Virgin State of Mind

Written by Miss O

Monday, 01 December 2008

I was 18, the first time I was subjected to a pap smear. Flat on my back, with two male doctors looking up my paper dress, the older one asked me, “Have you been sexually active?” I proceeded to rattle off in detail every time I’d gone beyond second base. I listed the activities I’d done, the number of times, and with how many partners. I was nervous about the clear plastic speculum and what they were going to think about me, so I delivered the relatively short list without taking a breath. Afterwards, the doctor said, “A simple “yes” or “no” would have sufficed. And, by the way, I was only referring to vaginal intercourse.” Which I hadn’t done yet. Back in those days, I guarded my cherry like it was Air Force One. I was down for almost anything, but people (i.e. TV and magazines) kept telling me I needed to save my virginity for the right guy at the right time. Of course, no one seemed to be able to explain what it was I was supposed to be waiting for. All I knew was that there would be dire consequences to having vaginal intercourse before I was “ready.” While loosing one’s virginity too soon is considered a “no, no”, CosmoGIRL (RIP) and Seventeen didn’t seem as concerned with the consequences of giving a handjob or getting head. Sure, they mentioned that you could get STDs from giving a blow job, but even after Monica Lewinsky had lent berets and interns a whole new meaning, few people really considered having engaged in oral sex to be “enough” to lose your virgin Art by Nina Charest ity.I became the “Everything But” girl. I gave hand jobs and head, and got them in return. I played with vibrators, blindfolded my boyfriend and had him tie me to the bed. I gave lap dances and private strip shows, and I became a master at writing long, dirty emails. Sure, no throbbing shaft had ever breached my maidenhood, but I had been intimate enough times (and with enough boys) to have lost my virgin state of mind. So why are we still so hung up on attaching meaning to that one physical act? Most girls have lost their hymens before their first sexual experience, and guys have no hymens to lose in the first place. And what about gay men and lesbians? Doing anything for the first time – whether it’s your first kiss or your first blow job - is kind of a thrill. But the way our culture idolizes virginity and that first experience, trying to make it into some gigantic earth shattering event, is ridiculous. (Sorry Dan, it was awesome and all, but, at the end of the day, not life changing). Hardly anyone I know thinks that their first time was the best they’ve ever had. No one has any skill yet, and people are usually too shy to say what they want and too nervous to be able to read their partner’s signals. Like anything, discovering sex and our sexual identity is a process. You should put thought into who you want to share yourself with, and you want to do so in a safe manner, but as for placing so much emphasis on that first time… forget it. We have our whole lives to learn, experiment, and find what works for us. A Special Message from Miss O: Hey, everyone! I’ve been really flattered by all the response to my first couple of columns. But even my fabulous life only has so much juicy gossip. So, if I’m going to keep writing, I need your help. Please send your questions or article ideas to: <!– var prefix = ‘ma’ + ‘il’ + ‘to’; var path = ‘hr’ + ‘ef’ + ‘=’; var addy33293 = ‘info’ + ‘@’; addy33293 = addy33293 + ‘culturemagazine’ + ‘.’ + ‘ca’; document.write( ‘<a ‘ + path + ‘\” + prefix + ‘:’ + addy33293 + ‘\’>’ ); document.write( addy33293 ); document.write( ‘<\/a>’ ); //–>\n info@culturemagazine.ca culturemagazin.ca

Defence Daily Industry

Iraq Seeks Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters

29-Apr-2009 20:10 EDT

Related Stories: Americas – USA, Boeing, Contracts – Intent, Force Structure, Guns – Artillery & Mortars, Helicopters & Rotary, Lockheed Martin, Middle East – Other, Missiles – Anti-Armor, Other Corporation, Rockets, Rolls Royce, Shells & Mortar Rounds, Support Functions – Other

YRH-70 w. Hydras
(click to view full)

In July 2008, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced Iraq’s formal request to buy 24 helicopters. Based on the request, Iraq seems to be interested in Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters that act as scouts, perform light close air support, and escort other helicopters on dangerous missions.

