I found Anesthesia by Philip Riches on Homotography in this post full of sexy-strange stills from the photoshoot. In my estimation, the video is eroto-couture icing.

For the uninitiated, Next Media Animation is a Taiwanese animated news outlet that covers just about anything and everything, and focuses on the item of the day it thinks is bound to be the most viral. Viewers count on quite a bit getting lost in translation, resulting in bizarrely humorous retellings of current events that can be hit or miss. Anyway, NMA has been a bit of a cult internet thing for a few years now.

Back on April 17th I pointed you to a journal paper on android sex workers and the automation of sex tourism. Five days later NMA delivered its take on the item (above)… with the usual results in Android brothels: robot prostitutes could replace humans by 2050.

Tariro Mavondo on IndieFeed Performance Poetry.  Show number 1013.

• Candice Mirabell – Girl-Girl
• Clover – Petite Panties
• Candice, Caprice and Valerie – 3 Girls Gone Wild (pictured above)
• Engelie – Exhibitionist

• Jill in Foamea by Alex Berk
• Milenna in Rebrik by Erik Latika

• Mia Sollis – Sought
• Katya AC – Spielen
• Vanda B – Home Alone
• Sarah E – Presenting Sarah

• Ivy – Dare
• Kaylee – 18 Dream

• Vivien Martini – Colored
• Ashley Bulgari, Angelica Kitten – Bask in the sun
• Svetlana – High heels (at right)
• Eileen – Freckled

• Ivana Doll – toys
• Lindsey Olsen – toys

This month, Kink.com‘s legendary sex machine site Fucking Machines turns twelve years old. It’s kind of hard to believe that it’s been around that long, though it was the second website in the Kink (then “Cybernet”) empire. Fucking Machines isn’t old enough to visit itself, but it did get a shiny new look. A lot has changed with online porn, machine tech and content delivery online since its humble beginnings.

Why do women like to do this, and why do we like to watch? Check out this article I wrote for the SF Chronicle a few years back: Why Machine Sex? Violet Blue goes deep undercover to find out why women like to have sex with machines, and why people pay good money to watch.

Now, they have the world’s largest collection of sex machines in one place, and some of the most advanced on the planet – and there are a lot of stars that have been on Fucking Machines over that long twelve years. Still, there are some really great scenes in the archives – I’ve picked a little “best of” below to celebrate a porn site that has been a mainstay in the online sex and tech revolution.

• Sasha Grey
• Lorelei Lee, Bobbi Starr, Annie Cruz
• Lexi Belle
• Andy San Dimas
• With a Princess Donna fisting cameo

• Fucking Machines on Halloween
• Not porn: Peter Acworth gets a tour of the newest Fucking Machines
• The Fucking Machines “Squirting Olympics”

• Phoenix Marie
• India Summer and Aiden Aspen
• Brett Rossi – first shoot
• Annika Albright
• Amy Brooke
• Aiden Ashley
• Roxy DeVille

(FM updates two times per week and has four monthly live shows.)

More pretty:

• Grace – Breakfast In Bed
• Silvie – Wild at Heart
• Fabi – Tantric Massage Session (main post photo)
• Heather, Nikki and Tommy
• Zoe and Reena
• Jennifer – Kinky Moments

More hardcore:

• Squirting/peeing “best of”
• Fisting “best of”
• DP “best of”
• Comeshots “best of”
• Teena and Phil
• From the movie “Show Me Pink”
• Milka Manson – DP
• Nataly Gold – anal

• Daily Mail creates a moral porn panic to force the UK government into filtering its citizens’ internet access (and it’s working), Google says parents are better than porn filters, and the birth of the datasexual.
  Sex Tech: CP Honeypot, UK Porn Filter Panic, Groupon, Datasexuals (Pulp Tech)

• A jury today found fetish filmmaker Ira Isaacs guilty on five counts of violating federal obscenity laws. His films contained shit-eating and women having sex with dogs.
  Ira Isaacs Found Guilty on Five Counts of Federal Obscenity (XBIZ)

• Fox News actually did a great job in writing about Jiz Lee’s university lecture about being a genderqueer porn star, and handled Jiz’ gender properly. WEIRD.
  Campus-sponsored talk by porn star raises eyebrows at Williams College (Fox News)

• A German researcher set out to determine if he could make ordinary undergrads more attractive to the opposite sex by teaching them pickup artist techniques. The experiment was a big success, but it also had unintended consequences.
  Study: Pickup Artist Training Works, But Makes You Feel Bad About Yourself (Buzzfeed)

• Adult film star Savanna Samson talks to ABC News and goes on 20/20 tonight to talk about being a mom and a porn star.
  Savanna Samson: Confessions of a Porn Star-Turned-Mom (ABC News, video autoplay warning)

• Erika Lust guest writes for Marie Claire Spain about her life as a female porn director – she has translated it into English and it’s well worth a read.
  Marie Claire: How Do You Tell Your Daughters That You Direct Adult Films? (Erika Lust)

