"In the
future, sexuality may evolve more radically or simply phase-out. Future
anthropologists might study the early stages of sexual evolution as
an indulgent fixation or a most pleasurable pastime. Regardless, future
beings - transhumans or posthumans - will certainly continue to relish
in the heat of flesh, physical or virtually simulated, for at least
the next few decades. After all, the penis may not become obsolete indeed."
- Natasha Vita More
Join
our next Season Event and share your thoughts the
future of Sexuality-
November 29, 18:30-21:15 Where:
Waag
Society, Nieuwmarkt 4, 1012 CR Amsterdam [Center of the Nieuwmarkt]
Internet Porn - The
Lucrative Business of Online Sex
Video by Max Joseph, Jon Miller, Cameron Cohen, Music by Don C,
GOOD Magazine
China is the world’s
largest exporter of sex toys and novelties, with an estimated
1,000 factories involved in the manufacture of “adult healthcare
products”. The Chinese government estimates that about one-third
of all adult products and 80 percent of sex toys and condoms sold
worldwide are made in China, with annual revenues from sales of
Chinese adult products reaching RenMinBi 50 billion ($6.7 billion)
in 2006.
A study found that
both men and women reported experiencing an orgasm in about four
percent of their sexual dreams. Orgasms were described as being
experienced by another dream character in four percent of the
women's sexual dreams, but in none of the male dream reports.
Current or past partners were identified in 20 percent of women's
sexual dreams, compared to 14 percent for men, and public figures
were twice as likely to be the object of women's sexual dream
content. Multiple sex partners were reported twice as frequently
in men's sexual dreams. - ScienceDaily
Many older Americans
routinely engage in vaginal intercourse, oral sex and masturbation,
reported a landmark study into a long-taboo subject. Sexual activity
reported among the 3,005 men and women who participated in the
survey did decrease with age, particularly among the oldest participants
-- from 73 percent among those 57 to 64 years of age to 53 percent
among those 65 to 74 years of age to 26 percent among those 75
to 85 years of age. ... "Hopefully, this opens the door for
conversation that might counter stereotypes," Lindau told
reporters in a conference call. "If we regard older people
as asexual, particularly as physicians, we really miss an opportunity
to do important counseling and interventions for people who may
benefit from them." - CNN
Virtual porn can
be just as, if not more, satisfying than the real thing, asserts
Sadako Shikami, a "Second Life" escort, putting emphasis
on Second Life's sex-related users, scripts and objects as being
the pinnacle of today's virtual, interactive sex. Regarding
the current state of virtual porn online, "even though
a real person created it, it's just a picture, a painting, a
special effect. The main difference between hentai anime or
Poser porn and Second Life porn is that there's a real person
behind the avatar, or the furry, or the cartoon," maintains
Sadako. "You can live out your wildest fantasies with a
real person who shares them."
Development agencies
have conventionally viewed sexuality as a health issue. Sex has
been regarded as a source of danger, harm and disease. The words
`love', `desire' and `pleasure' are absent from the development
lexicon. - Institute of Development Studies, Sussex
Germany’s legal
sex industry is estimated to make $18 billion annually [2006].
Meaningful sex has
to be value based. Values are personal. Each situation that has
sexual energy in it, involves the whole human being and their
entire value system. My values may be different from yours, and
I have no right to be the moral judge of anyone's values. It is
important, however, to have core values, and respect them. Without
values, we become spiritually bankrupt. Sexual experience will
never cause problems and will always be joyful, if lovers share
the same values. - Deepak Chopra
The growth of electronically
mediated sex will presumably reduce the number of flesh-to-flesh
sex acts. There are millions of people in the industrialized world
who spend significant amounts of time and money on Internet porn,
sex chat, voyeur cams and interacting with sexual partners through
Web cams and audio interfaces.
These media will
soon be joined by "haptic" and "teledildonic"
equipment that will communicate a partner's caresses and allow
you to feel them. Extrapolating to the latter 21st century,
when full nanotechnology-based virtual reality is in use, we
will be able to have as high-bandwidth a sexual relationship
electronically as in the flesh. That will probably mean a lot
more casual e-sex and more commercial e-sex. But for those special
someones it will also mean more profound sex.
