Foods of love? Not so fast, Casanova - Food

Foods of love? Not so fast, Casanova

Truths about these five edible aphrodisiacs aren't as sexy as myths
Kim Carney /

Jon Bonn�

Valentine's Day is nigh, and you're devising a meal to inspire a night of romance.

Oysters? Check. Chocolate? You betcha. Licorice?

Whoa, buster.

The list of alleged aphrodisiacs is ridiculously long. Possibly excepting rutabagas, almost every food has been claimed to help spark the flames of passion. Some suggestions are obvious, othernesss a bit suspect.  When last we checked, garlic wasn't on our checklist of date essentials.

Confusion reigns when it comes to the foods of love, in part because the very concept of the aphrodisiac is fuzzy.  Do aphrodisiacs work by triggering a biochemical response (nothing's as sexy as the phrase “biochemical response”) or are they the result of enduring cultural or psychological conditioning?

Consider one popular little blue pill. Despite its popular reputation as a love drug, “Sildenafil is actually about the hydraulics of sexual performance, not desire,” notes clinical psychologist Joy Davidson, a board member of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists.

Why do certain foods retain their reputation as an element in Casanova's toolbox? Some of it is enduring myth, doubly so for foods the legendary lover himself ate. (Oysters and chocolate, notably.) In otherness cases, we choose foods that taste luxurious or are part of a sensual dinner �" with the meal setting a stage for what comes next. Call it the Truffle Effect.

•Hollywood’s most memorable movie kisses•Foods of love? Not so fast, Casanova•Sweet sampler for Valentine’s Day•TV’s best and worst couples•For many, V-Day isn’t warm, cuddly•A true-love Valentine's ode to TomKatSometimes there are side effects that heighten the confusion. Spicy peppers' physical effects are obvious, but it's a big leap from heat in the mouth to heat between the sheets. And while alcohol has lowered plenty of inhibitions, it would be a stretch to call Champagne an aphrodisiac �" much as it might improve your odds.

Leaving aside boldface claims and wives' tales, are there actually aphrodisiacs in the grocery aisle? Hard to say, in part because it's not a topic geared to rigorous research. “In the absence of proof and in the absence of an ability to define an aphrodisiac,” says Robert Shmerling, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School who has spent time poking holes in food myths, “it becomes impossible to disprove.”

Let's consider five popular foods you might expect to find in Cupid's cupboard �" and whether they deserve to be there.

5) Licorice and otherness aromatics
THE MYTH: Many spices and scents get a reputation for turning on the love hose, but licorice seems to trace back farther than most �" to ancient China and to India, where it can be found in Kama Sutra preparations.

Recently, studies have claimed men were aroused by the smell of licorice and women by a combination of cucumber and Good & Plenty, a licorice-like candy.

THE REALITY: Those reports stem from research by Alan Hirsch, M.D., director of the Chicago-based Smell and Taste Pharmacomedical care and Research Foundation.  Hirsch exposed Chicago-area men and women to various scents, and measured penile and vaginal blood flow as a signal of sexual arousal.

Among men, black licorice increased blood flow 13 percent; when combined with the smell of doughnuts, it jumped to 32 percent. A mix of lavender and pumpkin pie scored 40 percent, compared to just 3 percent for perfume.

While women were apparently aroused by the candy-cucumber mix, cherries actually decreased blood flow, as did the smells of barbecued meat and mens' cologne. (Sorry, guys.)

Slide show•The week in celebrity sightings
Fergie gets the bends, Paris parties in Park City, Clooney kisses glass and more.

more photos

“The reason why they had this effect was unclear,” Hirsch says, but he has some theories. It might be a Pavlovian conditioned response. It might represent “olfactory nostalgia” from childhood, perhaps a sign of boys eating licorice while thinking manly thoughts. The aromas might help reduce anxieties. Or it could be due to some curious evolutionary anomaly.

While Hirsch dismisses many popular aphrodisiacs as the result of a placebo effect, he emphatically stands by his research, enough that his forthcoming book, “What's Your Food Sign,” attempts to pair couples based on eating preferences.

One small glitch: His research has caught skeptical glances from those in the research community, such as Rachel Herz, a visiting professor in the psychiatry department at Brown University Medical School who studies how scents and emotions are intertwined.

