A cautionary triptych on Internet “fame,” or, close Sitemeter and go write something.

“That take-on-the-world morning, I was having coffee with Steven Levy, then of Newsweek, now of Wired, who challenged this whole idea of whether this “Sarah Lacy” brand was actually translating into things that mattered, like book sales, money, something real and tangible, or whether it was a just smokescreen of hype.” - Sarah Lacy

“it’s really too bad that being interviewed for dissertations and by major publications and national news outlets doesn’t pay my fucking rent.” - violet blue

“We do not remember them now. Maybe they focused too much on “the brand,” or whatever they called it in 1870, and let it get ahead of them. Maybe, under all that smoke and mirrors, they were crappy writers too. If Sam Clemens had been less about the quality writing and more about picking a cool name, perfecting his trademark ‘stache-twhirl, and spewing out buzzworthy maxims (OMG, he was like, the first Twitterer!) I doubt he’d be more than a literary afterthought. The means are different. The ends are the same. Too many people are obsessed with staying in the spotlight at the expense of doing what they do best.” - Caroline McCarthy

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No sex ed ads for teens on Facebook

If you’d like to place a Facebook ad promoting sex education & health, their ad guidelines stipulate that you must target it so that only users over the age of 18 to see it. No sex ed for teens: no contraception, no condoms. Then again, on Facebook, dating ads are supposed to be restricted to single users only, and no one is permitted to see ads for webcams, no matter how old or boring they might be. (via socialmediocrity)

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China to punish Google for porn they don’t actually host.

Claiming the need to “purify the Internet’s cultural environment and protect the healthy development of minors,” China is seeking to punish Google, Baidu — the leading search engine in China — and other web portals simply for providing search results containing links to porn. (via VentureBeat)

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We know how badly the iPhone functions when covered in tears, let alone cum.

The iHand Massage app unlocks control of the vibrator inside your iPhone. (via sexuality.about.com, via Gizmodo)

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Hacking gives us permission to speak of vaginas.


After a round of phony Twitter.com links circulated this weekend in a pretty big phishing scheme, what’s left is a this morning there’s a new and unrelated hot mess of hacked accounts, captured pre-deletion by Wired contributor Mat Honan. Here, Britney heads to Pinkberry with her vagina dentata; Fox News outs Bill O’Reilly; and Facebook goes in drag for a moment as a tawdry AdultFriendFinder knock-off.

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“My stylesheet is where I want you to touch.”

CSS Nude
(CSS how-to photomontage by exey, via Taylor McKnight)

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You know someone will say Data is transgender.

From sex, art, and politics, the most queer theory-packed of the smart sex Tumblr scene, here’s a bit of intertextual courtroom teevee reading on the meaning of intercourse. Where cocks are concerned, sci-fi comes out not only with obvious shades of Foucault and Harraway (interrogation scenes! cyborgs!), but more compassionate, than “reality” cable.

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The future of Jessica Cutler.

The eagle-eyed Joanne McNeil of The Tomorrow Museum spotted this aside in an item on Washingtonienne author and blogger Jessica Cutler’s wedding: she’s writing a new book, which involves spaceships. “Jessica actually texted to ask me if I wanted to collaborate on the next book (how 21st Century! It’s like we’re living in Gossip Girl!)” explained author Michael Malice. My excuse for missing the original story, you choose: that the reception was deemed a “flash mob,” or that there was an ass-shaped cake.

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The kind of President who declines the leather community with respect, anyway


ABC News notes that the 25th Anniversary of the Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend immediately precedes the inauguration of Barack Obama. “A spokeswoman for Obama said the president-elect would probably not attend any of the Leather Weekend events.” Probably. (via Gawker, photo via mmmmmbreed)

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The best way not to interview a reluctant sexpert


In a charming slap, Ainsley Drew of The Rumpus filed the interview she didn’t do with sex writer Susannah Breslin anyway. (The Rumpus is a smart new group blog salon founded by writer Stephen Elliot.)

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