. If you combine that with sexual stimulation, the highest arousal available, and put it in front of a teenager via a tube site with hardcore videos, adolescents can maintain this kind of arousal and dopamine levels. You can train your brain to need that level of stimulus in order to be sexually exited. When you’re watching these videos of real people having so called “real” sex it completely replaces their imagination. You no longer imagine what it's like. You become a voyeur watching all this action rather than with a still picture imagining the action you can create.

In the book you discuss a disconnect between younger and older generations, which translates into typically younger people being exposed to porn far more than say those who grew up with magazines. Is this simply a general rule, or is there some crossover?
When you look at studies you get a completely different view. People ages 14 to 25 have a much higher use of porn than adults and of course the use goes down as the age goes up. A recent UK poll showed that the vast majority of people believed watching porn has negative effects, so their view is based on their experience as say an 18-year-old growing up over the past few years and seeing the effect it has had upon them.

What do you say to those sexologists who want to dismiss the argument that porn can cause ED?
Well, they’re wrong. Prominent urologists are starting to write articles about it. On top of that we’ve had two brain studies from Cambridge University and one from the Max Planck institute. The Cambridge one found the same kind of brain changes that occur with drug addicts and 60 percent of those subjects suffered from issues such as ED and loss of libido. The German study correlated the hours of porn use a week and the years of porn use with firstly the structure of the reward circuits. They found a correlation suggesting that those who watch porn actually have less gray matter. In addition those who had been watching porn for years had less activation of the reward circuits. So their conclusion was that more porn use correlated with a decrease in gray matter and less sexual arousal. And these were non-addicts. Many sexologists claim that porn “addiction” (they don’t even refer to it as addiction) is caused by a high libido, which you are somehow born with. But these studies counter that and show that heavy porn users have lower sexual desire causing in turn issues such as ED. So it goes against that myth, which has no truth to it.

Gary's widely viewed TED talk

You talk about the need for more education in your conclusion regarding sex conditioning and the issue of porn addiction. Will education really stop people from wanting to watch porn?
Will it stop people from watching porn? No. But what occurs is that many of the guys who eventually showed up on all these forums had no idea that porn use could cause the problems they had developed such as severe ED. This young generation sees porn use and masturbation as synonymous. They read articles claiming that masturbation is good and so they assume that must mean that porn is good. They never make the connection. So if there were education that makes the connection, that would be good. What’s missing as well is that sexologists don’t make the connection between porn and the adolescent brain, which undergoes a process of rewiring in order to reproduce. A highly malleable adolescent brain has much higher surges of dopamine and is seeking thrills and novelty, which create a bigger buzz for them.

You discuss the idea of "rebooting" by not watching porn. How effective is this? Is it easy to cure a porn addiction?
Rebooting refers to removing all sexual stimuli. There are different motivations, such as ED and loss of sexual stimulation. Some guys are doing it for other reasons. They notice friends on forums are quitting ending up with far more motivation, confidence, and concentration. So these guys have a different barometer of when they feel they are rebooted. Guys suffering from sexual dysfunction aged between 40 to 50 who grew up consuming porn through magazines are now developing ED having switched to Tube sites. Young guys often need much longer to reboot compared to older guys. Older guys can take eight to 12 weeks and be fine after that. Some of these young guys, aged 20 to 24, take up to two years to fully recover. These guys are at their peak of health and levels of testosterone and they take a lot longer. This links back to the use of porn in adolescence when the brain is incredibly malleable.  

Do the issues that guys experience from porn addiction transfer over to women?
Guys typically use porn far more often. By cycling through the usernames of people on forums such as NoFap what we find is that woman often simply don’t get exited by their partners. They needed porn to have an orgasm, they weren’t lubricating, and they were addicted. So women do experience similar problems. The difference however is that men have a barometer, which is their penis. Women don’t. So many women grow up not relating these problems to porn use.

What stage do you feel we are at when it comes to knowledge about the effect porn has on the brain?   
There is a huge divide, and actually a degree of animosity when it comes to studying the effects of porn addiction on the human brain. What we’ve learned is that addiction, thanks to the work of real neuroscientists, is by far the most studied mental condition. It’s been induced in animals for the last 30 years looking right down to the molecular and genetic level where brain changes occur. And we’ve compared it to the many types of addiction that occur in humans. So there is a huge body of evidence. On the other side you have the sexology groups who don’t study the mechanisms of the brain and whom are sociologists primarily carrying out questionnaires. They have a model within which they don’t want porn addiction to be recognized, as they are afraid that if you say porn use has negative effects then it’s labeled as sex negative. And they don’t want any shame associated with sexuality. Conceptually that’s OK to a certain degree, but what they don’t acknowledge is that porn is now sex negative and screen positive.

