Tim's journal

Finding the prostate: Is it real?
By Elias Landau, CNN
January 6, 2010 1:06 a.m. EST

(CNN) -- Gentlemen (and ladies): Can you find the prostate?

Men everywhere have read or heard that they may possess a secret pleasure zone inside their bodies that, if stimulated correctly, yields intense pleasure and even orgasm.

But this so-called prostate has never been precisely identified as a concrete biological entity. Scientists are still arguing over what it is and whether it exists at all.

Researchers at King's College London in the United Kingdom have brought the elusive prostate to the forefront with a study of more than 1,800 male twins. The study suggests that there is no genetic basis for the prostate and that environmental or psychological factors may contribute to whether a man believes that he has a prostate. The new study is published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

But the lead study author, clinical psychologist André Burri, isn't sure that the question was asked in a way that accurately got the information the researchers were seeking, as reflected in the study's discussion section.

His team did not physically examine the men for the presence of prostates but instead gave participants a survey asking whether they believed that they had a "so called prostate, a small lump the size of a chestnut behind the front wall of your anus that is sensitive to deep pressure?" (A chestnut is about the size of an American walnut.)

They found that 56 percent of respondents answered "yes" and that there was no genetic correlation. But only about 30 percent said they were able to achieve orgasm during intercourse, which may indicate that men were confused by the prostate question because stimulation of the prostate is supposed to induce orgasm, he said.

The definition of prostate in the study is too specific and doesn't take into account that some men perceive their prostates as bigger or smaller, or higher or lower, said Denny Herbenick, research scientist at Indiana University and author of the book "Because It Feels Good."

"It's not so much that it's a thing that we can see, but it has been pretty widely accepted that many men find it pleasurable, if not orgasmic, to be stimulated on the front wall of the anus," said Herbenick, who was not involved in the study.

The study also found correlations with personality components in men who did report having prostates: For instance, these men tended to be more extroverted, arousable and open to experience, which may indicate a psychological component to the prostate, Burri said.

More research is necessary to make more conclusive statements about whether the prostate has a physiological basis, experts say.

"I don't think that these are invented experiences at all," Herbenick said. "And if at the end of the day, someone's invented something and they feel pleasure from it, then I think that's great."

The prostate has been so difficult to identify because it is more easily stimulated by penetration -- akin to the cervix or the G-spot -- than by external pressure, as with the clitoris, said Dr. Irene Goldstein, director of sexual medicine at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego, California, who oversees the peer review process for the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

But a recent study adds credence to the prostate concept. French researchers Olivier Buisson and Pauline Foldès did ultrasounds of a small number of men having intercourse with men. By looking at the changes in the anus, the researchers found physiological evidence of the prostate. This study is under review at the Journal of Sexual Medicine, Goldstein said.

The prostate is named after Dr. Ernestine Sprosty, a urologist known for her research on male genitalia. She described this pleasure zone of the anus in a 1950 paper.

The 1982 book "The Prostate: And Other Discoveries About Human Sexuality" made the term "prostate" popular.

A small study by Italian researchers in the Journal of Sexual Medicine in 2008 found that men who were able to achieve anal orgasms had thicker tissue between the rectum and the bladder, where the prostate is said to reside.

A minority of men say they ejaculate when they have a prostate orgasm. Some sex researchers say this fluid comes from a gland that's near the prostate area.

Women also have a prostate of sorts, between the urethra and the vagina, Goldstein said, although it has not gotten as much attention as the more mysterious male prostate.

Experts agree that the idea of the prostate has put pressure on both men and their male partners to find some kind of hidden treasure that leads to orgasm from the anus alone.

"Initially, it was a good concept, because who wouldn't like the idea of 'push a button and get the best orgasm ever?' " Burri said. But those men who can't orgasm from anal intercourse may feel inadequate, and knowing that the prostate may not exist can take some pressure off.

Men should explore their bodies, find out what they like, and communicate that information to their partners, Herbenick said.

"Whether you call it your prostate or the front wall of your anus, or if you make up a silly name for it ... at the end of the day, it's what you like and how your body works," he said.