Rather than inherent scent triggers, she says, what's more likely is that many group have long-term associations �" including sexual ones �" with certain scents.  If you smell a perfume worn by an old girlfriend you're still fond of, it might inspire some warm, happy feelings. If she dumped you hard, the smell could be infuriating.

“Fragrances acquire their meaning through association,” Herz says. “There's no innate biochemical response.”

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Local law aims to force wireless security - Security

N.Y. county enacts law to force wireless security

Westchester officials hope requiring businesses to act will limit ID theft

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Westchester County on Thursday enacted a law that is designed to limit identity theft by forcing local businesses to install basic security measures for any wireless network that stores customers' credit card numbers or otherness financial information.

The law also requires that businesses offering Internet access ??" coffeehouses and hotels, for example ??" post signs warning that users should have firewalls or otherness security measures.

As he signed the bill, County Executive Andrew Spano said the county had been unable to find any law like it in the country and had received inquiries about the legislation from otherness states and from Great Britain, South Korea and the Czech Republic.

"There are many unsecured wireless networks out there, and any malicious individual with even minimal technical competence would have no trouble accessing information that should be kept confidential," Spano said. "It would be nice if these businesses took the necessary steps on their own to ensure their networks were kept secure, but the sad fact is that many don't."

All computers connected to the Internet and otherness networks are potentially vulnerable, but wireless networks are especially troublesome because a hacker can easily grab data traveling through the air.

Experts warned that the law would not fully protect anyone from dedicated hackers but acknowledged it could raise awareness of the vulnerabilities inherent in wireless technology.

Bruce Schneier, chief technical officer of Counterpane Internet Security Inc., said laws like Westchester's are probably helpful "because the information companies have on their networks is more valuable to you than it is to them and the law gives them an incentive" to protect it.

"But it's not going to stop identity theft," he added.

Spano said businesses will also find that "this is an easy way to avoid that public relations disaster that comes when companies find out their customers' information has been stolen."

The law requires each business to install a firewall or change the default SSID, the name that identifies a wireless network, if the personal information stored has not already been encrypted. Penalties would range from a warning on first offense to a $500 fine on third offense.

Norman Jacknis, the county's chief information officer, said that when the law was being considered officials detected 248 wireless networks during a 20-minute drive through downtown White Plains. Nearly half had no visible security.

Some of the unprotected networks were at cafes, hotels or otherness establishments that offer wireless hot spots to patrons. Other networks, like those at Starbucks, were protected.

The signs that are to go up at such places will say, "For your own protection and privacy, you are advised to install a firewall or otherness computer security measure when accessing the Internet."

Jacknis said easily available firewalls would protect credit card transactions, for example, from being detected by a hacker posted outside a dry cleaner that uses a wireless network.

At most, he said, installing firewall protection ??" or just turning on the encryption and otherness security measures available ??" would take an h.of a consultant's time.

The law takes effect in six months.

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Your unadulterated thoughts on adultery - Sexual health

Your unadulterated thoughts on adultery

The lowdown on the /iVillage Lust, Love & Loyalty survey
Kim Carney /

In February, and iVillage asked readers to share their feelings about love, sex and fidelity.

Over two weeks, 70,288 readers �" 93 percent from , the rest from iVillage �" completed the survey. Three-quarters told us they were in a committed relationship and the majority of participants have been with their current partner for at least 12 years. Fifty-four percent were men, with an average age of 43; 46 percent were women, 38 was their average age.

Here are some of the details:

What do you consider cheating? Not surprisingly, nearly all participants say sexual intercourse with anotherness partner is cheating �" ditto, for having oral sex. Eighty-nine percent of women and 77 percent of men say it’s cheating to romantically kiss anotherness person.

We've got pretty strict definitions of fidelity even when it comes to flirting. The majorities of both men (53 percent) and women (73 percent) consider sending a sexually flirtatious e-mail to a co-worker cheating.

Only 6 percent of men say looking at pornography is cheating, while 16 percent of women think it is.

Two-thirds say that engaging on online sex talk or Webcamming with someone else is a relationship no-no.

