Lifestyle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Germany is to decide whether to ban bestiality, which has been considered lawful in the country since being legalized in 1969.The final vote on the matter is set to take place in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, on Friday.

 

The government of Angela Merkel introduced the new law against the practice, saying animals should not be used "for personal sexual activities or made available to third parties for sexual activities … thereby forcing them to behave in ways that are inappropriate to their species."

 

The possible ban would make sex with animals punishable with a hefty fine of 25,000 euros, Max 

Lehmer, a lawmaker in Merkel's governing coalition said.

 

And the lawmakers’ intention is not teaching zoophiles a morality lesson, as one of them told RT.

“We are not policing morality but we are improving animal protection law, where we would like to specify that it is forbidden to cause suffering through a sexual relationship.

 

But the line is when you cause suffering to an animal for your personal sexual gratification,” Hans-Michael Goldmann, MP Chairman of the parliamentary agricultural committee, said.

 

Animal rights groups have also been campaigning against zoophilia for some time, battling for bestiality to be recognized as rape and defilement inflicted on an animal. 

 

“Dogs are loyal even when they are abused – they are still going to look as if they are happy, especially when it gets enough to eat. Dogs will be happy whatever you dictate.

 

But that is not a sign that the dog is enjoying it,” Stephanie Eschen, animal rights campaigner for Berlin Shelter for Animals said.

 

Campaigners even reportedly posted 800 addresses of zoophiles on their Facebook page, saying they would fight to take the animals away from those who practice bestiality.

 

German media outlets followed suit to protest against the practice, first with the Berlin tabloid BZ featuring the issue on its front page in October. The picture showed a man holding his dog with the headline reading "we call it sodomy, he calls it love." Bild magazine then joined the cause.

 

In July, over 93,000 Germans voted to ban the bestiality in an online poll, revoking the 1969 law which legalized zoophilia, except in cases where the animal was deemed to suffer "significant harm."

 

Zoophiles, however, say that they never treat animals cruelly or force them to do anything against their will.

 

“I need an animal to be happy.  If I did not have it, there would be something missing.  There are several levels of relationship with an animal. You can fall in love with your animal… then, the sexual relationship is not out of the question,” David Zimmerman from the German Zoophile Engagement for Tolerance and Information said.

 

And there’s a growing concern that those who are against the practice could walk the talk.

“They fantasize about castrating me or taking my animals away. Our friend has found a razor blade in his post with a note “Do it yourself so we don’t have to”.  

 

Letters don’t arrive too often but it they arrive every now and again. In the subway someone was yelling at me, calling me names – I am concerned that attacks could become physical.”

 

While bestiality is deemed illegal in most European countries, it is allowed in Belgium, Denmark and Sweden, apart from Germany. Stockholm, however, is considering a change in the legislation.

 

Don't feel like cooking this Christmas? A U.K. chef is offering to cook Christmas dinner for you and three family members for about $200,000 (£125,000).

 

Through the website VeryFirstTo.com, which offers expensive "luxury products and experiences," including a $150,000 trip to space, chef Ben Spalding said he'll cook an elaborate Christmas Day meal using some of the most expensive ingredients in the world.

 

The head chef at John Salt, Spalding has worked at top restaurants Per Se, the Fat Duck and Royal Hospital Road. Eighty percent of Spalding's fee will be donated to Cancer Research U.K. and Hospitality Action.

 

The first course includes a $60,000 bottle of Piper Heidsieck 1907 Champagne, served in diamond-studded champagne flutes.

 

Alma's caviar and 150-year-old balsamic vinegar are paired with the champagne. 

 

The Almas caviar is considered the world's most expensive caviar, and costs $8,000 on Spalding's menu. The cost of the balsamic vinegar is $1,700.

 

The second course includes a Yubari King melon served with white truffles and saffron. The melon, which looks like a cantaloupe, is priced at $4,000. A rare breed of turkey is served for the main course, with Wagyu beef and heart.

