Scanner : abc news

Can't Get No Satisfaction? Try Oxytocin

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:25:00 GMT

A new study indicates that the hormone oxytocin, normally used to facilliate birth and breastfeeding, can help you get over the fact that you're not attracted to damn near everyone around you.

An ABC News report says that oxytocin, which is available for purchase in the form of a nasal spray or injection, helps people develop bonds with strangers and to become more attracted to people they might not otherwise have been attracted to. Are we sure this is a good thing? Won't every guy in the world spray his bottle into a club full of women and then start prowling around? Can relationships survive this medical miracle?

A new study shows that men and women who inhale a whiff of the hormone oxytocin rate strangers as more attractive.
This effect adds to the hormone's known role in human relationships. One study found that oxytocin levels spike after new mothers look at or touch their newborns and may help bonding.
No matter their sex or mood, volunteers who received oxytocin rated male and female strangers as both more attractive and trusting.
Theodoridou's study did not examine how oxytocin could affect social judgements, but she speculates that the hormone dampens brain activity in a region involved in processing fearful emotions, called the amygdala.

Emphasis added. Before you all call up your uncle the shady doctor for a prescription (if you even need one), consider this partial list of side effects:

Impaired uterine blood flow, pelvic hematoma, tetanic uterine contractions, uterine rupture, postpartum hemorrhage.

In other words, completely harmless. Via ABC News.

Video: This Kid Needs to Work on His Pitch

Speed Dating for Nerds in NYC

Do Not Love: "More to Love"

Top 5 Sex Scenes Involving Lingerie

The Kinky Sex Murder At ABC News Radio

Brian Fairbanks — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:39:00 GMT

Last summer, we seriously considered an offer for a job at ABC News in New York. While on tour of the building and my "future office," I met a guy named George Weber, who was cracking jokes and insulting colleagues who were within earshot when I came across him. My first thought was, "This is one of those characters. Every office has one."

The next time we saw him was yesterday morning, when he was the top story in New York City. Weber was murdered by "a date" he picked up via Craig's List and the details couldn't have been more shocking...

According to stories in the New York Daily News over the last 36 hours, Weber's alleged killer is an unidentified 16-year-old boy who Weber found via a Casual Encounters ad. Weber wanted someone to smother him and the boy offered to do it for $60. It's not known whether this was premeditated murder or the boy just didn't know to stop using the pillow when his victim fought back. Either way, the police say the killer suffered enough retaliatory injuries to bleed all over Weber's apartment on his way out.

What stands out the most for us is that a knife was involved-- reports indicate Weber's body hand multiple stab wounds, which at least confirms murder, whether the boy planned it in advance or tried to finish him Weber off after realizing he'd done serious damage.

Seriously, let this serve as a reminder to all of us to use extreme caution when inviting strangers home...

Latest updates here, via the NY Daily News.

Related:

While You Were Sleeping: The Harry Potter Murder Case Ends

We Heart Craig's Lists

PG Porn Takes the Bang Bus

Leave Bristol Palin Alone?

College Sex Magazines Making Their Way Through Connecticut, Too

ABC News: Guess What? Sex Is Good For You

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:58:00 GMT

Thank you, ABC News. Without you, we wouldn't be able to have sex without worrying whether we were "harming" ourselves. We were worried nasal-clearing, spirit-lifting orgasm were the worst thing that could happen to our tired, rundown, useless bodies.

Seriously, there is some interesting information in this and a rival USA Today report on how lowering your cholesterol can affect your sex life...

1) Via the good neighbors at ABC:

Men who have sex three times a week can decrease their risk of heart attack and stroke by 50 percent, while women who enjoy sex tend to live longer than those who don't, according to Drs. Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz.
It's interesting information for a species that thrives on sex.
"Humans maybe are the most sexual species of all," Roizen, an anesthesiologist and internal medicine specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, said on "Good Morning America" today.
He said researchers know this because women are sexually active for almost their entire lives and throughout all times of their menstrual cycle, meaning that they choose to have sex even during times when they are physiologically unable to produce offspring, he added.

Startling. Women are sexually active for almost their entire lives. You heard it here first, people.

Great sex can make your body feel two to eight years younger for women and the same is true for men who have 150 to 350 orgasms a year.
But the benefits don't stop there. Increasing sex from once a month to once a week is the happiness equivalent of an additional $50,000 in income for the typical American, Oz said on "GMA" today.

Yes, but most men would give up $50,000 of their income for sex with someone, anyone, once a week. If you think we're kidding, you obviously didn't hear about the two women selling their virginity for millions of dollars.