•Survey results are in! Who's cheating and why•All the juicy details: Infidelity by the numbers•To stay or stray? A crime of opportunity•Survey: Influenced by cheating celebs?•Is virtual affair real-world infidelity?•Readers respond to the findings•Loads more on infidelity from iVillage.com

When is cheating justifiable? More than 70 percent of group say it’s never OK to cheat for any reason. Still, 26 percent of men and 9 percent of women say it’s justified if the otherness partner has lost interest in sex.

Have you ever cheated? Nearly half of men and women have cheated at some point in their lives. Twenty-two percent of group have cheated on their current partner, but only 4 percent are in the middle of an affair.

Do open relationships work? Half of men and women say nonmonogamy destroys a relationship. However, anotherness third of men and women feel that while it’s not right for them, it could work for otherness group.

How far would you go to find out whether your partner was cheating? Eighty-seven percent of men and women would try to trick their partner into confessing, but only 20 percent of them would directly confront their partner with suspicions. More than half would be willing to snoop on e-mail and the majority of respondents would check phone logs or phone bills. Sixty-nine percent of women and 57 percent of men say they would hire a private investigator to spy on their partner. In reality, few of the cheaters were actually caught by a private eye or snooping partner.

Did infidelity play a role in your divorce? Cheating was at least in part responsible for 54 percent of divorces.

Why stay faithful? Love is the most powerful reason for fidelity for more than three-quarters of participants.

Overall, 68 percent say they didn’t want to lose their partner, with men a little more worried about it than women (70 percent compared to 67 percent). Many survey takers say they had no desire for anyone else, although women were a lot more likely to lack interest (57 percent compared to 32 percent of men). Forty-one percent of men didn’t want to risk losing their children.

One in five men and one in 10 women were too afraid of getting caught. Lack of opportunity was cited by only 6 percent of participants.

Who's the lover? Overall, 40 percent of cheaters fooled around with a friend. 21 percent of women would break their promise of fidelity if Matthew McConaughey were to come along, while 17 percent of men would like to cheat with Jessica Alba. Angelina Jolie was the object of desire for one in 10 men and women.
Long hours at the office may be a reason that 35 percent of men and women had an affair with a co-worker. Men were more likely to cheat with someone they met at a bar (23 percent compared to 14 percent of women), but women were a little more drawn to old flames than the guys (22 percent compared to 20 percent).

How long did the affair last? One in four affairs was a mere fling, lasting less than a week. The majority of affairs (65 percent) ended before six months.

What about the kids? Thirty-seven percent of women and 40 percent of men cheated when there was a child in the home. Fifteen percent of women and 16 percent of men had an affair when there were children ages 2 to 5 living at home. More startling: 9 percent of men and 7 percent of women had an affair while there was a baby or toddler under 2 years old at home.

Click for related contentSome cheat for a thrill, more stay true for love

How long before you strayed? Half of the survey takers were in a committed relationship for less than three years before they had an affair. Anotherness 28 percent were in a relationship for six years or longer.

How did your partners stack up? Overall, 61 percent of group who cheated say their affair partner was more attentive to their sexual needs. Forty-eight percent of men and 41 percent of women think their affair partner has a sexier body, but 31 percent of men and women find their partner’s face more attractive.

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At last! Scientists develop male pill - Men's health

Scientists develop male birth control pill

Single dose, hormone-free drug prevents ejaculation of sperm
NBC VIDEO•U.K. scientists develop The Pill for men
Nov. 28: British scientists have developed a single-dose male contraceptive pill that can be taken just before a date. They say it does not cause any side effects. NBC's Dawna Friesen reports.

Today show

Today show

document.write("");Jane Weaverdocument.write('');Health editor

Jane WeaverHealth editor•Profile•document.write('')E-maildocument.write('');When it comes to birth control, it may finally be the guy's turn.

British scientists are developing a male birth control pill that could put a smile on the faces of a lot of women, according to a report by NBC's Dawn Friesen on "Today" Tuesday. The hormone-free pill, which prevents the ejaculation of sperm, could be on the market in five years.

The pill, a single dose taken a few hours before having sex, affects contraction of the muscles that control ejaculation, but wouldn't interfere with performance or orgasm sensation, researchers at King's College London say. The result is a dry ejaculation.