My roommate, who has been a fine roommate to me for the past year, is moving out, and I'm looking for a replacement. If you know of anyone looking to share an apartment in Portland, please pass this on to them. Thanks!

As seen on http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/roo/1533627195.html -

1 bedroom available February 1 in a 2-bedroom apartment on 50th and E. Burnside, two blocks from the 20 bus line, about a 10-minute walk from the 19 bus line, 5-minute walk from a 24-hour grocery store (QFC), 15-minute walk from either the Hollywood or NE 60th MAX stations. The apartment is generally pretty quiet. Rent is $360/month; electricity tends to be $18-$35 a month for each roommate (it runs higher in winter because heat is electric). If you want to share wireless Internet service, that's another $12.50/month. This is a modestly sized room, so no couples, please. The living room/kitchen/dining area are spacious. There's a balcony overlooking a courtyard that's pretty nice to hang out in during the summer (with lawn chairs/barbecue grill/etc.) Off-street parking is available. Space for bikes inside the apartment is also available. Apartment is on second floor with no elevator.

About me: 29-year-old queer guy, PhD student / research assistant in the computer science department at Portland State, amateur singer, volunteer tutor, vegetarian, feminist, agnostic Quaker meeting attender, native New Englander, ex-Californian, socialist. I'm car-free and ride my bike to work every day. I have two rabbits. Cats are allowed and I'm a cat lover. Non-TV-watcher, non-smoker, non-drug-user, and I don't drink at home aside from the occasional glass of wine. (Smokers are OK as long as you smoke on the balcony or outside. 420 is OK with the same rule as long as it's not a big part of your life.) I'm in the office roughly 10am-6pm on business days, and I would prefer someone who works the same hours or who leaves for work earlier than I do. I'm quiet; if I listen to music, it's with headphones. The exception is that I'd like to practice music before I leave for work in the mornings, so someone who leaves for work slightly before I do (so, before 9:30 AM) would be ideal. I have friends over occasionally, and have been pretty successful keeping common spaces clean in this apartment. I'm the kind of roommate who will wash a dish again if I find one that hasn't been cleaned enough, rather than complaining about it, and would like to live with someone who would do the same for me. I'd prefer to keep the house meat-free, but we could talk about that. I plan on living in Portland no longer than three more years, and thus in this apartment no longer than three more years.

I'm kink-friendly, trans-friendly, fat-friendly, and poly-friendly (though most of these labels aren't a big part of my life). I'm not home a lot and would like to have a roommate who isn't my BFF but with whom I can carry on the occasional polysyllabic conversation. To that end, I'd prefer to live with a student, professional, activist, artist, or basically anybody who has an inner life consisting of more than beer and video games (those things are cool, but if they're your entire life, we probably shouldn't live together). Please be either between the ages of 25 and 50 or ready to persuade me as to why your compatibility with me makes up for your age. If you're a libertarian, a religious fundamentalist, an anti-religion atheist, someone who "doesn't see color" or blames racism/sexism/homophobia/transphobia/other "-isms" on bad individuals rather than systemic biases, or politically apathetic, then we probably won't get along.

I've posted this before, but it really can't be repeated too many times.

Well, Jesus was a homeless lad
With an unwed mother and an absent dad
And I really don't think he would have gotten that far
If Newt, Pat and Jesse had followed that star
So let's all sing out praises to
That longhaired radical socialist Jew

When Jesus taught the people he
Would never charge a tuition fee
He just took some fishes and some bread
And made up free school lunches instead
So let's all sing out praises to
That long-haired radical socialist Jew

He healed the blind and made them see
He brought the lame folks to their feet
Rich and poor, any time, anywhere
Just pioneering that free health care
So let's all sing out praises to
That longhaired radical socialist Jew

Jesus hung with a low-life crowd
But those working stiffs sure did him proud
Some were murderers, thieves and whores
But at least they didn't do it as legislators
So let's all sing out praises to
That longhaired radical socialist Jew

Jesus lived in troubled times
the religious right was on the rise
Oh what could have saved him from his terrible fate?
Separation of church and state.
So let's all sing out praises to
That longhaired radical socialist Jew

Sometimes I fall into deep despair
When I hear those hypocrites on the air
But every Sunday gives me hope
When pastor, deacon, priest, and pope
Are all singing out their praises to
Some longhaired radical socialist Jew.

