Liberation and Casual Sex
According to a study by Sharron Hinchliff, of the University of Sheffield, presented at the British Psychological Society, modern women are tuned-off by casual sex. One night stands and casual sex are seen by 90% of the questioned women as wrong. However, 10% of the women said they had casual sex and one night stands but they incurred in a double standard saying that their case was different and not wrong. “They argued that women who have casual sex or one-night stands do it not because they are sexually liberalised, but because they have ‘lost control’ on alcohol or drugs or because there is ‘something lacking’ in their lives. They pitied these women and they saw it as deviant behaviour,” Dr Hinchliff said. Surprisingly, older women were more accepting, in terms of casual sex, than younger women, although they still shared these views of it being wrong. Is casual sex a way to be liberated? According to this other news, yes. Let us know if casual sex liberates you, how and why.
Filed Under Modern Life
Bishop backs use of condoms
Bishop Gilles Cote, a French-Canadian in Papua New Guinea, defies the Catholic church and supports the use of condoms, especially in this pacific island where polygamous marriages are common. It doesn’t make much sense to resist it and believe that the best way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and HIV is through abstainence. If that were possible, then the number of cases would not be constantly on the rise.
Bishop Cote justifies his belief as “You should not kill.”
“If you are infected and you have sex then you don’t protect yourself, you will give the sickness to the other one,” he said Tuesday. “So there’s a moral responsibility that they are protected.”
His points are valid, so hopefully the Catholic church would reevaluate its stance towards condoms, given the present day context, in light of the prevalent problems of HIV/Aids.
Read more
Filed Under Modern Life
Are you bored? I can’t tell
The Emotional Social Intelligence Prosthetic device, ESIP, which El Kaliouby is constructing along with MIT colleagues Rosalind Picard and Alea Teeters, consists of a camera small enough to be pinned to the side of a pair of glasses, connected to a hand-held computer running image recognition software plus software that can read the emotions these images show. If the wearer seems to be failing to engage his or her listener, the software makes the hand-held computer vibrate.
While the initial purpose of the device is to benefit those with autism who often cannot recognize emotional responses, the implications of such a device go far beyond that.
Teachers could use these devices during their lectures to determine which students comprehend the information and which students are bored or confused.
Filed Under Research
Fighting crime via MMS
Cleaning up cities has been an objective of almost every government form in history. It is a measure to keep people happy were they live. Disposing rubbish, having invisible sewers and cleaning messages from the walls are forms of cleaning the cities. They are also hygiene issues, but now the inventiveness of the London government is getting out of hand. To combat graffiti, they are asking the citizens to send a MMS photo image of graffiti they find offensive of simply would like for it to be removed. This is technology to fight crime and maintain the beauty of a clean city, however the cost goes to the sender of the picture. You can complain about graffiti outside your house, but you will have to pay for it. Even if people report the graffiti, I personally doubt the government will dispatch a cleaning team for every photo sent. It seems to me like a bad and useless approach, I might be proven wrong.
Does anyone know of similar initiatives around the world?
Filed Under Modern Life
Finding love in modern times
These days, the internet love business is growing. Parship, an internet dating agency, claims that 50 per cent of single people believe they will meet a suitable partner this way, up from 35 per cent just a few months ago. Why are people turning to the internet for love? This article goes into a discourse citing insecurity, lack of time and energy to get on the dating scene and simply for the convenience of finding a match without having to deal with the initial awkwardness of incompatibility when they meet in person.
So, how many of you out there have actually found love over the internet? It seems to be the trend these days and unlike before, people don’t shun the idea anymore. Seems like a great mean to an end. The benefits of weeding out who you wouldn’t date serves perfectly as an elimination process. My own brother met his wife over the internet, given that neither of them really had time to date with their demanding work schedules. Well, they are happily married. Know more success stories or horror stories? Do share them!
Read more about love on the internet
Filed Under Modern Life
Dressing up, playing more!
Recently I have been writing about the importance of sport as an element of social cohesion. Now, in a a piece of news that pleasantly surprised me, I read about the cooperative project between the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Nike to create a program called “Together for Girls.” This project aims to integrate girls in society through sport. In this case, Nike has created sportswear designed for the Islamic female dressing code. The outfit, now in two colors (white and pink) is the most notorious part of the program which also includes learning and sport facilities. The first girls to use this outfit played volleyball in the a Kenyan refugee camp. We are interested to hear if programs like this integrate a society or create further segregation? This certainly provides opportunity of participation amongst girls, but does this strengthen the dress code and segregation of women in Islamic societies?
Filed Under Sport
Talaq, talaq, talaq…
Divorce in Islam is not decreed at all times or in all cases.
It is stated that the man who wants to divorce his wife should be sober, in a well-balanced and judicious state. If he is not fully conscious, or forced to divorce his wife, or in a state of wrath which causes him go beyond his intention and imagination and utter what he does not want to say, it is not considered valid.
But what if he does it in his sleep?
Recently, Sohela Ansari heard her husband, Aftab, say in his sleep, “Talaq, talaq, talaq…” the word divorce.
As word spread, local Islamic leaders heard about the incident and said Aftab’s words constituted a divorce under an Islamic procedure known as “triple talaq.”
Filed Under History & traditions