What I post on this blog, mostly anything and everything. I am going to try and post more personal things as that is the purpose of a blog after all.
Post reblogged from Letters To My Country with 20 notes
Are Men’s Bodies Repulsive?
Apropos of this recent post about Male objectification, I happened upon Hugo Schwyzer’s March 2011 article at the Good Men Project reflecting on male body image issues:
In sixth grade, the same year that puberty hit me with irrevocable force, I had an art teacher, Mr. Blake…[who said] that great artists all acknowledged that the female form was more beautiful than the male…
In time, I discovered that Mr. Blake was wrong about this so-called artistic consensus. But it took me a lot longer to unlearn the damage done by remarks like his and by the conventional wisdom of my childhood. I came into puberty convinced both that my male body was repulsive and that the girls for whom I longed were flawless.
Schwyzer talks about the first time he had sex:
A year later, in my first sexual relationship, I was convinced that my girlfriend found my body physically repellent. I could accept that girls liked and wanted sex, but I figured that what my girlfriend liked was how I made her feel in spite of how my body must have appeared to her. Though I trusted that she loved me, the idea that she—or any other woman—could want this sweaty, smelly, fumbling flesh was still unthinkable.
Later, Schwyzer (who describes himself as bicurious) recounts a sexual encounter with an older man:
I remember one night when I was still in high school that I had sex with a much older man. He was maybe 40, and I couldn’t get enough of the way he looked at me. I felt a rush of elation and relief so great it made me cry. The sex I had with him was not based on my desire for him; rather, I wanted to make him feel good out of my own colossal gratitude for how he had made me feel with his words and his gaze. As we lay on a motel bed, this man ran his fingers across every inch of my body, murmuring flattery of the kind I had never heard from a woman’s lips… I was floored. How different those words were from my ex-girlfriend’s “Hugo, you make me feel so good.” While she had praised my technique, this stranger praised my body’s desirability. And I realized how hungry I was for exactly that kind of affirmation. I needed something to counter that old certainty that my male body was disgusting.
Some of the comments evoke what I was saying the other day about the delicate overlap between objectification and the inherently human impulse/need to be sexually desired. Stephen writes:
My last relationship came to an end in part because I never really felt like my girlfriend thought I was attractive. After two years, I cannot name one time she just told me she thought I was cute/hot/attractive/whatever. It’s a little disheartening, honestly.
Brendan concurs:
I relate so much. I’ve felt this way nearly all my life. I’m really surprised that someone addressed this issue, and so succinctly. In the past, I’ve not been taken seriously when expressing these concerns; and at times, people have insinuated that I’m not straight (to put it nicely). However, I am straight. Remarkably, I can trace this anxiety to the same nursery rhyme, and also, a teacher’s insensitive comments.
Natureartist confirms Schwyzer’s thesis:
When I was as young as 14 I use to argue about this very issue. My Dad was into photography, and I questioned him as to why only women were the subjects in his photography magazines. He claimed that women were beautiful and men were ugly. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the memo on that. He and I had many spirited arguments on the issue. I always claimed that men were just as beautiful, but it was to no avail when arguing with him. I just agreed to disagree. It is interesting to me that one would even want to see themselves as anything but desirable and attractive.
Jess sees male insecurity reflected in her work:
I’m an art student, and in my figure drawing classes we have yet to have a male model. I’d love to draw one – I’ve become incredibly adept at drawing many different kinds of female figures, from young woman to very old woman, but for the most part I’ve had to teach myself how to draw men. I’ve sat in public and drawn them, I’ve looked up reference photos, and one of my friends even suggested that I look to porn sites and erotic photo collections for varied male nudes.
Dominick brings it home:
I’m gay — hot men’s bodies are awesome.
Indeed.
See also Noah Brand’s recent article about his insecurity with his naked body (NSFW).
Source: letterstomycountry
Photo reblogged from Breaking News with 93 notes
New York plans to ban sale of large sizes of sugary drinks
New York City plans to enact a ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, movie theaters and street carts …
The sale of any cup or bottle of sweetened drink larger than 16 fluid ounces — about the size of a medium coffee, and smaller than a common soda bottle — would be prohibited under the first-in-the-nation plan, which could take effect as soon as next March.
