Pages

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Misleading porn, Fake Prince Harry, Berlin, Venice, Iran and other stories


14 March 2014 Last updated at 15:31

Germany: Berlin first city with its own internet domain

News from Elsewhere...By News from Elsewhere......as found by BBC Monitoring
Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

More News from Elsewhere

Berlin is about to become the first city in the world with its own internet domain name, it appears.
Companies or individuals based in the German capital will be able to use .berlin at the end of their website addresses from 18 March, the dpa news agency reports. The suffix - technically known as a generic top-level domain (gTLD) - was created under an agreement between Berlin's local government and ICANN, the US-based organisation that co-ordinates global internet systems.
After Berlin, cities including London, Paris, New York, Johannesburg and Japanese city Nagoya will launch their own domains. The .london suffix will become available in April. A single website with the ending .wien, representing the Austrian capital Vienna, has been live since early March but public registration for that gTLD does not open until July.
"Domains are descriptive, not just cryptic abbreviations like .org or .com," says Dirk Krischenowski of dotBerlin, which operates the new domain. He says locality-based domains could lead to a fundamental change to how the internet is used.
A .berlin suffix will cost between 30-60 euros (£25-50) per year, and is expected to raise 500,000 euros (£418,000) in the first year.
16 March 2014 Last updated at 17:04

Fake Prince Harry cons Austrian floor fitter

File photo of Prince HarryAs it turned out, Prince Harry did not need renovation works at Buckingham Palace

Related Stories

A Facebook user posing as Britain's Prince Harry has conned an Austrian floor fitter out of thousands of euros.
The fake prince offered the workman a million-euro contract to renovate the parquet floors at Buckingham Palace.
The tradesman then transferred 27,500 euros (£23,000) to several UK bank accounts, which the fraudster said was necessary to set up a British business.
The Austrian contacted police after not hearing back from the "prince". Investigations are ongoing.
But authorities in the province of Burgenland have told the floor-fitter that his chances of getting his money back are "slim", the Austrian Kurier newspaper reports.
The victim had initially transferred 2,500 euros to a Lloyd bank account, before sending another 22,000 euros for an alleged security deposit and a third sum of 3,000.
On Friday, the floor-fitter eventually went to see police after not hearing back from the fake prince for more than two weeks.

Could Dubai nightlife bubble burst?

15 March 2014 Last updated at 23:34 GMT
Around a dozen new venues have opened in Dubai's opulent nightlife scene this year, with more planned in the coming months.
Brand names from London, Beirut and New York are set to be joined by popular Ibiza clubs.
But some in the industry fear the bubble may burst, as investors rush to take advantage of the demand fuelled by a rapidly-growing hotel sector, and the city's reputation as a reliable hub.
Mark Lobel reports.

16 March 2014 Last updated at 16:30

Venice votes in referendum on splitting from Rome

Venice, 16 March 2014The vote will go on till the end of the week

Related Stories

Voting has begin in Venice and the surrounding region on whether to break away from Italy.
Recent opinion polls suggest that two-thirds of the four million electorate favour splitting from Rome, but the vote will not be legally binding.
The poll was organised by local activists and parties, who want a future state called Republic of Veneto.
This would be reminiscent of the sovereign Venetian republic that existed for more than 1,000 years.
A focal point for culture, architecture and trade, Venice lost its independence to Napoleon in 1797.
Venice, 16 March 2014Polls suggest many in the Venice region favour splitting from Rome
Online voting is due to continue until Friday.
The vote received very little coverage in Italy's national media but the organisers said they expected as many as two million people to take part.
The BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome says the vote reflects a growing separatist mood in parts of Europe, such as Spain's Catalonia region and Scotland, which votes on whether to become independent in September.
Moves towards independence often evoke more sympathy in wealthy northern Italy, where many resent what they see as the poorer south's waste and corruption.
Luca Zaia, governor of Veneto, the Venice region, rejected suggestions that the Italian constitution would prevent secession.
International law, he told Il Quotidiano, allowed "the right to self-determination".

