Darius Wadia

For one night, the entire 26-mile route of the LA Marathon, which starts at Dodger Stadium and runs all the way to Santa Monica, will be lit up by spotlights pointing up at the sky. The installation will use 124 spotlights that together will be as bright as 29,100 light bulbs, and the whole thing should be visible from "high vantage points around the city," says LA Weekly, quoting a statement from race sponsor ASICS.

It will take 85 people to set up the lights at 27 locations along the marathon course—a lot of work considering they'll only be on from 8:40 pm to 10:15 pm this Friday night, but it's worth it if they look as badass as this official rendering does. The giant pillars of light will hopefully also remind people where they probably won't be able to drive on Sunday morning during the marathon.
· Cool! L.A. Marathon Course to be Illuminated by 124 Spotlights [LAW]

HBO CEO Richard Plepler just announced that its new cable-free streaming service will be available only on Apple devices (and PCs, per a press release) when it launches early next month. The price for HBO Now has also been confirmed at $14.99 per mon...

Think twice the next time that guy you met online asks if you’d like to finish the evening off with a quick facial.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health just issued an advisory on ocular syphilis, aka syphilis of the eyes.

According to AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, as many as 15 cases of ocular syphilis have been identified in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington state since December, with many of them resulting in some level of blindness.

This sounds horrifying.

“These new cases of ocular syphilis highlight the importance of ongoing, regular checkups for sexually-active individuals who feel they may be at risk, particularly men who have sex with men,” Weinstein said.

The San Francisco Health Department is also advising physicians to test for syphilis in any patients with visual complaints, as well as those with genital, oral, or anal ulcers, or rash.

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum. According to clinical studies, ocular syphilis is an unusual manifestation of the disease that is becoming increasingly less unusual. Symptoms of include blurry vision, floating spots, a blue visual tinge, flashing lights, or eye pain. If untreated, ocular syphilis can attack the nervous system and cause permanent blindness, as it did for two gay men in Washington state in January.

So how can you avoid going blind from ocular syphilis? Easy. Get tested at least once a year, or every three to six months if you’re at elevated risk.

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When you've spent significant time in a room styled after The Empire Strikes Back, sleeping in an airspeeder every night and palling around with a mini R2D2, the rest of the world must just kind of be a letdown. (There's another bedroom in this mansion with a pirate ship bed, but even that didn't go as far as this one and its fake snow.) The rest of the giant house might even be a letdown, even though it is 15,000 square feet, contains a gym, a half-sized basketball court, a game room with an air hockey table, a vaguely castle-like dining area, six fireplaces, 11 bathrooms, and five other bedrooms. The 4.3-acre grounds, meanwhile, boast two outdoor pizza ovens, footbridges, running streams, and a "natural island environment" that includes a waterfall, a 16-foot ledge for diving, and a 120-foot waterslide. Built in 1991, the house is owned by tech mogul Dirk Gates, who's asking $14.9 million for it.

· 955 Vista Ridge Lane, Thousand Oaks 91362 [Estately]
· 955 Vista Ridge [Official site]

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This just in: The more attractive you are, the more likely it is that you’re a selfish prick.

At least according to a new study out of Brunel University London.

Researchers at the university tested a theory in evolutionary psychology that claims good-looking people have more to gain from inequality because they tend to have higher social status.

The team scored 125 male and female participants on their level of conventional attractiveness, including things like weight, waist-to-chest ratio for men, and waist-to-hip ratio for women.

Participants were then asked filled out a personality quiz which measured their attitudes toward inequality and selfishness. At the same time, they partook in an economics experiment in which they were given an amount of money then asked how they would share with someone else.

“We found that attractive men tended to be less egalitarian and less generous,” said Dr. Michael Price, the lead investigator and senior lecturer in psychology at Brunel University London.

Next, two groups of raters were brought in. The first group judged participants on their attractiveness. The second group judged them how altruistic and egalitarian they appeared based on their photos.

“We found that the ‘raters’ perceived better-looking men and women as being less altruistic and egalitarian,” Price said.