The IqAF currently relies on a small force of Russia’s popular Mi-8/17 and refurbished Bell “Huey II” helicopters. While the Russian helicopters can be armed, their status as Iraq’s only medium utility helicopters makes them a poor fit for an ARH role. Instead, Iraq looks set to choose between 2 competitors. One is the Bell 407, whose derivative ARH-70A won the competition in America but ran into trouble. The other is Boeing’s AH-6 “Little Bird” light attack helicopters used by US Special Forces, which provided critical fire support during the 1991 “Backhawk Down” incident.

The July 2008 request also added requests for airborne weapons – something the nascent post-Saddam IqAf has not really had to this point. Now, it appears that Iraq has picked its ARH winner – and issued a production contract. Even so, much still remains to be decided…

Raytheon Restarts Production of Laser Maverick Missiles

29-Apr-2009 17:24 EDT

Related Stories: Americas – USA, Contracts – Awards, Field Reports, Missiles – Precision Attack, Raytheon, Support Functions – Other, Warfare – Lessons

AGM-65E onto F/A-18
(click to view full)

Raytheon is restarting its production line for AGM-65E laser-guided Maverick missiles, and will also upgrade existing stocks, in response to demand from the front lines.

The AGM-65 Maverick was the first general purpose fire-and-forget tactical air-to-ground missile in service with the U.S. Air Force. The Joint Common Missile proposes to replace it, but until then, it remains the default option for jet fighters that need to make precision-guided missile strikes. The AGM-65 rose to its greatest prominence during Desert Storm, when many of TV’s missile-eye views of air strikes came from Mavericks. In truth, it was produced in 3 versions: TV-guided, Imaging Infared (IIR) guided, and laser-guided. Production continues for the TV and IIR variants, but the Marines’ AGM-65E laser-guided version had gone put of production.

While IIR and TV guidance allow precision attacks, laser guidance generally offers the best accuracy of the 3 against ground targets. Likewise, there are circumstances in which a fully-powered missile is a better choice than an unpowered gliding bomb. The following story from Iraq illustrates…

US Army Adding 12 EQ-36 Radars, ASAP

29-Apr-2009 15:05 EDT

Related Stories: Americas – USA, Lockheed Martin, New Systems Tech, Other Corporation, Other Equipment – Land, Radars

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AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder
(click to view full)

Firefinder radars track the path of incoming shells, rockets, mortars, etc., and calculate the point they were fired from. They currently come in 2 versions. The TPQ-36 radar is specifically designed to counter medium range enemy weapon systems out to a range of 24 kilometers, while the TPQ-37 can locate longer-range systems, and even surface launched missiles, out to 50 kilometers. Michael Yon, embedded with 1-24 (“Deuce Four”) in Mosul, offered a first hand description of counter-battery radars’ effect on enemy tactics in 2005.

In September 2006, Lockheed Martin announced a $120 million contract win to provide the U.S. Army with 5 Enhanced AN/TPQ-36 radars, otherwise known as the EQ-36 Counterfire Target Acquisition Radar, to be delivered within 36 months. Despite the name, this is a new radar system, and the contract could become much larger than that…

Lockheed-Martin US101 Wins U.S. Presidential Helicopter Contract (updated)

29-Apr-2009 14:51 EDT

Related Stories: Americas – USA, C4ISR, Contracts – Awards, FOCUS Articles, Finmeccanica, GE, Issues – Political, Lockheed Martin, New Systems Tech, Northrop-Grumman, Other Corporation, Transport & Utility

VH-71 Concept
(click to view full)

In June 2005, the U.S. Navy selected the US101 for a new fleet of “Marine One” helicopters for the President of the United States. The US101 is an American variant of AgustaWestland’s successful EH101 multimission medium helicopter; it beat out Sikorsky’s S-92 Superhawk, which is already in use as a VIP state transport in countries like South Korea. Lockheed Martin, which leads Team US101 as prime contractor, received a $1.7 billion contract from the Navy for the Marine One program’s systems development and demonstration phase.

