Big O helps make baby; seems to help get it out, too?

A new documentary claims that somewhere in the midst of shooting an 8 pound creature out of a 1 inch well, slit.....women in labor actually have orgasms
The documentary is called Orgasmic Birth, and tells women rather than feeling agony, they should thoroughly enjoy childbirth.

The movie is being shown throughout England, and shows women climaxing while bringing life into the world. Critics, though, say it looks like a cheesy porn...with an extra little guy in there.

One of the women in the film, Amber Hartnell, 29, says she experienced a climax just over halfway through giving birth to her son Orus, now 3 1/2.
'All of a sudden, the orgasm just started rolling through and rolling through, and it just kept coming,' says Amber, who lives in Hawaii.

She says she'd never read a childbirth book in her life 'so she could be open to the process'.
[just for the Rachel Paiste record, she did have a water birth. clearly why]

Orgasms, according to the film's producer Debra Pascali-Bonaro, are 'the best-kept secret' in childbirth.
quote directly from daily mail: But according to the panel of experts collected together for this film in order to tell us how to find sensual pleasure in birth, those contractions which make you feel like your insides are being pulled apart by two juggernauts are, in fact, waves of pleasure we mothers are too uptight to recognise.

Their argument is that if only we all gave birth at home, without gas and air, and surrendered to the experience, we'd all be shouting 'Yes, yes, yes' louder than Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally.

'When the baby's coming down the birth canal, remember, it's going through the exact same positions as something going in - the penis going into the vagina, which often leads to orgasm,' says Dr Christiane Northrup, who seems to display a rather limited appreciation of the female anatomy.

DORK FACTOR: 10,000

Possible AIDS cure?

WSJ - An American man underwent fairly normal bone marrow surgery to treat lukemia, and had shocking results.
The patient, a 42-year-old ex-pat living in Berlin, is still recovering from his leukemia therapy, but he appears to have won his battle with AIDS. Doctors have not been able to detect the virus in his blood for more than 600 days, despite his having ceased all conventional AIDS medication. Normally when a patient stops taking AIDS drugs, the virus stampedes through the body within weeks, or days.

"I was very surprised," said the doctor, Gero Hütter.

The breakthrough appears to be that Dr. Hütter, a soft-spoken hematologist who isn't an AIDS specialist, deliberately replaced the patient's bone marrow cells with those from a donor who has a naturally occurring genetic mutation that renders his cells immune to almost all strains of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The development suggests a potential new therapeutic avenue and comes as the search for a cure has adopted new urgency. Many fear that current AIDS drugs aren't sustainable. Known as antiretrovirals, the medications prevent the virus from replicating but must be taken every day for life and are expensive for poor countries where the disease runs rampant. Last year, AIDS killed two million people; 2.7 million more contracted the virus, so treatment costs will keep ballooning.

The mutation, found in many gay men, prevents a molecule called CCR5 from appearing on the surface of cells. CCR5 acts as a kind of door for the virus. Since most HIV strains must bind to CCR5 to enter cells, the mutation bars the virus from entering. A new AIDS drug, Selzentry, made by Pfizer Inc., doesn't attack HIV itself but works by blocking CCR5.

Psychedellic New Species

A brightly-coloured fish which bounces along the seabed has been hailed as a new species by scientists - who have dubbed it "psychedelica".

Research published in the US scientific journal Copeia says the fish was spotted by scuba divers off the island of Ambon in eastern Indonesia.

It belongs to the frogfish family, but its looks are unique even among its peers, the journal reported.

Doodling Helpful Recall Technique

BBC- Doodling may look messy, but it could in fact be a sign of an alert mind, a study suggests.

Plymouth University researchers carried out memory tests on 40 volunteers, asking them to listen to a phone call and recall names and places.

Doodlers performed 29% better than non-doodlers, the team found.

ALBINO Dolphin!

A PINK DOLPHIN was spotted on a Louisiana lake.

The mammal was pictured by local charter boat captain Erik Rue, who has been studying the dolphin since it first surfaced in Lake Calcasieu, an inland saltwater estuary, north of the Gulf of Mexico in Southwestern USA.

Since it was spotted with its pod of normal coloured dolphins last year the animal has been wowing visitors on the lake.

