"Sex in Art" Weekly Picks

Rebecca Cooper


Angela Fraleigh

To see more artwork, go to the "Sex in Art" website.

"The Hard Sell" : Taboo In Advertising

This ad caused a lot of frenzy in SoHo last week and has apparently been removed. It was funded by a Dallas based group called Life Always and was designed to point out the high abortion rate in the African-American community. Residents were outraged. Even the mother of the girl in the ad was pissed. This Dallas company apprarently didn't do their homework on what neighborhood to put this billboard in. Whether it should be put anywhere is already a question, but there is no debating that SoHo is not the right audience.

"Vice Pioneers" : Ponzi Scheme

Namesake: Charles Ponzi


Charles Dickens: pre-Ponzi take on the crime


Bernard Madoff: ultimate hustler

White collar crime is so widespread these days, you barely flinch when you hear news that another executive or company has been partaking in naughty behavior. Nothing makes a crime easier to get away with than a nice suit and fancy lifestyle. After catching an episode of "American Greed" on CNBC the other night about Ponzi schemes, I thought I'd look into the matter. Before Madoff, there was very little interest in the crime and most people probably had no idea what it was. Here's a brief look into what it is--more of a summary of how it works and unravels than a history, but informative nonetheless.

From Wikipedia: "A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to separate investors, not from any actual profit earned by the organization, but from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors. The Ponzi scheme usually entices new investors by offering returns other investments cannot guarantee, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent. The perpetuation of the returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises and pays requires an ever-increasing flow of money from investors to keep the scheme going.

The system is destined to collapse because the earnings, if any, are less than the payments to investors. Usually, the scheme is interrupted by legal authorities before it collapses because a Ponzi scheme is suspected or because the promoter is selling unregistered securities. As more investors become involved, the likelihood of the scheme coming to the attention of authorities increases. While the system eventually will collapse under its own weight, the example of Bernard Madoff's investment scandal demonstrates the ability of a Ponzi scheme to delude both individual and institutional investors as well as securities authorities for long periods: Madoff's variant of the Ponzi scheme stands as the largest financial investor fraud committed by a single person in history. Prosecutors estimate losses at Madoff's hand totaling roughly $21 billion, as estimated by the money invested by his victims. If the promised returns are added, the losses amount to $64.8 billion, but a New York court dismissed this estimation method during the Madoff trial.

The scheme is named after Charles Ponzi who became notorious for using the technique in early 1920. Ponzi did not invent the scheme (for example Charles Dickens' 1857 novel Little Dorrit described such a scheme decades before Ponzi was born), but his operation took in so much money that it was the first to become known throughout the United States. Ponzi's original scheme was based on the arbitrage of international reply coupons for postage stamps, however he soon diverted investors' money to support payments to earlier investors and himself.

Knowingly entering a Ponzi scheme, even at the last round of the scheme, can be rational economically if there is a reasonable expectation that government or other person or organisation will bail out those participating in the scheme.

Ultimate unraveling of a Ponzi scheme
The catch is that at some point one of these things will happen:
***The promoter will vanish, taking all the remaining investment money (minus the payouts to investors).
***Since the scheme requires a continual stream of investments to fund higher returns, once investment slows down, the scheme will begin to collapse under its own weight as the promoter starts having problems paying the promised returns (the higher the returns, the greater the risk of the Ponzi scheme collapsing). Such liquidity crises often trigger panics, as more people start asking for their money, similar to a bank run.
***External market forces, such as a sharp decline in the economy (e.g. Madoff and the market downturn of 2008), cause many investors to withdraw part or all of their funds; not necessarily due to loss of confidence in the investment, but simply due to underlying market fundamentals. In the case of Madoff, the fund could no longer appear normal after investors tried to withdraw $7 billion from the firm in late 2008 as part of the major worldwide market downturn affecting all investments."

And I Quote...

“The nice thing about being a celebrity is that when you bore people, they think it's their fault.” --Henry Kissinger

News Spotlight: Oscar's First F-Bomb

If you watched the Oscars last night, you witnessed the Oscars first ever onstage "Fuck" as Melissa Leo used it while accepting her win for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Talk about trailblazing.