• The man on the graphic photo below is a 42-year-old shop owner in the Meilan District of Haikou City, in Hainan, that big island south of mainland China. A 41-year-old woman killed him by squeezing his testicles.
  Woman Kills Man By Squeezing His Testicles (Gizmodo)

• Madison Young, kinky feminist porn performer, director, and producer, spoke at a panel discussion last night at Apexart gallery as part of their exhibition Consent. It also included Sinnamon Love, Tina Horn, Dan Reilly, Museum of Sex curator Sarah Forbes, and Cindy Gallop.
  Talking About Porn With the People Who Make It (The Measure)

• This article illustrates the ignorant sexist douchebaggery in Silicon Valley startup and app scene, something I’ve experienced and witnessed quite a lot – and it’s a compelling, much-needed article. However, I link with the caveat that I completely disagree with what Shanley Kane did and how she went about it.
  “Gangbang Interviews” and “Bikini Shots”: Silicon Valley’s Brogrammer Problem (Mother Jones)

• The NYT spoke with Maggie Gyllenhaal about her new film about the birth of the vibrator – “Hysteria” – and why there are still so few good sex scenes.
  Tribeca: Maggie Gyllenhaal on Sex Scenes From a Woman’s Perspective (NYTimes.com)

• These intrepid reviewers took to Yelp to explain just what was wrong with the butts, boobs, “ding a lings,” and general attitudes at the strip clubs of their choice.
  13 Surprisingly Thorough Yelp Reviews Of Strip Clubs (Buzzfeed)

• Great interview with Dan Savage. His column Savage Love has run for 20 years (!) and is syndicated in over 60 newspapers, his It Gets Better Project has helped countless gay teens cope with bullying, and MTV tapped him to bring his trademark wit to college campuses for its new TV show Savage U.
  So What Do You Do, Dan Savage, Nationally Syndicated Sex Columnist? (Mediabistro)

• A standing ovation for this post: “I wasn’t far into the story when I realized that Fifty Shades of Grey not only sets people who live a BDSM lifestyle back decades in terms of being understood by society, but that it eroticizes dangerous practices as well, especially for those who are new to this aspect of sexuality and looking to incorporate it into their lives.”
  The Troubling Message in Fifty Shades of Grey (BlogHer)

Image via David LaChapelle’s Eden for Flaunt Magazine.

Joel McKerrow on IndieFeed Performance Poetry.  Show number 1012.

I had the chance to see the screening of Stephen Elliott’s new film Cherry – and I wrote this review for SF Appeal. I think you’ll like it. Snip:

(…) Angelina (Ashley Hinshaw) is an 18-year-old girl in Long Beach with a dutiful pal Andrew (Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire) and a penchant for banging bad boys. She works at a laundromat to supply money for her family; a little sister, addict mother Phyllis (Lili Taylor) and angry drunk of a stepfather. She does a lingerie shoot where she negotiates herself a good deal; her first act of taking ownership of her life makes her decide to bail up to San Francisco to make a better life for herself.

With Andrew in tow (and decidedly in the frustrated friend zone), they land in SF at a hospitable homosexual’s flat. From there, Angelina explores San Francisco as we know it and her narrative arc into Kink.com (called “BOD” in the film) unfolds. At BOD she costars with Lorelei Lee, and finds an unusual allegiance with BOD’s leading lesbian director Margaret (Heather Graham).

Angelina’s journey into BDSM porn is the backdrop against which she confronts growing up and facing her family, making boundaries with friends and colleagues that fall in love with her, and her first real relationship with an adult man (James Franco). (…read more, sfappeal.com)

photo by Occupy Global / flickr

The use of the law to keep people from protesting and assembling did not start with the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011.  In fact, for hundreds of years, since the birth of the United States, there has been a slow but steady effort to keep people from being able to lawfully protest and organize.  During the occupy movement there were extensive discussions about democracy, freedom, economics, and our future. Somewhere behind it all, there was the issue of laws and what protesters can and cannot do.  In the end it was the police armed with tear gas and legal ordinances who were able to clear people out of the public squares they had peacefully occupied.  In this podcast we speak with attorney  Joshua Dratel, the first civilian defense lawyer to have worked with prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.  His recent article “The Evaporation of American Political Dissent” talks about the long running degredation of the right to protest and assemble in the United States.

Today marks the 38th anniversary of one of the most inspiring and peaceful revolutions of the 20th century – The Portuguese Carnation Revolution. It was the 25th of April, 1974 when unlikely groups of low ranking soldiers from around the country disobeyed orders and took members of the brutal dictatorial regime prisoner.  The soldiers had carried out and seen horrible acts during brutal colonial wars pursued by the Portuguese fascist state. The country itself was drained of its resources and had become a place characterized by poverty and a constant fear of being arrested, tortured or killed by the authorities.  Despite failed revolution attempts before the 25th, the low ranking officers along with regular people throughout the country, took to the streets, daring to march, speak out for human rights, and defy their government. A gamble that risked everything, but paid off – concepts like social justice, equality, democracy, and peace, seemed to win a wave of victories that day and in the days following. A level of success that few countries have ever known in the wake of revolution, then and now.