What is your view on the existence of websites, which only contain “good porn” and filter out what is described as “bad” porn?
It’s a trend that really bothers me. It’s a trend that tries to teach people the difference between “good” porn and “bad” porn, as if there’s such a thing. This idea is put forth by websites such as makelovenotporn.com and that’s fine except that you pay for it and of course no young person is ever going to pay for porn. But beyond that is the idea that some 15-year-old kid is going to say “Oh, I’ve been told that this website has good porn so I’ll just stay on this website.” Now that is ridiculous. That’s like taking a 15-year-old boy to the grocery store and saying “Buy whatever you want, just buy good food.” They’re not going to go and buy broccoli. Instead they are going to start clicking on the grossest and strangest stuff because that’s what teenage boys do. So of course it wouldn’t work. But on top of that what counts as “bad” porn? Is it BDSM, female domination, or anal? That’s a never-ending argument. It can never be solved and it doesn’t address the basic problem, which is that young men and woman are training their sexual arousal to high speed internet, clicking, and novelty. It’s the delivery system that really makes the difference in 2014.

All illustrations by Nick Gazin

Sex. It’s important. So important, in fact, that it’s not only the title of this piece, it’s also the very first word. At this point you may be wondering if "sex" is also the last word of this piece. Go ahead! Skip to the end and find out! OK, happy now? Good. Let’s begin.

Sex. What the heck is it? Generally speaking, sex—shorthand for "sexual intercourse"—is the insertion and thrusting of a male’s penis into a female’s vagina for the purposes of reproduction and/or pleasure. Pretty erotic definition, huh? That's from Wikipedia, and needless to say I got so worked up reading it I almost "WikiLeaked" in my pants!

But that’s not all sex is these days—nay, not by a long shot. In fact, the bedroom antics of a modern sex-haver in Obama’s "anything goes" America is enough to make a Juggalo blush. And that’s why I put together the following compendium of carnal knowledge—to help you, the reader, navigate the topsy-turvy landscape of today’s dynamic fuckvironment.

Anal Sex
Anal sex is intercourse via the anus. Its popularity skyrocketed recently when scientists announced a woman is up to 50 percent less likely to conceive a child when getting ass-rammed than when having her pussy plowed. Anal is also the preferred method of intercourse among gay men. And understandably so—I mean, have you tried stuffing your entire cock into another man’s pee-hole?!? To quote ET: “OUCH!”

Ass-Eating
This disgusting act seems to be all the rage among millennials. I’m surprised they even have time to stick a tongue up a butthole what with all the time spent on selfies, memes, Snapchats, and Netflix. Heck, millennials think Girls is a good television program—is it really surprising they also enjoy the taste of shit? (Totally JK, to the two Girls writers who follow me on Twitter.)

Blowjobs
These are those things hack stand up comics complain about their wives not doing anymore during their "marriage is lame" chunks. Truth is, getting a BJ feels pretty darn good—but hearing someone refer to it as a "blowie" is almost enough to make you lose your boner.

Boners
The thing hearing someone say "blowie" is almost enough to make you lose.

Cheating
Remember: there’s no such thing as cheating. If your partner catches you in the act, just come up with a clever excuse, like you were “masturbating with my secretary’s vagina lips” or “using the pool guy’s dick as a dildo” or “cream-peeing some white urine into our son’s third grade teacher’s mouth-toilet.”

Dildo
An object shaped like a penis used for sexual simulation. Named for when Lucrecia Stansbury, a noted baker in the 1800s, discovered it felt awesome to stuff a tube of the raw dough she used to bake her famous dill bread (her "dill dough," if you will) into her cooch.

Double-Ended Dildo
The opposite of a double-beginninged dildo. By the way, if that scene at the end of Requiem For a Dream doesn’t get you at least a little horny, you’re less twisted than me, friend.

Eating Pussy
The technical term for this is cunnilingus. And that hilarious joke where you say you’re a "cunning linguist" never gets old—so keep on saying it, Lars Ulrich!

Fingerblasting
The sex product market has exploded (no pun intended) recently with innovative new devices designed to blast vaginas, but most sex-havers agree: the original is still the best. That’s right, the ol’ tried-and-true—the finger—remains the go-to vag-blasting tool among die-hard blasters and blastees. Notably, the finger also continues its dominance in the field of booger extraction.

Fisting
Ever felt an overwhelming desire to punch your enemy as hard as you can, square in the colon? Well, be warned: If she’s a fan of this fucked up freaky shit, she may actually enjoy your journey getting up in there!

Giraffes
All I know is I wouldn’t waste all day eating leaves if my neck was so long I could suck my own dick.

Handjobs
Too lazy to jack yourself off? Pay a stripper to do it for ya, King Henry VIII!

Happy Ending
When a masseuse sexually manipulates a man’s penis to completion at the end of a massage. Not to be confused with a "sad ending," where the masseuse pours semen into his dickhole.