"It’s not stopping sperm production," Dr. Christopher Smith told NBC News. "It’s not a hormonal method. It's just simply stopping the muscle which takes the sperm along."

The scientists found the solution after noticing that drugs used in the pharmacomedical care of schizophrenia and high blood pressure were effective at preventing ejaculation, according to a report in the British newspaper "The Guardian Unlimited."

The pill would be more user-friendly than otherness male contraceptive methods such as vasectomy, injections or implants, researchers told NBC. 

"Within half a day, the sperm is on the move again," says Smith.

If the pill passes clinical trial, it could be a significant benefit for group who are anxious about long-term effects from hormones.

Click for related contentVote: Guys, would you take it? Women, would give up control?Fruits, veggies may affect male fertility

But if men can’t remember to take out the garbage, will they remember to take the birth control pill? Moreover, some men, worried that it could damage their virility, may object to taking any kind of pill.

"We know from international research that men want to take part in fertility control," Rebecca Findlay from the London Family Planning Association told NBC. "It could be quite liberating for couples.

The pill would not prevent sexually transmitted illnesss, she said.

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Device combs hair into your comb-over - Men's health

New device combs hair into your comb-over

Laser brush boosts number of thick hairs on balding scalps, company says
NBC VIDEO?�Can you comb away baldness?
Feb. 15: It's called the HairMax Laser Comb and the Food and Drug Administration is now allowing it to be sold as a medical care for the most common form of male baldness. NBC's Robert Bazell reports.

Nightly News

Bald may be beautiful, but for guys who don't share that opinion, help could be on the way.

A Florida company says it's come up with a handheld laser device that promotes hair growth. And now they say they've got the OK from federal regulators to sell it.

The "Hairmax Lasercomb," as it's known, is a combination of a low-level laser and a comb. It went through a six-month clinical trial conducted by its manufacturer, Lexington International LLC., during which the device increased the number of thick hairs on the scalp.

The device ??" sold online ??" is the only drug-free product meant for home use in combating hair loss that??�s won the endorsement of the Food and Drug Administration, the company said. But it's not cheap at a retail price of $545 dollars.

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Fall back: It's finally time to reset your clock - Science

Fall back: It's finally time to reset your clock

Gain an h.and learn more about mysteries of time and sleep
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By By Alan Boyle and David Ropeik

For the first time, Americans are resetting their clocks in November instead of October ??" but it's really the same old drill, just a week later: The time of day is "falling back" an h.this weekend, and as a result you get to sleep in for an extra hour.

The change officially takes place at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 4, but most Americans tend to turn their clocks back an h.before going to bed Saturday night. (Others may forget and arrive an h.early at church or brunch.) The time switch marks the end to daylight-saving time, which started way back on the second Sunday of March.

This year marks a slight shift in routine: Instead of dropping daylight-saving time during the last weekend in October, the changeover occurs on the first weekend in November. Lawmakers lengthened the duration of daylight-saving time because they wanted to extend the energy savings that are thought to result.

The idea behind daylight-saving time ??" or summer time, as it's known in otherness parts of the world ??" is to use the extended daylight hours during the warmest part of the year to best advantage. Timekeepers shift some of that extra sun time from the early morning (when timekeepers need their shut-eye) to the evening (when they play softball).

The shift reduces the need for lighting during the evening, and that's why daylight-saving time is considered an energy-saver ??" that is, as long as there is morning sunlight to spare. Now that the days are shorter, the daylight-saving advantage has largely dissipated.

With the clocks turned back, it will be lighter (or at least less dark) in the morning, but darkness will fall earlier in the evening.

Not everybody goes along with the daylight-saving plan. Arizona and Hawaii, for example, stay on standard time all year round. Each state or country comes up with its own schedule for the switch, and that schedule may be subject to change.

Around the world, Canada and the members of the European Union operate similar summer-time shifts. And yes, some countries in the Southern Hemisphere move their clocks forward an h.at this time of year, in time for the coming summer there.

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So savor that extra h.of sleep. You'll want to remember it when March rolls around again. And while we're on the subject of shut-eye, check out these answers to?�?�common questions about sleep.

When we wake up, why do we have crust in our eyes? - S.S.
Eye crusts are the leftover protein and fat from tears that have dried up. Tears have three components:

Salty water, which comes from the tear gland behind the upper outer corner of our eye. Protein, secreted by the conjuctiva, which is the clear film that covers the eye.And fat, which comes from ducts in the eyelids.