 

The table centerpiece is coated in edible gold leaf and sprinkled with pistachios. The dessert course is made with whipped Kopi luwak, which is made from the beans of coffee berries that were once eaten, digested and excreted by civets.

 

Despite his donating most of his fee to charity and sacrificing a holiday with his family, Spalding received a few criticizing tweets about the menu. He responded, "I am not wasting any more time or energy talking about a fantasy dinner that may/may not happen. I am moving on like you should!"

 

In the case that no one purchases his Christmas dinner, the chef wrote he would "spend the day with my young family, and two babies. But at least I tried. "

 

Doctors have successfully used a disabled version of HIV to modify a 7-year-old leukemia patient’s white blood cells to attack her cancer.

 

The breakthrough procedure could potentially replace bone marrow transplant as a leukemia treatment.

 

Emma Whitehead was selected as a patient for the experimental technique after two years of battling with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the New York Times reported.

 

Chemotherapy failed to either cure the disease or result in a period of remission long enough for a bone marrow transplant.

 

The process was previously tested only on adult patients. In April, Whitehead became the first child to undergo the treatment, her medical team revealed during an annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology in Atlanta last weekend. She was also the first patient to be treated for her kind of leukemia.

 

Doctors from the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia manipulated Whitehead’s immune system to make it target cancer cells.

 

They took a batch of her own T cells – a kind of white blood cell – and genetically engineered them to kill the B cells – another kind of white blood cell – responsible for her disease.

 

To do this, the doctors used a modified and disabled form of HIV, the virus responsible for AIDS, to alter the T cells’ genes, making them produce a protein called a chimeric antigen receptor on their surface.

 

This artificial protein matches another protein encountered only on the surface of B cells. The alteration allows T cells to attach to B cells, and destroy them. The genetically engineered T cells were then injected back into Whitehead’s blood, where they could reproduce on their own.

 

Two months after the procedure, testing revealed there was no sign of cancer in the girl’s body. The altered T cells were still present in her blood, but in smaller quantities than during treatment. Six months later, Whitehead is still in remission and is now back in school.

 

The experimental treatment has not yet been fully tested: Whitehead nearly died when the procedure caused a spontaneous high fever, and other near-fatal symptoms.

 

Not all of the 12 patients in the clinical trial responded to the treatment as well as Whitehead:

Three adults with chronic leukemia had complete remissions; four improved their condition, but did not beat the disease completely; one is still in too early a stage to evaluate; two patients saw no effect from the treatment; another child initially responded, but eventually relapsed.

 

The treatment also kills healthy B cells along with malignant ones, making patients vulnerable to certain types of infections; patients require regular treatments of immune globulins to prevent illness.

 

T cell therapy appears to be a promising medical breakthrough that may replace older bone marrow treatments, the researchers said. They plan to conduct additional trials with at least a half-dozen patients over the next year.

 

Health officials in Thailand have rushed to reassure men that size isn't everything after a 50-year-old man was forced to have his penis removed following a botched enlargement attempt using olive oil.

 

The man had used an unproven method of injecting oil into his penis, having been told by friends that it would make it bigger.

 

The practice, which can also involve bees wax, silicone or even paraffin, is common in Thailand and one Bangkok hospital reports that 40 patients a month receive treatment for side-effects.

 

This 50-year-old man developed a severe infection after injecting his penis with olive oil over a number of years, reported AFP.

 

The infection was cancerous and urgent surgery was required to remove his genitals.

'This is the biggest genital surgery we have ever done as we found cancer,' said Sirikul Jiraranaikhajorn, spokeswoman for the Police General Hospital in Bangkok.

 

She warned men against the procedure, which is carried out at backstreet clinics in the country, saying infections are common.

 

She added there was no evidence the method caused cancer.

'It only brings bad results - people misunderstand [that is works],' Jiraranaikhajorn added.

 

'A woman will love a man not because of the size.'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Super Bowl winning QB Tom Brady  and his supermodel wife Gisele Bundchen have welcomed the latest addition to their family.

