OOKE GLADSTONE: The children. We are all of us frightened for the children. And we have plenty of numbers to justify that fear, like a 20-billion-dollar child porn industry or 50,000 predators prowling for children online, numbers that resound endlessly through the media ether, origins unknown. Take that last number, 50,000 sexual predators logged in at any given time. That appeared late last year in a series for NBC's "Dateline," called "To Catch a Predator." Last week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales cited it. Legal Times noted that spokespersons for the FBI, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Crimes Against Children Research Center say it's not based on any research they're aware of. The A.G.'s Office said it came from "Dateline."

CHRIS HANSEN: It was attributed to, you know, law enforcement, as an estimate, and it was talked about as sort of an extrapolated number.


OOKE GLADSTONE: Chris Hansen is a reporter for the "Dateline" series, still ongoing.

CHRIS HANSEN: So when we went to interview Ken Lanning, who was the expert we talked to in our first piece, I said, Look, this number keeps surfacing. Do you think that it's accurate, it's reliable? And he essentially said to me, I've heard it, but depending on how you define what is a predator, it could actually be a very low estimate.


OOKE GLADSTONE: He took that as confirmation, but maybe he shouldn't have.

KEN LANNING: I didn't know where it came from. I couldn't confirm it, but I couldn't refute it either, but I felt it was a fairly reasonable figure.


OOKE GLADSTONE: That's Hansen's source, FBI veteran Ken Lanning.

KEN LANNING: I was somewhat curious about the fact [CHUCKLES] that it was 50,000. That number had popped in the past, because I had been an FBI agent for over 30 years. In the early 1980s, this was the number that was most often used to estimate how many children were kidnapped or abducted by strangers every year. But the research that was done in the early 1990s found that somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 to 300 children every year were abducted in this manner.


OOKE GLADSTONE: It seems bad things don't come in threes they come in fifty thousand.

KEN LANNING: The other one that I specifically [LAUGHS] remembered kind of came in the late '80s, where there were a lot of people who were talking about satanic cults that were supposedly running around the country engaging in human sacrifices. And when you'd try to say, well, how much of this is going on? - once again, [LAUGHS] the same number popped up 50,000 a year.
- Speaking of satanic cults, there was a day care hysteria that started due to media fear-mongering, read it here, and they had almost ZERO evidence, but MANY people were put in prison for nothing.


OOKE GLADSTONE: Sacrificed?

KEN LANNING: Yes. That's what they were alleging. [LAUGHS] This one here was a little bit more obviously problematic to me, because we do have good data on homicide. And at that time, there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 to 23,000 murders every year, so this meant that the satanists all by themselves were killing twice as many [LAUGHING] people as all the other murderers combined.


OOKE GLADSTONE: So why is 50,000 such an unaccountably sticky figure?

KEN LANNING: Maybe the appeal of the number was that it wasn't a real small number it wasn't like 100, 200 and it wasn't a ridiculously large number, like 10 million. It was like a Goldilocks number - not too hot, not too cold.


OOKE GLADSTONE: Carl Bialik tracks down dubious numbers in his column for The Wall Street Journal. He followed up that 20-billion-dollar child porn industry figure I quoted earlier, and it led him straight into a blind alley. Now, 20 billion is what Lanning might call a ridiculously large number, and despite multiple media citations and a long string of attributions, in the end Bialik could find no research group or agency willing to claim ownership.

CARL BIALIK: An interesting phenomenon of these numbers is that they'll often be cited to an agency or some government body, and then a study will pick it up, and then the press will repeat it from that study. And then once it appears in the press, public officials will repeat it again, and now it's become an official number.
- Like Hitler once said: "If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed."

OOKE GLADSTONE: And it actually displays a touching faith in the numbers supplied by the media.

CARL BIALIK: It does. You know, often public officials will criticize the media, but when there's a number that squares with the stance they're going to take, then it's a great resource for them.


OOKE GLADSTONE: Especially when that stance is unassailable. For example -

CARL BIALIK: I completely agree with their goal of protecting children, but they often will use dubious numbers to advance that goal. I think one of the reasons that this is allowed to continue to happen is that there isn't really a natural critic.


OOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

CARL BIALIK: Nobody really wants to really wants go to on the record saying, you know, it turns out this really isn't a big problem, because then you can be accused of being on the side of the [LAUGHS] sexual predators.


OOKE GLADSTONE: Steve Ross, a former professor at Columbia University's School of Journalism, who taught a class on reporting numbers, says journalists have their own reasons for ornamenting their stories with digits.

STEVE ROSS: Look, 30, 40 years ago, ever since I've been in the business, the editor will come down to you and say, add a number. It builds credibility. Got to have a number in there.


OOKE GLADSTONE: But when it comes to crime, a good number is hard to find.

STEVE ROSS: The only reasonably accurate national crime statistics come out of something called the Uniform Crime Report. The Uniform Crime Report only tracks eight different crimes rape, murder, auto theft, that sort of thing. If it's not a crime that is tracked child pornography is not tracked, for instance there is no hard and fast national number that comes out of that. At the very best, it's a number that's extrapolated from a more limited survey.


OOKE GLADSTONE: "Dateline" reporter Chris Hansen.

CHRIS HANSEN: There's a natural tendency to try to quantify a problem. I think we all do it.


OOKE GLADSTONE: So you think you'll continue to use that number?

CHRIS HANSEN: We used it in the first two stories, and we haven't used it in the last three.


OOKE GLADSTONE: But in terms of changing the previous stories - or I know that they may be rebroadcast at MSNBC - you'll just leave them as they stand.

CHRIS HANSEN: Well, I don't think that decision's been made yet.

CARL BIALIK: The strongest form of media bias is probably a reporter's bias for his or her own story.


OOKE GLADSTONE: Wall Street Journal numbers guy, Carl Bialik.

CARL BIALIK: And when you find a number that backs up the thesis you've adopted for your story, it can be really hard to pass it up.


OOKE GLADSTONE: Add to that the mysterious allure of 50,000, applied to mayhem ranging from Korean War casualties to the annual death toll from second-hand smoke. I tossed it to former journalism prof, Steve Ross. If I were to throw that number out to you as if it were a "Jeopardy" answer, what might you guess the question would be?

STEVE ROSS: How many traffic deaths are there in the United States every year?


OOKE GLADSTONE: How about how many people are killed a year because of satanic human sacrifice?

STEVE ROSS: I would doubt that it is very many. [LAUGHTER] But I've heard 50,000. [LAUGHTER]


OOKE GLADSTONE: The FBI's Fanning says there may well be 50,000 sexual predators trawling the net. He doesn't know. He does know that 50,000 is the Goldilocks of crime stats. But, as experience shows, that doesn't mean it's just right. [MUSIC UP AND UNDER]

BOB GARFIELD: Coming up, Iran gets some bad press it didn't deserve, and an unemployed editor seeks work after a life spent at Hustler.


OOKE GLADSTONE: This is On the Media from NPR.

sex

Recently, our 10-year old asked if we could please not use the word "sex" around him. Understand that we, his parents, do not typically go on and on about sex with our children; we happened at that point to be talking about the upcoming "Health Hygiene" movie for 5th graders.

We asked which word he would prefer we use for a very natural part of life. Of course he rolled his eyes at that - MOM (said in two syllables a sigh) - then mentioned some wacky phrase that his friend says instead of sex. I asked why he felt he couldn't stand to hear the real word, which brought on uncomfortable wiggles and fidgets so I offered an alternative I could live with: Voldemort. For the uninitiated (shame on you), Voldemort is the wizard who tries to kill Harry Potter; his power is diminished when people say his name aloud - so it would follow that using his name in place of s-e-x diminishes the weirdness of the word. At the very least, it sounds pretty hilarious in conversation and now we can actually discuss you-know-what without aggravation.