'I just happened to see a little pod of dolphins, and I noticed one that was a little lighter. It was absolutely stunningly pink', he said.
'I had never seen anything like it. It's the same colour throughout the whole body and it looks like it just came out of a paint booth.

"Extinct" bird found, consumed.

Daily Mail - A bird believed to have been extinct for decades was captured on film in a remote mountainous area of the Philippines... before it was sold at a market for 10 pence and eaten.

Scientists believed the Worcester's buttonquail had died out years ago and the only evidence of its existence was in illustrations based on dead specimens discovered centuries ago.

However, a television crew inadvertently filmed a one of the birds while recording a documentary on traditional methods of bird trapping in the mountains of Luzon in the Philippines.

Neither the film crew or the bird trappers realised the creature was rare and after filming it was sold at a poultry market - as food.

By the time the film was spotted by a stunned ornithologist from the World Bird Club of the Philippines, the bird had already been sold, cooked and eaten.

Gel Provides AIDS protection.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An Indevus Pharmaceuticals gel formulated to protect women from the virus that causes AIDS appeared to protect about a third of them from infection -- the first time a so-called microbicide has been shown to work, researchers led by Dr. Salim Abdool Karim of the Center for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africatold a conference in Montreal.
The trial was performed on 3,000 women, of whom 30% were protected.

HOLES in Alaskan Glacier

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Geologists monitoring Mount Redoubt for signs of a possible eruption noticed that a hole in the glacier clinging to the north side of the volcano had doubled in size overnight - and now spans the length of two football fields.

"The glacier is sort of falling apart in the upper part," research geologist Kristi Wallace said.

The signs of heat add to concerns that an eruption is near, which could send an ash cloud about 100 miles northeast toward Anchorage, the state's largest city, or onto communities on the Kenai Peninsula, which is even closer to the mountain on the west side of Cook Inlet. It would be the first eruption since 1990.

true facts. the pill confuses biology.

The introduction of the pill could be touted as the creator of modern sexuality. But it could also be responsible for confusing hormones and attracting ill-suited partners, new studies say.

The British study confirms past ideas that a woman's taste in men is skewed while on the pill - in the wrong direction. The pill alters the type of male scent that women find most attractive to those who are less genetically compatible.

To take this the Rachel Paiste step further: perhaps this is one of the reasons why the divorce rate went up with the regular use of oral contraceptives.

When not under the influence of extra estrogen, women are attracted to the pit stains of dudes that have incredible different genetic structure than themselves.
However, when on the pill, women chose those with a genetic build similar to their own, exponentially raising the possibility of mutation and immune weaknesses. It is not normal to be attracted to someone genetically close to you.

the technical part: Several previous studies have suggested that women tend to prefer the smell of men who are different from them in a cluster of genes called the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), which governs the immune system. Some of these studies have also found that this effect is not seen among Pill users. [famous t-shirt tests]

Unlike some previous studies, this research did not find any preference for dissimilar MHC genes. However, when the women started taking the Pill their preferences shifted towards the scent of men with more similar genes to their own.

This suggests that Pill use has an effect on perceptions of scent attractiveness, even if there is no underlying female preference for similar or dissimilar MHC genes.

sex or blog, sex or blog.....

Intel went out to prove how important computers have become in the lives of Americans. Working with Harris Interactive, they surveyed over 2,000 adults in the United States.

According to the study, 46 percent of women and 30 percent of men would opt to forgo sex for two weeks instead of giving up access to their precious Internet for the same period.

More broadly, those surveyed said access to the Internet ranked highest among the discretionary spending items they could not live without. Cable television, dining out, shopping for clothes and gym memberships followed in declining importance.

Along similar lines, 61 percent of the women surveyed said they would rather go without TV for two weeks than lose access to the Internet for one week.

Using the data as a means of pitching products fueled by Intel chips, the company said: “The survey revealed that 65 percent of adults feel they cannot live without Internet access, and even more — 71 percent — responded that it is important or very important to have Internet-enabled devices, such as laptops, netbooks and mobile Internet devices that can provide them with real-time updates on important issues including the state of the economy.”

