Don't Be Embarassed About Your Penis Size

A man in Germany who was embarrassed about his penis size is facing charges, after asking his girlfriend to have sex in the dark – and getting his brother to stand in.
Manfred Schuh, 26, feared he would lose his 24-year-old girlfriend if he did not 'perform well', so he insisted on keeping the lights off during sex and going to the toilet beforehand.
His brother Walter, 28, would then enter the room and have sex with the woman. She found out after two months – when she turned the light on.
A police spokesman said: 'She apparently had no idea. Both men look similar as they are brothers, and the older brother made a point of not speaking when he was impersonating his younger sibling.'
from Metro UK

Gay Porn Murder To Go To Trial

Two gay porn actors will go to trial on charges they murdered a rival porn executive in a dispute over a coveted actor after a judge's ruling Thursday.
District Magisterial Judge James E. Tupper ruled that, based on the testimony of 14 witnesses during a two-day hearing, there was enough evidence against Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes for both men to go to trial. They are charged with murdering Cobra Video executive and gay porn kingpin Bryan Kocis.
"It sucks," Harlow Cuadra said to reporters when asked how he felt as he left the courtroom. "I didn't do it. I didn't kill that man."
Police say Cuadra and Kerekes killed Kocis because of a dispute involving actor Sean Lockhart, known in the adult film industry as Brent Corrigan.
Police say Cuadra, 25, and Kerekes, 33, went to Kocis' Dallas, Pa., home Jan. 24 and slashed his throat, nearly decapitating him. After he was dead, they stabbed him 28 times and burned his body and home to hide the crime, according to police documents.
Kocis' body was found that night by firefighters responding to the fire. Police believe Cuadra and Kerekes gained access to the porn executive's home by tricking him into thinking Cuadra was a new model who was interested in making a movie for Cobra Video.
Both men continued to assert their innocence as they were led separately out of the courtroom flanked by state police officers.
"I was never in that house, and I intend to get an expert to prove that," Kerekes said.
During the hearing, prosecutors showed nearly 40 gruesome photos of Kocis' body and the wounds he sustained.
They also showed a surveillance video of both men in a gun store, where Cuadra purchased a gun and a knife, as well as semi-nude photos prosecutors say Cuadra e-mailed to Kocis. A state police captain testified the knife purchased could be capable of killing Kocis and inflicting the wounds he sustained.
Grant Roy, an adult film producer who knew both Cuadra and Kerekes, recounted a taped conversation he had with both men at a nude beach called Black's Beach in San Diego, Calif. on April 28.
Roy said that Cuadra and Kerekes spoke about doing reconnaissance work at Kocis' home sometime before he was killed and that both men mentioned being at Kocis' home the night of his murder.
Court documents also showed that Cuadra ordered a background check on Kocis from his computer with a credit card.
Roy also testified that Cuadra spoke cryptically about his emotions the night he was at Kocis' home.
"[Cuadra] said it went really quick, and he said that [Kocis] never saw it coming," Roy said. "He said it seemed kind of sick, but he felt like he had got even with [Kocis] in a way. It made him feel good."
But neither Cuadra nor Kerekes specifically admitted killing Kocis, although Roy said he felt the killing was implied.
Although both men admitted to destroying most of the property, Roy testified, they claimed to have taken some videos from Kocis' home and watched them at the house they shared in Virginia Beach, Va.
Roy said Cuadra debated whether to keep a film of Sean Lockhart, but Cuadra thought it was "too hot and would connect him to the murder," Roy testified.
Roy said that Cuadra told him at one point while in the home, he got nervous that Kocis might have realized he was not the model he was pretending to be.
"At that time, the doorbell rang and it got crazy," Roy quoted Cuadra.
"What did Cuadra say happened after the doorbell rang?" Luzerne County Assistant District Attorneys Michael Melnick asked.
"He said that's when his dude arrived, and it was over," Roy testified. He did not specify who the "dude" was.
A Pennsylvania State Police trooper testified that an e-mail address tied to Cuadra had been created solely for contact with Kocis. A model, who identified himself as Danny Moilin, asked to meet with Kocis to work on a film. The semi-nude photos included in the e-mails were of Cuadra. As the photos were being showed, Cuadra turned to his mother and sister and lowered his head.
The last communication between the model and Kocis occurred at 7:15 p.m. on Jan. 24, the night of the murder. A meeting had been set up for 15 minutes later at 7:30, less than an hour before Kocis was found dead, Trooper Brian Murphy testified.
An e-mail account registered to Kerekes was accessed shortly before the murder, but Murphy said he didn't currently have records to show whether the account just remained open or if e-mails were sent.
"So he could have logged in and walked away to do something else, like walk in a house or commit murder?" Melnick asked.
"Or he could have been sitting there the whole time?" Kerekes' lawyer, Joe Necito, asked during cross-examination.
As he left the courtroom after the hearing, Kerekes said he would eventually show proof that he was at a motel room sending e-mails when the murder occurred.
State police Cpl. Leo Hannon, who headed up the investigation, testified that the men did have a hotel room in the area, but cellphone records place both men near Kocis' home, not at the motel room at the time of the murder.
Hannon said Cuadra also rented a car for the drive from Virginia to Pennsylvania. The mileage on the car, he said, mirrored the trip from their home in Virginia to Kocis' home. The route matched records from a disposable cellphone that "Danny Moilin" used to call Kocis.
Judge Tupper tossed burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary charges against both men, accepting arguments from defense attorneys that they men could not have committed burglary if one or both of them was let into the home willingly by Kocis.
Kerekes and Cuadra will now face trial on charges of homicide, robbery, arson, abuse of a corpse and conspiracy to commit murder.
Melnick said the district attorney would decide if the state would seek the death penalty in this case, a decision he said would be reached in the coming weeks.
from Court TV

