on the topic of sexuality (and the whole thesis is a good read if this object is interesting to you):

http://www.eltopo.de/sites/funktionide.pdf

Es ist mir sehr wichtig, deutlich zu machen, dass das Objekt keine erotischen oder sexuellen Intentionen hat. Ich habe sehr bewusst darauf verzichtet. Dies bedeutet nicht, dass ich der Meinung bin, dass Erotik und Sexualität mit einem Qualitätsverlust gleichzusetzen sind, wie es oft selbst heute noch gesellschaftlicher Konsens ist, aber es geht hier eben nicht darum, die sexuellen, sondern die emotionalen Bedürfnisse zu befriedigen. Was die sexuelle Bedürfnisbefriedigung angeht, so bietet der Markt unzählige technische Möglichkeiten, und täglich kommen neue hinzu. Was die emotionalen angeht, so gibt es nur rudimentäre Ansätze oder zu diesem Zweck entfremdete normale Gebrauchsprodukte, die meistens für Kinder konzipiert sind, wie Kuscheldecken –oder Tiere.

Dieser Zustand und die von mir beschriebene Form der Vereinsamung (wohlgemerkt nur eine von vielen) haben letztlich dazu beigetragen, dass sich seit 2004 ausgehend von New York ein Trend weltweit ausgebreitet hat: sogenannte Kuschelparties. Treffen, zu denen wildfremde Menschen zusammenkommen, die eben genau diese Bedürfnis nach Geborgenheit haben, einfach nur diesen Moment der Nähe spüren wollen. Oberstes Gebot, kein Sex. Die Frankfurter Rundschau schreibt am 19.7.2005: „Unsere Gesellschaft wird immer berührungshungriger.“

It is very important to me, clear that the object has no erotic or sexual intentions. I have very deliberately avoided it. This does not mean that I am of the opinion that eroticism and sexuality are equated with a loss of quality, as it is often even today, social consensus, but there is just not about the sex but the emotional needs be met. As for the sexual gratification, the market offers innumerable technical possibilities, and new ones being added every day. As for the emotional terms, there is only rudimentary approaches to this end, alienated, or normal use products that are usually designed for children, such as blankets or animals.

This situation and the type of isolation described by me mind you (just one of many) who helped end that has spread worldwide since 2004, starting from New York, a trend: so-called "cuddle parties. Meetings, which together total strangers who just have exactly this need for security, just want to feel just this moment of proximity. Top priority, no sex. The Frankfurter Rundschau wrote on 19.7.2005: "Our society is becoming increasingly berührungshungriger."

btw @Clockwork, "satan pillow"? Really?

Actually my understanding is that Wells Fargo was one of the better-behaved banks and largely stayed out of the subprime business. It did acquire Wachovia in a fire sale after it failed in large part due to its ill-timed and disastrous acquisition of Golden West and its subprime portfolio in 2006. But Wachovia did not write those loans.

Wells Fargo did not write those loans, which it acquired in the fire-sale of Wachovia. It is a commercial bank though.

tar and feather him, and drum him out of the Senate chamber. Then pass the damn bill with reconciliation. What happened to the so-called "Supermajority"?

Did you have to invite a pissing content between breast and prostate cancer, replete with false comparisons between early-detection survival rate (rather than population mortality rate), mean breast cancer mortality age and median prostate cancer mortality age? Do you really think men are "way ahead" of women and that women are not counseled on the sexual consequences of breast reconstruction, especially given the enormous disparity in research and treatment funding and awareness between the two cancers and the physical difference between extremely common total impotence and incontinence versus breast disfigurement in survivors?

As for Jessie, her boyfriend was not married to her and under no vow to stay in sickness and in health--and it sounds like she stayed with her for a long time in sickness and was as supportive as he could be. Breaking up over his dealbreaker was the right thing to do. She will no doubt find another man without his hangups over her nippleless boobs (especially not having spent weeks draining infected lymph from them) and be better off for it--no doubt some would even find it a turn-on.

More autotuuuuuuuuuuune. Everything is better autotuned.

It's like you stole the bad new CNN redesign and made it worse. Everything everyone has pointed out is just irredeemably bad, from the blinding red, the disorganized clutter, the impossibility of seeing what's new or even distinguishing what you've already read, the inability to go straight to the article instead of a pseudoblog from the front page much less the letters section, and the terrible Javascript "Read more," which helps break the site on other browsers and platforms even more effectively. Not to mention what wasn't done, namely making any improvements to the letters section since it was rolled out, such as basic threading or the ability to make corrections. And Paglia. Gah! We don't need a poll, just look at the letters on this article or the complaints on any given article since the new site was launched.

Hello Salon mobile! Now please don't screw that up!