2) USA Today one-ups this report with one on statin-based drugs, which lower your cholesterol.

The greater the drop in cholesterol from taking statin drugs, the more sexual pleasure is reduced, suggests a study due Friday at the American Psychosomatic Society meeting in Chicago.

This may be the first research to pit statins against placebos to see how the blockbuster statins affect the ability to have orgasms. Statins generated about $13.1 billion in sales last year, according to IMS Health.

So, you'll have to weigh how much you want your cholesterol to drop versus how much you want enjoy sex? That's harsh.

Good news, though: if you stop-taking these life-saving drugs, your sex life will likely improve. The bad news is... something.

Via ABC and USA Today.

Related:

Hey Ladies: That Pesky Period May Help Prevent Parkinson's

Wannabe Vampires Are Totally Pissing Off Real Vampires

Meet the Crazy Dog Lady

Captain Obvious Says Sex Can Save Your Marriage

ABC News Finally Figures Out That the Internet is for Porn

Emily Farris — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:28:00 GMT

ABC news has been exploring its own sexuality lately, and this week the fine folks there have finally noticed that kinky sex is on the rise and asks 'is the Internet to blame?'

Duh.

Obviously, they're still becoming comfortable with their own body, and we were a little overwhelmed with all of the "unnecessary quotation marks" ("swinging", "safe") but as one expert who was interviewed pointed out, "what's weird, sick or kinky for you is what practitioners defend as 'normal' for them."

"Credit, or blame, the Internet, making information available in such a level playing field that outrageous acts have become so accessible they seem mainstream," she told ABCNews.com.

But buyer beware: exploring your sexual fetishes online could put you on a slippery slope leading to... cannibalism?

And, according to Quilliam, it's a slippery slope when it comes to what is consensual, especially in one of the fastest growing paraphilias on the Internet -- cannibalism.

"You slice off a piece of somebody and together you fry it and cook it and eat it," she said. "There's a Web site for almost anything."

[ABC News: Kinky Sex Is on the Rise, Therapists Say]

Related:

ABC Calls Drunken Teenage Anal Sex "Love Making," Interviews Jezzies and Ultimately Tries to be Helpful

Today in Studies that Freak Us Out: Breakfast and Sex

Someone at ABC News is Still Angry About Their High School Cup Size

Wall Street Madam Goes Down. Alone.

Emily Farris — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 20:24:00 GMT

New York madam Kristin Davis—who once counted former New York governor Eliot Spitzer among her clients—is going down. But her clients aren't gong down with her. At least not yet.

After her arrest, Davis pleaded guilty to "promoting prostitution" and forfeited nearly $500,000 in profits. And even after she offered her client list to the district attorney's office, Davis said they "showed no interest" in pursuing the men who would charge prostitution services to corporate credit cards. Many ordered her to send invoices for computer consulting and construction expenses—fraud on their part, according to former New York prosecutor Sid Baumgarten.

Davis did however, give her list to ABC News, who gladly accepted it.

From her list, ABC determined that clients included:

-a vice president of NBC Universal
-a part owner of an MLB team
-a major New York real estate developer who would "come to the door wearing women's panties"
-bankers and directors from JP Morgan Securities, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank

A defense attorney who has represented madams before says that in New York, while Davis "was prosecuted for a felony, the clients would be guilty of misdemeanors."

Davis is aware she's getting the short end of the shaft here:

"I, as the proprietor of a business get arrested and lose everything, when no one that was frequenting my business, spending $200,000, $300,000 a year, has been punished in any way or even looked into."

She has not yet decided whether she'll release her client list to the public, but considering she's written a book and has leaked it to ABC news, we plan on seeing it pretty soon.

Her interview with ABC airs tonight on 20/20 at 10 p.m. ET.

[ABC: CEOs, Bankers Used Corporate Credit Cards for Sex, Says New York Madam]

Related:

Rumor: Governor Running A Brothel Out of His Office

David Vitter: "Thank Christ You Forgot About Me"

Ashley Dupré: Whoring and Boring on 20/20

ABC Calls Drunken Teenage Anal Sex "Love Making," Interviews Jezzies and Ultimately Tries to be Helpful

Emily Farris — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:38:00 GMT

More and more teenagers are having unprotected anal sex, according to an ABC article that refers to drunken, teenage anal sex as "love making" and informs us that Jezebel's Tracie Egan didn't even know how to clean herself after her first time.

Egan said that when she had anal sex with a boyfriend for the first time at 26, she was drunk, used no condom -- they were monogamous -- and didn't even know how to clean herself. "Lack of sex education in school is really bothersome to me," she said. "Even I don't know about a lot of the biological issues."

