the "Headline That Caught My Attention or the WTF" thread

Roccus7 said:
Hmmmmm, vanilla flavored tuna...

F.D.A. Authorizes Underwear to Protect Against S.T.I.s During Oral Sex​

It’s the first time underwear has been authorized for this purpose, and it provides a new choice for protection where the few options have been unpopular.

This is a story about infections, sex and underwear. More specifically, it’s about sexually-transmitted infections, oral sex and ultrathin, super-stretchy, vanilla-flavored panties.

The Food and Drug Administration has authorized the panties to be considered protection against infections that can be transmitted from the vagina or anus during oral sex. It is a first for underwear.

The undies are part of an understudied but important area of sexual health where the few options for protection are considered cumbersome and hardly used.

“Oral sex is not totally risk-free,” said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She said the need for protective methods was of growing importance because more “teenagers are initiating their first sexual activity with oral sex.” For people of all ages, she added, a protective barrier that is enjoyable to use could “reduce anxiety and increase pleasure around that particular behavior.”

Infections like herpes, gonorrhea and syphilis can be transmitted through oral sex, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The risk of transmitting H.I.V. from a vagina through oral sex is considered very low, the C.D.C. said. But HPV — human papillomavirus — is more easily transmitted that way, and mouth and throat infections from some types of HPV may develop into oral or neck cancer, the agency said.

How often people transmit infections in this manner is unclear and difficult to study because most people who have oral sex have vaginal or anal sex in the same encounter, said Dr. Kenneth Mayer, the medical research director for Fenway Health, a community health center in Massachusetts that focuses on patients who identify as L.G.B.T.Q.

“The F.D.A.’s authorization of this product gives people another option to protect against S.T.I.s during oral sex,” said Courtney Lias, director of the F.D.A. office that led the review of the underwear.

The only product previously authorized for protection during oral sex was a dental dam — a thin, rectangular sheet of latex (or sometimes polyurethane) that typically must be held in place with one’s hands to form a barrier between the mouth and genitals.
As the name suggests, dental dams, invented in 1864 and originally made of rubber, were designed to isolate teeth during dental procedures. But the AIDS crisis ignited concern about sexual transmission of infections, and in the early 1990s an Australian company, Glyde Health, created a dental dam that was primarily inspired by concerns of women who have sex with women, an official with the company has said.

Although several brands of dental dams have received F.D.A. clearance for protection against sexual disease transmission, the devices have not exactly been a hit.

“They’re extremely unpopular,” Dr. Marrazzo said, adding: “I mean, honestly, could there be anything less sexy than a dental dam?”

There’s little data on how widely they are used, but a 2010 study of 330 Australian women who had sex with women found that only 9.7 percent reported ever using a dental dam, and just 2.1 percent said they used dams often. A 2021 C.D.C. report said use of dental dams and other safe-sex methods was “infrequent” among women who have sex with women.

Dams are sold online and in sex shops, but are not widely available at pharmacy chains, and are usually more expensive than condoms. The C.D.C.’s web page on dental dams shows how to cut a condom to make a dental dam, but this doesn’t appear to be popular either.

“Many people report that dental dams are awkward and take all the pleasure out of oral sex for both the giver and receiver,” said Chris Barcelos, an assistant professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. “They are hated even more than condoms.”

The idea for dam-like undies struck Melanie Cristol after an experience in 2014 during her honeymoon in Mexico with her then-wife. Ms. Cristol, then a corporate lawyer, discovered she had an infection that could be sexually transmitted.

Realizing how limited the protection options were, “I was just so discouraged,” said Ms. Cristol, who recalled that when she was a sex educator in college and taught about dental dams, “people looked at me like I was crazy.”

“I wanted to feel sexy and confident and use something that was made with my body and actual sex in mind,” she said.

Ms. Cristol formed a company that in 2018 began selling single-use underwear for “people with vulvas.” She said she named the product Lorals partly because the L sound “evokes words like love and lust, and it feels a little bit like a movement that you use” during oral sex.

The panties — available as bikinis or shorties — are made of latex that’s about as thin as condom material and forms a seal on the inside of the thigh to keep fluids in, Ms. Cristol said. The company markets their use for a range of reasons, including during one’s period, when a partner has a scratchy beard or when a person has experienced previous trauma and doesn’t want to be too exposed.