Direct control
of our brains will also mean that masturbation will be a lot
more direct than the current manual methods. We will be able
to directly stimulate our sexual pleasure centers pretty much
invisibly, and as often as we like. Luckily we won't have to
drive our cars manually anymore, or things could be very dangerous
on the road. - James Hughes, Executive Director, IEET, bioethicist
and sociologist
Catching sight of
a pretty woman really is enough to throw a man's decision-making
skills into disarray, a study suggests. The men's performance
in the tests showed those who had been exposed to the "sexual
cues" were more likely to accept an unfair offer than those
who were not. Dr Siegfried DeWitte, one of the researchers who
worked on the study, said: "We like to think we are all rational
beings, but our research suggests ... that people with high testosterone
levels are very vulnerable to sexual cues. The researchers are
conducting similar tests with women. But so far, they have failed
to find a visual stimulus which will affect their behaviour. -
The Royal Society
2006
Worldwide Pornography Revenues
.Next
Event
the
future of Sexuality
Thursday, November 29, 2007 Registration:
18:30-19:00, Conference: 19:00-21:15
Make your reservation
and book online Ticket
Corner
Where:
Waag
Society, Nieuwmarkt 4, 1012 CR Amsterdam [Center of the Nieuwmarkt] The conference
language is English.
The
speakers are
Marie-Louise
Janssen,
Lecturer,
Department of political science, Gender Studies, University of
Amsterdam Paid Sex
and Public Space
Melissa
Gira,
Editor, Sexerati.com, San Francisco "The Story of i": Sex in the Information Age
Luc
Sala
Sexuality: the back door into our essence
Moderated by Mirjam Schieveld,
Head of the Summer Institute, International School for Humanities
and Social Sciences
The North Sea cod stock declined severely
during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The fishing pressure on this
stock has been too high for many years and the number of young fish
has been very low. Martin Pastoors, ACFM Chair: “Our scientific
surveys show that the number of young fish has increased, although
only to half of the long term average. These young fish could contribute
substantially to the recovery of the North Sea cod stock. We also
observe a decrease in mortality which is a welcome signal in response
to the management efforts from the past year. But it is not enough.
We recommend constraining catches in 2008 to less than 50% of the
2006 catches. And this should include measures to constrain discards
and illegal catches. This should give these young fish the opportunity
to grow and to reproduce and thereby to contribute to the recovery
of this important fish stock.”
A tiny "electronic nose" that MIT researchers have engineered
with a novel inkjet printing method could be used to detect hazards
including carbon monoxide, harmful industrial solvents and explosives.
The prototype sensor consists of thin layers of hollow spheres made
of the ceramic material barium carbonate, which can detect a range
of gases. Using a specialized inkjet print head, tiny droplets of
barium carbonate or other gas-sensitive materials can be rapidly
deposited onto a surface, in any pattern the researchers design.
Tuller, professor in
the Department of Materials Science and Engineering: "The way
we distinguish between coffee's and fish's odor is not that we have
one sensor designed to detect coffee and one designed to detect
fish, but our nose contains arrays of sensors sensitive to various
chemicals. Over time, we train ourselves to know that a certain
distribution of vapors corresponds to coffee."
The annual Horizon Report
describes the continuing work of the NMC’s Horizon Project,
a research-oriented effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging
technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning,
or creative expression within higher education.
The Horizon Advisory
Board again reviewed key trends in the practice of teaching, learning,
and creativity, and ranked those it considered most important for
campuses to watch. Trends were identified through a careful analysis
of interviews, articles, papers, and published research. The six
trends below emerged as most likely to have a significant impact
in education in the next five years. They are presented in priority
order as ranked by the Advisory Board.
The environment
of higher education is changing rapidly. Costs are rising, budgets
are shrinking, and the demand for new services is growing. Student
enrollments are declining. There is an increasing need for distance
education, with pressure coming not only from nontraditional
students seeking flexible options, but from administrative
directives to cut costs. The “shape” of the average
student is changing, too; more students are working and commuting
than ever before, and the residential, full-time student is not
necessarily the model for today’s typical student. Higher
education faces competition from the for-profit educational sector
and an increasing demand by students for instant access and interactive
experiences.