This Is What's Hot In Russia...

MOSCOW - When he flexes Russia's diplomatic and military muscle, Vladimir Putin always makes headlines.
But few could have predicted the squall of gossip and speculation that erupted after the president stripped off his shirt for the cameras while vacationing in the Siberian mountains last week.
The resulting images, prominently enshrined on the presidential Web site, inspired admiration, criticism and some racing pulses among his admirers.
The Russian media still can't get enough.
The tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda on Wednesday published a huge color photo of the bare-chested president under the headline: "Be Like Putin." Its excuse? A guide showing exactly what exercises were required to build up a torso like the Russian leader's.
Kremlin watchers have been trying to guess what kind of political message the pictures send, given that the 54-year-old Putin has insisted he plans to step down at the end of his second term next year, as required by the constitution.
One radio talk show host speculated the photos were meant to enhance Putin's personal appeal to voters - a strong signal that he doesn't plan to relinquish power. When the commentator, Yevgeniya Albats, went on to suggest the half-naked photo shoot was unbecoming for a Russian leader, female listeners peppered her with e-mails expressing admiration for Putin's physique.
Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that women who visited its Web site posted comments on Putin's "vigorous torso" and said they "were screaming with delight and showering (him) with compliments."
Russian gay chat rooms and blogs were particularly intrigued by the photos: Some claimed that Putin, by stripping to his waist, was somehow pleading for more tolerance of homosexuality in Russia - where gays and lesbians are for the most part forced to remain closeted.
One satirical photo circulating on the Internet jokingly compared Putin's mountain adventure with Prince Albert II of Monaco to the movie "Brokeback Mountain," a love story about two cowboys who conceal a homosexual affair.
The Russian president, who is married with two daughters, has long cultivated an image of machismo and manliness. Well-known as a downhill skier and black belt in judo, Putin has appeared on national television driving a truck, operating a train, sailing on a submarine and copiloting a fighter jet.
These exploits have been widely publicized, thanks to the Kremlin's control of major Russian media.
In contrast to his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, notorious for drunken antics, Putin has established an image as serious, energetic, sober and sharp-witted. In a country that worships its Olympic and other world-class athletes, he has also taken care to stay physically fit.
In interviews, he speaks avidly about judo and athletics.
"Sport has helped me form my own personal point of view on the world, on people and my approach to them," he said in an interview posted on the Kremlin Web site.
Some say it's all part of the Putin mystique.
"He's cool. That's been the image throughout the presidency, cool," said Sergei Markov, Kremlin-connected head of the Moscow-based Institute for Political Research.
But Putin's outdoor outing last week took this manly public persona to a new level.
The prince and the president spent several days on vacation in the mountainous southern Siberian region of Tuva. Dressed in fatigues, fingerless gloves, a bush hat and chic sunglasses, Russia's most powerful man was shown on TV broadcasts in scenic footage riding horses, rafting down a river, fishing for grayling and off-roading in a sport utility vehicle.
Amid the outdoor posturing, the image-handlers were careful to make sure Putin was shown staying on top of major events - a lesson he learned after he was criticized for failing to immediately interrupt his vacation after the submarine Kursk sank in August 2000.
Putin's Siberian holiday coincided with the bombing of a passenger train near St. Petersburg. This time, TV footage showed him reportedly issuing orders to top ministers by cell phone from his vacation retreat.
Stanislav Belkovsky, head of the National Strategy Institute think tank, said the pictures from Tuva were nothing more than an effort to reassure Russians that Putin knows how to relax - and was preparing for retirement.
Yevgeny Volk, who heads the Heritage Foundation's Moscow office, said the political elite increasingly views Putin as a lame duck leader and that the photos only strengthen the impression that he should no longer be taken seriously.
from The Associated Press