“Our results showed that, in fact, we may be justified in expecting more attractive men to behave in ways that are less favorable to economic and social equality,” he continued. “The results suggest that better-looking men may be biased towards being more selfish and less egalitarian.”

Price added that the study offers new insight into on why some guys may be more selfish than others.

“Several studies have suggested that wealthier people tend to care less about kindness and equality,” Price said. “But our study suggests that attractiveness is at least as important as wealth in influencing these attitudes.”

So there you have it, folks. Now, all you good-looking, smooth-talking fellas out there, stop being such selfish, unaltruistic assholes.

h/t: Gay Star News

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If you were a kid in the early ’90s, you probably had a case of Morphin Mania (a term I’ve just made up and copyrighted), which manifested in an obsession with the American Super Sentai series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The show has been on for over 20 years now in various formats, with different casts and themes, but Morphin Mania proper, at least for yours truly, lasted from about 1993-1995, from the inception of the series until the crappy first film. (It waned for me through Zeo, and I completely gave up after Turbo.) But, because those of us who watched the series are now in our 30s (Zordon help us), some fans now have the wherewithal and resources to show how much they love it.

One such fan is film producer Adi Shankar, who is the EP behind the frigging amazing Dredd film in 2012, as well as an executive producer of other well-regarded flicks like The Grey and Lone Survivor. He’s no stranger to producing impressive fan-films, which he calls “bootlegs,” that feature name actors and directors. He did the Thomas Jane-starring The Punisher: Dirty Laundry, for example.

Anyway, so Shankar has the chops and the nerd cred, and he’s turned his attention to a revisionist future version of the Rangers from Angel Grove, all growed up and not adjusting well after the war against Rita Repulsa ended. Katee Sackhoff stars as Kimberly, the Pink Ranger, who has been apprehended by the machine overlords’ turncoat Rocky, the former Red Ranger replacement, played by James Van Der Beek. He recounts how all the members of the Power Rangers seem to have been taken out by Tommy Oliver, the Green (and later White) Ranger. But maybe that’s not what happened…

Get a load of this very violent, very sweary, quite NSFW film, entitled Power/Rangers, directed by Joseph Kahn.

And for a bit of context, here’s Shankar himself talking about the reason for this project. (Sidebar: who is he talking to over there?)

Would you like to see more such bootlegs? Would you subscribe to this newsletter? Let us know below. Poor Rangers.

Yesterday, we reported that a medical research lab is very close to finding a way for circumcised men to regrow their foreskin.

Foregen is “a non-profit organization founded to research and implement regenerative medical therapies for circumcised males” that aims to “promote genital integrity through regenerative medicine.” Lab researchers there just announced that they’ve figured out how to generate new skin using small samples of foreskin tissue. They now hope to move onto human clinical trials sometime in the near future.

The news elicited a strong response to Queerty readers, particularly on Facebook.

“To each his own,” Jerome Robertson wrote, “but I’m not a big fan of uncut ’cause some men are fucking nasty and don’t clean themselves properly.”

(Jeez. Tell us how you really feel, Jerome.)

Naturally, this sparked quite an outcry. Robertson’s comment received over 20 replies.

“You want to talk about nasty?” David Runyan responded. “Let’s talk about trapping an open wound in a diaper with feces and urine every night. Before you cut your son make a small cut on your thigh, get some used toilet paper, get it moist with some urine and tape it to the cut and leave it over night.”

(Um. We think we’ll pass.)

“My feet get dirty because I walk around barefoot sometimes,”Jeremy Homer added, “but I’m not going to cut them off for the sake of being clean.”

(Hmmm. That seems like a bit of a stretch.)

“You’re missing my point,” Robertson rebutted. “I shouldn’t have to tell a grown man to clean his penis. That’s something he should have been taught by his parents.”

To which Cassie Elizabeth Waldeck replied with this pearl of wisdom, “If my circumcised husband doesn’t shower his balls stink. Circumcised men still need to wash their genitals.”

(This is true. Circumcised men, like uncircumcised men, need to properly wash themselves. Surely we can all agree on that.)