Unfortunately, as the article points out, due to abstienence only educatio, most teenagers don't know the first thing about anal sex. Plus, if you don't know what you're doing, it can be dangerous.

Like a proctologist once told us after we asked about anal sex it, er, opens your anal tissue up to tearing, which can lead to direct blood exposure to infected fluid. And as Jezebel's Megan Carpentier pointed out, "How many times do teens go to a pediatrician, not a gynecologist?" she said. "And when I was 18, my mother was still in the room."

A sampling of quotes from teenagers interviewed for the article shows just how uninformed teenagers still are about anal sex:

"I know some teens who did it just to try, and some who didn't have a condom available," said one 18-year-old Californian who did not want her name used.

"I think that it's less taboo simply because people are more open to trying new things," said her 23-year-old sister. "The younger crowd might be scared by the idea of getting pregnant, so they assume it's safer."

One recent graduate of a New England college said one of her classmates was a "hard-core" Catholic who was rumored to have engaged in risky behavior.

"She only had anal sex with her boyfriend until they were married because that technically kept her a virgin," said the 25-year-old who wanted to remain anonymous.

Things obviously haven't changed that much from when we were teenagers—not that it was that long ago—when our friends had anal sex to please their boyfriends while preserving their technical virginity.

ABC we commend you for writing about this topic, though we must laugh and point at your use of the term "love making."

[ABC: Study Reports Anal Sex on Rise Among Teens]

Taylor Swift: Joe Jonas Likes It Up the Butt

How Long Were You a "Technical Virgin?"

When '2 Become 1' Becomes 25 Cents, or How I Didn't Lose My Virginity to the Music of the Spice Girls

Today in WTF: Virginity Pledges Actually Work?

But What Will I Tell My Dad?

[Image]

Freaky FAA Tapes Reveal Obama's Plane Nearly Crashed On July 7th

Brian Fairbanks — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:24:00 GMT

Remember that little news item about a month back about how Obama's plane had to be diverted to St. Louis? Probably not, but if you do, you may recall that the FAA said it was "not an emergency" and that "ha ha-- Obama's fate is in our precious, drunken, cross-eyed hands!" Or something like that...

Well, they lied, as these disturbing tapes planely reveal...

(By the way, the air traffic controller responds to the news of Obama's presence by saying only: "Roger that." We would've probably said, "Holy fuckballs! The fate of American history is in my hands! GACCCK!")

ABC News has more:

Just 41 seconds after discovering he no longer had full control of the plane's up and down movements, the pilot told an FAA air traffic controller "at this time we would like to declare an emergency..."
An FAA spokesperson acknowledged today that its statements at the time of "no emergency" were wrong, based, the spokesperson said, on erroneous reports from FAA air traffic managers.

Anyone taking the train this weekend?

Five Things I Learned in Vegas

Hillary Dresses Up As Stewardess, World Blocks Out Image

If The Election Were Today... Round One

McCain Talks Of His Imaginary Friend Obama

Nader Claims Obama Is Talking White, Last Two Supporters Quit

Accused Killer's Crazy Google Searches All The Evidence We Need

Brian Fairbanks — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:41:00 GMT

His DNA is on the gun. The gun is probably his father-in-law's. He fled the country as soon as the murders took place. The wound to his baby daughter was caused by the gun being pressed very close to the body, indicating it was no stray bullet but a deliberate attempt by a hateful person. But the most damning evidence in the trial of the crazed British expatriate then living in Massachusetts are his Google searches...

"Half price escorts," "escorts naughty night life," "knife in neck kill" and "quick suicide methods" were all computer searches made from Neil Entwistle's laptop just days before his young wife and baby girl were murdered, according to testimony heard Wednesday in a Woburn, Mass., courtroom.

Naughty sex + knife killing + quick suicide = guilty, guilty, guilty.

Detective Lawrence James, a computer forensics expert, testified that after doing a Google search for "how to kill with a knife," someone with the user name "ent" on Entwistle's laptop clicked on a link that showed a diagram of a human body. The caption read "So you may be thinking of going for the aorta, Why not the heart? ... This isn't the movies. ... It's best to stab through the human ribcage."
That same user also checked an account at the Adult Friend Finder -- an Internet sex site that bills itself as the "World's Largest Sex and Swingers Personals Community."

The nude photo James used on the site was ruled inadmissible (apparently, Entwistle used someone else's picture as his own-- small dick much?) However, most legal experts agree it was a temporary setback to the prosecution's case, which is all but guaranteed to succeed...

