Article here. Excerpt:

'A secret laboratory growing new human skin from baby foreskins has been hailed a medical breakthrough by scientists at Europe's biggest research organisation.

The process - dubbed the Skin Factory at the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart, Germany - takes cells from foreskins donated to the project and grows swatches of skin for use in testing cosmetics and other consumer products.

Its creators claim that one day their process could replace all animal testing, explained project spokesman Andreas Traube.

Scientists extract a single layer of cells from each foreskin and then grow on layers of collagen and connective tissue in the Skin Factory, a sealed growing environment just seven metres, by thee metres, and three metres high and kept at a constant temperature of 37 degrees centigrade.

The project uses foreskins taken from boys up to just four years old, said Traube.

'The older the skin is, the worse it performs,' he explained.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Men have long been outnumbered by women in higher education in the U.S., going back to the 1980s. What's drawn less notice is they are also less likely to earn bachelor's degrees.

Graduation rates across nearly all University of Wisconsin System schools are consistently higher for women. Last year, 62 percent of the females who entered the UW System in 2004 had graduated, compared with 58 percent for men.

While there's lots of talk of improving overall graduation rates and getting more minorities to earn degrees nationwide, few colleges have sounded the gender alarm. Some experts say it's time.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'High school hates boys. Wait, before you count me out as just another disillusioned student who wants an excuse to rant against the system, take a look at these statistics: according to an article in The New York Times, the average high school grade point average for males is a 2.86, the average GPA for a female is 3.09. 64 percent of National Honor Society members are girls; boys are about 25 percent more likely to drop out and the American Association of School Administration reports that boys make up only 44 percent of college attendees (some colleges now use affirmative action to try to solve this problem).

As a male who has attended high school for nearly four years, earned a decent GPA and was accepted into a college, I cannot claim to be a victim of the system. However, I believe in equality and it bothers me when any group of people is ignored for political correctness, ignorance, ambivalence or whatever other reason.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Mont Alto, Pa. — The old saying, ‘What goes around, comes around’ fits nicely in this story.

That’s because, after a 35-year absence, wrestling is back at Penn State Mont Alto. Boy, how things have changed.

Back in 1970, when wrestling was first introduced as a sport at the campus, the college did not even have a gymnasium. Hence, wrestling and basketball contests were held at the old East Junior High School, which was demolished years ago.

Several years later, logistics — and Title IX — prompted Mont Alto to drop wrestling in the mid-1970s, a difficult decision that landed squarely on then-athletic director and wrestling coach Duane Thomas.

“We needed to balance our programs. We started women’s volleyball when we stopped wrestling,” said Thomas, referring to the landmark legislation that forced colleges to increase opportunities for female students, sometimes at the expense of male sports.'

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments

December 18, 2011

A majority of Americans worry about the federal government extending its reach into citizens’ everyday lives. Now, following release of a Centers for Disease Control report, critics of big government have a new cause for alarm.

Rape is personal tragedy and a societal anathema, and victims of rape deserve our protection and support. Fortunately, the number of rapes has tapered off dramatically in recent decades, along other types of violent crime.

But to the Centers for Disease Control, much more needs to be done. So the CDC devised a radical approach.

This past week the CDC released its long-awaited survey called the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pdf/NISVS_Report2010-a.pdf. The study was widely publicized in the traditional media with startling headlines that blared, "Nearly one in five U.S. women has been a victim of sexual assault."

I spent time in prison for theft. I can say I would have never gone if I had been granted the same benefits women are granted in America. I have placed petitions online for Fathers And Men That Are Ex-Felons at http://www.scribd.com/hdignity.

In America, over 65 million men have a felony record. We are banned from virtually every single apartment area. We have to beg others to live with them and in many cases we see people lose their masculinity and even their pride. This results in further problems like drug abuse and other serious social problems. We are already seeing just the beginning of the effects. As prisons are forced to release more people and more people get a criminal record, people start to see the injustice of a lifetime ban on obtaining housing.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Research in Papua New Guinea on circumcision as a means of prevention of HIV transmission has brought to light the number of men undergoing unsafe penile modification, often with disastrous consequences.

Professor John McBride of Australia’s James Cook University was one of a number of researchers presenting their work to the PNG government and non-governmental organisations in a recent two-day policy forum in Port Moresby.

He says most men are amenable to being circumcised, with almost 60 percent having had either full or partial circumcision, known in PNG as the straight cut.

Professor McBride says all the research groups were concerned about the potential adverse effects of that informal type of circumcision and other forms of penile cutting.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Activists at the Sonke Gender Justice Network, a non-profit organisation focusing on men's responsibilities in creating a just and democratic society, see MMC as carrying benefits in addition to its significant HIV-prevention potential. They see it as nothingless than an opportunity to promote gender equality.