Washing Penis May Raise H.I.V. Risk

A study in Uganda has come up with a surprising finding about sex and H.I.V. Washing the penis minutes after sex increased the risk of acquiring H.I.V. in uncircumcised men.
The sooner the washing, the greater the risk of becoming infected, the study found. Delaying washing for at least 10 minutes after sex significantly lowered the risk of H.I.V. infection, Dr. Fredrick E. Makumbi reported on July 25 at an International AIDS Society Conference in Sydney, Australia.
The researchers do not have a precise explanation for the findings, which challenge common wisdom and the teaching of many infectious disease experts who urge penile cleansing as part of good genital hygiene. Health experts have suggested that washing the penis after sex could prevent potentially infectious vaginal secretions from entering the body through the uncircumcised penis.
Washing the penis after sex is common in Africa. To determine whether washing could be recommended as an alternative to male circumcision, Dr. Makumbi’s team from the Makerere University Institute of Public Health studied 2,552 uncircumcised men in the Rakai district of Uganda.
The men, ages 15 to 49, were uncircumcised and not H.I.V. infected when they enrolled. Eighty-three percent said they washed with all sex partners.
The researchers asked about when and how the men washed after intercourse at enrollment and 6, 12 and 24 months later, including whether they washed with or without cloths.
Because of a slip-up, the researchers did not ask details of how the cleansing was done or directly about using soap, said Dr. Ronald H. Gray, a co-author from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Some soaps used in Africa are more irritating than those used elsewhere.
Men who washed within three minutes had a 2.3 percent risk of H.I.V. infection compared with 0.4 percent among those who delayed washing for 10 or more minutes. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases paid for the study.
The washing analysis was a secondary part of a study undertaken to determine the effectiveness of male circumcision against H.I.V. infection. Earlier reports had shown that circumcision was protective.
One message from the study, Dr. Gray said, “is that there ought to be a little time left for postcoital cuddling before you go and wash.”
“Don’t just finish and jump out of bed,” he said.
Dr. Makumbi and other AIDS experts said they did not know why the washing practice increased vulnerability to H.I.V. infection, but offered various explanations. One is that the acidity of vaginal secretions may impair the ability of the AIDS virus to survive on the penis. Delayed cleansing — and longer exposure to the vaginal secretions — may then reduce viral infectivity.
Another is that use of water, which has a neutral pH, may encourage viral survival and possible infectivity.
H.I.V. apparently needs to be in a fluid to cross the mucosa to infect cells, Dr. Gray said. If the H.I.V.-contaminated fluid dries, its infectivity may decrease. Adding water could resuspend H.I.V. to make it more infectious.
The study findings are counterintuitive, said Dr. Merle A. Sande, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Washington in Seattle, and “show why you have to do the studies, because until you do them, you just don’t know.”
Dr. Sande, who was not involved in the study, said, “There is still so much we don’t understand about the complex factors that influence H.I.V. transmission in the genital tract, but this important study will help.”
He also is president of the Academic Alliance Foundation, a group that trains health workers to treat AIDS and other infectious diseases in Uganda.
from The New York Times

