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"The recession is everyone's favorite causal explanation for things happening right now," said Rachel Jones of the Guttmacher Institute. "Other than people conjecturing, there is no evidence that the recession has had a direct impact on teen sexual behaviors." What we do know, however, is that contraceptive use increased among teens between 2007 and 2009. "We don't know the reason for that increase," she explains, and, in fact, it could be the recession -- but, again, the truth is we just don't know. Her no-nonsense take: "It seems if we want to look for reasons for patterns in teen birth rates, [birth control use] is the one indicator that offers us practical insights."

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Back from his self-imposed Twitter timeout, Keith Olbermann is lashing out at his feminist critics. As Sady Doyle explained last week in Salon, the online protest was started in response to Michael Moore's mischaracterization of the allegations against Julian Assange. Olbermann became a target after retweeting a link from Bianca Jagger that incorrectly claimed "the term 'rape' in Sweden includes consensual sex without a condom," and that named Assange's accuser (which is generally a journalistic no-no). Overwhelmed by the Twitter campaign, which was waged with the hashtag "mooreandme," Olbermann quit the microblogging site in a huff. This afternoon, after a few days of calm reflection, he tweeted a link to his thoughts on the matter:

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I picked prostitutes as victims because they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing. I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught.

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The preview shows a developer moving his hand this way and that, which causes a disembodied hand to feel up a virtual girl in the game. As some bloggers have suggested, it's like watching Thing from "The Addams Family" get busy -- which is rather unsettling (although, hand and amputee fetishists might disagree). This is a beta release and the preview is limited to "fondling-only mode," according to Nerve, so you can look forward to full-body interaction. Teledildonics are also likely to be introduced so that users aren't just humping air.

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Amber isn't a stranger to negative press: She was castigated for yelling at her daughter and roughly yanking her up by the arms on the show. Then followed the felony domestic violence charges for punching, slapping, kicking and choking the father of her daughter, and the Child Protective Services investigation. Now, British tabloids are scrutinizing the single mom's sad dating life (at the same time that they're providing tips on getting her "look"). Even Perez Hilton has joined the handwringing: "While all this [is] going on, WHO IS WATCHING YOUR BABY???" The National Enquirer recently claimed that she's also nursing a drug addiction. Radar has devotedly followed the Amber beat in recent months, publishing photos of her partying and reporting that her daughter "is so confused about who her parents are she refers to her grandmother as 'mom.'"

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The actor -- whom none of the sides would name -- said that he had been directed to do so as part of the scene. Mr. Birch objected, saying that the back rub was unnecessary, and told the actor to stop. …When the actor tried to explain further what he was doing, Mr. Birch said, according to [director Paul] Alexander: "Listen, man, I'm trying to make this easier on you -- don't touch her."

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Marriage between second-degree relatives (aunt/uncle, niece/nephew) is already legal in Switzerland, but the new measure would overturn the ban on consensual sexual relationships between siblings, and between parents and their adult children. (Sexual relationships with underage children would, of course, remain illegal.) The text of the bill has yet to be released, but skeeved-out opponents have heard more than enough. Barbara Schmid Federer, a member of The Christian People's Party of Switzerland, told the Telegraph that the proposal was "completely repugnant" and that she "could not countenance painting out such a law from the statute books."

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Now, county officials, who have long been at war with the industry over it's refusal to mandate condoms, are telling performers to go to county clinics instead. Public Health Director Jonathan Fielding told the Los Angeles Times, "All the places that we're involved with are certainly places where people can feel safe -- the privacy and confidentiality are maintained." That's of little comfort to performers like Lorelei Lee, who wrote me in an e-mail, "What makes me feel safe is self-determination, and being treated by health care providers who have some respect for, and understanding of, the work I do. Those were the providers found at AIM."  

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No surprise here. We've been following the rumblings over the trend of lady bingers for some time now, and the question often seems to be, as a 2008 New York magazine article put it: "should gender equality extend to drinking?" My answer is: yes and no. I'm more likely to order a beer and a shot of whiskey than a cosmo. I like to go against stereotypes like that. It is cocky and perhaps foolish -- but, then again, the same can be said for my male friends when it comes to drinking. I might be driven by some vaguely third-wave feminist desire to "keep up with the boys" -- but plenty of "the boys" are driven to keep up with each other, lest they appear unmanly. This is binge culture, and it isn't strictly male or female anymore. We're all full of bluster and far too much booze.

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The country has the highest reporting rate in the European Union. (Perhaps because "Swedish women, backed by a strong consciousness of women's rights and a history of a very public discussion of the scourge of sexual violence, may be more willing than most to look to the law for help," writes the Times' Katrin Bennhold.) Swedish law also recognizes "withdrawal of consent" as rape, which is what is alleged in the Assange case, and details three types of rape: "severe," "regular" and "less severe."

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Of course, the movie also explains how Facebook started as "FaceMash," a site for comparing the hotness of randomly paired students. Doody has done just that, only he's limited the rating to female students and he hasn't supplied the images of the girls himself. Instead of hacking campus servers for the eye candy a la Zuckerberg, he's asked users to post the photos themselves. Brace yourselves for the meta: The majority of the photos come from, where else, but Facebook. It's a good way to avoid legal issues, but it hasn't spared Doody any controversy. Reports the Washington Post today:

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Jenifer Ringer, as the Sugar Plum Fairy, looked as if she'd eaten one sugar plum too many; and Jared Angle, as the Cavalier, seems to have been sampling half the Sweet realm.

Well then. Given the history of anorexia and bulimia in ballet -- and that Ringer herself has spoken openly about struggling with disordered eating -- it's no surprise that his comments stirred up outrage. The reader revolt was significant enough to inspire a self-defense in the Times this weekend. Macaulay's argument, essentially:

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Last month, a judge dismissed rape charges in a case where a woman was allegedly tricked by her boyfriend into having sex with a stranger. If her boyfriend had instead been her husband, the case could have gone forward, no problem. But the statute specifically limits the charge to cases where a woman "submits under the belief that the person committing the act is her husband, and the belief is induced by artifice, pretense or concealment practiced by the accused, with intent to induce such belief."

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