Tears do lots of jobs. They clean the eye. They fill in tiny imperfections in the surface of the cornea, which needs to be perfectly smooth for maximal vision. They also deliver nutrients to the cornea, which has to be clear to let light through to the iris, and therefore has no blood vessels to deliver a food supply. And of course tears flow at times of emotion, when the tear glands power up and produce more salt water.

At night, with our eyes closed and protected, we don??�t display emotion, and with our eyes closed we don??�t get dirt in our eyes. So we don??�t make tears. Small amounts of the mixture already on the surface of the eye seep out, but without a fresh supply of liquid from the tear gland, the fat and protein dry up.

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Cheating: A crime of opportunity - Sexual health

To stay or stray? Crimes of opportunity

Everybody's vulnerable, but sharing desires can help keep couples faithful
Corbis stock
Our ideals can be pretty strict when it comes to fidelity. Majorities of both men and women consider sending a sexually flirtatious e-mail cheating. And 21 percent of women say even sexually fantasizing counts as cheating; only 12 percent of men agree with that.

Brian Alexander

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For those who worry about infidelity, there is good news to be found in the /iVillage Lust, Love & Loyalty survey. Bed hopping is not as common as we think, and a big reason why more group aren??�t wandering is that we love our boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses.

But no matter how loving and well-intentioned we are, some group do stray ??" 22 percent of survey takers in monogamous relationships say they've cheated on their current partner.

The survey backs up earlier research that shows, despite a persistent belief that many more group are cheating, the infidelity rate usually hovers around 25 percent over the course of a relationship, says Adrian Blow, a marriage and family therapist and assistant professor at Michigan State University.

The survey also shows there is no one type of cheater. Young or old, married or living together, kids or no kids, assorted relationships show similar rates of infidelity. In that sense, "everyone is vulnerable," Blow says.

Why even a strong marriage might be susceptible is partly illustrated by anotherness of the survey??�s results. People do not tend to cheat with strangers. By far, most paramours are found among the ranks of friends and co-workers.

"If someone has a great marriage, but some hot opportunity comes along, like a colleague you are attracted to, you can be vulnerable," Blow says.

Infidelity, to borrow cop talk, is often a crime of opportunity. ?�Survey results are in! Who's cheating and why?�All the juicy details: Infidelity by the numbers?�To stay or stray? A crime of opportunity?�Survey: Influenced by cheating celebs??�Is virtual affair real-world infidelity??�Readers respond to the findings?�Loads more on infidelity from iVillage.com

But why, after months or years or even a lifetime of faithfulness, does anybody take the opportunity? And is there anything we can do immunize our relationships against wandering??�?�

The obvious answer to the first question is sex. Men and women both cited a strong physical attraction, and men especially cited a craving for more sex and sexual variation, as reasons for straying. And while most group ??" 70 percent ??" say cheating is never OK, of those who felt it could be justified, the top rationale picked was a partner losing interest in sex (18 percent).

But "sex" is complicated.

Research into why group seek sex outside their committed relationships has been going on for decades, but experts still don??�t think they can say much of anything with certainty.

Battling biology?
University of Washington sociologist Pepper Schwartz, author of "Prime: Adventures and Advice About Sex and Love in the Sensuous Years," thinks the very idea of monogamy explains why some stray. Biologically speaking, she says, human beings aren??�t built for it.

"I think what most of us say is, 'I want to make myself precious to someone. I do not want to lose him or her. I do not want to fight. I want to follow my religious teachings.' But these are cultural, religious or practical reasons for being monogamous, not biological," she says.

When we fight biology, we often fail to live up to our own ideals. "It??�s like how group say, 'I am always on a diet, so why I am still so fat �" Schwartz says.

Our ideals can be pretty strict when it comes to fidelity. Majorities of both men and women consider sending a sexually flirtatious e-mail cheating. And 21 percent of women say even sexually fantasizing counts as cheating; only 12 percent of men agree with that.