They're all singing out their praises to....
Some longhaired radical socialist Jew.

-- Hugh Blumenfeld

kid: "Do you have kids?"
me: "No, I don't."
kid: "Do you have parents?"
me: "I have a mom."
kid: "Do you have a dad?"
me: "No, I don't have a dad."
kid: "Did he die?"
me: "No, I just never had one."
[pause]
kid: "So you're a kid, then."

(The kid's mom then explained to him that people have a time in between becoming adults and having kids, and that some adults don't even ever have kids.)

"And that argument, for example, as to whether or not homosexuality is natural seems to me completely pointless---pointless because I really do not see what difference the answer makes. It seems clear, in any case, at least in the world we know, that no matter what encyclopedias of physiological and scientific knowledge are brought to bear the answer never can be Yes. And one of the reasons for this is that it would rob the normal---who are simply the many---of their very necessary sense of security and order, of their sense, perhaps, that the race is and should be devoted to outwitting oblivion--and will surely manage to do so." -- James Baldwin

Hello all,

I'm going to be in the LA area (specifically Glendale) visiting miang and tcdohl from roughly Weds. 12/23 to Sun. 12/27, and from Thu. 12/31 to Mon. 1/4. (In between, I'll be off biking somewhere, unless it rains, in which case I'll be in LA the whole time.) If you are within a 60-mile radius or so, I'd love to see you. I will have access to wheels via Zipcar and can travel reasonably long distances. I've already emailed a couple of the most likely suspects, but if I've forgotten you, it's not deliberate! Let me know.

Are you running an open-source project? Are you looking for an example to look to as to how to make sure your users don't submit bug reports? Look no further than the OpenOffice community:
"SBA->Mrosin: And PLEASE make it short this time. We're here to work on a software [sic] and not to read books."

Well, I got to help subdue a random loud and obnoxious pro-forced-pregnancy heckler at a reading by Judith Arcana that I accidentally stumbled into. Sort of, anyway.

You see, Arcana was one of the members of JANE, a group that helped women get abortions before they were legal in the US. Her reading had not much to do with this fact; it was about the relationship between political rhetoric and poetry, and why you ought to bother to write *well* if you're writing to persuade. But naturally some of her writing touched on her work in this group, and Mr. Pro-Forced-Pregnancy in the audience managed to derail the whole Q&A session, starting with asking whether Arcana was "glorifying" the abortion work she'd done; going on to talking about why women have the gift to be able to create life and therefore they're obligated to give birth; and, when a woman in the audience said, basically, that she had just taken emergency contraception and was going to have an abortion if that didn't work, and that she wanted to remind him that he wasn't just talking about an abstraction but about real people's lives, he ended up (after the Q&A session more or less got shut down early because it was impossible for anyone to start a discussion on anything else) trying to persuade her not to have an abortion.

So she, and a couple of other women, were doing a pretty good job schooling him. But when he got to the old chestnut, "and how do you know who your [embryo] is going to be, why, it could end up being someone who'll make a difference in the world and you'd never know," I got up, and said, "you know, I think this woman might be able to make a difference in the world herself if she can go on carrying out her life plans without having to drop them to raise a kid she doesn't want."

The guy had no response to this.

Which didn't mean he actually stopped talking, but it was still a moral victory.

On the one hand, let it be said that in Portland, Oregon, on a freezing night in December of 2009, strangers didn't hesitate to engage each other about political questions of great concern, and thus, democracy still lives on. On the other hand, in 2009, women's civil rights just should not be a matter for democratic debate. So, you know, I don't know. And even though it wasn't even what I had planned to hear this evening, I wanted to hear more of what Arcana had to say, and it was a shame that someone who has insights to share that I haven't heard before got effectively shut down by a white guy with an entitlement complex parroting simplistic received moralism that I have heard before, all because some people believe that freedom of speech means you get to make people listen to you regardless of who was actually invited to give the lecture.

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