Then David J. Bernstein posted this super helpful flyer:

Madeline Rupert opined: “Some men are fucking nasty. And you know what? Cutting pieces of their genitals off won’t make them cleaner in any respectable degree.”

William Ortego concurred. “These men deserved to keep their penis intact but asshole parents took that from them!”

Other people had questions regarding the new reparative therapy:

“If it grows back looking like Abe Vigoda’s neck, do you get your money back?” Pablito Belanger asked.

“How can someone miss something they never had?” William Mc Gregor wondered.

And some had absolutely no interest in it whatsoever:

“Not my cup of tea,”James Michael said. “I’ll stay circumcised.”

“No thank you,” Bobby Smith politely declined.

“I think science would be more useful if they cured male-pattern baldness,” Queerty commenter Desert Boy said.

But perhaps Jorge L Mancha put it best when he wrote: “Everyone has their preferences. Why don’t we just leave it at that?”

So what do you think of the latest technology that may allow circumcised men to regrow their foreskin? Keep the conversation going in the comments section below.

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I have a love/hate relationship with beets.  I love to eat them, and experience their tender sweetness, but I hate cooking with them because my hands always turn purple and I’m constantly paranoid it’s going to get on my clothes.  Yes, I could wear an apron, or some gloves, but by the time I think about either of those things it’s usually too late.

But when you come across a recipe like this one, none of that matters because it just looks so delicious.

CRUSHED BEETS WITH LEMON VINAIGRETTE

The best part of this dish is that after you bake the beets to tender deliciousness, you smash them and fry them for a few minutes so the outside gets nice and crisp, and the inside stays soft. Just like you would with some smashed potatoes, except these are actually good for you (ish).

Look at these delicious beets from the farmer’s market:

Aren’t they gorgeous?  After you clean them, cut off the beet greens (to make something else, those are also very good for you), it’s time to bake them.  Salt, pepper, a little oil, and wrap them in aluminum foil.

Bake them at 400 degrees for 40-50 minutes and you get some beautifully perfect beets.

 

Now comes the part so secret, so clandestine, that I can’t show it to you.  Or, more accurately, my hands were full and I couldn’t grab my camera.  You peel and smash the beets, then fry them in some oil.

When they’re nice and crisp, you put some plain greek yogurt on a plate, lay the crispy beets on top, and drizzle them with a lemony dressing.

Then you take a bite and fall over because your mouth just exploded in ecstasy.

Personally, I’d serve this as an appetizer, or as a starter salad.  Actually, these beets would be delicious on a regular salad too.  Or even on their own as a snack.  In a nutshell, try them and you won’t be sorry.

Get the recipe from Bon Appetit: CRUSHED BEETS WITH LEMON VINAIGRETTE

A 34-year-old man claims he only has 100 orgasms left before he’s going to permanently lose the ability to get an erection, thanks to a rare erectile dysfunction condition.

“I have a finite amount of real, working, orgasm-capable erections remaining,” the man, who goes by the initials R.L.S., writes in to the website BroBible. “They estimate I have about a hundred [orgasms] left.”

R.L.S. says he suffers from a rare disorder called idiopathic fibrosis.

“Basically, there’s a reservoir in your penis that fills with blood when you have an erection,” he explains. “In my case, every time I get hard, it causes an autoimmune reaction, which causes a scar tissue build-up in the reservoir. Ultimately, the scar tissue will make it impossible to ever get a boner again.”

R.L.S. says he was “blindsided” by the diagnosis, saying it completely changed his life in an instant.

“It’s like hearing you have six months to live,” he writes.

R.L.S. wrote to BroBible hoping someone — anyone — could help shed more light on his condition. Therapy and medication, he says, had not helped and that he’s been traveling through the five stages of grief. Though he has accepted his fate, he noted that he still isn’t entirely sure how to cope with it all.

“Masturbation’s obviously out of the question,” he says. “And lately, I’m terrified of sex itself.”

R.L.S. confesses that the last time he had sex, he almost had a meltdown.