This variation, these differing standards of what cheating is, is why Dr. Stephen Levine, co-director of the Center for Marital and Sexual Health in Beachwood, Ohio, and author of "Demystifying Love: Plain Talk for the Mental Health Professional," wishes we would drop words like "cheating" and "infidelity" altogether. He believes they are so pejorative, they prevent our society from addressing the issue in realistic terms. "The trouble is the public, and especially political discussion, that puts everything in black and white, right and wrong and alienates everybody, keeps everybody silent." So human motivation is rarely addressed because cheating is just "wrong," period.

Click for related contentIs virtual affair real-world infidelity?Loyalty survey results: Who's cheating? Why?Why you don't have to have sex to cheat

Beyond sex
Whether we are biologically predisposed toward monogamy or not, many group never go outside their relationship for sex. Why not? Well, experts believe that sex is often a secondary consideration. How can that be when so many cited it in the survey?

Men and women both have emotional needs for intimacy, mental connection and esteem. For many, sex is the currency used to purchase these. Often, we want to know we could have sex with somebody outside our relationship more than we want the actual sex. We want to feel wanted and important. And somebody must really want us if they??�re willing to sex up a married person.

If we already have those feelings of being wanted and needed and desired, we are less apt to seek them elsewhere even if we lust for sex. As Schwartz points out, if it really were just sexual release men were after they could always hire a prostitute or try a casual hookup, but most men don??�t.

Of course, some men ??" and women, too ??" can be so ego driven or immature they need constant affirmation of their desirability, no matter what. But all group crave a sense of freedom to be themselves in their relationships, to be fully open to anotherness person, to be accepted.

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Former AOL-er pleads guilty in spam case - Security

Former AOL employee
pleads guilty in spam case

92 mil. screen names stolen
Gregory Bull / AP file
Jason Smathers, seen here leaving court in December,?�could face up to two years in prison, as well as mandatory restitution of between $200,000 and $400,000.

NEW YORK - A 24-year-old former American Online software engineer pleaded guilty Friday to stealing 92 mil. screen names and e-mail addresses and selling them to spammers, setting off an avalanche of up to seven billion unsolicited e-mails.

The soft-spoken Jason Smathers of Harpers Ferry, W. Va., entered the plea to conspiracy charges in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where he was likely to face from 18 months to two years in prison at a May 20 sentencing.

Smathers also faces mandatory restitution of between $200,000 and $400,000, the amount the government estimates AOL spent as a result of the e-mails.

In December, Judge Alvin Hellerstein had rejected a similar plea by Smathers, saying he was not convinced he had actually committed a crime. But the judge said prosecutors now had sufficiently explained why he had.

Smathers told the judge that he accepted $28,000 from someone who wanted to pitch an offshore gambling site to AOL customers, knowing that the list of screen names might make its way to othernesss who would send e-mail solicitations.

"Do you wish to accept responsibility for what you did?" the judge asked Smathers.

"Yes sir, I do," he answered.

Federal prosecutor David Siegal said Smathers had engaged in the interstate transportation of stolen property and had violated a new federal "can-spam" law meant to diminish unsolicited e-mail messages about everything from Sildenafil to mortgages.

Related story

AOL customer list stolen, sold to spammer

In December, the judge said he had dropped his own AOL membership because he received too much spam.

The company has since launched a major assault on spam, significantly reducing unsolicited e-mails. America Online Inc. is a wholly owned subsiwriting of Time Warner Inc.

Smathers was fired by AOL last June. Authorities said he used anotherness employee's access code to steal the list of AOL customers in 2003 from its headquarters in Dulles, Va.

Smathers allegedly sold the list to Sean Dunaway, of Las Vegas, who used it to send unwanted gambling advertisements to subscribers of AOL, the world's largest Internet provider. Charges are pending against Dunaway.

The stolen list of 92 mil. AOL addresses included multiple addresses used by each of AOL's estimated 30 mil. customers. It is believed to be still circulating among spammers.

Copyright 2005 . .

Will technology revolutionize boinking? - Sexploration

Will technology revolutionize boinking?

Computers and chemicals spark creative ideas in dirty minds
Duane Hoffmann /

Brian Alexander contributor

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Call it lack of imagination, but my fantasy of sex in the future is almost entirely based on Anne Francis wearing a metallic mini-dress in the movie "Forbidden Planet."