Huge Penis-Haver Magazine
Fellas, always carry a copy of this fake magazine I just made up around so you can pretend to read it if an attractive woman sits across from you on the subway.

Jizz Rag
That Obama shirt MoveOn.org sent you back in ‘08, probably.

Kama Sutra
That book no one has ever read in your stoner fuck-buddy’s bedside lube drawer. Maybe replace those corny illustrations with some Aishwarya Rai nude action pics and we’ll give it a second chance, Ravi.

Masturbation
Woody Allen once jokingly called masturbation “sex with someone I love.” Pretty amazing that a jazz clarinet enthusiast who married his own daughter could love himself.

Monogamy
That thing your married friends won’t admit sucks until after they’re divorced.

Orgasm
Those five to 15 seconds before you start figuring out how to get this weirdo out of your apartment.

Polygamy
You don’t think one wife is enough? You’ve obviously never been married, Utah Joe.

Porn
A magical world where a bleach blonde bimbo with massive fake tits becomes a doctor by putting on a pair of glasses and a white lab coat.

Robin Thicke
The reason there’s suddenly so many lesbians.

S.E.X.
A song by Nickelback I’ve never heard but just stumbled across the existence of on Google. The lyrics are so stupid they make KISS’s discography look like a collection of Shakespeare sonnets.

Sex Trafficking
Look, all I know is the "sex traffic" going in and out of your mom’s bedroom last night was pretty heavy! HEY-OOOOOOOOOH

Sexpert
A hussy with a lit degree desperately trying to market her sex blog after realizing she’s a 35-year-old barista.

Sixty-Nine
Nothing says “I have a debilitating fear of intimacy that I’m occasionally horny enough to briefly overcome” like wanting to sixty-nine.

Titty Fucking
Every woman’s favorite position. Nothing brings the human female to orgasm faster than having to wrap her boobs around the dick of some tit-fixated perv whose mom refused to breastfeed him while he drags his sweaty balls across her belly. Ah, how she loves the full weight of a grown adult male bouncing on her midsection! Don’t forget to cum in her eyes to maximize her pleasure, guys!

Viagra
The common name for Sildenafil Citrate, a medication that helps prevent loss of erection. But don’t take too much—walking around with a perma-boner the next three days could be "viagra-vating." (Hey, I'm gonna use this joke in my stand-up act—please don’t steal it.)

Vibrator
A thing that vibrates. Duh! It’s in the name! Do I have to do all the work for you?

Congratulations! You now know absolutely everything you need to know about (Get ready! Here it comes! The last word of the piece!) sex.

Follow Eli Braden on Twitter.

Every Noise at Once: An attempt to create an algorithmically-generated map of the entire musical genre-space. Glenn McDonald is attempting a fairly tall feat, sifting through as many genres of music as possile. Here's a helpful article with more information: From charred death to deep filthstep: the 1,264 genres that make modern music

Rose Callaha photographs the colorful and intricate styles of the modern Dandy.

Why Amazon Has No Profits (And Why It Works)

TL;DR? They do make money, they just invest it all back into the company.

You're not as busy as you say you are. "According to sociologist John Robinson, or better known as "Father Time" to his colleagues, most people have around 40 hours of free time per week."

Also: "In the latest ATUS released a few weeks ago, the findings showed the average American sleeps 8.75 hours per day--much more than we work, which is an average of 7.55 hours per day. The hours of sleep we get every night has been steadily going up in the past few years, but the average person is still claiming to be exhausted."

Photo via Bailey's GoFundMe page

Crowdfunding is all the rage for folks who are hungry for potato salad, or in need of some dough for their stupid orchestra, but sometimes people reach out to the masses out of desperation. Meet Bailey. Bailey needs an abortion. So she went to GoFundMe.com (tagline: “Crowdfunding for Everyone!”) to ask for $2,500 for the operation. Like anything remotely related to fetuses, it’s drawn some considerable attention in less than a week and was even removed from the site for a while.

Her GoFundMe page, originally titled the "Stop Bailey From Breeding Fund," informs visitors that “Bailey is currently unemployed, completely broke, in debt, and in no position to hold down a job due to severe symptoms of a rough, unplanned and unexpected pregnancy.” Having just moved to Chicago from Phoenix, Arizona, Bailey says she’s 23, likes to read and go to shows, and really, really doesn’t want to be a mom.

In the past, GoFundMe has been used for some pretty noble projects, such as collecting donations for one of the victims of the Boston Marathon Bombing, and helping raise money to operate on the brain tumor of a morbidly obese 12-year-old. Somewhat more controversially, GoFundMe was used recently to support Officer Darren Wilson, who famously shot and killed unarmed 18-year-old Mike Brown, resulting in the Ferguson, Missouri demonstrations. I guess you could say the operators of GoFundMe aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.