Today being Football Day in Bad Momland, the TV was rife with ads for a particular male-oriented dysfunction. Mason made a comment about how "weird" they are so I asked if he knew what the drug is for. He made a face and said "So old guys, like in their 50s, can, you know..." I told him it's not necessarily just for "old guys" (and 50s does not necessarily equal old) then asked (because I'm cruel), "And what do you mean by 'you know'?" More eye-rolling so I clarified, "You're right, though it's specifically to help if a man's penis is not working properly for...Voldemort." Which produced gales of laughter all around, then this from the boy:

"Mom. He would use his 'wand' for Voldemort.

sex

Waking Vixen began as Audacia Rays blog almost four years ago. Since then, Waking Vixen Productions has become a portal to and producer of smart sex culture.
Since those online beginnings, Dacia has become the author of Naked on the Internet: Hookups, Downloads, and Cashing In on Internet Sexploration, director/producer of the award-winning porn film The Bi Apple, an executive editor at sex worker magazine $pread, as well as a prolific writer, video blogger, and erotic art curator. Currently Dacia edits the Village Voice sexuality blog Naked City, for which she also produces a weekly video show.
If you want to get in touch, drop Dacia an email at dacia[at]wakingvixen.

Have you ever
1. had sex in three or more positions in one session?
2. had sex continuously for 1 hour or more?
3. devoted an entire day to sex and sexual activity (with breaks for eating, etc.)?
4. been so loud having sex that housemates/neighbors commented or complained?
5. had your sexual technique/style/skill openly praised by someone?
6. written an explicitly erotic story?
7. brought your partner to orgasm using only your hands?
8. had sex while both fully drssed (unzip fly, hike up skirt)?
9. had sex while both standing up?
10. licked or sucked on someone else’s feet and/or toes?
11. performed oral sex on a man (fellatio)?
12. performed oral sex on a woman (cunniligus)?
13. received oral sex from a man?
14. received oral sex from a woman?
15. used position number 69?
16. intentionally swallowed semen (your own counts)?
17. woken someone up by performing oral sex on them?
18. had heterosexual intercourse using no birth control?
19. had sex during menstruation?
20. used whipped cream, chocolate syrup, etc. for sexual purposes?
21. used ice for sexual purposes?
22. used hot/melted wax for sexual purposes?
23. completely shaved off your pubic hair?
24. purchased a sex toy?
25. inserted your finger into someone’s anus, or had this done to you?
26. licked someone’s anus?
27. performed anal intercourse on someone (on the giving end, toys count)?
28. received anal intercourse (receiving end, toys still count)?
29. used a vibrator or dildo on your partner, or had your partner use one on you?
30. used another kind of inanimate object for penetration (cucumber, beer bottle, anything)?
31. been involved in use of a cock ring?
32. been involved in use of a strap-on?
33. participated in fist fucking?
34. contracted a venereal disease?
35. received money or some favor in exchange for sexual activities?
36. given a sympathy fuck?
37. forced or coerced someone having sex with you?
38. had sex with a virgin?
39. paid for sex with a prostitute?
40. been involved in adultery?
41. committed statutory rape?
42. fondled a pre-pubescent when you were post-pubescent?
43. had sex with someone 10 years older or younger than yourself?
44. had sex with a roommate/housemate/landlord (not a pre-existing relationship)?
45. had sex with your boss or teacher?
46. willingly committed incest (sex with family member, including 1st cousins)?
47. ever had sex with two people from the same family (i.e. siblings, not related through marriage)?
48. had sex with someone the same day you met them?
49. had sex with someone whose name you did not know (at least until afterwards)?
50. had sex with someone who you never spoke with, or who did not know any of the same languages as you?
51. been openly homosexual or bisexual (out of the closet for all to see)?
52. had more than 10 sex partners?
53. more than 100?
54. had sex with two partners within 24 hours (but separately)?
55. been in a menage-a-trois?
56. engaged in group sex (more than three people)?
57. visited an orgy parlor or swap club?
58. had two or more regular sex partners at the same time, while all involved were aware of your actions?
59. had two or more regular sex partners at the same time, without telling all of them about the others?
60. had sex in a public place?
61. had sex outdoors at night?
62. had sex outdoors in direct, unshadowed sunlight?
63. had sex in a stationary car?
64. had sex while you or your partner were driving?
65. become a member of the mile high club?
66. had sex in your or your partner’s parents’ bedroom?
67. had sex in a classroom, office, or other place of work (not a private residence)?
68. had sex in a restroom of a building that was open to the public?
69. had sex in the water (bathtub, hottub, ocean)?
70. had sex in a stairwell or elevator?
71. had sex in a place of the dead (cemetery, mortuary, coffin, etc.)?
72. used alcohol to lower someone’s resistance?
73. had sex while under the influence of illegal drugs?
74. ever taken a drug for the express purposes of enhancing the sexual experience?
75. seen a live professional stripper?
76. commited an act of voyeurism (watched someone who did not know you were there)?
77. committed an act of public exhibitionism (stripping, sreaking)?
78. masturbated in someone else’s presence?
79. had sex while you knew someone else was watching?
80. been walked in on while having sex?
81. watched a pornographic movie with your sex partner?
82. been the photographer or subject of a nude photo/video shoot?
83. had pictures/video taken of you having sex?
84. watched your usual sex partner have sex with someone else while you were not involved?
85. had a genital or nipple pierced?
86. practiced sexual role-playing (doctor/nurse, student/teacher, etc.)?
87. engaged in transvestitism for sexual enjoyment?
88. engaged in bondage as a “top” (tied someone else)?
89. engaged in bondage as a “bottom” (been tied up)?
90. been blindfolded during sex?
91. intentionally inflicted pain while performing sexual activities (sadism)?
92. willingly had pain inflicted on you during sexual activities (masochism)?
93. had a “safe word” arranged with your partner for use in SD activities?
94. used nipple clamps (clothespins count)?
95. used a whip, chain, cat-o-nine-tails, or something similar for pain?
96. inflicted or received an electric shock during sexual activities?
97. drawn blood by biting or scratching while performing sexual activities?
98. engaged in “golden showers”?
99. committed bestiality?
100. practiced necrophilia?
I answered to 80 out of 100 questions, but Im not telling you which. Hehehe. Soooooo Whats ~your~ score.