Based on the current contract schedule, the first US101 ready to transport the President is expected to be available in 2009. The entire fleet of 28 US101s scheduled for delivered to the Marine One squadron by late 2015 – if, and only if, the program continues.

This is DID’s FOCUS Article for the program. In 2008, the US Navy reached an agreement to proceed with the VH-71, despite a cost per aircraft equal to or greater than the President’s Air Force One 747s. In 2009, the program’s massive requirements changes and accompanying costs overruns led to its proposed cancellation, and a first round of layoffs from Lockheed Martin. In response, a compromise proposal is on offer from the industry team, which just finished what could be the final VH-71 airframe…

• VH-71: The New Marine One Helicopter Program
• VH-71 Marine One: Contracts & Events [updated]
• Additional Readings

Gulf States Requesting ABM-Capable Systems

29-Apr-2009 12:39 EDT

Related Stories: ABM, Americas – USA, C4ISR, Contracts – Awards, Contracts – Intent, Force Structure, Industry & Trends, Issues – International, Issues – Political, Lockheed Martin, Middle East – Other, Missiles – Surface-Air, Radars, Raytheon, Rumours, Support & Maintenance, Support Functions – Other, Think Tanks, Transformation

Patriot PAC-2
(click to view full)

A 2007 US National Intelligence Assessment [redacted NIE summary] believes Iran’s nuclear program has stopped, but others, including the United Nations and Israel are more skeptical. Intelligence is always a very uncertain and ambiguous exercise, and occasionally features assessments like the somewhat infamous NIE whose 1962 judgment was that there were no Soviet missiles in Cuba [1]. Uncertainty creates perceptions of risk, and perceptions of risk lead to behaviors aimed at reducing that risk. Iraq is no longer a missile/WMD threat, Iran’s regular and Revolutionary Guards air forces remain relatively weak, and Iran’s ballistic missiles based on North Korean designs lack accuracy. Still, even a lucky conventional missile could create issues in some Gulf states if it hit important oil-related infrastructure, or hit the larger and more nebulous target of business confidence.

Arms spending is an incomplete but very concrete way of tracking a state’s real assessment of threats and priorities. It’s becoming clear that Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, have stepped up their defense spending in recent years. Those expenditures cover a range of equipment, but anti-ballistic missile capabilities appear to be rising to the top of the priority list.

In June 2008, over $10 billion worth of December 2007 Patriot missile upgrade requests in the UAE and Kuwait shone a spotlight on the region’s new defense priorities. The latest news involves additional order requests from the UAE for THAAD theater defense missile systems, and additional Patriot PAC-3 related equipment. The requests dovetail with the UAE’s moves to become a command-and-control leader within the [Arabian] Gulf Cooperation Council, and are part of a top to bottom modernization of the UAE’s air defense systems, which appear to be shifting strongly toward American equipment.

In December 2008, a multi-billion dollar Patriot missile contract from the UAE seemed to lock in that shift, and Kuwait is also proceeding with upgrades to its own Patriot systems. Raytheon’s supply chain is also shifting, in response to this increased demand…

April 24th, 2009 Five to watch in the Business of Green

Posted by: Adam Pasick

Tags: Environment, Dan Reicher, Jennifer Fonstad, Lyndon Rive, Matt Kistler, Vinod Khosla

With government money flowing and traditional industries fading, 2009 is set to be a watershed year for green business. Reuters News and Venture Capital Journal have selected five decisionmakers who will help to decide the course of technology, energy usage and climate change in the years to come.

Vinod Khosla

Founder, Khosla Ventures

Khosla grew up dreaming of being an entrepreneur, despite spending his childhood up in an Indian Army household with no business or technology connections. He eventually became a founder of Sun Microsystems and then joined legendary venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers.

In 2004, Khosla, driven by the need for flexibility to accommodate four teenage children and a desire to be more experimental, formed Khosla Ventures, funded entirely with family funds. His goals remain the same – work and learn from fun and knowledgeable entrepreneurs, build impactful companies through the leverage of innovation, and spend time as a partnership making a difference. He has made investments in companies working on waste water and water desalinization, solar, geothermal and cellulosic ethanol.