Merv Never Revealed The Man Behind The Curtain

Merv Griffin was gay.
Why should that be so uncomfortable to read? Why is it so difficult to write? Why are we still so jittery even about raising the issue in purportedly liberal-minded Hollywood in 2007? We can refer to it casually in conversation, but the mainstream media somehow remains trapped in the Dark Ages when it comes to labeling a person as gay.
Maybe that helps explain why Griffin, who died of prostate cancer Sunday at 82, stayed in the closet throughout his life. Perhaps he figured it was preferable to remain the object of gossip rather than live openly as "one of them." But how tremendously sad it is that a man of Merv's renown, of his gregarious nature and social dexterity, would feel compelled to endure such a stealthy double life even as the gay community's clout, and its levels of acceptance and equality, rose steadily from the ashes of ignorance.
I'm not at all insinuating that Griffin had a responsibility to come out. That was up to him.
But what a powerful message Griffin might have sent had he squired his male companions around town rather than Eva Gabor, his longtime good friend and platonic public pal. Imagine the amount of good Merv could have done as a well-respected, hugely successful, beloved and uncloseted gay man in embodying a positive image.
As it was, I loved the guy, finding him charismatic and charming. And I had more than a passing acquaintance with him, having worked on "The Merv Griffin Show" as a talent coordinator/segment producer in 1985-86 as the show was winding down. Around the office, Merv's being gay was understood but rarely discussed. We knew nothing of his relationships because he guarded his privacy fiercely, and we didn't pry.
Merv's secret gay life was widely known throughout showbiz culture, if not the wider America. It gained traction in 1991 when he was targeted in a pair of lawsuits: by "Dance Fever" host Denny Terrio, alleging sexual harassment; and by assistant Brent Plott, seeking $200 million in palimony. Both ultimately were dismissed.
Over the past 16 years of his life, however, Griffin deflected the sexuality questions with a quip, determining that his private life remained nobody's business. He certainly didn't owe us an explanation, but maybe he owed it to himself to remove the suffocating veil he'd been forced to hide behind throughout his adult life. Then again, Merv carved his niche in the entertainment world at a time when being gay wasn't OK, when disclosure was unthinkable and the allegation alone could deep-six one's career.
If you're Griffin, why would you think a judgmental culture would be any more tolerant as you grew into middle and old age? Even in the capital of entertainment -- in a business where homosexuality isn't exactly a rare phenomenon -- it's still spoken of in hushed tones or, more often, not at all. And Merv's brush with tabloid scandal no doubt only drove him further into the closet.
While it would seem everything has changed today, little actually has. You can count on the fingers of one hand, or at most two, the number of high-powered stars and public figures who have come out. Those who don't can't really be faulted, as rarely do honesty and full disclosure prove a boon to one's showbiz livelihood.
Nonetheless, the elephant that was his sexual orientation never really stopped following Griffin from room to room. He could duck it for a while, but it would always find him. It's disheartening that Merv had to die to shake it for good.
from The Hollywood Reporter / Ray Richmond

Desperate Housewives Names Gay Couple

Desperate Housewives is getting ready for a brand new season and what better way to spice things up than adding some new characters and complicating the plot?
And what better way to complicate the plot than by adding Wisteria Lane’s first gay couple? According to Hollywood Reporter, Tuc Watkins and Kevin Rahm have signed for recurring roles on the popular show.
There were some rumors, funny, interesting to see to fruition but kind of hard to believe, that British singer Robbie Williams and soccer hero David Beckham would join the cast of “Desperate Housewives,” but it probably wasn’t meant to be.
Instead, viewers will be able to enjoy the sight of Watkins and Rahm starting September, on ABC. It would seem fans of the show will also have to wait for fall in order to find out just what the new characters are about.
What media reports have been saying is that Watkins and Rahm will be playing a couple who moved from the big city to a smaller, quieter place (or so they think). TV Guide reports that Watkins will play Bob, a “country mouse,” while Rahm is Lee, Bob’s “bitchy partner.”
It has also been said that the two new characters received their names from ABC News' Bob Woodruff and his wife Lee, who became friends with series creator Marc Cherry last spring.
Tuc Watkins has worked with ABC before, having a 1-year-long role on soap opera “One Life to Live.” He’s also played in Showtime's “Beggars and Choosers.”
Kevin Rahm is best known as a co-star on CBS' “Judging Amy.” He’s also had small roles on “CSI: NY,” “Joan of Arcadia” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”
This will be the fourth season for “Desperate Housewives.” The show had a successful debut in October 2004 and went on to receive numerous Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations, as well as several wins.
In the time elapsed since the third season ended, several cast members have had important event happen in their lives, such as Marcia Cross giving birth to twins and Eva Longoria marrying basketball player Tony Parker.
from eFluxMedia