Climate Change does Destroy Societies

CHICAGO (Reuters) - An analysis of rings on a stalagmite from a cave near Jerusalem reveals a drier climate in the region at a time in history when the Roman and Byzantine empires were in decline, scientists reported on Thursday.

University of Wisconsin geologists analyzed the chemical composition of individual rings as small as one-hundredth of a millimeter across that formed the stalagmite growing up from the floor of the Soreq Cave near Jerusalem between 200 B.C. and 1100 A.D..

Geologists John Valley and Ian Orland concluded the climate was drier in the eastern Mediterranean between 100 A.D. and 700 A.D., with steep drops in rainfall around 100 A.D. and 400 A.D. -- a period of waning Roman and Byzantine power in the region.

"Whether this is what weakened the Byzantines or not isn't known, but it is an interesting correlation," Valley said in a statement.

The team is now applying the same geochemical technique to examine older samples from the cave from the time of the last glacial retreat roughly 19,000 years ago, to help understand how weather patterns respond to fast-warming temperatures.

Researchers from the Geological Survey of Israel and Hebrew University in Jerusalem helped with the study, which was to appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Quaternary Research.

first mars, now saturn

WASHINGTON (AP) - Astronomers looking at the spectacular supersonic plumes of gas and dust shooting off one of Saturn's moons say there are strong hints of liquid water, a key building block of life.

Their research, appearing in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, adds to the growing push to explore further the moon Enceladus, as one of the solar system's most compelling places for potential life.

Using images from NASA's Cassini probe, astronomers had already figured that the mysterious plumes shooting from Enceladus' icy terrain contain water vapor. New calculations suggesting the gas and dustspew at speeds faster-than-sound make the case for liquid, said study lead author Candice Hansen of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in California. Her team calculated the plumes travel more than 1,360 mph.

Carolyn Porco, the head of the Cassini camera team and an astronomer who didn't take part in Hansen's research, said "the evidence in my mind is building on liquid water." That moon, one of 60 circling Saturn, "has become the go-to place" for exploration in the outer planets, she said.

Europa, a moon of Jupiter, may have a liquid ocean beneath its frozen surface. But Enceladus, thought responsible for producing one of Saturn's rings, is more accessible, Hansen said. "Enceladus is sort of helpfully spewing out its innards," she said.

more reasons not to waste time on love.

The honeymoon period is officially over two years, six months and 25 days into wedlock, according to new research.

And by the third wedding anniversary 83 per cent say they couldn't be bothered to continue celebrating the day they got together.

The poll of 5,000 married couples, conducted by global research company onepoll.com, revealed that more than half feel undervalued in their relationship.

Seven in 10 men admit they are so comfortable with their spouse they frequently leave socks, pants and other dirty washing lying around the house.
And 79 per cent think nothing of leaving the toilet seat up after using the bathroom.

Two-thirds of women polled say they never make the effort to dress up and look nice for their partner, and 54 per cent no longer bother plastering on the make-up.

In fact, a slovenly 61 per cent of women readily admit the first thing they do when they get home from work is remove all smart clothes and make-up for comfy pyjamas or tracksuit bottoms. [and I ask: WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT?!?!?]
Forty three per cent of couples haven't had breakfast in bed together since they walked down the aisle. [good. it's cleaner that way.]

Tear out those red panties, the rumors are TRUE!

We've all heard it. Red is the color of love, sex, passion, whatever. But a recent study found that the color really does drive men wild more htan any other.
When shown photographs, men rated a woman more sexy when wearing red clothing or if the image was framed with a red border.

The study led by psychology professor Andrew Elliot of the University of Rochester, New York, seemed to confirm red as the color of romance -- as so many Valentine's Day card makers and lipstick sellers have believed for years.

Although this "red alert" may be a product of human society associating red with love for eons, it also may arise from more primitive biological roots, Elliot said.

Noting the genetic similarity of humans to higher primates, he said scientists have shown that certain male primates are especially attracted to females of their species displaying red. For example, female baboons and chimpanzees show red coloring when nearing ovulation, sending a sexual signal that the males apparently find irresistible.

"It could be this very deep, biologically based automatic tendency to respond to red as an attraction cue given our evolutionary heritage," Elliot, whose findings appear in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, said in a telephone interview.