Photo: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg with Linda Gibbs, deputy mayor for health. By each soda is the amount of sugar in it.(Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)
Source: breakingnews
Photo reblogged from Scinerds with 69 notes
‘Laser Comb’ May Aid Search for Earth-Like Alien Planets
Image: This picture illustrates part of a spectrum of a star obtained using the HARPS instrument on the ESO 3.6-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. Credit: ESO
Astronomers searching for alien planets may be a step closer to finding true Earth-like worlds around sun-like stars, by using a new tool that promises to increase the accuracy of planet-hunting instruments tenfold, scientists say.
The laser frequency comb is a calibration tool specifically designed for large ground-based telescopes that search for alien planets through the “wobble method,” which identifies extrasolar planets by the gravitational effect (the wobble) they have on their parent stars.
Today instruments such as the European Southern Observatory’s High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph on a telescope in Chile observe planets via the wobble method. But precision is key, and the hollow cathode lamps used to calibrate those spectrometers have their limitations, researchers said — they are not adjustable, can be difficult to gauge, and allow the spectrometers to track the wobble of a star only down to about 30 centimeters per second.
“To detect low-mass planets — down to the Earth mass — in Earth-like orbits requires a precision 10 times better,” study co-author Gaspare Lo Curto of the European Southern Observatory said.
Source: ikenbot
Photo reblogged from with 240 notes
we might be fucked.. or this is bull?
I keep seeing this nonsense floating around, of course. People, please, RESEARCH. I have not yet found this, and can still find NO trace of such article as shown in a ‘screenshot’ above. If someone has a credible source, it would be awesome to read about, and please, come forward. Until then, stop taking things seriously just because you saw a photo from a non-specified ‘news article.’
Source: saymi
Photo reblogged from mostlyculture with 7 notes
There’s a swastika in my Japanese book
From what I can read the book is telling you why; it’s a religious symbol.
Source: obeydah
Photo reblogged from with 5,354 notes
Uniting the Planet for a Journey to Another Star
Former astronaut Mae Jemison (and living legend) will spearhead the audacious 100 Year Starship plan to send mankind on an interstellar adventure.
Source: news.discovery.com
Photoset reblogged from I'm Serious. Loljk. with 13,966 notes
HOW IT SHOULD HAVE ENDED: The Avengers.
Source: iwantcupcakes
Photo reblogged from Futurist Foresight with 44 notes
Wearable tech - very cyberpunk.
Wearable Tech: Welcome to the Future of Fashion
Gadgets continue to shrink in size and adapt to free up our hands, making it more convenient than ever for users to multitask.
Taking it a step further, techie fashionistas are beginning to embrace a new wave of wearable gadgets — from the Pebble watch to Google’s sci-fi glasses. It seems like the spyware we used to see in the movies is actually coming to life.
Full Story: Mashable
Source: emergentfutures
Photo reblogged from FEARVICTIM with 8 notes
12th Dimensional Hypercube.
Finally everything is so clear.
Source: next-imaginaut
Photo reblogged from Collaboration with 145 notes
Space History Photo: Rare Woman Physicist at NASA in 1957
In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, one of the rare women physicists at NASA works on an atomic laboratory experiment at the Lewis Research Center in 1957. The experiment pushed a gas at low pressure through a high-voltage discharge.
NASA today has a web site devoted to highlighting women who work at the agency, with one goal being to “inspire girls everywhere to reach for the stars and explore the myriad of opportunities available to them through pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”
Source: space.com
Photo reblogged from with 349 notes
Floating Architecture: Finding Ways to Live With Rising Water
“The Ark is a hotel by Russian design firm Remistudio and is meant to be self-sufficient. The transparent foil roof would allow light to reach plants inside, and the waste produced in the building would be converted into fuel. The cupola form is meant to be energy-efficient, and its shell basement with cables and arches is designed to distribute weight evenly to make it earthquake- and flood-resistant. ”
Source: pbs.org
Photoset reblogged from Gamefreaks with 12,617 notes
MARIO, YOUR PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER AQUARIUM?!?!
Reddittor jennyleighb posted video and these photos of her roomate’s 55 gallon aquarium that’s been customized with a LEGO Super Mario Bros. level. Here’s a link to more photos showing the progession of the build.
Source: otlgaming
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