 

Gisele announced via her Facebook page that she and Tom are the proud new parents of daughter Vivian Lake. She wrote:

 

We feel so lucky to have been able to experience the miracle of birth once again and are forever grateful for the opportunity to be the parents of another little angel.

 

Vivian Lake was born at home on December 5. She is healthy and full of life. Thank you all for your support and well wishes. We wish you and your families many blessings.

 

Following the message, momma shared the following first pic of little Vivian. I see a cute pout there!

 

This is the couple’s second child together and first daughter. Tom also has a 5-year-old son with Bridget Moynahan, John.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The US birth rate hit a record low last year, led by the decline in child-bearing among foreign-born women, according to a Pew study.

 

The overall US birth rate decreased by 8% between 2007-10, and by 6% among US-born women, found the data.

 

The rate fell sharpest for those hardest hit by the recession: 14% among foreign-born women and 23% among Mexican immigrant women in particular.

 

The 2011 rate was the lowest since 1920, when such records began.

 

Previous research by Pew concluded that states with the largest economic downturn from 2007-08, were most likely to have experienced fertility declines.

 

 

The decline of the macho man among New York's Dominican community

Foreign and US-born Hispanic women have experienced the largest fall in household wealth since 2007.

 

But increased access to contraception for Latino women may also be playing a part in the falling birth rate, according to the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.

 

Foreign-born mothers continue to give birth to a disproportionate share of the nation's newborns.

 

Last year there were 3.95 million total US births, according to the preliminary data from Pew Research Center.

 

The overall US birth rate was 63.2 per 1,000 women of child-bearing age.

 

It peaked in 1957 during the Baby Boom years, reaching 122.7 per 1,000 women.

 

A Saudi woman who could not produce babies for her husband decided to offer him a bride and a luxury car instead, local media reported on Monday.

 

The 40-year-old woman took the "unusual step and proceeded to choose a bride for her husband after she felt unable to reproduce," the daily al-Bilad newspaper reported, adding the woman organized the wedding ceremony for her husband.

 

The woman also donated to her husband a luxury car to the astonishment of the people in their village, their acquaintances and friends, the paper added.

 

A Saudi female teacher was also previously reported to have arranged the marriage of her husband to one of her high school female students. The teacher even paid all the wedding expenses after he told her that he wanted to have a second wife.

 

Recently as well, a Saudi man married a schoolgirl, teacher and principal.

 

The man, 50, was not named by the Saudi-based Okaz newspaper which reported the marital muddle.

 

But his attraction to all things academic does not end there. The man was also married to a fourth wife, who works as an educational supervisor, mostly supervising the school that her husband’s other wives attend and work at.

 

Meanwhile, the schoolteacher told the newspaper that the way she interacts with her husband’s wives at work is “no different” to how she treats other students and superiors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The US birth rate hit a record low last year, led by the decline in child-bearing among foreign-born women, according to a Pew study.

 

The overall US birth rate decreased by 8% between 2007-10, and by 6% among US-born women, found the data.

 

The rate fell sharpest for those hardest hit by the recession: 14% among foreign-born women and 23% among Mexican immigrant women in particular.

 

The 2011 rate was the lowest since 1920, when such records began.

 

Previous research by Pew concluded that states with the largest economic downturn from 2007-08, were most likely to have experienced fertility declines.

 

 

The decline of the macho man among New York's Dominican community

Foreign and US-born Hispanic women have experienced the largest fall in household wealth since 2007.

 

But increased access to contraception for Latino women may also be playing a part in the falling birth rate, according to the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.

 

Foreign-born mothers continue to give birth to a disproportionate share of the nation's newborns.

 

Last year there were 3.95 million total US births, according to the preliminary data from Pew Research Center.

 

The overall US birth rate was 63.2 per 1,000 women of child-bearing age.

 

It peaked in 1957 during the Baby Boom years, reaching 122.7 per 1,000 women.