Having not been alive in 1974, yet still being surrounded throughout my life by people who were involved or who witnessed this unique moment in history, my understanding of the carnation revolution is shaped by the stories. And as we all know, stories can be inspiring, and yes – even exaggerated at times. But from all the stories I have ever heard of the 25 of April, what I am most left with is a profound awe and jealously for what people in those days lived through.  Awe for obvious reasons; the massive challenge and tremendous risk these soldiers and ordinary people undertook. The outpouring of love and care for one another in the streets, despite all the fear and pain that had so recently been a reality. Jealously; to never have lived in such a fantastic moment of action and initiative. To see and be a part of a movement that ended wars, experience the rebirth of freedom of expression, shaking free of the economic and political structures that held the country hostage for decades.

These days we point to the arab spring as a source of possible inspiration, though even the immediate future for those nations remains cloudy.  Some of us talk about occupy like the beginning of something significant, that could bring real change to a situation that is screaming out to be addressed. One day both of these may be looked back on as the verified beginnings of something great. But right now I would put them on historical probation, pending future developments and historical analysis. Overall I would say the 21st century (so far) is marked more by taking two steps back for every one step forward towards peace, love, and understanding. Perhaps there was a hopeful but cautious independent journalist back in the 70′s who observed the same thing.

Portugal in 1974 remains an era I wish I could have lived through. An era where things actually changed and you could see them change and run down the list of successes and of course failures. In the years and decades that would follow, some hopes and promises never came true. Others have been eroded by new economic and political waves.  Portugal now finds itself with a laundry list of problems that make it hard to cheer or sing about the goals of the past. But if we talk about significant moments in history, where the forces of open mindedness and social justice won the day and got to put policies into practice on a real scale-  for me its April 25th, 1974 that wins every time. What a fantastic time it must have been.

Alia Gabres on IndieFeed Performance Poetry.  Show number 1011

Luka Lesson on IndieFeed Performance Poetry.  Show number 1010.

SGB on IndieFeed Performance Poetry.  Show number 1009

Getting the world to listen through photos is a big part of Massoud Hossaini’s work as a photographer in Afghanistan. Even in a moment where he receives compliments and awards from around the world- including the Pulitzer prize- for his tragic photo “Heartbreak”, his message remains the same – the world must know what is happening here, because what happens in Afghanistan always has and always will spill beyond its borders and reach us in some way, no matter where we live on the planet.  Photography, media, conflict, beauty, and art; a followup on a conversation that started on a rooftop in Kabul back in 2010- we spend the hour with photographer and citizen of the world, Massoud Hossaini.

Massoud Hossaini - Amsterdam 2012

Paulie Lipman on IndieFeed Performance Poetry.  Show number 1008

I step onto a metro or tram in Amsterdam and I swipe my transport card. This card has my photo and an RFID chip with personal information about who I am and where I live.  I swipe the card again upon exit, as per the rules, which goes onto a database that contains information about the duration of my ride, the cost, and locations.

I go buy bread at my favorite local bakery and the sign next to the cash register reads “debit only”, so i swipe my bank card.  The organic supermarket has the same policy, again, after I get the groceries I need, the card gets swiped. Again, somewhere a record is kept about what store I went to and how much I spent.

As a dedicated podcasting journalist, I am also considered a one-person business in the eyes of the government, a freelancer. Like people  all over the world, when I get paid there is a record of it. When I file taxes, they want to see my bank account, how much went in, how much went out, from where, to where.  Despite the fact that in my line of work these numbers are all very tiny, the tax authorities still shower me with paperwork, regulations, and warnings, every year.

There’s nothing revolutionary or really underhanded about the reality Im describing to you… this is regular life in much of the developed world. This system exists for a reason (or reasons) and to my knowledge there is no real alternative other than behavior that would require me to frantically hide from authorities.

That old cliché comes to mind whenever I step back and look at how this all works “If you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear.” This is part of the logic that has helped usher in the era of intrusive but convenient automation and monitoring.  Even writing these words means I risk being seen as a cynic or wasting my time trying to critique a cultural shift that will not be reversed.

But to be perfectly honest, no matter how many cards I swipe, no matter how many records and receipts I hand over the the authorities, and no matter how little I have to hide, the poking and the prodding never ceases.  It is all supposed to be here to serve the public and help create a stable civic life, but often the system seems to be more focused on beating us down more than building us up.

Marc Marcel on IndieFeed Performance Poetry.  Show number 1007.

Safia Elhillo on IndieFeed Performance Poetry.  Show number 1006.

photo courtesy of Fairphone.org

In the summer of 2011 we learned of the fairphone mission; to make the world’s first ethically responsible mobile phone. We spoke about the challenges, the steps, the people and places in the world that would be involved. Now, many months later, we revisit fairphone to get an update and hear about the interesting developments and ongoing initiatives. My guest and guide on this podcast is Bas van Abel of the Waag Society, who has been part of the fairphone initiative since the early days.

We get into:

• Battery
• Miners
• Congo
• Open Design
• Urban Mining