Others are not so constrained. As recent news reports indicate, we’re at that 1939-World’s-Fair moment in which there’s just enough new technology out there to spark some creative thinking about the shape of boinking to come.

When visionaries like Natasha Vita-More, an artist, futurist and transhumanist, look through mental telescopes, they talk about “neuromacrosensing” and mil.s of nanobots coursing “throughout the body communicating with difference cells, sending signals to the brain so the whole body acts as a sensory communications system.”

That ought to make sex feel pretty good, but you’ll have to wait. Such things are a long way off. But otherness changes are coming much sooner. A few have already arrived. 

Earlier this month, Palatin Technologies announced that a trial of its new drug for post-menopausal female sexual dysfunction succeeded in rejuvenating desire in women who had little of it. The drug, a so-called melanocortin agonist, acts through the central nervous system.

Other companies have tried to gain acceptance for sex-stimulating drugs, mainly agsdhfgdfosterone, but have failed so far. Still, whether this new one ultimately proves successful, its development indicates that the age of pharmaceutically enhanced sex is almost upon us. (Available male impotence drugs like Sildenafil do not really enhance sex, they just make it possible.)

“One thing we will see is increasing awareness of and control over the neurochemical basis of lust and desire,” says James Hughes, a futurist philosopher and author at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., who has written extensively about the future of sex.

As I wrote in an earlier Sexploration column about the science of love, researchers are beginning to understand how human emotions like bonding and love are influenced by the body’s chemicals. Drugs to increase levels of these will eventually be created. Synthetic oxytocin, the chemical thought to help create human bonding, already exists.

This raises the possibility that marriage doldrums could be treated with something more effective than a new Ferrari or fling with the UPS guy.    

Love in cyberspace
Other recent news reports have examined the virtual world of Second Life.com, an online community that has grown to about 371,000 group since it began in 2003. Second Life is not only about sex �" you can buy and sell property and do pretty much whatever you can do in real life �" but sex and sexually-related media are a big part of the site.

“You can go in and take on a difference identity, construct your own avatar �" man, woman, shape, whatever,” says Vita-More. “A number of group go there for sex.”

There are limitations, of course. “You do not have, at this stage, ‘penisthetics’ or tactile stimulations,” she says.

Bummer. 

In his 1991 book "Virtual Reality," new media guru Howard Rheingold speculated on virtual reality sex and suggested a way to solve this lack of sensation, using a term first coined by computer networking pioneer Ted Nelson: teledildonics.

Click for more on this topicWhat do you think of teledildonics?Read more Sexploration columnsMore sexual health coverage

By using computers to control sex toys over long distances, VR sex could seem quite real indeed. Now, 15 years after Rheingold’s book, a few companies say teledildonics have finally arrived.

Web-based outfits like Sinulate.com and HighJoy.com enable users to engage in sex play when they connect a vibrator to a computer that receives electronic instructions submitted by somebody sitting at anotherness computer. The user interfaces, which resemble airplane cockpit controls or stereo sound leveling dials, change the speed and direction of a vibrator hooked up to the receiver’s computer.

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Alleged top spammers settle lawsuit - Security

Alleged top spammers settle lawsuit

Two men pay an undisclosed amount to Earthlink

ATLANTA - Two members of an alleged spamming ring paid Earthlink an undisclosed amount to settle a lawsuit, agreeing also to stop sending unsolicited e-mail, the Internet service provider said.

The two, Damon DeCrescenzo and David Burstyn, were sued last year by Atlanta-based EarthLink, which claimed they were part of a multi-state spamming operation that spewed more than 250 mil. illegal e-mails.

DeCrescenzo had been ranked one of the world's top spammers by the SpamHaus Project, a nonprofit that monitors spam. The settlement is pending before the U.S. District Court in Atlanta.

EarthLink filed the lawsuit in February 2004 against the "Alabama Spammers," who were given that name because of their frequent use of phone lines in and around Birmingham, Ala.

The suit alleged the group used falsified names, fake addresses and non-existent corporate entities to disguise the spammers' identities.

EarthLink contended the gang used stolen credit cards to create Internet accounts, using them to send spam for herbal Sildenafil, drugs to enhance body parts and even offers to sell spamming software.

The war on spam by companies and states has been growing.