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2.В Professional and private photographs.В 
The photographs are organized in chronological order and what I learned is that everything under the sun has been done, possibly by your grandma.В В The invention of the camera wasnt the beginning of pornography but it certainly helped it take off.В  And its not all innocent 1950s pin-up girls - the walls of the museum are filled with men and women doing dirty dirty things to themselves and others.В  The only photos I found shocking, the picturesВ that caused me to wince and say were the 1960s photos of women displaying major bush.В  Im talking scary hairy alien caterpillar creatures that could swallow a bottle of Nair and laugh.В В I am thankful third wave feminism embraces economic equality,В Title NineВ AND scissors.В В 
The most crowded place in the museum was a hot, dimly lit back room featuring BDSM and unusual sex acts.В  There was a sign on the entrance door warning people to not complain about being offended.В  The most hilarious thing was the note informing visitors that anal sex was invented by Americans in the 1970s.В  Im guessing thats a mis-translation and it was supposed to refer to anal sex porn movies.В  I wasВ bothered that although most off the displays showed both men and women, gay and straight, doing all sorts of interesting things to their bodies, only women were pictured having sex with animals.В  Its not like I was waving the pro-bestiality flagВ prior to this; I never spent any time thinking about it because I had never actually seen any.В  In thisВ context it became quite obvious thatВ it makes me very uncomfortable and not in a good way.В  I just cant wrap my head around any woman getting any kind of pleasure out of dog sex.В  And I dont want to hear that she was well compensated - a woman who needs money badly enough to suck donkey penis is not a person in a good bargaining position.В  I did get a kick out of one memorable photo of a 50s-era blonde woman smiling and looking fondly at the giant horse cock hanging by her head.
3.В Unusual modern art pieces and displays.В 
This Marilyn MonroeВ display is unusual because she is clothed.В  Theres a fan that periodically blows her skirt up but I didnt feel like standing around to get the picture when there were so many naked things to see.

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Despite it’s hand-holding, we-know-sex-toys-are-scary layout, The Pleasure Chest actually has a great selection. It’s toys vibrators and dildos alone could entertain a small army. An entire center island is dedicated to rabbits—vibrating dildos with two heads and a swirling inner core of “pearls.” There are also plenty of toys for boys, though the sleeves on display have seen better days. You might not want to put your fingers in there, let alone your…
Still, one of the best things about The Pleasure Chest is how much there is to touch. Every toy is available out of its box to expect at your leisure. The cute boys who work the register may seem quiet, but they’re ready with lots of helpful tips for anyone who appears lost or spends just a little too long enjoying that vibration. They also don’t skimp on the health info—though it’s hard not to get the feeling that’s part of the sales pitch for their more expensive, latex products.
Maybe it’s the publicity the shop has gotten from Sex and the City, but the clientele seems to be mostly female. Still, that doesn’t justify the floral arrangements in the window, or the meager selection of BDSM items, or the bouquet of mainstream porn. The environment is admittedly cozy for beginner’s though—and the choices are enough to keep even the more jaded sex-toy old-timer, well, pleasured.

