Sunday, October 31, 2010

Friday, October 8, 2010

STOP SPITTING!



ALBANY - NY: It's a no brainer, Sex Makes You Smile, science and it's never ending need to prove the obvious has come up with some twists that just might make you smile even harder. According to researchers at the State University of New York at Albany "Women who are directly exposed to semen are less depressed than those who are not" the ingestion of semen could reduce stress and lower depression. Possibly due to the presence of sugar-based enzymes, such as fructose and inositol, or metabolism catalyzers, like citric acid or vitamin B12, semen intake appears to serve as a natural mood stabilizer. Another study, conducted at Yale University, found that women who swallow semen while performing oral sex are at a lower risk for developing preeclampsia, a pregnancy-related, high-blood pressure disorder. Semen contains selenium, a powerful antioxidant, possibly a contributor to the Allover Afterglow of sex?

The study, conducted by Psychology Professor Gordon Gallup, found that females who were not using condoms for sexual intercourse were less depressed than females who did use condoms, possibly because when absorbed through the vagina, semen may have an effect on mood in women.

Nearly 300 females filled out anonymous questionnaires designed to measure various aspects of their sexual behavior, including frequency of sexual intercourse, the number of days since their last sexual encounter and whether or not they used condoms. Each respondent was also asked to complete the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), a widely used measure of individual differences in depressive symptoms. According to Gallup, "females who engaged in sexual intercourse but never used condoms exhibited significantly lower scores on the BDI than those who usually or always used condoms."

Gallup's control variables included: method of contraception, frequency of sexual intercourse, as well as the women's perception of their relationship. He concedes that women who regularly have sex without condoms might share personality traits that make them less susceptible to depression. But the behavior most often associated with non-condom users is sexual risk-taking, and studies have found no correlation between high-risk sexual behavior and lower rates of depression.

Gallup's study, which he deems "the first serious attempt to investigate the effect of semen chemistry on women," titillated the public and rankled some academics upon publication in Archives of Sexual Behavior. Gallup says he has since replicated the findings with a sample of 700 women and will examine whether "semen withdrawal" places women at an increased risk for depression when they are premenstrual, menopausal or have just given birth, as many women abstain from sex during these periods.

Researchers explored other explanations for the varying BDI scores, such as frequency of intercourse, use of oral contraceptives and whether or not the female was in a relationship. The study indicates condom use accounted for more variance in depression than any of the other predictors.

While the study raises many questions, it shows that the consistency of condom use is directly related to the level of depressive symptoms among sexually active females. "Regardless of the findings, this study does not advocate that people abstain from using condoms," said Professor Gallup. "Protecting yourself from an unwanted pregnancy or a sexually transmitted disease is far more important."

Semen contains hormones including testosterone, estrogen, prolactin, luteinizing hormone and prostaglandins, and some of these are absorbed through the walls of the vagina and are known to elevate mood.

There is of course a dark side to all this, Gallup also found that women who routinely had sex without a condom became increasingly depressed as more time elapsed since their last sexual encounter, there was no such correlation for women whose partners regularly used condoms. Women who had sex without a condom were most likely to initiate sex and to seek out new partners. "These women are more vulnerable to the rebound effect, which suggests that there is a chemical dependency," says Gallup.

Further evidence

Gallup has undertaken an extended study on more than 700 women has backed up these findings. He added that "other factors such as how often the women had sex, the strength of their relationships, their personalities or the use of oral contraceptives did not affect the overall conclusions."

Gallup said "these findings may also apply to women who engage in unprotected oral sex and people who engage in anal sex. But he said further research was needed in these areas"

But Gallup, whose study has been published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behaviour, urged couples to continue to practise safe sex. "I want to make it clear that we are not advocating that people abstain from using condoms," he said.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

 Three Thousand3000
 
Issue 277
IntroStreetReadHearLookShopWatchGoodsStrayEat/DrinkOutWin
 Thursday 7th October

Pick a card, any card. Now memorise it...don't tell us, don't tell us! Now place it randomly back into the pack. Behold. Watch carefully as we EXPLODE THAT SH^T ALL OVER YOUR ROOM! Didn't expect that did you Pancho? Now clean it up.