Ms. Cristol said that, responding to customer feedback, the company lessened the intensity of the vanilla taste, added more cornstarch to prevent stickiness and will introduce a sheer version in addition to the current opaque black version.

On Thursday, the company will begin selling undies explicitly for infection protection, which Ms. Cristol said would resemble its other products but would meet the more rigorous uniformity standards required for F.D.A. authorization.
“What’s interesting about this is that they have basically eroticized protection, which is something that condom companies have struggled with for years,” Dr. Marrazzo said.

The F.D.A. said it did not require human clinical trials but, as it does with condoms, gave Lorals authorization after the company submitted extensive documentation about thickness, elasticity, strength and other measures. Within the past year, the F.D.A. has also given clearance to two new dental dam companies, possibly suggesting increased consumer interest.

Sexual health experts said they welcomed the additional option, but some were unsure it would be popular and said more medical information was needed.

Dr. Mayer said he’d like to see “real-world data” from people’s actual experience to substantiate the underwear’s ability to block infection transmission.

“The F.D.A. clearances and increased product development seem to signal a greater potential market, but I don’t see a ton of demand,” Dr. Barcelos said, but added that such products can be “an important way to show a sexual partner that you care about them and take sexual health seriously.”

Two Lorals customers, whose contact information was provided by the company and who asked to be identified by their first names because of the sensitive subject matter, described various motivations for using the underwear.
Wisty, 28, who identifies as pansexual, has had sex with men and women, and uses they/them pronouns, said the panties were “a solution I didn’t know I needed.”

A dancer and Reiki energy healer in the Boston area, Wisty said they had herpes simplex, a common infection that in rare cases can cause serious inflammatory conditions. “I wanted to find something that makes it easier for me to enforce the boundaries that I wanted to,” Wisty said. “To be able to still play and explore while having that comfort and safety of knowing that I’m protected from my fluids going everywhere.”

Shelly, 29, a nurse in Washington State, said she saw the panties on TikTok at a time when she and her fiancé, Ashton, were struggling to re-engage in oral sex after cancer requiring reconstructive surgery had caused changes in his tongue’s mobility and ability to taste. In the aftermath of his cancer treatment, oral sex — once their favorite sexual activity — made Ashton feel like he was choking, and they had not done it in nearly two years.

“It was such a huge thing that he’d enjoyed over penetrative sex or anything,” Shelly said. Without it, she experienced “a lot of insecurity, feeling that maybe he doesn’t have interest for me in that way anymore.”

After ordering the panties, “we spent a couple hours just looking at it,” Shelly said. “We’re like ‘What are we dealing with here? It smells like vanilla, it stretches to kingdom come — like, what is this?’”

Wearing them during oral sex worked very well, said Shelly, who added that she could barely feel the panties and that Ashton said the texture resembled skin and the taste was “like you’re eating a cookie.”

She said she appreciated the new clearance for infection protection because Ashton is likely vulnerable to cancers that can be triggered by sexually transmitted infections.

The sexual experience was especially important, she said. “I never thought I would feel that again,” Shelly said. “And he was very like gung-ho about it when he realized that: ‘Oh, I can do all the things.’”
Click to expand...
I didn’t read a word, too long. But the title is typical ?
 
www.yahoo.com

LAPD overlooked 3 dead children inside home for 7 hours after mother taken away

After Angela Flores was taken away, no one from the LAPD or the LAFD checked on her children. Their bodies were found later in a home 25 yards away.
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com

LA Times

LAPD overlooked 3 dead children inside home for 7 hours after mother taken away​


Residents in a West Hills neighborhood were alarmed Saturday night when they saw a woman lighting candles and holding a Bible in a stranger's yard.

Los Angeles police officers responded to the "disturbing the peace" call and found Angela Flores, 38, and determined she needed medical treatment. Paramedics arrived, and authorities said she was so agitated that she had to be strapped to a stretcher.

It turned out Flores lived next door to where she was found. But no one from either the LAPD or the Los Angeles Fire Department checked on the well-being of her children that night. Officers did not canvass the area and it would be seven more hours before police found three of Flores' children dead in their home.


The morning after Flores was taken away — Mother's Day — a teenage boy knocked on a neighbor's door and said his siblings were hurt, according to Primo Canales, who lives a few houses away from Flores. The neighbor went to a home on Victory Boulevard where the boy said he lived, Canales said, found the bodies of three children and called Los Angeles police.

So police arrived again to the block seven hours later and made a grim discovery: All three children — two boys and a girl — were dead.