Increasing globalization
is changing the way we work, collaborate, and communicate. China,
India, and other southeast Asian nations continue to develop skilled
researchers and thinkers who contribute significantly to the global
body of knowledge and whose work fuels much innovation. Additionally,
globalization of communication, entertainment, and information
provides students with wider perspectives and resources than ever
before, placing them in a new and continually changing learning
space.
Information literacy
increasingly should not be considered a given. Contrary to the
conventional wisdom, the information literacy skills of new
students are not improving as the post-1993 Internet boomlet
enters college. At the same time, in a sea of user-created content,
collaborative work, and instant access to information of varying
quality, the skills of critical thinking, research, and evaluation
are increasingly required to make sense of the world.
Academic review
and faculty rewards are increasingly out of sync with new forms
of scholarship. The trends toward digital expressions of scholarship
and more interdisciplinary and collaborative work continue
to move away from the standards of traditional peer-reviewed paper
publication. New forms of peer review are emerging, but existing
academic practices of specialization and long-honored notions
of academic status are persistent barriers to the adoption of
new approaches. Given the pace of change, the academy will grow
more out of step with how scholarship is actually conducted until
constraints imposed by traditional tenure and promotion processes
are eased.
The notions of
collective intelligence and mass amateurization are
pushing the boundaries of scholarship. Amateur scholars are weighing
in on scholarly debates with reasoned if not always expert opinions,
and websites like the Wikipedia have caused the very notion of
what an expert is to be reconsidered. Hobbyists and enthusiasts
are engaged in data collection and field studies that are making
real contributions in a great many fields at the same time that
they are encouraging debate on what constitutes scholarly work
- and who should be doing it. Still to be resolved is the question
of how compatible the consensus sapientum and the wisdom of the
academy will be.
Students’
views of what is and what is not technology are increasingly different
from those of faculty. From small, flexible software tools
to ubiquitous portable devices and instant access, students today
experience technology very differently than faculty do, and the
gap between students’ view of technology and that of faculty
is growing rapidly. Mobile phones, to name just one example, are
very different tools to students than to faculty; rather than
being mere tools for voice communication, these devices store
music, movies, and photos, keep students in touch with their friends
by text and voice, and provide access to the wider world of the
Internet at any time.
Most of us are programmed into thinking of our sexuality as a wholly
natural feature of life. But sexual relations are just one form of
social relations. Sexuality has both a history and a sociology --
it is not simply a matter of biological or psychological drives. Drawing
on the analysis of Michel Foucault and other key thinkers, this new
edition of Sexuality examines the subject in terms of social, moral
and political issues, and features new material on AIDS, queer theory
and postcolonial perspectives on race.
This book provides
an indispensable, comprehensive introduction to the sociology of
sexuality, discussing its cultural and socio-historical construction,
its relationship with power, and the state's involvement in its
rationalization and regulation.
.Piccard
closer to the sun
After four years of
research, studies, calculations and simulations, the Solar Impulse
project has entered a concrete phase with the construction of
an initial prototype with a 61-metre wingspan, referred to by
its registration number “HB-SIA”. Its mission is to
verify the working hypotheses in practice and to validate the
selected construction technologies and procedures. If the results
are conclusive, it could make a 36-hour flight - the equivalent
of a complete day-night-day cycle - in 2009 without any fuel.
Two airplanes
on the way to success
Construction
of the first prototype, the HB-SIA, began in June 2007 and will
last until the summer of 2008. Test flights should start in
autumn 2008, with the objective of completing the first night
flight in 2009.
Another
plane will then be developed to attempt to fly several 24-hour
cycles consecutively, leading to the first trans-Atlantic flight
in 2011, and then the first round-the-world flight.