"Sex 101"

This week's OMGFactsSEX stats:

* Vaginismus is when the PC muscles reflexively contract so it's painful or impossible to have sex, use a tampon or get a pap smear.
* Siderodromophilia: arousal from riding a train.
* The word “sadism” is a reference to the Marquis de Sade, who engaged in and wrote about sadistic sex acts.
* The word “masochism” is a reference to author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, who had a well-known fetish for dominant women.
* Docking is when a man stretches his foreskin over the tip of another man’s penis.
* A law that gives life sentences for adultery is still on the books in Michigan.
* February 14th is considered the first day of the mating season of birds.
* The word “molest” comes from the Latin word for harass or annoy.
* Hyphephilia refers to people who are aroused by touching fabrics.
* There’s a penis hidden in the cover art for the Disney film “The Little Mermaid”.

"Dirty Joke" : Nunnery

Three nuns were talking. The first nun said, "I was cleaning in Father's room the other day and do you know what I found? A bunch of pornographic magazines." "What did you do?" the other nuns asked. "Well, of course I threw them in the trash." The second nun said, "Well, I can top that. I was in Father's room putting away the laundry and I found a bunch of condoms!" "Oh my!" gasped the other nuns. "What did you do?" they asked. "I poked holes in all of them!" she replied. The third nun fainted.

"Bad (Not Bad Ass) Tattoo" : Discovered Waldo

The whole joy of "Where's Waldo?" is the fact that he can't easily be found, lost in a world of busyness. The armpit of a man is arguably a busy area and has a lot of stuff going on biologically, but I'm not sure this is exactly a location Waldo wants to dwell. Why someone would want this permanently tatted on their body is a whole nother matter. Some people can't let childhood go? Some are in search of the one they never had? I'll leave those theories for the psychiatrists. I'm just gonna go with the idea that this dude is straight up ridiculous. Or was really, really drunk.

"The Hard Sell" : Taboo In Advertising

There's really nothing subliminal about this one. This NO2ID ad depicting Tony Blair with a barcode as a mustache and obviously compairing him to Hitler--with its placement and blunt worded message--was a little too much for the UK. It was cited as offensive. And yeah it is. But it also keeps the tradition going of "The Hard Sell" ads being damn amusing and creative. I'm not sure if Big Brother deserves such a harsh comparison, but it sure in hell makes you at least think about it.

And I Quote...

“Your heart is my piñata.” --Chuck Palahniuk

News Spotlight: Egyptian Names Daughter "Facebook"

We can enter this one into the Fuckery Files. As a disclaimer, I was more excited than anyone for the Egyptian people for standing up for what the believe in and gaining their independence. And I was also more than fascinated at Facebook's role in the matter, thinking it served as more than validation that Facebook is the most important invention of our time and that Mark Zuckerberg is most definitely deserving of Time's Person of the Year. So now that the praise is out the way, I can shout out a big "What the fuck?" A little girl a few years from now will be taunted and teased because her father decided it was cute to name her after the social network. The ironic part is, as she is being teased, her bratty harassers will say, "It's a free country, I can tease you if I wanna."

From CNN: "A man in Egypt has named his newborn daughter "Facebook" in honor of the role the social media network played in bringing about a revolution, according to a new report.

Gamal Ibrahim, a 20-something, gave his daughter the name "to express his joy at the achievements made by the January 25 youth," according to a report in Al-Ahram, one of Egypt's most popular newspapers.

Many young people used Facebook and other social media networks to organize the protests, which began January 25 and ultimately led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak after 30 years in power.

Wael Ghonim, a Google executive who organized a Facebook page on his own time, became a central figure of the revolution."

"Sex 101"

This week's OMGFactsSEX stats:

* A woman with tithiolagnia can achieve arousal and orgasm from breastfeeding.
* Clitoridectomies were performed on American women as late as the early 20th century to prevent masturbation.
* One of the oldest cock rings dates back to the 13th century; it was made from the eyelashes of slain goats.
* Genuphallation is a sex act involving rubbing the penis on another person’s knees.
* Male deer and zebras have been observed masturbating by rubbing their penises on their stomachs.
* Someone with hybristophilia would be attracted to partners who have committed crimes like rape, murder, and armed robbery.
* The number of active swingers in the U.S. is 5 million.
* Doctors used to use leeches to treat gonorrhea.
* Gynecomastia is when a a man develops enlarged breasts.
* Ophidicism is when a woman inserts a snake into her vagina to receive pleasure as it tries to escape. Popularized in Ancient Rome.
* Sexologists find that men who marry nymphomaniacs suffer from physical exhaustion, sleep deprivation, and anxiety.
* An average married couple spends 610 hours having sex.
* An anoraptus is a rapist who particularly preys upon elderly women.
* Pompoir is a sexual technique in which both partners remain still and the woman uses her vaginal muscles to stimulate the penis.

