Just the other day, a female friend lamented, “I wish there was a workout that combined the grace of ballet, the balance of yoga, and the thunderosity of my booty.” Exasperated reply: “Woman, please! You need to get your fine ass down to Swerve on Sweetzer and 3rd.”:

Yoga Booty Ballet (1hr) – Reservations Reccomended
60-90 minutes– Signature class. A hybrid of all the good stuff from ballet–grace, beauty poise, power and lithe lean lovely limbs: the POWER of Yoga. Sun salutes, balancing poses and breathing–enough to bliss you out: the BOOTY aspects of fitness–original moves to enhance your fine muscular ass! Live Drumming as listed. [Swerve]

Can’t make it to L.A.? Buy the videos here, and then join along as we sing, “there’s no fusion like confusion” (with sincere apologies to Irving Berlin’s ghost).

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Pictured here by the AP, carrying his 11-month-old grandson to the hospital. The 48 pound boy consumes five liters of milk and one kilogram of rice-flour every day, and is believed to suffer from a rare hormonal disorder.

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Is Yogi Ramesh laughing at you, or laughing with you? Is he mildly demented, or completely insane? Does he actually just end up crying when no one’s looking? Check out the video, and judge for yourself (via Eytomic):

Yogacards: Laughing yoga video clip (Windows Media, 2 MB, 1 min.)

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According to a short audio clip on NPR’s Weekend Edition, the Indian government has authorized Kama Sutra playing cards to be distributed in order to promote monogamy and prevent sexually transmitted diseases. To understand the logic of this you can listen to NPR’s clip (with “exotic” music in the background). However, I think NPR may have made a reporting error. First of all this idea isn’t new. The BBC reported on the use of Kama Sutra to prevent STDs (although by different reasoning) two years ago, pointing to a program in Calcutta.

The government in India’s West Bengal State is supporting a programme that offers prostitutes an ancient solution to modern concerns about safe sex.

“Kama Sutra has many postures that can give men the highest pleasure without consummation and that is what the prostitutes are being taught.

“They are learning something very useful,” says Rajyashree Choudhuri, chief of the Institute of International Social Development (IISD), who designed the project.

Furthermore a 1993 journal abstract in Global AIDS News mentions the following:

…the Indian Health Organization, a nongovernmental organization founded 11 years ago in Bombay, is promoting the teachings of the Kama Sutra as an alternative to condom use in preventing HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The basic message that sex with one partner in many positions is safer than sex in one position with many partners is proclaimed on T-shirts and in a series of explicit postcards. This approach is promoting openness, communication, and equality between the sexes.

I’d pay BIG money for one of those T-shirts. Getting back to my point however, I think NPR mistakenly believed that the Indian Health Organization, which it mentions in the audio clip, is a branch of the Indian government and that this is a state sponsored national program. I don’t think the Indian government would be passing out Kama Sutra cards nationally. Am I wrong? If so, someone in India please correct me (and send me a deck of those cards…for reporting purposes). Continue reading →

We at Sepia Mutiny are in favor of equal opportunity boobage. A couple of years ago, this oddity went out over the wire (via BridalBeer and Gene Expression):

Mr B Wijeratne, from Walapanee, near Colombo, took to breastfeeding her soon after his wife died three months ago while giving birth to their second child.

His elder daughter, 18-month-old Nisansala Madhushani, was so used to her mother’s milk that she would not take formula milk. Mr Wijeratne told Sinhalese language newspaper Lankadeepa: “My child would reject the powdered milk I tried feeding through a bottle. “Unable to see her cry I offered my breast. That’s when I discovered that I could breastfeed her…”

Dr Kamal Jayasinghe, a spokesman for the hospital, said: “Men with a hyperactive prolactine hormone can produce breast milk.”

Wikipedia explains:

It is not so often understood that [human males] also have mammary glands… Under the appropriate hormonal stimulus… the mammary glands of human males can also produce milk… The volume… will be small relative to the amount that a female can produce.

The most common circumstance under which lactation is induced is when hormonal treatments are given to men suffering from prostate cancer… Male-to-female transsexuals may also produce milk due to the hormones they take to reshape their bodies. Extreme stress has also been known to be a cause of male lactation, as evidenced upon the return of American POWs from the Korean and Vietnam Wars… It is also possible for males (and females) to induce lactation through constant massage and simulated ‘sucking’ of the nipple over a long period of time (months).

From an engineering standpoint, this is actually fairly cool. Just think of all the unused capabilities your body’s hiding away for when hormonal switches are flipped. It’s a pity none of them are superpowers. Beyond suckling, that is.

There’s a more disturbing story in this vein from India here (not for the squeamish). Now can we get back to posting Aishwarya photos?

We are going to have to ask for the experts to comment on this one. The BBC reports (thanks for the tip Mytri):

Indians infected with the AIDS virus are more likely to contract the disease than people in the west, a new study has found.

Scientists say that Indians have lower immunity to the virus because they have genes that hasten the disease.

India says more than five million of its citizens are infected with the HIV virus, second only to South Africa.

Activists say the number of Indians affected by HIV/Aids is much higher than the government says.

Scientists at India’s premier medical school, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), studied 200 people with HIV infection and 2000 healthy people over two years for the study.

I always try to look at genetic anomalies in terms of evolutionary pressures. In cases where none are obvious I just shrug my shoulders and wait for an explanation.

“Protective genes are low among Indians while the harmful genes are more common,” Dr NK Mehra, head of the study told the BBC.

Ummmm. That explanation doesn’t quite make it clear (to me at least). In a somewhat related story the Hindustan Times reported last week that Indians and Pakistanis in England have the lowest number of sexual partners (ouch).

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As if the beautiful scenery, burgeoning democracy, and religious devotion to penises wasn’t enough, Bhutan gives us another reason to book our next vacation there: They love to party!

In Thimphu, trendy bars and pubs have mushroomed. They are popular with young city-dwellers who drop by most evenings for a drink after work. During a night of pub-hopping in Thimphu, I saw most places choc-a-bloc with young men and women. Alcohol swigging, swirling cigarette smoke and uninhibited laughter. In one, a few couples were dancing to loud music. The health secretary, Dr Thinley, says the government is working on awareness campaigns to encourage people to drink in moderation, and also keep a check on the liquor brewed from rice at home. [BBC News]

Sure, the incessant carousing has led to rampant alcoholism, but so does marriage, and you don’t see anybody leading a crusade against that. Well, at least not against heterosexual marriage.

BBC News: Bhutan faces up to alcohol problem

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From the parents of Rajan Vyas, a 6-year-old boy battling leukemia:

You can save the life our our 6 year old little boy, Rajan Vyas, who is suffering from leukemia, and is waiting to receive a potentially curative bone marrow transplant. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE. Many Asian-Indians are waiting for a marrow transplant, but currently the bone marrow reigistry has very few Asian-Indian donors. We MUST come together for those in our community, including our neighbors from Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Even if you don’t match Rajan, you can save the life of others waiting for a South Asian donor match. Registering with the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP®) is simple:

– You need to be in generally good health
– You are between the ages of 18-60
– You complete a health screening questionnaire
– You painlessly give a small amount of blood for tissue typing

All testing fees are waived for minorities

TESTING IS SIMPLE, PAINLESS, AND COULD SAVE A LIFE
PLEASE GET TESTED TODAY!
Click here to find the donor center in your area

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