The BH-SIA's mission
This is a “basic” prototype airplane. The instrument panel
will be reduced to the essentials, and with a non-pressurized cockpit
it will be unable to fly above 8,500m. It will be a first approach
at optimizing the balance between energy consumption, weight, performance
and controllability. The goal is not to try to fly around the world
and indeed the HB-SIA is not built to do so. The objectives at this
stage are
To validate the
computer simulation results, the technological choices and the
construction techniques.
To test an unexplored
area of flight: never before has an airplane succeeded in flying
with these size, weight and speed characteristics.
To store sufficient
solar energy during the daytime to demonstrate the feasibility
of a day-night-day cycle (36-hour flight).
Example of energy
efficiency
Current solar airplanes are not designed to store energy and therefore
have to land in cases of insufficient sunlight (clouds or night
time). In so doing they mark the limits of solar energy. Other projects
are seeking to fly remote controlled solar drones or hydrogen-powered
airplanes. To demonstrate the formidable potential of renewable
energies, Solar Impulse intends to place the bar much higher and
have a piloted aircraft fly night and day without fuel.
But how do we succeed
with a mission like this, when we know that with present-day technologies
and performances, every square metre of photovoltaic cells can supply
only 28 watts – the equivalent of an electric light bulb –
to the propeller continuously over a 24-hour period? In other words,
how can an airplane fly on the energy consumed by a supermarket
window? It is impossible without a complete optimization of the
airplane and without a drastic reduction in its energy consumption.
Only a machine of disproportionate dimensions (61 metre wingspan)
and very light weight (1500 kg) will be able to fly sufficiently
slowly (45 km/h) to operate off the available energy!. The Solar
Impulse engineers have therefore had to develop a totally new type
of airplane, made possible by innovative technologies, in which
everything is new, everything is different: aerodynamics, structure,
manufacturing methods, type of propulsion, flight domain …
In some ways it looks
like a large aircraft, in others more like a glider. It has the
wingspan of the Airbus A340 and the wing load of paragliders and
delta planes. In relation to its size, it must be eight times lighter
than that of the best existing glider. This poses the problems of:
constructing a structure
with this wingspan and such a low weight;
finding the balance
between stability and manoeuvrability, in other words how to make
an airplane of this size and with such a low wing load pilotable?
A model of high
technology
The project will be successful only if it can achieve performances
which are still unknown today, achieved by a combination of practical
experimentation and complex computer simulations.
To achieve this, a
multi-disciplinary team of 50 specialists from six countries, based
in Dübendorf and Lausanne, assisted by a further roughly 100
outside advisers, are pooling their very specific experiences to
create the necessary synergies. It is only by combining the demands
of the designers, equipment suppliers, constructors and pilots that
an airplane can be built to such atypical specifications. Research
initiatives have had to be undertaken and new solutions called into
play in a number of sectors - conception, aerodynamics, energy efficiency,
structure, composite materials and manufacturing procedures - both
for each component individually and for the assembly as a whole.
An elegant example
is the extreme precision achieved in the use of composite materials:
for example stretching carbon sheet just a few tenths of millimetres
thick over lengths of up to 20 metres. As the Project CEO, André
Borschberg, says, “Anything that doesn’t break is potentially
too heavy!”
The fragile solar panels
also had to be flexible in flight. How do we use cells as both energy
generators and wing surface, without breaking when the airplane
encounters turbulence?
Of course, all this
represents the management challenge of bringing together individualists
who are as bold as they are creative, getting them to work as a
team and motivating suppliers to move beyond their customary limits.
A symbol for our
society
For Bertrand Piccard, the initiator and president of the project,
this airplane is the symbol of the new technologies that our society
ought to be capable of rallying behind it in order to economize
the energy resources of our planet.
Solar Impulse, in this
sense, really means what its name says. The sun provides the energy,
but the impulse to use it has to be transmitted to people who are
ready to receive it and carry it further.
In any case, it demonstrates
the importance of tomorrow’s adventures being linked to the
search for a better quality of life.
Bertrand Piccard
- President and initiator of the project
Descended from a dynasty of explorers and scientists who conquered
the heights and depths of our planet, Bertrand Piccard seems predestined
to perpetuate one of the greatest family adventures of the 20th
century. As psychiatrist, aeronaut, internationally renowned public
speaker, president of the humanitarian foundation "Winds of
Hope" and roving ambassador for the United Nations, he aspires
to combining his scientific family heritage with his commitment
to exploring the great adventure of life.