More:

• IPO VIEW-Green tech cos waiting for market to open up
• Venture capital looks to new sources of biofuels
• Khosla looking for clean energy “black swans”

Dan Reicher

Director of climate change and energy initiatives at Google.org

Reicher wants to conquer the Valley of Death — the seemingly insurmountable funding gap for unproven green technologies. The former Clinton administration Energy Department official is putting Google’s philanthropic funds behind a range of possible breakthroughs, including $10 million for geothermal, but also solar thermal and high-altitude wind power. Two early recipients of Google.org’s largesse were geothermal firms AltaRock Energy and Potter Drilling Inc.

More recently, Reicher has promoted Google’s free software that lets consumers track home electricity use and improve energy efficiency.

More:

• Google looking to invest in energy sector
• Lack of new power lines threatens renewable growth
• Investors take on green energy’s “Valley of Death”

Jennifer Fonstad

Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Fonstad’s interests span a broad set of technology and life sciences companies, including cleantech. One of the investments that helped make her #89 on the Forbes Midas List is GreenFuel Technologies, which takes carbon dioxide produced by power plants and feeds it to algae, which are then converted into biofuel. Before becoming a champion of a particular entrepreneur, Fonstad considers a number of factors in evaluating a potential investment opportunity, such as whether the company has a strong technical team with clear breakout capability, experience and a real passion for re-inventing the world.

“This means we are making bets on people first and foremost and we are making bets on our judgment about market spaces that are emerging,” she says. Forbes notes that she “once escaped kidnappers while working in Russia by jumping out of a moving car; and closed a deal while in labor with her first child.”

More:

• Forbes Midas List
• Slimed, Pt. 1: Biofuels and the Aquatic Species Program

Lyndon Rive

CEO, Solar City

Solar City was dubbed “the Swiss arms dealer” of solar installation by VentureBeat, although “Swiss army knife” might be more like it. The company sells, leases, installs and maintains solar panels for residences and small businesses, with a sideline in energy efficiency consulting. The idea is to convince geographic clusters of homes and businesses to go solar, and then reap cost savings from economies of scale.

The company’s venture background is impeccable: Rive sold an earlier software company to Dell, and Solar City is backed by Elon Musk of PayPal fame, who happens to be Rive’s cousin. And if the switch away from fossil fuels fails, and the polar ice caps melt, Rive has a hedge — he’s a member of the U.S. Underwater Hockey team.

More:

• Arizona Solar: Demand Is Strong but Manufacturing Needs Help
• When Is the Right Time to Buy Solar?

Matt Kistler

Wal-Mart senior vice president for sustainability

The world’s largest retailer may not have the greenest of corporate images, but its sheer size ensures that its initiatives will have an outsize impact on the global economy. Matt Kistler is the public face of Wal-Mart’s sustainability efforts, from curbing plastic bag use — aimed at cutting plastic bag waste by a third by 2013, equal to 9 billion bags a year — to reaching new fuel efficiency targets for its massive truck fleet.

The efforts of Wal-Mart and Kistler, a former marketer, are not only aimed at burnishing its corporate image and trimming costs, but also to cater to green-conscious consumers, as with its private label coffee brand, certified by Fair Trade.

More:

• Wal-Mart’s new packaging credo: Let’s get small
• Wal-Mart says will pay more for long-lasting goods

reuters blogs

SNAP ANALYSIS: Russia, NATO bicker after resuming ties

MOSCOW (Reuters) – NATO has expelled two Russian diplomats over a spy scandal, a move Moscow’s ambassador to the military alliance said was intended to set back efforts by Russia and the United States to repair relations.

Tensions between the former Cold War foes also rose on Thursday over pacts which Moscow said it signed with two rebel Georgian regions, giving it control over their borders.

The following are the key issues:

* NATO’s expulsion of two Russian diplomats — including the son of Russia’s Brussels-based ambassador to the EU — deals a new blow to efforts aimed at mending ties that were frozen after Russia’s war with Georgia last August.

