News to Use!

No Gravity, No Good Stuff

(Thanks Vicky Woodard for the tip!)

As humans become space tourists, what's the first thing we're going to try? Zero-g sex, of course. And what will be the enhancement or drawbacks to performance? What will be the impact on conception and birth control?

Who knew that pregnancy in space might be unavoidable through contraception, but dangerous, even deadly, for fetal development? If people in space can't have regular intercourse, I wonder what sort of zero-g sexual expression might develop? Could it come to…

Choking the Chicken in Clerkenwell


(Thanks Denise Rossetti for the tip!)

Europe's first Masturbate-A-Thon comes to a close Saturday afternoon, when sponsors will receive pledged money for every minute they masturbate or orgasm they achieve. The event raises funds for HIV/AIDS treatment and alternative sexual practices awareness.

Okay, nothing gets the attention like salicious headlines, but this bit and the space sex bit make a good combined point. If you're writing about sex between humans and aliens, the plumbing might not match up. What alternative sexual expressions will your human/alien love match use?

OM Your Way Out of Pain

Research points to Transcendental Meditation as an effective way to reduce and manage pain. TM actually changes the way the brain responds to painful stiumuli, producing "a physiological state capable of modifying various kinds of pain."

If TM can make your brain feel pain less acutely, what other changes in human perception of sensual stimuli are possible? And without invasive technology. Well if that doesn't help there's always…

Eat Worms and Don't Die

Intentionally hosting parasitic worms may be the key to reducing allergic conditions like asthma and irritable bowel syndrome. Researchers have evidence that allergies are practically unknown in the developing world, and they think parasites are an important factor. "Many parasitic worms have … developed ways of dampening down the inflammatory immune responses that are also responsible for many of the symptoms of allergic disease."

Would controlled parasitic worm hosting help out when we colonize other planets? Could we host the alien world worms, gaining the supression of inflammatory immune response to alien allergens?