“I burst into a cold sweat and my chest felt like it was gonna cave in on itself,” he writes. “Since then I’ve been chaste as a fucking nun, but I toss and turn all night with crazy, disturbing sex dreams, and now I’m worried that I’ll lose a nut to a wet dream.”

The 34-year-old says he hopes to embark on a “farewell tour” before losing the ability to orgasm ever again. We wish him all the best.

h/t: Raw Story

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Graham Gremore is a columnist and contributor for Queerty. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

 

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Happy Monday, everyone!

Weekends are always busier than I like them to be.  There are cars to be washed, hair to be cut, groceries to be bought, and TV to catch up on.  This Sunday I helped a friend move to a new apartment, which cut into my usual Sunday-Culinary-Experimentation time, but that just meant I needed to find a simpler recipe to try out.  Fortunately, Ina Garten to the rescue!  (If someone could please sketch an image of her with a cape, I’d absolutely put that in my kitchen).

In Make it Ahead, Ina has a recipe for Lamb with Easy Tzaziki that is simple, and ready in just over 30 minutes!  Just what I was looking for after a long day of (watching other people do most of the) moving.

Lamb is a very polarizing protein.  Personally, I love it, though I know for a lot of people it’s too rich and game-flavored.  But the nice thing about it is that you have to try really hard to overcook it, which means if you forget to set a timer, chances are you’ll still have a delicious piece of meat.

First you whirl together some garlic, rosemary, oregano, and olive oil.

Then you spread it on the lamb, and put it in the oven at a high heat and forget to take a picture of it for your blog.

While you’re waiting, you work on the tzaziki, which is much easier than you think. You put the following in a bowl: grated cucumber, greek yogurt, garlic, dill, sour cream, lemon juice, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

A quick mix and:

It looks great, right?  Cool and refreshing.  Except for the fact that I over-salted it.  Whoops!  Still delicious though.

Okay, the lamb is done!

How dreamy is that? It was perfectly done too. All that’s left is to roast some vegetables and put it on a plate:

The combination of the herby lamb and fresh tzaziki is divine, and it’s hard to believe all that flavor is created in such a short amount of time.  It was so quick I had time to make a cocktail while I was waiting for the lamb to finish, and really, isn’t that the most important thing?

Buy Make it Ahead here!

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This week we want everything from salami, to cocktails, to adorkable mugs.

1.  Olympic Provisions Salami of the Month Club

Salami is one of my favorite things.  If you have it on a charcuterie plate at a party, I have to stop myself from eating it all.  So what could be better than receiving a new salami every month? Portland-based Olympic Provisions’ Salami of the Month Club is perfect for your meat-loving friend (me).

Buy it here.

2.  Alien Sightings Salt & Pepper Set

It’s just like an alien invasion but instead of destroying the planet, this UFO brings some otherworldly flavor.

Available at Dot & Bo.

3. Pacific Pickle Works Bloody Mary Elixir

I took a class at The Cocktail Lab late last year, all about making the perfect Bloody Mary.  It was a great time, met some really great people, and most importantly discovered Pacific Pickle Works.  In addition to making amazing pickles, they make this Bloody Mary Elixir that is phenomenal.  It’s everything you want in a Bloody Mary, just add your favorite tomato juice.  I took this little bottle home for the holidays, and my family enjoyed it for days.  I want to add it to everything I cook, it’s that good.

Available at The Cocktail Lab, or at Pacific Pickle Works.

4. Penguin Cocktail Shaker

Speaking of The Cocktail Lab, my new favorite store, this Penguin Cocktail Shaker stares at me every time I walk in, daring me to take him home.  I’ve resisted his charms so far, but one day I’ll probably give in.

You can take him home from here.

5. Tea Rex Mug

CAN. YOU. STAND IT??!!!

There are two things I love in life: Dinosaurs, and a good pun.  Actually a third thing: mugs.  My boyfriend will tell you I have too many mugs, and I say not enough!  Honestly I can’t stand how cute this is and I might just go buy it right now.  TEA REX!  RARRRRRR!

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