Hello viewers. Sadly, much magic is dreadful. But here is some that isn't: Bikes made out of bambooThree white people opening a Thai restaurantChris Bril's ~Oracle~ pendantSerge Gainsbourg's inexplicable ongoing sex appeal.

Covershot by Nick Blakeman thanks to Hard Workers Club. Be deadly like Nick! Send covers tophoto@threethousand.com.au.

ThreeThousand 277 - fifty-two pickup
 Also on the site right now:

GOODS - Ruffeo Hearts Lil Snotty
HEAR - Belle & Sebastian Write About Love
SHOP - The new Collectors Corner!
EATDRINK - Gami, Chicken and Beer
STRAY - Luke Pocock from Bar Open teaches you to plant a veggie patch, Part 2

Also, check it out. We are proud supporters of this year's MIAF Visual Arts program!

LOOK - Tin&Ed, Holy-Grams
LOOK An interview with Bill Viola!
LOOK - Tomorrow, in a year - GIVEAWAY
STRAY - We're hosting a free Art Walk next Saturday! Stay tuned for updates.

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Tell us what's fool
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 Hear
 Bum Creek, 'AL'

What:
AL

Who:
Bum Creek 

On:
Chapter Music (vinyl only, out Oct 9, pre-order here)

See them live:
Instore at Polyester Flinders Lane, Fri Oct 8, 6pm /Supporting the Boredoms, Sat Oct 9
 The Bugalugs Bum ThiefZombie Bums from UranusBumageddon: The Final Pongflict; all fine examples of high-level Aussie humour used as a pretext for 'getting the kids interested' and Canberra-born, newish-Melburnians Bum Creek are no exception.

Crapping out their own aimless clatter from the country's east coast underworld of lowbrow anti-humour and popular culture inversion, this debut album from the three bearded, ahem, bums, offers a complex sound in an easily digestible package. Pun intended.

Immersed in the chaos of their own musical and philosophical absurdity, the unintelligible gibberish, noise and effects of songs like 'Bollywood' and 'Ew... Icky' call to mind boys with pots, pans and a half-working casio prancing around with towels for capes and clenched fists for trumpets.

If MIA is the mainstream voice of the glitch-y paranoia unleashed on aseriously rattled audience, then Bum Creek are the ones who don't give a shit.
By Steph Kretowicz
 
IntroStreetReadHearLookShopWatchGoodsStrayEat/DrinkOutWin
 Watch
 Je t'aime: The Filmic Lives of Gainsbourg and Birkin

What:
Je t'aime: The Filmic Lives of Gainsbourg and Birkin 

Where:
ACMI Cinemas, Fed Square, Melbourne

When:
Thurs Oct 7 - Tues Oct 19

How much:
$11/$14 or 6 session pass $48/$60 from here

Win:

Thanks to ACMI, we have 5 dbls to I Love You All, Sat Oct 9, 5pm to give away! To enter, emailwin@threethousand.com.au with the subject 'fistful of gitanes'
 You don't get much more iconic than Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. Putting their sartorial notoriety to one side (please see every fashion blog ever made) there was also always an exciting air of controversy that surrounded the Birkin x Gainsbourg tryst. "What was this pretty young English girl doing with this wrinkly old French perve?" all the press wondered, among other things (*cough* incest *cough*).

Turns out they were making sexy times (both on vinyl and IRL) - but they also made a lot of movies and became a creative super couple, funnelling their own charisma and style as well as the very essence of the '60s sexual revolution into celluloid gold.

Je t'aime: The Filmic Lives of Gainsbourg and Birkin season at ACMI includes Birkin and Gainsbourg obsucros such as Jane B par Agnes Vand the essential Je t'aime...moi non plus, as well as the highly anticipated doco (Gainsbourg and His Girls) and biopic (Gainsbourg) all about Mr Fistful of Gitanes himself.