Pioneer of free flight
and of ULM in Europe and winner of the first transatlantic balloon
race (the Chrysler Challenge 1992), Bertrand Piccard was also the
initiator of the Breitling Orbiter project. His success as flight
commander of this first non-stop, round-the-world flight in 1999,
catapulted him to the front of the stage as a "savanturier".
Following this success,
he received the Legion of Honour, the Olympic Order and the highest
distinctions from the International Aeronautic Federation, the National
Geographic Society and the Explorer's Club. Today, Bertrand Piccard
takes off with Solar Impulse, in pursuit of a new dream.
.Inventions
Take-A-Seat
3-IN-1 Take-A-Seat
is the world's first vehicle-mounted collapsible chair. It attaches
to the vehicle's receiver hitch while in use and travel. The unit
converts to a handy 3-place bike rack and a cargo/cooler carrier.
TTI-Blakemore "Rod Floaters" : Fishing
Rod Floater
Have you ever had a
fishing rod fall overboard and sink to the bottom of the lake? Have
you seen unattended fishing rods pulled into the lake by fish or
accidentally thrown into the lake by a child or someone learning
to fish and cast their line? Wouldn't it be nice to have insurance
against this happening?
Strike
Out Strippz
The amazing new Strike Out Strippz Pitching
Glove plus over 60 minutes of video instruction on pitching techniques,
mechanics and drills will teach you how to throw strike after strike.
Even the professional baseball players, including the Yankees, are
using the Strike Out Strippz gloves to improve upon their skills.
Every level, from the youngest T-Ball player, elementary to college,
and professional will find the benefits to be fool proof - so much
so, it is guaranteed to give results. This pitching glove is the
easiest way to learn perfect pitching mechanics quickly and simply!
It will change young lives by improving their performance and self
confidence almost immediately.
USB & lighter combination
We would like to present
you the novelty on the USB market… memlite is THE combination
of a lighter and an USB flash drive - portable, unique and trendy!
Windsor-Not
The Windsor-Not is a Jewelry Implementation
of the Windsor Knot . It works for any mans tie ans is useful for
any man that has difficulty typing a traditional tie. It also offers
more comfort than a traditional ties with no pressure or discomfort
(choking).
The Windsor-Not (Not
a Windsor Knot) was invented to help a Man wearing a tie have a
painless experience, easy, and more interesting.
There is also a Windsor-Not
for women. It is a smaller version and is used to secure scarfs.
Made as custom jewelery Items can express the design of any vanity.
.Agenda
The
Season Events are on Thursdays
Registration: 18:30-19:00, Conference: 19:00-21:15
November
29
18:30 - 21:15
the
future of Sexuality
Location:
Waag Society, Nieuwmarkt 4, 1012 CR Amsterdam [Center of Nieuwmarkt]
January
31
18:30 - 21:15
the
future of Fashion
Location:
February
28
18:30 - 21:15
the
future of NanoEnergy
Location:
March
27
18:30 - 21:15
the
future of Ecological Architecture
Location:
April
24
18:30 - 21:15
the
future of Money
Location:
May
29
18:30 - 21:15
the
future of Children
Location:
Info.nl,
Sint Antoniesbreestraat 16, 1011 HB Amsterdam [Next
to Nieuwmarkt]
June
26
18:30 -
Taste
of Diversity
Location:
.Club
of Amsterdam Open Business Club
Club
of Amsterdam Open Business Club
Are you interested in networking, sharing visions,
ideas about your future, the future of your industry, society, discussing
issues, which are relevant for yourself as well as for the 'global'
community? The future starts now - join our
online platform
...: http://www.openbc.com/go/invuid/Felix_Bopp2
.Contact
Your
comments, ideas, articles are welcome!
Please write to Felix Bopp, Editor-in-Chief: editor@clubofamsterdam.com
Club
of Amsterdam Journal.
