Hooray for this, trotting out my 1500th post! Now, on to the links…
* “The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including “obscene” cartoons and drawings–or face fines of up to $300,000.” What a terrible, ill-conceived idea. Read more in Declan McCullagh’s great (and scary) piece at news.com.
* Rinse that horrifying ‘Big Brother hates your sexual freedom’ taste out of your mouth by reading this wonderful interview about the ginormous pony play culture in Second Life — Ponygirls in Second Life: Prancing Into the Metaverse is a fun read, makes me think I should work there as a trainer, and has the best images of any article, ever. (thanks, Mark!)
* I’m still pissed about all the press surrounding the sad, horrible murder of teen pinup Zoey Zane (Emily Sander). It’s more of that sickening ‘lie of unbiased reporting’ when it comes to porn: Zane had a nudie, solo-girl pinup site and she was 18. She was murdered last week and her suspected killer fled the country with his 16-year-old pregnant girlfriend. That’s a hell of a story, isn’t it? So why do news outlets like Guardian UK and LA Times have to add a few low lies, by saying she had a “secret life” as an Internet “porn star”? Her modeling was no secret, nor was she a “porn star”. Her family is not pleased, nor are they upset that she was a sexual creature. And it’s even clear that by the end of the Guardian piece that it was no secret she was an erotic model. So what gives? I just want the facts, please. They’re way more interesting than the tired old stereotypes.
* I wish was in Paris: police seizures from hundreds of years’ worth of erotic art and manuscripts (like those belonging to the Marquis DeSade) are now on display as part of a fantastic-sounding forbidden erotica show from the National Library’s secret archives. Wow! What’s even cooler is that the city has converted an unused underground Mtero station into an erotic art display to promote the show, and passing trains slow so riders can gawk. Such a great idea that would never happen here, sadly.
* Robo-Love: it’s a bit dour, and not as excited about sex with robots as we are, but the review of David Levy’s new book, “Love and Sex With Robots” in the New York Times is an interesting read.
* Sexy fun: over in Fleshbot today, I blogged uber-hot amateur goth babe photo site Hypnox Photography, and the event I’m seriously missing in LA tonight: the signing for Dave Naz’s LA Bondage book. There are going to be a lot of really smart, nice and cool people there — not like the rest of the mainstream porn business, trust me. Friends I admire who will be signing include: Gia Jordan, Dana DeArmond, and April Flores.