Flores is now facing murder charges in the deaths of Natalie Flores, 12; Kevin Yanez, 10; and Nathan Yanez, 8. Angela Flores, 38, claimed to believe the children were possessed by demons and repeatedly jumped on them because she thought she could drive the demons out, said law enforcement sources who were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.
 
www.yahoo.com

Johnny Cash mural is leaking from a crude spot after Arkansas water tower gets shot

“Shouldn’t have done it, but as far as creativity goes it’s 1st class.”
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com

1652651539093.webp


Kansas City Star

Johnny Cash mural is leaking from a crude spot after Arkansas water tower gets shot​


Mitchell Willetts
Sun, May 15, 2022, 2:11 PM


An Arkansas town is upset after someone shot a hole in their water tower in a very specific, and unfortunate location.
The water tower in Kingsland, the birthplace of Johnny Cash, bears a painted silhouette of the famous Man in Black — but an unknown person recently took careful aim at Cash’s crotch and pulled the trigger.

Now the mural is perpetually leaking from that spot, video shared May 11 by the Cleveland County Herald shows.

While not condoning vandalism, some felt that the perpetrator displayed a certain degree of panache.

“Shouldn’t have done it, but as far as creativity goes its 1st class,” a comment said.

:LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::ROFLMAO:(y)
 
www.yahoo.com

Four armed intruders broke into Indiana home — but just two survived, police say

The intruders weren’t the only ones who were armed, police said.
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com

Mitchell Willetts
Mon, May 16, 2022, 12:15 PM


A group of four armed intruders broke into an Indiana home recently, but only two left alive, state police told news outlets.
It happened early Sunday, May 15, at a home in DeKalb County, officials told WXIN.
The suspects forced their way inside but were soon confronted by the homeowner, who was also armed, the TV station reported.

The resident fired at the burglars, killing two of them, police told WTHR. The homeowner held the remaining two at gunpoint until officers arrived and arrested them.

(y) (y)
 
www.yahoo.com

Southern China sinkhole discovered, home to towering ancient trees

A massive sinkhole was discovered in south China with ancient trees over 130 feet in length growing at the bottom, according to reports.
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com

A massive sinkhole was discovered in southern China with ancient trees over 130 feet in length growing at the bottom, according to reports.

The sinkhole, one of 30 found in China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, measures over 1,000 feet in length, 490 feet in width and nearly 630 feet in depth, the Xinhua news agency reported earlier this month.

Experts classified the sinkhole as "large" with three cave entrances in the chasm.

The sinkhole was formed in "karst terrain," which means rock below the surface can easily be dissolved by groundwater circulating through the bedrock, according to the U.S. Department for Interior.

The three interior caves are believed to have formed during earlier occurring erosion.

The sinkhole's bottom is lined with a "well-preserved primitive forest" with the trees growing up towards the sun, according to the local news agency.

Shade plants were reported to be growing as high as an adult's shoulders, leader of the Guangxi 702 cave expedition team, Chen Lixin, told the publication.

1652886791919.webp

Photo taken on Oct. 10, 2020, shows palm trees in a Tiankeng, or giant karst sinkhole, at Luoquanyan Village in Xuan'en County, Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, central China's Hubei Province. Xinhua/Song Wen via Getty Images
 
www.yahoo.com

Scientists brought dead eyes back to life in a radical new experiment

Being able to reverse death may seem like something from a science fiction or fantasy novel. But, scientists managed to do just that with a pair of dead eyes. The eyes, which were received from organ donors, were “brought back to life” in a breakthrough procedure. Scientists managed to reverse...
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com

Being able to reverse death may seem like something from a science fiction or fantasy novel. But, scientists managed to do just that with a pair of dead eyes. The eyes, which were received from organ donors, were “brought back to life” in a breakthrough procedure.

Of course, the breakthrough isn’t nearly as miraculous as bringing someone back to life would be. But it is an intriguing step for science. The scientists were able to prove that photosensitive neuron cells in the retina can respond to light up to five hours after death.

Additionally, they were able to prove that the eyes can communicate with each other even after death, too. The scientists recorded the eyes sending signals that resembled the signals that living subjects’ eyes send. This development, along with others, has raised the question of whether we could actually reverse death.
:oops:
 

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 587 (members: 4, guests: 583)

Latest posts

Fishing Reports

Latest articles

Latest posts

Back
Top