Good counter to the hype surrounding the 'Muff March' last week, and the scare stats surrounding it.
It doesn’t say how many were transsexual women going in for their second stage labiaplasty, or how many were women coming in after having their vaginas cut during a birthing, and now need cosmetic corrections to reduce scarring. (Because scars lack enough nerve endings for proper tactile sensation and may hinder sexual function.) There is no assumption that some of these are for the right reasons.
Fiona Fox on What If There Were Rules for Science Journalism? (or indeed any stories throwing numbers around...)
Caution may simply mean putting these stories inside the paper rather than on the front page, ensuring that the voices of top scientists casting doubt on the findings are included, and following up stories with equally significant coverage if claims are refuted.
Bad Sex Award 2011 presented to David Guterson for Ed King.
[T]he novel contains several pages of explicit exposition. One goes into exhaustive detail about an erotic massage, where the protagonist "massaged, kneaded, stretched, rubbed, pinched, flicked, feathered, licked, kissed, and gently bit her shoulders". But judges said they were finally swayed by a passage that begins: "Ed stood with his hands at the back of his head, like someone just arrested, while she abused him with a bar of soap." The scene concludes: "Then they rinsed, dried, dressed, and went to an expensive restaurant for lunch."