"MMC is an opportunity to engage men on sexual reproductive health. That means an opportunity to engage to say they must reduce their sexual partners, they must use condoms correctly and consistently, and they must seek consent before sex," said Leo Mbobi, Cape Town Coordinator for Sonke's flagship One Man Can programme.

The first phase of the effort to use MMC as a platform to promote gender equality has come in the form of raising awareness. Through posters, brochures, and a door-to-door campaign, Sonke is focusing on educating people not only about the health benefits of MMC, but also on the importance of women's participation in conversations around MMC and sexual decision-making in general.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'(BOSTON) - An article in the December Journal of Law and Medicine cites numerous flaws in three African studies that claim male circumcision reduces transmission of HIV. (see: the article here)

According to the article, the studies, which are being used to promote the circumcision of up to 38 million men in Africa, had selection bias, inadequate blinding, problematic randomization, experimenter bias, lead time bias, supportive bias, participant expectation bias, time-out discrepancy, and lack of investigating of non-sexual HIV transmission among other confounding factors and problems.

Link to download here (.doc file, 60kb). From an ARCLAW mailing-list email:

'ARC is proud to announce the release of our "know your rights" brochure for potential litigants, entitled "Circumcision: Your Legal Rights."

It is available through a link from our home page at http://www.arclaw.org.

ARC Secretary (and Intact America Director Georganne Chapin) worked closely with us to develop this document.'

Link here. Excerpt:

'The Committee finds that the escalation of the number of Indigenous women in detention is disturbing. Indigenous women are critical to the future strength of Indigenous families and communities. They play an important role in the care of children, providing the future generation with a stable upbringing. Continued growth in the number of Indigenous women being imprisoned will have a long lasting and negative impact on the wellbeing of Indigenous families and communities.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'I was in a bar, having a nice drink with my boyfriend when a man looked at me from across the room. Suddenly, I exploded into a tirade at my boyfriend about how men are sleazy, stupid, ignorant and how women are by far superior. I eventually stopped and realised that I’d been ranting like this for a good twenty minutes. My boyfriend blinked at me, bewildered. Poor bloke; he’d only come out for a pint.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Second, we must retract the message Boomers sent young women about female empowerment. Indeed, it isn’t a coincidence that marriage rates have plummeted alongside America’s fascination with the feminist movement. Empowerment for women, as defined by feminists, neither liberates women nor brings couples together. It separates them. It focuses on women as perpetual victims of the Big Bad Male. Why would any man want to get married when he’s been branded a sexist pig at “hello”? In the span of just a few decades, women have managed to demote men from respected providers and protectors to being unnecessary, irrelevant, and downright expendable. Consider these examples:

Consider these examples:

#*# Author and journalist Natalie Angier begins an article in the New York Times by writing, “Women may not find this surprising, but one of the most persistent and frustrating problems in evolutionary biology is the male. Specifically#…#why doesn’t he just go away?”

Article here. Excerpt:

'TMZ reports that the troubled reality personality was booked at Madison County Jail in Indiana today because a judge issued a warrant for her arrest. According to The Herald Bulletin, she was taken into custody for allegedly violating the terms of her probation.

Last week, her probation officer filed a report claiming that Amber had violated the terms of her probation in her domestic violence case. She had pleaded guilty to two counts of felony domestic violence in June after MTV aired scenes of her punching and slapping ex-fiance and baby daddy Gary Shirley during season two of the popular docuseries. The judge in her case, David Happe, suspended her two-year sentence and put her on two years of probation.

The sheriff's department also confirmed to our pals at E! News that the 21-year-old mother of Leah is in jail for a probation violation, and that the length of her stay will be "up to the courts."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Sexism is a terrible thing. Women have been oppressed by men all throughout history. While humanity has made fantastic progress in this respect, we still have a ways to go. This is evident, for example, in the world of film and television: women are often portrayed as the weak and the helpless, or else merely as sexual objects. The issue, however, can go both ways; while misogyny is the more pressing issue, it is equally wrong to hate or stereotype men. Misandry is not nearly as common, so I was surprised to see a real-life sexist-towards-men film: “Barracuda,” directed by Louisvillian Shane Woodson and written by Christy Oldham, who also stars.

“Barracuda” is the story of a phone sex operator named Summer (Oldham) who, through her work, encounters the most perverse men imaginable: men who admit to rape, men who fantasize about sexual acts with their daughters, men who have killed women in the throes of passion. Fed up, she takes matters into her own hands and pays each man a visit to obtain a taped confession and bring justice upon them.'