The researchers noted that the color red did not alter how men rated the women in the photographs in terms of likeability, intelligence or kindness -- only attractiveness.

The researchers then had a group of young women rate whether the pictured woman was pretty. Red had no impact on whether women rated other women as pretty, they found
Gay men and color blind men were excluded from the study.

Deep takes over the world!

India began the countdown Monday to the launch of its first unmanned mission to the moon, adding a third nation to the Asian space race.

The lunar-orbiting spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1, is scheduled to blast off aboard an Indian-built rocket at 6:20 am (0050 GMT) on Wednesday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on India's southeastern coast.

The launch is a major step for India as it seeks to keep pace with regional space competitors Japan and China. Last month, China became only the third country in the world to independently carry out a space walk.

All three countries have eyes on a share of the commercial satellite launch business and also see their space programmes as an important symbol of international stature and economic development.

The Chandrayaan-1 is being sent on a two-year, 80-million-dollar mission to provide an in-depth map of the mineral, chemical and topographical characteristics of the moon's surface.

Scientists confirm shark's ‘virgin birth’

Scientists have confirmed the second case of a "virgin birth" in a shark. In a report in The Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female Atlantic blacktip shark in the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center contained no genetic material from a male.

Hadron goes Flacid. Paiste cries.

GENEVA, Sept. 20 (WashPost)-- The world's largest atom smasher -- which was launched with great fanfare earlier this month -- has been damaged twice and will be out of commission for at least two months, its operators said Saturday.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, said Saturday that a large amount of helium had leaked into the 17-mile circular tunnel deep under the Swiss-French border that houses the Large Hadron Collider.

The massive collider began operating Sept. 10 to the delight of physicists around the world, flinging protons around the circle at nearly the speed of light. But it had to be shut down only 36 hours later because an electrical transformer failed.

That was repaired, but a CERN statement said a second failure took place midday Friday in the last section of the tunnel to undergo testing at high current, causing the large helium leak.

Spokesman James Gillies said the latest incident was several miles from the earlier damage. It is considered much more time-consuming to repair than the first malfunction.

The $10 billion particle accelerator has been in the design and construction stages for more than two decades. When operating, it fires beams of protons from the nuclei of atoms through the tunnel at near light speed.

It then causes the protons to collide, revealing how the tiniest particles were first created after the Big Bang, which many theorize was the massive explosion that formed the stars, planets and everything else.

Quote of the day in THIS article!

WashPost - Scarless Surgery Uses Body's Own Openings

When Albert Pagliuca got gallstones, his surgeon offered to remove his gallbladder with a new operation designed to hurt less, get him back to work more quickly and leave no visible scars. But there was one catch: Doctors would pull the organ out through his mouth.

"I kept thinking, 'What if it gets stuck in my windpipe?' " said Pagliuca, 45, who lives outside Chicago. " 'What if I choke on it?' "
To read the whole article...
The approach, called NOTES -- for natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery -- seeks to move beyond arthroscopic and laparoscopic techniques, which for many procedures replaced large incisions with several small ones, shortening hospital stays and recovery time, reducing pain and risks, and leaving much smaller scars.

More recently, surgeons realized they could enter the body through natural openings with flexible endoscopes, which are routinely used for diagnostic purposes such as colon cancer screening. After experimenting for years on pigs and human cadavers, a team in India announced in 2005 the first successful procedure in humans.
And the quote....
The technique has been used mostly to remove gallbladders through the mouth or the vagina. But a few patients have had appendectomies, and doctors are experimenting with stomach surgery for obesity and other conditions.

why men cheat

A new study found a "cheating" allele present in both human and vole males. Those men with the cheating allele were more prone to marital dysfunction and more likely to get divorced. Men with two copies of the allele were twice as likely as a man without the allele.

The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, studied the genetics of cheating. Researchers said the cheating allele regulates the activity of a hormone in the brain that can affect a man's attitudes toward fidelity and monogamy.

If a man lacks the gene variant they're more likely to be a devoted mate, researchers said.

The study of 1,000 hetero couples focused on men because the hormone produced by the gene is known to play a larger role in men's brains than in women's brains.