Analysts said the timing of the expulsion was unusual. It came Wednesday, the same day that the alliance resumed formal talks with Russia at ambassadorial level.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the expulsions amounted to a challenge from the West and the Foreign Ministry said they were driven by elements inside the Western alliance that wanted to undermine ties with Moscow.

Russia’s ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said Moscow’s response would be “harsh and decisive.” He did not elaborate, but previous spy rows between Russia and the West have often led to tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions which run the risk of drawing both sides into an escalating cycle of retaliation.

* The day after Moscow was informed of the planned expulsions, Russia took formal control over the de-facto borders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two Moscow-backed regions that broke away from Georgian rule in the 1990s.

Russia views NATO with deep suspicion but Medvedev says he wants to mend ties with Washington after relations sank to post-Cold War lows under former U.S. President George W. Bush.

Analysts said the Kremlin may be seeking to test the nerves of NATO members now Barack Obama is in the White House.

* NATO exercises in Georgia next week, another source of tension with Russia, were planned long ago, though Moscow voiced sharp criticism when the war games were formally announced.

NATO says the exercises, to be held 20 km (12 miles) east of the capital Tbilisi, were planned last year. Russia was fully informed and as a NATO partner country had been free to participate, diplomats said.

The Kremlin warned that the games amounted to muscle-flexing by the alliance. Medvedev has been careful to underline that they could harm the resumption of ties with the alliance.

Both Georgia and Russia have accused each other of massing troops at the de-facto borders between Georgia and South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

* Russia strongly opposes the NATO ambitions of Georgia, with which it fought a brief war last year. It is upset by what it describes as NATO support for the ex-Soviet republic, a crucial transit route for Caspian Sea oil and gas to Europe, long controlled by Moscow.

NATO has made it clear that membership for Georgia and another former Soviet republic, Ukraine, is a long way off given concerns among some European countries such as France and Germany about the effect on relations with Moscow.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Mark Trevelyan)

reuters.com

NATO has expelled two Russian diplomats over a spy scandal

By David Brunnstrom

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO has expelled two Russian diplomats over a spy scandal, a move Moscow’s ambassador said was intended to set back efforts by Russia and the United States to repair relations.

Tensions between the former Cold War foes also rose on Thursday over agreements which Moscow said gave it control over the borders of two rebel regions in Georgia.

NATO ordered out the diplomats on the same day the alliance resumed formal talks with Russia at ambassadorial level, eight months after contacts were suspended over Russia’s five-day war with Georgia last August.

“Two Russian diplomats have been told they are not welcome here,” a NATO diplomat said.

The diplomat said they were expelled over the case of Herman Simm, an Estonian jailed for treason in February for handing more than 2,000 pages of information to handlers in Russia’s SVR Foreign Intelligence Service.

A statement from the Russian mission to NATO said the move set the wrong tone for the process of resuming NATO-Russia cooperation and Russia’s ambassador to the alliance Dmitry Rogozin said the response would be “harsh and decisive.”

The statement said Russia was still considering its response but the expulsions, which came one week before alliance military exercises in Georgia which have angered Russia, “might call into question” a meeting of NATO-Russia foreign ministers expected in the second half of May.

The diplomats were attached to the mission Russia has at NATO even though it is not a member of the military alliance. One was the son of Vladimir Chizhov, Moscow’s ambassador to the European Union, and the other a senior adviser to Rogozin.

Russia said the expulsions were driven by elements inside the Western alliance that wanted to undermine ties with Moscow.

“A crude provocation has been made in relation to two employees of Russia’s permanent mission to NATO on an absolutely trumped-up pretext without any clear explanation,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

ROW OVER PACTS WITH REBEL REGIONS

The 28-nation alliance separately criticized pacts giving Russia direct control over the de-facto borders of Georgia’s South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions.

Russia took formal control over the borders of the two regions under the agreements, which were signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the leaders of the rebel regions.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai said the signing of the agreements contravened the peace deals brokered by the EU after Russia’s brief war with Georgia.

“This is in clear contravention of the 12th August and 8th September agreements negotiated by the European Union and is not in the interests of long-term peace and security in the South Caucasus region,” Appathurai told reporters.

reuters.com