13 March 2014 Last updated at 15:48

Altered Images: Iran poster links EU diplomat and gas attack

Altered ImagesAltered ImagesQuestioning whether cameras never lie
Catherine Ashton (left), and former Iraqi leader Saddam HusseinThe faces of the EU's Catherine Ashton and former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein appear on the posters

More News from Elsewhere

Billboards splicing together the faces of Saddam Hussein and the EU's top diplomat alongside disturbing images of a notorious chemical attack have appeared around Tehran, the Iranian capital, it seems.
The posters have appeared days before the anniversary of the 1988 Halabja chemical attack. They openly criticise Catherine Ashton for her perceived meddling in Iranian affairs, the Tabnak news website says. The EU's high representative for foreign affairs met human rights activists on a recent visit to Tehran.
Images of two different billboards appeared in Tabnak's coverage. Baroness Ashton's face has been superimposed onto that of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was executed in 2006. They are shown beside photos of the chemical attack carried out by Iraq against Kurdish civilians in the closing days of the Iran-Iraq war.
The posters also draw attention to Iran's so-called nuclear martyrs - scientists who were reportedly assassinated for working on the country's nuclear programme. A cult of personality has been built around them by conservative factions in Iran.
Another newspaper, Qanun, asks why the posters were allowed to be put up. "It is only Tehran municipality, among all cities, that considers itself as having the right to express its ideas on politics," it says.
Lady Ashton, who is involved in negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme, is no stranger to photo manipulation. In the past, Iranian media have retouched photos to make her outfit less revealing, and censored footage of her embracing male diplomats.
From page of Iranian Qanun newspaperThe billboards are front-page news in one Iranian newspaper, Qanun

11 Ways Mainstream Porn Misleads Women About Sex

Posted: Updated: 
Print Article
Main Entry Image
Anyone who has watched even a few minutes of porn may end up with some very particular ideas about what real-world sex entails.
Porn -- at least, the kind where super-toned, tanned, hairless women are penetrated in a variety of acrobatic positions by equally toned, tanned men -- is full of myths about sex. Redditor black_brotha decided to ask women on the site what they "learned" from porn that turned out to be completely untrue in the real world.
Here are 11 of the most worrying un-truths women said porn taught them:
1. That their bodies were abnormal: "I was 100% convinced that I needed labiaplasty and was really ashamed to be naked in front of [a] guy because I thought he would think I was a freak."
2. That all sex focuses on the guy's pleasure: "I thought having sex with a man meant having to pretend I enjoyed it even if I wasn't, that it didn't matter if I had an orgasm, and that it was normal for a guy not to give a shit about my pleasure."
3. That "sexy" is purely physical, and incredibly specific:
I felt like I had to fit into a box I could never fit in. It made me feel dysphoric about not just my body, but who I was. I'm a clumsy, boyish, awkward female, that couldn't do an attractive striptease to save their life AKA the antithesis of your typical "sexy female"... There is more than just one kind of sexy and its all subjective. I've realized that Im sexy in my own way and I'm much happier now.
4. That men don't like women with hair "down there": "I thought men would expect completely hairless women and they would be repulsed by me."
5. That orgasms are almost effortless: "I thought orgasms were much easier to achieve than they actually are. As a result I thought something was wrong with mefor a long time. I just assumed that PIV=almost instant orgasm. I was so disappointed to find that wasn't the case."
6. That men only find certain bodies (white, toned and smooth-skinned) attractive: "It did make me think that only women with perfect bodies ever had sex."
7. That all penises are circumcised and eight inches long: "I didn't knowuncircumcised penises existed, because all the porn I'd seen prior had circumcised male performers."
8. That insanely complex sexual positions feel good for everyone:
Those positions? Yeah, most of them don't feel good.I know everyone's different, but it is VERY DIFFICULT, bordering on impossible to have an orgasm with that much distance between the partners! Besides, one of the best things about sex is the closeness of skin-to-skin contact.
9. That you had to do everything women in porn videos did in order for your partner to enjoy themself: "It didn't occur to me until like age 27 that I didn't have to let a guy come on my face if I didn't want to. Or I didn't have to swallow. Or that it was okay to not moan if I didn't feel like moaning."
10. That men are always ready and willing: "I thought that all men liked beingaggressive and dominant, like in porn, and that if they were under 50, they were always going to be able to get hard and orgasm."
11. That sex between two women is just something that happens between two straight ladies out of boredom: "I thought lesbian sex involved long fingernails, looking bored/disgusted, and waiting for a man to show up."

What other misconceptions did you get from porn? Comment below, or tweet@HuffPostWomen.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)