virgin wives turn to sex volunteers

For the “those wacky Japanese” file…

Japan’s virgin wives turn to sex volunteers

The 200 women a year who seek help at a clinic in the Tokyo suburbs have not had sex with their husbands in up to 20 years, and some never, according to Kim Myong-gan, who runs the clinic.

Mr Kim’s short-term solution is unconventional. After an initial 20,000 yen (£100) counselling session, he produces photographs of 45 men, mostly professionals in their 40s, with whom the women are invited to go on dates and then, in almost all cases, arrange regular assignations in hotel rooms.

Mr Kim dismissed charges that his service was little more than a male prostitution ring. “The men volunteer and pay half the hotel and restaurant bills, so legally there is absolutely nothing wrong with it,” he said.

…over here, I can only imagine the cow that the radical right would have over “organized infidelity” pushed by a mental health/social services professional.

The rest of the article is pretty interesting on their demographic challenges, but not nearly as juicy as this clip or the headline would imply.

C is for…

Gerbil on DBA provides:

Big doings over at Sesame Street…Cookie Monster is
cutting back on the cookies:

Cookie Monster Eating Fewer Cookies:

Something must be wrong in the land of Muppets. First PBS announced that “Sesame Street” would kick off its 35th season this week with a multiyear story arc about healthy habits. No problem there; childhood obesity rates are soaring. Then I learned of changes that turned my “Sesame Street” world upside-down.

My beloved blue, furry monster — who sang “C is for cookie, that’s good enough for me” — is now advocating eating healthy. There’s even a new song — “A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food,” where Cookie Monster learns there are “anytime” foods and “sometimes” foods.

Cool “round” numbers and the Unix Epoch

Via Lawrence You on the SSRC mailing list:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/17/169200

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday March 17, @01:38PM
from the everyone-make-balloon-animals dept.
initsix writes “Break out your party hats. According to
http://www.onlineconversion.com/unix_time.htm , Unix time is supposed
reach 1111111111 on Fri, 18 Mar 2005 01:58:31 GMT That’s only 1036372537
seconds from 2^31 (ie Tue, 19 Jan 2038 03:14:08 GMT)!!”

i.e. 5:58 PM PST tonight

$ perl -e ‘print scalar localtime(1111111111), “\n”;’
Thu Mar 17 17:58:31 2005

Geez I’m lame – another one of those quizlet things…

I am a d12

You are the rare, the overlooked, yet incredibly useful dodecahedron: the d12. You are a creative, romantic soul. You often act without thinking, but make up for your lack of plans with plenty of heart. You easily solve problems that stump others, but your answers tend to put you into even deeper trouble. You write long, detailed backgrounds for all your characters, and are most likely to dress up as one or get involved in cos-play. You can be silly at times and are easily distracted by your own day dreams, but are at the end of the day you’re someone who can be depended on.

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

And for the record, I have NEVER gotten involved in cos-play or larping. C’mon, tabletop RPG guys have to have SOMEBODY to look down on.

The big name blogs are just FUNNY today…

From DailyKOS – Friday Night Snark: Focus on Your Own Damn Family

Through his parents, I have been granted access to the following excerpts from a log prepared by an individual I will identify only as “Todd”. Todd’s diary entries consist in large part of a series of reports intended for Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, and tells the tragic story of… well, you shall see. I print this here so that others may be warned from Todd’s tragic fate. — Hunter

Go. Read it. Now.
Continue reading “The big name blogs are just FUNNY today…”

Next stop, Judgement Day…

Humanoids With Attitude: Japan Embraces New Generation of Robots

TOKYO — Ms. Saya, a perky receptionist in a smart canary-yellow suit, beamed a smile from behind the “May I Help You?” sign on her desk, offering greetings and answering questions posed by visitors at a local university. But when she failed to welcome a workman who had just walked by, a professor stormed up to Saya and dished out a harsh reprimand.

“You’re so stupid!” said the professor, Hiroshi Kobayashi, towering over her desk.

Cyber-receptionist Ms. Saya greets Hiroshi Kobayashi, her inventor, at the Tokyo University of Science. “She has a temper,” the professor cautions.

“Eh?” she responded, her face wrinkling into a scowl. “I tell you, I am not stupid!”

Via post “This totally creeps me out” on AMERICAblog.

“Cheese it, the fuzz!”

Whatever happened to Joe Berger? OK, that question won’t mean much to those who aren’t familiar with my fraternity, but this week the Weekly World News brings you “HOW TO TELL IF YOUR PROSTITUTE IS AN EXTRATERRESTRIAL (all caps theirs.)

A sample, out of their list of ten:

2. Out-of-date lingo — Alien prostitutes try to fit in by using streetwalker slang — but often use outdated terms. A hooker who sees a police car and whispers, “Cheese it, the fuzz!” likely hails from deep space.