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Curious Times No. 235
March 11, 2004SEX AND MONOGAMY DON’T MIX
A German psychologist has finally confirmed what we all instinctively knew already (well, all of us men anyway), concluding that passionate sex and a long-term relationship are "an impossible combination." Dr. Michael Mary, a sex therapist in Berlin and author of the book "Five Lies Concerning Love," warned that trying to create a fulfilling sex life in a long-term relationship is a futile exercise. "It is impossible to get everything together. To have trust and harmony and at the same time the level of passion and desire one experiences on the first day simply doesn’t exist," he explained, adding that the easiest way for married people to add some excitement to their boring sex lives is to cheat on their partners. (Ananova)AND THAT’S ABOUT HOW LONG I CAN HOLD YOUR INTEREST IN THIS STORY
Usually obsessive/compulsive disorder isn’t considered a desirable character trait, but I guess if you’re a molecular physicist it has its advantages. Last week a teamof uber-Geek physicists in Austria and Germany measured the world’s shortest time interval ever recorded, a blip which is ten million times shorter than a nanosecond (one billionth of a second.) This new discovery, which has not yet been given a clever little name, is ten times shorter than the previous shortest time interval ever recorded. Using laser light pulses to measure the movements of an electron inside an atom, the scientist distinguished a motion which lasted about ten million billionth of a second. (Nature)WHO SAYS TELEVISION CAN’T BE USED AS AN INSTRUMENT OF TORTURE?
While we wait for the inevitable end to the incessant onslaught of poorly planned and hastily executed "reality" tv shows that the networks endlessly parade before us, we’re still going to have to hit rock bottom before some original programming returns to television. And Turner Broadcasting may be scraping the bottom of that barrel with a new show based on the characters and situations of Gilligan’s Island. As if that "classic 70s sitcom" wasn’t gawdawful enough, the brilliant executives at TBS are collaborating with the creators of the original show in order to shift the sitcom to the reality TV format. According to the press release at the TBS website, the show will feature a real-life skipper, first-mate, millionaire couple, movie star (and the rest), who will work together to try to get off the island. To make matters worse, the situation in the "real" tv show will be based on the ridiculous scenarious of the original sitcom. (www.elitestv.com)YES, YOU’RE PAYING FOR TAP WATER
Consumers in the United Kingdom are outraged over the recent revelation that Dasani water (Coca-Cola’s bottled water product) is simply "purified" London tap water. Yet they shouldn’t be too surprised. Research from the independent beverage research company Canadean has shown that most bottled water sold around the world is nothing more than tap water run through some extra treatments such as dechlorination, carbonation, or adding a few minerals. Along with Dasani, other big-name bottled water companies such as Evian, Perrier, and Malvern, are nothing more than glorified tap water, slightly doctored up and wrapped in fancy, overpriced packaging. There’s a reason Evian spelled backwards is naive. (Reuters)THE XXX VIDEO STORE MIGHT BE HIRING
An unemployed German man on welfare lost his court case last week in which he claimed that the state should pay for his pornography and trips to brothels because his wife was in Thailand. After the Foreign Ministry refused to buy his wife a plane ticket so that she could return to Germany, the 43-year-old man took the social service agency to court in order to have his sexual needs paid for. "He wanted them to pay for four trips to the brothel a month, eight porn films a month, plus condoms," said court spokesperson Peter Burgdorf. "He also wanted some sort of appliance for self-gratification to use when watching porn." (Reuters)PAIN IS A GOOD THING
Here’s one you’ve never heard of. Neurologists have diagnosed three-year-old Gabby Gingras with a genetic defect called "Hereditary Sensory and Autonomic Neuropathy Type-5." In short, Gabby cannot feel any pain. The condition is so rare that she is the only person in America with the syndrome, and research done for her parents turned up only a dozen known cases in the entire world. It took a few years for her parents to find a neurologist who could accurately diagnose her condition, but by then the girl had already chewed up her own mouth and tongue, severely scratched and gouged her eyes, broke her own jaw and suffered second degree burns after standing in front of a hot steam humidifier. As well as protecting her in all of the obvious ways, her teeth have also all been removed in order to protect her from biting herself, and she wears swimming goggles everywhere she goes to protect what’s left of her vision. (www.kare11.com)HIDE THE DRUGS, IT’S MY PROBATION OFFICER ON THE PHONE
Now that videophones are beginning to become standard issue, Hong Kong’s Hutchison Telecommunications is working on technology which will hide your location in case someone calls you at an awkward time. The technology will allow cellphone users to select one of several backgrounds to display before answering the phone. For example, you could punch up a background of your office even though you’re chugging beers at the strip joint. For now, the technology remains extremely limited, as the background would remain stationary while your face would move, and any sounds coming from your location would still give you away. (AP)HOW TO SERVE MAN
Responding to the steadily rising popularity of personal-use robots in Japan, scientists at the World Robot Conference in Fukuoka activated their brainiac powers to put together a declaration clarifying the "expectations for next-generation robots." Similar to Isaac Asimov’s sixty-year old "Three Laws of Robotics," the World Robot Declaration also comprises three parts: 1. Next generation robots will be partners that co-exist with human beings; 2. Next-generation robots will assist human beings both physically and psychologically; and 3. Next-generation robots will contribute to the realization of a safe and peaceful society. No news of a declaration of next-next-generation robots, which sees the inevitable rise of a hyper-intelligent race of super-robots which eventally enslaves humanity. I’ll keep you updated. (CP)
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