Via ABC News.

Stripper Pole Company Developing Stripping Game For The Wii

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:56:00 GMT

Forget what we told you about Wii Fit, which is already sold out in the UK and will soon be sold out here (although it isn't even on sale yet): the new #1 game of all time is going to be this: Wii Strip.

According to ABC News, Peekaboo, a company that makes at-home DIY-stripper poles (such as the one pictured above-- model MILF not included), is in talks with Nintendo to make your boyfriend's dreams a reality...

"Look, baby, it says on the box that it'll replace your regular workout." And fulfill the fantasy I had planned for myself since the age of 12: to have a live-in stripper perform for me every night, he does not add. He could also lift this direct quote from analyst Anita Frazier* for help with his pleading:

"There are strippercise [fully clothed] classes taught in gyms … and it has been a rising fitness trend over the last few years," she said. "It's really just an exercise trend." [ABC]

This gives a whole new idea too complicated to explain here. We will say, however, that it involves the Wii's vibrating remote....

Previously: Wii Fit Will Make Your Gym Membership Obsolete

*A woman! (And just so you know, ladies, we fully understand that this can come in handy for, um, getting your man "in shape." This kind of ploy works both ways... Link Via ABC News.

Crazy Stalker Attacks Obama

Brian Fairbanks — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:10:00 GMT

A disturbed man who claims he only wanted a picture with Barack Obama stalked the Senator throughout a day of campaigning in Philadelphia today. The man was eventually prevented from reaching the Democratic Presidential candidate by the Secret Service after the stalker confronted Obama three consecutive times.

Why the Secret Service didn't body slam this man on his second attempt to reach the very patient object of his desire is beyond our comprehension. Is it illegal to fuck up idiots who'd waste the free time of the future leader of the free world? And if it is illegal, I doubt anyone would bust them for sucker-punching this punk.

Here is the full, unedited video, which we cannot embed yet for some reason: ABC News. If you can't watch videos or can't understand what this shrill assmunch is going on about so passionately, read the full story here.

We braced ourselves throughout the entire video for a gun to come out and for a very, very horrible moment in history to occur. Why no one else sought fit to raise an alarm until many minutes in is unfathomable.

ABC's Prostitution Special Saddens Us, Annoys Former Sex Workers

Bryan Christian — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:01:00 GMT

Hey, you know what? We spent most of our evening on Friday watching ABC's "Prostitution in America" news special, which was apparently years in the making but was rushed onto the air post-Spitzer, just for you -- but we wound up not mentioning anything because we try not to write about too many things that makes us want to slit our fucking wrists. Yeesh, what a depressing parade of misery and addiction that was. Like, it was such an overwhelming bummer that we couldn't even begin to discuss the facts or anything like that if we'd wanted to.

Anyway, thank God we don't have to think anything more about it, because former sex workers -- because former sex pro and current blogger Gracie Passette has done plenty of (far more informed) thinking on it for us.

The only moments approaching the experiences of the two of us were those with the unidentified courtesan. And not just because that's the only way the two of us would (when escorting or now) appear in such a broadcast; this woman was sane, rational.
While Diane literally said that she "couldn't accept" the courtesan's unwillingness to say she didn't feel she was losing anything special about sex or in any way say that her work made her feel dirty confused, we both knew what the courtesan was saying. Not only does this serve to illustrate more of Diane's inability to be objective, but a complete unwillingness to be open to considering a view point other than her own.

It's a long read, but probably of interest even if you didn't catch the show (though maybe you did, since the ratings were surprisingly good).

Someone at ABC News is Still Angry About Their High School Cup Size

Bryan Christian — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:07:00 GMT

Interesting bit of science being reported recently, as some Canadian researchers are claiming a direct relation between the size of a woman's breasts when she is young and her risk for diabetes later in life -- but it's a pretty complex finding. On the one hand, it's possible that larger breasts might go hand-in-hand with obesity, which is a risk factor. On the other hand, doctors are still unclear how -- or even if -- breast growth might be physically related to insulin production, so it bears further research. And some are even calling the study and its methods into question.

Lots to unpack here, right? So what's the first thing on the mind of ABC News Medical Unit author Audrey Grayson?

Really? To whom, exactly? Like in a "Take that, Chesty McChesteron, hope your eventual blindness and amputations make your Double-F's look even bigger" kind of way?

UPDATE: Looks like ABC might be trying to cover their ass on this one, or perhaps the headline was punched up after the initial pubbing, as two decidedly different versions are coming up on the Google in the exact same URL. Click through to see the search for yourself.