And I Quote...

"If you removed all of the homosexuals and homosexual influence from what is generally regarded as American culture, you would pretty much be left with "Let's Make a Deal.” --Fran Lebowitz

Tolerance is Key

Great video and concept by Marsha Ambrosius. Another addition to the recent explosion of gay rights activism and messages. Keep 'em coming.

"Dirty Joke" : Neighbors

A guy is driving out in the middle of nowhere, very lost. Finally he spots 2 houses so he goes up to the first house and looks in the door way. He sees an old lady yanking on her boobs and an old man jerking off. He is so freaked out that he goes to the next house and says "What's up with your neighbors?" and the owner of the house says "Oh that's the Robinson's, they're both deaf. She's telling him to go milk the cow and he's telling her to go fuck herself!"

"Bad (Not Bad Ass) Tattoo" : Stupid Foot

I don't really think its necessary to have your foot wink at you, but to each his own. The foot happens to be one of the most painful places to get a tattoo so it is amusing that someone sacrificed the experience for this end product. I mean, it is kinda cute, but come on. And yes, the fact that the actual foot the tattoo lives on is unattractive may lend to its ridiculousness.

"Sex in Art" Weekly Picks

INSA


Tara McPherson

To see more artwork, go to the "Sex in Art" website.

"The Hard Sell" : Taboo In Advertising

One facet of great artwork is being able to convey a message without words. This ad by Russian Finance Magazine may have words, but even without knowing a bit of Russian, it's clear what is going on here: the US dollar is getting fucked by the Euro. Genius. Maybe a bit too genius for Russia though as the ad was banned for being "immoral."

And I Quote...

“Marijuana is like Coors beer. If you could buy the damn stuff at a Georgia filling station, you'd decide you wouldn't want it.” --Billy Carter

"Vice Pioneers" : Marijuana

Cannabis sativa from Vienna Dioscurides, 512 A.D.


Shakespeare: To weed or not to weed, that is the question.


The less harmful gateway drug?

We've taken a look at some extremely harmful drugs for "Vice Pioneers," but what about the most popular and one considered least dangerous? Although opponents of marijuana use believe the drug is a starter addiction that leads to heavier drugs, there is also a widespread acceptance of the drug for recreational and medical use. With the strong pushes recently to get marijuana legalized and the undoubtedly common use of it, it seemed fitting to reveal some of its history.

From Wikipedia: "Cannabis, also known as marijuana (sometimes spelled "marihuana") among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug. The word marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish marihuana. According to the United Nations, cannabis "is the most widely used illicit substance in the world."

The typical herbal form of cannabis consists of the flowers and subtending leaves and stalks of mature pistillate of female plants. The resinous form of the drug is known as hashish (or merely as 'hash').

The major psychoactive chemical compound in cannabis is Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (commonly abbreviated as THC). Cannabis contains more than 400 different chemical compounds, including at least 66 other cannabinoids (cannabidiol (CBD), cannabinol (CBN) and tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV), etc.) which can result in different effects from those of THC alone.

Cannabis use has been found to have occurred as long ago as the 3rd millennium BC. In modern times, the drug has been used for recreational, religious or spiritual, and medicinal purposes. The UN estimated that in 2004 about 4% of the world's adult population (162 million people) use cannabis annually, and about 0.6% (22.5 million) use it on a daily basis. The possession, use, or sale of cannabis preparations containing psychoactive cannabinoids became illegal in most parts of the world in the early 20th century. Since then, some countries have intensified the enforcement of cannabis prohibition, while others have reduced it.

History
The use of cannabis, at least as fiber, has been shown to go back at least 10,000 years in Taiwan. Má (Pinyin pronunciation), the Chinese expression for hemp, is a pictograph of two plants under a shelter.

Cannabis is indigenous to Central and South Asia. Evidence of the inhalation of cannabis smoke can be found in the 3rd millennium B.C], as indicated by charred cannabis seeds found in a ritual brazier at an ancient burial site in present day Romania. Cannabis is also known to have been used by the ancient Hindus and Nihang Sikhs of India and Nepal thousands of years ago. The herb was called ganjika in Sanskrit (गांजा/গাঁজা ganja in modern Indic languages). The ancient drug soma, mentioned in the Vedas, was sometimes associated with cannabis.