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A popular school of seduction in the Moscow is teaching professional women how to attract men - preferably a richer one.

Evgeniya Steshova, who runs the crash course, said that girls want to meet good men with a high social standing and of course it doesn''t hurt if he's a rich one.

The lesson starts with grading each other on the scale of five on perfume, manicures, hair, underwear and sex appeal.

Steshova advises to be at your best while trying to attract a man. Men react to women's appearance.
"Wear heels and bright colours all the time. Act a bit shy and if you realise you're getting into a ''situation'' and haven't got nice underwear on, just take them off and tell him that you forgot to put any on," The Sun quoted her as saying.

Some tips on the first day include:Drop a pen on the floor and bend over so the man gets to look at your curves.

Surprise a man and seduce him in unexpected ways to keep him interested in you.
The second day focuses on how to seduce a man in different situations.

"The key is to play different roles. Be a young woman to seduce a man, a woman in bed but then a girl the next morning," she said. The women are then paired up with one playing the man who the other must seduce.

The dubious course is a hit among professional women.
"Everything we learn here is focused around men but I don't think that is demeaning," said Anya Petrovich, 32, a businesswoman who has been on the course three times.

"It is only so that we can manipulate men and reach our own goals that we learn this kind of thing "Women have to use the tools they have to get what they want," she added.

Katya Tsai, head of IT at a university, travels more than 150 miles from the small town of Yaroslav, paying 100 pounds for the two-day course.

"This is my third course and my life has changed hugely because of these lessons," she said. But despite frequent visits, she is still waiting to meet a "strong man".

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A headline in the British paper Metro UK warns, "British Men Losing Their Masculinity." And the proof? A recent survey by Brylcreem (ha!) found that while more than 60 percent of British men between 18 and 29 are competent ironers, only 10 percent can fix their car and only half can change a tire.

We can attest to the ironing thing--we've been here in London for a few months now and the well-turned-out gentlemen in these parts clearly use an iron more often that we do (which is, er, never). If you need more proof that the blokes here are no Marlboro Men, get this: three quarters of them regularly wear an apron in the kitchen and 85 percent of them are comfortable crying in front of others. We knew there was a reason we were loving it here so much! But not everyone's such a fan. According to James Brown, founding editor of lad mag Loaded, "As men have been reacting to being told 'how they should behave' rather than 'how they really are,' they've crossed the line from just 'changing with the times' to committing outright gender surrender."

Well, yeah, we guess you would feel that way if your livelihood depended on dudes wanting to read about tits'n'beer on a weekly basis. But here's the bad news: the same survey found that two thirds of women aged 18 to 29 think that men are not masculine enough these days. Ladies, ladies, ladies, ladies, shame on you! Just think, you'd never have to iron again.

Americano new top 10 >>> sex

You know how I know youre gay? You saw the Sex and the City movie.
The above clip was made a few weeks prior to the opening of SATC, which has cemented itself into film history as perhaps the most chicky chick flick ever made. But I find it even more interesting (and more pointed than actually funny) after seeing the box office figures. I wish there had been some kind of tracking done over the weekend of how much of that money came, respectively, from women, from gay men and from - God forbid - straight men.
Whether or not a heterosexual man has seen SATC is now officially a gauge of his manhood. Up there with liking beer, fighting, trucks, guns, chopping wood, etc. OR, in my honest opinion, up there with being comfortable with wearing a dress, putting on eye makeup, crying, giving another man a hug, etc. I have no reason to see SATC because I never watched the TV show, but I almost feel I should sit through it to PROVE my manhood. No need for push ups and skeet shooting, as the dude in the video thinks. Those activities are actually tools of repression for men who arent comfortable enough with their sexuality.

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