Take it like a man.

Around early September, 2006, ABC news said that four prison inmates in El Salvador were discovered with mobile phones inside their anal cavities, according to Slate (the original ABC link is no longer working). That prompted Slate to wonder (and answer too) how much stuff a person could handle up the anus. The writing is way too interesting and enlightening to leave it away, though found in a moment of procrastination. Since Slate tends to keep their old articles for quite a bit of months, here's the link. But the answer, for those who don't want to browse there to find out what you can and what you shouldn't stuff up your ass, is this:

In general, it takes a fair bit of training to conceal something that's more than a couple of inches in diameter. As a general rule, the medical literature on "retained colorectal foreign bodies" considers anything bigger a "large object."

For the full fun, of course, go to Slate and read the full article.

Technorati tags: Retained colorectal foreign bodies

Lube against HIV?

Starpharma has announced last week on the International AIDS Society conference in Sydney, Australia, that their sex lubricant called VivaGel allegedly blocks both HIV and HSV-2 genital herpes virus. Trials in humans are being conducted right now in Australia, Kenya and the United States.
Apparently the lube has not been tested with gay males, on the company's site there can be obtained a PDF report on some test conducted with 36 males. Though the lube microbiocidal lube seems to have caused minor dermatological problems on some of the participants, if proven to block from 75% to 100% of viral transmission that's going to be great news. Let's take it with a pinch of salt, however. Read the complete story here.