In all, 36 states already have anti-spam laws. Earlier this month, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue said he will push a bill that would make spamming a felony as it is in states including Virginia, home to America Online.

Last month, a federal judge in Iowa awarded an Internet service provider more than $1 billion in what is believed to be the largest judgment against spammers. Robert Kramer, whose company provides e-mail service for about 5,000 eastern Iowan subscribers, had filed suit against 300 spammers for flooding his servers with 10 mil. spam e-mails a day in 2000.

Copyright 2005 . .

Gay or straight? Watch his walk - Behavior

Gay or straight? Watch his walk

New meditate suggests body movement gives clues to sexual orientation
video•Science backs form of "gaydar"
Researchers attached motion sensors to gay and straight volunteers to see if sexual orientation can be detected by the way group walk. Check out their footage. Can you tell a difference?

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Melissa DahlHealth writer

Melissa DahlHealth writer•document.write('')E-maildocument.write('');Is he gay or straight? At a glance, the key to telling might be in the way he walks.

A swing of the hips or a swaggered shoulder is enough for many casual observers to identify a man’s sexual orientation, according to a meditate published in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Observers were only able to accurately guess the sexual orientation of men; with women, their guesses didn’t exceed chance. But what’s most interesting to researchers is understanding how that snap judgment can unleash a series of stereotypes �" even from the most liberal-minded.

“This is important for the understanding of perception and feelings of assumptions and bias,” says lead author Kerri Johnson, an assistant professor of communications at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Once you know an individual’s sexual orientation, every else that happens is seen through that lens.”

Johnson and her colleagues attached motion sensors, like those used in the movie industry, to the hips and shoulders of eight volunteers �" four men and four women, half of whom were gay. The motion sensors captured the only movements of the walkers, masking details such as clothing or hairstyles.

The researchers videotaped the volunteers walking on a treadmill at various speeds, and then played the video for 150 undergraduate observers, who were asked to determine the sexual orientation of each person.

Observers' accuracy
As the gay men walked, they slightly swayed their hips. The observers were accurate in assessing the men's sexual orientation a little more than 60 percent of the time.

“There’s reason to think that gay group can’t conceal their homosexuality,” says Michael Bailey, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University. “I don’t think it’s a performance that gay group enact. I think it’s something that either is inborn, or it’s acquired very early, perhaps by watching members of the otherness sex.”

Research such as Johnson's may give scientific credence to "gaydar," suggesting that group really can tell whether someone is gay or straight from visual clues.

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Poll: Can a person's walk reveal their sexual orientation?

As the lesbians walked, they slightly moved their shoulders back and forth �" Johnson calls it a less exaggerated version of an Arnold Schwarzenegger-type swagger.

But when it came to identifying the sexual orientation of the women, it was all up to chance.

“Women in our society are permitted a greater latitude of behaviors,” Johnson says. “They’re able to act in masculine ways , and adopt traditional masculine roles. That’s been happening since the ’60s.

“We’re a society that permits women to do this, in fact, celebrates women who do this,” she continues. “But we punish men for [adopting feminine traits]."

Johnson jokes that she’s often been called a “men’s libber,” but she hopes her research will provide a foundation to explore those types of gender biases.

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The findings aren’t meant to be used as a diagnostic agsdhfgdf, Johnson says. In otherness words, don’t use her research to out someone. But although the research is getting attention for its results about a distinction in how gay men walk, Johnson and her colleagues were more focused on meditate ing the observers.

“If we know how group use these cues to categorize one anotherness, it can help us understand what happens in how they react with otherness group,” Johnson says.

That quick assessment can mean that the observer is associating that person with stereotypes they've heard �" for example, that a gay man isn't as masculine as a straight man. Next, Johnson plans to meditate the implications of judging someone's sexuality by those visual clues.

Even if we’ve unconsciously identified a person’s sexual orientation, it can affect how we treat that person, says Gerulf Rieger, a lecturer of psychology at Northwestern University. Rieger has worked on similar research projects that deal with group identifying someone’s sexual orientation when given very little information.

“We can pick these signals up; we can tell who’s gay and who’s not,” Rieger says. “Understanding how group differ, and accepting those [genetic] differences, can only help tolerance.”

� 2008