If all you know about the Gainsbourg x Birkin family tree is Birkin's penchant for bangs and minis and Gainsbourg's Whitney Houston interview, then this season is necessary viewing. Come prepared to be seduced and leave with the urge to "drink too many cigarettes."
By Lynda Day
 
IntroStreetReadHearLookShopWatchGoodsStrayEat/DrinkOutWin
 Read
 Gary Shteyngart, 'Super Sad True Love Story'

What: 
Super Sad True Love Story

Who: 
By Gary Shteyngart

Where:

The Paperback Bookshop, 60 Bourke St, Melbourne

How much: 
RRP $29.95

Related links:
Watch the book trailer. ("What's truly remarkable about Gary is that he's accomplished so much, while hiding an unusual secret...")
 George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four is considered part of the 'canon'. When studying I thought this related to any book about the First Word War, but have since learnt that it refers to long, boring books written by white dudes who were born before 1914. Like Orwell's classic, Super Sad True Love Story is a dystopian novel, set in an America that is economically and morally bankrupt. The country is at war with Venezuela and books are viewed with disdain by young people who only text scan for information. It's also hilarious.

Lenny Abramov is a sad bastard. He's smitten with the much younger beauty Eunice Park. Both are children of immigrants. His Russian. Hers Korean. Both are neurotic, insecure and unlucky in love.

Unlike most satirists - comics too chicken shit to get on stage so instead write columns in weekend newspaper magazines - Shtenygart is both a great writer and funny. He can also write about love and vulnerability. One of the best scenes finds the hapless Lenny reading a found copy of the The Unbearable Lightness of Being to Eunice in bed. Though the story is light on plot, through Lenny's diary entries we see the manic insecurities of a character who wouldn't be out of place in one of Woody Allen's early New York films.
By Tim Scott
 
IntroStreetReadHearLookShopWatchGoodsStrayEat/DrinkOutWin
 Goods
 Lauren Manoogian jewellery

What:
Lauren Manoogian jewellery

Where:

Online here and here and here

How much:

From US $80
 When I was growing up as the eldest of five mouths, my mother taught me to use the meagre ingredients we had in the kitchen to make something edible. Leftover rice? You've got fried rice, f*%kers. Eggs? We're talking omelettes. Bolognese sauce? Booyah, you've got spagbol. Probably for the third night this week. It was a surefire path to reasonable nutrition.

If you replace semi-delicious food with a high-fashion jewellery line, then Lauren Manoogian has taught herself to do the same thing. Except her kitchen is full of office supply cupboards, scrap metal heaps, and electronics surplus warehouses. She takes her cues from native American textiles, landscape art and everything in between, organically translating these references into strangely wearable paper-clip necklaces, engraved leather cuffs and silver pipe adornments you can imagine wearing on the moon.
By Rachel Elliot-Jones
 
IntroStreetReadHearLookShopWatchGoodsStrayEat/DrinkOutWin
 Goods
 Bamboo Bikes

What: 
Bamboo Bikes 

Where: 
Made in Brunswick. Contact Mik here.

When: 
On sale now! (Minimum 2-month Zen waiting period.)

How much: 
Frames start at $2,000

Related links:  
A brain scientist rides one around the Velodrome
 Listen, I need some help. Someone from the nasty side of Oxford Street stole my fixie and I need to get to work. I refuse to buy another Myki card to replace the one I lost on Monday, which mind you, still had eighty bucks on it.

Option 1. I could go and buy another bike made in West Africa, but that's a continent I'm trying to fuck with less as I get older because my Karma balance is unbelievably one sided. Slave labour, not cool.

Option 2. Former graphic designer turned Bicycle Jedi, Mik Efford, has begun selling bikes made from Tonkin bamboo, which he builds from his living room in Brunswick.

His frames are put together with carbon fibre and epoxy resin. To get one, if you can get on the waiting list, you have to meet Mik in his garage where you're measured for a perfect fit. Based onthis flickr set of a brain scientist (no shit) riding the thing around the velodrome, it seems as though the bikes are incredibly strong. The problem is I have a suspicion Mik is only building these things to kill more Pandas. Decisions, decisions...
By Brad Dunn
 
IntroStreetReadHearLookShopWatchGoodsStrayEat/DrinkOutWin
 
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