| Tuesday, December 2, 2003 |  |
| Women Needed to Test Orgasm Machine | 12 comments |
| 2 Dec 2003 @ 12:08 Women Needed to Test Orgasm Machine 11-28-3 LONDON (Reuters) No, really. An American surgeon who has patented a device that triggers an orgasm has begun a clinical trial approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States and is looking for female volunteers. "I thought people would be beating my door down to become part of the trial," pain specialist Dr Stuart Meloy told New Scientist magazine on Wednesday. But so far only one woman has completed the first stage of the trial, with apparently breathtaking results, and a second has agreed to take part. Meloy, of Piedmont Anesthesia and Pain Consultants in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is hoping to find eight more volunteers willing to have electrodes inserted in their spine and be connected to a pacemaker-size machine implanted under the skin to heighten their sexual pleasure. The married woman who tested the machine, dubbed an orgasmatron, had not had an orgasm for four years. But during the nine days she used it, she had several. "She even told me she had the first multiple orgasm of her life using the device," said Meloy. He stumbled on the unexpected side-effect while using a spinal cord stimulator a few years ago to treat a patient suffering with severe back pain. The woman had already had back surgery for degenerative disk disease and fusion surgery. When Meloy placed the electrodes into a specific spot on her spine to find nerve bundles carrying pain signals to the brain, she moaned with delight. "You're going to have to teach my husband how to do that," he quoted her as saying. The tiny impulses of electricity applied to the electrodes seemed to have turned on the patient's orgasm button. Although the device has been compared to the orgasmatron featured in the 1973 Woody Allen film "Sleeper," Meloy envisions patients using it temporarily to retrain their sexual response. The women in the trial described it as "really excellent foreplay." Although some medical experts are skeptical about the procedure and say a vibrator can produce the same results, Meloy believes it could help to improve sexual response in women who cannot have orgasms and might even help men as well. A full implant of the device would cost about 13,000 pounds ($22,000). "I don't see it any differently from procedures such as breast implants," Meloy told the magazine. More > |
| Love is the drug, scientists say | 0 comments |
| 2 Dec 2003 @ 12:04 Love is the drug, scientists say Being in love is physically similar to the buzz of taking drugs and also has withdrawal symptoms, an expert on addiction has said. Dr John Marsden says dopamine - the drug released by the brain when it is aroused - has similar effects on the body and mind as cocaine or speed. "Attraction and lust really is like a drug. It leaves you wanting more," the National Addiction Centre head said. His findings will appear in a BBC programme to be broadcast next month. Pounding heart "Being attracted to someone sparks the same incredible feelings no matter who you are. Love really does know no boundaries," he said. According to Dr Marsden - a chartered psychologist - the brain which processes emotions becomes "fired up" when talking to someone it finds attractive. The heart pounds three times faster than normal and causes blood to be diverted to the cheeks and sexual organs, which causes the feeling of butterflies in the stomach, he says. However, as with cocaine and speed, the "hit" is only temporary, though it can last between three and seven years, he added. Perfect partner Dr Marsden's research for the BBC's Body Hits series suggests people look for similar features to themselves in a partner as they are searching for characteristics in their mother and father, who have already successfully raised a child. "It might look like we are all after the perfect partner to wine and dine but underneath, our animal instincts are seeking out an ideal mate to share our genes with." "We tend to go for the smell of somebody who has a very different immune system and that stops you fancying your family. "Our biology drives us to find a perfect compromise between sameness and difference and we strike that balance all the time when it comes to choosing faces and smells," he said. Sex trap The research also suggests sex is booby-trapped to make partners bond. "Your body has evolved over millions of years with one aim - to go forth and multiply, so while having kids may not be on the agenda just yet your body has a few tricks up its sleeve to drag you in that direction," he said. According to the research the more two people have sex together, the more likely they are to bond. "We all know you can have sex without falling in love but if you have enough sex with the same person there's a good chance you will hit the body's booby-trap which is there to tip you head over heels into love," said Dr Marsden. "So your body goes all out to make you bond with your partner and that makes love highly addictive and the withdrawal sucks." |
| Englishman Discovers He's A Canadian Native Chief | 0 comments |
| 2 Dec 2003 @ 12:02 Englishman Discovers He's A Canadian Native Chief 11-30-3 LONDON (Reuters) -- A 59-year-old retired builder from Yorkshire, northern England, was shocked to discover he is in fact a tribal chief with a claim to thousands of acres of land in Canada, British newspapers reported on Friday. Mick Henry, the son of an English mother and a Canadian soldier over in Britain during World War II, was recently tracked down via the Internet by his long-lost Native Canadian relatives from the Ojibway tribe in the province of Manitoba. "I never thought something like this could happen to anyone, certainly not someone like me," Henry told the Daily Mail newspaper. "They are still looking for a proper ceremonial name for me. I thought they still lived in tents and went hunting for their food. In fact they all have lovely houses and enjoy a wonderful lifestyle," he said. Henry's father was an Ojibway who returned to Canada soon after his son was born. He never maintained contact and died in 1998. The Daily Mail published recent pictures of Henry reunited in Canada with some of the 70 members of his tribe, all dressed in ceremonial clothing and headdresses. Henry is also apparently hoping to cash-in on his new-found heritage and sudden celebrity status. When contacted by telephone by Reuters, a Henry family spokeswoman said: "He is not speaking to the media about his story any more without a fee." |
| Exploding The Myth Of Mozart | 25 comments |
| 2 Dec 2003 @ 11:58 Exploding The Myth Of Mozart By Dr. Pei-Gwen South 12-1-3 As one of the most recognized composers of the Western musical canon, the music and reputation of Mozart is as celebrated today as it was disregarded in his own time. In fact, the eminent status he has come to enjoy, both in print and performance, has become so entrenched as to deflect any question or criticism of its deservedness; by its very magnitude (and the notion of value it invokes) it has cast a pervasive, and consequently detrimental, influence over the tone and direction of Mozart scholarship. But what if the image we have of the composer is a myth? And what if the assessment of his achievement has been inaccurate? Like so many myths, separate the fact from the fiction, the truth from the untruth, and there remains little of substance that is worthy of all the adulation. One has only to consider the authenticity of his works, the contradictions and incongruities which musical scholarship has uncovered (but largely failed to pursue), and the man himself, and the myth begins to crumble before our very eyes. Regarding authenticity, it is not a question of whether or not Mozart composed all that has been attributed to him - we know for certain that he did not, and that many of the works once thought to be his were actually written by other composers. The question is the extent to which this is the case. To date, musicologists and music historians have identified these spurious and doubtful Mozart works into their hundreds, among them songs, symphonies, serenades, concertos, chamber pieces, masses, requiems and smaller church works, an incomplete listing of which was published in the sixth Köchel edition in 1964. Since then, the number of Mozart works found to be spurious has continued to grow, and, as has now been acknowledged, includes many works that are well-known and cherished by musical audiences, such as the Sinfonia Concertante for four winds K.Anh. 9, the 'Paris' Overture K.Anh.8, the Missa Brevis in G K.140, and the 'Twelfth Mass', the latter of which is actually by the little-known German composer Wenzel Muller (Robbins Landon 1991: 351-352). To this list might be added Idomeneo and the 'Haffner' Symphony. More > |