Porn As Drug Of Choice

When you're at home with the flu and the DVDs suddenly don't make sense you know your brain's on the fritz. The meds have kicked in but my head still feels like it's stuffed full of some heavy grade wool, and the only recourse is to surf sites like these to get some really weird news. Of course, having David Lodge to read IS a pleasure, but one can only take cognitive science theory so far in a feverish mind.

Among the tidbits I've unearthed today: May is Masturbation Month (or at least these people seem to think so). Amazing what you can do when you have a dotcom and presumably plenty of free time. Born in this month, I have only this to say, that if it rocks your boat, by all means.

On a more technical note, those of you with Symbian camera phones may find this rather interesting. Called semacodes, this site proposes using your camera phone to capture and read URLs in the wild, and having them display in your phone browser. I quote:

A camera phone, pictured, is the center of the semacode system. The user must have an internet connection plan using GPRS or a more advanced data option. When they encounter a semacode in the wild, they load up the semacode software and point the viewfinder at the symbol. With a single click, the software decodes the contents of the semacode and presents the URL onscreen for approval. If you accept it, the web address is launched in the on-phone web browser.

Pretty cool stuff, and there's a PDF file you can download to learn more.

Before I sod off for the night, here's further proof that with funding, everything's possible. According to this article, there's a guy in Utah who's going to spearhead a movement to use MRIs to conclusively prove that pornography is actually physically harmful. According to Judith Reisman, president of the Institute for Media Education in Granite Bay, California:

Pornography leads to rape, serial murder, child molestation — and male impotence. "Every time he looks at (pornography) he's ashamed and angry. And he's compromised his ability to respond in a normal way. . . . He can no longer just fall in love with a young woman and find a thrill in the turn of her neck and the curve of her cheek.

Wow. And to think for a major part of my adolescent life I have been exposed (at least peripherally) to the various kinds of porn. So is this to blame for my current inability to fall in love? Does this mean that if you enjoy pornography with your partner it's the equivalent of snorting coke?

Wow. People in the states really know how to spend their time constructively. Ookay. I'm getting dizzy again. See you tomorrow, folks.