No Halloween Party For Castro District

SAN FRANCISCO - The Great Pumpkin will skip San Francisco this year.
City officials said Wednesday that there will be no official Halloween celebration anywhere in San Francisco in October -- not in the Castro neighborhood, the traditional home of the event, and not at a parking lot near AT&T Park, which had been considered as an alternate site.
"There will be no party," said Audrey Joseph, president of the city's Entertainment Commission.
Officials had been quietly working on plans to snuff out the Castro event, where a shooting last year injured nine people. The goal had been to instead hold a large outdoor concert near the ballpark. But the concert promoter has pulled out of the effort, and there is not enough time to find another, Joseph said.
But officials are still trying to prevent any festivities in the Castro. On Wednesday, Supervisor Bevan Dufty sent a letter to 110 owners of bars, restaurants and stores in the Castro, asking them to close shop on Halloween night to discourage partygoers.
The Halloween event was marred by violence last year after the shooting near the main stage on Market Street. Another person was injured as the crowd fled the area. Dufty and other city leaders had already been concerned about violence at the event, including the potential for attacks on members of the city's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender population.
Halloween traditionally has been a major community event -- sometimes referred to as the "gay Christmas" -- but Dufty said that era has passed.
"It's not a holiday in the Castro. It's a night in which the neighborhood is overrun by people who come to gawk, not celebrate, and unfortunately it turns into gang night out in the Castro," he said.
To quell the Castro event, which draws several hundred thousand people, no roads will be closed, no barriers will be erected and no portable bathrooms will be set up, Dufty said. Police will be out in numbers akin to last Halloween, but they will be patrolling with "zero tolerance" for anyone breaking the law, he said.
Dufty has commitments from five businesses in the Castro to close on Halloween night, and he will try to persuade more to do so at a community meeting in the neighborhood next week.
One business that will close that night is Café Flore, one of the neighborhood's most well-known establishments.
"It's normally a big-money night, but it's just too crazy," said Doug Forrester, who manages the cafe, which is a few yards from where the shooting occurred last year.
The city is working with the Convention and Visitors Bureau to encourage people to support business that agree to close by patronizing the establishments on other nights. The city also wants to promote private events at museums and other locations. The city also plans to hire a public relations firm to put out the message within a 100-mile radius that there will be no large, public event in San Francisco.
City leaders had hoped to offer an alternative event to the Castro. The popular singer Pink had given a verbal commitment to play a show at the other venue, and there also were plans for a motocross event there, along with DJs and other bands.
But the promoter the city was working with on the event, Big Billy Inc., decided the Halloween party would be too much to handle, as it is putting on the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park earlier that month.
Also, neighbors in Mission Bay, Potrero Hill and other areas around the ballpark had complained to the city that they had not been consulted on the plans for the concert near their homes.
Castro area residents have similarly complained about the lack of public involvement in Halloween planning. After last year's violence, Mayor Gavin Newsom and Dufty announced they would convene a task force to analyze the problems and organize a 2007 event.
That task force never met because it was unanimous among city department heads -- and residents who contacted those departments -- that there should be no Castro Halloween, thus eliminating the need for a task force, said Nathan Ballard, Newsom's spokesman.
Despite that opposition to a Castro Halloween, some residents in the area do think the party could go on with more planning.
"Other cities do this kind of thing all the time, and you don't hear about excessive violence, you don't hear about gay bashing," said Alix Rosenthal, who unsuccessfully challenged Dufty during his re-election campaign last year and made the Halloween event a central issue. She said she thinks that the city has not put enough resources into the event to make it successful.
And Café Flore's Forrester said he is curious to see how many people still show up in the Castro.
"It's going to be interesting, to say the least," he said.
from The San Francisco Chronicle