Cannabis was also known to the ancient Assyrians, who discovered its psychoactive properties through the Aryans. Using it in some religious ceremonies, they called it qunubu (meaning "way to produce smoke"), a probable origin of the modern word "cannabis". Cannabis was also introduced by the Aryans to the Scythians and Thracians/Dacians, whose shamans (the kapnobatai—"those who walk on smoke/clouds") burned cannabis flowers to induce a state of trance. Members of the cult of Dionysus, believed to have originated in Thrace (Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey), are also thought to have inhaled cannabis smoke. In 2003, a leather basket filled with cannabis leaf fragments and seeds was found next to a 2,500- to 2,800-year-old mummified shaman in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China.

Cannabis has an ancient history of ritual use and is found in pharmacological cults around the world. Hemp seeds discovered by archaeologists at Pazyryk suggest early ceremonial practices like eating by the Scythians occurred during the 5th to 2nd century B.C., confirming previous historical reports by Herodotus. One writer has claimed that cannabis was used as a religious sacrament by ancient Jews and early Christians due to the similarity between the Hebrew word "qannabbos" ("cannabis") and the Hebrew phrase "qené bósem" ("aromatic cane"). It was used by Muslims in various Sufi orders as early as the Mamluk period, for example by the Qalandars.

A study published in the South African Journal of Science showed that "pipes dug up from the garden of Shakespeare's home in Stratford-upon-Avon contain traces of cannabis." The chemical analysis was carried out after researchers hypothesized that the "noted weed" mentioned in Sonnet 76 and the "journey in my head" from Sonnet 27 could be references to cannabis and the use thereof.

Cannabis was criminalized in various countries beginning in the early 20th century. It was outlawed in South Africa in 1911, in Jamaica (then a British colony) in 1913, and in the United Kingdom and New Zealand in the 1920s. Canada criminalized marijuana in the Opium and Drug Act of 1923, before any reports of use of the drug in Canada. In 1925 a compromise was made at an international conference in The Hague about the International Opium Convention that banned exportation of "Indian hemp" to countries that had prohibited its use, and requiring importing countries to issue certificates approving the importation and stating that the shipment was required "exclusively for medical or scientific purposes". It also required parties to "exercise an effective control of such a nature as to prevent the illicit international traffic in Indian hemp and especially in the resin".

In the United States the first restrictions for sale of cannabis came in 1906 (in District of Columbia). In 1937, the Marijuana Transfer Tax Act was passed, and prohibited the production of hemp in addition to marijuana. The reasons that hemp was also included in this law are disputed. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics agents reported that fields with hemp were also used as a source for marijuana dealers. Several scholars have claimed that the Act was passed in order to destroy the hemp industry, largely as an effort of businessmen Andrew Mellon, Randolph Hearst, and the Du Pont family. With the invention of the decorticator, hemp became a very cheap substitute for the paper pulp that was used in the newspaper industry. Hearst felt that this was a threat to his extensive timber holdings. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury and the wealthiest man in America, had invested heavily in the DuPont's new synthetic fiber, nylon, and considered its success to depend on its replacement of the traditional resource, hemp.

Legal status
Since the beginning of the 20th century, most countries have enacted laws against the cultivation, possession or transfer of cannabis. These laws have impacted adversely on the cannabis plant's cultivation for non-recreational purposes, but there are many regions where, under certain circumstances, handling of cannabis is legal or licensed. Many jurisdictions have lessened the penalties for possession of small quantities of cannabis, so that it is punished by confiscation and sometimes a fine, rather than imprisonment, focusing more on those who traffic the drug on the black market.

In some areas where cannabis use has been historically tolerated, some new restrictions have been put in place, such as the closing of cannabis coffee shops near the borders of the Netherlands, closing of coffee shops near secondary schools in the Netherlands and crackdowns on "Pusher Street" in Christiania, Copenhagen in 2004.

Some jurisdictions use free voluntary treatment programs and/or mandatory treatment programs for frequent known users. Simple possession can carry long prison terms in some countries, particularly in East Asia, where the sale of cannabis may lead to a sentence of life in prison or even execution. More recently however, many political parties, non-profit organizations and causes based on the legalization of medical cannabis and/or legalizing the plant entirely (with some restrictions) have emerged.