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	news bulletins march 2006

• Not Circumcised? Lucky Stiff!
• Virtual "Nurse-In" Staged on My Space
• Labor of Love Restores Babywearing to Disaster Survivors
• Take a Slice out of Pizza Hut BOOK IT! Program

Not Circumcised? Lucky Stiff!

Intact men enjoy four times more penile sensitivity than circumcised men, according to the "Fine-touch Pressure Thresholds in the Adult Penis" article published in the April, 2007 British Journal of Urology International.

The study was conducted to map fine-touch pressure thresholds of the adult penis in circumcised and noncircumcised males to compare the two populations. Researchers measured fine-touch sensitivity of the penis at 17 specific sites on the intact (non-circumcised) penis and the remaining nine sites plus two scar sites on the circumcised penis.

The results surprised the research team, according to Morris Sorrells, MD, lead researcher, who said, "The most sensitive part of the penis is the preputial opening. The results confirmed that the frenulum and ridged band of the inner foreskin are highly erogenous structures that are routinely removed by circumcision, leaving the penis with one-fourth the fine-touch sensitivity it originally possessed."

Five sites on the penis, all regularly removed by circumcision, are more sensitive than the most sensitive site remaining on the circumcised penis. Researcher, pediatrician and statistician Robert Van Howe said, "Oddly, the most sensitive site on the circumcised penis is the circumcision scar itself."

Previous studies documented that circumcised penises are shorter; now researchers have compared and found them lacking in sensitivity, too. From their findings, researchers of this study conclude that circumcision ablates the most sensitive parts of the penis.

These findings come several decades after Masters & Johnson said there is no sensitivity difference in a circumcised and a non-circumcised penis. Now their questionable findings have been disproved and the results of this study provide additional evidence about the importance of preserving the protective, sensitive foreskin.

Copyright free graphics available at: http://www.icgi.org/touch-test/
The article: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1464-410X.2006.06685.x

Virtual "Nurse-In" Staged on MySpace
By Anna Kiss Mauser-Martinez

The social networking site Myspace.com has found itself on the frontlines of lactivism. The site is under fire after recently removing photos of women breastfeeding their children. Some members have been threatened with complete banning after reposting removed pictures. Members have reported artistic images, drawings, and "blinkies" (blinking icons) that depict or support breastfeeding have also been removed.

The removed photos, lactivists say, would not seem to violate the prohibitions of the site's terms of use: "contains nudity, violence, or offensive subject matter." In alerts of the removals, the site claims that its moderators are actively removing inappropriate material and that all photos must be "PG rated." However, activists point out, a quick search of Myspace.com yields thousands of photos of nude or semi-nude young women as well as Myspace profiles for online pornography.

In protest, lactivist Myspacers have joined in a virtual nurse-in, posting images and statements on their user profiles declaring their support of breastfeeding as normal and natural and their solidarity with the mothers whose photos were removed. Some post blinkies that state, "I'm part of the virtual nurse-in," with the new international breastfeeding symbol, artistic images depicting breastfeeding including Mary nursing Jesus, or home photos of breastfeeding children.

Protestors and supporters have signed an online petition, in response urging Myspace to recognize the flaw of removing breastfeeding photos. News of the protest and virtual nurse-in has quickly circulated around online message boards, Myspace bulletins, and Myspace groups.

The action from Myspace is similar to that of blog site LiveJournal.com, which removed or otherwise censored member breastfeeding photos and was similarly condemned by breastfeeding bloggers last year. Myspace members have set their profiles to private, disabling the feature that allows members to report images.

Labor of Love Restores Babywearing to Disaster Survivors

Hundreds of earthquakes have continued to wreak havoc in Indonesia since the 9.1 quake that caused the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004. The world's fourth most populous country, Indonesia and its 17,000 islands are now home to a staggering refugee population, many of whom have lost all possessions but the clothes on their backs. In an attempt to help preserve the traditional cultural practice of babywearing, two sisters in the United States and their father in Indonesia have initiated the grassroots effort Help Us Give Slings (HUGS).

Selling traditional Indonesian selendang slings to Westerners via their website, the trio use the profits to supply the same type of carriers to the native Indonesians who need them. While HUGS provides an instructional brochure detailing the Indonesian styles of folding and knotting the selendang for versatile carries, some customers in the US are opting to have them sewn into ring slings by reputable vendors who do custom work. Instructions for making a no-sew ring sling can be found here: http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/no_sew.html
Please note: any rings purchased for a no-sew ring sling should be purchased from www.slingrings.com. Craft rings are NOT safe.

At only $20 apiece, these gorgeous swaths of 100% cotton batiked Balinese fabric are a bargain among baby carriers, and their beauty beckons for other uses as well. Thanks to the compassionate family behind HUGS, every selendang sold also helps provide direct aid to Indonesian parents, enabling them to continue wearing their babies as they participate in their country's rebuilding efforts.

Take a Slice out of Pizza Hut BOOK IT! Program

In the midst of rising concerns about childhood obesity and school commercialism, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is urging parents and educators to end their school's involvement with Pizza Hut BOOK IT! programs. The advocacy coalition wants Book It out of schools because it promotes bad eating habits, uses schools to market a corporate product directly to students, and is educationally counterproductive by undermining their interest in reading. "Any one of these issues is a serious concern," said CCFC's co-founder Susan Linn. "Taken all together, it's clear that Pizza Hut's BOOK IT! has no place in schools."

Reaching 22 million school children in 900,000 classrooms each year, BOOK IT! is one of corporate America's most insidious school-based brand promotions. The annual BOOK IT! Beginners program—which allows Pizza Hut to target preschools—in launching now. BOOK IT! rewards students with certificates for a free Pizza Hut personal pizza when they reach certain reading goals. A Pizza Hut six-inch personal pan pizza has 630 calories and 27 grams of fat. With a topping, it can have as many as 770 calories and 39 grams of fat. For children ages three to five, a Pizza Hut personal pizza can contain more than half of their daily caloric requirement, as well as their entire fat requirement.

"Given current concerns about childhood obesity, it is completely irresponsible to grant Pizza Hut access to children in school," said nutritionist Jane Levine, co-founder of Kids Can Make a Difference. "Schools need to realize that that they are undermining their students' wellbeing—not just by promising fast food as a reward, but by integrating the Pizza Hut brand into daily classroom routines."

To make matters worse, there is no evidence that BOOK IT! actually promotes literacy. The program has never been formally evaluated. Research suggests that when a child is given a reward for completing a task, the activity being rewarded may become less pleasurable. And by focusing on quantitative goals such as the number of books read, BOOK IT! may encourage children to avoid longer, harder books.

"If I were trying to design a program that would undermine children's interest in books, lead them to read in a shallow fashion, and convince them to avoid challenging texts, I honestly don't think I could top Book It!," said Alfie Kohn, author of Punished by Rewards and The Schools Our Children Deserve. "Dangling pizza in front of kids as a reward for reading, much as one might use treats to house-train a puppy, reflects a completely discredited theory of motivation. Indeed, by teaching children that reading is just a means to an end, the program is likely to be not merely ineffective but positively harmful." Learn more about CCFC's concerns about BOOK IT!