I called Bailey to ask about her plans to kickstart the termination of her fetus.

VICE: Hi Bailey, how are you doing?
Bailey: I’m doing pretty well. How are you?

Can I ask who is the father? 
Can I say no to that?

Yeah, sure.
OK, cool. 

Sorry for stalking you, but Facebook tells me you’re dating someone named Lücifer Ryzing, right?
Oh, no, that’s totally fine. I understand. There’s some other people who have figured out stuff, that don’t have any sort of good intentions, and they're doing more intense things. [laughs] But yeah, Lücifer Ryzing is someone I’ve known for a long time, that I’m sweet with. He started the GoFundMe page. He’s the one that’s really managing that.

How far along are you with the pregnancy?
I just got the ultrasound on Tuesday, the second of September and the ultrasound said 19 weeks and five days, but ultrasounds can be anywhere from seven to ten days off. It could be about 19 weeks, or I could be 20 weeks along exactly.

Why did you choose to use GoFundMe for your abortion?
We’re broke kids who really need to have this abortion, and you see crowdsourcing for all kinds of things. You see it for things like, "Help me press this record!" or "Help me pay my rent!" We saw that Kickstarter that made a bunch of money for the potato salad thing. If people want to donate, they can, which is a lot easier than going and asking people. 

I’m hoping people will [donate], but it’s also totally fine if people don’t. I know if I saw something like this I’d be like, I want to help this person to make sure they live the life they want to live. It’s more time-sensitive than some of the other things that you see.

I heard the page got taken down for a bit. What happened?
We [initially] offered these rewards, expecting it would only be our friends that would see this. One of these rewards for $25 was Lücifer would make a custom edit of a photo. He’s really good at editing photographs, so for $25 [he would] make a custom edit of a photo of your choice. And then for $50 we’ll do your grocery shopping and give you a hug. Then for $100, we’d clean your house and as much clothing as you wanted. Which was a joke, an absolute joke, that we expected no one to take us up on.

But it did get a lot of attention and it also got a lot of like negative attention. Then people also objected to the language. So it was reported, and it got flagged for adult content. We emailed the people at GoFundMe and said, "That was a joke! We didn’t expect this kind of a response!" So GoFundMe took that off, and the page was able to go back up. I guess they thought we were serious and we weren’t.

There’ve been a lot of negative responses. How have you been taking them?
I expected to get negative responses. There are people who are really vocal. I was prepared, to a certain extent, to receive a lot of hate, or venom or even threats, but I have definitely been surprised. There have been moments when I almost had a panic attack or just was really, really taken aback at what kind of responses we’ve gotten: how many assumptions, how many projections, I guess how angry it makes people that this is something that we’re trying to do. 

I’m sure you can see on the actual fundraiser, there’ve also been things I’ve seen on Facebook you wouldn’t see otherwise. Threads of 200 or 400 comments that are really hateful, or violent, or threatening. I’ve had a few people threaten to dox me, log my IP address, and find out where I live [so they can] come hurt me in some way, or come hurt Lüci. There have definitely been moments where we’ve been like, Holy fuck. Really? Really?

Are you nervous about the procedure?
Yeah, I’m nervous. It’s scary. It’s a surgery. In Illinois it’s a two-day surgery. And it’s painful, like any surgery is going to be. It’s just an absolutely necessary thing, so I’m more nervous about running out of time than any pain.

According to the page, you’ve been having pregnancy complications, correct?
Yes.

Do you want to elaborate at all?
It’s just been really, really painful. Like I said, I just got the ultrasound done and haven’t really been to the doctor very much, so I can’t say there’s a specific condition, but I know that it’s worse than any menstrual cramps I’ve ever had. Sometimes the pain is so bad that I can’t get out of bed, and I can’t go to the bathroom. When I cough, it feels like my organs being shredded inside of me. For a second, I was afraid it was ectopic, because that’s supposed to be incredibly painful, but it’s not. I don’t know if there’s any medical terms for what it is, but it’s difficult.

I also saw on Facebook—again, sorry for stalking you—that you’re getting a kitten?
[Laughs] Yeah, actually. One of my friends just moved into a house, and they’re talking about getting a kitten. So it’s not actually gonna be my kitten, but it’s going to live in the same house that I stay at, so I’m going to pretend it’s my kitten.

Alright, Bailey. Thanks for talking with me.

UPDATE: September 5, 10 AM – Bailey's GoFundMe page has been removed again.

Follow Troy Farah on Twitter.

Los trazos sobre el suelo quedaron a la vista al retirar la tarima, que se repondrá de nuevo tras su restauración

Hablamos con expertos sobre las inyecciones de suero fisiológico, la última medida que promete aumentar la talla de sujetador de forma temporal.